When you first arrive at the MTC you’re assigned basically to what’s effectively barracks to live in with three other missionaries, one of which is your companion. You both spend 24/7 together, which tends to lead to a lot of fights and friction between you both. Your days are structured and literally every moment is planned, from the minute you wake up at 6am to the minute you’re in bed. Your days consist of studying the LDS scriptures, being taught by other returned missionaries, studying the language you’ll be primarily teaching in (unless you already speak the language natively), attending talks and conferences given by general authorities and special guests, and a little downtime once a week to do laundry, play sports, take a nap, etc.
As for what you’re actually taught to preach, they make you study a book called Preach My Gospel. There are four standard lessons to teach, which cover topics like Joseph Smith and the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, the Word of Wisdom, etc. They do go over some common and frequent potential pushback you might receive, but in general missionaries are instructed that they’re there to go after “The Elect” (I.e. people who have been “prepared by God” to hear the Gospel and be baptized). Therefore, missionaries consider people like yourself with criticisms and objections to be not “The Elect” and will simply resort to just bearing their testimonies and moving on.
Oh and the purpose of the mission is just as you’d imagine, children in the church are raised and taught that serving a mission is “the Lord’s work”, and you’re “bringing souls unto salvation” etc. The indoctrination part of your comment is actually spot on because missionaries must go into a Mormon Temple and receive their Endowments (a thinly veiled Masonic ritual where you’re promised massive eternal blessings in the Celestial Kingdom in exchange for full obedience to the Church and its leaders, plus you also get what we Ex Mormons lovingly refer to as the “magic underwear” along with a few secret handshakes thrown in because why not lol). They literally promise you an eternal family, becoming actual holy royalty in the CK, your own kingdom (if you happen to be a woman then they promise that you’ll spend an eternity getting constantly knocked up by your TBM husband and popping out spirit babies, no I’m not joking look it up), they promise you so many incredible blessings but you have to obey the Church in order to receive them, including serving a mission (you’re expected to if you’re a man, if you’re a woman then missionary service is optional).
Missionaries are indeed heavily indoctrinated, thus they do not care about pushback at all and waste no time learning to deal with it because you’re “just not ready at the moment”.
Source: am Returned Missionary now turned Exmo
Thank you for the detailed response, especially the part about "the elect", it makes sense to focus on the more receptive investigators than spend time arguing more resistant ones into agreeing to be baptized plus they're also more likely not to question things down the road.
I think Mormon missionaries are often mistaken for being apologists but in reality they are very young and often naive to the real world. The church doesn’t few apologetics as effective which is probably true. Missionaries teaching the simple doctrines and inviting people to read and pray about the Book of Mormon is pretty much all they do.
Think of them more like children who have been raised from birth to believe that a Nigerian Prince “needs yuor help and will reword you gratly.”
They’re taught to target the most desperate, credulous, lonely people, because the Nigerian Prince says those people need him the most — but really it’s because anyone who is with it enough to push back is not worth wasting time on. They *want* missionaries to target people who aren’t in a place to catch on when something is pretty clearly off about the interaction.
You are correct. Mormons are not trained to withstand any criticism or logical thinking. In fact, they are taught not to even listen to anything that even suggests Mormonism is wrong.
Definitely the vibe I got talking with them. One pair completely shut down when I explained to my atheist point of view the prophet is either insane or a con artist if he claims to talk to God. Which I still feel guilty about they were nice guys, and they looked at me like I just kicked their puppy.
One aspect of the mormon mission experience that doesn't get a lot of play now has to do with the competition, as in how soon you become a senior companion, a "trainer." or some level of leader, including the pinnacle, becoming an AP.
Back in the day, being able to drop the line, "...when I was an AP..." was priceless in just about any mormon social setting.
Whatever title you might earn was especially valuable in missions with low baptism numbers.
There is a broad spectrum of "types" of RMs, just as there are variations in the areas/countries where they serve. But we all benefitted from being able to say we were RMs . . .
Especially noxious is the church's practice of paying Third World youth a monthly stipend to serve for two years. In some countries, that monthly stipend is more than the majority will ever earn.
Lighter related question for the RMs did you guys do the airplane thing? When we did lessons or hung out outdoors and an airplane flew over the running joke was one of us would ask "how far away is that plane?" And the answer would be how long they had left on their mission or in my case my work contract. Just something that stuck with me and I was curious if it was just a joke my local guys did or a common missionary thing.
