http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mette-ivie-harrison/how-to-manage-mormon-missionaries_b_8032206.html

The comments on this article are pretty hilarious. I give the mom credit for understanding that many people are uninterested in Mormonism. It's a somewhat even-handed article, even if I can't help but think a lot of LDS church members are deluded.

You send your child far-away and HOPE people will not harm them. You worry that they'll get medical attention if they need it and that it will be appropriate. You hope nobody tries to poison them, hit them with a car and so forth...

A young man from our area who is serving in the southern United States was beaten, doused with gasoline and luckily the attackers got spooked and took off. I don't care what a person is doing, that is not appropriate behavior towards them.

Most of those kids haven't had the chance to make an informed decision, are there because of pressure, are lonely, are depressed, and under the screws of a cult. It wakes many of them up. It woke me up as a parent to see a couple of my kids come home early. It is a mind messing event that affects the rest of their lives.

Though I am not LDS and have no kids, I think I would be very worried if I had a son or daughter on a mission. Some of the stories shared here are enough to make anyone worry. I have only encountered Mormon mishies once. I was nice to them, gave them water, and even listened to their message. I told my husband, who was quietly drifting away from the church at the time and his reaction is what led me to find this board.

From the article; concerning mission rules.

"They really can't just sit down at a restaurant to go to lunch unless they're teaching the gospel."

Huh?

Did the mission rules become more ridiculous since I served 20 yrs ago?

It was always a money issue whether you spent your money at a restaurant. Some of my comps were true blue cheap skates. One guy always carried an empty taco bell cup to grab a free drink whenever we rode past taco bell. At the time the small cup was 65 cents and they had just introduced "free refills". His plan was for his comp (me) to buy a drink so the workers would be distracted and wouldn't notice the other Mormon missionary stealing Pepsi that wasn't paid for. I eventually refused to be an accomplice and waited for him outside while he was sneaking in to steal fizzy drinks. His rationale "I have the receipt that proves I bought the cup."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2015 09:28AM by messygoop.

One of my nephews is currently serving in the Las Vegas mission.

His dad, my brother, is a religious zealot. I firmly believe the decision for him to go was made by his parents, not him.

He was barely out of high school when he got his call. Since they can go now at age 18 instead of 19.

Las Vegas for all its Mormons is still a pretty high crime ridden city. I sure wouldn't want one of my children going on a mission there, or anywhere else for that matter.

My brother no doubt has blinders on, like he has for most of his life. He didn't serve a mission when he was younger, he joined the Navy fresh out of high school. He's living vicariously now through his kids. Brother is a stake missionary where he resides, owing to his zealotry.

He's a devious, conniving human being though. I can't trust him.

He lacks an ethical core.

I just dad that article and was going to start a post. Thanks for beating me to it.

This was so disturbing to me. Here's this person trying to tell people how to treat their children. No responsibility on the parents part for putting their children in harms way. Op suggests they get the public to offer rides? So offer you children up to take rides from strangers in this day and age? Are you kidding me? Doesn't that put their children more at risk?

It blows my mind that tbms believe it is ok to force their children to go on a mission away from home without contact from their parents and support group and go into strangers houses and cars and think this is ok?

You know the sane members of the public are just shaking their heads wondering the same thing.

And don't get me started on how they are telling people how to deal with the church's policy on harrassing people.

I almost pity the op for showing how irresponsible a parent can be and how cruel and abusive taboot.

Op I mean the writer of the article on yahoo, not the writer of this post.

