From the article: "What’s more, a strong majority of RMs say they had a positive experience."
And we should trust that statistic because . . ?
The one thing I knew when I came home was that it was duty to claim it was the best two years of my life. That is part of the mission. What else they going to say? The truth? That wouldn't go down very well.
Saying it was a wonderful experience was part of the deal. I didn't even stop to consider whether it was true or not.
It is so obvious that the kids can't stand being on the stupid mission their parents pressured them into serving and are willing to say whatever it takes to get out of it.
My niece came back after six months because of serious health issues that left her unable to function. On returning she went back to school full time, got a part time job, got married three months later and then had a kid right away. But we were all supposed to believe her health failed her.
Since, she has divorced her husband claiming porn addiction and is doing everything in her power to stop him from ever seeing his kids. She seems to be ticking off the boxes of Mormon behavior at a record breaking pace.
I'm glad to see that they broke it down into mental health and physical health, obviously with mental health being the biggest detriment to serving a mission.
Used to be that those on the verge of a breakdown had to come up with some kind of physical ailment to even think about coming home. I had a good source who told me of chiropractors in Utah Valley who got a lot of business from early-return missionaries. Word spread that if your kid came home early, these doctors would find a physical reason to give you cover. Of course, the kid had to keep coming to the chiropractor to "cure" the problem--back alignment problems giving them headaches, etc.
When many times, yes they really were plagued with severe headaches, intestinal disorders, and other physical symptoms that were a manifestation of the precarious state of their mental health from the mental and emotional abuse and trauma foisted on them through the mission experience. There was absolutely no screening through the mission application process for kids who were already vulnerable and it is just a lottery as to how many of those kids get a good mission president who can assess the situation and make a decision about whether a missionary should be allowed to go home honorably.
I was a ward missionary for about two years and even that took a mental and physical toll on me. Even I wanted to quit and go home and I already was home. It is a very demanding church like god is some kind of greedy Nazi leader with no heart it felt like. My family made me feel so guilty for not serving a mission that I returned to church and became a ward missionary for two years and served it until the calling was complete and then I ended up in a mental hospital for suicidal ideation and intentions so what does that tell you? I was diagnosed months later with PTSD with religion and abuse of my youth being the culprit. I just hoped there was a god that saw that I actually tried to help a religion even with my issues with religion. I have been doing better since I was correctly diagnosed finally and staying away from all religions basically. I got manipulated with the best of them for sure.
My mission experiences without a doubt drove me far away from mormonism. The overwhelming authority and control they exact over missionaries left me such a bad taste in my mouth that I couldn't stomach mormonism at all anymore. I left 11 months early and was done with church 100% a year after being home.
was not readily available anywhere, except for the faith-promoting pamphlets and books put out by the Church itself. If you were to go to a standard public library, about the only critical thing you'd find would be Fawn Brodie's book--and even that would only be in fairly large libraries.
Most people ("investigators") you'd meet on your mission weren't really investigators at all. They were just polite people who would let you ramble on for a while about why your religion is the best thing that will ever happen to them.... Then they would give you some milk and cookies and tell you that they would "think about it" (translation: "Please go and don't come back.").
Chances are that, even as a very young person just barely out of high school and actually knowing almost nothing of the history of your church, you still knew more than most people you ran into, and you would maintain that knowledge advantage for the duration of your discussions because they really had no other place to go for information (except for the occasional zealous Baptist who knew someone in a "Save the Mormons" crusade or something and could get their hands on some good anti-Mormon materials.)
It's a whole new ball game now. I imagine some of the kids who go out on these missions are getting the shock of their life...on nearly a daily basis, as people they meet can easily spend 30 minutes or so online preparing for a meeting with the missionaries and hit them with so many inconvenient facts that the missionaries are just left incoherently mumbling a bunch of rehearsed talking points: "But, but...just read Moroni's promise. I testify, uh, that, well, just you pray and, uh, it...uh...the Holy Ghost...testimony, warm feeling...yeah...NO I don't know why they took the gold plates away. No I don't know why the treasure hunt in Salem failed. No, I don't think Mosiah is just Josiah with a letter changed...What's wrong with peepstones, when you think about it? Maybe, yeah, a little weird, but still...oh FUDGE! I'm going home! This is nuts! I felt like I had more integrity when I was selling aluminum siding last summer!"