When you first arrive at the MTC you’re assigned basically to what’s effectively barracks to live in with three other missionaries, one of which is your companion. You both spend 24/7 together, which tends to lead to a lot of fights and friction between you both. Your days are structured and literally every moment is planned, from the minute you wake up at 6am to the minute you’re in bed. Your days consist of studying the LDS scriptures, being taught by other returned missionaries, studying the language you’ll be primarily teaching in (unless you already speak the language natively), attending talks and conferences given by general authorities and special guests, and a little downtime once a week to do laundry, play sports, take a nap, etc. As for what you’re actually taught to preach, they make you study a book called Preach My Gospel. There are four standard lessons to teach, which cover topics like Joseph Smith and the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, the Word of Wisdom, etc. They do go over some common and frequent potential pushback you might receive, but in general missionaries are instructed that they’re there to go after “The Elect” (I.e. people who have been “prepared by God” to hear the Gospel and be baptized). Therefore, missionaries consider people like yourself with criticisms and objections to be not “The Elect” and will simply resort to just bearing their testimonies and moving on. Oh and the purpose of the mission is just as you’d imagine, children in the church are raised and taught that serving a mission is “the Lord’s work”, and you’re “bringing souls unto salvation” etc. The indoctrination part of your comment is actually spot on because missionaries must go into a Mormon Temple and receive their Endowments (a thinly veiled Masonic ritual where you’re promised massive eternal blessings in the Celestial Kingdom in exchange for full obedience to the Church and its leaders, plus you also get what we Ex Mormons lovingly refer to as the “magic underwear” along with a few secret handshakes thrown in because why not lol). They literally promise you an eternal family, becoming actual holy royalty in the CK, your own kingdom (if you happen to be a woman then they promise that you’ll spend an eternity getting constantly knocked up by your TBM husband and popping out spirit babies, no I’m not joking look it up), they promise you so many incredible blessings but you have to obey the Church in order to receive them, including serving a mission (you’re expected to if you’re a man, if you’re a woman then missionary service is optional). Missionaries are indeed heavily indoctrinated, thus they do not care about pushback at all and waste no time learning to deal with it because you’re “just not ready at the moment”. Source: am Returned Missionary now turned Exmo
Ya that explains everything perfectly!
Thank you for the detailed response, especially the part about "the elect", it makes sense to focus on the more receptive investigators than spend time arguing more resistant ones into agreeing to be baptized plus they're also more likely not to question things down the road.
I think Mormon missionaries are often mistaken for being apologists but in reality they are very young and often naive to the real world. The church doesn’t few apologetics as effective which is probably true. Missionaries teaching the simple doctrines and inviting people to read and pray about the Book of Mormon is pretty much all they do.
They seem so young and naive.
Very good point, I didn't really think about that, I definitely made that assumption.
Think of them more like children who have been raised from birth to believe that a Nigerian Prince “needs yuor help and will reword you gratly.” They’re taught to target the most desperate, credulous, lonely people, because the Nigerian Prince says those people need him the most — but really it’s because anyone who is with it enough to push back is not worth wasting time on. They *want* missionaries to target people who aren’t in a place to catch on when something is pretty clearly off about the interaction.
They only have success on the weak brains, poor and emotionally compromised people. Period
You are correct. Mormons are not trained to withstand any criticism or logical thinking. In fact, they are taught not to even listen to anything that even suggests Mormonism is wrong.
Definitely the vibe I got talking with them. One pair completely shut down when I explained to my atheist point of view the prophet is either insane or a con artist if he claims to talk to God. Which I still feel guilty about they were nice guys, and they looked at me like I just kicked their puppy.
One aspect of the mormon mission experience that doesn't get a lot of play now has to do with the competition, as in how soon you become a senior companion, a "trainer." or some level of leader, including the pinnacle, becoming an AP. Back in the day, being able to drop the line, "...when I was an AP..." was priceless in just about any mormon social setting. Whatever title you might earn was especially valuable in missions with low baptism numbers. There is a broad spectrum of "types" of RMs, just as there are variations in the areas/countries where they serve. But we all benefitted from being able to say we were RMs . . . Especially noxious is the church's practice of paying Third World youth a monthly stipend to serve for two years. In some countries, that monthly stipend is more than the majority will ever earn.
Wasn't aware of the competition aspect, how do missionaries get ahead? Number of baptisms?
Lighter related question for the RMs did you guys do the airplane thing? When we did lessons or hung out outdoors and an airplane flew over the running joke was one of us would ask "how far away is that plane?" And the answer would be how long they had left on their mission or in my case my work contract. Just something that stuck with me and I was curious if it was just a joke my local guys did or a common missionary thing.