I am on my grandson's weekly email blast, which comes every Monday morning. Mostly it's the same as all the ones we've seen here. But this morning's had an added fillip to it:


"I've also learned that I should still be myself on my mission, because the Lord prepared me the way He did for a reason. He didn't call me to Argentina just so I could try to completely change my personality in to what I thought it should be as a missionary. I am allowed to use my humor to teach and be my goofball self, and be spiritual when we need to be. It's made this past week so much more enjoyable and I've been able to connect with the investigators better than before. YAY!!"


Then there was this at the end:

"Oh also, my companion sleeps with a knife under his pillow now and I have a metal rod next to my bed because we heard rumors that the same people want to come back and rob us during the night, WE ARE READY!!! MWAHAHA!! But honestly I don't think they're coming back."

It's OK to be yourself, as long as yourself is a true-blue believing and obeying mormon. Otherwise, it's not.

Ugh.

What is anyone going to rob from a missionary? A BoM and some ties?

We got robed twice at the mission home in Rome in 1994. It isn't what they get it is what they think they will get.

The took our Gelato from the freezer one time.

jacob Wrote:
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> The took our Gelato from the freezer one time.

Oh, now that IS a crime!!! Gelato...yum. :)

In 1997 or 1998, pres. Leoni Flossi's wife got all her jewels stolen in during a break-in at the Rome mission home. Flossi, a retired senior FBI officer, also ran a very successful private security firm and is rich. Rich!, I tell you. And his wife brought tens of thousands in jewelry with her because that's how humble these mission presidents are. But--in all fairness--he did allow his teenage daughter to get a navel piercing. It was all the members could talk about for a while.

bicycles.

When my niece was on mission to Equador it was her mail from the federal mail system of Equador sent via the USPS that was stolen.

My bro and sister-in-law learned the hard way to mail her packages via UPS. It was the ONLY way it would get to her in one piece.

Sometimes the mail would go missing AFTER (not before,) it reached the LDS mission.

If it isn't nailed down, be very wary of not just strangers but those posing as church officials and the local postmasters.

Sad that he thought he couldn't be himself.

I didn't go to So. America however, our house was robbed on my mission during the night.

They didn't take any of my stuff as I didn't have much of value and probably my snoring scared them.

However, other missionaries lost 'expensive' cameras and equipment and didn't seem like they 'loved' the people so much after that.

My apartment was burglarized my senior year of high school. When my roommates and I returned home from school that day our bedrooms had been ransacked.

The burglar/s had climbed in through the bedroom window off the patio/balcony.

It is the worst feeling of being violated I can think of, next to being raped.

All they took was our clothes and jewelry. My guitar was with me that day for guitar class, or that would've been stolen too, no doubt.

Our Stanford neighbors right across the hall heard and saw nothing. That figures. We surmised it was some girls from the high school that had visited before, and were plotting their escapade because they knew our schedule. They were never caught though.

I worked for the police department who we reported the crime to. I'd been cutting back on smoking until that day. When the police were there to take their report, and our social worker/mother hen came to check on us I was lighting up like a smokestack. My good intentions of quitting smoking ended there and then that day. It would be two more years before I quit for good.

With all of the morg missionary rules isn't that an oxymoron/impossible!???

I was robbed of 2 years on my mission






..something you can never get back
fuggem'

Depending on the country I guess there could be a risk of kidnapping

I love when Mormons pretend to have personalities.

What did he do--use the word "flip," or maybe "fudge?"

When your "self" is carefully groomed from birth to be a missionary "self," I wouldn't get too excited and break an arm patting yourself on the back simply because you almost acted genuine for a moment.

Meanwhile others in the same age bracket, rather than doing exactly as they are instructed, are making their own choices, pursuing educations and careers,interacting with anyone and everyone on a one to one basis and learning instead of preaching.

I hope this isn't too snarky. This news bulletin to alert the media to how insightful this kid supposes himself to be just got to me. I'm sure he is a wonderful boy. Would have to be if he's elderoldog's grandkid.

Snarky is fine. I wasn't allowed much input as the grands were growing up. If he would have lied his ass off like I did, he'd be looking at being released next February. He went into the MTC in Feb. of 2015, but confessed and it took over a year for him to get clearance!

I think it's criminal...

It's OK to be yourself as long as

You don't use your own first name.

You don't do what you want to do.

You don't set the schedule that you want to set.

You don't dress like you want to dress.

You don't wear your hair the way you prefer.

You don't hang with the people you want to hang with.

You don't go where you want to go.

You don't phone who you want to phone.

You don't read what you want to read.

You don't listen to what you want to listen to.

You don't watch what you want to watch.

Yeah, BE YOURSELF!

Ha! So true.

Well at least laughing about it is okay.

seekyr Wrote:
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> Ha! So true.
>
> Well at least laughing about it is okay.

From the Endowment (emphasis added):

"We are required to give unto you the Law of the Gospel as
contained in the Holy Scriptures; to give unto you also a
charge to avoid ALL LIGHT MINDEDNESS, LOUD LAUGHTER, evil
speaking of the Lord's anointed, the taking of the name of God
in vain, and every other unholy and impure practice, and to
cause you to receive these by covenant."

A missionary I knew who came from a prominent family was robbed of his watch. He was then transferred to Harlem. Seriously.

Evil ones will creep in at night and steal their testimonies.

When you crush the skull of the robber, make sure you do it with the Love Of Jesus.

by-a-new-missionary!-ly yrs,

S

I was always told that we are to forget our selves as we are representing Christ. Wish the church would make up its mind.

I'm not going to tell him that, but, yeah, that was what I got out of my stint in the LTM: there's a mold, get in and let us make you fit it.