My dad did a lot of international traveling for his job. Sometimes he would take me along. My dad being the good Mormon he was would find the local LDS meeting house in whatever country we were in and we would go to church. Sometimes we would deliver packages for missionaries to the mission home.

One thing I did notice is the church was the same anywhere. It was like going to McDonald's. A quarter pounder tastes the same in Hong Kong as it does in Orem, Utah. I remember being in Peru at the mission home in Lima visiting with a missionary couple from our home town. They had spent most their mission in the mission office. They knew very little about Peru. They knew very little about what country they were in. The mission president knew more about the country but I was shocked at how little he knew about the country as well. Basically he was managing a church franchise in Peru. Much like managing a salesforce. It all was so sterile and corporate.

Of course these people return home and tell exotic stories about their mission abroad. Mormons embellish things a lot. Nobody get's up to the podium and says,"I worked in the office shuffling paper. I experienced little of where I was."

The church is a bubble. It's all about obeying the leaders and following orders. It's about reading the Book of Mormon over and over and over and following whatever programs they have going. That's Mormonism. It's not about having your own experiences or thinking for yourself. It's about running the course the leaders have designed and doing what they tell you to do.

I got tired of it and left.

Mormons would say they're focused on what really matters.

They believe they're focused on saving souls and building up the Kingdom of God. Really, they're just trying to find more customers for the corporation.

Except they know not what matters
Because the 'mis-leaders' don't know.
That's their only direction.
Even if it's to nowhere.

But members pockets.
Holey Pockets!

You're right. They think that they are certified experts in Latin America studies because they have read the book of mormon hundreds of times. Never mind that they have only heard a passing mention of the Incas and are clueless about Simon Bolivar. They are prudent in the affairs of the mighty Lamanites and their descendants.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2019 03:23PM by messygoop.

The Church has gone to a great deal of trouble to be exactly like a McDonald's franchise - instantly recognizable, and the same "product" everywhere. Any LDS chapel that has been built in the last 50 years is recognizable as an LDS chapel. Missionaries are instantly recognizable (sisters in slacks may take awhile to be part of the recognition template!). The lesson manuals are the same. If you are out of town on a Sunday and visit a local ward, you will likely get the same lesson you would have gotten at home.

For both members and outsiders, the leaders want Mormonism to look and feel familiar no matter where you are. It is a deliberate marketing decision.

Amen and amen to the statement that "Mormonism is a tightly sealed bubble".

Many years in the past, after my husband and I lost the battle of trying to talk our dear first born daughter out of a mission, and then when she got her call, to pleeeease ask for it be rethought and re-revealed (ha, ha) so she could not be sent to such a god-forsaken, unsafe and unclean country, she stepped on the plane that would take her there anyway.

Before that fateful day, I spent a lot of time at the library (no internet then) to find out more about this country BECAUSE the MormonCult was not telling her information and facts except, you know, to NOT forget her scriptures and pack 13 pairs of nylons, even though the country's year round temperature was 102 F (ok, I am slightly exaggerating, but just slightly).

I was so angry, so broken that the cult had her ears and trust, stolen from her evil, non-attending Mormon apostate parents. I knew from what I read, that even though she would be surrounded by amazing colorful, loving people in this country, she would see poverty, disease, and even sexual happenings which would forever haunt her.

She was too young and too sheltered and too unprepared to be going to this country or any country. At this time in her life she needed to be doing what young people are meant to do....to have the freedom and time to explore, learn, make choices and make new friends. To discover who they are without adults hovering over them, sharing their ideas and rules.

I myself learned what a tightly sealed bubble the cult is through this experience. Three of my children served missions and to this day I know more about these three countries without ever stepping onto their soil than they do.

But, these three "ever-more TBM children" can quote more scripture than I can.

that people read the book "Heaven Up Here" (I believe the title is) that can be found on Amazon about John's (runner is it?) mission to Bolivia? My mind isn't so good these days and I'm too lazy to go find the book. The young missionaries have to deal with the country, not the leaders.

In fairness, I will say that some of the wards on my mission were way friendlier than most of the wards I experienced in Utah. Maybe it's just the area, or maybe people tend to be more open-minded when the mormon concentration is less and they have to acknowledge that there is life outside the bubble.

I got the impression from most American missionaries in my Latin American mission that they were there to teach Mormon culture to the locals to improve their lives so why would the American Mormons bother to learn about this inferior culture? I was always disgusted by many of my fellow Americans in my mission. Many would refer to their Latino companions as their “brown guy”. I was out pretty much within a year after my mission and have kept in touch with many ex Latino missionaries and none of the Americans.

Wow! and the latinos didn't punch their sorry mouths???

No, not many of them spoke English. And the American guys would only say it to other American guys.

I very much relate to D&D n Darksparks. Serving in a Latin American country surrounded by people who were happier and friendlier with much less than those of my small Utah town was a huge eye opener for me as well. And seeing the ugliness of my own culture manifested thru self righteous missionaries was the icing on the cake.

The Mormons church as Franchise!

So many Elders on my South American mission would A) put down the people and the place always saying how much better things were in Utah/Idaho/Arizona, (Back in my days in the field you would be hard-pressed to find anyone from anywhere else) and B) not absorb/appreciate the culture or even keep their eyes open to it as they looked forward to P-Day playing basketball with the other entitled Elders.

They all proved the Mormon bubble is indeed portable and very difficult to pop because they can only be popped from the inside.

Luckily I had a very big sharp object to do the job.

I've a friend whose son went on a mission to the Philippines. The culture among the people there was so warm and loving that it opened his eyes to the ice-cold competitiveness and jealousy of the Mormon culture he grew up in. He told his mom--a former Mormon by then--that his fellow missionaries and he had "nothing" to teach these people; and he slowly quit the church when he got back.

Yes. That is what happened to me. I grew up in the mountains of Utah in an all Mormon county and left for my mission believing the rest of the world was lost---lone and dreary world. I gave my mission farewell about how I was going to bring true happiness that only we as Mormons knew to the gentiles in South America

Argentina blew my mind. The city Buenos Aires, the food, the culture, the beauty, and the people--the people who were already pretty damn happy and not saddled with the false claims I had come to make.

The foreign mission opened my eyes. It was not as advertized by Mormons. It was the beginning of the end of Mormonism for me although I didn't realize it at the time.

I felt like your friend's son. The people had plenty to offer me and I had little to offer them. Although I did teach one land lady to make Lemon Merengue pie and she sliced it sixteen ways and took it to everyone she knew. My contribution to the people of San Nicolas!

Done & Done Wrote:
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> Although I did teach one land lady to make Lemon Merengue pie and she sliced it sixteen ways and took it to everyone she knew.

Have you been back to visit? Maybe you started a new cult, the lemon meringue pie cult! Those who master the art get to go to heaven!!! Maybe your picture is up on their walls, on top of pie-plate altars!!!

It is a better thing to have taught than BoM for sure!!!

I saw that the Filipinos were happier than I was even if they didn’t know the “truth.” My mind couldn’t rest while thinking that I had something that they didn’t. I eventually realized that I had as much faith in Santa Claus as I did in Jesus, and that Filipinos are happy because they aren’t judgmental pricks like we were.