No. I agree with Phazer that learning a language and learning to get along with others are benefits. I got to experience a different culture, which was eye opening. But these few benefits do not outweigh the negatives:
1. Serving a mission put me three years behind in my education. I worked full-time for a year to earn the money to go.
2. I payed for my whole mission. It cost me over $12,000. I came home with less than $100 to my name.
3. I have dealt with anxiety and depression since I was a teenager. They became almost unmanageable while I was on my mission. Of course the only help I received was the advice to pray harder, have more faith, repent, etc.
No! It's, without a doubt, my biggest regret. What a waste of time. I was sick, tired, hungry, depressed over our lack of success, etc... Looking back, I'm grateful that we had little success, that the church is truly insignificant outside of the moridor, that the few "converts" were quick to bail, etc... I learned a new language and got to experience a different culture, but it wasn't worth it for the very little real good we did.
It's hard to be glad that you spent two-years peddling a lie. where I needlessly worried about unworthiness, annoying mission companions, interviews with the mission president, or the next door approach.
That doesn't mean that everything I experienced and learned during my the mission was worthless. Learning a foreign language, and being fairly immersed in a foreign culture helps you think about things in new ways and question a lot of assumptions about life.
What I lament the most is what I could have done during those years instead.
My mission didn't do that much good for me or others, and I think that there are a range of other things I could have been doing that would have been more worthwhile for me and for others as well. The level of service a Mormon mission provides to humanity is greatly exaggerated.
Yes because I was totally immersed in the culture and language in which I was living (all of my companions were local to the country). My love for and affinity towards the latin american people & culture is one of my deeply held life passions - I assume I'll hold it until I die.
No because what I was teaching was complete bullshit.
No because I wasn't able to do and see and be - if I could spend 2 years in latin america again, as a 19 year old young man, things would be much, MUCH, different.
No, because my MP was a miserable old prick, and all of his APs were obsequious sycophantic fawning WASPs (white anglo-saxon pricks) who forever used subterfuge and intimidation and manipulation as their interpersonal tools of choice.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2015 02:42PM by schlock.
More or less. It was definitely a unique opportunity to learn a new language and culture. Ironically I credit my mission as sending me down the road to leaving the church. Seeing how difficult life is in most of the world really makes you question Gods "plan." You also get a chance to really study and learn the "doctrine" which if you posses basic reasoning skills doesn't seem to add up. Of my group of close friends in high school only 2 out of 5 went on missions and we are the exmos of the group. The other three are super TBM. For many of us a mission is also the first peak behind the curtain that we get into higher church callings. I got to meet a few area 70's and one apostle and each was extremely underwhelimg. The fact that we were peddling lies is offset a bit because I am reasonably certain that non of my baptisms are even remotely active. Finally I get the trump card of being an RM who likely knows more about your church than you do when talking to family or friends who are trying to save me.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2015 03:27PM by hoosierute.
The learning the language and culture of central america were the definite perks. I continue to spend a great deal of time getting to visit the different countries during vacations and such.
Bringing new victims to the cult was the downside. At least I can say my intentions were good at the time. I hope they all quickly went inactive.
I'd love to know if a single state-side missionary exmo will offer even a partial "yes" to your question.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Living in a foreign country and seeing the world differently, the culture and history were big pluses.
Made some good friends.
The bad parts were, ironically, the church. I saw for the first time that numbers/baptisms were the only thing that mattered. Actual conversion was just a fortunate byproduct. I began to feel like a cheap salesman. I was disgusted by the berating by visiting GA's and even more disgusted by the shameless brown nosing by many missionaries wanting leadership roles in the mission.
Ironically the country I "served" in converted me.
I did my time in the Army b4 my mission. I wasnt too thrilled to go out of the country again so shortly after working so hard to get back to the World.
Nope. Getting to live in Korea was amazing and I did love the time that I spend traveling the country, visiting historical landmarks and learning the culture...
However, I could have done that in far less time, with much less money if I had saved up specifically for that.
Going on a mission cost me a lot: - Lost my full ride scholarship to college - delayed my college graduation by many years - further indoctrinated me in the church making it harder to leave (which is actually the point of a mission, so it worked for a while on me) - It was expensive for my family to support me even though I had saved up for it. - The psychological damage can't be stressed enough, I had companions that were determined to "tear me down" so they could "build me up". A good portion of my mission was a nightmare and I had no family to support me and the mission president didn't care.
If you want to learn a language or see another country, save your money and mental health and plan a trip. A mission isn't worth it.
YES...because it is what led me directly out of the Church on my plane ride home. Working closely with the MP i had the opportunity to rub shoulders with some regional and area 70's who were some of the most arrogant and condescending *(p)ricks i have ever run across. Even in the cut-throat business industry that i am currently in for the past 30-years.
