I ask because once I was around some missionaries on their P-day and someone asked the new guy how long he has been out. "Less than a year," he responded, before the senior companion said, "Just tell em!" and the new guy admitted it was only a few weeks.

I feel like I've heard the "more / less than a year" line a few times, but have never seen that in writing. Were any of you taught to avoid saying how long you've served?

I've heard "more/less than a year" a lot too, but I was never told to avoid saying how long I had been out. I came home two years ago.

I remember being accused of being "trunky" on my mission. This is a derogatory term that means the missionary is concentrating on going home more than on doing the work. I wasn't trunky. I WAS going home very soon and just needed to get things done before I left so I had to talk about it.

They are probably trying to avoid the tendency to focus, or appearance of it, on how much longer they will be there or how little time they have been out because most missionaries cannot wait to get home again and are ridiculed for thinking or talking too much about home.

It's a way for holier than thou pricks to put on a show that they are 100% focused on the work and not at all concerned with how much longer they have or how close they are to going home.

+1

Several years ago, the mission president in our mission ordered the missionaries to answer that way. I don't know if it is that way everywhere, or just this MP.

I knew one missionary who thought it was so clever that he'd say "just over a year" when he was 2 weeks from going home. Boy, didn't the members love knowing he went home after he'd been lying to them!

Missionaries can be such self-righteous pricks, and this is just a small example.

In 1988-1990 we were told to use the just over/under a year thing. It's been around a while.

Just another example of mind control cult speak.

Now that I've been out for a few years it seems so absurd. How much of an issue was it that some MP had to literally order missionaries to use certain terms when describing how long they had been serving?

So typical of Mormons.

Though I don't remember if was the MTC, the President, the AP's or who.

Speaking of correct terms, I remember the MP telling us never to use "missionaries". We were either servants of the Lord around no-mos or Kingdom Builders when interacting with members. That went over like a soggy diaper. A few months later, we were instructed to report to our stake centers for a slc satellite broadcast of Boring Ballard. So I raised my hand and asked the MP if we could bring investigators along with less actives and he said "No Elder. It's only for the missionaries." A few pricks bucking for AP were snickering, but some of the brighter ones thanked me for tripping up the MP.

Barffff. So stupid.

I'm betting "too long" is an inappropriate answer.

My MP (1979-1980) told us to answer those ways.
He explained why, though.
He didn't want the greenies to appear to be greenies ("I've been out two weeks! I don't know squat!"). And he didn't want investigators thinking old-timers would be leaving soon, leaving their "relationship" with investigators hanging ("I'm going home in 2 weeks, suckers! You'll start with me, but have to get baptized by some other dude!").

Still disingenuous at best, dishonest at worst.

Yes, they were told to say either, "less than a year" or "more than a year" about 13-14 years ago. I remember some missionaries talking about it, but I don't recall the exact reason. I think it had something to do with the treatment of the newbies.

This was 15-16 years ago for me, but we always talked about exactly how long you had been out. It was helpful for other missionaries to know how long a person had been out, and for the members. It helped give an idea whether a person was experienced, and probably whether they had some facility with the language.