Through most of my adolescence I thought missionaries were the nicest people within the church. I thought at the time that if more members could be more like the missionaries then the church would be a nicer place. That perception changed when as an Aaronic priest I did one of those mini missions & the missionary I was assigned to I thought was one of the biggest jerks I'd met. Was anyone else's perception of missionaries altered by becoming an insider?

Years ago I lived in a special house near a university campus
where I was a freshman. It was only for RM's and "prospective
M's." I was one of the prospective M's. I noticed to my
surprise that the RM's were MUCH jerkier than the prospective
M's. This was a surprise because I, in my young naive
Mormonhood, thought that spending two years serving Jesus would
make you MORE Christlike, not less.

That was one of the reasons I decided against a mission.

First, there are some nice ones. However, the bureaucracy of the organization creates a system of power. The assholes aspire power and they ascend to the top. Woe to anyone that gets in their way! They easily fill most of the leadership positions. Nice ones are somewhat looked down as schmucks and losers. I had a few kind and meek types, but they were perceived as "weak" as promptly released and replaced.

I had a lot of mid week phone calls that announced a change in leadership. "Hey Elder Goop! This is Elder Dickwad. I'm your new ZL. I am driving to your apartment at 9pm tonight to go over your area book so you better get your butts back to the apartment because I don't like to be waiting."

I replied, "That's not going to work. We have a family that has committed to baptism and we're planning to give a 4th discussion with the ward mission leader at 8:30."

"Just ditch them! I'm your leader! I give the orders and you follow them. Got that Goop?" yells Elder Dickwad. "You really want to mess with me? Boy you're so retarded Goop. I can have the MP on your back like that (snaps his fingers over the phone). Just be there. Be sure your companion, Elder Lite Brite, is there too!" (Lite Brite was a mean nickname for an older missionary ~23 year old convert that joined the church after suffering head trauma from having a bucket of bricks land on his head. Some of his ideas were really out there, but he was okay in my book.)

Let this be a flag to anyone out there who is being forced/coerced to go on a mission they don't want to go on.

If you end up in the situation where you're supposed to be recruiting new missionaries, tell them the TRUTH!

You don't have to be an asshole. You don't have to be mean, arrogant, snotty, or anything negative. Just tell them the TRUTH!

Truth will set you and others free. It may not be the easy road to take at the time, but it will pay off in the long run. Truth will set you and others free.

Going on a mission was eye opening. You go out expecting very spiritual devoted people to be missionaries. Then you find out they are the same as every other 19 to 21 year old. Some of them are even worse. After getting back I made sure nobody fell for the trap of "he is a returned missionary". Going on a mission doesn't make someone into an amazing person.

Very enlightening thread!

Before I went on a mission I thought you had to be perfect. That instantly got shattered in the MTC when missionaries were staying up late and screwing around. Kind of like how 19 year olds just do when they leave home for the first time. It really hurt me at the time but now that I look back I realize the mission is just a brainwashing tactic to keep more people from leaving the church. That's why the age became lower. They didn't want kids going off to college and finding out some real truth and leaving. Instead they go straight into a 2 year trance of "the church is true, the church is true, the church is true"

I actually feel quite a sense of pride knowing that I was totally committed while a missionary and being able to see the truth and leave a few years later

A few years was more like 10 for me. Reminds me of some comments a companion of mine made that bothered me at the time. I absolutely believed in what I was doing, so it really struck me when he said it. He said that we were there to pretend. We pretend to be outgoing and knowledgeable. All you have to to to be successful in the mission was to pretend to be someone you are not. I think the mission must have been brutal for him.

He defined the requirement being a good mormon in one sentence.

I was never good at pretending, therefore didn't make a very good mormon. I was constantly being shushed. Nothing pisses me off more than that. Several male mormon leaders heard the truth from me if they liked it or not.

I never had a problem pretending till the end because for me it was all real. As real as santa is for a little kid. I was doing all this hard work for God and he loved me for it. It wasn't until I woke up that I was required to pretend and I just couldn't do it. I guess you could say I was a bad Mormon after that but I just stopped when I realized how much I had been lied to

Missionaries in The Book of Mormon musical sing:

We're fighting for a cause
But we're really, really nice
We are the Army of the Church of Jesus Christ
Of Latter-Day Saints

Some of the nasiesr and least Chrisrlike people I ever met were elders in my mission

It's really not hard to get someone to be nice to someone else.
Just give them the opportunity and a reason. But if you can get
someone to be a jerk to someone else, someone who has done them
no wrong at all, then you control them. I'm reminded of the
famous quote from Nobel-Prize-winning physicist Stephen Weinberg:

"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad
people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes
religion."



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2017 09:45PM by baura.

I am reminded of some stories I never told my parents while out on my mission. I lived in an apartment with three other Elders. One of them managed to get himself a greeny that he apparently wasn't all that fond of. One night he and another elder wrestled the kid to the ground. I won't describe what happened next, I will use the elder's own words. He said it was time for his Saturday night ride. This happened several times. Not what you expect when you think of missionaries, but that is only because most people don't know.

And I can almost say with certainty that the greeny never spoke up to the MP about his humiliation and abuse. After all, it would be two "seasoned" elder's collaborated word vs the word of a greeny. Additionally, the MP is supposed to have the power of discernment and good judgment over his "flock'. It would be very embarrassing for the MP to realize that he had failed to assign elders of good morale to train the inexperienced.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2017 01:07AM by messygoop.