Is it no more door to door at all for any missionaries?

If so, can you imagine the celebrations occurring in mishie apartments all over creation right now? Even cleaning toilets (if that is what it comes down to in the end - no pun intended, lol) has got to be better than marching through neighbourhoods in hot weather, cold weather, monsoons and snowstorms, only to encounter impatient, fed up people who have heard it all before - and don't want any of it.

The mishies won't think at first of all the down sides for them. The more constant scrutiny by ward members, bishops and WMLs. No opportunity to meet regular non-LDS folk in the course of a day out and about in the community. And potentially constant monitoring of all their online activity, even to the point of how much interest in the church they individually have been able to garner.

But the boredom factor will likely weigh in even more than it's already present, if that is possible. Boring meetings, boring correlation, boring P-days (too controlled and time-constricted), boring companions, boring interviews, boring discussions. And now, sitting around in a chapel all day - is that really what the new program is? How inactive (no pun intended, lol). How unhealthy. Hour after hour after hour of - absolutely nothing.

I guess members and guests (if any?) can look forward to cleaner premises? Maybe? If an army of mishies has all the time in the world to take up their mops and buckets and march forth to usher in God's Kingdom.

For the church, a big down side of the new push is that it takes a lot more of a commitment from a friend or neighbour of a TBM to agree to go to the church to meet the missionaries than a simple dinner invite where the missionaries "just happen" to be included or show up, or other ruse that either party tries. (For me, my one TBM friend in the world asked me over for dinner. I had no clue that she had also asked missionaries to join us and that they actually considered our dinnertime talk to be our "first discussion"). (Sheesh!)

It could also be a big pain for all of us if it means more Mormon "trolls" or well-intentioned TBMs straying where they don't belong (like our FB or sites like this if they proceed to defend the Mormon Church - otherwise they ARE welcome).

What I don't understand - really Do Not Understand - is how the Mormon Church is not only always behind the game but always so very Completely Clueless.

The Mormon Church and the WatchTower Society ("WTS" -JWs) share many similarities. I should know - I've been in both (yeah, slow-learner, that's me). However, the JWs would seem to have their act together far more than Mormonism ever has done (at least in the decades of which I'm aware). They have a far more cohesive message. They have a more polished/prepared presentation. They are run by a group or board type of idea rather than a single man/prophet (less room for infirmity or unexpected events to become obvious). They don't make so many missteps, at least that are obvious to the public or even ex-members. They don't want quick conversions or baptisms. Yes, they keep track of numbers but they don't push for numbers to the exclusion of common sense. They find it much more profitable (in all senses of the word) to require that prospective converts know at least the doctrines of their organization, if not the actual history. They don't want you if you don't want them was the message I got. They wouldn't even let me get baptized until I was 18, despite my fervent wishes to jump into their tank at 17. They pulled back from door knocking and even street corner magazine stands years ago and they have been instructed now to withdraw as soon as someone expresses disagreement. Their take on it, as I understand it, is that they don't need to persuade, only to find anyone who is already waiting to hear their message.

In short, why is the WTS, an organization with many similarities to the Mormon Church, so much more clued-in about how to "preach [their] word"? True enough, both organizations claim to have the only living prophet in this age. But the WTS prophet is the organization itself whereas the Mormon prophet is T. Monson (whose middle initial I don't even know). Why is the WTS "prophet" so much better streamlined and slick than the Mormon prophet?

Maybe Mormon Church officials or reps have taken to heart some of the many suggestions that ex-members have made on this board for how to make the church programs and the missionary experience better - for members and non-members alike - but as usual, they have got the implementation wrong.

Or maybe they are silently concurring that the missionary program as it has been run to date is just not working any more, if it ever did.

On dark, dreary, rainy days here on the Wet Coast of Canada (Pacific) maybe the mishies are happy being indoors, even if they've only got the plants to talk to. Wait - do they even have plants in those chapels? But compared to other alternatives, like real service work, as described in other threads on this topic, what a colossal waste of two years x 70,000 young adults? Yowch.



(Edited to change subject line from yesterday and to tweak a few thoughts internally).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 02:13PM by Nightingale.

I loved tracting. I know I'm weird, but that was my favorite part :(

I used to tract as a JW when I was a missionary for the WatchTower Society in Quebec, Canada. The people there at the time were very interested in discussing religion. We would spend all day door knocking and enjoying meeting the people. Most of them were amused at our efforts to speak their language (French).

