So I just saw an ad posted on a FB page here in Lethbridge by a couple of "not quite dry behind the ears" looking missionaries offering their services in service to the community. So people are asking them to do yard cleanup, etc. New strategy from Cult HQ or just a couple o' boys showing initiative?...and if they are Americans (as many are who serve up here) does this fall outside the mandate of their visas?

Sounds like a liability to me. Who pays if they get hurt or damage something?

This is happening in lots of missions. I had a non-mo friend in Norway ask me "WTF" these guys were up to. Sending out facebook requests to old ladies wanting to come to their house and help.

stopped me on a Sunday. I was walking my dogs and they asked me if I was in a different ward (since this ward was in church at the time) and I told them I had resigned. They then offered to do ANYTHING that I needed done like mowing lawn, weeding, painting, etc. They said they wouldn't bring up the church to me at all. They were pretty much begging. I said no. My daughter told me that they have NOTHING to do. This was long before COVID.

The lady missionaries who were here before several years ago would stop people at the local gas station, mini mart and say hello and then start asking if they could help them at all doing work around the house.

Maybe they can rake the forest.

Or comb the desert. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hD5eqBDPMDg

I was at a show n shine last summer with my hotrod and I think these same 2 guys were ogling the cars and one contacted me on Facebook to ask about my car. I told him I was an exmo but that I love chatting about cars but to check his mishie deal at the door. He was cool with that.

I shared this experience from my mission (30 some years ago). It involved putting up sheetrock inside a home.

swear

A set of elders that I knew when I was serving, had scored a big service job of sheet-rocking a room for some member. They would always brag about it the work they were doing at every district/zone meeting. The member that they were helping even bragged about the help he was getting from this set of elders during f/t meeting.

So on one of our p-days, we ended up at their apartment. On their makeshift bulletin board were all these candid photos; several had the finished work. It looked like crappy work. A bunch were crooked and cock-eyed. There were gaps all over the place. In placing one sheet, a brand new panel had a hole in it.

My companion was very blunt. "This looks like shit. Do you two even know what you're doing?" And one said No. And he asked about the hole. The elder said. "Yeah I slipped and my shoe made the hole. Brother ____ said it's no big deal. He'll install a light switch there."

If it's cheap, it'll be expensive.

I can't lift those heavy moving boxes I filled after my mother died and I packed all her stuff.


What's the number for "Rent A Missionary"? I'm not into Facebook.

Once you put stuff in a box, it falls into the purview of the Elders Quorum! You almost committed a real faux pas!!! I think ghawd would have wept!

Not sure about the rules in Canada for non working visas, but it would be a violation in the US. Working is working even if you work for free (logic is that doing work for free means a person is not hired to do said work).

I also think that in both Canada and the US there is a difference between what is technically not allowed, and what can get you removed from the country.

In the US there is a difference between what is technically not allowed, and what can get you removed from the country.

Preaching, lying, promising, claiming, "helping", shifting, digging, loafing... these things should do it.

When I lived in Montana, my house was a known "safe place" for missionaries. We had an understanding. No talk of the gospel. They could come use my internet, watch TV, call their families/girlfriends, etc. I lived there for 9 years and some missionaries used my "safe place" more than others.

Anyway, even way back in the dark ages of 2009 missionaries were looking for odd jobs to do. They stained my backyard fence every year. They helped me clean out my garage. They painted the trim on my house. They shoveled my snow. They were BORED and doing odd jobs was better than walking the streets knocking on doors.

A couple months ago, the sister missionaries showed up at my property and asked if they could do any service for me. One of my neighbors must be a member. I told them that I always have horse manure to shovel, but that I couldn't ask them to do that in their skirts. They would have to wear boots and pants and prepare to get grungy. They haven't been back.

Way to work them.

That's the work!

I feel bad for most missionaries. Both of my brothers served missions because of family/church pressure and neither wanted to go. I imagine many of these young people are in the same predicament. They were all well aware that I had been raised in the church and had left. As long as they didn't try to reactivate me or bear their testimonies, they were free to be themselves in my home. I imagine that walking the streets knocking on doors was far less fun than staining my fence.

In my humble opinion if you invite the missionaries to do work on your property they become "business invitees" thereby exposing you to all kinds of responsibilities and liabilities. If they should be injured on your property who pays damages?
I would only allow them to do work on my property if they signed an idemnify and hold harmless agreement.
In this day and age it is dangerous to even hire someone to clean your house without damage protection.
There are people out there who hire on with the objective of suing the employer to gather up insurance money!

I tried to ignore this, but woe is me, I'm weak!


How about this... You have a porch that's two steps up from the front walkway. One of the steps has a warped tread. Who among the following could sue you (and expect a jury to agree with them) for injuries when they tripped on the warped tread?

a) your mailman
b) a visiting grandchild
c) the missionary you 'invited' to mow your lawn
d) your boss, coming to dinner
e) a JW, come to preach to you
f) a roommate


Would anything change if you had a locked gate that would only open if you had to push a button that was labeled, "By pushing this button to gain entry, I agree to indemnify and hold harmless Mr. Desert Rat from any and all mishap and injury I might sustain on his property"?



(You created a "business invitee" class of people whom you felt need to sign hold harmless firms... Just like Costco?)



Civil courts exist to sort out disagreements because the parties couldn't agree between themselves. One side (and often times both sides!) is/are certain that the court will find for him/her/it/them.

But basically, if you could wrap your head around "The Reasonable Person" standard, you'd answer many of your own questions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_person




Perhaps the hardest part of the Reasonable Person standard is that YOU, as a trier-of-fact are never allowed to base a verdict on the notion that YOU are a Reasonable Person. It's never, "What would I decide regarding the presented facts?", but "What would the Reasonable Person decide?"

Would anything change if you had a locked gate that would only open if you had to push a button that was labeled, "By pushing this button to gain entry, I agree to indemnify and hold harmless Mr. Desert Rat from any and all mishap and injury I might sustain on his property"?
THAT IS A GREAT IDEA!!!

Except that there's no guarantee it would work.

You are not allowed to insulate yourself via hold harmless agreements from many forms of negligence.

Especially when there is a strong inducement to sign the agreement, or to push the gate-opening button.

All I remember from Torts is "No manmade death traps." I think they were talking about attractive nuisances or something.

Oh and "If you didn't get them into the fix, you don't have a duty to help them out."

And the severed leg in the bag case. I think it's still good law. Gammon v. Osteopathic Hospital of Maine, Inc.

Like I would trust a missionary to repair anything in my house.

They should become the new mailmen, the salesmen, the know fail men... the newspaper (and all) delivery men, handyman, friendly neighborhood dog walking guys, and errands runners, all-in-one.

That way they could catch up on the neighborhood gossip and TSCC could feel like it's doing good for a change.

Yeah, where is it?