AS reported in several posts I attended the Stake Saturday Night Session of Conference last weekend. It was announced that no longer will the members. be inviting the missionaries over for a meal. Rather you are to invite the missionaries over for a meal and it comes with a gospel discussion lesson. They had a new title but I forgot to write it down as I was shocked they would be so controlling as to dictate what goes on at the dinner table in a members home. My initial reaction was I guess they needed to give the missionaries something to do. My secondary reaction was what ever happened to just sitting down to a meal with no attached agenda and enjoying each other company?
They also explained that the Bishop is now responsible for the missionary work in the ward. I guess he can keep an eye on who is feeding the missionaries and who are having the new improved "Dinner with a lesson." I thought Bishops were very busy people and needed less work.
I read on this site or another they cancelled the Saturday night celebrations planned for the Chile Temple dedication and replaced it with a youth fireside.
What is happening? Is Russ really planning on taking everything fun out of the Church?
They showed a video clip at the conference meeting of Russ talking. I have to admit he looks like that grumpy old man puppet as he talks.
I think I have reported on all the changes that the 70 talked about. He did stress reading the BoM to bring you closer to Christ. He did stress to live purer lives.
I guess we'll have to stop feeding the missionaries. I had just gotten the missionaries to accept that I was fine with feeding them, per my wife's wishes, but I wasn't interested in their lessons.
There have been various programs over the decades to make missionaries or their dinner hosts "work" for their dinner. Either a non-member or less-active had to be invited, or a spiritual message or lesson had to be presented by the missionaries, or whatever.
The rules get presented, slowly disregarded until they essentially no longer exist, then they get presented again.
Nothing new here. Missionaries and members jointly being punished.
I actually think it's a plus for both missionaries and members. Much better than having to have a non-member/inactive person come to dinner. Or the program where they only had an hour and couldn't socialize with the members after dinner.
This gives the missionaries something to do and someone to "teach" so they feel like they are actually working. And most active members would have no problem with having a gospel "lesson." It gives them a reason to hang around and even socialize a little. And yes, it gives the mishies a little more indoctrination. Especially if they're at the home of an older TBM who would love to share their great gospel knowledge.
If I had a kid on a mission, I'd feel a lot better about them being in member's homes and discussing the Mospel with them than roaming the streets after dark.
Hmm, let's see...I never had the missionaries over for dinner previously. So now, I can not have the missionaries over for dinner, and not get a "gospel lesson."
Win-win for me!
One of the few pleasures on my mission was a decidedly atheist couple, who were English but lived in France, who would have us over for dinner once every few weeks. They had absolutely zero interest in mormonism, and made that very clear, but they felt kinda sorry for us, were quite well-off, and enjoyed taking these poor clueless American kids in France out for a nice meal now and then. No "gospel" talk, just English speaking and good food and good company. They were perpetual "investigators," passed down from companion to companion.
OMG! When DH was the bishop back in the 70's, I hardly ever saw him on Sundays and he was gone quite a bit during the week, too, since it was before the block. I cannot imagine now giving the bishop additional duties to be the official missionary work enforcer! Good grief!
At the rate they are losing missionaries early and at the rate they are realizing a lot of missionaries are only going so parents will pay for education and especially at the rate missionaries go inactive upon returning home nowadays, I would say the reason for the discussion at dinner is for the members to convert the missionaries. For a long time now, it's been about converting the missionaries.
Would you care for a little indoctrination with your mashed potatoes, Elder?
That's impossible, because lowering the mission age was on direct orders from Jesus, and he wouldn't want to drive young people from the One True Church.
That is exactly what I heard when I told the 11 missionaries that were in my MTC group I will not be attending anymore mission reunions and that I have been with my partner/husband for 14 years. All of them are divorced, or remarried two or three times. And again I heard, "That's impossible" when I told them I was gay and my husband is 100% Sicilian. Which is where I served my mission. It seems to offend them that one, I have been married longer than any of them. And two, none of them knew I was gay. TSCC is sure full of "That's impossible."
Like just about everything else rolled out in the Nelson administration, this has been attempted unsuccessfully already. About 10 years ago, there was a rule that members were only allowed to feed the missionaries if an inactive member/investigator was present to be taught. They tried going hard in the paint with this for a while, but most members ignored it/plead ignorance/let missionaries starve. My guess is that most members will get around this by encouraging missionaries to offer a "spiritual message" instead of a lesson.
They are all failed policies from the 80's. They were riding the members hard to give Book of Mormons away to non-members. They tried to get rid of the word Mormon (this was a huge failure). When Gordon B Hinckley became prophet he relaxed things and I think Monson relaxed them even more.
Now with a hard ass narcissist like Nelson in charge he's going to double down on the members and bring back failed policies. This will just drive more members out.
As a TBM Mormon I couldn't have been more "pure". Plus I joined at age 12. Not a lot of chance to become "impure" at that stage. What's with this constant admonition?
LDS,Inc. could do with less stress on "purity" and a little bit more thought put into love, compassion,tolerance, generosity, forgiveness, understanding, honesty, transparency, and all at the highest level. Aren't the leaders supposed to be the great examples of what they preach?
Russ seems a great example of pure deceit, pure intolerance, pure domination, pure conceit, and pure ambition. Guess he is a pretty good example of his own teaching.
My asshat MP delighted in pairing up disagreeable elders. You know, assigning the straightest arrow missionary rule follower with the laziest, laid back "I don't give a damn" missionary.
I witnessed several fights (not brawls or pile-ons) that erupted from serious personality conflicts. Zone meetings was the usual place for the "I hate my companion" to flare up.
