Add this story to the growing list of struggling missionaries:

My cousin's daughter has been out for almost three months, in Georgia. In her last two emails home, she has complained about how the missionary experience is nothing like leaders back home positioned it, that she feels unsafe knocking doors in trailer parks and talking with young male drug addicts, and that "everyone down here hates Mormons and tells us things about the Church I've never heard of." She told her parents in the email that she's seriously thinking of coming home and that she expects their support if she does.

She's a beautiful, talented (and sheltered) young woman and she looks at missionary work as one of many good options in life, but not one that she has to stick with. My information is coming second hand, so I don't know if she's talked to the MP about this yet or not, but when I hear anything new, I'll provide an update.

Imagine a young girl having to deal with Ricky and Bubbles from "Trailer Park Boys." What a weird experience for a young Mormon girl.

No doubt!

LOL!!!! You just made me think of the Kitty Bed and Breakfast...

Ricky and Bubbles from "Trailer Park Boys" -- hahahahah! Excellent!

GQ Cannonball Wrote:
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> and that "everyone down here hates
> Mormons and tells us things about the Church I've
> never heard of."

Sounds promising. Everyone that comes home early makes it easier for the next one to do it too.

I served a mission in England. Very few people were truly religious, and those that were, didn't know a whole lot of interesting stuff about the mormons. They just didn't care enough about mormons to even figure them out.

If I'd served in the South of the US, where there are plenty of folks that know a lot of stuff about those pesky mormons, I may not have survived a mission either. I never had to debate with a single person that knew a thing about the history, or anything uncomfortable.
The few things I heard were easily dismissed as crude exaggerations.

I had a similar experience. Hearing over the top opinions and "rumors" about Mormonism in a second language made it easier to dismiss for me. If I'd gone somewhere in the U.S., it would've been a lot harder to dismiss.

Steady on old chap, we speak English too in England. It's just difficult to tell in some parts of the country:)

And I make sure the missionaries around my way have to answer questions on Ole Joes shinanigans.

LOL, I am certain your English is certainly much better than mine.

Sorry I wasn't more clear in my post. I didn't serve in the UK...I was in Switzerland/France.

Why would any loving parent want their child subjected to such bullshit? Does the false promises of celestial reward from a failed so-called religion mean that much to them? Is the teaching that the family comes first falling on deaf ears?

Mormons wake up smell the coffee before its too late and you lose your loved ones as recently happened to others.

I would have never served under the conditions I'm now learning about and, I know this without question, my parents would have supported me if I had decided to call it quits. My mother never much gave a damn about what others thought. She always said they have enough of their own damn troubles.

I agree, Templar. Luckily, her parents are laid back and they adore their daughter. I would be shocked if they made a big stink about it. Especially the mom...she is very loyal to her family and her kids and was worried about her daughter leaving in the first place.

Sadly, such an attitude is too often an exception, when parents place their kids on the proverbial altar for their own pride.

I'm pleased to hear that. I sincerely hope that she is able to free herself from what sounds like a very dangerous situation for a young lady.

She should discuss the situation with her MP and the parents should also contact him expressing their deep concern for their child's safety. If he refuses to immediately correct this intolerable situation she should terminate the mission. If the bishop in her home ward has any kind of balls he should make the members aware of what really was going on.

The time is long overdue to stop "sugar coating" missions or, sooner or later, Joseph Inc. will be faced with a huge class action lawsuit which they will find next to impossible to defend.

It helps that she is not from Utah...the re-entry would be more difficult there, I'm sure.

Of course they aren't safe. Her parents should view that message as an urgent cry for help. The church is complicit in shoving these kids into dangerous situations.

Why can't they go work at a food bank, or do something worthwhile? They could teach English at as a second language... That would actually give the church positive PR rather than their canned movies about how awesome Mormons are.

Hopefully more of these kids will start sharing with each other how disillusioned they are, and how unsafe they feel. I would encourage the parents to fly her home and get her back into school.

Nice mormon girl puts on her sunday best. Walks until she finds a run down neighborhood filled with questionable people. She's never known people like this. She has no clue how a drunk or drug infested male might view her. She has zero understanding how much danger she's put herself in. She has no way to protect herself, she may not even have a cell phone.

