My ex served in that mission, '85-'87 if I remember correctly. He had a change of mission presidents at some point during the two years he was there. One Prez he thought very highly of and spoke fondly of afterwards. Possibly still in contact with him too. The other one I'm not sure about. I can't remember their names, but what I do know is that one of these men gave my ex some advice that caused some major problems for us in our marital relationship. It also added to the extreme guilt my ex already had about constantly feeling unworthy during his mission. I know it's been said before, but sending young men out between the ages of 19-21 and expecting them to be completely celibate to the point of not even masturbating, PLUS implying that their lack of worthiness/righteousness is preventing hordes of people from getting baptized is a recipe for absolute disaster. Fortunately there are some good memories from the mission; many years ago I went with my ex to visit some of the places he served in. A few years ago when he made the trip again with his new wife, he still enjoyed seeing those places, but I think most of the people he knew or baptized were completely inactive and/or out of the church. I can only imagine what it must feel like for TBMs who gave two years of their life in thankless service, to come back and see it all gone for naught. But the food is still good and the places are still beautiful, so there's that.

Back then there was no language training prior to going. They just threw the poor kid into the country and let him learn it on his own. That's why the foreign missions were three years, instead of two. He did learn it, and has fond memories of the people, despite hardly any baptisms. He hated tracting, as the winters were brutal.

Prior to our divorce, I read his entire mission journal. He had lost an extreme amount of weight, and seemed depressed much of the time. They even made the missionaries do manual labor in the building of meeting houses.

They had no refrigerators, and would keep one day's supply of food in a special window box. They also had to go downtown to public baths. UGH He is still a faithful member.