My Monday morning is now complete, having watched this video of two sister missionaries in the England Leeds mission rapping for Mormon Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith.

https://www.facebook.com/100004180605843/videos/1578047612344577/UzpfSTE0NDY0OTYxODI6MTAyMjMyNTc1NjQzNzQ1MTY/

Maybe I should learn to rap instead of playing guitar...

By the way, I thought all the mishies had to go home due to the virus. I guess I was mistaken.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/2020 02:17AM by knotheadusc.

Gag. I guess they have nothing better to do. Their parents pay $500/month so they can waste their time making up stupid songs.

I found a pretty interesting story about LDS missionaries yesterday. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Armenia back in the 1990s-- the third group to go there after the Soviet Union fell apart. There was one LDS couple in my group, but they were there as PCVs, not church representatives.

I guess since I left Armenia in 1997, the church has been sending shitloads of missionaries. An Armenian friend shared a news article that prompted me to look up a part of Yerevan (Armenia's capital) called "Bangladesh". I found a very interesting article written about Yerevan's "Bangladesh", and in it was this story about missionaries:

"Alik’s Russian slowly slid into Armenian, and my Armenian-speaking friend took over the conversation. Our new friend was surprised. He broke off his sentence, arched an eyebrow and contemplated us again.

“You’re not… Mormons are you?” No, we were not.

“Just that… there are a lot of young foreign guys in Armenia who speak good Armenian and work for those sects, for those… missionaries,” he spat. “But Armenia has her own church, an ancient church, the first church. So we don’t need any of that.”

He leaned in, conspiratorially, and added “one hundred percent – one hundred percent – of the American Embassy staff here are Mormon”

We say our goodbyes and run into Silva who smiles at us knowingly. “Don’t mind Alik, all he does is talk. He’s a good sort really.” I ask to take a photo and she is happy to oblige. “No problem! I’m used to it. Whenever we have Iranians here, they always want to take a photo. Iranians with cameras.”

That, I felt, was a subject best left to the Mormons at the American Embassy."

Having lived in Armenia for two years, I can totally hear this exchange in my mind. I would imagine Mormonism would be a very tough sell in a place where people love their coffee, tea, booze, and cigarettes, and are extremely proud of being the world's first officially Christian country.

I used to think the missions were mostly a waste of time, but I will go on record now as saying that I'm glad my husband's daughter did one. It really helped her grow up and see life beyond the Mormon lens...

But I fear the two ladies in the Facebook video may be way beyond hope!

Yes, Mormon missions can be eye-opening. As I've said before, something like 50% of returning missionaries are more or less unchanged, as if they had never left Utah at all; 30% have developed a respect for the culture and a fondness for the food; and 20% are completely transformed. For that last category, the time abroad can be profoundly valuable--although in retrospect I wish I'd done the peace corps instead.

I'd add, though, that you can't always tell which ones will be transformed by the experience. The seeds have to germinate and grow before we see what fruit they yield.

In my husband's daughter's case, I think it was valuable if only because it got her away from her batshit crazy mother. She got to see people that weren't in the bubble she was raised in and learned that many good people aren't church members or are ex members. Also, she met some very good church people who helped her go to college, since her mother let her go to Utah from New Hampshire without so much as a set of sheets.

If we had been in touch with her and had known about her needs, we would have helped her. I am very glad that church members helped when we couldn't.

However... as a life altering and maturing experience, my guess is that the Peace Corps is a much better bet, if only because you get to see the country without promoting a religious agenda. I was more than ready to leave Armenia after my time there, but it remains in a special place in my heart. It was a life changing experience for me.

The LDS experience is set up so that missionaries are protected from local people and values, so that they don't "go native." From that perspective yes, the peace corps is a better, more open and honest, international sojourn. The other important difference is what you guys did had a lot more social and moral value than Mormon missions. You didn't waste your years: we largely did.

But many of the people I knew on my foreign mission--and by "many" I probably mean 3%--the overseas experience was the first of many academic and/or professional stays in our host country or others. I hated my mission, which was by general standards run much worse than typical ones, but it transformed many lives in ways the church did not expect or want.

