Despite all of the inherent dangers? If so, are these the kind of folks the Church wants as members? (I think I just answered my own question.)

Sometimes only recent immigrants will talk to mishies. Some of us lived in dangerous dwellings. Our door got kicked in the middle of the night because the neighboring drunk couldn't count. He banged on our door and became angrier and more belligerent. We were apartment room #2 and he thought he was entering apartment room #3.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2018 07:55PM by messygoop.

"Right pew, wrong church," as they say.

I'll be at least a few posters have tracted or interviewed inebriants, desperate for a baptism "stat." Any good stories out there?

I don’t believe they do. My understanding is they avoid those areas.

I believe the avoid them now, but years ago, I tracted projects and very dangerous areas.

me: Detroit, just after the riots...

Those are the only places we went to knock doors. But the projects in Toronto aren't anything like those in Detroit.

I've never seen any in the urban areas in which I teach. I think that Mormon missionaries who've led largely protected lives would be very underprepared for certain urban neighborhoods. But that is true for certain foreign locales as well.

30-plus years ago, th2et were our preferred areas. Remember, the vulnerable were/are the target audience.

One of my daughters just spent her freshman year at the U. of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. Since kids flourish or flounder their first semester away, she was only 17, and most importantly because Mrs. nomonomo had passed away less than a week before she moved into the dorm, I visit her at least once a week (and given the last reason, the visits are good for me too).

Anyway, if I go down on a Friday I tend to go early to avoid the nightmarish traffic between DC and Fredericksburg, and have found a number of places where I can camp out with my laptop and work while I'm waiting to meet her later. In fact, the visits were 2 and 3 times a week initially (before her grandparents departed for their home overseas), and slowly tapered off to once a week by Thanksgiving.

All of the above to say that I've gotten to know Fredericksburg pretty well.

I've noticed the mishies out and about a number of times, but almost always in or near a pretty cruddy townhouse community that's about a mile from a location of TSCC. On multiple occasions I've seen them leaning against big green utility boxes at the edge of the property, clearly waiting for people. These boxes:

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.3152758,-77.5000526,3a,75y,316.14h,97.28t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZoSWvEDtYt2BcfEEdOERhg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Based on the dates, those pictures are nearly three years old. If you spin the view around 180 degrees you'll see a re-routing of the road under construction. That road is complete now, as is lots of other construction in the area, and the townhouses have gone decidedly downhill. The property is littered with trash, and children not much older than toddlers literally play in the parking lot, unattended. It's depressing. I don't mean to beat up on the residents, but the place is in a state of squalor.

And that's where I see the mishies out and about. One time, I was pretty early, and as I drove past I noticed them perk up, and start walking, so I pulled into a minimart at the far end of the property. Sure enough, two guys on scooters had just pulled in and were parking.

The mishies ambled over to meet them, and after some dramatic handshakes they all started migrating towards the units. The guys went into one, and the mishies waited outside. One guy came in and out a few times. Finally, the entourage started down the sidewalk together. When they reached the end of the row, and turned the corner towards the rows farther in, they went out of sight, so I pulled out and drove away, but it seemed like the first couple victims were probably leading them on to some other victims.

Later, when I headed back to pick my daughter up on campus, on a whim I pulled into the neighborhood and drove through it. I felt very conspicuous, and clearly didn't belong. People sitting on stoops, or in chairs out front, or leaning on cars, etc, were all staring at me. TBH, it made me a little uncomfortable.

Anyway, that's where the mishies are working. I'd like to think maybe the TSCC is offering some practical help to those folks, but I doubt it. At least not without strings attached.

I used to live in Fredericksburg, right across from the campus of UMW. The only time I ever spoke to mishies was when we were living there, in a totally crappy apartment complex in a crime ridden area. The mishies lived in the somewhat nicer complex next to ours and we’d see them tracting in our complex all the time.

I liked Fredericksburg, but hated that apartment. I was so glad when we moved, even though it was because some lowlife broke into my car.

Oh yeah..the pressure to get baptism is so intense. It's a dynamic interplay between the emotional cruelty for failing getting baptisms and conversely the praise/prizes/rewards for getting baptism is tremendous.

In our European mission, our MP had a reward scale that went sometime like this for companionships that baptized in a given month:

1 baptism = Free p-day
2 baptisms = (the above) plus a large dessert (e.g. truffel)
3 Baptisms = (the above) plus dinner at the MP's house
4 Baptisms = (the above) plus 2 free p-days
5+ Baptisms = (the above) plus a car for the next month

Missionary's would do anything in our mission to get baptism for these rewards, the praise in zone conference (newsletter), leadership (own car), etc. Including place themselves in dangerous situations. Sick cult that does this to young naïve teens, who are not street smart and have been sheltered their entire lives. My compansion and I baptized 7 people in one month. We tracted the most ghetto areas in the large city we were in. We would knock on 7 doors at a time, just to see who would come out. It was crazy, and we were very lucky that we were not harmed.

Social housing areas were the only places where we had any success on my mission.

We'd tract the rough part of town all day & then tract the nice part of town in the evening & weekends.

The logic was that people were out at work during the daytime, in the nice areas.

I have read about missionaries being sent to Pine Ridge Reservation. That is not a good place for anybody to be.

Only one question need be asked.

How much tithing will these people bring in?

The RICH have GATES to keep out the 'hates', salesmen/ crooks, thieves/ busy-bodies (except their neighbors), wanderers, immigrants, migrants, infants, etc.

The POOR have NOTHING!
That's precisely what keeps LDS out.

You Can't Convert 'Nothing' Into "Something". They go after their own kind, which, unfortunately, isn't.

M@t

We are on a mission to get everyone assimilated into Mormonism.