DiscussMormonism.com

http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-291-16246-lds-missionary-experience-spin.html

I think this article sums up the missionary experience.

On occasion I made the mistake of saying negative things about the mission, and it was made quite clear that such comments are not appreciated.

Great picture of Runtu!!!!

Great Article.

Runtu Rocks.

The problem with it (the online version I read) was it was indeed spin; an obvious attempt to accentuate the negative.

Great article, Runtu!

As my mission president once told me, there is a power in simply telling the truth . . .



. . . and you have that power.



All the Best!

--Consiglieri

bcspace wrote:The problem with it (the online version I read) was it was indeed spin; an obvious attempt to accentuate the negative.

I think you are really objecting because it wasn't spin, bc.

stormy--would you edit the title to add a parenthetical (Runtu in the news) or something like that, as I think a lot more people will check it out.

consiglieri wrote:I think you are really objecting because it wasn't spin, bc.

I didn't see any spin or negativity. Missionaries do put a happy face on their missions and it takes a toll on some.

I was the travel secretary in my mission, and we were sending home this huge group of missionaries—there were like 18 of them. And some of those guys weren’t good missionaries and they weren’t really good Mormons, either. And I remember thinking to myself, “These guys are going to go home, they’re going to give their homecoming talk, and as far as everybody in their ward is concerned, all those 18 missionaries were all the same kind of great missionary.” And when I was working for the church, I saw an article in the Ensign where some guy was talking about being on a mission in Bolivia, and this miraculous event that happened, and I looked down at the name and … this guy was not a good missionary; I’m surprised he’s still in the church. But you go home and everybody says the same thing, and people say, “Oh, you’ve just changed so much and grown up so much.” And … maybe not

That is definitely true. I always tell young men going on missions today not to bother with aspiring to be APs, or to worry too much about having the highest numbers because no one (other than perhaps their parents) will care when they get back. I spent way too much mental energy on such things as a missionary and (I'm ashamed to admit this now) was definitely disheartened when I realized that no one cared.

I'm about half way through Runtu's book and it has been hard for me to read it at times. Not because it isn't written well (it is), but because of the memories it brings back. I am realizing that I have definitely suppressed a lot of negative memories from my mission.

In the spirit of sharing the truth about missions, I have a story I would like to relate.

Back in Mikunigaoaka, Japan in the summer of 1981, my companion and I were teaching a family. This by itself is remarkable as teaching entire families was a rarity. This family consisted of a father, mother and two adorable little children.

They were coming along nicely, and the last lesson (number 6) was about the commandments they would have to commit to follow upon being baptized.

The problem was we were rushing them because of the pressure to get baptisms that month. In other words, we were put under pressure and so we passed the pressure along to our family. Against my better judgment, we crammed in the last couple of lessons and it was simply more than they could take, what with tithing and the Word of Wisdom. They were not well off finanically and tithing would be a big sacrifice, and as to the Word of Wisdom, the difficulty in Japan is not usually the alcohol but the tea, as it was here.

We tried and tried to persuade them they could do this, but they simply were not convinced in spite of our best efforts.

The end result was they never got baptized.

Would the end of the story have been the same without the pressure from the mission leadership to rack up baptisms that month?

Maybe.

But it is something I have long regreted, and something from which I learned an important lesson.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri