Apparently there is a term for missionaries that come home early, "Early Returned Missionaries"(ERM).

Article in D-News. Comments are always enjoyable if not maddening.

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900041718/called-to-serve-not-called-to-suffer-hope-for-early-returned-missionaries.html

Blaming the returnees on global social trends--increasing anxiety--rather than on the church itself. The article is a full-throated attempt to shift responsibility for the hordes of early returners to American society.

Predictable.

It's interesting how the article goes into a discussion of legalism vs. grace. The Mormon church in general, and its missionary service in particular, strike me as being very legalistic.

"And the reverse was true as well — students who reported experiencing and trusting in God’s grace in their lives reported less anxiety, depression and shame.

'Legalism — this obsession with doing, being exactly obedient — it seems to … block our ability to experience grace,' Judd said.

In addition to misunderstanding grace, some missionaries 'have a very unrealistic understanding of success,' said Gibson. He worked with missionaries who believed in the 'sin model,' a cultural — not doctrinal — belief that a lack of convert baptisms or even feelings of discouragement are due to insufficient prayer, scripture study or faith.

Missionaries may believe such fallacies because of unintentionally harmful ideas propagated by mission leaders, who preach that exact obedience to mission rules will directly result in baptisms, or that any personal struggle can be overcome with increased diligence to gospel teachings alone, several returned missionaries said."

Being a door to door mishie reminds me so much of those encyclopedia book salesmen and women once used to recruit from college campuses to go out and sell encyclopedias on a commission basis. They'd pump up those young adults with motivational courses on how to sell the product. Then, the best salespeople prevailed, while the others fell behind often dropping out because of the impossible pressure to succeed in a flailing enterprise.

If parents don't have a problem sending their children out to become door to door salespeople for TSCC, that's where it begins with their preparation. By the time they go on missions, that's all they've been primed for since they were old enough to walk.

Such a disservice to most of them. Most people do not have a salesman's personality to go door to door selling encyclopedias, let alone a religion. For mishies, their choice was made for them not by them, in a majority of cases.

We were all taught that the reason things weren't going right in our lives is because we weren't doing everything we could, so I was forever looking for what it might be that I wasn't doing.

"Missionaries may believe such fallacies because of unintentionally harmful ideas propagated by mission leaders, who preach that exact obedience to mission rules will directly result in baptisms, or that any personal struggle can be overcome with increased diligence to gospel teachings alone, several returned missionaries said."

That last line encapsulates what was going on when I was a missionary.

From day one at the MTC and throughout the mission, you got nothing but a string of "motivational" lectures from the leaders. The lectures always emphasized stories of mission miracles experienced by faithful, obedient, inspired missionaries (usually big name guys in Mormon history) and the implication was always that if you didn't convert entire congregations during your mission it was because YOU were doing something wrong and were not worthy of being an instrument through whom the Lard could accomplish such miracles.

Now I know that it was total nonsense. But when I was a missionary, I took it to heart and was constantly beating myself up for not being worthy to be part of any mission miracles of the type that were given to us as examples that we should be striving for. I've since gone back and examined some of those faith-promoting fables of missionary miracles and have found that none of them really stand up to scrutiny.

The 19th century tales of converting entire congregations in England, to the extent that they were not wildly exaggerated, generally relate to a time when missionaries were promoting emigration to America as a great opportunity. It was the combination of crappy conditions and piss-poor economic prospects for the relevant congregation in England versus the limitless prospects and opportunities that the missionaries promised were waiting in the "new land" of Zion. Plus, they often lied and told the prospects that polygamy was not a thing. In some ways, the LSD Church missionaries, during the age of "mission miracles" was actually acting more as immigration agents than as persuasive evangelists for the "gospel".

"Missionaries with Character Baptize every month ... those who don't baptize show their lack of character and are an embarrassment to their families"

That's a quote from my Christlike MP, this is in a country where on average a missionary might baptize one or two people in two years. Most missionaries spent a good part of their missions feeling like s__t.

WT I was just thinking of you and a ERM,. Who we had an internet conversion about, a year or so ago. We had both delt with him in our respective jobs after his return. He stayed at a relative's until his two years ended then returned home as if he had completed the mission. His older brother was in our NG unit. If this rings a bell with you do you remember the years? I just ran into an old prom photo of him and my daughter. I guess they dodged a bullet by not becoming involved with each other. She figuratively and he literally. Help me remember the years.

He served his mission around 1990 and spent the last year of his "mission" split between the Multnomah County Jail and an aunt's place in Northern California. He also served in our guard unit along with his brother. He eventually went to Prison in 2005.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2018 11:01AM by Whiskeytango.

Thanks. Good for him and his family, but very, very bad for the little girl, down the crik, who married a RM without knowing the real history or his problem.

WHAT A LOAD OF GARBAGE !!!!

THE (MORmON) Church LD$ Inc DEFINITELY creates THE problem of stigmatizing those that will not go on missions OR WORSE YET those that return early, then it goes around until LD$ inc finds itself denying that it caused the problem as the problem is in its most aggravated form and stages.

