Post your question for the Mormon Missionary in here.
 

A few weeks ago they came to my door and we had a really cool constructive discussion before they went on their way but before we did we said that we'd get together sometime this week. Well the time is tonight, 700pm at Panera and they actually called me to confirm. As a measure of good faith I had to read their little guidebook and they have to be able to tell me what the Mezuzah on the Jewish Person's front door stands for. So tonight we're going to sit and chat and Im buying them a dinner. We've already admitted that neither one of us will go into it to change the other's mind but just to have a discussion. If you post a question in here, I'll take it, ask it and report back their answer as best I can.

Ask if there's some tenant of the faith that keeps Mormon coaches or schools from running the football on any kind of consistant basis.

I wish I had as much free time as you do

nothing can top steve's question. good show, sir!

I dont feel like it with my 5 jobs now (although Im not selling much tea so im not sure that that counts right now) or 4. No kids though yet.

Ask them where they stand on the church dropping over 20 mil to defeat prop 8.

can you give me some more info on prop 8 so I can answer them if they need more info to give an answer?

don't you mean support?

prop 8 is the california gay-marriage ban

Yeah. I keep getting it confused since supporting 8 means opposing gay marriage.

I didn't know you cared so deeply about religion.

From what I've read the massive amount of money spent on Prop 8 has been somewhat controversial within the church. I'd be interested in hearing from church members.

it will be asked, however in a non-offensive manner. My intent was never to offend these guys but just to treat them somewhat differently than what they see commonly down here which is intolerance and door slams.

The Catholics are throwing a lot of money behind it as well. The second highest spending political campaign in the country, behind the presidential race. The California Teachers Union is throwing over $1 million against it. It's crazy.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/story/859605.html

Here's a Mormon thread from last week:

ping: Any Mormons in the house? - Front Office Football Central

What is the concept behind no caffeine?

I can answer that one, I knew a bunch of Mormons growing up. Its the drug thing. Another addictive substance that they stay(ed) away from. I think they now have that one as optional now.

Does your church do anything to honor JFK or Johnson?

This thread concerns me.

The post may be exactly what you are talking about but here is my opinion of Mormons. I am not a avid believer in any religion but it is hard to dispute things that happened thousands of years ago with the Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc. However it is very easy for historians to dispute the LDS. And their history is very historically racist and screwed up in many ways. So call them on it. We would call out individual people and businesses and even other posters on this board, why does the fact they are religion make them exempt from criticism?

Look at you all fancylike with your "in before the lock".

So we met at Panera's and here is my brain dump:

They dont drink Sweet Tea or Coffee due to the Tannins in it or acidic tanins or something but they didnt think it had to do with the Caffeine.

They get treated terribly while going door to door and have had knives and guns drawn on them.

They only get to call home to family twice / yr. once on mother's day and Christmas although "Dean" snuck and called his brother the other day.

"Clay" seemed a little bit more awkward but "Dean" was a really cool dude.

On the prop 8 issue they had already said to me that the church, while being against gay marriage, they wouldnt put a billboard up or be vocal about it. This is where I brought up the prop 8 issue and the donations and he said that it sounded like that was more behind the scenes than up front and that seemed to not be hypocritical to him.

He said that a gay person isn't a sinner until they act upon it so they have gay missionaries and such but they just never have the "thought" go to their "heart" where the "act" would take place.

I told "Dean" about the event that took place at the voting place the other day and they knew who the blonde kid was and they agree with me that he was being a "liar" and "disingenuous" and that they would call him out on it since they are supervisors for this area. They totally agreed with me on that though.

Otherwise it was a really good time. About 2 hours and we talked the whole time about a ton of stuff and the guys are just really nice kids (20) and look forward to going home. They get paid nothing while being here and it seems pretty rough but theyre used to it.

I invited them over for the UFC fights on Nov. 15th since Im having people over anyways and I told them to not be "tempted" by it because the party is hapening with or without them and it's up to them as to whether or not to come.

