Hi, I'm a nevermo SLC ski bum. BTW to me, Utah IS Zion because it is the Greatest Snow on Earth. Snowbird/Alta for life! We have our own church, the Church of the Great Outdoors and we preach it. I testify that hard skiing at high altitude in the morning forgives breaches of the Word of Wisdom the night before I say this in the name of Dick Bass and Alf Engen amen.

Question for you guys. How did you feel about investigators joking around and pranking on the exercise? Either at the time as a TBM or in retrospect. Did you think funny, offensive or both at the same time?

I'll maybe post more if you like. You guys got your own concerns which are not mine. I'll note I like Porter Rockwell. No need to be coy, If the governor put out an extermination order on my entire community, I'd do the same thing.

I get the ski talk.... Been there, done that. But the "pranking on the the exercise"??? I'm afraid you'll have to be a little more specific for me.

As for Porter Rockwell...I thought you were talking about the beer. Let's hope for a good snow year.

From a former ski bum (Beaver Creek/Vail for me,) I would leave the missionaries alone. They are kids much like yourself who were raised from birth to go on missions. They don't know any better. Just say, "No thanks, I'd rather spend my day skiing." And then go do just that. BTW, I felt closer to God at the top of Vail Mountain than I ever did in any church.

So, you have nothing better to do?

If you want to send a message, do it when someone is acting inappropriately. Sounds like it's you who is determined to cause trouble and pain for no good purpose.

It's not fair play. They have been raised in a very restrictive environment. File the idea in the same folder you put "Tripping a kid on crutches."

Leave it to exmos so inclined to "help" them lose the crutches.

Would you find pranking on any kid based on his or her religion to be amusing?

I do believe that showing some class is always a great option.

One thing to remember about pranking any mormon guy is that he probably has brothers who will come out of the word work and can probably ski right up your ass.

Ok I got the consensus from this board: "don't be a jerk."

The irony is I've asked the same question of devout returned missionaries and they think "whatever it's kinda funny breaks up the monotony of having doors slammed in our face."

My impression of SLC after skiing here for 30+ years: everybody's so uptight and nobody crosses lines and talks to the others.

This is a phobia infecting the TBM, exes, nevers etc. That's why I go to Provo to party. Velour is a cool club.

Well, there was a reason I stayed in Colorado. So, how are the slopes on Sundays in recent years?

You have a point. What I remember most from my mission are the people who gave us a hard time or even dissed us. The rest is a blur of boring tracting and missionary one-up-manship full of pretend nice.

I am not an advocate of pampering the missionaries. They are at that age when it's time to find out what you are made of. The one good part of the mission was that I finally got a dose of the real world and not small town Mormon, Utah.

Clever and classy is still the best humor.

Yes, the gloves come off once the kids are out messing with peoples lives. As a retired High School teacher that knows the mind set of that age group, watching them put on the missionary facade is comical- They ARE kids (or parrots) and don't know shit.

carson.dyle Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ok I got the consensus from this board: "don't be
> a jerk."
>
> The irony is I've asked the same question of
> devout returned missionaries and they think
> "whatever it's kinda funny breaks up the monotony
> of having doors slammed in our face."


I'm not sure that it's ironic for indoctrinated kids assigned to harangue/cold-call total strangers are bored out of their skulls and filled with frustration, while adult (freed) exmos find better ways to entertatain themselves.

Do decent people prank a person who is minding their business and not deemed "a kid?"

Would it be fine to prank a child, a middle aged man or women or someone who is elderly?

I don't think so.

The fact is decent people don't go out of their way to harass others they happen to meet.

If mormons or their missionaries are harassing or doing specific harm to someone, the victim has a right to fight back which might help both victim and offender.

Attacking a stranger who is minding their business is mean no matter their age.

Cheryl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Attacking a stranger who is minding their business
> is mean no matter their age.

Missionaries are "minding their business"? Since when?

I recall I wasn't minding my own business on my mission, but trying to push my business in every ones face constantly.

so when thy come to your door for example. would that be an acceptable time to prank them?

I say missionaries are fair game, not helpless kids. I've got kids their age. One of whom is in Korea dealing with our greatest existential threat, instead of fruitlessly banging on doors trying to convince dupes to sing the praises of a manwhore.
Prank away. Just get it on video and post it for the rest of us to enjoy.

Exactly--They can't have it both ways. If they are "just kids" they have no business traveling so far away from mommy and daddy and taking on such an "important" job.

18 year-olds are defending our country with M-16s as we speak.

True that.

So tell us about the salt sermon.
You know nothing about the "extermination order".

What else don't you know about mormonism ?

So, OP, if you've already decided it's ok to be mean, why come on here to ask our opinions then try to argue with our responses?

OP — prancing? What sorts of pranks are you thinking of?

Planking in good humor, sure. They need a break from drudgery. Some of my best mission memories are missionaries prancing each other.

Prancking in a mean spirited way? They already have a lot of crap to deal with. Why give them more?

Somewhere in the middle? I don’t see any harm in it.

Temple Square lady missionaries? Hard to say. They always have creepy older dudes supervising them. Try prancking the paid older dudes, not the lady missionaries...

BTW, as a 30-year Utah resident, under what circumstances do you cross paths with them? Just curious.

RG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2017 03:49PM by reinventinggrace.

I wasn't expecting this level of response. So I will elaborate.

The last time these "kids" showed up at my door, I was enjoying some apres-ski shots blasting Slayer in my home. So I said I was happy to hear their message if I could talk about Satan.

(I'm not a Satanist, they're jerks who don't believe in karma, which I do, I just like hard music and the mosh pit).

Also queried if I said my prior faith was Rasta could I get a weed card from bishop/MP if I converted.

I started to go into my counter-preach of my true atheist philosophy beliefs, like you don't need no authorities to tell you what's right and wrong, don't lie, cheat, steal we all know that. By then they were like: cool story bro, and that was it.

The reason I say "kids" in quotation marks is these collegiate adults are deemed grown up enough to die in some stupid war (I'm a libertarian) they aren't grown up enough to hear some different ideas. WTF?

BTW, coming from the ski culture, they all say: don't talk to Mormons. So all I do is talk to Mormons. I'm cool with you as long as you skate and get in the mosh pit at shows. See Kilby Court and straight edge.

The reason I referred to the missionaries as "kids" is because I'm 60, and anyone in their late teenage years seems like a kid to me. But yes, in reality they are adults. I was perhaps speaking a little too casually.

I'm sure this hole in my tongue will eventually heal.

My heart is changing about missionaries, they are all put in a very pressured and bad spot that just serve the real crooks at the top. Its not their fault i was raised in the church and i know the insane pressure to do it and the backlash if you do not.

You say,, "coming from the ski culture...." Blah, blah, blah....

No 'ski culture' I've ever been associated with, and I do speak from experience in that I was a professional, certified ski instructor for fifteen years in Colorado. While I never did teach in Utah, I spent several years here as a recreational skier. I call BS on your "ski culture" reference.

Me too Cinda, good call.

My ski culture was certainly a lot different from Carson's. For one thing, we talked snow and skiing all.the.time. It was about 95% of our conversations, to the point where I could hardly hold a conversation with non-skiers when I came down from the mountains. If there was a different way to describe snow, we found it.

We were also fairly boring by Carson's view. We skied hard during the day, and rested at home at night. Nothing exciting. Occasionally we got together to play board games. No one had enough money to have an exciting social life, and it's not like you are going to find an exciting social life in a mountain town, anyway. People make their own fun.

That was my experience.

Ok you guys win. I am being mean. Didn't mean to be mean I'm just socially unaware.

So tell me some better jokes. Jokes are my religion. Lenny Bruce is not afraid and Wu-Tang Clan aint nothing to F with.

We all wasted prime years on whatever mission. That's growing up.

My fav reverse prank: The BYU shot glass. Think it was officially licensed as a "toothpick holder." Toast to the prophet!

Still like to talk Porter Rockwell. That dude did not need a beard card and back east we would have liked to claim him as a "Masshole."

Daybreak is the Village:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=the+prisoner&&view=detail&mid=C3892F6CFF4B2E92145FC3892F6CFF4B2E92145F&&FORM=VDRVRV

short of killing us or crippling us for the rest of our lives, any investigator would have to do something really outlandish to prank a missionary worse than the prank of being mentally and emotionally coerced and scarred into going on a MORmON mission and wasting two prime years of young adult life to sell the MORmON scam.

"Charade" is one of my favorite Hitchcock films, even though it
wasn't directed by Hitchcock.

My boyfriend moved here after 18 years in Colorado. He ONLY skis on Sundays now. He loves it. He has a season ski pass and refuses to spend any time skiing Saturdays as it wastes too much of his time.

I’ve been thinking about this the last few days. I think minor pranks are fine for anyone coming to your door uninvited. I do feel sorry for missionaries because they are brainwashed and pressured to do this but they are still going door to door uninvited to say that your beliefs are wrong and theirs are right. They have opened the door when they opened my gate.

Thanks for your responses.

Punk has always been my religion.

Now meet Utah county's finest which I'm seeing in SLC tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHDJ4EAnLgk&feature=youtu.be

Just baptized!

if punk is your religion

meet the messiahs [IMHO] circa 1969

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvJGQ_piwI0

“BTW, coming from the ski culture, they all say: don't talk to Mormons.”

This alone, I say, gives you license to do all you want in the way of the friendly pranks you describe. Porter Rockwell references, discussion as to the merits of atheism, weed cards vs beard cards, etc.

Being a missionary is Boooooring.

Having a dude come to the door blasting Rasta and offering to talk about satanism is about as cool of an experience as you can expect over the course of the day.

Tell your fellow ski bums: “Talk to the Mormons”. Like you do. (Not like “you guys are idiots, don’t you know Joe Smith slept with teenage girls” because they’ll just tune you out.

I was a student at UC Davis 10 years ago. We had a Bike Church. Once my buddy and I went over to talk to some missionaries sitting at a table outside the student union. My buddy started in on the Joseph Smith/lots of wives thing. They’re eyes glazed over. They asked me what I believed. I told them about the Bike Church. Their eyes lit up and they asked some questions and said it sounded pretty cool.

We brightened their day, and gave them a little something to think about.

RG