I had an RM about 25 years old shadow me at work for a couple of weeks. I could see by his resume he was an RM, but he didn't know I was ex-mo. I avoided talking about religion, but one day his mission somehow came up. He served in Pennsylvania. I asked what kind of experience it was for him. He said, "It was hard." I asked what he meant by "hard", and he explained that although he was glad to be in the states with good food and a comfortable apartment it was hard going around all day trying to talk to people about things he knew they didn't want to talk about, i.e. religion. It was refreshing to hear him say it like it really is. That is certainly how I felt.

I wonder if that's the same answer he gives to people he knows are Mormon. I'm happy to hear that he could be honest with you.

Queen of Denial Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if that's the same answer he gives to
> people he knows are Mormon. I'm happy to hear that
> he could be honest with you.

A HUGE part of Mormonism is a system of cultural rewards for
acting, speaking, looking, projecting the part of a totally
believing Mormon. And, as we all know, punishments for doing
the opposite.

Carrot for belief monkeys and belief monkey imitators

Stick for unbelievers who refuse to fake it

That's how Mormonism works, even within families. Perhaps especially within families.

that's something I noticed as well, is that missionaries hate tracting all day. Most hate walking around outside. I always use to wonder why if the message was sooo important why weren't the Apostles out tracting, or the 70's or even the MP?

Even though I resigned more than a decade ago and DH is not active AT ALL, we still hear from mishies once or twice a year. I think we are on a list of "People Who Are Not Interested In Hearing From Us, But Are Nice Anyway." And we feed them.

I am not able to cook any more, because I cannot be on my feet for more than maybe 5 minutes at a time due to spinal arthritis. So if the mishies call and ask to be fed, we are likely to take them out for dinner. We make it clear that we do not want to hear about the church; DH is an RM too and knows the drill. But with that out of the way, we usually enjoy sharing dinner with the youngsters and chatting with them about where they are from, what they plan to do post-mission, interests, etc.