Outmatched

Just this past week we met with a man who lived an alternate faith. He was very excited to meet with us and wanted to talk to us about our church. Unbeknownst to us, he wanted to disprove the lds church and its teachings. Oh how poorly equipped we were to deal with him. Every single point or argument we presented was shot down to pieces. He lived revelations in the Bible and wiped what we had. It was sad really, we were ill prepared to defend our faith and belief against him. As missionaries our goal is to find, teach and baptize. We really aren't supposed to Bible bash or try to prove our point. We left rather quickly after we learned we were no match for a young man not much older than we were and his Bible. For me, I didn't care so much. However, my companion was frustrated. He didn't understand why the spirit had failed him in conquering the opponent. I didn't have any words of comfort other than: "I'm sure he was just upset about something." I don't know why they don't give us more about the Bible and ways to help actually prove our church. It seems the only way we can convince people is if they decide to feel the spirit.

If you want to dm me my reddit username is random123salad

A little update! Dec 6th 2017

Hello! It is now the third transfer which is some interesting stuff! Just recently I learned water and electronics don’t mix well and my keyboard is out of action for a little bit. Besides that, it has been a decent couple of weeks! My new companion is very much like my last one in that he likes staying inside so there really isn’t much ‘work’ being done. Recently we had another zone conference for the new transfer, I learned the church has over 18k vehicles at a combine worth of a quarter billion from it. I dunno what that means for anyone but I thought it was a cool statistic. Before I forget, merry Christmas! If you don’t celebrate Christmas, merry/happy whatever you celebrate!

The past during the present

The world of missionary work really doesn't allow for much thought or it will flood you with it. It's a world of extremes for sure. Many times especially for the missionaries who do not want to be a missionary, the thought of 'what if' enters their heads. It's really difficult to avoid thinking about what one would be doing if they had decided to avoid the mission in the first place. It's very easy to get depressed this way and to tell someone that you wish you hadn't gone would almost be regarded as blasphemy. Sometimes I think about what happened before and what I could have done differently to change things. Now that I'm out here in, I'm a thousand miles from everyone I know. There's a sense of isolation in that thought and a sense of helplessness. There are certain events that I cannot talk about to get off my mind that can affect me.

I was a heavy PC gamer before my mission. And no, I was not Politically Correct, I played computer games. I had thousands of hours in many of the games offered by the platform. This form of entertainment was my escape from reality. I never had that many friends and I wasn't a huge success with girls either. My grades were something to be desired and I had issues with many many different things. I miss those games I would play, and the bonding moments with my friends. To go from playing 12 hours a day to zero. It's a shock and a burden. I struggle during my mission and my downtime that I get to have, to destress and to refocus. I'm never interested in reading the Bible or book of mormon. I wish I had more options and a method to this madness.

I was also a heavy heavy vaper. I ingested large amounts of nicotine in this form. It was almost a past time of mine. I enjoyed it and I thought it was great. I wasn't concerned about my health or really anything about it. And to go from what I had to zero, also just wiped me to the floor. I am sure I could have gradually quit before, but I just wasn't even sure I wanted to go. My experience is a reminder to let people know that they really should only serve a mission if they really want to. It's hard, especially I you aren't an angel....

The first Baptism

Just recently we had a man baptized and confirmed into the church just on the 11th of november. He is an interesting man. Essentially a reformed gang member, he's all about his family and loving god. He has always felt a strong connection to the church of Jesus christ of Latter Day saints. Another missionary baptized him, and my companion confirmed him a member of the church and gave him the gift of the holy ghost. Missionaries had been teaching him for months. He was baptized because he finally started living the word of wisdom. Specifically the word of wisedom is a set of guidelines that mormons live by. It's a health code, it tells you not to smoke/vape, drink alchohol, take illegal drugs, drink coffee or tea. It also tells you that you need to eat well, and to try to exercise. It's not that you specifically break the word of wisdom by being obese, but you do break it by eating/consuming/drinking those substances listed above.

