Posted by:
rusty123
(
)
Date: March 16, 2013 05:18AM
Was anyone else surprised when they got out into the mission field and realized how much the mission seemed to be run like either a military or a business instead of being run like an EFY or the one and only true church?
I was seriously shocked by the amount of pressure put on us to produce NUMBERS. We had to call our leaders every night and report our numbers for the day. When the numbers were below average we got yelled at, asked what was wrong with us, if we had faith, if we were sinning! I couldn't believe it! I was busting my butt off all day literally walking miles on end in the extreme heat talking with everyone in the street, every single person on the bus (except the bus driver), knocking on doors, asking members for referrals, literally losing weight because I'm busting my butt so hard, trying my hardest to keep every little rule right down to the fine print, and here you are judging me like I'm on vacation or something, not to mention I'm doing all this on my own dime.
One weekend my companion and I got taken out of our area to help some other missionaries in theirs. When it came to report our numbers that week we didn't know whether to include the lessons we taught in that other area or not. Someone told us that usually you let the missionaries in the area you're in count your numbers on their report. So we let them count our lessons, as a result my companion and I were way below the standard for number of lessons that week.
The next week happened to be interviews with the mission president, who was big on a quote that said "Any excuse regardless of what it is weakens your character." I sat down, he looked at my numbers, and said "What is this? These numbers are really low!" What happened? Thinking of his famous quote all I could come up with was we tried but will do better. Then he looked me in the eye and said, and I will never forget this, "Elder...you're condemning yourself!" I was seriously shocked. First I thought this guy doesn't have a clue, then I thought if I'm busting my butt off only to go to Hell then why am I here, I'd rather be out partying if I'm going to go to Hell anyways.
Although that being said I finished my mission still working hard but for some reason always thought that my mission was some kind of weird exception and that other peoples missions were run more like the one and only true church. But then I talked with others and my sister about her mission and it was exactly the same as mine, even as a sister she got yelled at regularly by the elders and her mission president.
Those are my thoughts, always made me wonder about the church because if most of the missions are like that it must be coming from the top.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/2013 05:22AM by rusty123.