I've just read an account of an exmo remarking on how someone considered to be a faithful missionary was complaining during a call home about being accused by the MP of actions the mishie denies doing, i.e., being the victim of false accusations by a servant of ghawd.

    The missionary then said that if she were a nonconforming missionary, she'd have accepted the password to "... the 'secret' google drive that contains tons of movies, music, and tv shows that missionaries have uploaded over the years."

    She refused it but mentioned she knows most of the missionaries have it and use it.

    

    There have always been 'bad boy' missionaries...  I don't know of any way to prove it, but do you think it is safe to say that the percentage of non-compliant-when-they-think-they-can-get-away-with-it missionaries is as high as it's ever been, and probably growing?

    "I hereby release myself from my mission!" will hopefully become an ordinance.

I heard rumors, probably just wishful thinking, of a Mar Del Plata surf club sometime in the distant past of my last area in Argentina. Wouldn’t that have been nice?

When my parents did a senior mission in the West Indies, I think that they, the seniors, were allowed to go swimming. Got to keep those older missionaries in shape, you know? But what about the young elders and LMs?

Dear sister and BIL did a senior mission in Laie, Hawaii, but I doubt they ever went into the sea. The church kept them very busy at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Work, work, work, and no play.

If I’m not mistaken, didn’t early missionaries in the South Pacific do baptisms in the ocean? That would have been entirely too hard to keep me out of the sea.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2021 02:44AM by cuzx.

As it was, missionaries in downtown MDP liked to do summertime “exposiciones” (exhibits) with posters, brochures, and BOMs beachside. I was in the port area to the south so I never got to partake. I think seeing all of the lovely beach goers would have done me in for sure.

Perhaps they knew, Elder X couldn’t handle Mar Del Plata Central so I got “el puerto” (the port) instead.

I was in Buenos Aires South after you from 69 to 71 and missionaries were hoping to be sent to Mar Del Plata as they had heard that a lot of people wander around the beach town in bikinis and bathing suits.

Nothing like being 19 and excruciatingly celibate.

I don’t think it was standard practice, but my first senior comp found a reason for us to go into “la capital” of Buenos Aires on a P-Day, which was actually part of the Bs As North Mission. Right or wrong, we had a great time sightseeing; although we shared an apartment with the mission office team (they had to know, right?), we didn’t get any flack for doing so.

One of our lucky group of 12 junior companions was paired with a senior comp who ALWAYS found a reason to go into the capital. Ay, Dios, please assign me to that guy.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2021 03:24AM by cuzx.

People think Bobby Vee sang this song first, but it was actually one of God's biggest numbers with a thousands of angels as back-up doo-wop : "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes"


"Cause the night has a thousand eyes
And a thousand eyes can't help but see if you are true to me
So remember when you tell those little white lies
That the night has a thousand eyeS."

You can say whatever you want at the pulpit, that you have a burning testimony and that you "KMOW", but actions speak louder than words. I am always amazed at the Mormon Facade. All they worry about is impressing each other and never give a thought to the thousand and one eyes in the sky. Which is proof they don't really believe that God is watching or even checking your user status.

I didn't know a lot of rule breakers on my mission, just a few. I was a believer. I assumed that all the Elders were. My very first Senior took me into Buenos Aires the first D-Day and we saw Funny Girl. The next one we saw Midnight Cowboy the XXXXXX.

I trusted and never considered whether we should or shouldn't. I did whatever authority was over me. I sill looked 15, which annoyed me, and was really naive. and didn't really get that movie, Midnight Cowboy. Grossed me out actually and made me depressed and sad for the people in it.

Anyway. Proof is in the "run around lover pudding" no matter what is coming out your pious mouth.



P.S.(I went to a Bobby Vee concert at Lagoon when they used to have those in the sixties. Fantastic.)

Well put. It was why repentance was such an illogical mess to me, way before I even learned the truth and left.

You know right from wrong, yeah? Like, you can consciously think and assess a decision before you act, speak, or continue a train of thought. So, you KNOW as you're deciding to do a wrong thing, to SIN, that it's wrong. The confusing conundrum is that 1. Supposedly, the grace of the Atonement offers you the ability to get everything expunged from your record if you genuinely apologize for it YET 2. If you knowingly decide to do something bad knowing that the Atonement will allow you to be restored in god's eyes, then that is MISUSING the Atonement.

So just the fact of knowing that you can be forgiven beforehand poisons the well in being genuinely sorry about anything. Like, I get it, we're flawed, it's hard to choose the right 100% of the time. But if it were really about transformation, if it were really about eternity, then you'd be doing the law of Moses and trying never to sin ever. It's the biggest cognitive dissonance of neurotic Mormons who knowingly choose to sin(because that's how choices are made unless you truly have a cognitive disorder) but somehow think they deserve a free pass from their undead god. The lowest and highest expectations simultaneously. No wonder they're all sort of bonkers.

A missionary could take his own phone on his mission (I know it would be a big no no and against the mission rule) no filter and the church would not know. Wait till companion falls asleep and with your own phone the missionary could google and read and listen to whatever he/she wants. Lol but if the missionary would get busted would that be a reason to send him/her home?

Back Then I would put a percentage of companions who truly believed at around 20%. These were the companions who followed the rules without deviation. The other 70% were doing just enough to not get into trouble. The final 10% didn't want to do the lord's work at all and I enjoyed these companions the most.

Now I would say, based on my observations of returned missionary grand-kids, that none of them are still true believers. Yes, they can talk the talk fluently, but their mission stories are mostly about how they skirted the rules and never got caught.

Thanks. That is what I suspected. Huge difference between then and now in the mission experience. Huge. It's so watered down.

Speaking of going into Buenos Aires when you are forbidden . . .

I had a companion that deserved my hate and I did. Besides being self righteous He was senior and he walked as fast as he could everywhere--like people in those walking races with hips careening side to side and arms flapping like a skinned chicken.
He also had a face like Tweety Bird---really.

I actually got shin splints trying to keep up and just gave up. He would get nearly a block ahead and then turn and yell,"C'mon Elder. There's the Lord's work to be done!"

Language ahead.

So one day he said we had to go to the Aduana (customs) in Buenos Aires and were were not allowed. Trains and buses and then a half a day sitting on the hardest benches I have been on. I wanted to lay on the floor just to get some relief.

His number finally came up and he got he package from home which was also against the rules.

His Mother had sent him vitamins! G.D. Vitamins! Like we could get anywhere in the Paris of the Americas. But he didn't trust the "brown" ones the ignorant prick. I was so pissed I cannot tell you.

When I served, I thought that my mission was full of believing missionaries. There were occasionally elders who are said to be "trunky", but it didn't really show, and when missionaries seemed to slack off - which I assumed was the natural consequence of having problems - they'd sometimes be reassigned or, in serious cases, moved to the mission office to be watched over.

No one expressed strong doubts, and we really didn't have missionaries who got into a whole lot of trouble.

However, the reality is that I have no way of knowing for certain how the other missionaries were doing, unless of course they told me. And generally, they didn't. So it's hard to generalize.

Tyson