I guess maybe that makes me weird like you!

But as a Mormon, why did you enjoy it? Did you find that a lot of people were happy to listen to your spiel?

I think that if you came across then as you do on this board (likeable and amusing) it would have been easy to get people to exchange ideas with you.

I'm guessing though, that you don't miss it?! (Those best two yrs of your life?)

Hey I was on the other side of the street laughing at the JW's thinking how could they believe that stuff? Lol. Sheeeeit!

I just love arguing with people. :)

Plus, I'd already been out of the house for a few years before the mission, so walking around all day talking to people was a vacation compared to holding down a job and going to school.

And San Diego is full of awesome people...

kolobian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just love arguing with people. :)

Really? I hadn't noticed that! :P

> And San Diego is full of awesome people...

I travelled to San Diego to visit the family of a missionary I knew here at home and to attend his wedding, not long after he had completed his mission. He was moving right along on the Mormon timeline, tracing every expected footstep. I really liked him but he was well and truly converted - his family used to be BIC. I think he's a lifer - too bad.

San Diego is a beautiful place. Balmy. Beachy. Palmy. Zooy. I'd go back there in a heartbeat.

Of course, I have palm trees in my own community too, although these ones are transplanted. They don't really go at all with the rest of the vegetation and agriculture around here. We're more about tomatoes and potatoes and dogwood and cherry blossom trees. When I see the palms, though, I think of San Diego every time. My half day on the beach there was a lot more peaceful than the day at the Mormon temple, for sure.

Maybe TSM should announce another change: Beach church. That would ensure a lot more enthusiastic members and maybe even a few visitors, more than they're likely to get in this open chapel approach they've dreamed up.

Can you imagine countless hours inside with a companion that you

cant stand and mentally try to deal with that new program all day.

epic fail imo..

Don't you think the chapel would become a prison? Nowhere to go. No chance to get out. And a companion who won't leave you alone even when you need to use the washroom? I knew comps like that (females at least). I had to take an ill sister mishie to the doctor one time and her comp was going to march into the examining room with her until I physically barred her from entering. At least 50% of the sick sis's problems were caused by her ferociously aggressive and abusive companion. I couldn't begin to imagine the living hell of spending 24/7 with that woman.

Maybe it will work out okay if they assign more than one missionary companionship to each ward building? Then you could roam the hallways and get a bit of freedom, if you can call that freedom, likely not being allowed to go outside.

And can you imagine being assigned to watch the door for interested parties coming to view the building. Except. Nobody comes. Sad.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 02:26PM by Nightingale.

At least with tracting, they were getting exercise and some social interactions other than their companion.

I think of 18-19 year old missionaries sitting in a ward building all day, similar to sitting in the MTC all day but without the structure. They're gonna be bored and be screwing around all day. It will be like in the MTC when they get creative and find games and weird hobbies to keep themselves occupied. Kind of like cooping up little kids without any real toys. They start making forts out of the chairs and playing paper airplanes and weird stuff like that.

I was in the Provo MTC for 6 weeks since my visa was delayed, and those extra 2 weeks we had to sit in the call center most of the time answering calls for free BOM's. It was incredibly boring, and I hated being cooped up all the time. I remember staring out the window at the people out on the street & in cars driving around thinking, "I wish I was free like them, but I've got about 2 more years to go before I can be free again." What a horrible feeling that was. But when I got to Peru, at least I free to roam around our little town, as long as I didn't cross the line into another zone. My prison walls had expanded a little and switching cells & cellmates every few months helped. But if they are now going to be caged up like this in ward buildings everyday, how are they going to keep from getting cabin fever? Seriously, this is not a good idea.

They can shoot hoops all day.

Full name = Thomas Spencer Monson

Beyond that, I have no idea how they expect this program to work. Contacting people means seeing them face to face, I cannot imagine trying to "convert" people otherwise.

When I first arrived in my Mish (Alabama, B-ham) we tracted for 2 days without even getting in the door. The rejection factor was enormous for me. I finally asked my trainer if he had infact been invited in by knocking on doors.

I cannot imagine sitting and waiting for someone to ask a question on a computer, then "hoping and praying" that they are converted through the online "spirit"...it seems to me that the new mishies will experience disappointment and rejection more than ever before.

