SO many missionaries coming home early
need to no May 2014
I would like to ask all of you about it from a place it will be seen; am just extremely curious, is this is the new trend overall? This past year I have been shocked at how many of the missionaries have come home early since the lowering of the age for leaving a year ago.
Many of the boys in our stake, 4 in OUR ward, and a majority of the girls in the stake have come home after only being out about 3-6 months. The reason for their coming home early that I keep hearing from their parents is that it is just too hard to get along without their I-phones, etc.
Most do have internet access in order to email home on p-days, and my question is this, "Are they learning things online about the many and varied stories of church history and changing doctrines that are causing them to lose their testimonies?" Could that be what is sending so many home early?
Have any of you witnessed this trend in the areas you live; I live in the morridor.
Pooped
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
So you're a missionary and nobody wants to hear your message. You go home to a stark and miserable missionary flat that may be someone else's house at the end of a miserable day with your duffus companion and have no money, no internet, no phone, no email, no TV, no radio, no dating or self-gratification, crummy/cheap/unhealthy food, no beer, no outlets other than scriptures and Mormon literature and maybe Mormon music. Yikes! I'd be off my rocker the first day. My only question is how they manage to last even one month. And they wonder why missionaries are depressed. They'd have to be nuts NOT to be depressed.
silvergirl
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
It seems like missions these days are void of fulfilling experiences.
You are tired, but not from doing rewarding work.
You are never alone.
You are either bored because you have nothing to do, or else in a state of anxiety from approaching people who clearly don't want to hear about the church or else have mental and emotional needs that you are in no way prepared to understand or meet.
Rather than praise from your superiors you are given harsh "motivational" talks about how it is your fault the spirit can't work through you and touch these people. If only the mission could attain %100 abstinence of masturbation or any other thoughts of a sexual nature (we are talking about asking this of 18-21 year olds) then god could truly work his miracles and people would convert in droves. But instead you are not responsible for any souls that you could have saved had you been righteous enough for the delicate holy ghost to have been with you.
You are cut off from your normal routines and social contact and forced into the mold of mission routines.
We could go on, and on.
Nothing here is rewarding or rejuvenating.
It should not be surprising that it is having widespread detrimental effects on these poor kids.
I can't tell you how happy I am to hear about so many deciding to come home, and that the stigma is going away.
The writing is on the wall....there is no way the church can continue the mission program the way they have been. The sad thing is that they will most likely change because it is becoming a pain for the uppity-ups to deal with all the problems, not because of genuine recognitions that church and it's programs are what are causing the problems!!
SG
Greyfort
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
Geez, when I was younger the only way the missionaries kept in touch with their families was by good old-fashioned mail.
deco
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
The more that come home early, the easier it becomes for others, such as siblings, to come home early too.
Crathes
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
We have had only a few come home early for technology withdrawal issues. Supposedly they are now to be required to wean themselves off phones and other technology. Or, maybe it's just that they hate knocking on doors to pester people who have been pestered dozens of times before and have no interest in a goofy cult.
twistedsister
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
Could be they're really homesick too. If you've lived at home and never spent any large amt of time away from your family, or lived on your own, it must be quite a change to suddenly leave and not see your family again, not be allowed to call them, be responsible for your meals and getting around, etc.
My TBM niece was going to go on a mission after a semester BYU, but while at BYU she was incredibly homesick and distraught, to the point of being physically sick. She was very sheltered and didn't spend a lot of time away from home. I know if she had gone on a mission she would have come back home early. Now she's saying she doesn't want to go on a mission anymore because it was tough being away from family. She and her family are mega mormon too.
blueorchid
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
I was surprised when my niece came home after 6 months for health reasons that it turned out to be no big deal to her? She said, "Oh I did all I wanted to do." And she is not that sick.
It is very different than when I went.
B'hamster
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
I've read through many missionary blogs recently. I haven't kept a record on this, but I've come across numerous blogs which abruptly cease without explanation - sometimes after just a couple of months. I've also come across several blogs which have a final entry from their mother saying they needed to come home early due to health issues and at least one said he needed to work through some issues and she hoped he could return in a few months.
deco
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
I wonder what type of Orwellian spin will work for this corner LDS Inc has painted themselves into.
"Isn't is marvelous?" must be used far more my exmos then Mormons.
Happy Hare Krishna
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
It is very good if those who are ill or injured, or those who are homesick, or those who are suffering on their mission physically or emotionally, or those who never were really prepared for their mission, or those who don't believe, or those who don't want to continue with their mission, can return home, and if their returning home is de-stigmatized so that they may safely do so. I would be all for sharing the Truth as a believer, but even then I would have thought of the importance of thinking of the needs of these missionaries. Staying on a mission when you are not physically or emotionally able or otherwise facing difficult challenges can be pretty difficult, and really hard on these young kids.
ozpoof
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
I call BS. More likely the world is too scary for a 18yo kiddie when everyone knows more truth about your religion than you do.
Imagine finding out at 18 that the world without Mormondumb is pretty cool, and everything your parents taught you is a steaming pile of crap.
subeamnotlogedin
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHBUN4tyOpY&app=desktop
He came home early.
QWE
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
Those people probably didn't really want to serve a mission, and wouldn't have done in normal circumstances, but they got caught up in all the hype when they lowered the age and didn't think it through until it was too late.
Also, life for a teenager has changed so much, even in just the past few years (with smartphones becoming mainstream, etc.). It's always been a sacrifice to serve a mission, but now these kids have to sacrifice so much more, and a mission is an absolutely huge departure from normal life when you think about it. Some probably just think it's not worth it anymore.
