Every now and then we read of a missionary being killed on their mission. When you come across one of these stories do the following.

(1) Look up the address of grieving parents of the late missionary.

(2) Go online to lds.org and scour back issues of the ENSIGN for all those faith-promoting stories of how someone was prompted to avoid some dangerous situation on their mission because they lived "close to the spirit," and then go on to extoll the virtues of living "close to the spirit."

(3) Print them all out and send copies to the grieving parents with a note that says, "I guess your son/daughter wasn't living close to the spirit."

OK, Don't really do this. It would be heartless and cruel.

But, isn't that the hidden message these grieving parents get every time they open up their copy of the ENSIGN and read one of these stories, or listen to some RM tell their "close to the spirit close escape" in a sacrament talk?

When you make ANY and EVERY thing that could possibly be considered good that happens to you as a reward for "living close to the spirit," then you are basically saying that every bad things that happens to someone is their punishment for not living close to the spirit.

I think this has something to do with the high incidence of use of anti-depressants in Utah.

A seminary teacher of mine knew of a missionary who died while serving due to some illness. This teacher bore his testimony about how this was an awesome way to go, that this missionary was doing the Lords work and would go right to the CK.


He never mentioned the parents of the missionary or of their grief.

I guess it depends on how the missionary dies, on how the death would be interpreted. They always have to have a meaning or reason behind everything...

heather Wrote:
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> He never mentioned the parents of the missionary
> or of their grief.

To dive into this further..(and others have in the past)...

As a mormon you're not really allowed or encouraged to feel anyhting bad are you??

I mean in the case of YOUR missionary son dying an early death doing the "Lord's" work...you get a lot of faith-promoting BS, fell good stuff about going to the CK, etc...BUT as a parent, you want your kids to go to the CK..after a long and productive life......

What a way to live, no expressions of sadness, anger, grief...Only good emotions and happy thoughts are allowed....

Explains why Utah is the depression capital of the US

Good noGod! Don't these Mormons have ANY set doctrine? No wonder they have to keep assuring themselves they are "normal" -- it's bizarre to have a million rules to get you to the highest level of heaven and none of them apparently mean anything...

So if a missionary dies during his mission, he goes straight to the CK on an express pass? This poor young missionary attacked by the lions lost his arm. Did his arm go straight to the CK? What if he later drops out of the church? Will he be separated from his arm for all eternity?

So many questions for the Pharisees.

Wow, this sounds just like terrorists going straight to paradise with 76 virgins.

I had a friend die on his mission in a car accident. My mother's visiting teacher for years was murdered while she and her husband were on a mission in Africa.

I'm sure the standard TBM response behind a missionary dying would be some sort of variation of the lord having another mission for them, perhaps preaching to those on the other side of the veil.

Of course it is all a bunch of crap, but if it helps someone to get through the grieving process, I guess one has to do what one has to do.

Oh my God! My husband and I got into a crazy two-hour conversation with a Mormon H20 softener sales person this weekend and now something he said makes sense.

His son is currently being brain washed at the Missionary training center and I questioned how this father feels when Missionary's die recruiting for their church. He replied that the Missionary didn't feel the spirit. My response was fast and extreme and I said something like, "You mean you feel Missionary's die because they didn't believe in their religion and your Heavenly Father enough!!!!???" He quickly squirmed and changed his story. At the time I believed him because I figured I just misheard his original comment.

christieja Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Oh my God! My husband and I got into a crazy
> two-hour conversation with a Mormon H20 softener
> sales person this weekend and now something he
> said makes sense.
>
> His son is currently being brain washed at the
> Missionary training center and I questioned how
> this father feels when Missionary's die recruiting
> for their church. He replied that the Missionary
> didn't feel the spirit. My response was fast and
> extreme and I said something like, "You mean you
> feel Missionary's die because they didn't believe
> in their religion and your Heavenly Father
> enough!!!!???" He quickly squirmed and changed
> his story. At the time I believed him because I
> figured I just misheard his original comment.

This is the same fvcking mindset I heard about when my friend was hanging out with his mormon neighbors in his neighborhood and they showed NO COMPASSION towards someone's young kid who was hurt riding his biccycle. Why no compassion?? The young kid was riding his bike on.....SUNDAY!!! (gasp)..

That's right...including the kid's father as one of the mindless sheeple who didn't give a sh1t about his own kid's health because he broke one of the mormon sabbath rules...by being a kid.....

I heard of a family whose son was killed on his mission and the parents were told that it must have been because they weren't valiant enough in supporting him.

while a missionary in England. I was busy blabbing to my companion and didn't hear the bus coming and just stepped right out into the street. Literally one foot away from my face a double decker bus screamed right past me.

I was very, very, very close to being one of the statistics that this thread is - in a way - being very flippant about.

I was on my mission when the decision was made to change back from 18 months to 2 years. We were given the option to stay the full 24 months. One of our APs, who was from a non-member family, chose to stay and was within a couple of weeks of going home when he hit a cow in the road while driving one of the mission's VW beetles. There was the usual talk about how great it was to go while in such favor with the Lard, but most of the talk was about his bad luck for not going home when he was scheduled and for the senseless waste of a promising young life just because of stray livestock. We all wondered how the MP was going to tell the parents since they didn't buy into all that "being taken in a state of grace" stuff.