Also because 2-weeks into my mission we had an investigator tell us about the rock-in-hat fiasco that i had 2 area 70's lie directly to my face that it was simply anti-mormon crap.
These 2 men are still alive and i've contemplated contacting them about this in light of recent "Essay" attempts by LDS-Inc.
NO...because it was just such a colossal waste of my time and the investigator's time for me to spend 2-years lying to people day in and day out. Time itself is the most precious commodity that LIFE has to offer anyone. That knowledge is what took the biggest toll on me during the final months of my mission in realizing what ELSE i could have done with MY time. That plus the knowledge that deep down inside i knew that i was lying to myself, my family back home, my companions, my investigators etc by bearing testimony to this god-forsaken Real-Estate acquisition Corporation masquerading as a Church Organization.
I will never forgive any of those geriatric-lying-loser-SOB *(p)ricks in all areas up and down the hierarchy of so-called church "authority" who stole my time and 2-years of my one-and-only-life by implying that i would not be "worthy" of anything if i didn't go on a mission.
All i can hope is that i get my 2-years back on the back-end of my life with some quality assurance.
All i can hope is that there is some sort of crazy-bad Karma that will haunt these so-called GA SOB's forever.
No. In fact, it angers me that my parents willingly handed the greedy cult at least $10k so I could be the cult's bitch for 2 years; and didn't pay a dime towards my education because they had nothing left. I could have had a 2-year head start in my career and much less student loan debt.
in the end I don't think about it too much because without it I wouldn't be who I am and where I am. And as much as I wish for another life at times the truth is I might have been worse off without it (my mission).
I try to think about where I go from here and less about regretting how I got here.
That said, I still have intermittent bouts of regret.
Yes - conditionally. I was pretty Molly Mormon in those days and if I was going to do something Mormon, then I think a mission was one of the better things. Definitely regret going to BYU more than my mission and regret marrying in the temple FAR more than anything else I did, other than pay tithing. Mind you, I just am talking about my horrible wedding, not who I married.
The mission, on the other hand, was a good opportunity to live and work abroad. I finally mastered Spanish, got to live in Europe for a year, met people I'm still friends with from Spain, many who have now (happily) left Mormonism too. I was older when I went (25) and more independent and accepting of others beliefs. If they weren't interested in Mormonism, then I didn't press. Even then, I knew there were good people outside the church who didn't need to be Mormon to find happiness. This made me a very average baptizer - most baptisms were children of inactive members, often found before I got to the area by my comps. I was pretty laid back. The only thing I regret about being a missionary was the high level of exposure to strangers, including companions, that were in my face 24/7. You had no downtime where someone wasn't right there watching you. For someone like me, it produced a huge level of anxiety it took me years to get over. I HATED being on stage like that all the time, with no time to be alone with my thoughts, doing things I found relaxing like reading or quilting. That was my main problem with missionary work - the rest went pretty well.
Yes, I enjoyed the mission. Went to a northern European country and had a great time. Met a beautiful girl and had a great relationship with her. Learned a new language. Found the place I was most happy in the world. Moved back there later.
Wait... Who says the church is not true? Where did you read that?
But either way, I had to be somewhere for those 27 months and living all over central Mexico was a lot of fun. I did not allow any rules to stop me from laughing all I wanted to.
The ONLY regret I have is all the sex I missed, because I was following the party line.
The one good thing about going on a mission is that it probably made it even more painful for my dumb ass MORmON parents when I finally told them that I no longer believed in their stupid MORmON religion.
The other good thing about going on a mission: After having my face jammed into MORmON garbage that long on a full time basis, the stench was overwhelming. I was forced to admit to myself that it really does not smell very good. It was a giant leap toward compelling me out of the MORmON cult. Gordon Hinckley provided the the rest of the MORmON stench needed to push me out. Thank you Gordo.
I remember it as a 30 month extended vacation in France. The only thing that detracted was the occasional requirement to pester French people with our "message". Ian Fleming's 007 (James Bond) books were my scriptures. Read them all. Looking back, I think I was just pretending even then. We baptized 22 people, as I recall. A phenomenal number for that mission. Must have had some pretty zealous companions. Most of my mission memories are good ones, of things other than actual missionary effort.
There were some positives--learning a new language and culture, traveling to a completely different part of the world, but on balance, no, I'm not glad I went. Not even a close call.
No, not really. I consider my mission a complete waste of two years of my young life. I also have always felt bad about having unknowingly repeated Mormon lies to very good people who deserved to be told the truth.
Mormonism is nothing but a bastard so-called religion that uses people for its own gratification. The unholy fifteen should be ashamed of themselves and their complete inability to be honest about what they know.