I do hope it does become common to leave a mission early. Currently in the church an early-return missionary is one of the worst things that you can be. Even people who return early because of illnesses often have a terrible time and get treated badly by other mormons. Hopefully if returning early becomes common then people will get desensitized to it, and people can come home early without having the terrible aftermath.
ladell
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
I would estimate that 50% of the missionaries on my mission didn't really do squat after the first six months anyways. So much wasted time and energy
Bamboozled
What total BS
Those mutherf'n sons-of-bitches MP's f'n with the minds of these guys that go out.
I hope this kid's experience has let him see the church for the spectacular piece of fecal fraud that it is and that these supposed men of authority are nothing more than self aggrandized 21st century Pharisees.
I've always hesitated to label the LDS church as a cult but things like this just scream that it is.
Brother Zelph
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
Remember the purpose of lowering the age requirement? Too many young people were deciding not to go on missions after a year in Babylon. So instead of raising the bar, they lowered the bar. These people leaving early are probably the preliminary dismal results of trying to force those teenagers into a path chosen for them that they ordinarily wouldn't have done by trying to drag them into it at an earlier age. Nobody wants to buy what they're selling, especially in the industrialized world. America is becoming more like Europe in religiosity.
A marvelous work and a blunder.
roslyn
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
The experience in my ward is that a few have come home, two I know of came home for legitimate reasons and one of those went back out. I hope that one will see the light because he and his family have really been hurt by the actions of the church, although they see it as being saved by the church. The other one who came home realized on his mission how false it was and has left the church. He is a good kid and is doing much better in life without the church.
FreeRose
WOW.
Wonder what the "loose end" was he didn't tie up? ;-D
He really is done with the Morg, questioning everything he was taught! Way to go, Logan!
TSCC just screwed themselves again!
FreeRose
Your are in the morridor, is there no SHAME anymore?
Just wondering what the sentiment is, are the early returnees shunned, etc.?
danr
There would be more that would come home if they had a help line
to call. Many of them don't know how to go about getting out of their mission--or if that is even an option they want to try.
If there was a help line to give them the information they need, and the support to get them home, then more would pursue that option.
It seems like a lot of them go through a bunch of crap before they finally get out of there. It should be an easy transition, after all, it is a VOLUNTEER job.
Maybe some group would want to take that on. All of a sudden leaving a mission would be an easy process.
outsider
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
With so many coming home early, there isn't the same shame it would have been in the early 80s when I was out.
I would have loved to have come home early, but didn't dare.
Reading the psycho MP wife blog, there are many missionaries going home because they are depressed.
Chump
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
Definitely. Few youth (at least the young men) really WANT to serve a mission. It's just been part of their plan since they were born or joined the church and started "following the prophet". In many cases, if the oldest son doesn't go, none of the younger siblings go. If an older sibling comes home because they learned the truth, you can bet they're going to warn their younger siblings before they make the decision to go or not.
I've seen a couple come home early in the last year (also in the morridor). I've also seen a couple young men decide not to go at all. These boys were very active, parents were stake and ward leaders...everyone thought they would go. The older boy decided not to go, and the younger brother isn't going either. Parents are definitely TBM and all about appearances.
heretic
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
Over the last three years we've had five missionaries sent out from our Holladay, Utah ward.
Two have come home early, one (a Bishop's son) came home after his two years were up
and the last two are still out.
forbiddencokedrinker
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
My guess is that the technology angle is just the church blaming the individual missionaries for its own failures. It has the same defective product today that it had yesterday, and when no one wants to purchase said defective product, they refuse to look at what they are selling, and instead try to push the blame onto the salesmen.
BTW, I was at the mall yesterday, and I saw all kinds of teenage salespeople doing a fine job of selling stuff. None of them were dressed in the manner of a Mormon salesman, or had their hair cut in the official Mormon salesman manner, nor did very many of them have those phony Mormon salesman smiles. What they did have was products that people wanted.
fudley
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
Is it possible that the MP's are not equipped to handle the new program (younger kids and more of them) and are letting mishies go home to make their work tolerable? I work closely with college freshman, and most of what they learn in the first year has very little to do with their academic experience. It takes more than six months to learn how to live with a stranger, get up on time, do laundry, etc. I can't imagine they are getting proper life skills training from the MTC or at home. Even if they are, it takes time to sort it all out - even for kids who don't grow up in a cult. MP must be dealing with this, even if they refuse to accept it.
silvergirl
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
I agree that technology addiction is being used as a scapegoat. I bet that if this were 100 years ago and young people were really into reading letters from each other and lots of books, then suddenly were not allowed to do either of those things, they'd have a hard time with it, too.
It's always difficult when your normal habits are suddenly off limits for pretty much arbitrary reasons. If there were good reasons, and they were busy filling the time they used to spend in social media out doing real actual service work that they could see was making a positive difference, while not having contact to their support systems and families cut off, I bet they wouldn't be having as many problems.
SG
silvergirl
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
I remember hearing that the mission presidents were not in on the decision and did not see it coming. I wonder how many of them are struggling with their testimonies of the profit now that they are being given the impossible task of helping these kids complete impossible tasks.
SG
thedesertrat1
Re: SOOOO many mishies coming home early!!!!!
They are VOLUNTEER SLAVES who have decided to end their slavery. More power to them!!!
"Recovery from Mormonism - www.exmormon.org"