At some time or another, in every ward I was in, the bishop would give the very same speech (not a regular SM talk) in SM meeting regarding the current young ward missionaries.

Essentially, it was this:

“Elder P & Elder Q (standing on either side of the bishop) have made a great sacrifice: they have left their families for two years in order to spread the word of the Lord. They have been working very hard for weeks in our ward, but have not found anyone to teach. It is well known that far more conversions occur through member referrals than any other way. Yet (shaking head) no one in this ward has given a single referral to these valiant elders.

“The Lord must be very disappointed in us.

“It can be discouraging to have so little success because the members are not helping. Being member missionaries is part of our responsibility! We must do our duty! This week, look around you at your neighbors, work colleagues, and others; and (stares seriously and meaningfully at the members) COMMIT to the Lord that you will make a referral to these young elders for the missionary discussions.”

Was this a periodic talk in your ward(s) as well?

We had the same talk in our ward over a decade ago before I resigned. I remember these kinds of talks done back when I was a kid.

The same crap repeats itself. The members are to blame for everything.

The members will pretty much do nothing. One of two of them might try to curry favor with the Bishop, but nothing significant will come out of it.

The missionaries need to knock on doors and everyone in church knows that's how its done. Waste of time.

The Bishop is spinning his wheels.

...lest you pick up any bad habits or ideas from them. Then it eats up all your time with church-focused busywork. Finally it blames you for not having any non-Mormon friends. Not even fake I-only-want-to-sic-the-missionaries-on-you friends. And no one with half a brain would approach a coworker about religion. I mean, you still have to work with them after they discover you were only trying to sign them up for the Amway of religions.

Nailed it!

This is crazy making bat guano!

On the other side of town the Mission president was telling the Elders that they must be masturbating because there haven't been very many baptisms...

OMFG this keeps getting worse and worse!

yeah, try keeping a straight face in one of those meetings...

+1, for mentioning masturbation.

Why would I want my friends and neighbors to be as miserable as I am.
Callings I didn't want or didn't like.
Meetings meeting meetings.
Endless responsibilitys, do this do that, if you hesitate you are called unfaithful, lazy, and on and on and on.

If members actually enjoyed TSCC you couldn't keep them from telling their friends and neighbors about it.

The last Ra Ra missonary meeting I went to several years ago was the "40 Day Fast" for missionary work. When the signup sheet came to my I passed it on without even looking at it.

A forty-day fast for mission work? I wouldn't even fast for 40 nanoseconds LOL

I didn't do much mishi work for that very reason. Why would i trap someone in this 'church'? it would be better if they didn't hear about the church til rhe next life. then they could spend their time doing valuable stuff with their families, not be subject to endless boring church and no coffee or tea oe alcohol etc. And be subjected to all the prejudices and stereotypes the church has about women. bleh, who needs that. i was unluckey enuf to be one of the 'chosen' ones, but i didn't think too many others wanted that 'blessing'. and that's when i thot it was still true!

Gosh, WiserWomanNow, I just recently heard a version of this talk! (I'm still under cover for family reasons about my apostasy, so I still attend Sac meeting.) It's STILL "all the members' fault" that the mishies have no one to teach. When I heard that stupid party line again, all I could do was roll my eyes and look for a barf bag. Stupid cult.

No but one 5th Sunday combined meeting, I had to get the biggest guilt trip shit from a counselor of the mission presidency who rode my poor ward's butt for not having a convert baptism in over a year. I was horrified to look back and see my RS president crying!!!!

O_o

Later he went on some rampage about his brother causing all sorts of trouble at YBU and how glad he was his brother left Utah! OMFG! I hope to God I'll never have to see this jerk ever again in my lifetime.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2011 06:21PM by imalive.

getting sent to ex-mo homes and "do not contact" inactive members who haven't officially left. Members don't want to annoy their real friends by inactives and former members are already "disaffected" so why not send the poor missionaries to them and get credit for "helping".

Even when I believed in the Church, I would never give them any names. For one thing, I didn't know anyone who'd be interested. If I did, they'd have probably come to church through me.

But for someone I hardly knew, there was no way I was going to send the missionaries after them. I didn't want them to be mad at me. LOL