It does seem possible unresolved issues and questions they may be harboring have caused them great levels of anxiety and cognitive dissonance. Once they realize they've been stripped of their autonomy, are living in less than desirable conditions being door-to-door salesmen for TSCC, that would either open their eyes as in a rude awakening (reality check,) that they're being exploited by LDS, Inc. Or be ever faithful to the cause (blind faith in action.)
Mental health issues were the #1 reason cited in the Tribune why some are coming home early. It tells me those young people should never have gone in the first place. It's way too much austerity and strictness for most people to be able to stomach, under the best of conditions. These kids are sent to sometimes crap zones and expected to shine 24/7.
You do realize “mental health issues” is a polite way of saying “couldn’t hack it”, right? Nothing wrong with coming home, missions are a terrible waste for all involved. I’m just saying it’s the “go to” excuse and it labels the kid. Stupid cult.
There was a young woman in a ward I lived in when I was young myself, who was sent to Spain (we lived in a rural area of Idaho.)
Within six months she was back home. The reason was she suffered a nervous breakdown that far away from home, in a foreign country, unequipped to deal with the reality she'd been thrust into.
So yeah, I do believe it's very possible to get mental health issues while on missions.
Another young man from a ward where I grew up committed suicide soon after returning home from his mission. That's how he couldn't handle it. He was a very handsome young guy. His death has bothered me for many years, because I do believe it was preventable if he'd gotten into counseling or therapy (and away from TSCC.)
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/2018 01:18PM by Amyjo.
"Mental health issues" means their mind could not accept the delusion that Mormonism was true. They couldn't "hack it", when they were forced to teach LIES to innocent families.
It's the cult's way of saying, "If you don't believe in our church, you are crazy!"
Many of my sons' missionary friends ended up in this situation. They were all at our house talking about it one evening. They only way they could live with themselves was to stay on the mission, but refuse to teach the lies. They would feign mental illness, to be assigned to secretarial work in the mission home. They would make their companions teach all the lessons. They would pretend to be studying the scriptures, but would meditate or daydream, instead. "Two years of living a lie", was how they described the experience. I guess that could make a person crazy, but it doesn't constitute "mental illness."
But I also see it as a catch all. There may be some who have real mental health problems, but both my brother and I cane home early and that was the excuse. Neither of us had mental problems, we just realized it was BS.
they sent my brother on a mission. He is disabled. My cousin was the bishop at the time. I'm shocked my mother let him go. She was so protective of him. I think she thought that he would be taken care of and she wouldn't have to worry about him for a few years.
He came home a different person. I knew it the minute I saw him walk off the plane. He was a mess and he has never recovered. He just turned 53. He told me a few years ago that he would try to get injured when they'd play football or baseball, etc., so he could come home. My mother would have freaked out over that.
The other missionaries were horrible to him, but he would be difficult to have as a companion. I "understand" they don't send disabled kids out now. My brother is both mentally disabled and physically disabled. (He had a stroke at birth, drank paint thinner at 18 months, and got hit by a pickup while on his bike at age 5, was in a coma for 2 weeks.) He is doing pretty well living on his own, but our older brother checks on him twice a day.
Reading missionary stories on RfM has really opened my eyes. I "sent" out a missionary. He wasn't sure he wanted to go, but I helped talk him into it. He was 20 when he left on his mission. We broke up while he was gone--of course.
It would have been the end of me if I had gone on a mission. It was pretty much the end of me not going on a mission. Had my first suicide attempt because of all the pressure after high school and getting up to mission age. I have gotten better over the last two years but I had never really been the same since my first suicide attempt. That whole religion makes me suicidal and now I actually realize that and have stayed away from it and family since realizing it. My family is in a cult and I may never see them again but I don't have much choice if I want to stay alive. I have a feeling I will get in a cult or religion battle with the family some day but not today.
