Dammit! I'm wrong again, but not afraid to admit it. I only reached the distinguished rank of DL. [sarcasm]I aspired to be a ZL or an AP, but it just wasn't in god's cards [/sarcasm]. Oh well. Believe it or not, I was actually a diligent missionary. I burned out towards the end, but I put in my time. I only had two companions who didn't want to work, so we didn't work. Being able to motivate others isn't one of my personality traits.
silentkid wrote:I was stupid for having gone on an LDS mission. I'll admit that. I wish I had those two years of my life back. It's the one decision I made in my life that I regret. There are two types of missionaries: those who aspire to leadership positions and those who don't. I'm guessing Nehor was an AP.
Hahahahahaha!!!!
Dead wrong, sorry. I had no desire to be an AP. My goal was to be Junior Companion my whole Mission so I could just work without having to worry about my District or my Zone or even the whole Mission. I didn't make it but I tried. I was never a Zone Leader or an AP.
I have a different classification. Those missionaries who are there for the right reasons and do the work and those who don't.
Maybe God intended for you to develop others and you blindly rejected that call?
I think we would have told me.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
Runtu wrote:My son's friend is planning on putting in his mission papers soon. The problem is that this kid doesn't really believe in the church at all, so my son asked him why he's going. He said, "It's two years away from my parents that I don't really have to think about the future."
President Monson once said that missionaries go out for a number of reasons, including peer pressure, family pressure, and a sense of obligation. He said they stay because they become converted. I'm not sure that's true, but the unconverted sure make for crappy companions. I'm sure my son's friend is going to be a gem of a missionary.
He'll probably either get converted or hate it. I think he has the weird idea that it's some kind of break from life. Rude awakening inbound.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
The Nehor wrote:He'll probably either get converted or hate it. I think he has the weird idea that it's some kind of break from life. Rude awakening inbound.
That's what I've told him. He's not interested in becoming converted, so my guess is he'll really hate it (or his companions will hate him, or both).
silentkid wrote:I was stupid for having gone on an LDS mission. I'll admit that. I wish I had those two years of my life back. It's the one decision I made in my life that I regret. There are two types of missionaries: those who aspire to leadership positions and those who don't. I'm guessing Nehor was an AP.
Hahahahahaha!!!!
Dead wrong, sorry. I had no desire to be an AP. My goal was to be Junior Companion my whole Mission so I could just work without having to worry about my District or my Zone or even the whole Mission. I didn't make it but I tried. I was never a Zone Leader or an AP.
I have a different classification. Those missionaries who are there for the right reasons and do the work and those who don't.
Maybe God intended for you to develop others and you blindly rejected that call?
TAK wrote:Oh... So God play no role in your pairngs?
Ahhh, sorry, I thought you were referring to me not wanting to be DL, ZL, or AP.
God probably played a role in giving me some of my companions.
Well, the first reaction as a Missionary is to try to help them. I tried various methods. Usually start with trying to be friendly, help them out, etc. Moves into cajoling as patience starts to wear thin. I think I did the best I could. Eventually though your patience runs out and you begin to understand why people refer to spouses as a 'ball and chain'. Eventually you suggest they go home instead of ruining both our lives. Usually they then make vague promises of doing better or retreat into silence and get passive-aggressive. Not sure what I should have done then? Suggestions? I defaulted to dragging him around and doing everything myself.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
silentkid wrote:I was stupid for having gone on an LDS mission. I'll admit that. I wish I had those two years of my life back. It's the one decision I made in my life that I regret. There are two types of missionaries: those who aspire to leadership positions and those who don't. I'm guessing Nehor was an AP.
SK,
Do you feel this way due to your changed view regarding the Church, or was it just an overall negative experience?
"Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead." ~Charles Bukowski
Do you feel this way due to your changed view regarding the Church, or was it just an overall negative experience?
It was an overall negative experience. I'm not much of a people person. I don't like initiating conversation with people I don't know. The whole knocking on doors salesman approach I was taught in the MTC made me extremely uncomfortable. I was a shy kid stuck in a situation where I didn't fit in. I had two mission presidents during my two years, neither of whom actually cared about the missionaries. They were driven by statistics. They made decisions based soley on what would impress the Area Authority above them. As missionaries, we were only allowed to read missionary approved material. I read all the missionary books and memorized all the mastery scriptures within the first 6 months. There was little to no intellectual stimulation beyond that. I bought an acoustic guitar at a pawn shop so I could at least improve upon that talent. Then I had to get rid of it because it was "against the rules". The only positive things I take from my missionary experience are a couple of friends I made and the ability to speak broken border Spanish. I think I would have been better off staying in school but seeing as I was at BYU, I really had no choice.
Rollo Tomasi wrote:This made me laugh. At a recent talk to new MP's at the MTC, BKP related the following:
President Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve, recalled a time years ago when he met a young, disrespectful missionary. The young man had been referred by the Missionary Training Center to President Packer as a member of the Church's Missionary Committee to determine if he should be sent home from his mission. The young man was a smart aleck and impudent and rude, President Packer thought. He took the young man to lunch. "There could only be one verdict," President Packer said. "This young man could not go on a mission." As the pair returned to the Church Office Building, they saw the Missionary Training Center director waiting for them at the top of the stairs. "I thought, 'When we get up to the top I will have to send him home,' but I thought, 'I can't do that.' About half way up the steps I took hold of this young man and pulled him around so I was looking him right in the eyes. I said, 'You have been disrespectful and impudent and don't deserve much. But there is one thing you have got to know.' "Then I bore my testimony to him, clear and pure testimony. "Then I said, 'Now, don't you ever say you don't know or that you haven't been told, because you have been told. I will bear testimony against you at the judgment seat of Christ that you were told.' "I have never done anything like that before or since." When President Packer and the missionary got to the top of the stairs, President Packer simply said, "Take him back and try again." Some months later President Packer heard a report of President Marion G. Romney's weekend visit to Mexico, where he met a missionary who embodied all that is ideal in a missionary. To President Packer's great surprise, it was the missionary he had sent back to the Missionary Training Center.
Tough love. Does wonders in some instances. Sounds like this may have been one of those. It may well be that BKP was inspired to take this approach with this particular young man.