A distant cousin (oral surgeon) and spouse are serving a medical mission at the Philippine MTC. They report long hours, extreme shortage of qualified volunteers, and the poor dental health of the young missionaries. He also serves to perform patriarchal blessings as many of the young trainees have not received their blessings. The whole subtext sounds like a giant cluster f… to me.

They do report the Philippine temple as inspiring, but make no mention of the BofM, JS, or true church. There are several upfront references to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Their down time is spent at private resorts and they seem to take no advantage of learning about the diverse cultures and social challenges of life in the Philippines.

What is LDS inc accomplishing in the Philippines?

Free Labor and professional services.

>> extreme shortage of qualified volunteers

Perhaps people are too busy earning a living. It's not a rich country.

The Philippines exports a lot of well-trained teachers and nurses. They can earn a very good living in the U.S. and send some of their earnings home to their families.

Summer - it is an extremely poor country. The NYT recently had several articles on poverty in the Philippines. Skilled Filipino workers come to the U.S. Many domestic and labor workers migrate to Hong Kong,Singapore, Dubai, etc. Exploitation of same workers has been a problem in those countries - but people are desperate.

I think the shortage of volunteers refers to skilled LDS personnel from the U.S.

>> I think the shortage of volunteers refers to skilled LDS personnel from the U.S.

And how many skilled people in the U.S. can afford to walk away from their jobs? Or their medical or dental practices? -- perhaps when they retire. My dentist goes on voluntary dental missions of a few weeks at a time. But she has patients here to take care of.

>The Philippines exports a lot of well-trained teachers and nurses.

Engineers, too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2024 04:33PM by bobt.

I thought missionaries got physicals and dental work check ups done before leaving on missions?

I also assumed they got their patriarchal blessings before they left, along with their temple endowment, but I don't know if that is true.

It seems odd that medical missionaries would be doing this kind of thing for missionaries unless they are looking for more ways to get free medical or dental care.

My doctor here in SLC took a three (2?) year leave of absence about a year and a half ago to do a medical mission in Thailand. I think he was providing medical services for missionaries in a number of missions in the region, though I really don’t know how the system works in any detail.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2024 08:39PM by Brother Of Jerry.

Dagny - I don't know how the system is supposed to work, but here is info from the email letters I have received:

Missionaries mostly come from Asia,Polynesia, India, Africa, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and U.S. - in that order. Average is 50 new trainees weekly, but has been as high as 105. Many are in need of extensive dental care and assume all their dental needs will be met. One week is allotted for dental care (working around other class schedules) which involves removal of wisdom teeth and filling all cavities.

Training last 4 to 9 weeks with many missionaries returning to their home countries.

About 1/3 haven't received any patriarchal blessings or endowments, hence cousin's double duty as dentist and patriarch.

I think cousin is a sincere and caring person and providing such dental care is a gift to the young missionaries. I am familiar with other medical missions - religious and non - and this one seems particularly poorly organized. The difference in the other missions I know of is that they are true service missions not involved in training missionaries.

Thanks for that. Interesting. I'm glad for any dental care they can get.

Welcome to how most the world lives. As far as the church goes it’s all about retaining its core base of members in the US. The whole growing worldwide narrative is to make the homies think they are on a winning team. If people are honest about their missions it’s miserable.

It's my understanding that for many of these individuals from third-world countries serving as a missionary is a paid position and that it is likely to be the highest-paying job they'll ever have if they don't move to a more prosperous country.

And I wouldn't put it past mormon recruiters to hint at helping them move to America.

I am speculating that the volunteered dentist will be performing extractions and not necessarily cosmetic procedures.

messygoop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am speculating that the volunteered dentist will
> be performing extractions and not necessarily
> cosmetic procedures.

It sure beats a bit of thread and a door handle.

It's a tropical country and that unfortunately means a lot of health problems.

The big question is how bad their teeth were before they went on their missions.