I am writing one of my friends' who is on a mission in Japan right now (he's on the south island, so he wasn't affected by the tsunami), and he brought up something I found to be pretty funny. So, it turns out that my buddy who's been out for a little over a year, absolutely HATES missionary work. He loves Japan, the culture and living accommodations, but he is so fed up with being a missionary and living the missionary lifestyle. The funny part of this story, is as I was reading his most recent email he sent to me, he said that he was so fed up, really wanting to come home, and his companion was insane, he went out and bought a bunch of cigs and would buy alcohol and get trashed in his apartment on a lot of nights. HAHA! I probably shouldn't think that's funny, but I do. He even went and saw that movie Tron on his mission too haha. His comp eventually narked on him, and he was sent to a therapist, but not sent home. He said he is doing better and has a different companion, but that he is going to try and live out the last year of his mish as chill as possible. And he always talked about when the second he gets home, he is going to light up a huge bowl of weed and have sex with lots of girls ;) Anyway, not that this has to do with anything substantial, it just made me think of how many missionaries do these kinds of rebellious things on their missions... Or is my friend just the exception?

Someone wrote a hilarious post about being a missionary in remote Alaska. They got a TV and watched TV all winter.

OK it was funnier then, but the idea that it was just too cold to look for them was humorous.

Alaska...all the moose have been converted by the Russian Orthodox church.

I'd be watching TV also...no one could find you up there in the winter...

That's pretty funny ... okay, the abuse of alcohol and smoking isn't really, but ... I'm guessing that if that kid went home, he would probably settle into a pretty normal lifestyle for a twenty year old ... it's probably the mission life driving him to excess. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, that couldn't be it ... the Mission Prez thinks that if he doesn't like his mission and is acting out, he MUST need psychological counseling!

JUST LET THE POOR KID GO HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL, I had an RM, tell me that one of his companions used to leave around 11pm most night and not get home till 5am, and of course he always had a hangover in the morning.

Your friend is not an exception. There are rebels in every mission.

I can't believe that the mission president sent him to a therapist. In my day he would have been sent home. Sounds like that's what he would have preferred.

I went out drinking two weeks before my mission and then got back and went out drinking again two weeks after. A therapist? How silly.

I was nowhere near that rebellious, but I hated every minute of my mission too. I hated the fact that, as a missionary, if you don't obey every rule to the letter, then your soul is in jeopardy. I knew, even then, that the rules were just in place because of all the missionaries who didn't want to be there but were only serving because of family and girlfriends. I hated having a constant babysitter who always had his finger on the speed-dial button to the pres to tattle on me every time I stayed in bed 30 seconds longer than allowed. I dreaded my mission my whole life and hated every second of it while I was there. I hated being told that if you weren't always doing SOMETHING to share the gospel that you were stealing time from Jesus. I hated knocking on doors when I knew the people we were bothering were perfectly happy with their religion. I hated having people say stuff like "I thought missionaries aren't allowed to do that". I always wanted to tell them to mind their own damn business.