I work with people who have kids leaving on missions. Without trying to sound critical, they are really concerned about what these young people will do all day if they can't knock on doors. they are also leery of depending on members to help the missionaries find people to teach because they know that will.not.work.

It is interesting to see how the cog-dis is really starting to kick in.

At least tracting gave you a little exersize and fresh air. Sitting around a church all day waiting for people to take a tour? Sounds painfully dull

Maybe they could pass the time watching that filmstrip about Thad.

At least there were some bikini clad gentiles to be encountered while tracting, they won't be wondering into the church.

Bikini-clad? That's nothing, we had a less active who always wore shorts and a tank top with no bra when working in her yard in the afternoon, we helped her out a lot.

And they say that mormons aren't Christian ...

:)

I agree that tracting provides exercise and fresh air and scenery benefits, but as a mom who had children mishes in the past (3 to be exact), I was worried sick about their safety as they went door to door. Two of them served in revolting places (Haiti and South Africa in apartaid days) and the other in safer, thank the Lard, Canada. But I got grayer with all three.

Now I have a granddaughter, tres bonne, in Nicaragua and I hate the fact that she is there doing the door to door tracting. I don't care if she is hot, bored, and trapped inside of a ward building, she will be safer----at least, I think!

You were right to be worried, I had several sketchy incidents.

One more reason there will be kids coming home in unprecedented numbers.

Bored kids in a church and a smart phone hooked to social media at home. What could possibly go wrong for LDS Inc??

What could go wrong?---well, earlyrm could me near!

They figured out that 18 year olds can't bust their butts like we old timers used to do.
The real problem is that people know better with the information on the internet.
They are just going to get bombarded with hard questions more and more.
Watch this whole morg blow up. Don't say we didn't warn you.
I'm so glad I don't have to send my kids into this nightmare camp-out.

I nearly went bonkers sitting inside all day for months at the MTC. If that had continued once I left for France and I had to sit indoors all day I'd have gone off my nut. Plus, never would have learned any French. Poor, poor missionaries. I do hope they get into lots of trouble and get sent home for their own sanity.

Hopefully after partying with someone they will never forget.

Amen!

Decided to share some tales about children's mishie tracting that I learned after the fact, when the mishies returned, mostly in safe condition, thank the Stars.

The mishie in Haiti was a very naive young woman who was exposed to disgusting images that I as a mom never discovered at the library in books about the country----no internet back then. This is how all 3 of my missionary children learned facts about the countries they would be serving in---not from the lds cult, from me. In Haiti daughter mishie viewed a family dining on a rat and lived through an uprising in Port-au-Prince and actually recorded gun shot pops while cowering in her apartment across the street from the palace. Human waste literally ran down the streets and garbage lie everywhere. And, it is my firm opinion, that what she lived through affected her the most emotionally, and I believe to this day she could benefit from post traumatic stress counseling because she has never worked through the devestating experience because to her it would be criticizing her beloved church. Have I shared this with her? No, because my input is not valued as an apostate.

As for the son in South Africa, he saw huge extremes there. Heart wrenching poverty and huge mansions guarded by trained-to-kill dogs where white folks were waited on hand and foot by many black servants. He was part of a cultural atmosphere experience that demonstrated vile prestige for whites supposedly ordained by the mythical god in the sky. Also, I think a lot of this flew by him, even when he visited Soweto, because of his MOrRON Church's teachings that the lard's children earned where they would live in heaven based on their valiantcy

Truly makes me want to puke.

My son had counselling for PTSD in the first year after his mission. Nothing to do with TSCC but luckily for us, at a really prestigious hospital.

His bishop tried to talk him out of it and persuade him to have a church affiliated counsellor. Son wouldn't even consider it. This counselling was free (at point of access - NHS), top class and what's more his counsellor wouldn't be calling the bishop to let him know what was going on in my boy's head.

His counsellor's horrified, yet professional, response, to his mission ordeal was part of what led him out of TSCC.

Some of his mission highlights included, seeing one of his investigators shot dead in front of him, over a debt. Then having to hide in bushes for hours, hoping not to be next. Being chased and roughed up by gangs. Being roughed up by customs (they often flew from island to island) because the mission office had messed up on the paperwork. They were told "We can make you disappear".

Having to eat bush meat at meals with members was the least of it.

The counselling was a good idea.

BTW he served in an area which is a great tourist hotspot but rife with poverty, drugs and crime once you get out of the tourist areas. He absolutely loved the people , but then he has a big heart.

I have not been on here much...no more tracting??? Are you serious? What do they do...just call up all the inactives or go only to those homes?

Some threads on the subject:

Tonight's SUPER-SPECIAL broadcast--"Hastening the Work of Salvation"
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,932281,932281#msg-932281

Notes of June 23, 2013 - World-wide Leadership Broadcast - GRADE F - Part 1 & 2
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,933071,933071#msg-933071
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,933578,934076#msg-934076

Why it won’t work:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,941911,941911#msg-941911

Mormons and facebook:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,940049,940049#msg-940049

Thanks for those links. I read nearly all of it. I am quite surprised they don't see a need for the white shirts on bikes or walking around anymore. I suppose they feel they are not taken seriously anyhow.

So am I to guess that the members will be a big part in all the missionary discussions - maybe a mandatory part. Will these discussions be at the ward. Oh, that will go over well. Be here at such and such a time, and give them a tour. Will the members be doing stuff on the internet at the "church" with the investigators? Have to be monitored so it is done that way I guess. I am going to stay tuned.

