...in 3 to 5 years!

Y'all remember this OK!

I have nieces and nephews that are approaching that age and some that are already there.

Their electronics (cell phones,i-pods, laptops etc) have made their attention spans literally non-existent.

They get "fidgety" when you try to carry on a normal adult conversation with them of any moderate length and just can't wait to fondle their i-phones to see what their friends are up to.

These "kids" have never gone "cold turkey" on anything in their lives up to this point yet LDS Inc expects them to do this at the ripe old age of 18???

Along with this latest "new Missionary approach" and tactics, sheer boredom will set in on these new Punk Missionaries which will lead them to ultimately investigate the Church online for themselves...then it's all over.

There will be such an early exodus from the ranks of Missionaries that will be unprecedented in the history of modern day LDS Inc.

We will be hearing made-up sundry excuses to come home early that nobody would have ever imagined.

As this new crop of 18-year olds becomes the predominate demographic and infiltrates with the "old school" way of doing things and pushes the Rough Stone Rolling out of the way it will exponentially cause the entire "Missionary" experience as we've all known it to collapse and shred asunder.

In other words...LDS Inc's revered "Missionary program" will literally be blown all to HELL with absolutely no one around and/or no way to pick up the shattered pieces of the mess that's left!!!

So it is written...so it shall be done!

In 3 to 5 years...tops!

Y'all mark my words y'hear!

Or so it seems to me...

I guess we have Al Gore to thank for the downfall of Mormonism.


[Only a joke, people! No throwing eggs at me ... lol]

Here's more Al Gore humor:

The day I made that statement, about the inventing the internet, I was tired because I'd been up all night inventing the Camcorder. -- Al Gore

Methinks you watch faux news way too much.

He is actually pretty humble and self-deprecating. Rove really did a number on him with character assassination in 2000.

Good thing for the missionary program there are plenty of semi-luddites who only have a central house computer and bar their children from owning cell phones.
These creatures still exist, although when I was young it translated to, "No you may not have your own phone line in your room! And no tv either!"

I hope you're right though. >:D

I REALLY hope you're right!

"Semi-Luddites"

Ha! That was a good one WinksWinks.

What in the hells-bells does semi-luddites even mean, or should I be afraid to ask?

And I love poster's observations of brain-dead 18-year-olds---pretty funny. Makes me think of the humor and great lines in the Book of Mormon Broadway musical and some of my grandkids.

I'm being sent to Arkansas. Uh, where is A..A.. Arkansas?

Well a true luddite eschews as much technology as possible, but a lot of mormons I know think they're living a higher law by limiting worldly stuff like iPhones, ear buds, and facebook accounts. So I call them semi-luddites because there's still a computer in the house, but sometimes not a cell phone or even a tv.

Whoops, I replied in the wrong place.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2013 10:32PM by Brian M.

Ah, I did it again.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2013 10:32PM by Brian M.

I have thought the same thing about having to give up their electronic gadgets. I've had meals with this age group and I swear, they can't take two bites of food without checking up on something electronic.

society is changing at Warp Speed, leaving Morland behind in the dust.

This will (is?) resulting in a Severe Test of Mormonism's ability to adapt, change, 'Morph' into something relevant to our times, the current moods of society.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2013 09:55PM by guynoirprivateeye.

This is why my 67 year old cuz, never married, TBM, is going on a senior mission to the east coast in August...

The senior recruitment will be in high gear also...

It seems like the recent change to requiring more online based missionary activity is intended to decrease the stress of the young technology-raised generation by allowing them to receive comfort from maintaining their bonds with the internet. The daily flood of dopamine from a few hours of internet use could go a long way to decreasing their stress levels from the radical change in lifestyle and routine.

Long attention spans aren't really necessary to be a model missionary. Lessons are short. Short conversations with random people don't take long. Now learning a language certainly does take a lot of effort. I wouldn't be surprised if missionaries are having a harder time learning languages lately.

I'm not so sure they will be more bored with the new daily schedule, they might even feel busier and better about themselves from less in-your-face rejection. Young people are very good at killing time and entertaining themselves. Missionaries since the beginning probably have always tried to spice up their days with pranks, time-consuming errands, and finding ways to justify playing sports in the name of being a missionary. I know I did.

But change is definitely inevitable. In five years the missionary program will probably be significantly different from now. My prediction is it will begin to be much more heavily community service oriented.

This will be an inevitable move because the doctrine that they are being asked to teach is getting more and more watered down and less unique from other denominations as religion continues to evolve by the pressures of science and technology. With nothing unique to teach all they can do is try to get attention for being useful to the local community.

I suppose a record net drop in the number of missionaries in five years is possible as teenager-culture in the major missionary-recruitment cities continues to become more influenced by the internet to be more skeptical of authority. Anyway it goes it should be interesting to watch the missionary program struggle to adapt while maintaining it's ability to function as an initiation and rite of passage to a lifetime of unquestioned obedience to church authority.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2013 01:16AM by Brian M.

These are from the old 19 year old threshold for LDS missionaries.
...... I am certain that the new 18 year old missionaries will be much more responsible and mature.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGybroC_Nfs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN6xXS6rUPo

are these people you'd want hanging out in your buildings, looking for things to do to pass the time ?

(not to disagree with you, but the MORmON church has already survived some very extreme insider stupidity..... but there has to be some limit..... even for MORmONS.... doesn't there?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YEMX0VooD4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vICq4gGFfY

then again MORmONISM is already dead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27aZ0fKcMI8 )



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2013 02:10PM by lucky.

The last YouTube link says "not available in your country".
The first two showing playing with fire is about as immature as you can get.

Thanks for the report / feedback.

Yah. LDS INC really hates that last video. For the last few weeks it had failed to pull up in searches. Now it has been blocked. I know how it works. LDS Inc hates the video, they see copyright complaint able material in it,

The original owner does not care enough to file a complaint, but LDS inc goes around doing people favors, and file complaints of behalf of others, having their LDS INC lawyers go to trouble of enforcing copyright for them.


Then the video gets blocked or pulled. THey are being really tricky now because the thing is fully functional as I pull it up on my site, but it wont work on others links, meaning I'd never know with out doing some research, but your feedback filled me in on what was going on.

Funny thing! dozens if not hundreds of other videos using this same audio track are still up, running strong with out a hitch.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2013 02:30PM by lucky.

Now I REALLY want to see the treasured special video!

"This video does not exist."

I am in Southern California.

In case anyone's wondering you're not missing much from the last video link. I used a proxy to view it and it has some unrelated and somewhat immature GIFs playing with overlayed snippets of text from the author speaking on Mormonism. No information you couldn't find anywhere else, at least.

Ok then. I'll put rim that curiosity to rest.

Match.Com/LDS Planet could see more bites from Missionaries still on Missions!

As for the internet-based missionary efforts, I am a lot more likely to buy into a scam that's presented to me via the internet instead of face-to-face.

NOT.

How about a brief summary of that last YouTube video that I am unable to watch? Thanks.

There's nothing really significant or even useful (see my post about it above) in it, but if you're really curious, google toolproxy and enter the youtube link into the toolproxy site.

BeenThere: Hope you're right. However, I counter-prophesy that TSCC will just quietly abolish the program and go back to the old age limits. Hope I'm wrong.

They've back-tracked on these brainstorms before. Does anyone remember how the mission for males was shortened to 18 months for a while, then put back to two years?

That's the one I was thinking of...I've read about that here many times.