The mechanics of the process just seem impossible.

That is a good point about the online spirit. The mishies I knew relied heavily on helping their contacts to "feel the spirit". They didn't think they had to answer any questions, they just had to plug in a video or say a prayer or give a blessing and the spirit would do its work. More like a seance than a discussion, in my view.

I'd trek out to the meetinghouse (an hour's drive for me each way) to see the elders who had promised to address some of my questions (both before and after my stint in the dunk tank) and every time I felt excited that I would finally get some answers (ha!) they didn't even ask what my questions were, they would just plug in the selected video each week and wait for me to feel the spirit.

To the uninitiated (i.e., non-BIC) that was fairly weird. I didn't realize for a long time that that was what their technique was. I just kept leaving disappointed, wondering why they thought they had answered my questions, over and over and over - so which of us was the more "insane" I wonder now.

Now with this new approach, maybe at first they will think they can just show videos all day long to the hordes of people that will line up to enter the hallowed halls of their local Mormon ward building? They do that at temple open houses but it's more of a captive audience. They let you in but you are seated in the chapel first and have to listen to their intro and watch the video before you get to join the temple walk, which is also tightly choreographed.

Maybe the Big-3 think that the interest shown by the general public in their temple open houses will be as strong to see the general buildings. I highly doubt that. And those who do go will definitely be disappointed. Just nothing to see there.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 02:49PM by Nightingale.

Mishies confined to the barracks all day hopefully can latch into their neighbors wifi.

I see a lot of time being spent online, whether it is facebook, google, or here. It is incredible timing to do this while lowering the mishie age to a generation in constant need of social media.

This whole idea is a game changer for LDS Inc, and I think they are woefully unprepared for the tsunami this is going to create.

With all that boredom the elders will be spending a lot more time confessing to their MP's.

I think it would be amazing if the LDS security system had some type of hidden tracking device.

Mps would realize that in an 18 hour day 15 hours were spent at facebook, RFM, and PornHub. Though they would come down on each of the mishies individually, it would be awesome to hear the phone calls between the bretheren when they actually realize that their elders are doing nothing but surfing porn.

There is no doubt in my mind that the kids are well aware of the security mechanisms, so laptops found in dumpsters etc will be the hottest commodity in the mission field.

If the bretheren think they are going to contain this by browbeating the kids into mission submission, they have no idea how out of touch with reality they are.

The funniest stuff happened while tracting. Talk about a boring mission. Not only that, if you serve a foreign mission, the only way to learn the language is out in the field. I can't imagine all those homecoming talks about their sucky, boring missions.

Why even send the Youth on Missions? Just confine them to there bedrooms and be on the internet 24/7 with a hope that The World will finally get the message and convert. At least I was able to get out into the world and grow personally visiting and being of service/meeting good Non-Mo's. It opened my eye's away from Mormonism. Oh wait.....let's contain our youth.

Thanks Nightingale for reminding me of the rainy tracting in Canada's Pacific. I spent my "two best years" in British Columbia back in the mid 70's and there were many times that we found places to hang out when it was cold and wet outside. We tracted so much in some areas, that I feel I paid my missionary dues in shoe leather, but I was always open to activities that were out of the weather.

I don't think I would have enjoyed hanging out in a meetinghouse all day though. A lot of my good memories of B.C. occurred when we were out and about.

Bang Bang Bang "What is that?" Elder, bored to death, has found a small chapel room to explore his little factory...

Has it a name? Masturbation.

That's what I would be doing if board and told to stay at the ward building all day.

I picture the one time someone really does stop by to see an open meeting house (of the Lord), and both missionaries are in separate rooms pleasuring themselves with the internet, caught unawares.

Traditional Navy: "All hands are restricted to the ship until morale improves."

Sitting more and eating junky food may contribute to more obesity in the ones who are prone to it.

No worries :D

There will be fights.

There will be murders.

There will be women.

There will be inventive, creative, social networking.

Most of us know of the sub-internet world where posts disappear after a minute and a half, but those expecting it get the message.

I can't wait!

Anagrammy

I just heard an explanation on KSL radio that they will still be doing their regular work out knocking doors and stuff, but that they will have "one hour or so" planned each day to go to the chapel for facebook, tweeting, etc. in the down time part of the day. So it's not all day long in the chapels like they made it seem.