This is a really long post so in short: This mission is an office job pretending to be a mission. The young missionaries in this mission are here because they were "honorably excused" from serving a regular mission.


I'm still pretty new to this site so sorry if this is the wrong place to post a topic like this but I felt like it's something everyone would like to know.

I'm an early returned missionary that came home from his mission last Monday. I put up with being there for over a year due to the pressures the Church put on me and stuff but I finally put my foot down and demanded to be released early which was thankfully done. I grew up a member in the church with a mormon family that goes back 5 generations but I've been a closet ex-mormon ever since I got my own endowment in Dec 2012. I heard the arguments that the mormon church is a cult a lot and never really paid much attention to it until I started going through the temple for my first time and realized that I was participating in weird cult-like cerimonies that no one has ever told me about before. (Yes I managed to remain blissfully ignorant about what goes on in the temple the whole time.)

I hated the entire experience and it made me very frightened and nervous about what I was really involved in but this all happened a week before I left on my mission and I didn't really have the courage to voice my feelings and just sort of kept it to myself because I was expected to be a missionary. I managed to get away with a lot of research while on my mission (discovered this site, in fact) and needless to say I don't believe in it anymore. I'm still not really sure how I'm going to get out of it all though.

Anyway that was just me venting, the reason I made this topic is I thought everyone would be interested in the mission I was on. It's called the Family and Church History Headquarters Mission and is located at church headquarters on Temple Square. It's a service mission for part-time and full-time senior missionaries but recently they started to allow young elders to join in to create a pretty unique mission.

The FCHH Mission is a service mission opportunity if you're a young elder but what makes it different is it claims to be a full-time mission that is just as worthy as a regular proslyting mission, except you aren't actually allowed to proslyte or teach anyone at all. Since it's not a proslyting mission you do not teach investigators or teach any gospel lessons at all. (Except at a specific time on Sunday and you're only allowed to teach the senior missionaries on the mission with you.) So basically what this means is that as a young elder in the FCHH mission you have to follow all the rules and standards required of a regular missionary except for the fact that you don't actually get to do what a regular missionary does. (That primary song is a lie.)

So what do you do as a missionary on this mission then?

Well this mission is one to help aid the family history and church history departments of the church. There are several "zones" in the mission that are scattered throughout various locations on Temple Square like the Church Office Building, Joseph Smith Memorial Building, Family History Library, etc. (I worked in the library.) Depending on what zone you're in you just do the things that the church needs done that they don't want to pay anyone to do basically like helping maintain familysearch.org by scanning or indexing images, or maintaing the library and helping the patrons there.

I worked in the library and my job was to help patrons with their family history problems assuming they needed help. (They rarely did.) But a lot of jobs you do on this mission require a computer and you're own cubicle as you fill out excel spreadsheets or quality check images or whatever.

So basically the FCHH Mission is a low wage office job disguised as a mission. You don't get paid because you're "serving the Lord." The young elders on the mission have to follow the standard missionary rules, so they get up at 6:30 AM, arrive at their zone at about 7:30-8:00AM, and work at their little cubicle or whatever until 9:00PM. Seriously. That's what we do on this mission.

Keeping track of your hours is important because we were told that the church liked to look at the hours we've worked for tax purposes and to see how much money they've saved from the missionaries by not having to hire people to do the work we do.

As said earlier, you have to follow the rules of a regular missionary: companion at all times, no wordly distractions, no visiting family and only one e-mail to them per week. Most of the young elders (myself included) live in Utah already so it was really awkward to have your family live within driving distance but were still not allowed to see them.

If you were apply for a mission normally you would never end up on this one as the only way to be a young elder on this mission is to have been "honorably excused" from serving a regular mission. If you've been deemed unable to serve a regular mission then you can apply for a service mission of your choice and this is one of them. Even though the process feels more like applying to a job then applying for a mission they still liked to tell us that we were "called by God" to be here.

To be "honorable excused" from serving a regular mission you have to have been deemed unable to serve a regular mission due to mental, emotional, or physical limitations. For me I have been on prescribed medications for anxiety since I was sixteen. Because of that my bishop got worried and sent me to the LDS Family Services division to have me evaulated. I had to fill out several forms with very personal and probing questions to see if I have what it takes to serve a mission, most people applying for a mission will never have to deal with this. A lot of the questions bothered me but I can remember the one that bothered me the most was a series of questions asking if I experienced any homosexual behaviors. After filling out all the papers they have me see a psychiatrist who asks me more questions while filling out another report. (You aren't authorized to read the report the psychiatrist writes about you.) The psychiatrist then sends that report to the bishop and he makes the final decision as to whether you can serve a mission or not.

My bishop decided that I couldn't serve a mission but told me that there are plenty of service missions out there that I could serve. The church has yet to go public about the young elders in the FCHH mission and it's not very widely know; the only way people seem to get in is by word of mouth which was the case for me.

If you want any sources there is a small buried page about the FCHH Mission on the church's website (it makes no mention of the young missionaries) and if it counts there are a couple of young elder missionary blogs floating around if you google the mission name.