Personally I really like the word of wisdom. It's no secret that nicotine and smoke and alchohol are health issues. It is essentially what we really should do to stay healthy. Coffee and tea I'm not entirely sure why they are banned. I enjoy the smell of coffee but I'm not a fan of the taste, neither tea. I also enjoyed vaping far more than one would imagine. I gave that up to serve a mission which I am still not sure why I a serving.

Either way, he wanted to be baptized. We taught him everything about the church that he needed to know. Which in all honestly we are told he really only needs to know very little. Our job as missionaries is to baptize and get people to repent and join the church. The active church members are supposed to teach them everything else. But I think that it is likely that he will not know everything that someone whose grown up in the church like I have. I hope he knows what he is doing, because I sure as hell don't. They don't teach us church history, or the serious deep stuff that people think about.

The event I remember well. Myself and my companion missionary arrived at the church around two hours early. We had brought milk and brownies, because we couldn't find anyone else to provide any refreshments after the event. When we arrived we began filling the baptisimal font wit water. A font is really just a very big bathtub if you don't know what it is. During the entire time we were there before the meeting I sat on my tablet and my companion sat on the piano.

Once everyone showed up we took pictures. And the program began. It only took about an hour if that for the whole things to runs it's course. I gave a small little speech on the concept of baptism and then we dunked the man. Both the baptiser and baptizee stand in the water. The baptizee grabs the baptiser's left wrist with their left hand, baptiser grabs the baptizee's right wrist with his left hand. The baptiser then raises his right arm to the square and says: (individuals name) By the authority of the priesthood which I hold, I baptize you in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit amen. And then he dunks them. Kinda like a limbo player would go backwards, and then he pulls him up.

The man was so happy to finally be baptized, and then on Sunday he received the holy ghost which is pretty similar in prayer and confirmed a member. I think he's happy with his decision. Atleast I hope...

Terms and Jargon for LDS missionaries

It occurred to me that I might use abbreviations or Jargon that may not be familiar to those who have never served a mission, let alone who are Mormon here are some that I think you may not be familiar with...

LDS = Latter Day Saint
ZL = Zone Leader  (Missionary leader who runs and reports on a zone which is further divided into districts.)
DL = District Leader ( missionary Leader who runs and reports on a district who is made of companionships)
Companionship = Two missionaries who serve together
SC = Senior Companion (The Missionary who makes the executive decisions for the companionship)
JC = Junior Companion (The Missionary who tags along and supports the SC)
MCM = Missionary Correlation Meeting (meeting between missionaries and the ward mission leader and ward missionaries)
Ward missionary = Essentially a member of a local branch or ward who helps with the 'work'
Ward/branch = Local congregation (branches are smaller)
Stake = Collection of wards and branches
AP = President's assistants (pretty much runs errands and does things for the president if he is too busy.)
Contraband = Essentially any item or media that is discouraged or banned from the mission for example Bull whips, ipods.
Trunky = A missionary who is especially anxious to go home ("he has already packed his trunk.")
Apostate = someone who has 'fallen' from the church
WML = Ward mission leader
Investigator = ('gator) An individual who is being taught by the missionaries
MP = Mission President

Voluntary Control

One of the most interesting things I have noticed on my mission, is the amount of control that the Mission President has. There are numerous rules and preventative measures. One such measure is Maas360. If you recognize this app you know what kind of pain it can be. This is the app the Church uses to control what you can do on your tablet and what you can't do. Essentially with the tablet I am using I cannot download any app that is not part of the church's special catalog, I cannot access any website besides lds.org. I also cannot connect this tablet to a computer and pull pictures from it, nor can I put pictures on it. However, as with any app there are work arounds. Often I will use an authorized app and communicate daily with my friends. Often I have gained access to music, videos and music thru my friends 'sharing' it on another app that uses a cloud. Really, on the surface it looks fool proof. But if you have some connections with 'Exmo' friends, or 'nevermo' friends things are easy to obtain.

