Windy Sydney

Recently I posted about the Mormon Church giving the missionaries very little money in their budget for food and personal hygiene. It seems that some people who went on missions had an absolutely wonderful time (all of these people are still TBM) and some hated the entire experience and went hungry or sick most of the time (most of these people are PostMormons.)

The church has billions and billions of dollars in assets, not including tithing funds. The church owns businesses, buildings, farms, you name it. 2 billion dollars is being spent on a shopping mall in Salt Lake City, yet missionaries get very little money for food and personal hygiene when they are in the field. One researcher even claimed it was as little as $4 per day. This is simply not enough. I couldn't begin to count the number of pages I have read of people commenting their missionaries were stick thin once they returned home from their mission... the missionaries also had a hard time getting back to "normal." Missionaries are in an extremely controlled environment, the church controls where they go, who their companions are, and how their time is spent while in the field. You get to make very little decisions for yourself, and when you suddenly get home, you have tons of decisions to make. It's mentally and emotionally (not to mention the physical due to the lack of food) hard to get back to the lives they had before their missions.

I could look at this data in two different ways...

PostMormons are more likely to think and talk openly about the church in a negative way, True-believing Mormons are not likely to do this, because they don't question the church or its decisions.

Or...

People with bad experiences leave the church, people with good experiences stay in it. I am more apt to believe the first thought. True believing Mormons are told not to question the church's decisions. The thinking has been done for them. Obedience is required. If you have something bad to say, don't say it.

I found more quotes from people who had bad experiences in the mission field, or came across missionaries who were hungry due to the lack of money in their budget. These quotes came from an ex-Mormon site, so most TBMs reading this will assume these quotes were negative on purpose. I, on the other hand, think these comments are honest. I do ask that TBMs take into account that these comments are real, and the people making them or sharing their stories have nothing to gain from it.

The first story is from a woman who ran into a couple missionaries while out running errands...

Earlier this evening, I was walking downtown to eat at my local Chinese buffet, when up ahead what should I see? Two missionaries walking my way. I thought "They don't know me, I'll just smile, say no thanks, and be on my way."

When our paths met, we both paused as the senior companion started giving his spiel. In the middle of his introduction, I heard something that completely threw me off - his stomach rumbled. I watched his face, which winced at the same time I heard the sound. I cut him off "Elders, when was the last time you ate?" They told me that all they had eaten in the past 2 days were 2 cups of Ramen noodles each. "I tell you what..." I said "if you promise to leave the church at the door, you can come with me to eat at the buffet." You would have thought that I had just offered them a garbage bag full of $100 bills. They agreed and we went to the resturant.

As we ate, my curiosity got the best of me. I told them that by the church's standards I was "inactive" but I knew a few things about how the church works. The ward has a sign-up sheet for families to sign up and feed them. Was no one signing up for this? What the senior companion told me made my jaw drop.

"There is a new policy." he said "It isn't that there is a lack of people wanting to feed us, it is just how the system is complicating things. Before, members just signed up for a day and time, we came over, we ate, and then we were on our way. Last month, our new mission president told all wards that all dinner appointments must have a non-member, an inactive member, or a new convert present, or they must be canceled. If there is no prospective convert, we don't eat."

That blew me away. He told me that members still give them things to eat, but that only lasts you so long. Since the town I live in is a virtual dead zone for the church, you can imagine what their dinner schedule must look like. Later in the conversation, they told me that things have been getting even more difficult since their car has been taken away. They said that 3 weeks ago, someone with no license and no insurance rear ended them at a stop light. The mission president told the elders that it was their fault for not being more careful and took their keys away.

I asked them if I could ask them an honest question. I told them that nothing they said would bring me back to church, so they might as well just tell me the truth. They agreed. "Do you think the church cares about you?" I asked them. They thought about it for a few minutes and then both said "I really don't know." They said that they would like to believe that the church loves and cares about them, but they couldn't understand why it would allow such a program to be put in place.

As we parted company, I gave them my cell phone number. I told them that any time they were hungry, they could call me and we would go get something to eat. My only condition was that they respect my new-found faith and not try to reconvert me. They said that we have a deal. We left with a smile.

Has anyone else heard of this new policy in the church, or is it just a local thing? When they told me, my jaw dropped. It sounds like the new mission president is a real prick. How can he honestly believe that starving his missionary force will bring people into the church? I have absolutely no reason to doubt the elder's honesty that this is a real policy. He could have said "We have been fasting for 2 days. The Lord promised us that when we broke our fast, we would be in the presence of someone in desperate need of the gospel. Brother The Coach, we invite you to soften your heart, repent, and return." I wouldn't have believed them, but it would have made the church look much better than telling me about the "new policy."

It makes me sick that any church would do this to members who are volunteering their TIME AND MONEY to serve.

If this story is correct, and I believe it is, it should be fairly obvious that missionaries are going without food for long periods of time. If missionaries need to have potential converts at the dinner table in order to receive food in a member's home, the church is basically telling them to convert people or starve! I don't know if this policy is still in effect, or how wide-spread it was. Here is another person who had to deal with this type of policy while on his mission:

On my mission this policy was implemented; that was in 1999. Although I did not like it, I think it was a "blessing in disguise." I started my mission without the policy and I gained ten pounds over the course of six or seven months. The policy was implemented, all the members and missionaries bitched and moaned and I lost the ten pounds that I had previously gained.