I think you can make the arugment that the Westboro baptist nuts are "well meaning" in the same way mormon missionaries are. They want to convert you to their way of thinking, period and they will do whatever it takes to make that happen. Mormon missionaries are a trained sales force for a massive realestate development corporation who happens to have an extensive "non-profit" (I use that term loosely here) religions arm. The helpful young men showing up to your door have been given extensive sales training at one of the premiere sales schools in America (know as the MTC to mormons), they are pressured heavily for numbers by their mission presidents and all are well aware that the way to get into coveted leadership positions like zone leader within their mission (and therefor look extra righteous) is to baptize a lot. Sure some of them are there because of family pressure, and plenty of them do believe in their church (thats pretty easy to achieve when you pound religious dogma into kids from the day they are born) but I am not sure why thats an excuse for pushy behavior. I think the biggest example of how vile the mormon church is comes from their missionary program. Mormon missionaries intentionally target people who have suffered a loss or are going through extreme life events like divorce, etc. I know this first hand. After my son passed away a few years ago I had missionaries showing up on my doorstep almost weekly for close to a year. All sent by "well meaning" neighbors who thought for sure I would be "humbled" by my loss. They would corner us as we got out of our cars or did yard work, it was extremely aggrivating. No matter how many times I told them I wasnt interest, they still showed up. I have lived in my neighborhood for almost 20 years, all these people know I am well aware of their church and know exactly where it is, when it meats and what they believe.

The arrogance of a kid with less than half my life experience, who uinversally knows less about his own religion than I do, coming to my door during a time of grief to try and tell me I am living my life wrong is astounding. I dont advocate being rude simply because these kids are idiots and dont know better. The people tha should be targeted is their leadership who strong arm them into going then pressure them to "sell sell sell". The celestial kingdom is for closers only after all!

To the folks who give their children over to the mormon church to be indoctrinated and sent who the heck knows where to peddle a product for that huge corporation:

The responsibility for your children's welfare is YOURS!

I thought the line about having experienced members rather than young missionaries help you rationalize the messier parts of church history was pretty disgusting. Don't any of these people care whether or not the church they belong to is true and good?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/2015 03:16PM by Heretic 2.

of endangering their child and forcing them to live in squalor and be exposed to ridicule by those who want to live their lives free of religious harassment.

I realize that some of these young people insist on going on missions and their parents can't stop them, so these are not the parents I abhor.

Along those same lines, she mentioned them running out of miles and money for food at the end of the month. And she hopes that strangers will feed them and give them rides?

Why isn't she asking why the mission doesn't give them sufficient mileage allowance, or enough money for food? If they are running out of food, why isn't SHE sending them more money, and asking for an accounting of where the monthly fee paid for each mission went? There is no reason why any missionary should scrimp and save and still go hungry, while they pounding the pavement to serve one of the richest churches in the world.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2015 06:47PM by imaworkinonit.

OKay, now see? Your problem is that you're trying to make sense of all this. That's not what religion is about!! Religion is about rules and about paying a price when you don't live the rules. How these kids going to learn obedience if every time they don't keep a rule they still get to eat, and ride in a car?

This is about prepping to become a ghawd! And we all know how ghawds have to follow rules and what happens if they don't.

Parents of missionaries put them in this BAD situation and strangely hope that unrelated non-mormons will pitch in and do their parenting for them.

That is crazy! Mormons don't do this for me and my kids or for any other non-Mormons.

People living their busy lives do not owe Mormons this unrealistic special support and consideration.

These Mormon parents are negligent. Their kids could support themselves except that the parents force them to preach and live in squalor. It's reprehensible.

This makes me sad please do not blame these young men do not think of them as annoying they are just doing what their parents expect, I dont want my son to go but the rest of the family expects it it is a very sore subject for me i do feel like there is a lot of brainwashing but if you say anything watch out its hard to be a part of this for me i wish the church would do away with missions i dont feel like they care about my child i wish they would give other ways to serve to tell me i cannot speak to my child for 2 years is sick i dont know why they cannot see this

In the comments section after Sis. Harrison's article, an obviously full of himself TBM has written three times (so far) the following scathing (he thinks) remark:

"I always found it interesting that scientific atheism is completely unverifiable while theism has the potential to be verified."

I answered the guy (as if there is an answer), but it's a forgone conclusion that he will not agree with me. All I could do was ask questions:

"...you've typed this nonsense phrase three times so far! What is "Scientific Atheism"? Why, if theism has the potential to be verified, doesn't atheism have that same potential? Got proof?"

WTF is "scientific Atheism ?

The TBM is using the "prove a negative" logical fallacy.

