The mishies were tracting tonight. I guess because my house doesn't have a doorbell, they had to knock SUPER loud on the window. They did this once before too, even louder--that time I ignored them. This time I answered and they talked like they were entitled to a warm welcome to enter my house at 8:00pm. It's been mentioned on the board before how this can be disruptive to families with small children, who go down for bed at this time. In general, it's invasive of people's alone time after work or whatever plans they have for the evening. I don't want weird, uninvited strangers entering my home at any time, let alone when it's dark out. Tracting is an outdated practice needs to end.

Yeah well, good luck with that. People were saying the same thing 30 years ago when I was on my mission and yet it persists today. If the missionaries actually had people to teach and other productive things to do, believe me, they wouldn't be doing it. So this shows the missionaries in your area must have time they need to kill...

What I loved about tracting was not doing it, but saying that we did!

That's how you make tracting a totally agreeable endeavor.

Could that be the same as not haveing sex but saying you did?

It sounds like the missionaries were detracting from your quality of life.

Hah. Good one.

that they don't tract in this area any longer (Cache Valley). The missionaries were literally begging me to give them a chore to do for me. They promised they wouldn't talk religion. They were just desperate to have something to do. My daughter told me that, yes, this is a problem since they can't tract.

Missionaries in our area are often seen helping move people. One of the ladies in my mom's retirement village had the missionaries move her in. She told us later that one of her children is Mormon and he suggested the missionaries help her. LDS, Inc. could use missionaries to do moving at a low cost that would help the missionary earn some money and older people would not have to pay too much for moving. See. I've learned my lessons well while being Mormon. Money first.

It's still dark in most places @ 8:00;

I'm wondering if the OP made a call to the MP & explained to him from the POV he did here... would there be any effect?

Especially for the Lady (from my day) 'Sister' missionaries.

tracting after dark? That's a big NO as far as I'm concerned...

I've noticed that people rarely even invite close friends over to their homes anymore (in contrast to the way it was a few decades ago). Nowadays, the almost universal preference is to meet in restaurants and coffee shops, or other public places. People just don't want the disruption of having people coming over to their homes.

I'm not saying it's good or bad. It's just the way it is. And being the way that it is, finding a couple of strange guys or gals at your door who obviously are selling a cult is one of the last things that anyone wants to deal with.

Tracting is so 1960s. These days, it seems increasingly likely that the only types who will welcome them inside with open arms and a smile will be psychopaths.

If the Church really wants to grow, they have to make the church a place that is socially enjoyable as a community. They are not going to get anywhere focusing on selling the Book of Mormon, the Word of Wisdom and the Temples. Fun activities, some lighthearted activities, good food, dances, plays, music. Enough of that and people will be willing to hold their noses and pretend like the Book of Mormon is something great.

But they're going the opposite direction. Strip out all the fun. Force people to say Jesus's name 100 times a day so that Jesus won't be sad. No coffee. No tea. No wine.

Under these circumstances tracting as a Mormon missionary is worse than being an encyclopedia salesman. At least the encyclopedias look good on a bookshelf. All the Mormon missionaries have to sell is misery.

"What do you know about our misery? Would you like to know more? We are representatives of the 'Church of Jesus Christ Feels Disrespected When You Call Us Mormons.'

"Have you ever considered how much more blessed your life would be if you could give 10% of your gross annual income to some old men in Salt Lake City?

"Have you been wondering why your church has never sold you underwear?

"Do you feel like you've been missing out on some secret handshakes?

"Well, if you answered 'yes' to any of those questions, today is your lucky day. If you answered 'no' to any of those questions, we'll just pretend that you answered 'yes'.

Great, WP, I suggest:


How would U like one of your family members, who U love, to decide that you're not 'worthy enough' to be a parent, a child, or a sibling & shut U out of their life? i.e. being Shunned?


How would U like a neighbor or someone at work to use religion as a Wedge in an otherwise good relationship?

How would U like to wait outside in the parking lot of a relatives wedding because you're prohibited from going inside?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2019 02:58AM by GNPE.

I almost never get a doorbell ring anymore. Friends and family notify me via a cell phone call that they've arrived. Or I'm already at the door to my building, waiting for them. If I get a knock on my door, it's either a neighbor who lives in my building, or (rarely) a stranger. And I likely won't be opening the door to a stranger.

I agree with you, Wally. IMO the only hope for the long term survival of the Mormon church is to return more money to the wards for social activities. Make church a more pleasant place to be. For some reason the higher-ups can't see this. Right now, they are very bent on retention and potential expansion via temple building.

I'll add one more to your list --

"We have the Masonic ceremonies, but at a much higher cost."

Even most businesses are getting smart about this. They know to retain their employees, especially millennials, they need to create a work-life balance and social opportunities. The famous late unMormon Stephen Covey understood this, listing it as habit #4 in the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I read the book a long time ago, but remember it saying how people need to give to each other, not taking all the time, to maintain their friendships. ChurchCo's not fulfilling its end of the bargain. ChurchCo always takes, never gives. Cleaning church toilets doesn't count as a social activity. ChurchCo should've made Covey ring leader haha.