Then when I had a week left on my mission, the new mission president (who had been in for just under three months) announced that said policy was no longer in effect. I was a irritated that the reversal came when I was just finishing, but I was fine with it because I didn't care since I was going home anyway.

For me, the policy was actually created by an area authority seventy. Then it was up the mission presidents in the area to implement the policy. I knew of many missions that didn't have the policy. It basically came down to how "strict" one's mission president was.

So it just depends on who the mission president is? How fair is that to the young men and woman who save their own money in order to go out and serve these missions? Here is a gentlemen that went on his mission to Australia:

Every time I run into missionaries, I give them $10 and tell them to buy themselves a decent meal. It's because I remember how tight money was on my mission, and how ill-fed we often were. When we were out tracting during the day {Australia 1970’s], lunch was usually fish (20 cents), chips (20 cents), and a soda (20 cents.) Sometimes we'd get meat pies (like small American pot pies) or chiko rolls, which were like large egg rolls.

My second companion was a real cheapskate. He would put two apples and some crappy granola cookies in a Pringles can and strap it to his bike. That was supposed to be "lunch." We'd sit on the curb and eat it. He wouldn't even go to a park bench or some other private place where we could relax.

Our mission rule was no more than one dinner with members per week, and we were supposed to wash the dishes and stay for no more than an hour. Unfortunately, in some of my areas, there were no or few active members, so we got few dinners. Our shopping day was Monday, so by Sunday, we were usually out of food or down to the nubs. If we didn't get invited to eat on Sunday after church, Sunday dinner was often vegemite sandwiches or tomato soup, and if you were lucky, you had some noodles to put in it. If you had a can of tuna fish and some mayo to mix with the noodles, you were eating high on the hog.

Those Sunday dinners with members were a lifesaver for me. After spending all week knocking on doors with little success, it was nice to have a good meal and socializing with some friendly people before having to start the drudgery over again on Monday.

I spent 4.5 months in one area where there was a small bakery just a coupla blocks from our flat. On Saturday nights when we were riding our bikes home, we would stop at the bakery, knock on the back door, and the night baker would sell us a loaf of hot, uncut bread for 50 cents. We would take that hot bread home, slice it up, and put butter and jam on it and eat our fill. I don't think I've ever eaten anything that tasted so good as that.

Of course, I realize that I didn't have it as bad as a lot of missionaries. I never had to eat chicken-feet soup or rats & rice or anything else that a lot of missionaries in third-world areas have to. Frankly, I don't know if I could have endured eating that crap for two years.

Okay, so there seem to be different rules and regulations everywhere you go. Why is there no set list of rules to follow? When the mission president realizes the missionaries are not getting a lot of convert baptisms, do the MP's enforce rules like this to get the missionaries to try harder?

I am an ex-mormon, and I come from a family of "strong" and "faithful" mormons. I have read this entire thread and omg, I cannot believe that is has come this far.

Some of you are not sympathetic to missionaries (then obviously, you never were) nor was I, but my sweet little brother was. And I sent him money directly for 2 straight years (weekly) because all of the money for their monthly allowance had to last allll month long. Coach, thank you for your generosity. All of the rest of you that do not understand and do not care, you have not had to miss many meals, have ya??

Well, you need to understand, these young boys and girls and impressionable teenagers just doing what they think will make their parents and ward "proud". I remember I was going to go on a mission because I was told that when you go on a mission your name is written in permanent marker in heaven, and no matter what you did that God would forgive you, because you went on a mission---crock, isn’t it.

We can say that now, but when I was younger I believed it, and I think those mish's still do. I will help any missionary any day. And btw, alot of the parent do not even know how much money everything they need cost, and the church tells them, send whatever you can afford and we will take care of the rest....ya right. If it was not for us, that have a heart and know the TRUTH then alot more of them would be going hungry. Until next time.....

The person who wrote that last quote seems to share my point of view. Most of these missionaries go on missions because they HAVE to, if they don't they will be letting their Mothers and Fathers down. It's what every good Mormon does, and they will be treated differently if they don't go. They won't get to date the "pretty" girls an

I recently got off a mission about a year a go (it hasn't take n me long since to leave the church) Anyways, there were some stake presidents in some of the Alabama stakes, that were telling the members that they couldn't have the missionaries over unless they had an investigator...etc... Anyways, this was a real downer for us because our limited 150 dollar budget a month only sufficed for some stupid ramen and mac and cheese

Well, it seems that the lack of money in the budget does effect a lot of missionaries. Why is a church as wealthy as the Mormon Church letting it's missionaries starve? Why give them so little money?

Church leaders blame the missionaries for the poor convert retention for at least two reasons.

1. To direct the blame away from themselves and the toxic church organization in general, where it belongs, and,

2. To create guilt among the missionaries that they are not working hard enough.

Missionaries must be constantly beaten into submission in order to feel guilty, which in turn makes them work harder, do more, pay more, and believe more. Is there ever a time in Mormonism where one has done enough? Of course not. Every moment, TBMs are bombarded with:

You're NOT doing your genealogy.
You're NOT doing enough missionary work.
You're NOT attending the temple often enough.
You're NOT paying enough tithing.
You're NOT having Family Home Evening.
You're NOT reading scriptures often enough.
You're NOT praying enough.
You're NOT fasting enough.
You're NOT attending all your meetings.
You're NOT doing your home/visiting teaching.
You're NOT baring your testimony often enough.
You're NOT obeying your General Authorities enough.

It goes on and on. Cults thrive because their members can never do enough.

I think I will let that last quote speak for itself. I couldn't agree more.