I was just wondering if you are allowed to go workout at a gym every morning, b4 study time. Don't ask about my mission I'm just going because I have nothing better going on in my life.

Don't give up your SELF, your BODY, or your MIND or your FITNESS for this corporation. Never. Go to the gym.

Maybe a slight chance IF you have a cooperative companion. Remember your attached at the hip with a sidekick for 2 years 24-7. Can't see to many companions excited to wake early just so YOU can go work out. You might get time for a few push-ups, pull-ups, and sit ups in the apartment. You won't have time for travel to and from apartment to gym. YOUR time isn't important for 2 years. Its the lawrds time and you can't waste a minute of it. Really want to go? I would pass on a mission.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2015 03:49PM by mankosuki.

Very little is absolutely certain about a mission, but the MP and his goons will try to keep you from being an individual.

No, you're not supposed to go a gym on a daily basis. There are tons of rules about how you're supposed spend your mission.

But having a good time on a mission isn't all that hard. Here are some stories on the subject:

http://www.postmormon.org/exp_e/index.php/discussions/viewthread/18763/

I won't bust your chops about going or not going. It's your life... But definitely, whatever you do, try to make it fun.

Proly not because your suppose to have 2 hours of study in the morning, and then be out proselyting by 9:30pm. If you have an average companion, which you have to stick to like glue, he won't want to get up that early. Think of all your gains right now - they'll be gone in a month. Don't go. Stay home, go to school, keep lifting all you want. Missions are pure idiocrasy.

Yep, I had a friend who was a gym training partner of mine and a most faithful weight training enthusiast, but when he turned 19, all that went away because it was expected of him to do his duty and fulfill his mission.

He lied about his worthines to go since he was sexually active with his girlfriend up until the week he left for the MTC.
He got moved around from zone to zone, changing cities and MP's because he was always flirting with the young ladies he may come across in investigating families.
He would write me letters about seeing this place or that place, treating his mission like it was a vacation. Lying to his MP about nearly everything.
But he came home from his mission with the serving an honorable mission stamp of approval, married a nice young LDS girl, and was divorced 4 years later and paying child support for 2 children.

My advice is to be true to yourself first. If YOU dont want to give 2 years of your life away, then don't.
Save all that time and money, buy a gym membership near your home, work, go to college, date and have fun.

Live your life, not someone elses perception of what you should be.

I seriously doubt you'll have the chance. You will have hours of bicycling (at first, unless you're in a large area, you won't have access to a car until you're a ZL or an A.P.). You will have hours of walking/tracting.

Also proper nutrition (proteins, etc...) will not be available because you'll be on a strict budget unless fed by members. So even if you work out, you won't have the amino acids and protein to build or maintain body mass.

Time is so precious, every minute is scheduled (even P-Days are for washing clothes, writing letters, seeing local sights?). It's bed at 11:00 P.M. Waking at 5:30 a.m. for discussion memorization, devotional, day planning, number reporting and stats.

I depends on which MORmON is in charge / which MORmON that you talk to.

I had some insanely stupid MORmON chew me out for doing push ups in the in the lobby of the dorm at the MTC. " Our lives are supposed to be completely dedicated to the Lord right now! Not to personal pursuits like exercising. " he said to chide me.

I said: If total dedication to the effort was really that crucial, to the extent that we were not entitled to exercise as Missionaries, then the Lord should be blessing the prophet who was more critical to the work than us missionaries, to go with out sleep so he could be working around the clock. And as far as I knew that had not happened, so I was going to continue to indulge in physical fitness efforts.

