My letters were meet screened. Most of tr time though try we're sent directly to me at whatever apartment I was at so it was never really an issue. The few times that they got to the missin home, I never noticed them pre-opened.
I don't know for certain, but I'm pretty sure *somebody* at the mission office read them.
We weren't allowed to send mail (my mission was long before e-mail) directly to anyone, or get it directly from anyone. All mail went through the mission home, both ways. The excuse for this was, what if you got transferred?
So twice a week, the DL would put all our unsealed, addressed, and stamped letters in a big envelope and sent them to the mission home. Twice a week, we'd get a big envelope (and now and then a package) from the mission home with letters (and occasional goodies) in it. If you didn't stamp your envelope before giving it to the DL, it wouldn't be sent.
I never observed anyone reading them. However, they were required to be unsealed, and letters from home I got were usually (though not always, a few snuck through) opened before I got them.
Did you mean to say "unsealed"? Really? So someone had to lick the glue and seal it? And you thought they didn't read the letters? Yeah.... I'm a 22, so I get four a side, okay?
Yes, I meant to say unsealed. We had to leave them open. If we didn't, they'd open them anyway, and we'd get reprimanded.
I said I don't know they were read because I don't. I'm a sticker for facts that way (as most here who've ever read my posts already know). It's highly likely they were read, but since I never observed it, I won't say "I know." Because I don't. :)
We were pretty lucky--there was an LDS postal worker in the main post office in Tijuana who managed to keep his co-workers from snagging the good stuff from the care packages. Most of the time. He did hand over a half-eaten one-pound bag of M&Ms one time that he'd resealed with a paper clip. He offered his most sincere apologies.
The MP probably should have centralized mail services. We didn't traffic in contraband but we did absent ourselves from our district for a couple of hours every day to go for mail. And it was a stray post-transfer letter that got me one last hug from the companion I was intimate with--he got permission to bring it to the airport the day I flew home.
Mission Presidents have access to the myldsmail email accounts missionaries are forced to use to write home. A mission president is able to read emails if they feel a desire to. It is unlikely they sit and read them all, but if they feel the missionary is a trouble maker they will try to dig up dirt that way to use in order to bully the missionary in interviews and seem to know things they shouldn't.
I got all my letters sent directly to my apartments.
Our MP did ask us however to give out the mission home address and have letters sent through him. He claimed it would make things more organized especially during transfers and that we wouldnt need to hand out all our addresses as we move around.
I know of one person who claimed that after a letter got sent to him through the mission home it appeared to have been opened and taped back shut.
The only other case I know of MPs reading letters is when female converts are writing to Elders. The MP wants to make sure nothing sexual is being communicated.
However, all this is largely up to the disgression of the mission president and his level of assholery.
My mail was never opened that I recall, and always mailed directly to home and directly to me. (Argentina South '69-'71)
O/T:
Letters from my faithful TBM girlfriend were always doused with "Tabu, the forbidden fragrance." I always inhaled her letters before reading them. Very pleasant memory.
When I transitioned to RM, I inexplicably lost interest in her and decided to marry a BYU FFA instead (Future Felon of America).
My mission GF never married and sang in the MoTabs for 20 years. Had I married her, good chance I would still be a TBM. After 40 years of successful 'relationship aversion therapy', I visited her a year ago during a trip to Utah. Her parting words to me were, "Read the Book of Mormon."
beyondashadow Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > > My mission GF never married and sang in the MoTabs > for 20 years. Had I married her, good chance I > would still be a TBM. After 40 years of successful > 'relationship aversion therapy', I visited her a > year ago during a trip to Utah. Her parting words > to me were, "Read the Book of Mormon."
My MIL did a 2 year 'mission' at the mission office locally. She 'took care of the mail'. What exactly that meant was never detailed for us. Actually, come to think of it, I should have pushed her more on that. Anyway, She did 5 days/week, 8 hrs/day in the office on 'mail' and calling investigators I guess. There were other women working in there too. I can't imagine what they would have been doing with all that time if not screening letters....
If you serve in the US; then mail should not be intercepted because each set should be able to receive mail from his/her apartment. And thankfully, it's a crime to interfere with snail mail in the US.
Oversees, it's a huge problem when stuff gets sent to the mission home. I found out after I returned home that I was getting a friend into trouble. He was serving in Brazil at the time and his MP was intercepting his letters. Apparently, a serving missionary (ME) was up to no good if I had time to write him a letter. My sin was having the gall to write him a letter TWICE during a 6 month period.
I'm not sure if any of you remember the Missionary Emporium at the Orem mall in the late 1980s-there was a large bulletin board with postings and photos of missionaries seeking pen pals. Anyway,I had a companion who would get like 20 letters a week from 8 or 9 different girls One of the AP's then asked him if he was writing them all back,to which he responded yes- he was then told that it was an unecessary distraction,even though he was basically writing the same things to all of them,and he was encouraged to stop,at which point he began to scale it down to only 5 or 6 girls.
Some missions send your letters through the Mission Home, and I suspect that they go through some mail there. I wouldn't be surprised if they read the mail of Elders and Sisters they have labelled as trouble.
I sent mine directly home and had my parents send theirs to me. My former comps would always forward my mail for me after transfers. We used to send each other little notes that way by scribbling on the back of forwarded mail. It was rare that I received letters via the mission home and I never sent them that way.
I usually warned my mom when transfers were likely and then sent a postcard from my new address right after arriving. That way they knew where I was and got a cute picture from a new place in France.
Yep. I had a letter intercepted from me to a friend also on a mission. I was called in to see the prez 'cause he got a call from his mission president that we were inappropriate and distracted. Quoting Metallica lyrics.
No way my MP could have nor do I believe he would have wanted to. When I served in 1960-62 in Texas, I wrote home or called on our apartment phone directly whenever I felt the need.
I've read some of the stories of what goes on in the mission field today (if the posters can be believed) and I find myself astounded. If the church really does what is reported, I don't understand how they can stomach it. If my MP would have said or done what is claimed today I would have told him to take a flying leap and gone home on the next bus.
What is it with today's missionaries? Are they just too young and stupid to know when they are being controlled?
Not only did the Mission President read our emails and incoming mail through the LDS International Mail System but he also demanded that every companionship give him a key to their homes. The Mission President said there would be random inspections. The Mission President or his assistants could walk into your home while you are out working and read your journal or go through your personal belongings. There was so much distrust between the Missionaries and the Mission President that some people just gave him a nonworking key and blamed the person who made the copy.