Hi, all,
I've been reading and reading and I so appreciate the honesty and the info. I've got a few questions that I haven't (yet) found the answers to, so I'm hoping folks can straighten me out on a few things - starting w/these:

Is there an "official" documented purpose for the mission that is recorded anywhere? Sort of a mission statement for missions? I do get it that the defacto purpose is the deep indoctrination of the next gen, but I'm talking about the official public word on it.

Officially are missionaries supposed to be doing anything besides proselytizing, bearing testimony and reading BoM?

[The background to my questions has to do with a childhood friend, now lds, who I now think may have been 'doubting' and looking to me for support. At the time I had zero knowledge of lds and probably was not helpful; however, it looks like I may get another chance soon. I'm trying to fill in the gaps between what I've learned in the interim and what she told me about.]

I personally doubt there's any (more) Official statement such as you seem to be interested in.

the mish's seem to be changing focus to a bit more of 'Community Service' activity, but as I understand it, that's informal, ad-hoc sorta stuff.

trying to spend 60 hours a week strictly non-mo contact time would drive lots of people batty these days, but, like most mormon things, it depends on the local authority who's in charge.

Remember: Mormonism is most like a McD franchise in how they operate. Scratch that: Amyway/NuSkin.

OK. It's the community service thing exactly that was confusing me. My friend's son was on a mission when she described to me that the purpose of the mission was all about community service and was NOT about converting anybody. ? Can anybody shed more light on that? (The son was in Europe a couple of years ago, if that helps.)

I'm wondering if she was just a worried and doubting mom trying to rationalize, or might have been misled and was telling me what she understood of the matter . . . or if she straight up lied to me to make it sound more honorable. ? Or is her story plausible?

That is known among non-Mormons as a lie. The addition of community service to missionary responsibilities is a recent thing, and the vast majority of their time is spent trying to convert people. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to you.

runtu Wrote:
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> That is known among non-Mormons as a lie.

OK, then! LOL. Thanks for the clear translation into my language!

Most young people go on proselyting missions -- though they will usually do some public service while out there.


However, there are a few young people and alot of senior missionaries who go on pure public service missions.


A friend of mine, for example, went to the Phillipines, where she spent 18 months serving the Vietnamese boat people.


She was one of the young missionaries, not a senior.


But most young missionaries serve proselyting missions.

Some missionaries are called on "service missions" - I'm a little hazy on the details since I've never actually talked to a service missionary, but I think they are usually the ones who, for some reason, aren't capable of serving a proselyting mission; or they are in a country which doesn't allow active proselyting (China). The vast majority of missionaries are serving proselyting missions, where the majority of their time is spent teaching discussions or searching for people to teach. They are allowed to spend a few hours a week doing service, in addition to the proselyting (I think it's about 3 hours per week, maybe someone can verify, it's been a while and I don't remember exactly). The service hours were much more enjoyable for me than the proselyting hours, but service time is strictly limited.

Hmm. So the service mission is uncommon?
Does one get a service mission because he requests it? Or is it an assignment? Thanks to all for any info!

A mission is an extremely high pressure sales experience. People that say otherwise haven't been on one or are selling you something.

In this case, the mom & dad are converts, so they don't know firsthand. Does the church or other members try to make convert parents see the mission as more service than door-to-door sales? Do adults who went on missions share w/those who haven't about it?

Yes actually. The purpose is to "invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the gospel through faith, repentance, baptism and receiving the gift of the holy ghost."


That is the documented purpose. I hate the hell out of the fact that I remember that.

Oh, thanks for that! I figured it had to be something like that.

Service missions are very rare and even more rare for younger people. The main reason for the missionary program is to make more mormons. When I was in the Philippines we had a weekly goal of 4 hours of community service. Any more than that had to be cleared through the mission office or not reported.

I think it is pretty common for mormons to try and pass of the entire mission as community service. It is as much community service as a mormon chapel is to the community it is built in.....Not very much at all.

bingoe4 Wrote:
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>
> I think it is pretty common for mormons to try and
> pass of the entire mission as community service.
> It is as much community service as a mormon chapel
> is to the community it is built in.....Not very
> much at all.

I see. That's probably the case here, but the mom was SO vehement - a little too much so considering that I had no reason to think one way about it or the other. It felt like she was desperate for my approval, but at the time I didn't get why. Now it seems so sad.

The goal of each missionary is to baptize as many as possible to SAVE (ha ha) them/ That is it.

Service missions are rare.

I would ask her if her son is on a service mission or the regular proselytizing mission. Almost all young Mormon men and women serve the proselytizing missions. Their primary purpose to bring in converts. Very little time is spent doing "service." In my mission you were NOT ALLOWED to do more than 4 hours a week doing some kind of service activities. You were on the other hand REQUIRED to do try and convert non-members from 9AM to 9PM 6 days a week and after 6pm on our "day off."

90% of your time on a typical mission is spent knocking on doors, contacting people in public, or teaching the missionary lessons.

Mormons tend to think of missionary work (teaching other people the gospel) as "service" though.

"OK. It's the community service thing exactly that was confusing me. My friend's son was on a mission when she described to me that the purpose of the mission was all about community service and was NOT about converting anybody. ?"

I'm a non-mo that talked to proselytizing missionaries for a while. I can easily see the Mormons regarding attempting to convert others as the greatest sort of 'community service' they can do...

One of the misshies that I talked to has actually done a real 'service mission' in a foreign country with a secular organization before coming on her LDS mission. And I can't tell you how alarmed I was when she told me that she thought that 'teaching others the gospel is the most helpful thing she could do for them, better than teaching them to read and write, even.'

I am a convert. I was 20 at the time with a boyfriend(now Husband) and son. We went through a lot of missionaries before we got married and baptized.
The elders spent a lot of time sitting on my porch usually when my husband was at work, we would just shoot the shit, and try to "help" with yard work...I had no problem chatting with them. Some of them were pretty cute too.
One Christmas we drove the missionaries all over the city showing them all the sites, little did I know this wasn't allowed.

They would come over and go on our computer and watch sports highlights...these were the cool ones, we did have some that were by the book following the rules though.
-S