Was at the in-laws yesterday and they had the missionaries over for dinner. I got to talking to the missionaries and asked where they were staying. They said they were living with some members in the ward and no longer lived in an apartment that the church was renting out.

I asked why that was and they said "probably because of the economy." I learned that more of the missionaries in the area are starting to live with members now. My brother in law said this was an idea that went back to when he was on his mission four years ago, so it couldn't be the economy.

The church can waste how much $$$ on a mall yet have members clean their churches for free and have missionaries stay with members. Why don't people open their eyes...

Think how much the church makes off this-They pay these families $75 a month (that won't even cover electricity) and they don't get a break off tithing. Then these missionaries families are paying $425 month ($950) for 2, with the economy as it is, the church should give both parties a break...

I can't even believe how much more money I have since my son moved out, and it's A LOT more than $75 a month!

Dudes cost a lot more than that--even dudes who never get to have fun and don't have much time to eat.

As if what they do to the kids wasn't weird enough already, now they're going to subject them to the additional weirdness of members' homes. It's just so wrong.

I wonder if they'll still move them around as often.

munchybotaz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can't even believe how much more money I have
> since my son moved out, and it's A LOT more than
> $75 a month!
>
> Dudes cost a lot more than that--even dudes who
> never get to have fun and don't have much time to
> eat.
>
> As if what they do to the kids wasn't weird enough
> already, now they're going to subject them to the
> additional weirdness of members' homes. It's just
> so wrong.
>
> I wonder if they'll still move them around as
> often.

When my nephew lived with me for a few months, m y light bill went up $50.00 per month. That doen't even take into account food, gas etc,

One day it's going to backfire bigtime..You can't keep asking for more money and time and build mega malls/Hotels and under attended temples forever without someone yelling " the king has no clothes on"

Mo Larkey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One day it's going to backfire bigtime..You can't
> keep asking for more money and time and build mega
> malls/Hotels and under attended temples forever
> without someone yelling " the king has no clothes
> on"

One can only hope. I recently put a quip about the mega mall quip on my facebook status and received the following reply from a TBM:


>>I do not know of these "shopping centers" you are referring to. Tithing dollars are sacred money and are used to build temples, church buildings, fund church welfare farms and humanitarian aid.<<


I furnished her with a link. LOL

can you furnish me with that link?
thank you

Dinner appointments were usually torture for me - I hated being "on stage" like that with the members. Sure, they were nice but we were definitely being judged. If I hadn't had an apartment to retreat to for a little personal space - if that had been my life ALL the time with only a shared bedroom of my own, I seriously would have had some kind of breakdown. I'm not being silly either. The constant companionship left me with several years of anxiety attacks after my mission and that was just from having to live with a stranger 24/7 with no real way to be alone and de-stress. Amping it up by living with members...I don't even want to think about it. I know for sure I'd probably not have gone at all. Of course, I didn't know then how much I need my alone time but I still would have thought it was a crazy plan.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/2010 10:09PM by CA girl.

I totally agree with CA girl. This would have made my mission experience unbearable.

This is so unfair to everyone but especially the missionaries themselves. They need to have their own space so they can decompress, man the mission is hard enough without having to be "on" all the time. I would have hated this and not sure I would have lasted on my mission if I'd had to live with members. I didn't even like living with other companionships because the other sisters were often so judgmental and would interfere with our work. I liked living with just my companion (when it was one I got along with) but I'm an introvert who does best one on one so I'm just like that. Anyway, being in the apartment was sometimes the only place I could relax a little and be myself and that time at "home" was always so short but a welcome reprieve from being out tracting.

Seems like this is just another way to keep missionaries "in line" and focused only on missionary work and maybe cut down on conflict between companions too.

And when there were members, they had no extra rooms. So the living with member thing wouldn't have worked. I wonder how widely -- or narrowly -- this program is being used. I mean, there are a lot of countries that don't have American sized houses with spare rooms. And in some countries, families are packed in like sardines.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/2010 10:22PM by Stray Mutt.

New Years eve slightly after 7 PM in nor cal. Not freezing out. Pathetic all the same.

Awesome. Involentary quartering. What could possibly go wrong?

A while back a poster posted the rules that member hosts were supposed to follow. It basically consisted of spying on the missionaries. Does anyone remember this and/or have a copy of the rules?

If I had finally gotten my last kid out of the house, the last thing I would want is for a couple of kids I don't even know to move in-especially if they came with a bunch of rules that I would be expected to follow in my own home.Add that it is going to cost me and the whole thing really sucks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2011 10:18PM by bona dea.