We had a sister on my mission get hit by a car her first week out. She spent months in a hospital bed and her parents actually resisted having her sent home because of “all the blessings” they were receiving because she was on a mission. Really sad.

same here; there was a mish killed in a MVA during my mission.

(WAY BACK)... he was in a ....(gasp) RAMBLER just as shoulder harnesses were coming out...but their car didn't have 'em...

He likely would have survived (hit head on dashboard).

At the same time, some friends of mine were Railing AGAINST crash safety rules/regulations, Still Are.

Right Wing-nuts.
Yup, it's a Fundamental Freedom to have a Fatal Concussion in a low-speed accident on a city street!

The safety industry is a huge private sector industry. Your friends aren't right wing they are silly.

I am aware of a mother whose son came home from his mission dead. It turned her into an emotional wreck---permanently.

On December 16, 2002 a TBM family from Roosevelt, UT was driving their son to the MTC in Provo. In the car were the parents, a brother, and the would-be Missionary.

The roads were icy and slick. Near Strawberry Reservoir the car went out of control and went into the oncoming lane. There was a big head-on crash that killed all four of them.

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/43007/Words-of-solace-after-tragic-accident.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2011 02:51PM by saviorself.

A friend of mine from high school was killed in a car accident shortly after being released from his mission (his entire family was also in the car, but he was the only one who was killed). The sentiment I heard over and over regarding his death was "Heavenly Father had another mission for him". Which, I guess was nice and a comfort to the family, but still was weird to me.

Back in the '70s there were two missionaries killed by a psycho they were trying to convert. In Texas I believe. We had an elderly woman who had served a mission with them. She told us in church that the missionaries had been warned to stay away from the guy but they disobeyed orders and were killed for there disobedience.

Whether this story is true or not I don't know. Could have been cooked up by the old lady wanting to spice up her mission report. Anybody remember anything like that?

Here's the link of the missionary murders in Texas.
http://www.mormonstoday.com/010727/D2RKleasen01.shtml

Here's another link to the details. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Elmer_Kleason

Wow! That's interesting. Thanks Christina.

The grief of losing a child before they've had the experiences that make a "full life" is what is grieved. They didn't fall in love, have babies, find their niche with a career.

It is a flower about to bud, picked too soon. I don't care what the crap the church tells the parents that they say "comforts" them--I'm not buying it. They are still grieving those lost experiences only now they have to stuff it and appear "brave" in a crazy way.

I once went to the funeral of a 14 year old girl who was killed in a freak spill on a motorcycle - first time on a bike, just around the block. Everyone was smiling, everyone was happy. NOt a tear. It was absolutely freaky to me (a convert) a little like a horror movie.

And by the way, on this very board we had a person comment that he thought that victim of the motorcycle accident "had been drinking." I'm mentioning this because it illustrates my point that we can leave the church but that condemning, judgey spirit doesn't leave us automatically, we have to work to recover our compassion for people in general.

This is on my mind because an old lady (older than me LOL) asked me to give her a ride up a hill. I was eating my California roll in my sportscar (which she commented on since it is so old) so I said, "Sure." She told me I was the fifth person she had asked. "I have a bad back," she said, "and had to leave my car and take the bus but I got off at the wrong place. Do I look homeless or something? Nobody would help me. This is disturbing." I found it disturbing too. She looked like somebody's grandma.

Anagrammy

a couple of mishies were murdered somewhere in South America. Tommy presided over the funeral of at least one of the young men. I was reading an account of his eulogy in the Ensign and I came to one passage that, because I was the mother of a young son AND a TBM at the time, moved me to tears: "Remember," Tommy thundered,
"Tim (or Bob, Or Bill, or whatever the kid's name was) was never released from his calling! He is STILL doing missionary work, teaching the Gospel to those who never had a chance to hear it on this Earth!"

At the time, I thought, "Oh, what a lovely thing to say!" And I admired Monson immensely for saying such a nice thing. (Nowadays, it inspires a somewhat different reaction, but that's just because my perspective has changed.)

I hope with all my heart that the parents of that boy were comforted by that image. I know that the knowledge that he will never come home to them has to still hurt, but I truly hope that Monson's words gave them something to hang onto until their grief subsided a little.

catnip Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> a couple of mishies were murdered somewhere in
> South America. Tommy presided over the funeral of
> at least one of the young men. I was reading an
> account of his eulogy in the Ensign and I came to
> one passage that, because I was the mother of a
> young son AND a TBM at the time, moved me to
> tears: "Remember," Tommy thundered,
> "Tim (or Bob, Or Bill, or whatever the kid's name
> was) was never released from his calling! He is
> STILL doing missionary work, teaching the Gospel
> to those who never had a chance to hear it on this
> Earth!"

so the poor bastard went straight to Hell!
Hopefully he can stay busy enough that Joe or Brig wont catch up to him and rape him.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsakhmRzow8

Simple...you have another baby pronto so as not to create needless production gaps in God's workflow.

Circle of Life 101, guys.

In the 80's there were 2 young female missionaries in Augusta, Ga who were both raped and killed. Wonder what comfort it did either set of parents to know "they were doing the Lord's (oops cults) work...

King James Bible Matt: 5:45
"That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

In short: stuff happens.
We all get the same thing: We live, we die, we do stuff in between.

I hope to die doing what I love.

PS: What to do when a missionary (or anyone else dies) - mourn with the family and be grateful for your life.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/2011 02:39PM by SusieQ#1.