As a lurker (mostly) and a nevermo... I would like to think that I would invite them in out of the weather, offer a drink and a kind word. I'd invite them out to dinner if they'd like. Personally, I'd like to pick their brain. Or not, up to them. Let them give me a BOM, because I actually do want one. I won't do this yet since I'm ( a renter) moving back to Colorado soon-don't want to do that to my nice landlord.

I have enough life experience to know that I know much more than they do, about life and people. But,the missionaries either want to be there on their mission, and believe in what they're doing. Or they don't. Either way, I feel like I can learn something from the experience, and maybe offer a safe place to relax. As a former SDA, I can safely say, they won't be converting me anytime soon. But, I do like to ask questions.

Although, I really do want to crack the door, stick out my hand and ask "What is wanted?" But, I won't. That's not my right nor privilege. Either way, they may be someone's future (exmo) spouse, and I'm sure they'd like a kind word.

Since I know what it is the mishies are selling, and I'm very well versed in the Mormon indoctrination and their techniques, I steer clear of them for the sake of my personal boundaries.

They can stick like glue to you if you give them an inch.

As in becoming pests in no time. I really dislike pesty people, and maybe I learned that having been a Mormon.

I do empathize with them to a point. But having had them in my home, and that included discussions while my children were teens, their whole premise and argument was just nilly silly, and even my children weren't all too impressed.

Some of the mishies act like spoiled little snots. That may be because they are. And haven't really had the time or maturity to be on their own and live in the real world outside of their Mormon families.

I have no patience for them or what they're selling. I'd offer them a bottle of water, sure. If I were able to. But not go out of my way to hold the door, invite em in, and have their discussions.

I also don't talk to Jehovah Witnesses when they come by. I simply tell them I have my own religion, and I'm not looking or interested.

And leave it at that. I owe them nothing. Kindness is something to be even when closing a door on the missionaries. I do it out of kindness not only for them, but mostly for myself.

Another thing that pisses me off about the way missionaries are treated: My understanding is they are tightly scheduled, micromanaged, shuffled around without much notice, and expected to be working all the time, except for their P-days. Morning until night, they have study, tracting, appointments, etc.

How many hours a week is that? With no weekends or Holidays. And they PAY for the 'privilege" of doing it, while living on rather poor nutrition because they don't have enough money (or probably time to cook). They have no personal time, which for an introvert like me would be absolutely unbearable. That kind of lifestyle, with insufficient downtime is just not healthy, and it shows in the rates of depression.

I am SOOOOO glad I decided not to go on a mission. (Plus, if I had, I wouldn't have met my husband).

Reading the comments on that is just infuriating..

HOnestly I don't know why I do that to myself..
The mental gymnastics these people do is just ...

Hmpffff...

I'd love it if a Mormon would honestly answer an honest question about their faith, for once, instead of 'not listening to anti Mormons'.
I'm not an 'anti-Mormon', just somebody who spent the first 40 years of my life in the Mormon church, during which time EVERYbody in the Mormon church lied to me by ommission.
Now that the church has publically admitted that Joseph Smith had 34 wives, 11 of whom were teenagers as young as 14, and 13 of whom were actually NOT his wives, but the wives of his followers, Mormons act like this has always been common knowledge. That's a GD lie!!!!
In my whole 40 years as a Mormon not a soul breathed a word about Joseph's 'other wives'. They made him seem like some kind of a God who had a perfect marriage and died a martyr, like Jesus, only better.
As it turns out the guy was no better than Warren Jeffs and Mormons maintain the world's biggest army of Cult recruiters to go out and lie by ommitting that important information?
Mormon missions are effective at one thing, getting young Mormon adults to lie for the Lord, by ommitting the important information that would make any reasonable person conclude that Joseph Smith was nothing more than a rapist, who abused his power to get lots of ass from his innocent victims.

Funny thing is as a nevermo teenager in the 1970s I am most people I knew were familiar with Joseph's 'wives'.

Maybe just because it's Friday, but...
I can't find where to view the comments.
Is there a link I'm missing?

