I had an interesting dinner tonight.

My brother and his wife just moved into our area as senior missionaries.

We invited them out to dinner. "We" being my husband and myself. I haven't seen this sibling for about 10 years. Suddenly out of the blue my hubby gets a FB message that they are moving here to serve a mission. Ok.

They wanted to get together so we took them out to dinner. We arrived 15 minutes early and ordered a glass of wine before they arrived.

I'll give them credit. They acted like they were out to dinner with any other friend they might have. No comments about wine. No comments whatsoever about if we are still members. IDK if they know we left the church several years ago or not. They kept their cool about it.

They really wanted to talk about their mission, but I did my best to keep that at a minimum. I tried to keep turning the subject to things like kids, jobs, health, and life in general.

They seemed happy see us, and said they wanted to get together again and go do something fun. Out of all my siblings, this one is the most likely to really mean that.

It will be interesting to see what the future brings. It was nice to be around a couple of Mormons that could talk about something besides church. Especially since they're on a mission. I think they're crazy for doing that, but to each their own. If that makes them happy, whatever.

Dinner with people who have an agenda ?

I can identify wanting to have positive channels open. BUT remember they have a lot of extra time on their hands now. I mean really. What do mishies do? If you have ever been on a mission you know that mishies do NOTHING

AT LEAST (as I think) they don't have to account for every Fing 15 minutes of their time;


dinner with apostates? that's 'Good Time' for a mish!!!

I made the comment that if the boss didn't like how the job was being done, no big deal. What will they do? Fire them???

My brother replied that maybe they'd cut the cost in half! That was a huge tid bit of info for me. They can't afford to be on this stupid mission. They sold their home before they left. They're living on their home equity!

This makes me sick. No retired person should be paying a cult to work for them.

I sit in silence because I suspect my view wouldn't be accepted.

The sil isn't someone I know. She laughed a lot of nervous laughter. I suspect she had a major hard time this evening. I felt sad for her.


The people the Mormon cult uses and abuses is sickening. If I were to tell the details of all of this, it would enrage many.

"They can't afford to be on this stupid mission. They sold their home before they left. They're living on their home equity!"

That is a depressing statement. The corporation drives people to near poverty by taking a large portion of a lifetime of savings and expecting them to work too. The corporation is not going to help them get another home. It simply does not care. I feel sorry for them, but they are adults and free to chose. Unfortunately, they made a very poor choice.

"they sold their home, and living on home equity"

That's where seniors (whether or devout or not) have to draw the line. They could have mortgaged their home and spent it in Vegas, that would have been equally ridiculous. It sounds to me that what is actually needed is some financial literacy. They may find themselves working retail well into their 80's just to afford the essentials. Which many people do. I have a neighbor who lost the house after bailing out his son's drug problems, etc.

But then again without a house it's easier to qualify for medicade. So that's a plus, if they are right on the border of what the gov considers poverty and not poverty.

I can't say what they do without outing who they are.

Trust me, the cult is taking advantage of them a minimum 70 hours a week. They pay the cult for the privilege.

Hubby and I are leaving the area for a few months, so won't be seeing them for awhile. I'm glad about that. I like my brother, but this situation really brings out the anxiety in me.

I'm hoping by the time we get back they will had enough of being used and abused. I can only hope. I would love to see them leave their mission early.

Did they wear their name tags?

Do you think you’ll ever hear how much their mission is costing them?

I was very surprised they didn't wear name tags!

I'm not sure why they didn't. Either they decided I know who they are, hence no need. OR....they've got wind that hubby and I have left the building. I'm not sure.

Whatever, i'm glad they didn't do that.

My brother made it very clear to my husband that they have zero problem going out and doing fun stuff like boating, fishing, sightseeing, etc.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

They usually can and do talk about a wide range of subjects and interests that aren't directly church related when it's just us. They will occasionally interject with something church-related. The only exception is TBM mom. But she's basically always idolized the church and its top leaders forever. It's the alpha and omega and everything in between. Everything, every conversation has to somehow be redirected so as to work in a "gospel" message.

When she really gets going with a captive audience, you can just see in the eyes of everyone in the room that their brains are going into powersave/sleep mode. Nothing to be done, but keep a simple app going that detects the end of the sermon. Then as soon as the end of the sermon is detected, you can see the light come back on in everyone's eyes as their brains start booting up.

I have some relatives who have done both. When they've done the service mission (donating their time and skills to operate some business or program of the church, so that the church doesn't have to pay someone a living wage to do the same work), they seem to be a lot more like normal people. They're just doing a job that's a bit "special" because it's for the Lard.

But when they did the preachy-type mission (meeting investigators, doing discussions, providing "information" on the gospel, etc.), they were more like the tightly controlled automatons that the younger missionaries are. Rules, rules, rules, dress code, curfew, blah, blah, blah....

to go on a mission. Well, both my mom's siblings went on seniors missions. The way they were able to go is that a few of their children married into money. One lives in a home their SIL and daughter own (he took over the large family business) and the other ones, the kids remodeled their older home while they were on their mission. My aunt who went with her husband to Brazil couldn't wait to get home. She was pretty desperate to get out of where they were at.

I'm so glad my parents were never THAT into the church. It seems to me that more and more couples are going on missions, but then they've had them take over a bunch of the paid jobs.

My daughter is living in the home of one of her mormon mothers. I have to give the couple credit, though, as they are the ones who finally got my daughter to get married. They invited she and her boyfriend (of several years) to dinner and told them they needed someone to care for their house while they were gone and so they needed to get married, and they decided to. This couple is on a mission in Nauvoo at the temple. They also have to pay rent for where they live. He retired early so they have to buy insurance and this is the first time my daughter has ever seen her "mormon mother" worried about money. They'll be home in 2 months. I wouldn't be surprised if this couple didn't go on several local missions.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2019 09:58AM by cl2.