There has been a sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle effort to reactivate my widowed friend who lives in a mormon-saturated area.

He received a call that the missionaries and an "area" person were coming to visit and that there would likely be two more visits after that. (He avers that there will NOT be two more meetings.)

My friend is a fine person, does a great deal of service in his community for family, neighbors, and friends. He is a "believer" but is on the fence about mormonism. He dislikes the political influence the church has, dislikes the racist history, dislikes the church's treatment of gays, women, minorities although he doesn't discuss any of this with his Mormon acquaintances. When the missionaries and visiting teachers come, he is cordial but avoids the "lesson". He has no intention of returning to Church but neither will he resign.

He is a person of integrity, and doesn't wish to be contentious. He has stated that he will not get into a doctrinal discussion but he also will not tell these 'authorities' to get lost. It's not in his character to do so.

My question on his behalf:

For anyone here who has had experience either as an 'activator' or as the target of activators, what will be the likely game plan of the initiators of this meeting?

auntsukey Wrote:
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> He received a call that the missionaries and an
> "area" person were coming to visit and that there
> would likely be two more visits after that.

Typical Mormon MO: they TELL you that you will be getting visits
from them--basically invite themselves over to your house.

What's wrong with this picture?

the game plan is merely bullying.

My guess is they will offer invitations to come to church or church related events, maybe ask if he would accept a calling, etc. Anything to get him involved and back in the building doing their bidding. Love him back in the church you know?

Or, they could be coming to check on his status, commitment, etc., and offer him the chance to resign. They seem to be doing that lately.

About 10 years ago I lived a block from the LDS chapel....took years before the Bishop and his henchman came by to see who I was and invite me to church (my dad probably tipped them off). I said I wasn't interested and was planning on resigning, just hadn't done it yet.

The Bishop promptly offered me the opportunity to do just that. So I used the paper they brought with them with my contact info, wrote that I was resigning and my minor child *(teenager) who had only been been blessed was doing likewise....wrote it on the back and signed it. They left and I soon had my confirmation letter that I was out.

I wonder if the bishop did that on his own just to reduce the number of permanently inactives he and his decreasing supply of loyal henchmen were supposed be visiting regularly and trying to re-activate? Can't imagine corporate HQ driving that effort.

unless they are actively participating members.

It's the host who says who may come to their home, not someone in a cult who happens to be assigned to shake them down.

They're probably eying his resources, and/or have a bride in mind for him. If he's widowed, then I assume he's getting on in years himself, and they want to be sure they get their clutches on his money.

The gentleman will need to set the rules for visits to his home. It is not anyone else's right to tell him what they will do and when they will visit.
He can refuse to answer the phone or the door and consider them annoying solicitors and ignore them.
He is under no obligation to take their calls, emails, or visits.
He will need to take a firm stand and refuse their visits if he wants this to stop. The only way to do that is to stop it immediately. Disallow them to intrude in his life.

I just smiled a lot and kept repeating, "Just put me down as 'hard core inactive' and don't waste peoples' time in visiting me."

Also, "I don't know you, so I feel no need to answer your questions" is a fun response for people he doesn't know who are bugging him.

It's likely that it's all about the money; he must be well off...

Stake President and area authority. It lasted 20 minutes.

*Chit chat for 5 minutes.

*Plan of Salvation. Before it could get started, friend affirmed that he's been a lifelong member and knows and has taught the plan.

*Next, the nitty gritty:
Do you want to see ******** (deceased wife) again? (Jerks!)

*A little [hobby] talk. Prayer. Good night, thanks for coming.

He's a patient, tolerant man.

Result: The visitors can feel they've done their duty. The apostate in his home can congratulate himself for being patient and tolerant and the visit turns out to be a waste of time for everyone involved.

auntsukey Wrote:
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> He is a person of integrity, and doesn't wish to
> be contentious.

Those two things aren't mutually exclusive.
In fact, a very good argument could be made that a "person of integrity" wouldn't sit for hours and pretend to accept a pile of nonsense being pushed on him by people he finds abhorrent.