When I was in the church, missionaries were forbidden to even go on a computer. It seemed that slowly that loosened up and they were allowed to send emails home on p-day. I lost track of all the rules over the years, but I'm kind of curious with how the church deals with missionaries and smart phones.

Are they allowed to bring their iPhones, Androids, etc. along with them on their mission or are they checked at the door of the MTC? If they are allowed to keep them, how are they stopped from downloading music or apps, texting their girlfriend back home or looking at websites when they no longer have to go on a desktop or even laptop to do so?

Not that I care or anything, but I'm curious how the church is dealing with this new technology.

How would the church even know?
If you have two companions that won't rat the other out, the church no longer has control over if they have a smart phone or not.

Loss of control must be a hard pill to swallow for the church.

Most Mission Presidents encourage "ratting out" between missionarioes.

The current crop of potential missionaries has their smart phones/mp3 players surgically attached (my 15-year old sends/receives 4,000 texts a month in the summer when school is out and he doesn't see his friends every day). I wonder how many of these kids will refuse to go on a mission if these devices are taken away.

You laugh, but there are already some people saying that in a decade or so, surgically implanted computers will be a real thing, though probably hard to update.

We will probably also see i-phones that are no more then an invisible ear plug, and a contact lens, that sinks up to your regular looking phone, or a device hidden in your scripture case.

I went to my audiologist yesterday, and she plugged in my HA's and updated them. There is now no static on the telephone setting. Some newer HA's automatically go to telephone setting when a phone is brought close to the ear.

Look at Cochlear Implants- the time is coming.

The way technologys going haveing two yars out from it may be a really bad thing.

Seems to me the misshies have to leave their phone at home (they get inspected every now and then, and they rarely stay with the same companion for longer than 2 months, so they can't count on not getting found out if they smuggle one in). The ones in my town carry 1 mission-issued cellphone per companionship, though. Their phone records are monitored...

Heck, all the mission cars are now even bugged with TiWi that records how they drive (and if they got flagged too many time for driving too fast or for rolling through stop signs or some other 'violations' then they'll lose driving privilege even). A couple of the misshies that blog about the thing actually profess to like it because it'll help them to be 'perfectly obedient'... George Orwell would roll in his grave. :oP

I had a lock box on my mission, that my Dad sent me. I was using some powerful prescription anti-depressants at the time, and I suspected one of my companions was steeling them. It drove every companion I had nuts, because they all assumed I was keeping contraband in there, which I was in the form of news magazines, a couple small star wars toys (a no-no on my mission as our President thought we were using them to identify ourselves as part of a secret combination) and a couple notebooks that I was using to try and write a fantasy novel.

Haha! Why, you disobedient ex-missionary, I knew I liked you for good reasons! :oD

One of the misshies I talked to had rebellious streaks, too, though I'm afraid a companion must have told on her or something 'cause she's a lot more restrained now. I hate it when that happens. Seems the SCC is bent on zapping all individuality out of their missionaries. It's almost creepy when I drop in at the MoBatt now how alike the sisters there are... like a bunch of Stepford wives. They even wear their hair the same way!

So it seems that missionaries are allowed to keep their cell phones for their mission. Do the higher-ups understand that is is tantamount to having access to the internet??