Share Your Less Faith Promoting Missionary Stories

[GoodBoy]

A recent article was published about two sister missionaries who were sexually assaulted on their missions and how missions can be unsafe places and things the church needs to do to make them safer:
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/08 ... el-1963020

One of the girls that the story focuses on created a website where she shared her full story, and where others can post their mission experiences that may be less "faith promoting".
https://www.timeforcambio.org/ (cambio means 'change' in Spanish)

Please consider sharing your own story as a way to help potential missionaries be aware of the what the experience is really like so that they can make more fully informed decisions.

[deacon blues]

The Tribune articles made me feel sadness and disappointment. To quote one paragraph: "the church is trying to guard against the "youthful idea" that missionaries have special protection, (Elder Brent) Nielson says, and "let them know they're not invincible."
Such a "youthful idea" has been encouraged for years by Church leaders, including bishops, patriarchs, general authorities, and religion teachers, who as a group hardly seem "youthful."

[Archimedes]

At one time I was the Secretary in the mission office because I can type like a bat out of hell. Anyway, by tradition the Secretary was also the District Leader of the mission office district, so I had to put together a bullspit meeting every Monday. I hated my mission and seeing all the mission office politics first hand didn't help at all. Once in District Meeting I showed an 8mm movie reel about the Beatles, borrowed from the local library. It was one in which John Lennon proclaimed the Beatles would be bigger than Jesus. Next week I was on a bus to the armpit of the area, spent the last 6 months of my mission there with a "co-senior" companion who could barely tie his own shoes.

[blazerb]

I certainly had an unrealistic view of my safety. I felt invincible. I served in Latin America. One night we went to eat at a members home. We were a little late. When we finally arrived, the family told us they did not think we were coming because someone was shot just outside their door about 30 minutes before we got there.

We laughed (I know that's awful), and we felt totally protected. We talked about the situation in our area with our MP. His advice was to pray. If we did not feel safe after praying, we should act as we felt inspired. Looking back, I'm glad no one attacked us. If we had tried to tell our zone leaders that we could not go out because we did not feel safe, they would have come down hard on us. It was barely acceptable to follow the mission rules about getting to bed on time.

A couple of missionaries were murdered in a neighboring country during my mission. That could have been any of us. It scares me now.

[GoodBoy]

The Tribune articles made me feel sadness and disappointment. To quote one paragraph: "the church is trying to guard against the "youthful idea" that missionaries have special protection, (Elder Brent) Nielson says, and "let them know they're not invincible."
Such a "youthful idea" has been encouraged for years by Church leaders, including bishops, patriarchs, general authorities, and religion teachers, who as a group hardly seem "youthful."

Yes!! Exactly. The "youthful idea" that God actually cares more about Mormon missionaries than he does about anybody else. Now where would they have gotten that idea from...

[GoodBoy]

At one time I was the Secretary in the mission office because I can type like a bat out of hell. Anyway, by tradition the Secretary was also the District Leader of the mission office district, so I had to put together a bullspit meeting every Monday. I hated my mission and seeing all the mission office politics first hand didn't help at all. Once in District Meeting I showed an 8mm movie reel about the Beatles, borrowed from the local library. It was one in which John Lennon proclaimed the Beatles would be bigger than Jesus. Next week I was on a bus to the armpit of the area, spent the last 6 months of my mission there with a "co-senior" companion who could barely tie his own shoes.

Wow. Haha!! The movie apparently didn't go over well!

[2bizE]

At one time I was the Secretary in the mission office because I can type like a bat out of hell. Anyway, by tradition the Secretary was also the District Leader of the mission office district, so I had to put together a bullspit meeting every Monday. I hated my mission and seeing all the mission office politics first hand didn't help at all. Once in District Meeting I showed an 8mm movie reel about the Beatles, borrowed from the local library. It was one in which John Lennon proclaimed the Beatles would be bigger than Jesus. Next week I was on a bus to the armpit of the area, spent the last 6 months of my mission there with a "co-senior" companion who could barely tie his own shoes.

Wow. Haha!! The movie apparently didn't go over well!

LMAO. You got sent out to Siberia!

[Phil Lurkerman]

At one time I was the Secretary in the mission office because I can type like a bat out of hell. Anyway, by tradition the Secretary was also the District Leader of the mission office district, so I had to put together a bullspit meeting every Monday. I hated my mission and seeing all the mission office politics first hand didn't help at all. Once in District Meeting I showed an 8mm movie reel about the Beatles, borrowed from the local library. It was one in which John Lennon proclaimed the Beatles would be bigger than Jesus. Next week I was on a bus to the armpit of the area, spent the last 6 months of my mission there with a "co-senior" companion who could barely tie his own shoes.

You are my new hero!