The GMan while working at the local food bank overheard a fresh faced, obviously non-shaving Elder tell another worker there that a church authority prays about where to send all missionaries. " That's how I was sent here...to this area".

Gatorman asks innocent question of Elder- " Dude, did you take a foreign language proficiency test before your mission call?"

Elder- Yes

GMan- if it is all inspiration Elder why did you need to take a foreign language proficiency test?

Elder- no response

GMan- angrily retorts in the middle of folks- " Elder it was a computer and has been for years. Stop lying to people."

Prolonged silence.

Gatorman
3-1

Gatorman 1. Elder 0.

You rascal , you! Was his partner there?

I wonder if Holy McGhost flees if you call them 'partners'...?

Yes. He heard too. But this is a kid on "his" mission. Absolutely unapproachable about anything negative....

Gatorman
3-1

Kind of like most missionaries think their transfers and companions are "inspired".

When I was an AP on my mission, the mission president would meet with us, the 2 AP's, and we would discuss transfers...who would do well with who, who would do well in certain areas, etc. We discussed their personalities, strengths, weaknesses, prejudices, habits, etc.....anything we knew about them that would help us decide.

Then AFTER we had discussed and made our decisions, we prayed to feel the spirit that we made the right choices.

Guess what? Thanks to everything we did before the prayer, the prayer always confirmed our decisions were right.

Completely backwards from how the church portrays it.

Or that our temple name, patriarchal blessings, callings, etc are all inspired too.

Turns out I'm not the only dude with "Jesse" as my temple name. Which also means a lot of wives out there are, by default, "Jesse's girl". ;)

Exactly.....seems most things the members think are inspired and unique to them are actually just people making decisions with the information they have at the time.

"Then AFTER we had discussed and made our decisions, we prayed to feel the spirit that we made the right choices.

"Guess what? Thanks to everything we did before the prayer, the prayer always confirmed our decisions were right."

I'd wager that that "confirmation" had no bearing on whether those companionships were successful or not, or got along with each other or not.

You rock, GMAN!!

RB

language test anymore. Anybody know if the test is still given to everyone, or only those with an IQ above 80.

They don't give the test anymore, but they do ask if you have taken certain language classes in high school, what grades you got, and how fluent you are.

Gman only knows what he was told. Missionary goes home October 10....

Gatorman
3-1

you may have helped plant a seed of doubt in his mind, GMan. Way to go, dude!! Good vibes to you. -ed

They're on a "Mission from God". I love that movie !

When I went for my SP mission interview, the first thing he said to me was “you did very well on the language aptitude test, I would anticipate a foreign mission call.” Amazingly, he was right. /s

TBMs are quick to see inspiration where there is none. Actually, they often see revelation when there isn’t even any inspiration. Many times in my life (in many different callings) I was in meetings (with a mission president, stake presidents, and bishops) where decisions were made. I knelt with leaders, and sometimes I was the one who prayed for the group. In every instance, there was a discussion, a tentative decision, and a prayer asking for confirmation. Once in a great while, there were prayers offered for two different options, and more discussion. I never once felt, heard, saw, or experienced any evidence of divine guidance.

Back in the day, I’d easily be able to rationalize the lack of revelation. I’d tell myself “inspiration doesn’t work on ignorance.” Like so many things with TSCC, I set the bar so low for the leaders, and made excuses when they didn’t clear the lowered bar.

Good for you GMan! Set the record straight. These kids just eat up all the crap they are fed. Most of which is total nonsense.

I call that feeling "taking one for the team."

It's either a good seed, or already out of the other ear. Schooled in biology, you know this to be true. :)

"GMan- angrily retorts in the middle of folks- " Elder it was a computer and has been for years. Stop lying to people."

When I was a naive, trusting young TBM, I believed that "the Lord has sent me to this particular place for a particular purpose to find and teach certain people" blah blah blah.

But I after I lost my testimony and grew a brain, I realized that I was sent to Brisbane, Australia because they had just been split off from the Sydney mission, so they were sending more missionaries there to fill up the mission. When I got there, we had about 155 missionaries, and when I left, we had about 220. They just kept "opening up" new small towns and placing missionaries in them, sometimes towns with only 8-10,000 residents, and no branch or few or no active members.

We had so many missionaries in Brisbane that in my first ward (Chermside) we had 16 missionaries, and in a later ward (Gaythorne) we had 24. A lot of companionships had areas that consisted of two or three suburbs/neighborhoods that we could completely tract out in 3-4 months. There were so many missionaries at church when I got there that my first mission president, J. Martell Bird, prohibited us from attending church unless we had investigators to take.

The kid probably believes that the Monsoon personally signed his mission papers and proselytizing badge!

Glad that you corrected him.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/2016 01:32AM by messygoop.