Parent forbidden from calling his missionary son in Houston

[_Dr. Shades]

Here's a story about the Houston Mission president refusing to provide a parent with his child's contact information in spite of a Category IV hurricane. See:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyat ... hurricane/

Meanwhile, here's the link to the actual e-mail exchanges. Please read from the bottom-up, not the usual way:

https://mormonleaks.io/wiki/documents/8 ... -08-26.pdf

What are your thoughts about the actions of each party?

[_consiglieri]

This is ridiculous.

The mission president's first response should have been to put the missionary in contact with his father, or vice versa.

If the mission president is too busy, he could have delegated the responsibility.

There is no excuse for this kind of action, regardless of whether the father is a member of the LDS Church.

All missionaries have phones or access to phones.

How about a blanket email to all missionaries telling them they can call their families and let them know they are all right?

How hard would that be?

Geez!

[_candygal]

This makes me ill, mad and yet astounded that immediate contact could not be made...Do parents give up all parental rights when a child is on a mission? I love the part where Dad says.."don't be an asshole"..

[_Fence Sitter]

I had a similar thing happen to me with my son while he was on his mission in South America.

I got a phone call from the stake president (who, turned out was kind of an idiot when it came to enforcing rules, any rule, all rules, regardless) telling me my son had injured his leg. Not much more information was available, so I asked the stake president for the number to the mission home so I could call there to see how serious this was.

"No, that is not allowed."

"Well, since I speak Spanish from my mission can I call the doctors treating him to see what they say about his injuries?"

"No, parents are not to call the mission field."

"Seriously, you are telling me I cannot even contact the doctors who have seen him to find out what is going on?"

"No, that is not allowed."

"I am done with you. My next call will be to SLC and if this insanity continues, I will be contacting the embassy where he is at and have them contact him directly. Now you can either put me in contact with someone who can tell me his status or I will just go around you"

About an hour later I got a conference call from the mission president and someone in SLC telling me that they would be sending him home for treatment and we would see him the next day. Turns out it was a leg injury that was not too serious.

Turns out when ever I tell that story to a local member they nod their head agreeing that this particular stake president was not all that well liked for the same sort of reason. I have been fortunate not to run into him since that discussion, because I am not sure he would like what I have to say to him.

[_Lemmie]

on the MP's blog, sunday, 8/27:

So far, all communications have stayed functional and I have talked to many missionaries today by phone.

From an MP blog entry the Thursday before:

in an emergency we must be able to communicate by text message

But to the father on Saturday who asked for a phone number:

I have no information to provide you. Missionaries use email to contact their families on Pday per mission policy that Elder XXX agreed to.

[_fetchface]

Mormon Jesus would have said, "Sorry apostles, you can't gather that grain on Sunday. I know you are really hungry but per Ten Commandments Policy, which you agreed to, you have to starve until tomorrow."

[_Analytics]

On the one hand it's ridiculous. But on the other hand the mission president is acting the way mission presidents act--he is not off script on anything he said. The kid is an adult and volunteered for this. If the kid wants to call his parents he is free to break the ridiculous mission rules and call. But the mission president is under no obligation to give private phone numbers to people who email and ask--even if the person calling is a parent. In fact, in any other situation it would be considered an invasion of privacy to hand out the cell phone numbers of others.

If the parent didn't trust his kid to take care of himself like an adult and didn't trust the mission system to look after him, he should have made arrangements directly with his kid to keep in touch.

[_Lemmie]

The father should worry. This mission president is beyond arrogant, and really doesn't seem to have a handle on safety issues.

from 10 pm blog entry Monday night:

We spent considerable time today researching the releases and forecasted breaches and where missionaries' apartments were located in relationship to water flows in order to ensure any missionaries in potential flood zones were evacuated I am pleased to say that tonight all missionaries are safe and dry in apartments..

but Tuesday morning:

There is still considerable flooding in the mission boundaries, especially in areas close to creeks and bayous. The two major creeks that run through the mission are Spring Creek and Cypress Creek. Spring Creek crested this morning at 2 am. Two sister missionaries were told by police to evacuate at 1:00 am. They called me and we were able to get them safely to a shelter and from there members only one block from the shelter picked them up and have them safe in their home. I have emailed the parents of those missionaries so no need to worry if you did not get an email from me.

So he researched all day long, on the whole TWO creeks near his missionaries, but missed the warning that one of them would crest that night, so 4 hours after his blog post two sister missionaries had to be evacuated by police to a shelter.

[_Lemmie]

oh look, a little PR from the MP:

We will soon be donning yellow jerseys, however, to help clean up and help Houston recover. I was involved with Super Storm Sandy assistance as Stake President of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Stake. Our stake performed over 3,000 hours of service in New Jersey to help remediate the devastating effects of Sandy, so I have some experience that will hopefully be helpful.

[_Jersey Girl]

What are your thoughts about the actions of each party?

The parent is acting like any normal parent would.

I think I could choke on the arrogance of the MP.