Does anybody have any experiences of this?
Is it still pushed?

The idea was that each family/member prayerfully set a date in the near future, which was given to the ward mission leader, by when they would have a nonmember or preferably a whole family, ready to have the missionaries teach them in their home.
It didn't matter that we had nobody in mind at the time, we were to set the date & then pray for the Lord to direct us to whom he had prepared to hear the gospel & all the usual rubbish.

It was really pushed in our stake, along with the usual guilt that we weren't doing our part having enough faith etc.
I think we tried it once but nothing materialised (surprise surprise!) even though you have the WML on your back.

Does anyone here have any experiences of this, either positive or negative?
And what were your thoughts of the whole idea?

Starting about 2000 or so our Stake was pushing that pretty hard. While it was still okay to feed the mishies, they would always make a point of asking/challenging us to set a date where they could teach someone.

Once they decided we couldn't feed them anymore, the push became to set a date where they could eat and teach a lesson. So if you wanted to see these kids eat a good dinner, you better start preying on your friends and neighbors.

It hasn't been pushed in my wife's ward (carbondale IL) for a few (5?) years. We have a program similar to JoD's where you are asked to sign up to feed the missionaries while hosting a discussion with an investigator (bonus points for feeding missionaries and investigator).

The missionaries are fed sporadically and very few investigators go to the member's homes to be "taught".

Also, I can not remember the last time I've seen a family, or several members of a family, join the church.

Feeding the missionaries was always very popular in our area, there was never any shortage of volunteers.
Then they brought in the rule that in order to feed them you had to have a nonmember present.
I just couldn't believe what I was hearing.
I didn't need to be a rocket scientist to work out that far from having the "desired" effect of introducing the missionaries to more people with the opportunity to teach them, all it would do would ensure that these poor young men & women didn't get fed, which is exactly what happened.

There have been so many different versions of this same thing over the years. They reinvent it under different names with a slight twist. Our Stake has done this at least three times over the past 15 years. I am sure there will be number 4 and 5.

Funny. Members of my ward feed mishies all the time. They often invite me, too, on Sundays...but I'm already a member. I think a lot of members who host mishies simply invite me along because I'm one of the only single people in my ward...and God forbid I have to keep the Sabbath day alone! (I was once invited on a weeknight, too...but they were all members!) I've never seen a nonmember at any dinners I've been invited to. And I don't really think there's an agenda in inviting me...I disguise myself well as a TBM, apart from the fact that I'm a single 30 year old woman, and a law student.

I remember a time on my mission when a family we were giving a member missionary lesson to told us they just would not commit to having a non-member in their home because they just didn't want to. At the time I remember thinking......WOW they are being very honest at least. Most members would not do it but would say they would.

Yeah...Mormon women have what I like to call "toxic niceness"...agreeing to things they don't want to do because they don't want to be seen as "not nice."

In the long run, you will be a much nicer person if you keep those boundaries firm.

If any one personally asked me to participate in one of those deals I would always ask them, why would I want to ruin my neighbors perfectly happy good life? They always looked shocked.

Then I would say, really, my neighbors are happy. They have a nice life. They didn't have any kids, they travel the world, their health is good, they enjoy a nice glass of wine, and a good cup of coffee. Why would I want to take that away? Why would they sign up for this? What is a good selling point, because I can't think of one.

I'm sure I caused a couple of people to think about that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2012 03:59PM by Mia.

I have always had missionaries for dinner at our home because We really like college age students. When I was stupid enuf to have my 8 year old daughter baptized, 3 sets of missionaries gave her discussions. The one she liked from North Carolina was transferred before he could baptize her. What a joke for that poor missionary to serve in Utah&$-:(!!!!!!