Our Missionary Visit

[_beastie]

My fiance's name is still on church rolls due to his desire to not hurt his mother prior to her death. So every now and then he gets a phone call or a visit from church members, although it's pretty rare. Last week the sister missionaries called and asked to visit. We've always treated missionaries kindly, because we remember what our missions were like, so we said yes and fed them dinner. I think the main purpose of their visit was to invite my fiance to request to have his name removed from the church roll. Every now and then a new bishop will get the fever to clean up their rolls, perhaps to make their attendance statistics more respectable. Apparently the process is quite easy now - he just had to give the sisters a note which they deliver to the bishop, who will call to verify and then start the process. Much more painless than what I went through years ago.

But the most interesting part of the visit was finding out how very different their missions are than ours were. We served in the late seventies. These sisters informed us that the "prophets and apostles" have officially declared that tracting doesn't work, and it is being phased out. She said they still tract a little bit, but soon will not tract at all. I was relieved for all missionaries as well as saddened for the missionaries like me, who were not only told to tract every minute we didn't have an appointment, but who were also shamed and chastised when that tracting was so unproductive. It was unproductive because we didn't have enough faith, you see. My mission in France had such low baptismal/teaching rates that we missionaries were pretty much psychologically tortured over it. But hey, good for the prophets and apostles for finally admitting the obvious and easing that particular burden.

Also surprising was that they don't turn in any reports. We had to turn in weekly reports either to the district leader, who then turned them into the zone leaders, who then turned them into the mission president, or, in my fiance's case, directly to the MP. We had to report on the number of hours worked, the number of teaching appointments, baptisms, BoMs placed. And those reports were used to either praise or chastise. Hence, many reports were exaggerated and I personally knew missionaries who would regularly go to the train station to "teach" passed out drunks so they could "honestly" report high teaching stats.

They will all be getting IPADs in February and will spend a certain amount of time online. I asked if they were prepared in some way for the difficult questions they'll be asked, but didn't get any answer to that one.

My overall impression is that they are obviously trying to make a mission a less painful experience in the hopes of convincing lots of (very young) people to go.

Has anyone else had that impression?

[_Fence Sitter]

They are using missionaries to see if inactive members what their names removed?
That seems strange. Why expose kids that young to people who want to leave the church? The church goes out of its way to keep members from encountering difficult problems regarding the church, why send missionaries directly into a potential situation for which they are woefully unprepared?

Seems like the easiest way would be a phone call, email or note from the bishop or other leadership, if that was really desired. I also have to believe the church would rather retain names on the rolls, regardless of activity status, so they can make that twice a year announcement of how well the church is growing.

As far as tracting goes, I have seen the same move away from it here locally.

[_Shiloh]

They are using missionaries to see if inactive members what their names removed?

I did that at the behest of a Bishop on my mission in the late 80's. It was an odd assignment alongside the EQ. Rather than hold SS and Priesthood the quorum was organized to go visit a list of inactive families and ask them to resign their membership. Funny enough, about 5 or so families returned to full activity.

As far as tracting goes, I have seen the same move away from it here locally.

I hated tracting but actually had some success with it (granted, I wasn't in Europe ... but I wasn't in SA either).

To sound completely crass, these changes are exactly what any management consultant would have advised the Church. Reporting led to the baptisms of people who would never go to church (I did it...) because of the pressure to hit a number. This is a positive change, I think.

As far as making it more pleasant? I don't know if that was the intent but certainly not being a glorified door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesperson sounds better than what my mission was like.

[_sock puppet]

Why have them go at all if it is going to be cushy?

[_beastie]

They are using missionaries to see if inactive members what their names removed?
That seems strange. Why expose kids that young to people who want to leave the church? The church goes out of its way to keep members from encountering difficult problems regarding the church, why send missionaries directly into a potential situation for which they are woefully unprepared?

Seems like the easiest way would be a phone call, email or note from the bishop or other leadership, if that was really desired. I also have to believe the church would rather retain names on the rolls, regardless of activity status, so they can make that twice a year announcement of how well the church is growing.

As far as tracting goes, I have seen the same move away from it here locally.

