I was eating lunch when I noticed a guy in the parking lot. He had short hair and was wearing black slacks and a white short sleeved shirt. His back was to me as he was getting something out of the trunk of a ratty looking car. A missionary? Where's his companion? Is he on splits with a local? If so, where's the other guy? I hope they aren't going to try proselytizing here.

After a few moments of wondering what was going on, the guy turned around. He had a name tag, but not the missionary type. Then he put on a cap with the name of the restaurant. Oh. A waiter.

Back when I was a missionary, we were required to wear a full suit whenever we were in public. The church had the delusion it made a bunch of 19-to-21-year-olds look like business professionals. It only made us look like we were playing dress-up.

A few weeks before the end of my mission, the rules were relaxed and suit jackets became optional. But we still had to wear long sleeved shirts. Rather than looking like junior executives, we looked more like retail assistant managers.

Now, with short sleeved shirts allowed, missionaries look like chain restaurant servers. Add bike helmets and backpacks (backpacks were strictly forbidden in my day) and they look like high school dweebs.

But it's good the LDS church still dresses missionaries in a way that makes them easy to identify on the street.

Ha ha! We have a similar problem over here Stray. Last week there were two guys at my door, dressed in standard office junior garb, so I thought they were missionaries. They were reps from Scottish Power. Riding past on bikes were more dressed the same, off to the lower sixth at the High School. Spotting missionaries in the street here is like 'where's Wally?' sometimes.

Our rainy weather often means nametags are not showing most of the time.

Briggy

I served in Taiwan in the late 70's. In that subtropical environment we always wore short sleeve shirts. Suit coats were mandated or not by a schedule that roughly followed the seasons (but not the exact weather unfortunately).

It depends a lot on the locale and the Mission President's whims.

Mårv Fråndsen Wrote:
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> I served in Taiwan in the late 70's. In that
> subtropical environment we always wore short
> sleeve shirts. Suit coats were mandated or not by
> a schedule that roughly followed the seasons (but
> not the exact weather unfortunately).
>
> It depends a lot on the locale and the Mission
> President's whims.


This.

My DH served his mish in the Philippines and suit coats and long sleeves were never required. Very relaxed dress code which DH attributes to having a chill MP and a very hot and humid climate.

... in other words, back when we had a local mission in this area rather than being part of one of those four-nation, three-language "consolidated" missions that are now en vogue in Europe...

Back then, around the year 2000, our mishies could wear short sleeves (with a tie) six days a week, but on Sunday they had to wear long sleeves and keep their jackets on at church at all times.

When I was very young, in the early fifties, I remember the missionaries had to wear hats. Not baseball hats either, the old Frank Sinatra 1940's type of hats. Hard to believe they thought it was fashionable.

I wish the old fedora would come back in, they are awesome.

Yeah, my brothers had to wear hats. Whereas the oldest one had a dark gray fedora with about a 3" brim, brother #2 wore a brown tweed number with about a 1" brim.

I wore a hat only in the Canadian winter -- a fake fur thing with flaps.

Stray Mutt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yeah, my brothers had to wear hats. Whereas the
> oldest one had a dark gray fedora with about a 3"
> brim, brother #2 wore a brown tweed number with
> about a 1" brim.
>
> I wore a hat only in the Canadian winter -- a fake
> fur thing with flaps.

Blues Brothers! Hell, yes! "We are on a mission from God."

Maybe HF dictates different rules to different MPs in different missions, because...

I was at an official ward activity *ON THE BEACH* (Panama City Beach, FL)

Missionaries were working it.
Not Pday or something, but a Saturday night.
(in my previous TBM life, I never heard of Elders being allowed on the sand, right next to the water, serving hot dogs to beach goers)

The missionaries were wearing Shorts.

No neck ties.

Sandals and/or barefoot.

But... they had the iconic black name tags on (T shirts too, I think). And they were wearing garments (that's gotta make it feel un-beachy!)

I remember the missionaries wearing hats in the late 1960s.

They have name tags , too. Have too look twice.

Lileth: I moved from Utah to the midwest about 3 months ago. The first time I went shopping at HyVee, all the missionary look-alike employees just about gave me a panic attack. I don't usually shop there because of that.

I love a beautifully made expensive, crisp white shirt and tie with a suit or suit pants. It looks sharp.