I served my mission in SLC (I am from the Midwest) and for those of you who lived in Utah AND TBM, what did you think of the missionaries who served their missions in Utah? You can be brutally honest.

I sometimes wonder if we came off as cold and arrogant to the members sometimes. The problem was that our areas covered so many wards that we could not possible get to know everyone. Most missions, outside of Utah, have several missionaries for ONE ward. In my mission 2-4 stakes would have to share two missionaries. So members practically had to fight to have us over for dinner or whatever. We were treated like rockstars and I think that sometimes went to our heads. People would honk and wave at us constantly. Members would run up to us and try to chit chat with us. I also felt like we were a little bit spoiled. We had a lot of baptisms and were constantly teaching people.

We got to be fed ANYTIME we wanted. Members would sign up months in advance so that they could get us for dinner. I'm afraid that sometimes we weren't always as friendly as we should have. I remember one night there was a (possibly inactive) lady who had us over for dinner and we hardly said a word. We were tired and having a bad day and weren't in the mood to socialize. After 45 minutes she suddenly just asked if we wanted a ride back to our apartment. I felt bad.

I often felt like we would come into a ward and start making demands and bossing people around to meet OUR needs and most of these people we barely knew because we couldn't attend 20 wards every sunday.

Missionaries in my mission also got tired of hearing the same stuff over and over from the members. Whether it was "catching" us eating out or drinking coke (God forbid). Even little things would start to feel like Chinese water torture to me like hearing I'm from Wisconsin, "Oh, you must like cheese then!" multiple times every single day for two years.

I also felt there was a cultural difference. It seemed that missionaries who were born and raised outside of Utah, looked down on Utahns thinking they were sheltered, elitist,conformist, a little bit clueless, lazy and any other stereotype of Utah Mormons.

We also seemed to fight a lot with the Bishops trying to get baptisms done, which probably is common anywhere but I think the fact that we didn't really have a relationship with many of the local church leaders made it worse.

Did any of you who were active at the time think the missionaries serving in Utah seemed a little smug or unfriendly? Or am I just being paranoid?

I liked that our mission had many missionaries from other parts of the world. Even from Africa. It was an unusual group I thought.

Some of the missionaries from the states, mainly the elders, did seem to take advantage of the food places owned by members who'd offered free food. There was a burger place in Ogden that offered free food to missionaries if they were in the zone for example. So missionaries from out of the zone headed there on P-days without concern for the fact it was only supposed to be limited to the few as it cost money to the business to give away their product. The same with a store that sold bread and grains, elders would load up with stuff they didn't even need.

Freebies, that's what they called the many freebies members offered in different areas. I thought they definitely took advantage of the members who were trying to make friends or to feel they were sacrificing for the servants of the Lord. Every so often the person would have to discontinue the freebies after it got out of hand.

When I lived in Rose Park, some of the Temple Square missionaries would shop at the Food4Less near our house.

They were hotties, even in those ugly dresses!

My wife wondered why I wanted to put the kids to bed early and why I wanted her to wear a long, ugly unfashionable dress.

So I apologize if I leered at you to come up with ideas for later that evening.

Cristina Wrote:
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> Some of the missionaries from the states, mainly
> the elders, did seem to take advantage of the food
> places owned by members who'd offered free food.


Oh yeah, I forgot about the freebies that the missionaries would take advantage of. The mission president would occasionally have to ban missionaries from going to these places (or at least for those not assigned to the area).

Out here in The Hood, many of the missionaries seem to be Lamanites from Latin America.

I will practice my Spanish with them.

It's funny to see them try to stifle a giggle when they listen to a Gringo like me speak Spanish with some blond guy from Idaho.

One of my high school friends served in South SLC. He hated everyday of it, and when he came back, he made no secret of it. I don't blame him one bit. I would have hated it too. What a ridiculous place to get sent on a mission. What the hell do these suits in the ivory tower think when they send mishies out to all-mormon towns in utah?

We didn't even have to go tracting. Members referred all our investigators and there were lots of baptisms.

I served at Temple Square....it remains the most infuriating experience of my life. The girls who are called to Temple Square are picked for their appearance, and nothing more. You won't find a cattier, more idiotic group of women than you will at Temple Square. I hated every minute of it.

I wanted to go somewhere foreign because I genuinely wanted to help convert those who might not have gotten a chance to hear the church's message (gag). I was decently skilled in three foreign languages at the time, with MTC training I could have easily become fluent in any of the three. You would think they would have sent me somewhere useful, but instead they sent me to TS where I was a glorified tour guide. On top of that, I got really sick of being treated like a braindead child because I was a girl.

That mission was the beginning of the end of my membership. I left two months early because I was so sick of the damn place. I made up an excuse about how I had a dream about my future husband, and that I needed to leave as soon as possible to find him and create an eternal family with him. They ate that excuse right up and put me on a plane back to Illinois. Had I of told them I was really just sick of it, i'm sure they would have balked.

What years did you serve-- and who was the Alaskan Mission president????

JB

Younger sibling is serving in Orem. I'm estranged from my parents, and am not on speaking terms with him, either, and so I don't know entirely what is going on...but he's had a really tough time of it. One companion had his father die right before going(and his mom and bishop sent him anyway), and another had a girlfriend back home who was being molested by her father.

Not fun...I still pray for him, but he doesn't seem to want me in his life.

Two kids from my Maryland ward back in the 90s who had developmental problems or mild mental retardation were sent to Provo. I always wondered whether or not they did that church-wide as a way of allowing such kids to go on missions but keep close tabs on them, too.

All they wanted were referrals after referrals after referrals. The whole topic was, "who are you working with?" "Why aren't you working on them harder?"

Blah blah blah.

It was actually kind of funny sometimes because my non-member friends would eat the missionaries alive. I'd always get asked, "oh, would they like to take the discussions?" And I'd have to answer, "they would, but you wouldn't want them to."

My non-mo friends knew their shit; whereas, missionaries do not. They just think they do.

Seems kind of silly to have mormons serving in Utah. That's the state that needs the "least work on".

It's primarily Spanish speaking these days. A lot of immigrants moving in who have never heard of the church. English speaking, like my brother, is pretty miserable and primarily pressuring the "less-actives".

I was a kid in SLC when the announcement came down that missionaires would be assigned to the Salt Lake area for the first time ever.

My blowhard SP used the occasion to rip on everyone at stake conference.

"What a shame, that here in the valley we have to get missionaries to spread the word." etc etc etc

For some reason, I still flash back to his Shame On You speech everytime I see missionaries in SLC.."...how weak and pathetic the saints must be to need missionaries to do their work for them."

Gag, what a nut job he was.