It happened again!
And this was in the middle of priesthood meeting.

I had to resist the urge to tell one of them, "Come on! Elder B is a grown-ass man, can't he relieve himself in peace? It's not like he's going in there to whack off!". This is so juvenile. Is this a sign the MP is an oppressive dick, or is this the case in every mission?

The one elder stayed outside the men's room door, but did peek inside after a couple of minutes. He could've stayed in the PM rom and then relayed to his companion what he missed.

Control much?

If so, it is Orwellian and incredibly disturbing.

If one is not allowed to use the bathroom - for bathing or relieving oneself, or WHATEVER, without supervision (at least, auditory,) this is horrifically intrusive.

It needs to be called to the MP's attention, and if he says, "It's policy," I believe that the bishop - if not the Stake president - should demand to SEE and REVIEW the "policy."

This could cause severe health problems. When I was in junior high, girls were caught smoking in the restrooms at school. The principal had the stall doors removed. So, this meant that girls (I don't remember if the boys suffered the same fate, and anyway, restrooms for boys are different) began deliberately dehydrating themselves so that they would not need to relieve themselves while at school.

My BFF and I solved the problem by one of us standing by the stall door holding a coat spread across the stall opening while the other used the facility, and then changing places, thus assuring at least minimal visual, if not auditory, privacy.

Urinary tract infections began popping up, encouraged by the forced dehydration. Once parents learned the truth, they massed on the school administration, demanding that the doors be replaced. I remember my father and some of the other fathers telling the principal, "If YOU don't replace those doors, by God, WE WILL!" And my father was generally a very pleasant, easy-going guy. But you didn't mess with his family.

This kind of intrusion is totally unacceptable, and I hope that parents speak up. But isn't this precisely the kind of thing that mishies are not allowed to write home about, so the parents would never know until it was over??

If it really IS "policy," there needs to be a legal challenge - the more public, the better.

catnip Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If it really IS "policy," there needs to be a
> legal challenge - the more public, the better.

Yes, it really is "policy."

We were clearly and unambiguously told on our missions that we were not to EVER leave our companions alone, or be alone ourselves away from them -- at mission "orientation."

Of course, somebody asked about the bathroom -- and the answer was always that while one companion is peeing/pooping/showering, the other should be right outside the door. And that if they were taking too long, it was obligatory to peek in and make sure they weren't doing anything "sinful."

And I fell for it.
Ugh.

I don't believe I would have cared if the MP said that we were not allowed to USE the door locks. I would have done so anyway.

But then, I was never docile mission material, even at my TBM-est.

I served in the early 90s and we had this lame rule. Here's what I remembered about this despicable practice.

The 4 minute rule. Only 4 minutes to shower or use the restroom (with the door closed). We were supposed to report to him if your comp was taking too long behind closed doors. I made it perfectly clear to every comp that I was NOT going to stand outside the restroom door while they took a dump. An unintended consequence was that some mishies were not closing the bathroom door; even when visiting a member's home!!! Major ick factor.

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1931956,1931997#msg-1931997



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2017 10:12PM by messygoop.

When I did the mission thing, the church building was considered somewhat of a safe zone. As long as my assigned companion was somewhere in the building, we were OK. I don't recall if that was an official rule or if we just made that up for the sake of our own sanity.

I have always believed that these MP's are largely pressured to "get one up on the next MP" when they get together for regional meetings/trainings. I think we were victims to their whimsical application of "my mission rules." Sometimes, I would lose track of doing anything spiritual while trying to remember every mission procedure and protocol. It was a continual "gotcha" system designed to shame and guilt you into oblivion.

I think at my second-to-last zone conference, the MP called some newbie to quote James 1:5. The poor guy stumbled and mixed it all up. So we had to do push-ups in our suits and sisters did them in the back of chapel too! The greenie looked on as we labored in the PT. He instantly became the most hated elder in the zone.

Back in the south american 90's we had an area president from Brazil(who ironically died river rafting) scream at the top of his lungs when a missionary would get up to go to the bathroom by himself. He would wait to do this at every single mission conference.

EVERY SINGLE CONFERENCE!!!

He was a real true blue asshole.
Needless to say, we didn't mourn his drowning.

. . . gave it one last one whirl that lasted longer than it should have, left the primitivism of Mormonism, grew my hair long, grew a mustache, and am now working on a beard of sorts. Also, got myself a motorcycle. And have taken a liking to hard apple cider.

From "royal blood" to non-royal flush.

Born to be natural. It's a lot easier that way.

It's never too late to break out of the gate.



Edited 29 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/2017 06:56AM by steve benson.

When I first joined the church, deep in the heart of the Very Deep South, among my friends were a pair of identical twin guys, who had been sent to Japan (one to the north, one to the south) and they told some very funny stories. Among the ones I will never forget were the "benjo spiders," apparently huge wolf spiders that were fond of extending themselves across the opening in a toilet. I can understand why one would be reluctant to place one's backside directly on the commode.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/2017 01:41AM by steve benson.

I lived in a two story house, the main floor bathroom was being remodeled and so it wasn't useable.

We had the missionaries over for dinner. One of them got up to use the bathroom, and the other one followed. My husband asked him why he was following the other guy upstairs. He told hubby that it was a mission rule. Hubby told him that his companion was a full grown adult and didn't need his help going to the bathroom. He told him the rule in our house was to respect peoples privacy. That included our company.

They both laughed, and looked so relieved. Hubby told them to take all the time they needed. The missionaries never followed each other to the bathroom in our house after that. Apparently word got around.

That whole thing is so insane. So invasive and disrespectful.

?

Too Many companions 'straightening their membership' in the bathroom!


LDS are so indoctrinated they don't / can't recognize insanity.

What's particularly odd is getting the other missionaries to go along with it. On my mission (long ago) it wasn't a rule, but occasionally an over-active district leader would make it rule. Mostly we ignored him. None of us were going to have the door open whilst taking a shit. So we didn't. Since there were as many of eight of us in a one-bath flat, we did often have to be brushing our teeth, etc., as another was showering.

Then why do they let missionaries go out by themselves sometimes?
There was one on the train the other day, being harassed by a vagrant.

And there was a group of three this morning. How do they decide who follows who?

The only time we were ever alone on my mission was during a transfer.
Your existing comp took you to the train station and watched you get on the train, then your new comp met you at the arriving station. Somehow our MP was apparently OK with us being alone for an hour or two in that one instance.

>And there was a group of three this morning. How do they
> decide who follows who?

Then it's circle-jerk time :)