Hi, thanks for posting this.

This is something I had never heard of before and is very interesting.

Good luck with your transition back to "normal" life. I wish I was as intellectualy honest as you when I came home from my mission but it took me a few years to admit it. Like you I realized in the temple the first time, something was seriously wrong, and like you I had no time to do much about it.


Wishing you well.

Look at the bright side: you got some office work experience to put on your resume. Looks a lot better than cult representative harrassing people on the streets.

The part about the shrink sounds extremely unethical to me. Is there a board you could report these doctors to?

I would love to report these doctors but I'm not really where I should. The real kicker is that while on your mission they keep having you see the doctors in LDS family services depending on how you behave on the mission. I reported to my president in my weekly letters a lot that I often felt really sad and miserable and wanted to go home. Their response was to send me to a shrink who prescribed several anti-depressants for me. I tried and went through about 3 different medications while on my mission, not counting the stuff I was already on. Earlier this month he prescribed me with cymbalta (a really expensive name-brand drug) to see if it would work for me. It cost $300 because my parents co-pay didn't cover it. I was only on it for a week because it was giving me horrifying nightmares during the night and honest to goodness hallucinations during the day. Once I reported that to the doctor he told me to get off of it immedietly because that was a serious side effect. He then took me off medications completely to see how that would affect me. I've been taking medications since I was 16 so I experienced some horrible withdrawals and ended up really sick. This is when I put my foot down, went up to my mission president and demanded my release, and I told my parents that I'm not putting up with this mission nor am I letting that quack experiment on me anymore.

I have a relative in SLC whose son is doing this. He is slightly autistic and can function very well in most situations, but wasn't able to pass the "real" missionary test. He's been moved around a bit from one area to another, I believe. Don't really know a lot of details.

Yes this pretty much defined every elder on the mission as everone seemed to have asperger's, adhd, bi-polar, just stuff that can make life challenging but by no means makes it so you can't function in life and society. It was just stuff that scared the bishop enough to where he didn't think they could serve a real mission.

There was a guy who worked in the church offices near where I lived on a service mission.

Honestly, as an introvert, I would probably prefer an office-job style mission over a proselyting mission where you have to annoy people constantly, etc.

It sounds like it is easier to get away with goofing off on a proselyting mission though. The office sounds better, except that you are going to be closely monitored to clock your 100+ hours of work each week. Sounds like hell. So, basically like any other mission :)

So, "elder", it sounds like we had basicaly the same mission experience, I beat my head against door, you beat your head against a keyboard. I was the unpaid sales staff, you were the unpaid IT/administrative staff.

A lot of the elders on the mission seemed to enjoy the idea of serving a mission where all they have to do is sit at a cubicle and not have to deal with humans for two years. I certainly didn't though, and I know a lot of other elders didn't either because I actually served as a district leader for over half my year that I was there and lots of elders would talk to me about how much they hated being on the mission.

I was stationed in the mission office for 3 months during my mission, we would work at the office until about 3 in the afternoon and then we would proselyte during the evenings, it felt like the lowest level of hell being stuck in the office for 5-6 hours a day.

But my eyes have now been opened to an even lower level of hell. A service mission doing an office job full time. Imagining being at a desk during my mission makes me physically ill.

Thanks for posting your story. You gave hundreds of free labor hours to the corp. Did you or your family have to pay for your service mission, just like any other? If so, yet another financial gain and astounding what they get away with.

Yep I was definitely on this with the help of my parents money. Something I forgot to mention is that if you're on this mission you are required to live in an apartment complex near temple square even though my family lived close enough for driving. (My dad comes to Salt Lake City for work every day.) You lived in an apartment with 3 other elders but sometimes you got lucky enough to live in a two man apartment. Your were expected to pay like $400 a month for you share in the apartment cost, or my parents were anyway.

I know of a young man on a "service mission" who empties the trash cans at City Creek Mall. He must pay for his own meals while there and the cost of the bus fare which has been a hardship as he only relies on disability payments for income. I think the poster is right about not paying even minimum wage for many of the jobs the church needs done. Welcome to this site....hopefully, it will be of help to you in the transition time to come.

My parents did similar things as senior service missionaries. My dad loved it, my mom hated it. Frankly, I think it sounds a lot better than knocking on doors or giving "church tours" or trying to convert via Facebook. But that may be because I had no desire to convert anyone.

Congratulations on being smart enough to realize you were in a cult, research it, and get out of your mission at such a young age. I'm sure there will be some tough days ahead, but I am confident that you can make it through and figure out what you really want. You have accomplished a lot already.

Get going on school/career interests, maybe a part-time job, and I think you will soon find your way "out of all this" and in a better place

Thank you. I am happy to report that so far my family and local church leaders have been very respectful of my decision to leave the mission early, but that's probably because they don't realize that I secretly wish to leave the church. All they know is that I was completely sad and miserable there and I wanted out, which wasn't a lie.