I remember that. I always wondered how that would work for them. They started pushing that when I first went inactive. The ward leadership approached my never-Mo grandparents about housing the missionaries in their spare room. They briefly entertained the idea until they started rattling off all the rules and regulations that my grandparents - you know, the home owners - would have to follow in order to "get the blessings." My grandpa had a few choice words for them and suggested they would be more comfortable if they were to "f*** themselves."
Lot's of fails in the Mormon church. They didn't even put a laundry in the Boise temple because the members could wash the temple rental clothes. It was a huge fail. They ended up closing the temple down and building on an annex with a laundry facility in in. Also they put in these awful lockers that you barely can fit any stuff into. It was the first of the smaller A frame temples and it had a lot of dumb design features the members hated.
My last experience was so bizarre that I declared it to be my last. About $50 dollars of fresh food and 3 hours of prep down the drain. They didn't eat my homemade lasagna.
Seriously if there is a next time, I will serve them crap-in-a-can Spaghettio-s.
The lasagna had meat as well as yummy veggies. They just picked at it and passed up on strawberry shortcake desert as well.
Others suggested that they ate something better before arriving for dinner.
I am glad that y'all would come over as I try real hard to be a nice person. I have a very bad temper which is why I'm still angry with the leaders of the church.
With Russ in charge the members are really going to miss President Monson. What Russ said to the youth he could have said in his talk at the cultural celebration he canceled. I know with the Idaho Falls celebration the youth and those in charge of it worked very hard. They even built a special stage that could transform into the Idaho Falls temple after the show.
Only a narcissistic jerk would cancel something people put so much work into so he could show he can do it and say something he could have said at the celebration.
Russ is looking to be the boss from hell. He keeps it up and the member are going to hate him which is great.
Where I was a missionary food was very expensive and hard to live off of the money we had saved to pay for missions. I did not get invited to meals often, but when we were invited the members were always generous and tried to help us feel welcome and supported.
I especially remember Christmas Eve dinners where we were treated like family.
And dinners with an excentric wealthy convert who treated us to dinner once at the town's finest seafood restaurant. Sometimes he invited us to his home and served us tacos, watermelon and corn on the cob (unheard of in the country where we were). He also was sure to have two guitars sitting in the living room so Elder R and I could play the latest Led Zep and Eagles songs we knew for him. Meals with members were some of the finest memories of my mission.
+100 TSCC making life more difficult for executive secretary, missionaries and members. I remember being fed by members about once ever two months. I really appreciated it.
Last time I participated in the feed the missionaries program you could not have any single females age 16 to 21 in the home. That wiped out over half the available homes.
Then it hax to be a certain time. Well before many of us usually ate. That wiped out even more.
Finally they gave up on asking people to fed them.
Heartless Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Last time I participated in the feed the > missionaries program you could not have any single > females age 16 to 21 in the home. That wiped out > over half the available homes. > >
The last time we had dinner with missionaries, they were 18-year-olds. I was amazed at the difference one year can make. They truly seemed like children.
Yah .....Yah! and remember that new rule that says that ONLY virgins will be able to go on missions and that NON virgins will be disqualified. I bet that they are strictly abiding by that deal too ..........
without requiring an indigestion-inducing "gospel discussion".
But I'm pretty sure that at least one of the missionaries would be so brainwashed that they would snitch and someone would get in trouble.
But what's the bishop going to do to a member who feeds missionaries without a "gospel discussion"? Are they going to rip the little gold star sticker off your forehead? Are they going to make you sit in the back of the chapel?
Sometimes the childishness of it all is overwhelming.
Why the fork should they care whether the missionaries get a decent meal from a member family? Stupid modern-day pharisees.
And the Bishop is now in charge of the ward missionary service? Lol. I bet there have been some renegade ward mission leaders, who have been scheduling dinners and not having the discussions (sigh)
This is the same old story. They issue this edict as the missionaries are not doing any missionary work and having way too much fun at the members house, watching TV and using the computer. It lasts for awhile, then nobody pays attention and it's back to business as usual.
As recently as a few short years ago, it seems, (the last time I was around mormonite members, not-really-meeting houses and doctored-up deprograms in de crux of joseph's myth of [de] tattle tell saints) - just before or about the time I first visited this great place - they were MAKING the members "sign up" (every day of the month!) to feed the animals, I mean, missionaries (just going by what I hear-see many LDS gospel preachers get treated, such as having them pay, and then say it isn't enough; they can't be self-sufficient, independent, unless the 'remembers' invite them in for an inspection, a teaching [me-them?], and a FEAST, or meal, just so they won't stave, of food or knowledge).
FEED the missing aries! Don't feed the MISSION!
This is a zoo. The animals-[mis]leaders are hungry. All they have to eat is the three triple tithing threats of temple badges, dogma and shiFt!-hungry [starving for knowledge, direction, thanks] missionaries.
The 'church' gets fat on it's lethargy, confusion, indirection, and lack of facts, not to mention lack of interest or truth. It's still skinny because it has NOTHING to share.
Exactly what I fail to understand. I was thrilled when anybody offered something; whether it was something cold to drink or food. It was the kindness from both members and non members that kept me going as a missionary. It certainly wasn't my asshat mission mission president or the windbag apostles.
IF I make dinner plans, I'd better LIKE, know [want to get to know/ wants to know me-better], have time [and FOOD] for, and have mutual interests, and so forth.
Whoever DROPS by [missionaries ALWAYS dropped by, so why try to make plans with them anyway] will get what they get, and what I give them.
I don't experience interactions with missing aries these days... but if I did, I'd give them HELL-o-Heaven.
They are going to have to stash more money. TSCC is SCARED of them learning ANYTHING