If you were to go on a mission and say go along with most of it, but sleep in now and again or go see the sites instead of tracting every so often, what would happen? I am sure you'd get the evil eye and lectures from your superiors, but what could they really do to you?

Is it all that repressive? or is it just the brain washing you receive before going in that causes all the pressure?

Of course that's not possible. You're always with a companion. The only way that you could slack off for the day would be if your companion is of the same mind-set and you have no control over who your companion is.

One would start off as a junior companion. The senior companion would be someone they trust to be a senior, so there would be a high probability that they'd be a super TBM who would want to stick to all of the rules.

It does happen, where they make the mistake of putting two like-minded missionaries together, but I'm sure they're the exception to the rule.

The post above is correct. No way, generally speaking. A companion with you 24/7 and a thousand spying eyes.

But I did have one companion that, had I not been an idiot, I probably could have raised some hell with. We could have paid off a few people to get baptized (to make it look like we weren't slacking), and then gone hog wild. I know that asshole would have been totally on board had I suggested it.

Having a hot little 17-18 year old Colombian novia for 3 months would have been heaven in the middle of an otherwise dreadful experience. Youth is wasted on the young.

From experience. Yes! If you have a devious and creative mind set.

Missionaries are constantly monitored, when a greenie you are monitored totally by a loyal and trained senior companion. Todays missionaries are being given iPads that track their movements and who they claim to teach etc and have spyware for the mission leaders to carefully monitor what is going on.

There have been instances of missionaries going rogue, it usually lasts for a few days but gets blown up in the minds of some missionaries that they spent a lot of time in rebellion. There are a few very well known cases in every mission of open rebellion and all of these end with the missionaries being sent home in disgrace.

If you don't want to go on a mission and serve with " exact obedience" then don't go, because that is what will be expected from you and forced upon you in a cult environment.

Shortly after I arrived on my mission, my companion (who was a week from going home after 2 years) told me we weren't going tracting that day -- instead, we were going to ride our bikes out to the French coast at Normandy (about 10 miles away), and enjoy a day at the beach. I was all for it.
So that's what we did. Enjoyed lunch on the beach. Briefly toured the war memorials and cemetaries. Saw the cliffs of Dover across the channel. Rode home, and told the district leader we'd tracted all day.

Two days later, the zone leader showed up, pulled my senior companion (5 days before his scheduled return home), and put in a new senior. They sent my original companion home right away. I got a lecture about obeying the rules, though it was mitigated they said by the rule to follow my senior companion.

I didn't rat him out; I don't know who did or how they found out. But there was no leeway -- and they nailed him for it.

You're always being watched, and disobedience isn't tolerated. If you fool around and don't "work," you're deemed a "bad influence."

For all 24 months? No. But if your companion is accommodating, you can get away with a lot for the 1-2 months you're together.

Elders in my mission were generally divided into two types, "hyper" and "mellow." I easily fell into the "mellow" category. In my 15th month out, I was paired with a "hyper" and we very nearly got into fights because I simply refused to go along with the White Bible program. Wouldn't do it and didn't care who in authority knew.

The MP, to his credit, was wise enough not to pair me up with another "hyper." He guessed what the result would be if he tried to break my will in that manner; any zealot comp would quickly be schooled as to how *I* did things. I had made an earlier comp cry (literally) and had no problem doing it again.

So for the final 8 months (I left a month early), I was paired with other "mellow" elders. One had even requested me by name based solely on my reputation, because we had never met each other. I don't think I knocked on a single door during those 8 months, and the mission culture was very much oriented to tracting.

As I understand it, the environment has become more oppressive and restrictive. Today, I might well be sent home with the attitude I had, but as long as you don't fear the mission or the church leadership, you can get away with more than you think.

I was a "pre-Ipad" sister missionary. The MP didn't seem to take sister missionaries all that seriously so I don't remember a lot of trouble with being less valiant. About every other companion I had was serious. So every other companion was laid back. We all believed in TSCC but some were just more casual than others. I pretty much went with the flow and didn't suffer too much. When I became senior companion I was pretty attentive to my juniors. I tried to make things as easy as possible and didn't force anything. So, my mission was pretty enjoyable. It didn't hurt that I was on the French Riviera for most of it. I did have one junior companion that was a horror about memorization of the discussions. She was far more miserable than I was. Thankfully we were not companions for very long.

These days I have no idea what a mission would be like but hearing about all the early returns and taking into consideration that elders serve for two whole years, I'd probably think twice before trying to endure the experience. I think the really uber missionaries are intolerable these days and the less than believing are probably really depressed. If you think it might be a lark, think again. I tend to believe it would be better for you to just not go than end-up going home early if things took a turn downward. Too many problems with the leaving process. I've even heard horror stories about not being able to hold onto your passport if you are overseas. Don't ever let the MP take your passport. Leave for home immediately if any jerk tries that on you. Good luck with your decision.

Back in the old days in the Paris-France mission two of the
missionaries who didn't believe it were put together as
companions. They pooled their resources and bought a car and
got a job as movie extras in the movie "The Sargeant," Starring
Rod Steiger, that was filming just outside of Paris.

Their exploits were common knowledge among many of the other
missionaries in the mission and when they was finally found out
it lead to President H. Duane Anderson's scathing lecture to the
mission on "schoolboy loyalties."

My guess is it would be a lot harder to get away with something
like that today.

In today's world not possible. But maybe in the 50s,60s,70s,80s and part of the 90s...With today's technology they can spy on missionaries like Big Brother.

So, if you don't tract or do any of the other nonsense they demand of you, what is the MP (and his assistants and zone leaders) going to do? Yell at you? Try to make you feel guilty? If a missionary doesn't care about following the rules, why would they care about getting yelled at?

It's not like they're going to put you on the rack or anything like that...