Well, there actually was some MORmON Faith Promoting BS story going around about how Spencer Kimball only needed token amounts of sleep as he did the work of the Lord as the latter day prophet...... I just had not heard about it. Yah, Jesus is wanting to work his MORmON servants into the ground, while He Himself is too damn lazy to get on with His far overdue second coming. I should have listened to myself on this topic. IF the MORmON work really was important to any god, then a lot of things would be much different than they really are. The fact that remains is that MORmONISM will invade and take over every aspect of a person's life IF the person allows it. MORmONISM will steal EVERYTHING that a person has and is -all their time,- all their money -all their dignity -all their privacy, all their ability to reason for themselves, If the person will just allow it.

smirkorama Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I depends on which MORmON is in charge / which
> MORmON that you talk to.
>
> I had some insanely stupid MORmON chew me out for
> doing push ups in the in the lobby of the dorm at
> the MTC. " Our lives are supposed to be completely
> dedicated to the Lord right now! Not to personal
> pursuits like exercising. " he said to chide me.

Yeah, how dare you maintain God's temple!

I eventually had a set of weights on my mission. Fairly nice ones (iron) that another *sinful* *selfish* physical fitness minded missionary very kindly left to me. My convert helped me move them when I was transferred. When I finally went home, I gave the weight set to my convert.

NOTHING that I did ever really met with the approval of the Mission President or his Mission office, including baptizing the previously mentioned convert and his family, because I had totally failed to kiss ass on the Mission president, so I met as well have indulged in physical fitness efforts. Later on, years later, my convert helped me quit MORmONISM. I hope that weight set served him well.

It honestly depends on the mission president. Some encourage it if there is a gym nearby. Some forbid it.

As has been said, even if it is allowed, you need to find a way to drag your companion out of bed and out the door if yiu want to go.

You can do ANYTHING if you have a cooperative companion. But since you typically don't get to pick them, you can't really count on it.

One of my comps had been a football player at the University of Calgary. He was preparing to go back home and wanted to get in shape to try to get back on the team. So three days a week we'd show up at the gym, where he'd work out until 10 or 11 and I'd sit in the lounge reading unapproved magazines. It beat the hell out of tracting, so I sure wasn't complaining.

30 minutes each morning is all you will be alotted. If you are in a biking rea youll get a lot of exercise, but not the weight training kind

Nothin on earth has ever come close to the momentary thrill of hearing a bus load of Jr High teenagers oogle my manly 57 year old body as I was out on a walk with my dog.

Man is that he might have joy......however fleeting.

Go for it bro while you still can.

The human vehicle is wondrous but alas short lived.

Funny you say that. I'm mid twenties, log about 6 hours a week in weights, and got the bus cheers this morning. I was very pleased. If I can get that when I'm 57 I might finally overcome my fragile ego.

I honestly assume or think that BYU's football players who also go on missions, are sent to areas where they can weight train and do other training, so when they hit the campus, they are (still) in some sort of football shape.

I think the church prefers plastic surgery.

You just want to make yourself LOOK better to other people.
But the things required to ACTUALLY make yourself be your best are not faith promoting.

Your reason for going on a mission is simply because you have nothing better to do? LOL! Just wait until you get out on that mission, dude. Suddenly you will be thinking of lots of things that sound better! How about going to school or starting training in a vocation that you will be able to make a living with? What about just having some fun with your youth and chasing girls and doing all the things normal 18/19 year old kids do? If you seriously feel like you have nothing better to do I feel terribly sorry for you.

thanks elderolddog...these are great stories in the link that you shared.

It depends on what kind of weightlifting you are talking about.

I had a companion on my mission who was some kind of national powerlifting champ in Canada. He wasn't able to do the kind of lifting he wanted on his mission. He looked big to me but he always complained about getting "skinny."

On your mission, you are allotted very little personal time, and that includes exercise. The best you could do is about a half hour in the morning in your apartment with your own weights and maybe go to the gym on you P-day, if your companion at the time agrees to it (not all companions will want to go to the gym on their one day off).

That being said, just about ANYTHING is better than going on a mission.

Why not go straight to North Korea?

Or... Do something useful like international aid work, Habitat for Humanity (physical construction where you can still look at yourself in the mirror).

Don't inflict your apathetic attitude on some other hapless Mormon kid. Get an education, or copy Arnold Swarzeneger.