Regarding the utility of the church as a crutch to help kids escape dysfunctional families, I have seen that both in normal LDS congregations and on missions. As hard as it is to say, there are situations that are so bad that the structure and values of Mormonism are an improvement. One can only hope that the people involved are eventually able to take the next step.

I think in Ex's case, the church involvement turned younger daughter into a "monster" who was more interested in the church's rules than her mother's rules. Initially, Ex decided to convert to Mormonism, supposedly because she had a friend who was LDS. And also because she had seen a family in a restaurant that seemed "perfect" and figured out they were Mormons. Or, at least that is the story I was told.

She eventually used it as a means of alienating my husband from his daughters and controlling her children. He wasn't "worthy" of them because he quit the church and because he enjoyed forbidden substances. When she remarried for the third time, she got her husband to convert.

Now, it seems that the church is no longer useful to her and she's abandoned it, but younger daughter is really into it. And the church helped her escape her mother, who is very narcissistic, controlling, and probably otherwise mentally ill. I'm sure Ex regrets becoming LDS now, especially since it worked a little too well and gave my husband's younger daughter a place to go when she needed an escape from the dysfunction.

Younger daughter wisely realized her mother and her grandmother had both been married multiple times (apparently grandma had six or seven husbands-- she wasn't LDS). She wanted no part of that. She married a missionary who had served near where Ex now lives. Ex was totally against that, even though she'd initially been so approving of the LDS church. We heard that when younger daughter decided to move back west, Ex attempted suicide... or so it seemed.

My husband finally got to see his younger daughter in March for the first time since 2004. She was very tolerant of the fact that he's no longer a Mormon. There was a time when she acted hateful toward him for not being LDS and "worthy". This is the same kid who, when she was nine and having her only visit in our house, slapped my husband because we had beers in the fridge. For quite some time, she was like a super Molly and kind of "cop-like" toward the other family members. Now, she's accepting and kind, and she and my husband bonded over their mutual experience with Ex.

When she was younger, though, I could totally see her making a goofy rap video about how great the church is... and how true the gospel is, as she was also being hateful toward non believers. But when it comes down to it, the church helped her escape her mom, much like the Army helped my husband escape the Ex.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/2020 10:26AM by knotheadusc.

It looks as if most of the non-US missionaries returned home from England but the American ones remain.

That's... horrible :-/

I thought the UK was getting a thrashing from covid, but unleashing those two grinning robots on the unsuspecting people of Leeds is inhumane to the extreme!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/2020 09:55AM by Soft Machine.

The UK is getting a massive thrashing from Covid 19. Why isn't Brother Rusty bringing these kids home?

Bwahahahaha! It gave me quite a laugh, though. There’s something so goofy and innocent about it. One of them has a video of another missionary singing an original song on ukulele. He has a decent voice and plays well, but while the melody is pretty, the lyrics are kind of cringeworthy.

I don’t understand the devotion to church young Mormons have. When I was a kid (I am a nevermo), I hated church.

ziller found it difficult to dance to that vid OPie ~


plz try harder ~


thx ~

What is the brunette doing with her hands ?

I found that often people who’ve been sexually molested try to cover their genitals in some way. If I were a therapist, I’d be asking her that question.

Bad attempt at being 'gangsta' IMO.

Notice that they do the 'COJC' thing and leave off the 'LDS' part; no way that's a coincidence despite the admonition a couple years back about "using the full name of the church" from Rusty.
Not to disappoint however, they got right into the JS stuff and the "church is twooo!"

I didn’t notice it until you pointed it out. :o

Now I am wondering if this is a church thing. I saw another video by two other sister mishies doing a rap about how great the church is. It was just as cringeworthy, although in this one, there was no crotch grabbing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2020 12:27AM by knotheadusc.

Do you really want me to visualize the sisters doing it ?

I would provide a link, but I think the person who shared it is persona non grata here.

A persona none grata?!?! How exciting!

Could you email me the link and the name of the fabulous person? Mostly the name... It's my screen name at Gmail. But don't tell anyone else!

Alright... check your mail.

I am persona non grata here

I am a persona au gratin.

Aw... me too! My ass is made of mac n’ cheese.

Quite an image, that.

;-)

Every time I make homemade mac n’ cheese, I call it a present for my ass. Because it is... and I gift my ass very often.