If missionaries are in a car mission and don't meet the goals or misbehave or something, do they ever lose car privileges? What about missionaries who are in bike missions? Can they get demoted down to walking or public transportation?

I ask this because just today I saw two different sets of missionaries in the area who are normally on bikes. Today, both pairs were walking. They looked like they were NOT enjoying it.

Maybe, one of them had his bike stolen.

Oh, do I have stories about this one.

You might have the pilot for a sitcom there.

My brother served a mission in Australia. He said the cars were fought over and highly prized. The Missionaries figured out how to disconnect the odometer and go for some joy rides.

I think a lot of it has to do with the area they are in. For example the mission that covers where I live has some areas where the missionaries get a car, because they cover such a large area, and other areas where they bike because they are mostly in the cities. I doubt the missionaries in the larger area would lose their car as that would hinder the ability to do their work. I would guess they would be transferred to a non car area in there was need for punishment. Not sure how it works in other missions though.

That's another good point. Transfers are used to discipline.

Does it make any sense that the poorer the country, or region, the less likely the mishies will be issued cars?

My mission was pretty large; it encompassed the cities of Guadalajara, Leon, Acapulco and Mexico City. That's a lot of territory. On the APs had a car. The rest of us were on foot, no bikes. Bikes would have been suicidal, given the Mexican penchant for ignoring the rules of the road and the Geneva Convention.

We got along just fine on foot, with the aid of public transportation. Best two years of my life, except for numerous other two year periods...

I live in the Rose Park area of Salt Lake City and I only ever see the missionaries walking, no bikes. I guess they could be in cars but I'd say it's kind of small area since there are lots of people in it.

I was in Ribeirão Preto Brasil, several decades ago. It's a city about 300km from São Paulo, in those days my mission headquarters. I liked it more than any place since we didn't see much from the AP's or the MP.

We were told that we had to have bikes, funds to come from parents. There were some streets that were kind of steep, fun going down but not up. It was also great fun riding in the heavy rainstorms.

https://imgur.com/a/FrBkp

I never asked my mother where the money came from for my new bike since I knew they struggled each month to come up with $120 for me. She told me when I got home that the mission office had sent a letter to the bishopric who was tasked with raising the funds for my new bike, and she told me that it was about $40 and they had more than enough donations. I was in that city another 6 months or so and left the bike there for further use.

I don't recall ever looking like I do in this picture :)

What year(s)? I might know you.

I was in Brasil November 1968 to November 1970. I flew home and arrived on Thanskgiving day. I spent most of my time in Sao Paulo, itself. A couple of months in Campinas and then the rest of the time from August 1969 to May 1970.

If we might have known each other, feel free to use my email on the sign in box.

I came a few years later- 1973 to 1975. Too bad. We might have gotten along great.

I guess you missed the grand disaster that was Pres. Hibbert? My MP's job was mainly to clean up his messes.

Nope, Sherman Hibbert was my president from mid 1969 until I went home. Like I said, we didn't see him at all in RP, the AP's came out every few weeks, driving. There was an elder then who made it to AP much sooner than normal and the rumor was that he (or maybe his mom) was related to JoAnn Hibbert and that was why he was an AP already. (JoAnn caused as much of the problems as he ever did)

I looked forward to seeing him, he was very funny and you could tell that he wasn't taking it all too seriously. I'll have to shake my head to see if I can remember his name. I ran into him once I think when I’d been home about 10 years. He told me that he was teaching in the drama department at BYU and I know he got up there really high and important.

After I got back from RP, I was in the downtown area of Sao Paulo, in the areas that got the first modern chapels and the remnants of the German members who really started it all. Walter Spaat will go down in my life as one of the biggest assholes I ever had to meet. Long story :)

We went to a conference one day and Hibbert stood at the entrance and shook everyone's hand. When he got up to conduct the meeting he said he was looking for elders who didn’t shave that morning and he read off a list of about 15 of us, and there I was. As a young man, I could go several days without shaving. He sent us into the men’s room and the AP’s had razors and shaving soap and we all had to shave. As an old man, I can still go several days and not shave, only now it’s mostly gray.

I think that was the worst thing he ever did to me personally, but I know there were stories that I mostly ignored. The day I left to go home, me and another guy who came down with me, were going together. We got to the mission home early and had about a 2 minutes chat with Hibbert and that was all I saw of him. At the last minute, the AP came to give us a ride to the airport. And I had completely forgotten that they had taken our passports and he didn’t want to give them to us until we got to the airport.

The flight was leaving from the old Sao Paulo airport about 2pm I think, we got there and Pele’ was causing a big crowd, either going somewhere or coming from somewhere.

We were going to spend a couple of days in Rio which we did and had a good time, did the tourist things. (including the Rio production of the musical HAIR. That was an experience. Apologies for the long story.

Long, true stories here are rare and thus quite a delight.

Keep them coming!

I had an older brother in Sao Paulo from around '67-'69. We moved while he was gone.

I was there late 68 to late 70. I probably knew him but truthfully have had very little contact with the elders I knew during that time of my life.

Great Lakes mission, Romney Sr. governor;

Cars were ROMNEY ROCKETS when American Motors was still on the map...

Missionaries in my area did have a car and bikes. However, they had a limit on the miles they could use the cars. Then they went to either bikes or retired members would haul them around.

It only took a couple of 'hauling them around' for me to say I am out of this. The missionaries really acted like dicks in my opinion.