Why would anyone want to go unless you're a TBM?
If you have any doubts why not do something more productive with your time and life.

If you are contemplating doing this because I feel pressure to go on a mission and you don't trust that you have an alternative, I strongly recommend against it.

I initially went on my mission with true intentions wanting to be a great missionary and baptize converts. Within a short period of time, however, I realized that I didn't believe in Mormonism. But I felt stuck, as if I had no option but to continue for the remainder of my 2 years. So I tried different strategies to alleviate the cognitive dissonance. At first I intensified my reading, fasting, and praying hoping to force a testimony into my brain. That didn't work.

So at some point, I decided to stop thinking about the Church and do my best to get the most of my experience - the culture, learning different subjects, playing a musical instrument, and legitimately helping others when I can. But it didn't work either. The church is always in the way, and I felt like I was wasting my time. It remained a miserable experience.

If you don't believe in the church, don't waste those two years. Spend them doing things that more directly create a worthwhile experience for you. I know that overcoming the fear of criticism from family and friends is difficult. But a few years after you break away, you will feel stronger than ever.

So for the next two years, study abroad. Peace Corp. Some other organization that provides opportunities to see the world. Or, stay at home and pursue other things - school, a career, etc. Whatever it is, make sure you genuinely want to do it.

Correction - because "you" feel pressure, not "I"

In my mission (London, England 1990s), it was pretty common to do the things mentioned in the original post.

We had many days where we would get together with other missionaries and do some sightseeing, go to a movie, go to a soccer match, etc. P-day eve parties were pretty common depending on the area.

It was shocking to me how many missionaries didn't even want to be there. They showed up on a mission to please family and friends. These missionaries would do some missionary work and they would do other activities.

One time I had a really anal retentive companion. He would try to follow the white bible exactly. He would leave the flat at exactly 9:30am and enter the flat at 9:30pm. If it looked like we would arrive too early he would walk slowly; if it looked like we would arrive a minute late he would start running. He is about the only companion that I really wanted to punch.

This companion was French and a buddy of mine had a French comp also so we would swap occasionally for me to maintain my sanity. We would go do fun stuff and let the French do their thing.

As to getting in trouble. I got yelled at by a zone leader in my first area over the phone. We had gone in to London early to hear Mr. Hinkley address the missionaries. Apparently we should have done missionary work in the morning instead of just going into London early to do some sightseeing. One of my missionary friends would always say "what are they going to do, fire me?"

There are so many more things from my mission. Overall I'm glad I went even though I only went to please my parents (they were paying for it anyway). London is a really cool city. I had a great MP. He cared more about the well being of the missionaries than numbers.

It all depends on the companion and some other circumstances. From my own experience I can say that ourvMP wasn't that inspired to pair us up. We spent 6 months with 2 elders on the outer edge of the mission to open it. We were miles away from the ward or other missionaries, even mormons were rarely seen there and even more miles away from MP. And all of us were not sticked to the white bible. My companion had a crush on one of the 2 elders anyway and we were more than lazy.
We never knocked a single door. We taught some people, whobwere refferalsvor we found in downtown, but unfortunately they were not interested to give 10% to the Cult. We faked a lot.We did what was necessary but not a bit morevthan that. But we had a real good time.
Partying, went swimming, cinemas, sightseeing, PJParties and sleeping in the same apartement. We dared to put the beds together, too.
It was pre-mobile only the zoneleader was allowed to have one. We know when the calls came in or the time we had to call from our landline so we never had trouble. Those were the best months I had on my mission.

But I also had the opposite. An uberTBM, in a district of uberTBM missionaries.

Things were loose in the 80's. While visiting my sister one summer in ___, a popular foreign missionary who's dad was in government in his home country, decided that I was the one. He announced to said sister that he was going to marry me. About 3 weeks later he was tranferred about 20 miles away near the mission home. One night he shows up on my sister's doorstep unannounced. Back then district boundries weren't really crossed except for multi district meetings. So he comes in the house, explains that he'd told his ride he'd left something important, and blasts me with a kiss and walks out the door. Guess who was driving the car? Nope, you won't believe it...the mission president. True story.

Reminds me of a french missionary in my old ward. He was sent home for being french. In his words, "I'm not going to let a mission interfere with my love life". He was banging the ward's hottest single mom.

I'm super proud to be able to put in my 2 cents.

I was the missionary that the good mishies DREADED.

I did NOT want to be there, but I loved BEING there. I did the bare minimum of mishie work. We went to Sac meeting, but none of the others unless we had an invistagtor present. That meant simply, that after sacrament meeting, we (usually) just went back to the apt, relaxed for the rest of the late afternoon and maybe get out of the apt for the evening dendo.

If I ever had any say in it, it was always, "Let's stay home and do PPDay. I liked PPDay. It was p-day's prep day. During this time, I would get my laundry done, get my letters written so that P-day itself would be free to enjoy ourselves.

My mishie days were littered with "video game dendo", "youth center dendo (which meant, a room with hundreds of movies to choose from", kaimono dendo (we would just go shopping) and the like. I watched upwards of 100 movies during my 2 years. I know this because the one companion and I counted once and stopped counting at 88. That was easy for me to remember, that was graduation.

I lied about "passing" my discussions.

I never once read the BoM.

We skipped out on our zone, went to Miyajima just because we wanted to. Which I'm so happy that we did, cause it is one FANTASTIC memory. What fun we had!

Another comp and I would fool around.

Another comp and I never once, not one single time, never ONCE knocked on a door or approached somebody on the street. He brought this up en route to the train station. After he left, the guy that replaced him and I went to Mr. Lady in Kuraiyoshi. It was a drag queen bar. We went with a new member, this new member made the costumes for Mr. Lady.

I had a fun mission.