WP
-If the Church really wants to grow, they have to make the church a place that is socially enjoyable as a community. They are not going to get anywhere focusing on selling the Book of Mormon, the Word of Wisdom and the Temples. Fun activities, some lighthearted activities, good food, dances, plays, music. Enough of that and people will be willing to hold their noses and pretend like the Book of Mormon is something great.-

Not promoting any religion or church, but many churches in my area ARE doing something like this. Jeez, even the JW's have this going and their parking lot is packed.

Habitat for Humanity is a perfect venue for a mormon missionary to do something useful for his/her fellow man. Promoting one's religion helps no one but the promoter.

I can see a great and positive response from the peoples of all nations as hordes of 18 to 20-year-old Mormonic youth roamed the land, building houses, succoring the lame and ill and doing all manner good works, simply for the pleasure of helping their fellow men.

That could cause some SERIOUS good karma for Even TSCC...People might even want to find out what kind of church these kids came from!

On my mission, 1979-1981, we were instructed to "tract or teach"..no other activities were allowed. Since this was in France, as you can imagine, we spent our mandatory 60 hour work week tracting...Funny how tracting has gone from a mandated activity to a forbidden activity in just 39 short years...I could have told them tracting was a stupid waste of time decades ago....

Imagine the reaction of MPs in those bygone days if you had asked to spend time trying to reactivate the inactive!

I tracted Madonna's home when I was a mish in Bay City MI.

The Supremes apt or condo was in my area at one time...

When I lived alone, the "door-knockers" were not the missionaries, but various bishoprics, stake presidencies, RS presidencies, in groups of three, and always after 8:00. My last nasty, threatening bishop would announce himself and his counselors as, "The Three."

What is it about Mormons, that they can't just use the doorbell? Like Summer, and most normal people, I'm usually expecting whoever comes to my door. When I hear LOUD BANGING, I know it's the Mormons!

The men who abused my sons were actually criminals. I don't want to reveal who I am, but one Mormon ward and stake leader was prosecuted for manslaughter, but his company, and the Mormons, got him off. I didn't know about this, until after I left the cult. He was (and is still in the ward) a large, frightening man, and I had to kick him out of my house, because he was picking up my son and shoving him across the room--and he would not stop--until I had the phone in my hand and was dialing the police. I got a restraining order against him. My son was and is a good person. We couldn't leave that cult fast enough!

Years after we resigned, various pairs of men would bang on my door, demanding my childrens' addresses and phone numbers--AS IF I would give them to those thugs. All of this type of stalking should end, but it never will. Mormons are above the law, and above the standards of polite society.

The missionaries are nothing, compared to the bullies in our ward. Not only tracting should be abolished, but "visiting members in their homes" should be outlawed. I have fears that the Mormon cult's new "study the Bible at home" program will give these creeps further license to go into people's houses to check up on them.

AS IF I would allow any of them into my home to move furniture, or even into my yard to rake leaves. Zero contact is the only way to stay unviolated.

If members of the church I attend now should start coming to my house unannounced, I would quit immediately, and never go back!

Whenever I see the missionaries I always think how bad it must be, still tracking the same streets that I tracted 30 years ago!

Some areas were so small that you could knock practically every door in a 3 or 4 month transfer. Then the next companionship do it again, then the next one ect.

Can you imagine what it must be like to tell the Mormons 2 or 3 times every single year that you're still not interested lol.

That rings a bell! A small town in my mission had it's chapel built in 1928, and dedicated by David O. McKay that same year. When they built the chapel, they also build a nice little two-bedroom cottage, for the missionaries, two pairs of them.

During the three months I was there, we tracted out the entire little town twice, as did the other set of missionaries. That's literally eight times a year missionaries knock on the same door.

The one intriguing street was the Street of Dreams: the red light district. It was one block long, with a big wall on one side of the street; the occupied side was a humble block-long one-story adobe building with a doorway about every 12 feet. The women would sit out front when they weren't busy. Believe me, there was nothing, at least to me, remotely 'appetizing' about the presentation. But it was ... interesting.

I think LDS Inc. has found itself in a real pickle with its missionary program. For years it was easy to just send kids out to knock on doors. Kept them busy all day.

Without tracting there is no real structure to the missionaries day. They either have to annoy people on the streets or find some kind of service, a.k.a manual labor to perform. Seems like service consists of helping people move, which is pretty lousy if you ask me. Parents are sending $400/month to Salt Lake City and sending their kids away for two years just so they can provide a free moving service. Really?

LDS knows that tracting is ineffective and unsafe, but as usual, they wait for something to become a big problem before making changes. They will need to completely overhaul the missionary program.

When I was on a mission, we were not allowed to return home from tracting until 9:00 p.m. Definitely got some people really mad at us, and definitely walked down some scary streets in the dark. But it was all for the Lord.

Looking back, I am seriously taken aback by the sheer irresponsibility on the part of the Church for encouraging those kinds of situations. It really would have been more useful to learn some basics of real relationships, such as respecting peoples' boundaries and being sensitive to their real needs and desires.

Somebody banging loudly on my window at nine at night better be an emergency and bleeding to death, otherwise they might be looking down the barrel of a .357.

In a way, I'm surprised more missionaries haven't been shot or looked into a barrel of a gun for banging on someone's window after 8pm, being mistaken for burglars.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2019 02:32PM by doyle18.

Yup