Suffering is exactly what a FOOL time mission was supposed to be, in fact, the more suffering then the better it was by MORmON convention.

Here is THE reality: IF a young man refused to serve then he was considered garbage. IF a missionary came home early, he was considered TRASH. Sure you can find TONS of MORmONS, like my brainless twit MORmON mother, who will LIE and say that was NOT the case.

One more thing. LDS missions are currently a CAKE WALK compared to what missionaries put up with when I was out on a mission !!!!!!!!!

Too be honest. I have seen several examples including this article that the church is really trying to escape itself. Hell the prophet even wants to escape Mormonism by telling the members they need to stop using the "M" word.

The church is legalism. It's none stop you aren't doing enough. The temple is legalism. The whole concept of hold onto the iron rod is legalism.

What seems to be admitted is the church needs to stop being so demanding, controlling and regimented. It's like the church is finally admitting it kind of sucks.

I read it differently. I didn't see the church take responsibility for anything; rather, the article asserts that the bad things that happen in the church, in the missions, are the fault of broader social trends.

The church is shifting the responsibility from itself to "the world" as any politically savvy organization would do. Thus it is worldly social pressures and anxious teenagers that cause the problems.

The reason the church is publishing this sort of article is to channel criticism away from itself.

Exactly. No responsibility. Shift the blame. A move perfected by TSCC since the beginning.

I don't recall TSCC ever making the focus on grace. But works.

It sets people up to fail when the focus is on works v. grace IMO. Rather than accepting we're humus, from the earth, and not masters over our fate.

Articles like this make my blood boil.

They make it sound like the only reason someone would leave their mission is due to some sort of “anxiety” or mental illness. Where are the interviews with the ERM’s who returned home early because they came to the realization that the church was a load of shit? Or how about the interviews of those who didn’t really want to go in the first place, but did so out of a sense of duty to their families, friends, girlfriends, etc., only to walk off when they couldn’t stand being there any longer. How about interviewing RM’s who WANTED to come home but stayed out of a sense of fear of what they would face by coming home dishonorably. And lastly, how about interviewing those ERM’s who did leave only to be shunned, disowned, and kicked out by their “loving” family.

Nooooooo…from reading the article you’d think that the only reason a missionary would come home early was due to anxiety or some other mental illness. Well…FUCK THEM!!!!

40+ years ago I walked out of the MTC after five weeks. I didn’t have any “anxiety”, didn’t miss my mama, and didn’t have my faith shaken. The MTC Prez and a G.A. pissed me off by breaching my confidentiality. I got pissed, had some “choice” words for both of them (I’m pretty sure they hadn’t been referred to as “sons of bitches” before), and I walked out.

Upon returning home I stepped into a whole ‘nother type of HELL. The members of my home ward treated me great…it was my “loving” family that were the problem. They made sure I was going to pay for the shame, disgust, and embarrassment I had brought upon them. Oh did they make me pay. It is a disturbing discovery to realize that the people you are living with would prefer that you would have returned early in a box rather than dishonorably.

I made it. It wasn’t easy. Couldn’t have done it without some great friends back then. Don’t know what would have become of me without them. Because of my experience I have great sympathy for missionaries and ERM’s. I have mulled around the idea of making a documentary about ERM’s who returned home and faced less than favorable circumstances. I’ve even heard stories of a few who went off the deep end and committed suicide due to the guilt and shame they felt for coming home early. I can relate…and I would like to uncover and share those stories. More truthful and poignant than an article about a bunch of missionaries who come down with “anxiety” most likely because their cell phones were taken away from them. We’ll see.

The church is sending out missionaries way too young now. The culture out there amongst the missionaries has to be quite different than when I went. Instead of having a support group of other young adults and being a young adult yourself, it's mostly a group of cry-babies who want their mamas. Some of them look like they're fourteen years old. They may be eighteen. But they look much younger in some cases. The church needs to get a clue, raise the age requirements and teach bishops to do a better job of vetting them and holding some of them back for a year or two until they're ready.

The comment that made me sick and illustrates how so many Mormon will stand up for the church no matter what. This is classic 'blame the victim':

From Independent: "The picture I get from this article is that the struggles of returning home early from a mission seem to be internal in nature and not so much a result of anyone in the church being overtly unwelcoming towards people. I've never personally witnessed someone not being welcomed when they return home early."

My own limited assessment is this based on a small inconclusive sample is this: Of the few I have seen come home early, the women were accepted and had no problems but the men were seriously "cold shouldered" and looked on as failures.

and would never amount to anything in life because I had decided to come when I was very sick.. I served for a long time and spent months in the mission very ill and still got treated like shit by the Stake President. My family, friends and bishop, treated me just fine.

So Heber C Kimball was an early Early Returned Missionary.

What a damn cover-up for the fact that the MORMONCULT missionary program is nothing but abuse of the vulnerable youth who are trusting at this age, plus have been severely indoctrinated that serving a mission is what God requires of them. The cult is, in simple words, taking advantage of the trusting, energetic, optimistic traits of youth for its own gain. It knows full well that youth in the missionary field are faced with horrific problems that are not appropriate and downright ABUSIVE, causing harm emotionally, physically, and even death FROM THIS PROGRAM. The cult simply does not care, and they have.....