Wow man, I'm sorry. That sounds like it's been hard, but good for you despite the anxiety to leave that mission and the church. It's worth it in the end, so don't be discouraged if your family disapproves of you in the meantime.

These stories need publicity.

LDS Inc avoids paying minimum wage by coercing 'volunteers' with an implied threat of family estrangement, penalties after death, and ugly spouses for failure to comply.

This is a disgusting example of unregulated companies that do not even pay taxes and train their executive staff in tax avoidance/evasion.

Missionaries need to unionize.

I'm not your father, but if I was, I would be so proud of you. Number one, for being so courageous and unfraid to live your life. You are an amazing young man. Once you fully leave the TSCC, you'll probably find your anxiety will leave as well.

Thank you. I can definitely say that when I decided to gain a "testimony" about how this church is NOT true, I can remember feeling an inner peace and happiness that I have never felt as a member in the church. No more guilt, no more pressures, just freedom.

Congratulations on getting out of there. I wish that I could have been able to back out of my mission.

First off, welcome and thank you for the report. I was unaware of this new fangled kind of mission.

Second, I add to the chorus of congratulations of leaving the cult so early - it took me into my early 30s. My excuse is there was no Internet then.

Disturbing third, assuming the 'psychiatrist' you went to is an actual MD, not allowing you to see your charts is not just unethical, it's illegal. You have a right to all your medical records. I do not know the legal position if it was a social worker carefully projecting the image of medical certification without actually claiming it.

Good luck getting on with life. It's hard enough without having the crushing weight of a cult to live up to. Best.

Thank you. I'm not out yet as I'm still just a closet ex. I'm gonna wait until I'm comfortable in school and work to where I can break the news to my family. Looking back on it I'm not sure if the person that wrote the report about me was a psychiatrist or just some type of wannabe counselor person. Either way she wrote a report about me that was sent to my bishop and then to my mission president and I was told that I wasn't allowed to read it. I've seen several elders leave the mission early while I was there and the mission office keeps the files of all missionaries, even when they leave. So even though I'm off the mission I'm sure the mission office still has a nice little file about me revealing all sorts of fun stuff about me that I will never get to look at.

I have been in the family history library a couple of times in the last years and observed the missionaries there. I felt very sorry for them but I had no idea they were making them work the regular 13 -14 hour day missionaries are expected to do.

I would report this to the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Labor Relations board, the Church is violating laws and forcing people to work who have poor resources to defend their self interests. Most people would call this human trafficking.

Take your story to the Huffington Post and to Christian churches.

It's outrageous. They're making the mishies *pay* to perform clerical labor that is uncompensated.

Yes the most common "zone" in the library was a thing called "Access Services." Basically if you were in this zone you were a watered down librarian of sorts. If you go to the library you'll see them all over the place dusting books or shelving books or whatever.

This just further confirms my knowledge of tscc...malls, office buildings, land grabs. All so very important to Jesus, I'm sure....but my spouse remains staunch and is even getting more annoying....
The church uses everyone to its own advantage with a cover of hoping for eternity...yuk!

Dear son of a swede.

You have given out enough information a nosey so and so at the COB could identify you. You may have "outed yourself". Perhaps you should edit out the month of your endowment and a few other bits of information (unless you want to be "out").

Welcome home and I'm sorry you're in this controlling environment. How controlling? Google "cult characteristics" and see how many apply to your mission experience.

Thanks for the concern. Based on the information I've given I'm sure there are several people who could identify me easily given the nature of my mission. Are there really people at the CoB that actively find people like me to out them though?

See if you can get transferred to clean the First Presidencies Vault.

Congratulations on getting off of your mission early, and welcome to the board. I read your posting early this morning and am still shocked to read about young missionaries doing this sort of work and the church calling it a mission.

One thing you've learned about the church leaders early in your life is that they will take advantage of anyone and everyone and will call it inspiration/revelation or god's will. Their business plan: they give you a job, you give them your money. Quite the con.

It's interesting to learn more about the church by examining its unannounced activities. We have seen them replacing paid employees with "church" volunteers.

Now we see them solving another problem creatively-- utilizing the left over time of departing missionaries by offering to suspend the disgrace of returning home early.

This agreement to withhold the social punishment is gratefully accepted and the church has another labor source to draw from: the growing number of fed-up missionaries.

The utilization of missionaries in alternate occupations other than missionary work while maintaining the debilitating schedule is nothing less than abuse. There is no reason for a librarian or shelf-duster to be putting in these extraordinary hours, to be isolated from family, to be told where to live, what to wear, etc.

In the 17th century, employers in America needed labor so they created indentured servitude. This is a plan whereby an employer paid a captain to bring to America the worker, who agreed to work for a certain period of time, usually 7 years, and then he could work on his own. He was often abused because he could not leave.

Employers who need labor can be very creative in working out a system which permits them to exploit workers. There is no question that taking your service while making your parents pay for unnecessary lodging while they violate your human rights is a system that benefits only them.

No one comes home from being a librarian crowing that it was the best two years of their life. It's a scam and should be exposed and reported to the proper authorities.


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