We traveled and trained the mission. We also over in a nice place with about 12 other missinaries who worked in the office. I was the easiest and best time of my mission, no trackting or bugging people, just travelng the mission. We did have to rat people out for brewing rules, but we alwayls let them know we were coming so only the idiots got caught
I was AP in the West Indies, which meant flying to other islands a couple times a momth to visit the missionaries stationed there, working in the office assigning companions, deciding which areas/ islands to open next, preparing training materials, talks, etc.
We did a little teaching in the evenings now and then, but it was pretty much like having a 8-5 office job, plus getting to travel. I enjoyed it very much, mostly because I got to see so many Caribbean islands.
Obtain the monikers of "Anal Penetrators" by most of the rest of the missionaries signifying the figurative sexual action to the MP to obtain that level in the mission...or so it was in my mission.
In my experience, they mostly went around berating other missionaries about their numbers, trying to find rules that other missionaries were breaking, holding themselves up as the shining examples of what a missionary is "supposed" to be like, and kissing the MP's backside. If you've ever had the misfortune of working under a truly horrible manager, picture that, but turn him into two 20-year-old, self-righteous, religious fanatics.
Sobel: You are making me look bad, Lieutenant. This is not Dog Company, this is not Fox Company, this-this is EASY Company. And under my command, this is going to be the best and finest company in the regiment. I want the names of six men, their infractions and your disciplinary recommendations on my desk by 0130, is that clear?
Used our unlimited miles to see every interesting site in the mission. Even drove around one of the brethren to stake conferences. If we had time we would show the missionaries how it should be done and "inspired" them to do better. BTW the top baptizer in the mission broke most of the rules most of the time. So much for blessings for obeying the white handbook with exactness. So pushing that idea was not going to work,the secret was out!
There was an RM in a ward I served in that told us about how he had one companion that he fought with all the time and during their time together they baptized the most people either of them did at any time in their mission. He asked his mission president how that could be considering how contention drives away the spirit. The mission president said they probably would have baptized even more people if they hadn't fought so much. Nothing the church tells you to do actually seems to work.
My roommates and I nicknamed the EQP in my BYU ward "the AP". That's how he acted even after being home a year or two. Self-righteous, always yammering about home teaching etc. This guy even had a CTR license plate.
Low and behold, he was relating a mission tale about an encounter with one of the Lard's anointed GA--and sure enough he was indeed an AP. We all looked at each other and grinned when we heard that confirmation of our suspicions.
The dude will make one hell of a GA himself one day--or one hell of an exmo. Hey, people would have been justified in thinking I would never find the exit.
Yep. A good rule of thumb for Mormonism is if the calling puts you in a position of authority over any adult male members, its a male-only position. Women can NEVER lead men in Mormonism!
I did lots of travelling around the mission, working with other Spanish speaking elders. My AP comp, also a spanish speaking missionary, and I worked up several discussions outside of the standard 6, because those english to spanish literal translations were terribly innefective with the latin people. We taught those alternative discussions and also went out to investigators with the spanish speaking elders.
We did very little if any chastisement over mission rules. As a Spanish speaking elder, you learned really quick that you had to break lots of rules to be successful. We also had a lot of fun along the way, tried to keep it upbeat and never missed opportunities to laugh and goof off a bit. We played endless practical jokes on these elders; we did not want to be like the AP's that had preceded us. As a result, I think that our visits around the mission were looked forward to, not despised.
Ironically, it was while serving a mission that my view of the GA's and their prophetic callings got smashed to pieces. If they truly had revelatory powers, why didn't they adapt discussions to fit various countries and ethnic origins, instead of making a "one-size-fits-all" approach? Earlier in my mission, within weeks of arriving, I found out that the typical anglo approach to teaching latin american peoples was totally wrong. And many of the mission rules precluded activities that would establish the type of relationship required to move into a gospel oriented discussion. What did we do? That's a story I've told here before, but in short, we ate with them, played with them, and embraced their culture through their music. Yes, we had a band... :)