Crazy question. Do missionaries go door-to-door, or do they just follow "leads?" I often see them pedaling through my neighborhood. There's a Mormon church not far from here, and the main drag is sometimes like an ant trail of missionaries riding back and forth. I've seen them in Lowes, restaurants, etc. But they've never stopped at my door (not that I'm complaining). The jehovah witnesses used to beat on my door nearly every Sunday afternoon, even when I asked them to stop (which they finally did), but never the Mormon missionaries.

They're supposed to spend a certain amount of time a day tracking, that is going door to door. In some missions, it is based on so many hours. In my mission, we just had to contact x number of people a day, either by tracking, or talking to them on the street. It was funny, as soon as we got to the target goal, we would stop tracking, even if there was just one more house on the street. Everyone hated it, and knew it was a waste of time.

Tracking and bike riding are only really done by missionaries, because they are traditional. Everyone who has come before has had to do the same thing, so now you have to do the same thing too. Everyone knows it is stupid, but it really wouldn't be serving the lord if you stopped. And heaven help you if the old timers in your ward discover that you don't have to do as much tracking as they did, because they will go complain to the mission president.

I (always) called it "tracTing"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2012 02:37AM by guynoirprivateeye.

You were correct.

Although, in the winter, when the iced over roads made bicycling too dangerous, I felt that it was more like trekking than tracting.

Darn it, you're right. I guess this is what I get for not paying attention to all those meetings while on my mission.

I actually prefer "tracking", it sounds more sinister.

I got my training from my old Danite days confused with my missionary ones.

Ahhh, those halcyon Danite days. The rippin' and the tearin', the rippin' and the tearin'.

fwiw... those small pamphlets, usually religious in nature that people used to hand out while going door-to-door were called tracts. Hence the term "tracting."

Like we said on my mission:
"Every member a mission president."

Where I live they stopped tracting.

It depends on the mission.

For example in my mission in AZ we went "tracting" for 1 1/2 hours each week.

We spent most of the time:

1) Following up on leads / working with people who were interested.

2) Hobnobbing with church members trying to work them for leads.

There are some missions where they do a lot more tracting especially in areas where there are less Mormons or where the culture is more conducive to door to door visits.

Also some missions put a big emphasis on attempting to re-activate inactive Mormons.

The St George Utah missionaries are not supposed to go tracking at all. If you do you get in trouble.

thederz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The St George Utah missionaries are not supposed
> to go tracking at all. If you do you get in
> trouble.


how do you know that ?

thederz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The St George Utah missionaries are not supposed
> to go tracking at all. If you do you get in
> trouble.

I suspect that tracting would have less effect in areas where the population is predominantly already Mormon. For example, if only one out of a hundred "cold calls" results in something positive, and 90% of the population is already mormon, then you'd have to knock on about a thousand doors to make a positive connection.

Thanks for the feedback everybody!
Interesting reading.

I always thought tracting was a form of self-flagellation by missionaries. It is worse than useless as a missionary tool, since it just makes people mad.

My first comp did not speak French very well, and was not overly bright. He just wanted to tract from dawn till dusk. We spent 2 months just going down buildings in government housing knocking on doors. Because I understood French better than him, I got the insults that people hurled at us. They did not hate Mormons; they hated people bothering them at home. When he finally left, I vowed never to tract again because it was depressing me fast.

I figured out why missionaries tract. They feel guilty for not doing enough, which is the main motivation technique of the LDS Church. Tracting makes you feel miserable, which alleviates the guilt. It doesn't matter if it is effective, because you feel like you are working hard. The sense of working is more important than the results. Missionaries feel guilty when not tracting, so they tract to appease the guilt.

Some of my goddamned companions would enjoy the extra "persecution" hurled at them because they were so f^€king annoying when they would knock on doors. I the winter time, the aggressive tractors would carry a hockey puck in their coat pocket and knock on e door with it. It creates a very loud and thunderous noise on the other side of the door. ThEn some would have a super goofy creepy French approach that was greatly condescending even to the tractees. The only baptisms I ever had anything to do with we're from knocking on doors. Bt man was it miserable. Probably what kept me going though was the uncertainty of what might be at the door. I did enjoy the scantily clad young ladies answering the doors, or the occasional young couple that was going at it, and for some reason answered the door. Understanding the hedonistic tendencies of that culture, they were probably trying to casually invite us in on the action, but our awkwardness got in the way.

Those are some of my recollections on the subject.

Axel, "they feel guilty for not doing enough" - bammm you got it. I tracted in London upwards to 40 hours per week - out of guilt. Later, when I trained a GA's son, and was expected to find someone to baptize for him, we found through tracting, a one eyed-85 year old man, who could barely hear us. He got baptized after I offered him a fish and chips dinner after every discussion. Boy did they ever highlight the hell out of the baptism, given the royal nature of junior mishie.

I think most if not all the Southern California missions have 'no tracting' policy. My area's mission seems to actually ban it (per different active missionary blogs) and the misshies are only to go after members' referrals. That doesn't prevent the misshies from knocking on the doors of the referrals/members' neighbors or talking to people they meet/see along the way, though.

I wish that policy was in effect when I was a missionary in Southern California. Hating tracting.

Thanks for the feedback everybody!

I used to wonder if we were "covered" by our relatives who might just baptize us after death or something, and that maybe we were on a "do not bother" list or something, but now--after much research--I realize that would be too altruistic. Getting us in after we're dead wouldn't result in any new revenue to the corporation. After all, the bottom line is the bottom line. ;-)

In some areas on my mission we tracted from the moment we left the apartment right until the end of the day. In one area we spent two months knocking on every single door - and then spent the next 2 months repeating this exercise.

I like to use the term 'peddling' now. We might have actually had more success if we'd been selling tea towels and kitchen mops.

If and when they hit your door is a matter of luck and proximity.

I have the last house on the street and I think for many years they turned back when they reached my home because the TBM next door warned them that they wouldn't be welcome.

They mishies do very little tracting these days in large part because few people are home during the day other than some on welfare or are shutins. Some years back, more than I care to count, I would do splits with missionaries and would get in almost every time. This was due to my ability to make small talk and my record of political campaigning. After all, one year I got 58 people in a row to even sign a petition for me, The key to getting in is NOT to simply introduce yourself as "I'm a .... " but to find out something about them. Talk about their interests. Talk about just about anything. Look for commonality. When you get to religion look for things which are alike with the person, not at odds with them. Don't be pushy. Don't go with the idea you will be thrown out. Rather, go seeking to help whoever you meet and encourage them when they are discouraged. Greave with them if they have lost a loved one or a friend, or even a pet. Be joyful if they are celebrating and joyful.

Of course, as time goes on fewer and fewer people are home. mvod bpre

There's no room for empathy in the mission field.

We tracted quite a lot on my mission, but it was the last priority. If we had anything better to do, we were supposed to do that instead. If we were tracting, it was supposed to mean we had done literally everything else we could think of and were like, "Well, I guess that means we have to go tract."

We did a lot of tracting or were suppose to when I was in SoCal in the late 90's.

In September of this year, I placed a sign on our entry gate that reads, "No Door To Door Sales Or Religions!" ... No more JWs or magazine salesmen ringing the bell ...