Yes!

Had a companion that purchased his own sets of free weights and bench press. He pumped iron everyday and when he transferred to a new area he duped some member or investigator to help transport his weights/press.

Lived in an old victorian house -- quite possibly the oldest in that town. An old LDS sister lived on the bottom floor, and we had the top floor.

First thing that was NEW to me at that time -- my senior companion had his own bedroom and I was not allowed into his room. Hmmm.

Secondly, it became obvious this guy had a complete set of weights and a benchpress in the room. (So answer to your question is YES -- but you have to get nasty to keep it undercover)

Third -- the guy had a LOT of cassette tapes with heavy metal music played loud enough on his headphones while weight lifting to be heard from anywhere in our apartment.

Forth -- he was from New Mexico and was looking forward to going back and re-joining his gang back home (and I'm not talking "gang" as in lil'rascals either)

Fifth -- Danvile is extreemly small being mostly shopping areas for the surrounding towns (which were out of our area) so tracting could be completely accoplished in about two weeks -- but it was some other missionary's two weeks because we did absolutely ZERO.

Sixth -- R-rated movies were a method of passing time in the mission field.

Seventh -- this missionary was absolutely ADORED by the local members, and he was the second highest baptizer in our mission for several months in a row. (The highest baptizer was sent home a few months later for sleeping with the clientel)

Eight -- I felt so guilty and besmerched during my short companionship with him that after when I was transfer into the mission home I confessed my companionship's sins. The mission president didn't believe a word of what I said (my first great leason in "discernment")

I wonder where Elder Egbert is today? -- shot dead maybe?

It might depend on your mission president and how accessable and what type of gym it is.

I lifted weights the entire time I was out. Mission pres. encouraged it and it was at little gyms in a house or a cave under a house (West Indies Mission), not a 24 hour fitness type of place. One place I lived had weights and a bench so we didn't need to go out. In Jamaica I lived way out in the country on the edge of the forest, no gyms around, so I made weights out of branches, lengths of pipes and cinder blocks.

I came home about 10 - 15 lbs heavier, all muscle.

(It will) WORK OUT!
(It's your temple).
Marry the body-mind-yoga.
Never neglect physique!!

No no

Forget your testicle-mony.
Strengthen your personhood

Lift the bed if you have to

I would imagine that totally depends on where you go. Polynesia somewhere? Do they have Planet Fitness? LOL, I doubt it. Any third world country you'll probably have greater concerns than "where's the nearest gym?" Even if you don't, you can exercise in your home space without any equipment at all, using your own body weight. Pushups, planks, handstands -- all build muscle, so don't discount that if that's all you've got available.


While working out, especially at a gym, is probably frowned upon, if not fully against the rules, remember, you have choices. You can choose to break the rules and accept the consequences as they come. There may be none. There may not actually be any opportunity for you to break the rules for dozens of reasons I can think of. And you may not have the energy/feel like it, or the motivation. I hear the turbo-brainwashing in the MTC really takes it out of ya.

If you're going to be in the US, then the first thing I'd do in a new area is hit up the nearest Goodwill/used crap store. I see lots of handweights and even complete weight sets at places like that, and you can always donate them back if you don't want to haul that stuff around. That seems like an inexpensive way to keep a few things around your apartment so you can throw a few reps in while your companion is showering or whatever -- as you can find the time or opportunity. Maybe your comp will throw you a bit of side eye for weight training while you're supposed to be reading scriptures or something, maybe he'll even rat you out. As long as you're prepared to accept the consequences, whatever they may be, then my advice is, it's YOUR mission. Do whatever the fuck you want. And remember, it's easier to get forgiveness than permission. ;>)

I seriously doubt you'd get sent home for working out, but I'd probably try to ferret out "what's the worst that could happen and am I okay with that?" while still at MTC. Maybe getting busted and sent home is exactly what you want. Maybe the brainwashing takes and you decide not to break any rules and go all turbo-TBM on us. Anything could happen.