Is there a certain distance they have to be from the water? Is it okay to be on the beach, just watching the waves a bit away? Just wondering, since I saw a pair of them on the beach last week chilling out. I thought I had heard somewhere that even going onto a beach is not allowed. But I'm not sure. But I do know, obviously, that they couldn't get close enough to touch the water...for certainly, Satan would make the frothy fingers of the tide wrap around their ankles and drag them out to sea. Spooooky. *spooky wiggle fingers*

...we were not allowed on the beach. Where I came from in southern Cal, missionaries weren't allowed on the beach either. Don't know if that's changed or not since I've been out of the church for so long.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2012 06:27AM by toto.

Southern Taiwan, circa 1978 or 1979, no baptismal font.

While I was there I observed one baptism in the ocean and performed another, if I recall correctly (its been a while).

Ah, good times. I always liked the more remote places.

Otherwise we weren't supposed to swim of course. But apparently Satan made way for a proper baptism.

In Norwich, England, we play/BBQ'ed on the beach. It was to cold for Bikini clad maidens, but a few pretty girls down the hall were prostitutes. Wow, if I knew then what I know now, that would have be a great set of discussions with Delilah...cuz she had a great set (of discussions) herself, but I digress. Ah, good times.

...in the summer the elders would be pulled out of Myrtle Beach (the Redneck Riviera) and replaced with senior couples. The idea was to keep the boys away from the scantily clad girls.

but i dont know about the beach thing...i once saw some Misshies riding their bikes toward a beach area...but i never saw them actually ON THE BEACH...just riding out to it...maybe STAN got em!! :)

Where all the good ole boys can drive their tricked-out pick-up trucks with their Confederate flags right onto the beach?

I live minutes from the ocean myself and, after decades here in Florida, my understanding is that the mishies can go ONTO the beach, but not INTO the water. According to D&C, Satan "rules the waters." And I'm too d@mn tired to look up the actual scripture this late at night.

That being said, bignevermo, the Miami area has already been taken over by Satan. So you are screwed.

;o)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2012 11:39PM by shannon.

I personally love living in the Riveria. I wonder if we know each other Shanon.

There were a couple of missionaries in my mission that got offered to have a dinner appointment on an aircraft carrier, with a member who happened to be senior brass on the ship, while it was in port. Zone leaders and APs would not let them go, and the Mission President later heard about it, only after the chance had passed, and apologized, saying he would have approved it, stating he doubted Satan would be able to sink a carrier, just because a pair of elders were on board.

Of course, this raises the question, is it right for a senior naval commander to have missionaries over for dinner on his ship, when that could be creating pressure for his subordinates to be involved in religion, when they do not want to participate.

right from the "horses" mouth the redneck Riviara is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Coast

yup Lower Alamabama! :)

Wait, a minute, you live in Northern Florida and so do I and I offered to meet you for a beer (in the thread where your heart got broken) and you just, what, missed that post?

:: raises one eyebrow ::

Seriously, forbiddencokedrinker. Are you sure WE don't know each other? There aren't that many of us in this part of the world you know. We should have a beer.

I am only a nevermo, mostly lurker, but I also live in North Florida - just a little East of the beloved Riviera. I spent many bacchanal fraternity party weekends in Panama City and several New Year's Eve parties with my late husband there as well. Great stuff, and I actually remember most of it.

Comp and I subathed on the beach in shorts. We were generally obedient missionaries but saw nothing wrong with it. Mission Pres found out and reprimanded us - we said there was nothing in the white handbook so he made a new mission rule.

or probably some local members. What a bunch of good for nothing, idiots, morgbots are.

In my mission in San Diego it was not allowed. However, where I live in Florida, the missionaries are allowed to go to the beach, if it is part of an official ward activity, and they stay out of the water. Our community is right on the beach, and nearly every church activity involves the beach.

In Ecuador, we went to the beach a couple of times, of course without permission... but we only went on P-Day and only got up to our ankles in the water. Thinking back on that, it was before the Mission President said that we had to stay in proper missionary attire, except for sports and service activities... For me though, I had a lot more fun on the mid-rainy season hikes to waterfalls...and for some reason we were able to get further into the water there!

Next: leg-band GPS devices affixed at the MTC; "It's for your own good."

Sure can- just to use technology to help the mission president with his responsibility to insure the safety of the missionaries.

It's prison chainganged with your companion.