Sorry to hear about your situation. I hope you are getting help. It is very telling when something that is supposed to be uplifting in fact is the opposite. I hope you can get to the point where you realize how silly and nonsensical religion in general and Mormonism in particular really is. Please take care of yourself and get help if you have not already.
I think we're all missing the most important thing about this article: Even the Salt Lake Tribune is still using the word MORMON. Aren't they supposed to say "servants of the restored church of Jesus Christ"?
President Nelson soon will be taking a dirt nap and the church will go on it's merry way trying to survive in a changing world. Latter-Day Saints will always be called Mormons and that will continue because that's the way it is.
Social trends and the members themselves are more powerful than any prophet. If the old men had their way the members would still be wearing one piece garments that go to the ankles. The members would stop wearing the things so they modernized them and cut some creepy crap out of the temple ceremony. It's called changing because you have to. If you squeeze too tight the members ooze between your fingers.
The Temple changes of 1990 were the result of reviewing the results of a survey. The Big Cheese Saints know that keeping folks content is a necessity, so when the survey results came back that some of what they had to say made the people uncomfortable, as did pantomiming Hari-Kiri, they simply changed the ceremony. We've always been at war with Eastasia!
There will be more surveys because The Big Cheeses are NOT in touch with any ghawd, they do not receive guidance from any deity, so they are stuck with surveys, which I bet they hate, HATE giving in to!
And yes, keeping national governments off their Corporation Sole back is probably their biggest goal. They will always take the easiest 'hard way' out of any problem. They want to appear to only answer to ghawd, but they mostly answer to their bottom line.
All they know right now is that the mission experience is supposed to be hard; it's supposed to be stressful, difficult, etc., because then the biggest accomplishment of the young person's life is tied to being a mormon. If you give up mormonism, it must follow that your time in the mission field was for naught, and that's a hard thing to do.
When the Big Cheeses do make a change. Especially one that makes going through the temple easier, the members say it’s inspired. They want more members to go to the temple and I imagine they will continue to cut stuff out. Whatever they have to do to justify building the things and keeping the tithing revenue coming in. The most important part is getting the tithing.
Free Man Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > In addition to that stated above, I suspect being unable to stare at their smartphones 12 hours a day accounts for much of mental health issues.
As pathetic as that may sound, you might not be too far off. I have heard that for many, the thought of having to give up their social media has led to much anguish about serving a mission. Amazing.
Free Man Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > In addition to that stated above, I suspect being > unable to stare at their smartphones 12 hours a > day accounts for much of mental health issues.
Now I feel bad for getting on my phone. 12 hours is a lot though. Don't think I come close to that.
Afraid of the Boogie Brethren Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I can't even believe that we used to think that > paying your own way to spend 2 years in "prison" > was normal! WTH?
I know. I cringe now.
I spent 2 years in high school lovingly restoring a '67 Mustang. Poured the vast majority of my Jack-in-the-Box paycheck into parts (other than paying for dates!). Bought it for $800 in pretty bad shape...then I sold it for $3300. To pay for my mission expenses.
I wish I'd kept it and stayed home. I was so stupid.
I would probably still want to spend about 2 years living in a foreign country, learning a foreign language.
But it wouldn't be as a missionary and I would pick the country...and I would combine the time I spent learning a foreign language with studying other useful things.
I definitely would not spend day after day knocking on strangers' doors trying to get them to listen to me tell them about a guy who found some golden plates, talked to a glowing angel, translated those plates into English by looking into special goggles strapped to an ancient breastplate, then saw the angel take the golden plates away into heaven, after which the same guy decided that God wanted him to sleep with many different women, but it was all okay then because of a shortage of men, but we don't do it anymore and, anyway, you can't drink green tea...and what's important is that we have a living prophet who doesn't prophesy, but that's not important because we don't need it much anymore, but he offers great words of wisdom like telling us to wear round badges that say "to it" on them, so that we'll never excuse our procrastination by saying that we "need to get a round to it"...yeah, he's a funny, funny man called of God....