.....specifically chosen this age group because it serves the cult's selfish purpose to have a huge number of slaving hands out in the world to grab as many gullible and vulnerable new tithe-paying members as possible. Why doesn't the MormonCult have its program of missionary work aim at a much older age when members would have had the opportunity to (hopefully) live life, learn more about religions other than their own, and know if they actually desire to even be a Mormon missionary?

To me, the answer is easy.....the cult is not dumb by any means and realizes all too well that if it delayed the age there would be a far less number of missionaries hitting the streets.

So once again, surprise, surprise, integrity and honesty and love is NOT the policy of the church in this missionary program as it is in most all the church does. I believe that here, with this Deseret UnNews article, there is yet another problem exposed which the cult has created where it will not own its own actions. Now that they are being exposed in the headlights, revealing a very large number of young mishies are returning early, the f******cult takes the coward way out and again creates a big dishonest diversion and.....drum role please....

...once again places the blame on the evil world to explain what is "really" causing the increase.

Nothing new to see here folks....just the same ole dirty business begun by Joseph Smith of Mormons lying through their teeth.

May the cult be made to own every evil it does, especially to the young and vulnerable it takes advantage of, as in its abusive youth missionary program which robs mishies of a vital two years of their precious youth, its inappropriate personal interviews, its policy of teaching youth to not question and think on their own, etc. etc. etc.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2018 04:34PM by presleynfactsrock.

That article has a lot of words to explain away how they're fucking up "millennials" (who by and large are too old for missions and they should be calling them Gen Z, but it's not like this is a religion concerned with facts). I didn't have anxiety until I tried going to church with depression.

was a book called "Drawing on the Powers of Heaven" by a guy named Grant Von Harrison.

It came out right at the time I was going through the MTC and the author or somebody somehow got the MTC President to really push it on the missionaries as a guide to how they should be as missionaries.

It took the ordinarily extreme concepts of obedience and obsessive-compulsive fussiness about rule-keeping to an even greater extreme. (Anal-retentiveness on steroids.)

In it were concepts such as a notion that even things as seemingly trivial as chewing gum could cause you to lose the spirit and, as a result, you would not be able to "draw on the powers of heaven" to accomplish some great thing that otherwise would have happened (like conversions, baptisms, healing blessings). You had to be vigilant at all times to ensure that you were a perfect instrument for the Lord to work his miracles through.

The point of the book was basically to get missionaries to blame themselves for every thing that didn't turn out wonderfully. They were expected to examine themselves with a worthiness microscope constantly to find the flaws in their character that had led to a failure to be an instrument for the powers of heaven. That the flaws were there was never in question. Of course you had flaws. Otherwise, you would have been experiencing miracles. No miracles? All your fault.

Did your failure to polish your shoes this morning indicate a lack of cheerful commitment? Did you pray insincerely this morning? Did you forget to say a blessing on that candy bar? Should you have had that candy bar? Did you greet everyone cheerfully and with sincere love in your heart? Should you have gotten a haircut two days ago instead of waiting until the next P-day? Have you failed to show constant dedication to presenting a positive image as an ambassador of the Lord?

I saw many missionaries coming close to nervous breakdowns as a result of those kinds of nit-picking, blame-yourself-for-everything-wrong ideas.

Ahhh, how I f'n hated that book.

Before and during my mission stint this was the unofficial missionary bible. I read it and knew immediately that there was no flippin way that I could do what it suggested. Talk about a cult induced robotic mind f*ck. I ignored it though many of my generation were screwed up by it.

Imagine my horror while at BYU when my bishop was none other than Grant Von Harrison himself. I moved to a different apartment complex - and ward - a few months later to escape his craziness.

I met his son once who seemed like a nice guy but I couldn't imagine the hell of having Grant Von Harrison as a father.

Blurb:

Society is hurting our children so much that they can't even handle two years of sustained torture. The world is going to hell in a hand-basket.

The church has never offered support to incoming missionaries at the MTC. They LDS Corp has always assumed that the newly missionary will either get with the program or go home. I didn't consider myself a "mama's boy", but I literally felt cut-off from any social and support system. The church relies (at least 30 years ago) on assigning companions by last names rather than interests or personality types. My so called companion hated me from day one, but wouldn't tell me what my problem was. Instead, he wrote a multi-page weekly letters to the assigned MTC branch president that addressed his perceptions of my flaws. That president would then inform me that I was a terribly disobedient missionary and that's why I suffered through missionary disharmony. I really hated the isolation of the MTC.

If the church really gave a damn, then they would change the entire concept of church peddling missionary to a service-based one that provided humanitarian service. Also, communication with friends and family would be encouraged.

Hell of a way to treat people who have volunteered their time and money to serve the church.

Service Missions

Save face.....do a service mission if you're too ill to do a real mission.
Nothing too demeaning about being turned down to preach.

Service volunteer is so wonderful.....sign up here.

Thanks
I need a chauffer & housekeeper.....

My gardeners are overpaid.....so please offer your services.


The so called church is scrambling......formerally called Mormon church.