I get a weekly mission update from my sister. She's "serving" a Sr. mission with her husband. Reading between the lines it's more than obvious that missions are still every bit as pointless and boring as they were 30 years ago when I went.

Anyway, here's an interesting exceprt:

"We had a Zone meeting on Wednesday where we were introduced to a new program that our mission will be piloting. Two other missions have already been using this program (San Jose and Denver Colorado). It is called Just Serve. Missionaries are now being asked to do 10 hours of planned service each week instead of 2 – 4 hours. They are encouraged to still do “unplanned” service, but this will now mean reoccurring service projects every week. This service can be planned for Tuesday thru Saturday between the hours of 10 and 4. In the past service was not to be planned for Saturday. The emphasis is on humanitarian service – food banks, kitchens, community projects, etc. All the guidelines listed in the Missionary handbook still apply – do not work with children, stay with you companion at all times, wear your name tag, nothing that will put your health of safety at risk (no power tools, stay off of ladders). When they get it up and running multiple projects will be listed on the web site JustServe.org. We are not super visible – but we usually do at least 10 hours of service each week. The Elders were excited about this because now they have a wonderful way to fill the hours when it is hard to catch people at home."

I wish they'd wanted us to do that in my mission. Service was so much better than getting yelled at by angry Italians.

However, why would a church led by a man who speaks to God need to do a limited trial run on something? Shouldn't God just know what will work without having to experiment? Just another example of the church being a poorly run corporation and not an inspired religion.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2013 08:23PM by joesmithsleftteste.

Omnicience must not be as great as it sounds.

This is the line that stood out to me:

"The Elders were excited about this because now they have a wonderful way to fill the hours when it is hard to catch people at home."

Yep, Mormon missions are mostly filling hour after hour ....... after hour.

It's always hard to catch people at home when they are actively trying to avoid you. Every week my sister's email contains little gems like this. So and so was too sick for a lesson, That person agreed to go to church but we didn't see them...The other family said they really wanted to come but they had car problems. She makes it sound like the work is going so well they are busy all the time. Yeah, too bad there is always some reason why it just doesn't quite work out.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2013 08:23PM by koriwhoremonger.

+1 haha self-manipulation caught in the act

It's worth commenting back to her that the reason the church is doing this is because of all the negative publicity regarding missionaries that don't give to the community.

Of course they got the idea from this board.

You bet they did -- but at least they'll be showing up in the homeless shelters and soup kitchens. :-)

Interesting... They've obviously been listening to all the complaints in that department.