She knocks on doors and stands there while people say some of the most vile things to her. Most of the time she doesn't comprehend what they're saying. She's never known anyone that talks like that. She does this day after day.

If she did this while living at home, her parents would probably have her in therapy trying to figure out whats wrong with her. Not this time though. Some old buzzard in SLC that they don't know, has told them this is a great idea. That's why they have sent their child out into this insanity. They think he knows what he's talking about, even though he's never done this himself, and wouldn't dream of ever doing anything so dangerous even when he was young and strong.

Nobody is using their mind to think this through. Nobody.

One thousand thumbs up, madalice...

...this is SO right on!

Well put, madalice...

in what area of Georgia is she?

Michael, I'd rather not get more specific.

I lived in Brunswick for a while. Taught at a private school in St. Simons Island. My workplace had a surprisingly high number of Mormons for South Georgia (7 out of 50 faculty).

I wouldn't want to be stuck there, either!

In my mission area in Georgia they just took away nine cars. Now the missionaries have to use bikes more. This is very bad since it takes me 30 minutes at 50 mph just to get to church. The area is huge and the roads are extremely narrow

This is an example of the business. Money over safety. This also feeds into the folklore of hardship as service.

One other thing

If missionary time were valued and had a proper return on investment for conversions they would all have cars.

Essentially this is a ritual for BIC Mormons, a rite of passage.

Best to have it discussed and ultimately exposed.

There are only three missions in Georgia!

They can't all have trailer parks, can they?

elderolddog Wrote:
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> There are only three missions in Georgia!
>
> They can't all have trailer parks, can they?


Hahahahahahahahahhaahhahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahah... wanna bet?

So unsafe. I don't think parents comprehend the dangers - even parents who served missions themselves. Because it's usually been 20 years since the parents missions, things have changed and kids rarely go to the same area their parents did so it's easy to convince yourself that your child will be safer than you were. I'm glad to hear that there are missionaries who figure out it isn't anything like they were promised, recognize that there are things they don't know about their church and use those two events to consider leaving before anything worse happens. Two thumbs up to this sister and glad she has the support at home to not be afraid to think for herself.

I think this is just the future of missionary work

Anyone with half a brain can see right through the stupidity of Mormonism.

The only hope is to try and convert drug addicts and alcoholics.

And people who are very emotionally vulnerable

...and I learned that she was knocking on doors in trailer parks, I'd call her and tell her to never do that again. I'd also tell her not to go into any sketchy neighborhood at all. In fact, I don't think that young women should be knocking on strangers' doors at all, in any area. If she really wanted to finish her mission, I'd tell her to spend her time reading, studying, going to libraries or parks, etc. If her MP complained, she should inform him that she's not going anywhere that she feels uncomfortable or in possible danger.

I'd been out on my mission about 15 months when my MP transferred me into an inner city area of Brisbane, Australia. I had spent the previous ten months in coastal smaller cities, where most residents are decent, laid-back people. When my MP talked with me briefly about going to my new location, he said "Just stay out of the bad areas." Problem was, he didn't tell me what the bad areas *were.* Several of the big, busy roads coming out of downtown cut through the area, which were dangerous to cross on bikes. The area included some of the riverfront port area, so there was a lot of lower-class people in low-rent housing. Lots of factories and industrial areas that we had to ride our bikes through ever day. There were a lot of foreigners, mostly Italians, who spoke little or no English. There were a lot of big apartment buildings with restricted access. There were some college students in the area, but they wouldn't give us the time of day.

So just about everywhere we knocked on doors were the "bad areas." Most of the people who would even talk with us were social misfits or mentally ill people who couldn't work, and thus were home during the day. We taught a lot of 1st and 2nd discussions, but no 3rds. I can't recall a single "normal" person we met who would talk with us in my 3.5 months in that area. It got to where we'd just go out in the mornings and knock on a few dozen doors, and then go to a park and watch people play cricket or soccer while we had a popsicle, or go down to the riverside and watch boats. It was just so emotionally deflating that we had to have a diversion.