Disclaimer - I don't know if one or both of these nephews have learning disabilities. It wouldn't surprise me if they both have them. They were wild as children and scared my family. No one really watched after them and I think one of them actually fell out of the family window onto his head as a child. Their English and grammar are not good. I've not posted it but they both have mentioned people not speaking English correctly where they are.

They are not ones to judge. They are brothers.

U.S. missionary.
"We went to investigator's house with a member and as we got there his apartment was even more messy then before. I thought it could not get worse.but.........It did. when i sat down on the messy stained couch that he had, I felt a something sticky and gross on me.. I still do not know what i sat on. then We talked for a few minutes and plainly told him to read the Book of Mormon or he want find out if the church is true. The member told us to go clean it. "

This nephew's email was like a pastiche from The Book of Mormon Musical.

African missionary.
"Dear family, friends, and people that I have grown to love in the last couple of weeks. First of all to answer someones question about struggles as a missionary when it comes to getting people ready for baptism are as follows: word and wisdom is big here but the law of chastity is the biggest because of abortions and having more then one wife. We had to move the people that were going to be baptized last week to this week because some of them need to talk to the mission president before they can be baptized. As of today we have two more that are ready for baptism and we have a date for both. These numbers do not matter, my goal as a missionary is to invite others to come unto Christ and here the field is white already to harvest. The people here are to coolest people you could ever meet. Are problem is we never have enough time to do everything, for example we had to go out today and teach even though it's our P-day.
The food is really different but I'm learning. My companion takes pictures of my well I eat."

These two should make the church look real well.

Snicker!

Some would say going to college would have been better than going on a mission. Others would say repeating high school also would have been appropriate. Too mean?

Those 2 paragraphs weren't too bad. I've seen much worse, but I know what you are saying.

The second missionary sounds like he is just out and isn't so sure he is liking it.

If you really, really BELIEVE..., you can twist anything to make the church true!

This is from a mid-February entry in a sister mishie blog:


"The disappointing thing was... Henry and Elizabeth... they weren't showing up to church... They sent us a text in the middle of sacrament meeting saying that they accidentally set their alarm to pm and that they just woke up... ...They didn't even come to any of the other hours, probably because they were embarrassed. But, Heavenly Father's plans are perfect. The high council speaker talked about a lot of deep doctrine things and it would have just made them incredibly confused. So the Lord actually protected them. They were meant not to come to this sacrament meeting. The Lord definitely has a plan in all things."

http://sisterhannahsanderson.blogspot.com/ (it's waaaaay at the bottom)

This sister hasn't updated since March, and Henry & Elizabeth still hadn't made it to church...

Holy, holy Jesus on a Belgian waffle. Weird stuff.

"...Here the field is white already to harvest."

Uh huh.

Wow...

The mental gymnastics involve must just exhaust them.

Man is not a rational animal. Man is a rationalizing animal.

"...law of chastity is the biggest because of abortions and having more then one wife."

Isn't it legal to have more than one wife there? That's not against the law of chastity as defined by TSCC. Now, what Joe and Brigham did?...THAT was breaking the law of chastity.

Abortions are causing the people here to lose their chastity and have many wives...

Missionary language is poor for the course. My nephews - who have already gone - sounded similarly; so too, we can assume, will the ones planning to go in the future.

Not enough study on the things that are important (given the distraction of Mormonism - 'filler knowledge-testimony') and too much time spent on the things which aren't.

"word and wisdom is big here but the law of chastity is the biggest because of abortions and having more then one wife."

What I infer is he is mixing up things and making the clause appear to be causal.

I think he meant Law of Chastity is a big problem and therefore one can meet lots of people who have had abortions and/or married more than one wife.

The funny thing is why is the wife thing a problem. Laws of the land and all.

Mormonism is so absurd in Africa on many levels.

The diffiCULTy in honest, and direct, communication, in any form, is in its truth and simplicity.

LDS is neither of these.

This causes communication to be strained, and unnatural.

Reading my nephews' letters was difficult - with inadequate and mislocated punctuation (run on and on and on sentences, without a.), misspellings galore, improper capitalization, no, or illogical paragraphs - and the writing always hard to follow.

But certainly they were under overwhelming pressures and postures, with insincere and indirect guidance and "leadership" principles.

Why should we be surprised that these two can't write? Our education system hardly requires a child to write in school today and if they do their teachers can't grade the grammar because they can't write also. It just seems to be all about passing tests and teaching how to take them. Education is hurting badly wherever you are in the U.S.

I am a teacher and also an excellent writer.

In my state, writing was not emphasized for a long time. Teachers tend to teach to the test (our evaluations and reputation depend on good test scores,) so writing often fell by the wayside. Under the Common Core, there is a renewed emphasis on writing, but it's often difficult to squeeze it in with all of the other requirements.

I love to teach writing, and I'm considered to be quite good at it. But each school has to put supports in place so that quality writing instruction can happen. And students have to have the ability to sustain attention to the task and a desire to improve academically (which is not always the case.)

Your blanket statements are fairly erroneous in my experience.

I graduated high school in 2010 and had amazing English teachers all four years. They really showed me the beauty behind the written word and it has turned into a hobby of mine.

But I agree with Summer, a lot of it depends on the drive of the student.

You coming down on the younger generation as illiterate is nothing but bias also.

So many older folks today don't know the difference between their/they're/there then/than effect/affect its/it's etc.

It's not a youth thing, it's a laziness thing and that stems across all time periods and groups.

I went to public high school and graduated as a valedictorian... because I put the effort into it and got the reward of education.

Blaming the education system as subpar is just lazy rationalizing. Not that it is perfect or doesn't have flaws. But for the kids that want to learn and do well, the opportunity is still firmly there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2015 07:24PM by nonsequiter.

nonsequiter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Blaming the education system as subpar is just
> lazy rationalizing. Not that it is perfect or
> doesn't have flaws. But for the kids that want to
> learn and do well, the opportunity is still firmly
> there.

Thank you from a person who loves a lot of public education teachers and knows the difference they make.

A lot of my teachers worked way more than they got paid for.

In Jr. High my band teacher was stretched thin because of the program cuts on music in my school district. Our class was intended for strictly band instruments, but strings and percussion were thrown in with us because the classes which were intended for them were cut.

So he spent every monday after school with me for two hours to teach me the clarinet because he sometimes didnt get to me in class.
He approached me and offered to do this for me, I was the only kid he asked.

So every monday from 2-4PM he gave me personal music lessons.I know he did other students on other days, and this went on the WHOLE school year. This was a public Jr. High, he didn't get paid.He didn't clock in over time. The school district cut the classes to save money, they weren't going to filter it over to him... he just wanted to give a kid who wanted to learn music an opportunity.

Maybe im lucky, but all throughout my education Ive seen math teachers do the same, English teachers, Science teachers, coaches... all offer after hours training or tutoring... on their own time. Without compensation.

So people who shame public education, they often are only seeing the surface, not what actually goes on.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2015 08:05PM by nonsequiter.

I've seen intimately the work, effort, and time that is only compensated in the successes kids have with someone I dearly love.

They truly love teaching children and most people don't understand that passion. I am one of them. I'm not kid friendly. But to see a person truly inspiring and excellent at teaching is like watching a professional artist at work.

We don't value these people like we should as a society but I'm glad they exist and there are enough of them to make a lot of difference in growing people's lives.

Like you music teacher, they are special, hard working, and expect a lot but give a lot in return.

Some people will never understand this.

So when he is trying to quote about the field being white and such, are his investigators and converts becoming white and delightsome?