I've just moved to a new place in north Idaho and I'm getting my old military awards and stuff up on a wall in my office and I came across my old missionary plaque.

It was a big part of my life but I'm embarrassed about it now. Perhaps it would be a great conversation starter to show how I eventually left the cult.

I am not sure if I should put it up on the wall..?

I love talking about having been raised mormon and how I owe my fluency in Spanish and Mexican customs to my mission, and then transitioning into what a fraud the mormon religion is. Love the tribe, hate the church...

...the best Mexican custom. Probably a potassium chlorate/iodide/ sand blend, or mixed/w other unstable abrasives sets this mix off. Not just black powder I would think. The formula is probably out there. "Let's go!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrlXC-aBCsA

I suppose a missionary plague is better than frogs or flies.

I'd hang it up. It represents achievement, and you have every right to celebrate what you've done. I hate Mormonism, but I admire your tenacity. Show it off.

It is a part of who I am. I suspect that being able to forgive myself for falling for the lie is a part of the healing process. I did learn how to speak a little Tagalog and see a part of the world I would have never stepped foot in. I also know what it feels like to be dirt poor with no power or running water.

I look back at my mission and I do think it has helped me in a weird way. My wife says my theme-song would be "Take the Long Way Home" by Supertramp.

Hang it up. It was your two years, you earned it! Just think of the conversations it will start!

I keep my old journals and other mission artifacts in a box in the garage... the box of shame. I keep it to show my boys how my parents pressured me into things I did not want/like. Only my family and close friends know that I am a former moron.
I did a lot of non-religious service in my 2 years, but that is the only thing I am proud of. Thank ghad for that or the 2 years would have been a complete waste.

I was embarrassed about my mission too. I still am to some degree. I fell for the whole thing hook line and sinker. I think I am learning to forgive my younger self for falling for the lies. Still, Does that mean the plaque goes up? I suppose that it is still a part of my Journey. That young photo of me way back in 85 looks like a different man. Perhaps that's what I'm trying to reconcile - how I have changed and grown since then.

How do you feel when you look at the plaque? Let those feelings be your guide.

You got a plaque?

You must have been a super-baptizing-come-to-jesus missionary!

My MP barely recognized that I had served an honorable mission. I was always in trouble and on his top 10 shit list. He even suggested that I pray with much fervor that the flight wouldn't crash on its way back to SLC.

You betcha red-riding-hood that I prayed to get home safely. I did not want to die and be forever smitten as a Mormon missionary for all eternity; according to Mormon lore.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2018 03:03AM by messygoop.

Throw it out. it's meaning is gone from your life.

I have my BYU diplomas hung up. When most of my friends see them they say/shout, “YOU went to BYU!?! HaHaHaHa!”

<snort> Is public humiliation good for the soul?

Sounds to me like those people down south tearing down the confederate memorials..... it's denying part of your history.

It's history, you can't change it, you can learn and progress from it, but denying it doesn't change it.

He could hang it up in the bathroom.

Or hang it proudly on the front door.

I like the bathroom idea. I like it a lot.

My wife is Catholic. I really managed to move her one religious painting to the bathroom with no objection.

Catholic Jesus?


Or the Pope?

St. Francis, the Sissy?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2018 09:26AM by elderolddog.

St. Francis, a Sissy.

Catholic because it was the only peaceful building in the neighborhood. A quite Sunday morning praying for food, I think.

It doesn't belong on your wall. It doesn't deserve the same consideration as your diplomas and business licenses, your military service plaques, or even an Eagle Scout plaque, or winner's awards for contests you spent years to train for. I played in tennis tournaments, and had a tennis scholarship, so that played a big part in my life, for many years.

A mission was only for two years of your life.
You bought it, or maybe your parents bought it.
There was no "excellence" involved--merely enduring to the end.
There's no such thing as "returning with honor."

Even your high school diploma represents a legitimate amount of classwork, and meeting a certain standard, for an earned degree.

I would rather hang up my Red Cross Water Safety Instructor plague, or my "Three-star Piney Frog" sports award from summer camp. (I went to the camp two years, well, two summers, and I converted as many people as my brother did on his mission.)

Poster messygoop above said, "You got a plaque? You must have been a super-baptizing-come-to-jesus missionary!"

Here is something that might be what the OP was writing about when he used the word "plaque":

In our stake and in my home ward there are plaques on the wall of our meetinghouse foyers for all the full time missionaries who are serving a mission somewhere in the world. The plaques are quite lovely and well done.

Each plaque measures about 8"x10". It is made of dark wood. A portion of the plaque has a picture of the missionary under glass. It mentions the time duration of the mission (i.e. July 2015-July 2017). The mission to be is noted and a map of the mission boundaries is etched in gold on black metal. Below this is another etched metal engraving of the missionary's
'favorite scripture.'

When the missionary returns home and speaks in Sacrament Meeting the Bishop presents the Elder/Sister with the plaque as a keep-sake of their mission experience.

Maybe this is what the OP was talking about? Hope this helps.

Thanks for the clarification.

My stake did no such thing. They provided a world map with colored threads and a push pins for all missionaries serving outside of the stake. Families would provide the photo and keep the address up to date. Of course, bored and mischievous children would move the pins around and update the missionaries' photo; usually by adding extra holes in their eyes and teeth.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2018 01:12AM by messygoop.

This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. I assumed that every missionary got a plaque. Obviously I am wrong about that. My home ward was in San Diego North County. If that makes any difference.

Damn.

I was in the wrong end of the state; from Sac-of-toma-toes.

"It was a big part of my life but I'm embarrassed about it now."

Remember when you were 3 years old, and you had an accident in your new short pants? Would you hang those on the wall to demonstrate the progress of your life?

You propose to sully your military awards by hanging some bogus mormon 'award' in proximity?

Take the offending excrescence out to the trash can.


Go and sin no more ...

HA! Perhaps I should hang it up by the cat's litter box...you know...that's not a bad idea. I'm serious.

I thought it said plague - lol

I didn't like my missionary plaque when I got home. I thought it was a waste of money back then.

Maybe there's a better way to get the conversation starter that you'd like rather than an LDS propaganda plaque. Maybe a picture of yourself in a distinctive part of the mission or that shares a meaningful memory from that time (maybe something "disobedient").

My stake did one for me.
It was apparently the object of admiration of a particular young, enthusiastic, very mormon lass who started writing to me, and then demanded I marry her the week I got home. Fun, fun, fun!

I tossed it years ago. I have better photos of me at that age, I didn't feel the need to "prove" to anyone that I'd been on a mission (and where/when), and all it did was remind me of how I'd wasted two years trying to sell a cult.

Do what you like with yours...mine is in a landfill somewhere!

Do you wish people to see your major award ?


http://cdn.redriderleglamps.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/253x300/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/r/i/ripple-junction-christmas-story-major-award-fleece-throw-1000-web.jpg

Wow! I never got a plaque or plague? (Maybe one in the same)

Of course, I stopped shaving the day I got home from my mission and pissed of my bishop that I had a beard when I "reported in" from my mission at sacrament meeting.

Dave, a leg lamp sitting at the podium while I spoke at sacrament meeting would have been icing on the cake! And I would have said it was french, "Fra gi le."

If you were Central States Mission - Kaiser - you got a Gold Record. He owned a recording company and top missionaries got Gold Records just like singers.

Put it on the wall and tell folks it is from when you were a Rock & Roll singer years back.