Those of you who had served a fulltime mission - how long did it take until you become a trainer?
I trained firat after 4 transfers - but there were mostly only 4 pairs of sisters in our area. Now as I observed there are plenty, who become SC and Trainer after 6 weeks. BF trained first after 8 months.
These 18yr old, who hardly can survive become trainers for other 18yr old, who just left school. Same with the sisters. Thats somehow odd to me. They hardly know their own area. I get some many ""Help we are lost "calls from them,because they are stranded in the middle of nowhere and don't know how to get back home. (Ours have to use public transportation - and no Internet access) Most of them are super immature, who the eff should take them for serious? Mostly they are after HS Girls. We never had so many HS-Girlies investigating the church. Is it that what is wanted? What is the intention of this?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2015 08:11AM by newnameabigail.

I became a senior comp / trainer about 6 weeks after I got into the field. But, then I already spoke German.

Heidi GWOTR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I became a senior comp / trainer about 6 weeks
> after I got into the field. But, then I already
> spoke German.

Close to my experience. I spoke French pretty well before arriving, and after 6-8 weeks in the field, I spoke it better than any of the SCs in my area, and both the DL and ZL.
So I got made SC, and had a train of greenies assigned to me, after less than 3 months in.

I probably would have been fast-tracked to DL and ZL if I weren't inclined to sit at Paris cafes and enjoy an Orangina instead of tracting...:)

This was common in my mission. The MP didn't like putting the greenies with experienced missionaries since the experienced ones knew too much about how terrible the mission was. And they would have their laziness rub off on the greenies.

So he would put brand new greenies with 6 week old greenies as trainers, so even though they were both inexperienced idiots, at least they were both excited to be there and wanted to work hard.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2015 11:57AM by oneflewwest.

As soon as I passed off my discussions (6 weeks) I became a senior comp/trainer.(in a new area!) I was taken back and surprised and felt unprepared... It was like the blind leading the blind at first, but we ended up finding, teaching, and baptizing 2 "priesthood" families. I served in the UK. In my case it seemed to work out.

I was genuinely afraid of being called as a trainer, as it would be my responsibility to acclimate a newbie from Kolob knows where, and go all gung-ho tracting with him in his MTC-level French.

So I made sure that would never happen. I was able to do that simply by never certifying (passing off the memorized discussions), even though I knew them in both English and French. I just refused to sit and take the test.

It worked, and I never had to train. I also never rose in the hierarchy above SC, which was fine with me. It minimized my exposure to the higher-ups, giving me general non-asshat cred, and allowing me to remain disobedient under the radar. On the downside, I was JC way longer than most, but by the end of my JC term I had regained my mojo and was assertively pushing back against my SC anyway. Worth it overall.

I know that reflecting on my own mission experience, and those related by countless others,I have come to a couple of conclusions.

First is that common sense had little to do with any of it.
Since we had to "live and teach by the spirit" if anything
daily life could be "anti-common sense."

Second is that so much of the program is about blind obedience
to train up the next generation of tithe producing worker bees that it's hard to figure out what was going on even with the benefits of hindsight and much more knowledge.

For instance, just how were we to strictly follow the reams of mission rules and guidelines while still "living by the spirit" which might advise something different? Tell the Mission President that the third member of the Godhead pulled rank and demanded something different?! :-) I still can't figure that one out...

For all the "lengthen your stride" do it now" and "hastening the work" there was still plenty of deep realization that the church was seeing little if any real and sustainable growth in new, dedicated members.

Now it seems that it was mostly hurry up, go through the motions, appear busy and say how awesome it all is, especially to the folks back home!

I think I will now say that I "served" in the POTEMKIN VILLAGE MISSION.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village

8 weeks for me.

One month with a timid Costa Rican SC who hardly said a word the whole time together and one month with a total jerk gringo SC made me more than happy to become a trainer, regardless how well prepared I was.

In the North German mission when good old Alvin R. was the European Mission president, the bright idea came down from above to reallocate mission districts into (now get this) "producing" and "non-producing" missionaries. I had been baptising a bit more than the average smuck, so I was "chosen" to be the supervising smuck over a district of non-producers. (This was prior to the day when the Lord revealed the concept of "trainers."

Since I was a farm boy, I thought it was pretty much like separating the producing from the non-producing dairy cows.

Well, to make a long story short, I gathered all of my non-producing crowd together and told them to just forget all of the bullshit...or was it cowshit...about productivity as well as the rest of the numbers game crap coming out of the mission office and to work hard to enjoy their time in Germany. It worked out great and I think a lot of defeatist attitudes were helped along the way. Best Wishes!!

I was never made a trainer....Considering my obvious lack of enthusiasm for being on mission, the spirit probably guided my MP very well in making this decision. (Actually now that I think about it, I was JC for most of my mission!---The force was strong with my MP!)

In one of the posts above the poster says that he told his missionaries "to work hard to enjoy their time in Germany."

You lucky SOB's who got to go to on foreign missions. We had a missionary transferred to our mission from France because he was too lazy to learn french. While he was generally lazy all around in his diligence to missionary work, most of us missionaries thought he was a loser, not because he didn't work hard, but because he managed to get "fired" from a glamour mission in France. All of us would have loved to have been called to ANY european mission!

My mission would have been a completely different experience if I'd spent all my time learning the language and seeing the sites and different culture!

I was a well known toss-off. I got a guy who had been out 2 months. That's as close as I got to be a trainer. I was headed home in 4 or 5 months iirc. Why? Because this 2 month guy (loved him, great guy) and I never once, not ever even once knocked on a single door with him, which he pointed out en route to the train station.

Back in the 2nd oldest mission, the "Southern States," (new england being the oldest) For me it was about 9 months, Then I became DL over sisters (no one else to choose from). I pissed MP off for making a hole in the floor when moving a washer and dryer. So he told the whole mission conference off about me at the pulpit in front of a General Authority who happened to be there that day. It was ugly.

Mission pres thought I was a dope so younger missionaries took over leadership after that. Maybe I'm old fashion but I've always thought seniority should count for something in leadership, in the church and at work, even if you make a hole in the floor when moving furniture?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2015 03:15PM by poopstone.

When I was in the "mission field" 57 years ago there was no such nicety as a "trainer". You went out with a senior companion and you were on your own.

We had 6 lessons scripted and IF you followed them carefully they would lead your investigator to the water.