Polygamy Porter wrote:Let me soften it for your tender mind.The Nehor wrote:I invite JWs in every time they knock. Eat dinner with the President? Tell their Zone Leader they have a sucker? Do you honestly think that's how missionaries think?
Missionaries are driven by the same high pressure sales tactics of door to door salesmen.
They are expected to do a daily and weekly quota of door knocks, Book of Mormon hand outs, approaches, discussions, and baptisms.
When they do not meet the quotas then their ZL will harass them with talk like, "Do I need to ask the president to speak with you about this?"
When they do meet or exceed their quotas, they are socially recognized and publicly rewarded.
If you tell me that your ZL did not care about quotas, then you are a liar.
Socially recognized? No one ever announced who was and who wasn't baptizing and who was and who wasn't knocking enough door. My Mission worked on the principle of love for others, including other Missionaries. A ZL wanted to know how he could help not how he could beat you over the head.
The ZL's didn't really care what we did as long as we were doing something that was productive or might work. I tried out a number of plans as I had a personal rule that I would not tract more than an hour a day so had to come up with different ideas. Some worked, some did not. Go figure. The most successful one was to play football (soccer) with kids and/or adults then meet their parents/families later. Many would invite us over for dinner and we'd offer to teach them.
I was there to teach and help the people, not mess around with petty Mission politics (of which there was a little but I ignored it).