Thats one of the mysterious powers of religion - denote anything a religion and instantly it gets a mysterious defense from being totally ridiculed regardless of how batfink weird it is.

Scientology for instance ......

(apologies to any locals who are Scientologists .... see its mysterious powers are affecting me already ;) :D)

They only can call their family twice a year and this is a religion? Wouldn't they encourage them to stay in touch as much as they can? They are spreading the word of the lord, not on a covert operation for the CIA.

They said the reason for that is to KEEP them from becoming homesick. After a while of not being in contact it becomes somewhat numb and you dont miss them as much. If you were calling all the time you'd get really really homesick. Thats their theory behind it.

LDS missionaries have a very tough gig. Most of them sign up hoping to go somewhere exotic, get to missionary training center and find out they're going somewhere stateside. My personal favorite are those sent to inner cities to recruit blacks and hispanics to the church. You want stories...

More to the point, other than just the whole rarely being able to call home and of course, the whole no dating dealio, there's also the fact that they have to raise their own money just to be able to go on a mission. I mean, their sponsoring ward or something might help them a bit, but their families make the sacrifices.

It's truly something else...

This whole thread is so bizarre. On so many levels.

I wonder how many people they actualy convert.

So, they just dodged the whole "running the football thing?" And bullshit option runs out of the spread don't count either.

What are "mons", and why do these people all want mor of them?

Sorry, I did ask them this and they didnt get the joke. So than they said, "They run the spread at BYU." pause. "We love it." So they seemed to love offense and Dean gave up his opportunity to play there BUT he seemed ok with it.

Because what a person chooses to believe or not to believe for their faith is a deeply personal matter? Or maybe because this country was founded by people looking to avoid religious persecution at home? Or maybe because it's just not anyone's damn business unless there are laws being broken?

Personal bias: raised Catholic, not religious anymore.

Well, here you go...for the missionaries..

1) They don't get to pick where they go, it is selected for them by the president of the church. They get their call before going into the MTC. Those who are doing foreign language missions are in the MTC a bit longer than others as they are immersed in the language. I had a friend I bumped into at a furniture store who was on his way home from his parents picking him up at the airport. He had been in South America at one of the outlying villages in the area, dropped about 75 pounds and could barely speak english anymore because of the total amount of spanish his mind was used to speaking for the past 2 years.

2) Their mission is a 2 year mission for the elders and an 18 month mission for the sisters.

3) The coffee/tea defense to me is utter bullshit, it was created and added to the word of wisdom for the faith, which in the time of Joseph Smith was asked for because the women were tired of the smoking, drinking and spitting taking place in the church houses. (This is one of the major things I have issues with on the Mormon faith, and if you really want to know how I feel, just come on over to my home and have a talk about it.). They can't drink sweet tea, tea, coffee and officially any caffeine of the sort, but damn they suck down barrells of Mountain Dew, Diet Coke, Dr. Pepper and such anywhere else....sorry touchy subject.

4) as far as them not speaking to family via the phone, that is correct. Letter writing is strongly encouraged. But the phone/email contact issue is up to their Mission President, I know one missionary who actually has a blog running for his mission.

5) Mormon history is controversial, racial and definitely messed up in many ways but so is catholicism, judaism, muslim and almost any other faith out there, they all have bullseyes on them at one point or the other, but the racial card the mormons get hit with is pretty harsh, considering the total racial being of the entire history of the church.

My only real problem with the Mormons - not knowing much at all about the racial stuff - is the origins of the religion. I mean, we aren't talking about a very long time ago, and it's hard for me to read about Joseph Smith and not think the guy is a total fraud, or worse.

Having said that, I got no more or less issues with Mormons than Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, etc - I've spoken to a bunch of young Mormons out here on missions numerous times over the years, and most were very friendly, intelligent, and well spoken folks.

I can think of a mons I'd like more of...

That's funny since most polls show that Catholics are 60% against 30% for Prop 8.

sounds like a cult to me

based upon the definition of cult.... almost every religion should fall underneath it.