Nope. If I had it do over, I definitely would not waste my time being a missionary.
Missions are like paid vacations so long as you have a cool companion that thinks the same. Make up your numbers if you want. Enjoy the country. If it's in the states.... it can be like that but not as easy.
For one thing, nobody pays you to on a mission—you have to pay to go. And it’s no vacation, even with a cool companion. The worst vacation of my life was better than the best week of my mission.
Most of the time, there's always a mismatch. One is an eager-beaver, rule-keeper, ready to snitch to the MP at the drop of a hat.
The senior-junior companion arrangements almost always guarantee that there will be a difference of opinion. The kids fresh out of the MTC are often the worst.
They come in all pumped up from 2 months of intense propaganda and "inspirational" stories told to them, mixed in with ridiculous urban legends about bad things that happen to rule breakers and the greatness that comes to the rule keepers.
When I was going out there was a popular book that all of the MTC kids were reading. It was so idiotic. It even suggested that if you chewed gum on your mission, you would lose the right to "draw upon the powers of heaven" or something stupid like that. (I think the book title was "Drawing on the Powers of Heaven.")
The purpose of the book, IMO, was to make "worthiness" conditional upon a bewildering and impossible array of tasks, duties and tests, so that the missionary would always blame him/herself for any and all failures that occurred while they were a missionary.
Every investigator that decided not to get baptized? Well, that was probably on you, the missionary? Could you honestly say that you faithfully fulfilled every task and duty and passed every test needed to be worthy? Of course not! So...all your fault, you incompetent, unworthy slimeball!
My worst companion was a zealot who took to that book like it was more important than the Bible. I was the senior companion, but he nagged me constantly about all the extra stuff that we needed to be doing in order to be worthy of guidance and blessings. Drove me crazy. Unfortunately, at the time, I was still trying hard to be a good missionary, so part of me was trying to take the kid seriously and do some self-examination to see if he was right. But my rational mind didn't go to sleep and I increasingly realized that he was being absurd. It actually helped push me into full-blown skepticism.
I would have reported having a "positive experience" upon returning. That doesn't mean that there were some issues that came up during my mission experience that made me question Mormonism and the value of LDS missionary service.
I started to question the plan of salvation and the value of the one true church claim. Were rank and file Mormons really better than people of other faiths? I met some Lutheran people doing really amazing social service work and interfaith and ecumenical activity. It's not that I stopped believing in the plan or the one true church, but I started to wrestle with them.
Our mission president discontinued our community service work to drive up our conversion efforts. That not only disrupted a nice change of pace, it also led me to ask if the church cared about nothing more than adding members to the roster and building temples. Serving the community seemed low on the agenda.
Some of the missionaries who succeeded in attracting converts were not exactly obedient. But they had a charismatic personality that attracted people to them. Mind you these people would often be out after a short time. Some would go on to success in the real estate investment seminar business--go figure.
Zone conferences repeated a sad pattern--every time. We would set an "inspired" goal that was wholly unrealistic based on past experience. We would fail to meet that goal. Next Zone conference--another unrealistic "inspired" goal. Again and again...ugh.
The guilt associated with the experience was wrenching. The expectations were impossible. Your work was never sufficient. You could always do more.
And to Wally Prince's point--yes Drawing on the Powers of Heaven by Grant Von Harrison was an insufferable book! I even thought so as a missionary. But it was very popular and informed the thinking of many of the missionaries in our mission.
In totalitarian regimes (fascist, communist, islamic or what have you), whenever someone sees the bullshit for what it is and finds out the truth, they are suddenly labeled (and "cared for" in some gulag) as "mentally ill patients".
It's what Mussolini, Mao, Jammeh, Stalin, Franco, Idi Amin and Khomeini did: declare people crazy when they have actually just come to their senses.
It's quite telling that TSCC uses the same strategy with people who feel their mission is madness and come home early. It's not the mishie who is crazy, it's the mission.