Anagrammy

In Spain, you were allowed to be on the beach in winter, when no one was dressed immodestly, but not in the water. One day in the summer, a couple of elders in our district wanted to go on a picnic at the beach on P-day. They swore they found a beach no one ever went to so a couple of other elders, two other sisters, my companion and I humored them and went with them to the beach. Of COURSE no one ever went there - it was right alongside the city dump. There were hypodermic needles and medical supplies all over the beach and in the water. The sisters were PISSED but the guys found a reasonably clean place to play frizbee and drink Near Beer, which they swore had no alcohol. We sat up on a hill above that was clean and watched them, although it still smelled pretty much like you'd expect.

Good times.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2012 03:10PM by CA girl.

Mexico-Veracruz in the 80s allowed it. We sometimes had to do ocean baptisms because our branch buildings had no fonts. We also had P-day activities on the beach.

We live on an island in washington. More than once I've seen the mishey's eating their lunch down on the beach.

The slogan was "we have to stop where the grass stops" - because obviously we were invited to many functions that occured at beach parks.

I was not an obedient missionary.

I guess I should also mention this is Oregon. There may be certain allowances.

solution: Find a nude or c.o. beach.

If people could be sworn to secrecy for the MMM, a few elders & sisters can honor it for a bit of innocent fun.
Besides; no name tags to betray them!

Take Care, Stay Bare!

Dunno if there is any rule about being on the beach, but they can get pretty close to the water, I think. The sisters here ( http://ranadok.com/missionmary/?p=202 ) were on Ocean Beach pier, the longest concrete pier on the US westcoast, last September.

BahBahBlacki - maybe they are some clued in jack-missionaries that are over it and have an understanding with each other to enjoy themselves the best they can and not rat each other out.

I've read some say that is basically what they did and I wonder how many companions have this type of relationship.

I was in Long beach and Huntington and we weren't allowed on the beach. Every new week a new rules was added and soon we couldn't go in beach style stores. Not that the rules got in the way..Just made you feel guilty after you broke them.

Well, if they ask, the answer is no. But if they don't ask, the answer is, Sure, why not? And what if the beach is an intrinsically historic and cultural part of where you are working, and the mission president has told you that it is good to get out and see the history of your surroundings on P-day. That is why we as a district went to the beach on the island of Sardinia one P-day. The elders wore jeans and T-shirts (over their one-piece garments, with the butt-flap panel quite visible beneath) but the women missionaries (all much older than the guys) were forced to wear skirts and--get this--nylons. We picnicked near the water and waded around in the tide pools. That was the first time I saw a German woman take off all of her clothes and then climb into a swim suit before getting into the water, which seems sort of unnecessary and redundant once one has taken off one's clothes in front of the entire crowd. So if we had reported that we had seen a naked woman at the beach, the MP would have forbidden us to go ever-ever again.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2012 11:48AM by cludgie.

I got a really bad sunburn at Dana Point while on my mission.

Oh, the evils of swimming.....never could figure that one out....

So, let me get this straight. Satan rules the waters, so missionaries are not allowed to swim - are the rest of the 14 million church members somehow protected, or does the church not care if they drown?

In Australia the missionaries flats were so close to the beach that when you walked out the front door, you could see it 50 meters away. We would visit the beach frequently. One time we were visiting a topless beach and as we were walking down the beach I spotted an investigator we were teaching at the time. She was there sunning herself topless with her husband. Fortunately, we were able to do an about face before they spotted us. Needless to say after seeing her topless like that we never went back to teach her more. Imagine that, visiting topless beaches keeps one out of cults.

MJ

I remember playing touch football on St. Kilda Beach in Melbourne Australia in the mid 1970’s on Christmas Day as a missionary. Wasn’t off limits at the time as I remember but it wasn’t like we asked permission to begin with. A few years later, I heard that visiting St. Kilda Beach was placed on the missionary forbidden list.

I was taught that the missionaries were not to go near or in the water ie swimming pools/lakes/rivers/ocean other than to baptize someone because Satan had control over the waters (Thank you Joseph for being such a pansy on your river trip with the guys). In forty years of membership this is what was taught and thought.

Three years ago we had the mishies over for dinner. I thought I would ask this one harmless question. “Are you guys allowed to go into pools/lakes/rivers/ocean other than to baptize someone?” The answer. “No were aren’t. It’s for insurance purposes. That way the church won’t get sued for missionaries drowning.” I didn’t respond. The ex-wife was pissed that I would be so audacious as to even ask such a thing.

It is unbelievably ironic to teach that Satan had control over the waters of the earth and then to use his “domain” to baptize folks into gods kingdom.