1.	a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies.

2.	an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, esp. as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult.

3.	the object of such devotion.

4.	a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.

5.	Sociology. a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.

6.	a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.

7.	the members of such a religion or sect.

8.	any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific.

And I am done with the thread because ignorant statements like this fire me up.

Thanks. Didn't see this before.
Didn't Jesus ask his disciples to leave their familes and travel with him?

I love that this was the first question asked here. :D

The Coffee/Tea & Tannins thing I now understand. Tannin is the substance that makes your mouth feel dry (and thus want to spit).

I have no judgement on it being cult or not but I will say that the 2 guys were really nice guys and had some funny stories to tell and were equally charged up about "Erickson's" behaviour at the polling station. I truly do hope they come to my UFC night just so they can have a nice night out without people judging them or threatening them.

Dean told me that many times people invite them to meet up, out and they get set up for fights, or stood up, to the people show up with all this information just to barrage and disparage them which must suck. Anyways, The two seemed like truly nice guys and I hope that they at least remember Jacksonville in a positive light as opposed to it stinking compared with where some of their mates were sent...China, etc.

Yes, I agree. I still agree with Lathum.

Ignorant?

You can make the argument that all religion has some semblance of a cult, but to what degree.

IMO religion should be about building a family foundation. Only being permited to call home twice a year doesn't seem very positive to me. It seems more like an abusive spouse who is trying to seperate and divide you from your family so they can brainwash and take control of you.

Going door to door to convert people, yeah, thats normal behavior.

Getting no financial support from the church whose word you are spreading?


You have no right to call me ignorant, I'm entitled to my opinion of their religion and the way they choose to spread their word. If you don't like my opinion thats to bad, but don't call me ignorant, thats just unbecoming.

I can't believe there hasn't been a "Post your question about Missionary in here" thread yet.

I dunno. Sometimes when you're away from your family, you tend to appreciate them more. I know that every time I've deployed or even gone away for a week, I appreciate my family more.

Maybe it's like Lent on steriods.

suprised nobody posted the southpark clip about the foundations of the church yet.

I understand that sentiment, but to forbid someone from calling home?

Thats alot different then being away.

In the interest of being fair and balanced.

We have Glenn Beck discussing his conversion:


And here's South Park's Mormon episode.

Link

I found this on a wiki page...

Financial Support is coming from the church if and when it is needed. For Mormon Missionaries it is considered a calling and a duty for them. For a lot of the young men and their families, it is what they live their entire life for.

Again, twice a year is a rare thing anymore, it all depends on the Mission President and how strict he is, then it also rolls into your mission companion as well, many members will let the missionaries use their phones to call home.

It's better to keep yourself focused on the job at hand then worrying about those back home.

I never served a mission as I was baptized at 18 and choose a different path, however most of my best friends and almost everyone I went to high school served their missions. I had a friend stabbed in his shoulder and slashed on his face serving in Jamaica. I have had other friends have rocks thrown at them, dogs set upon them and even ran off the road.

In the ward I was in when I was just married, we had an elder that was brutally beaten to the point he suffered severe brain damage and is now in a vegetative state while he was on his mission.

These young men and women do this because of their beliefs.

The mormon church is extremely family oriented and encourages a family night once a week beyond Sunday and it can be a religious or non religious night, but they truly believe in the bonds of family.

As far as brainwashing and changing beliefs it happens like it does with every religion when they are young.

Forgive me for using the word ignorant, it's not the word I should have used there. But a lot of judgments that are made in regards to the mormon faith are made with limited to no knowledge of what it is and such.

no problem, and anything I may have said that was offensive wasn't meant that way.

I just don't understand the method they choose to spread their message. It seems it does far more harm then good. Not only because of the physical attacks suffered ( which IMO are deplorable) but because of the stereotypes it creates.

It almost turns their religion into kind of a joke. When I think of people going door to door selling something I think of a slimy snake oil salesman, is that really the assosiation they want?