They seemed to think I was a troll or something because I was still identifying as a Mormon, worshipping in the Mormon manner, and so on. And one guy accused me of just trying to get with Mormon girls and sympathizing with Joseph Smith because of his (purported) sexual misconduct.
Nope, it's not a memorized sales pitch at all. The missionaries also gain nothing based on anyone's conversion. Everything is just about you. Now, that being said, when you teach the Plan of Salvation lesson to 10 different people a week, it's natural to fall into a routine way of explaining things based on what experience says works well. Now, if that avenue of explanation doesn't work well with "Bob", a good missionary will explain a things in a different angle that works for Bob. A missionary that is not so great on teaching will struggle with changing angles and tend to stay in their more routine explanation even though it's not working. That's just an artifact of missionaries being human of various levels of teaching skill.
That's a fair point, and one that I hadn't considered much. I do think the second pair of sisters I had were very much like the first ones, but I might have been too cynical about it.
I'm guessing that's more that second missionary-pair's personality compared to the first pair. Yes, missionary pairs do develop different personalities because they are different people.
Well, no duh. It just seemed like all the girls are kind of the same in terms of their lessons. As far as they go as individuals, I could see a lot of difference. Some I liked more than others.
Re missionary rules in general: yes, mission rules are strict. This is known well before a person goes signs up for a mission. Each of the rules have a history behind them and why they were put in. Part of them were put in to avoid spiritual distractions (like bad media). Part of them are logistical/legal/risk-management reasons (like avoiding certain risky situations). Part of it them are to avoid the appearance/opportunity for evil (like don't be alone with the opposite sex). And frankly some of them are just put in because Elder So-and-so did this really stupid thing 10 years back so now we have this seemingly idiotic rule to prevent a repeat episode. Think about it: how many stupid stunts can 150 18-20 year olds get into? Now multiply that by ~400 missions, and completely new people every ~2 years...
I don't disagree with most of the rules, it's only a few that seem arbitrary and controlling. I appreciate the idea, for example, behind making missionaries bring a chaperone with them or stay outside when they meet investigators of the opposite sex.
As to the music: those rules vary per area. Some areas the mission president gets tired of dealing with "but what about this song or this song" questions (some of which are dumb questions, some are people trying to push boundaries) and just puts a strict approved list on the rule books to be done with the matter. That seems to be the case in your area.
See, that makes a lot more sense now.
Many of the rules are actually to prevent situations like that. Obviously it's not perfect, and the Church is always working on improving things- just this last week they sent out a massive survey to missionaries in regards to safety and how to make it better. If there is a reason to fear danger, missionaries are withdrawn (obvious example was everyone was pulled from Ebola areas when that broke out). Overall, a missionary is something like 80% less likely to incur a serious injury than non-missionaries of the same age bracket (if you want I can pull up the actual numbers).
Oh, I don't doubt that missionaries are safer on the whole. It's just particular horror stories from particular places. And sometimes it's not clear if the horror stories are true or not. It does seem like the sister missionaries are sheltered a bit more than the elder missionaries, which is appropriate.
LDS missionaries do like 20 hrs of required community service a week, plus teaching language lessons, plus other generic helping out... There's plenty of service work involved.
I'd never heard of that before. Kind of just assumed they didn't do it since nobody mentioned them doing it. If by helping out you mean helping the ward, then yeah, I know they do that.
That's you biased source for you.
Quite possibly. Plus, I never really got to hear any stories from returned missionaries who liked them.
Can this happen? Yes. Should this happen? NO!!! That's a constant focus on getting people to really actually read scripture, to really actually attend church, and to really seriously investigate things. Do investigators get lazy and to want to read? Very frequently. Do missionaries sometimes get excited and rush things? Sometimes yes. We as a Church try our best to encourage thorough growth, but sometimes people are just impatient or lazy or whatever. We try, and that's all we can do.
Yeah, they do good about having you read, but I think the church is maybe a bit too permissive? I went to this other church where you couldn't volunteer there until you were a member and you needed to pass a fourteen week Sunday school class to become a member (though they weren't unreasonable, they'd let you miss a few and would work with you on a schedule). Now, I felt that they were maybe a bit too strict*, but they did make you kind of work for it, give you time to think it through.
*They were just a little bit culty and had a pastor who seemed to want to run off the chaff instead of expanding his flock.
Not fake: we do generally honestly care for people. (Or at least when we're on our game and doing what we should be doing).
I can't really comment on this, since I didn't see any love bombing myself. The YSA were cliquey, the adults came across as very nice and honest. The missionaries seemed rather honest too.
Don't missionary flirt. Just don't.
I don't! Okay, to be honest, I would have if I didn't know it would turn out bad. But there were a few times when the one sister would give me these flirty looks. Don't know what her intentions were there, probably just me misinterpreting.
That's your biased source talking.
Anecdotes. Like "back in 19XX, Bishop So-and-So told me..." Or, "this manual from 30 years ago said..."
If you don't mind me saying, that doesn't sound very healthy...
Granted, my brain can work the same way, so my own history lessons could just be speaking out here.
It isn't healthy in the slightest. It's been getting better with time, though, and I can usually catch myself doing it now. Biggest trigger is having too much unstructured time (like, say, taking Summer courses but having not found a Summer job and your friends all being out of town).