They're the ones who are always having the elders over for dinner and FHE and all that.They'd jump at the chance to have missionaries live with them too. They could see them every day!

And bona is right-- it is insane. I can think of three couples from my home ward that would jump at this chance.

raptorjesus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And bona is right-- it is insane. I can think of
> three couples from my home ward that would jump at
> this chance.

I know there are people who would jump at the chance, but I think there are a lot who would do it only because they were told to and would find it a big imposition. Can you imagine what could happen if you had a horny teen aged child in the same house as horny mishies of the opposite sex. A disaster waiting to happen. This seems like a really bad idea and very inconsiderate of both members and mishies



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2011 11:38PM by bona dea.

Yeah. One more thing to pile on. Clean toilets, shovel snow, quarter god's army.

They should keep this shit up. We need to find out who the "elect" are.

The church thinks it can put members on "the rack" and stretch them forever.

Toilets at church ... and young strangers in the basement.

My little brother got in trouble on his mission for getting too close to one of the ladies who owned the house they were staying in.

I thought that this type of living arrangement was discouraged. At least it used to be. I guess the Lord has changed his mind again.

It will be interesting to see if more get sent home now for hanky panky with the members.

The church began replacing paid employees with older freebie missionaries in the early 2000's. So while the economy didn't hit the rest of us until a few years later, already in the early 2000's it was negatively impacting TSCC.

ANYTHING to save a buck and maintain the cushy lifestyle for those at the top of the pyramid. Keep a-stretchin' that rack!

A side benefit was keeping a closer eye on young mishies, but secondary to the always-#1-consideration: $$$$$$$!

We had many missionaries live in our apt in what would be a garage area (never was a garage though.) It was about 500 Sq Ft and at one time they assigned....four to live there. We had to scramble to figure out how to get four beds in there.

The missionaries typically lived with members -- they typically had their own funds sent directly to them, also through the church missions. They handled ALL of their own money.

able to rent a house in a low rent area where we lived in So. CA and put six or more missionaries in the same house and just keep rotating them in and out.
In those days, the typical rent was about $100 to $150 a missionary. They bought everything else. Ward members often fed them many times a month, with no restriction that they had to have an investigator there.

Back when I was a kid in the 80s, we'd have missionaries living with us all the time. I don't know if my parents ever got paid for it, but my folks are very TBM (particularly my mom) so I'm sure they wouldn't mind advancing the cause of the Lord and so on. I guess the church must've given them something, because we were always very poor.

We'd moved into a town just outside the capital area in Finland. There was not (and still isn't) a chapel in there and the mishies had no apartments either. So they'd live with members, maybe 10 local families or so. In the morning my mom would feed them and they'd jump on their bikes and get out for the day. Sometime in the evening they'd be back, so my dad would hand them an axe and have them chop some wood. Then we'd heat up the sauna and get in there with them.

Those are actually some of the church related memories that I do cherish. I learned quite a bit of English from them and they were just these cool down to earth guys, some 10 years older than me and my brothers so naturally we'd look up to them.

It's kinda funny how that'd be against every possible rule nowadays to put mishies naked in a sauna with kids or anyone at all :D And they can't even touch an axe :P But like the sauna thing is such a big part of the Finnish culture, you'd be a total outsider if you didn't go with the locals :P

My TBM wife maintains there are absolutely no economic benefits to the Profit and Apostles. I always say: "How would we know, since they keep all financial records secret."
Is the LDS Church offfically chartered as a private for-profit corporation?

Our bishopric tried to get us to let the missionaries live with us about a year ago. We're in our early 30's, my husband is basically a non-member, and we're trying to conceive kids. I don't see how it could have been a good idea. I was really mad about it. I actually found it insulting and unreasonable. Can you imagine trying to go through fertility treatments with idiot 19-year-old boys living in the house, draining all your resources and getting in your personal space? Gross.

Also, the sister missionaries knocked on our door tonight to "get to know people in the ward". I told them I was on the "do not contact list" and they still asked me if they could do anything for me. That's how it starts. NO THANK YOU!!

Good for you! Of course it's an imposition.

Having 2 strange people around takes away your privacy and can cause never ending problems.

It would be hard to relax in your own home with 2 almost adult kids constantly underfoot, no matter how big the house.


If local church leaders feel the mishies need to be put up in members' homes let them open their OWN homes to them.

There have been missionaries living in our neighbors' house two doors down now for a year. We see them riding their bikes by and checking the mail and they even built a greenhouse in the backyard. The couple is older, but not yet retired.