As I reported at http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,933071,933071#msg-933071 Elder Perry stated that knocking doors was yesterday's approach.

May I please let you all read what I personally heard from the mouth of Elder Ballard in 2010. He stated that the LDS church must stop bothering folks in their homes as they want their privacy. TSCC is getting a worse reputation and must stop.

So the San Jose California Mission in 2010 (May/June) instantly became the test mission for this "no more tracting" program.

At that meeting, Elder Ballard stated it would be the only mission in the church that is banning door to door knocking. A new approach must be tried.

Ballard stated that he wanted to come personally to the SJ Misssion to give this "test program" an apostolic endorsement. That's exactly what he said, his apostolic endorsement.

Originally, there was a 1Q of 70 that was going to initiate the test, I don't remember which one (but Richard Hinckley was on the stand too). Ballard said when he found out that there was to be this new program trial announced by lower level GA's that he had the announcement post-poned one week so he could personally come too to give it an "apostolic endorsement."

When Ballard made that statement he made it sound as if it came from God Almightly - that it was to be so SPECIAL. He instructed everyone that no one was to tell other friends in missions elsewhere in the world that they would NO LONGER BE TRACTING. Why? Because others would be jealous. Wow, that just made the San Jose Missionaries feel really elite!

In the San Jose Mission the elders starting hanging out at member's homes with nothing to do. At times there would be 4-6 or more elders at a member's home having a great time trying to do service, watching TV, browsing the internet, eating, playing games or whatever - because there was NOTHING ELSE TO DO.

It is my opinion that the Mission President reported this to SLC and therein came the INSPIRED decision to put them into the ward buildings - probably with senior like stake missionary couples assigned to chaperone the missionaries at church.

It won't work. There's too too too much energy in these young ones to be corralled in a Morg building ad infinitum!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2013 02:13PM by jiminycricket.

I'll be attending our Ward Counsel meeting on Sunday, a member of the Stake Presidency will be there as well. The topics will be: ward missionary work/keeping the assigned missionaries busy, and helping young members stay safe on the internet.

I'm very interested to hear what all these men and a few women several generations older than me think about the big, bad internets. I know they are afraid and feel uncomfortable with this new information age. Plus, they have a hard time relating to the kids that have known nothing else.

Many of the kids in our Ward are friends with non-members. There are a lot of non-member or inactives in our Ward boundries. I am very curious how this new "Every Member a Missionary Digital Edition (TM)" will work out for the Stake. I'm guessing it will fade away like everything else announced in SLC. When people don't want to do HT or VT because they feel like they are imposing on members of their Ward...I doubt they will be excited to sell religion to their non-believing neighbors.

I've long thought that not only is tracting nonproductive, but it's actually counter-productive. It annoys people and makes missionaries look like idiots.

BUT I assume that it still works out in the "mission field?" i.e. where they barely have electricity and therefore no pesky "anti" information available?

Foreign missions will be the worst. I learned French on my mission by talking with people as we traveled around and tracted. The MTC only teaches the basics and most missions you will need to learn the dialect, and colloquialisms that you wouldn't otherwise learn sitting around with your English speaking companion. Good luck with that.

I have a feeling that they're only going to call people to mission areas where they already know the language. So English speaking will probably be confined to USA, Canada, UK, AUS, & NZ. & so forth with other languages. This kind of already happened back in the day. An uncle by marriage who's from France was sent to French Polynesia on his mission.

Another point to be taken though is the French language spoken in France is not quite that which is spoken in French Polynesia or in Quebec for example. I'm sure it is similar for other languages. They may be able to communicate, but not effectively.

I don't know about this. I have relatives on missions and they are tracting daily still.

The sis-mishies were just here last week. I imagine it will take a while before all in-the-field missionaries are called home - maybe not even before the scheduled end of their tour.

It's another lose-lose.

- Continue tracting to stay busy, but ignore the Apostles' 'inspiration'?
- Stop tracting and sit in a chapel waiting for the people that won't turn up?

TSCC are very much mistaken if they think that a) members will suddenly start giving referrals. They haven't previously and they won't start now. b) Facebook and other social media tools will cause people to flock to the church. Anyone savvy with the Internet will surely cross-reference what the mishies are saying with their own Google searches.

I live only about a 20-minute drive from San Jose, CA (the "test" mission for not tracting). My TBM neighbor mentioned to me a few weeks ago how two female missionaries helped her set up and clean up after a clothing swap held at her LDS church. I said something like, "I guess that was a nice break for them from going door-to-door."

Her response was that they are not going door-to-door at all but instead doing only "service work." However, I don't know if she meant just in this area or all missionaries. I assumed when she said it that she'd meant the former.

It seems to me that if they confine most of their service to LDS churches and members, that will defeat the purpose of bringing their "gospel" to non-Mos, though.

in the mornings they would be on line connecting to all the members facebook pals and giving tours to the swarms of people who got up that morning with a burning in their breast to take in the inspirational sights of a mo church.

The story implied they would still be knocking on doors in the afternoons and evenings when more victims would be home.

I overheard my sister telling someone that she had recently attended a RS meeting about the new program and that the RS president was really nervous, but had been instructed that no one could leave the room until they had signed up for a time to go out with the missionaries and introduce them to someone. She said it was very uncomfortable in the room for a while, but eventually everyone signed up for a time and then they were excused and the door was opened. She said the President just kept apologizing but said this came from "higher up." WTF!