Posted by:
mankosuki
(
)
Date: July 25, 2022 09:37PM
elderolddog Wrote:
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>
https://runtu.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/more-on-the> -mormon-missionary-numbers-game/
>
> At the end of the ‘comments’ section of the
> above post are three responses that are the heart
> of defense of Groberg as an MP.
>
> Your response after review of them would be much
> appreciated. I refer specifically to the
> responses from Alan, Douglas, Mike & Scott.
>
>
> Blind men and an elephant?
I'm not Mushinja/botchan but I'd like to chime in. Tokyo South alum here.
I vaguely remember the first three names inquired about. They weren't over the top gung-ho types, but diligent. Head in the cloud with rose colored glasses on. Their responses are typical of what most members say or think about people that don't have the same experience as them or talk negatively about the church. They dismiss us as wanting to sin or lazy apostates wanting to purposely talk about the church in a bad way.
The forth person was my first companion as I arrived in Tokyo. He was going home the next month. He only spent a short time under Groberg and didn't get to see the transformation that began after he was home. I did have a nice 1st month in Tokyo traveling around to dinner parties saying good-byes to his friends. We even left mission boundaries to take in a Kabuki play. He has no idea what the mission became after he left.
My second comp was going home in a few months too. He was an old Nagoya mission elder. He didn't enjoy Grobergs style.
Some of the stories over the years have been embellished for more effect but most are true. I did see 1 day baptisms. We had portable fonts in most apartments to accomplish this task. High baptizing elders were rewarded with dinners at Grobergs house. Non-baptizing elders had to attend bitch out sessions and were demoted. If you didn't have the right personality it was a very difficult place to be. (Personally, I was only Sr for a month or two and then demoted for most of my time.) I just tried to stay under the radar and put in my time.
I returned to Japan within a year after I finished. I love Japan and it was great not being a missionary. I still had elders apartment phone numbers and met with a few elders that were friends. They said it had gotten even worse after I left.
I came home and tried to forget about the whole experience. But if people think the stories or bad reputation the church got at this time are not true, I can tell you 2 stories.
First, I was traveling to Japan once and noticed a Japanese family on my flight out of St George to LA. Arriving in LA, I struck up a conversation as we waited for our flights to Japan. I never tell people why I can speak Japanese. I just say I spent time there when I was college age. It was October and they came for conference and then toured the National Parks. They figured it out that I was a RM and of TSM. The mother of the family lit into me about all the problems that we caused at that time. "You should be ashamed of the things you did." "The missionaries at that time gave the church such a bad image." "We can't find any of the people you guys baptized." And on and on she scolded me. I hadn't heard or read all these stories online before that because I was trying to forget about the whole thing.
Second, another time I attended church in Osaka just for grins. Only time I've went to church in Japan since mission days. In Japanese fashion they introduced me at the beginning of the service and mentioned that I was a TSM RM. After the meeting a lady approached me to talk. She was also a TSM alum. I couldn't remember her but the first thing she says is, "We didn't do anything wrong did we? We just followed our priesthood leaders." To me, that told me she had been hearing and receiving backlash from what went on in that mission.
So the stories and heartbreak are real. Poster Lot's Wife, knows and understands what went on in TSM more than some of the elders that still have their colored glasses on with their head in the sand.