I live in Salt Lake County. It's the 4th of July. I just saw two missionaries furiously peddling their bikes down the road, dressed in their white shirts and suit pants.

Don't they get this day off? Really? Who is going to let them in to discuss religion today? I was actually shocked as I thought for sure they would have today off. Or, do they still have to dress like that on P day?

I wouldn't be surprised if they're still "working" today, and yes, white shirt and suit pants even on P days.

It varies from mission to mission. Some MP make them dress in the white shirt/dark pants anytime they are out, on P-day some let them dress casual.
One mish here said "it's my day off, I'll dress how I want to" So far he's still here...

If it's not P-day, they don't usually get the day off. In fact, a celebration like Fourth of July usually gives you crowds of people to contact. I was in Spain, but we never got holidays off unless it was a huge holiday like Christmas where we'd offend people by trying to visit. And, we usually got enough breakfast/lunch/dinner invites with members on major holidays to fill up the day with "work" by building relationships of trust with the members.

On other holidays, a park full of celebrants was just begging for us to try and meet new contacts - or at the very least up the exposure of Mormons and Mormon missionaries by participating. When I was in Spain, Mormons were still almost unknown and we felt a lot of pressure to increase positive exposure to Mormonism, even if we weren't teaching or reactivating.

There were missionaries having dinner at a neighbors yesterday and I think doing some repairs. Dont they get holidays off?

The "white bible" of the missionaries (very similar to Mao's red book) explicitly says that holidays are excellent days for missionaries to make contacts, because families are together, not working and thus available to lend a listening ear to their glorious message.

This booklet also claims that people in mourning are excellent contacts (easy targets), because it is a good time to talk about "forever families" (which only the cult can provide...) No, they are not preying on vulnerable people, not at all...

Nothing worse than barging into private celebrations pushing morg mishie discussions.

But I'd bet it happens all of the time since mishies do this at funerals and wakes.

Speaking from experience, the haste was due to free food in the offing. They were going to a BBQ or something with free food.

Ron