Mormons purposely raise their kids to be inexperienced and naive as to the real world. At the same time they are taught that they are God's chosen and many become arrogant in their demeanor.

These kids are actually legal adults who are still expected to act like obedient children and for the most part they do.

Next they are pressured to "get high numbers" and yet taught annoying sales techniques.

After the Mormons set up this losing situation, the public at large is then told to treat these kids better by this woman. Something is backwards here.


Mom gets bonus points for admitting that Mormon missionaries are a cultural joke. Other than that though I find this offensive.

And I can't fine the comments either hie.

Done & Done Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And I can't fine the comments either hie.

Whew. At least I'm in good company :)

Perhaps they no longer show comments on threads over a year old.

Or you could spend forty years knowing that plygmy and the REAL penishood wwere the only way to the big tent...you knew way much about that and the wishy washy church for giving it up...so clearly you must have been so valiant in the pre deal...cuz your here and 15 million reg morms arent...man are you some special dude...but even plygs didnt let on about the big problems...like bofa...bofm...or the slimy deals like the kirtland fiasco...they painted a great mind $&@$ with different colors...the one thing they did do that made more sense was a two year work mission...help and good was done but often more for the poohbahs and their big fancy houses...its a saw off probly...sad on both sides of an ugly fence...at least we might celebrate the day the blinders fell off...for many they will never breathe a free breath...just imagine the most arrogant self satisfied morm you can think of...oaks maybe...then double it...thats plygs...mind you...like tscc there are some dam fine rode hard and put up wet people...who just dont know anybetter and are scared to death to ask a question...questions are only for those without answers...plygs have all the answers

She doesn't know/ explain how tscc treats the [washed-brained & self-deluded] CPs (cult pushers). Like ignorant and non-creative indentured servants/ slaves/ robots/ billboards?

I'm no longer a participating member of the Church. Just don't believe it at all anymore. But missions are nearly as physically dangerous as the folks on this board make out.

I'm no longer a participating member of the Church. Just don't believe it at all anymore. But missions are NOT nearly as physically dangerous as the folks on this board make out.

Agreed. The hyperbolic ranting here sometimes requires hip waders. The biggest danger I see is missionaries riding bikes on city streets, and kids who don't go on missions ride bikes too.

I used to climb in strip mines as a kid. I watched anti American riots in Brazil as a missionary. I was in the US Army. I accidentally ended up in an anti-Dilma Rouseff protest rally in Brazil 6 months ago. I'm still alive and kicking. it's laughable some of the places I've seen described as dangerous here.

One of the few good things I have to say about missions is it teaches kids a few survival/coping skills.

It probably depends on the mission. I'm sure that many are safe. But riding bikes in some areas can be akin to taking your life in your hands. We've also heard stories of missionaries coming back from some third world countries with health issues from which recovery is either long or impossible. Some have been held up at gunpoint. And since I work as an urban school teacher, I have to say that naïve Utah kids better develop street sense quickly if they are proselytizing in certain urban neighborhoods.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/2016 08:14AM by summer.

I have had a lifetime dealing with Mormons and Mormon missionaries.

These are not "kids." They are trained robots, who want to steal our children and our money. The Mormons conned me out of my money and my time for years.

When it comes to my children--I draw a fierce boundary!

The goal of these creeps is to lie to our children and loved ones, to rule their lives, even to break up families, and to con them out of their money. Why would we want to ease their way and help them along?

Unlike many Mormon parents, I would never throw my children to the wolves. I like what Bordergirl said: "The responsibility for your children's welfare is YOURS!"

I choose to protect my children by not allowing Missionaries into our home or into our life--and I have every right to do so!

Lioness is spot on..

I do not treat missionaries well at all. I have no respect for them or their teachings.

My ex-mo wife always tells me "they are just kids". BS!!
That same age "kid" dies on the beaches of Normandy, in the cold in Korea, in the jungles of Vietnam and from an IED in Afghanistan. My Dad was 18 in the Pacific during WWII.

They are old enough to make a choice. They CHOSE to spread this Mormon crap!

If it makes you feel better to say they are brainwashed, go ahead.