Well, the sisters never stated that was their primary goal, but it seemed obvious. We had a long discussion and then ate dinner, all the while talking. We never really went into details about why we left the church, but made it clear we no longer believed and would not be coming back. It was as they were leaving that one of the sisters brought up having his name removed from the rolls. Interestingly, she kind of pushed it. When she first brought it up, my fiance said, yeah, I'll probably do that sometime. And she said you can do it right now, just get a piece of paper and write a note to the bishop and I'll deliver it. So that was when it seemed clear that was their purpose. I'm sure they were feeling us out to see if we were beyond hope first, of course, but since it was clear we weren't going to be reconverted, she went for the name removal.

And, to be it in context, a bishop had called him several years ago with the same invitation, to have his name removed from the rolls. But at that point my fiance was still concerned about family issues so didn't follow through.

While I don't know if SLC is pushing for cleaning up the rolls, I do know from my father who was in several leadership positions that local leaders do take that initiative from time to time. You have to remember that, in a way, all those inactives are like dead weight in a ward. They have to be assigned home teachers and visiting teachers, and they factor into their activity statistics. When my father was bishop, they even found some people who were listed as members who, when visited, claimed they were not LDS nor had they ever been so. They were likely remnants of the "basketball baptisms" that took place in my area. Young kids would be invited to play basketball at the church, and end up being baptized without parental permission or knowledge. It was to fluff up missionary stats. My father couldn't see any reason to keep those names on the rolls, so encouraged them to have their names removed.

[_beastie]

I hated tracting but actually had some success with it (granted, I wasn't in Europe ... but I wasn't in SA either).

To sound completely crass, these changes are exactly what any management consultant would have advised the Church. Reporting led to the baptisms of people who would never go to church (I did it...) because of the pressure to hit a number. This is a positive change, I think.

As far as making it more pleasant? I don't know if that was the intent but certainly not being a glorified door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesperson sounds better than what my mission was like.

I don't think it's crass and have long suspected that many of the decisions made by the "prophets and apostles" are far more influenced by their management and PR consultants than prayer and fasting. It truly is run like a business.

[_beastie]

Why have them go at all if it is going to be cushy?

I'm guessing they're still hoping that the investment paradigm will have effect. Even if it's cushy compared to what we did, they're still giving 18 months or 2 years of their youth to the church, during which time they have almost no family contact. That's still quite a sacrifice.

And perhaps they realized too many missionaries were going home early due to the stress, and that certainly doesn't do the church any good. Those missionaries who left early would probably be more likely to go inactive or leave the church altogether, and perhaps influence other people on the way.

[_Themis]

My overall impression is that they are obviously trying to make a mission a less painful experience in the hopes of convincing lots of (very young) people to go.

Has anyone else had that impression?

Possibly. I think they are just realizing certain things just don't work well anymore, and they obviously needed to be keeping up with technology and how society communicates. Door to door salesmen were at one time the norm. That went away a long time ago and the church is just now catching up. People expected it back then, but now they are very negative about people knocking on their doors to sell something. I would suggest door to door selling was going down hill after television started to take over. That's how far behind they are.

[_bcuzbcuz]

My fiance's name is still on church rolls due to his desire to not hurt his mother prior to her death. So every now and then he gets a phone call or a visit from church members, although it's pretty rare. Last week the sister missionaries called and asked to visit. We've always treated missionaries kindly, because we remember what our missions were like, so we said yes and fed them dinner. I think the main purpose of their visit was to invite my fiance to request to have his name removed from the church roll. Every now and then a new bishop will get the fever to clean up their rolls, perhaps to make their attendance statistics more respectable. Apparently the process is quite easy now - he just had to give the sisters a note which they deliver to the bishop, who will call to verify and then start the process. Much more painless than what I went through years ago.

But the most interesting part of the visit was finding out how very different their missions are than ours were. We served in the late seventies. These sisters informed us that the "prophets and apostles" have officially declared that tracting doesn't work, and it is being phased out. She said they still tract a little bit, but soon will not tract at all. I was relieved for all missionaries as well as saddened for the missionaries like me, who were not only told to tract every minute we didn't have an appointment, but who were also shamed and chastised when that tracting was so unproductive. It was unproductive because we didn't have enough faith, you see. My mission in France had such low baptismal/teaching rates that we missionaries were pretty much psychologically tortured over it. But hey, good for the prophets and apostles for finally admitting the obvious and easing that particular burden.