I don't know if the stake continued this practice or not as I heard a lot of 'bad feedback' from members who would drive them around.

Yes, younger missionaries seem to me to be really making the lds faithful who try to support them think twice about lds inc.. So it is all good!

On my mission that was based on your area. There were car areas and bike areas and public transportation areas.

It could also be that your missionaries have hit their mileage limit for the month and so they were using their feet to keep miles off a car

I have a report you might find interesting. I served my mission in Uruguay 1964 to 1966, and I left the church ten years ago when I learned how the BOM is a man made document.

I have some cousins etc here where I live and we get together for parties once in a while. Some of them are TBM. At the last event I attended there were two missionaries present and as it happened I sat by them for a while.

I did not make a scene with them. I just politely visited with them. Then I asked them if they do the usual trick of unhooking the speedometer cable so they can enjoy unlimited miles.

What the replied shook me to the core as to the level of control that can be exerted over us.

They said their car is connected to a satellite that monitors everything they do. The top speed allowed is 65 mph, and if they go faster than that like down a hill, they get a written accusation about breaking the rules that goes on their record.

But wait, there’s more. Any time they drive in a church parking lot, their car is not allowed to go faster than 5 mph.

They commented about how aggravating that was, but they could not make it go any faster. How in the world does TSCC know when they are in a church lot?

Somehow TSCC has gone to all the time and trouble to program the car’s activities to this degree. Absolutely amazing and terrifying to me.

So naturally there is no more speedometer adjusting going on any more by any missionaries.

You can debate the merits of controlling the missionaries' personal lives, but if I were the church I would do exactly the same things with respect to the automobiles. These young men are in the middle of the high insurance rate age range. The cars belong to the church, not to the young men, and I would do everything in my power to avoid anything that could lead to liability or medical disasters. Not everything the LDS church does is stupid.

I agree. The church is just dealing with liability issues in the best way they know how.

That said, defeating GPS tracking is easier than unhooking a speedometer cable. All you need to do is tape a piece of aluminum foil over the GPS antenna. (The same trick works with those snitching iPads they give the missionaries.)

Modern cars don't have speedometer cables per se anyway; it's all done electronically. I have heard rumors of tricks you can play with the CAN bus...

I was born into a prominent Mormon GA family. My brother was already established as an abusive bully and a screw-up, and he never changed, throughout his life.

Because of family pressure, my brother went on a mission--an easy, state-side mission, over which a relative was the president. After a few months, the mission wanted my brother out of there, (of course!) but my parents feared the disgrace of his being sent home early. My intelligent father offered the mission a car, and, in exchange, the mission president would keep my brother on his mission for the duration. I know of no other details, because everything was kept secret, until I saw my father packing up the car for a trip, and I asked him where he was going. He came back with a new car.

My brother was transferred every few weeks, and spent most of his time in the mission home.

I love, love, love to hear missionary stories! The more and the longer, the better!

I was so bad, they busted me down to a unicycle...

Yes, they do!

Mission cars are a resource that is limited and subject to a MP on how they are assigned. Granted there are certain areas such as downtown districts that are designed for walking and or public transportation. My experience was stateside and I spent 6 months in areas that originally were assigned official mission vehicles. Both times after shitty MP interviews, the vehicle was promptly reassigned due to lack of spiritual progress = convert baptisms. I was not the senior companion so I was not privy to the MP's decision (but I was chewed out for failing to inspire and motivate my companion).

One of the times that the car was transferred to a neighboring set of elders, a complaint letter had been written accusing us of refusing to drive them for their basic needs. Additionally, my companion and I had been falsely accused of driving off after dropping them off at a supermarket. We had no knowledge that such perverted accusations had been levied. I was a slow learner (naive) that certain elders would routinely lie as a way to grab power.

Well, I think the missionaries in my area are now in a walking area instead of bikes. Saw two of them yesterday coming out of a neighbors house (poor saps) who may be taking the discussions. I wanted to ask them where their bikes were, but I refrained.

Oh yeah..one time I farted at zone conference during my mission presidents talk. I was a junior zone leader. It stank so bad (the mission talk that is), that I couldn't help it, and I let'r rip. Well the mission president got wind that it was me that had done the dirty deed, and he bounced me down to senior companion, with no car - plenty of gas, but no car. Tee hee.

I spent the winter in Interlaken, Switzerland on my mission. My comp and I - sister missionaries - rode old heavy 3 or 5 speed bikes in the snow. Somehow neither of us were hit by a car or had a serious accident although my uncoordinated companion fell over several times. A few months after we were transferred out the elders moved in and were given a car to use. It was okay for us sisters in skirts to ride through the freezing snow but the elders needed a car.

If you screwed up in my mission you got a transfer to the area where the Empire Strikes Back Ice Planet Hoth scenes were filmed.

being on a FOOL time MORmON mission IS being busted down to doing LD$ Inc dirty work, car or NOT is a minor detail of the larger situation. A young man is in a situation where he has NO standing and NO value unless he peddles the insanely stupid BOM scam so MORmON leaders can have more. LD$ inc leaders compelling kids into selling the LD$ inc BOM scam. here is the kind of thanks and gratitude and appreciation that a missionary can expect

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


you want to talk about some elders being better off than others?

....do not even get me started !!!!!!

Yes, happened to me. Circa 1990. Car to bikes to car. Probably for some reason but don't know.