When I was a TBM, I decided to go on a mission. But since I was a female, my mom was afraid I would be called out of the country and go somewhere unsafe. So, it was listed on my application that I could only serve stateside.

Magically, I got my mission call to California.

Many years later, my parents decided to go on a senior mission. But my mom did not want to leave home. So, she put on her application that she would only serve in an area she could drive to from her home.

Again, magically...my parents were "called" to the mission near their home. I didn't even know you could do that!

Several years later, my parents decided to serve ANOTHER senior mission. This time, my mom already had planned out where she wanted to stay and what area she wanted to "serve"...She wanted to stay with family in Canada in the basement of a friend's house and serve in the area near that home. She listed those specifics in her application.

Once again, the prophet "called" my parents to the exact mission in Canada that included the family home.

Hmmm...I didn't know that the prophet actually got his revelations from my mother. Ha!

Your mom's version of the CK is probably very amusing! She probably thinks she'll be in charge there, too...

elderoddog: So true. Despite the mormon belief that women should "look to their husbands" and essentially be submissive, my mom remarkably calls all of the shots in our family. She was truly the "neck" of our supposed head of household growing up.

She handled all of the discipline, and my dad never got involved. He has always been the "great enabler"(which resulted in severe emotional abuse by my mom and ripped our family apart. Many of our siblings don't speak to each other and several of us have estranged relations with our parents)

Yet, somehow they are "wonderful" and well respected people because they served two missions and my dad holds high callings within the church.

The stake patriarch whose daughter I dated before my mission was married to one of these stalwart daughters of Zion. I grew up with this family in the ward. Everyone in the ward knew she was Queen and hubby was just a consort.

C'mon, it's just human nature! "Leadership" is not an X chromosome function, said devoted homemaker, Hilary Rodham Clinton...

In a few months, every woman in America will get to be the Hildebeast by proxy. Heady days.

Your family sounds just like my family.

There were two senior missionary couples in the local ward that ran the bishops storehouse. They came to church every Sunday and bored everyone to tears about how fabulous their mission was, and how wonderful they were for doing what they were doing.

Senior missionaries have a lot more say in mission choices. The brethren need to pander to them because the seniors don't have the same pressure to serve, and they're not as cowed as young people. Senior missionaries also don't have the same rules.

But even back in the '70s, when I was a missionary, I never believed the calls were inspired. They just grabbed the next name on the list to fill the next vacancy somewhere. Unless you were connected. Then you could pretty much choose where you served.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2016 02:14PM by Stray Mutt.

Stray Mutt: Yes, that is true about senior missionaries having different rules. It just struck me as funny later in life because I was always taught in my youth that God told the prophet where each missionary was needed and that all mission calls came from divine inspiration. What a crock.


Also, I often wondered about female missionaries specifically called to the Salt Lake Temple mission. I am convinced that is why you were required to send in a picture.

My exmo male friend always said they must call only the most attractive women to serve at the SLC temple because he never once saw an ugly female sister missionary there.

Must be a ploy to get more men to join...get them to think all mormon girls are hot. Yeah, that's how we will suck them in......



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2016 02:36PM by dancingdiva.

Senior missionaries explicitly do get to choose, though they are told that it helps if they let the church assign them where the church is inspired to assign them. But seniors finances and interests and language and even specific assignments can be chosen (or sometimes requested by someone who knows them who is over an area or function).

Young missionaries can also state their preferences, but many will tell you that they didnt get sent where they asked to go. If it is a medical issue, then it is more likely to be honored.

lolly18 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Young missionaries can also state their
> preferences, but many will tell you that they
> didnt get sent where they asked to go.

I stated a preference for Japan or elsewhere in Asia.

I got sent to France.
It was such an inspired choice, what with my French surname, my four years of French in high school, my brother serving a mission in France (different mission though) at the time and all.
Truly inspired.

Not.

What you must not know is that seniors always get to choose their own locations. Many do not, of course, choosing to serve "where the Lawd wan' me." But it has long been policy that seniors can choose their location and even apply for very specific openings that are listed on-line.

My stake president explained that the Church saw me as a liability, if I were to go on a mission, citing that as the reason why I wouldn't be getting a mission call. One of the reasons I finally understood there was no discernment and a lack of inspiration.

I am glad that he used those exact words, now. They stung then. I hope I can be an even bigger liability today than I was then.

He wrote on my papers "Send this boy to ______ (redacted) " He loved visiting there.

And that is exactly where I got sent.

Watch the mission call openings on YouTube (it gets addicting). One thing is that when twins put their papers in at the same time, they ALWAYS get similar missions. Either both stateside, both South American, both European, etc. I haven't seen one where one twin went stateside and one went foreign. They can't have one of them mad that the other one got a better call.

Also, the inspired computer program is set up so that a certain number will be called to the same mission area their father served in. That's actually programmed in. I worked with one of the guys who helped develop it. There are some other nuances that are programmed in to elicit faith-promoting servitude. Then the G.A. who comes in and blesses the final computer selections can move calls around, and will often have a sheet of names of their relatives and friends' kids who want to serve in a specific area and voila. Instant inspiration from the Lard that it's where they get sent.

And what do these families think when the mission call is to a really awful and dangerous place? I have distant family members whose "golden boy" 18 year old son just got his call and they have been completely silent about it. Their disappointment is glaring by this silence.

Southern Indiana, no doubt. That IS disappointing.

Must be hard to resist saying something like, "I guess you just didn't raise him good enough..."