Also surprising was that they don't turn in any reports. We had to turn in weekly reports either to the district leader, who then turned them into the zone leaders, who then turned them into the mission president, or, in my fiance's case, directly to the MP. We had to report on the number of hours worked, the number of teaching appointments, baptisms, BoMs placed. And those reports were used to either praise or chastise. Hence, many reports were exaggerated and I personally knew missionaries who would regularly go to the train station to "teach" passed out drunks so they could "honestly" report high teaching stats.

They will all be getting IPADs in February and will spend a certain amount of time online. I asked if they were prepared in some way for the difficult questions they'll be asked, but didn't get any answer to that one.

My overall impression is that they are obviously trying to make a mission a less painful experience in the hopes of convincing lots of (very young) people to go.

Has anyone else had that impression?

Much to the chagrin of my wife I invited the missionaries, this last Friday, two days ago, into our home. They had returned, reinforced with a ward member, after having met my daughter on one of their "Visiting inactive members" tracting assignments. My daughter, visiting during an extended Christmas visit, thought, without asking me, that I would enjoy talking with the two, very young, missionaries. A sort of "auld lang syne" trip down memory lane. (My wife was truly upset with me inviting them in. I had told her that if I ever said that I wanted to go back to the church, that it was proof of my senility and that she should shoot me.)

It's now more than 45 years since I was on my mission, my "pre-existence", another life, my "captivity". These two youngsters, both 18 years old, one a real "newbie" of just one month, and his "senior companion", a veteran of a whopping 8 months, were accompanied by an older ward member of many years, one who knew my name from stories and reputation from when I served in this very mission. (I never thought to ask whether they were telling good or bad stories about me)

After a few minutes of pleasantries I said I was glad to have them visit so they could remove my name from church records. We'll see, in due time, whether this visit will result in it actually happening.

But reading your post, maybe a mission isn't as bad as I remember it. We also had to fill in weekly reports, detailing down to the minute, our every activity. Up at 6, breakfast, scripture study, isometric exercises and out banging on doors by 9. 45 minutes for lunch, 45 minutes (or was it an hour) for dinner, "cold sale" tracting till 9 PM, 7 days a week.

We learned early on how to "fudge" a report. Time spent at the laundromat was "tracting time" if we talked religion with the other, trapped, hapless souls who happened to visit the laundromat at the same time. The "monthly movie" was "study time", etc, etc.

District Leaders and Zone Leaders would "drop by" and follow us around.....at a discrete distance.....to see if our reported hours were actual tracting hours. "Junior spies of America". We had a mission president who apparently thought masturbation was the worst imaginable sin and if we could answer in the negative and with a straight face, that all stood well. Even then I thought it was a discipline devoid of reality.

But Swedes weren't very interested (and still aren't) in religion, especially the "American cult" of Mormonism. Baptisms were few and far between, but the leadership, from mission president down, were only focused on numbers. The "numbers torture" you talk about rings very true from my experience.

My children enjoy showing their children pictures from my mission. "See that very skinny, well dressed youngster wearing a hat, standing beside his bike. That, kids, is your grandad."

"No?! Really? But he's so thin."

[_No Mas Mentiras]

Why have them go at all if it is going to be cushy?

I'm guessing they're still hoping that the investment paradigm will have effect. Even if it's cushy compared to what we did, they're still giving 18 months or 2 years of their youth to the church, during which time they have almost no family contact. That's still quite a sacrifice.

And perhaps they realized too many missionaries were going home early due to the stress, and that certainly doesn't do the church any good. Those missionaries who left early would probably be more likely to go inactive or leave the church altogether, and perhaps influence other people on the way.

A comment on the interactions with family: My nephew is on a stateside mission and he has chat sessions every week with his mom. From what she tells my spouse, it is not a violation of mission rules.

I agree with the comment, 'why go if it is going to be cushy'.