The other thing about this control is that, the mission president actually has little actual power when it comes to day to day tasks. Sure the mission president can set rules and guidelines for how the day goes. But unless he knows about your actions he can't or won't do anything.  Let me explain: The only way the mission president will actually catch wind of anything you do is if he in informed. It's like living away from home, secrets are easily kept. The mission president might surprise visit you, or perhaps he will send someone else. But, If I were to smoke 5 packs a day and my companion didn't care, he would never ever know. If you had grown up in the culture I did. You would have believed that the mission president had super telekinetic powers of sort (being 'inspired') to know if you were disobedient or not. The reality is, many missionaries believe that, and once you recognize he doesn't know what you do all the time, it's a huge burden off of your shoulders.

There are plenty of stories out there where missionaries will break rules left and right, visit the red light districts, smoke and drink and the president will have no idea. Very little control, but the control he does have is incredible and hard to loosen.

On one hand, the mission president can revoke your 'privilege' to use your assigned car, your tablet, your assigned phone and your comfortable apartment. On the other, it's very easy to deceive him and it's incredibly easy to lie. It's a risk based game with an opponent who can make things difficult. As of yet the mission president I have is less concerned about numbers than the missionaries themselves. I really really hope that the president I have in the latter part of my mission will be the same.

The Second Transfer (October 18th - November 28th 2017)

The second transfer was especially interesting. Once we had wifi and I had brought out my ipod the first week was ultimately spent in out apartment doing nothing. It was interesting to me to see a valiant missionary, one whose faith was strong get sucked down with technology. I think for the first time I realized how influencial I could be. Little by little I've noticed we've been spending more and more time here in the apartment. I do not know if that's how my trainer actually did things, but I am not sure.

With the addition of Facebook and new cell phones, I have yet to really understand what this means for my mission. I already know several missionaries having trouble doing the work because they are stuck on Facebook all day. I secretly am glad that I didn't go out as often as before. Doing nothing is my strong suite, everyone's strong suite. Perhaps, things will get better? It was also around this time that the 'newness' of the mission really wore off. Things seemed boring to me and there was not a lot of motivation to really get things going or do anything in my opinion. Really at this point, it really set in that I didn't enjoy mission life as did the other missionaries. I was at the end of the scale where the mission seemed pointless as opposed to noble.

The zone conference was interesting to say the least. Once per transfer we have a zone conference. Essentially it's a get together we 2 or more zones where we listen to the president try to motivate us, or scold us. However this conference was interesting because we traded in our slide phones from the early 2000's, for modern J series samsungs. The phones are actually quite nice. These phones are actually better than the phone I had which was a galaxy grand prime. While I do praise them for choosing to use smartphones, one can't help but notice they aren't finished... For example, we actually still can't listen to voicemail because the app for voice mail is blocked. They still have a lot to do when it comes to making the phones actually work, but they're trying.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it before, but missionary life can be very depressing. If you are with the wrong companion, things can go wrong. This transfer we spent a lot of time sitting around the apartment doing nothing. To someone who may feel guilty about it, they will be crushed. For someone like me, it becomes boring. There's only so much media I can consume before I miss my friends and want to do something new. the other reality is that if you want to do the work, it's very often that people will slam doors and ignore you. It's easy to place the blame on yourself while you are being rejected. Sometime it gets way too much.

It's honestly surprising to see how other's react to the idea of contraband. Just this day an elder discovered my ipod touch and a huge fuss was made about it. I don't think either the Elder would have an issue with it, but I honestly am not sure I care if they did. Whatever it may be, I just hope it really doesn't get out of hand.

If you haven't guessedI usually start a new paragraph when an event happens. Just recently I got an ipod touch that is plenty new in the mail. I am waiting for Saturday so that I can slap on a screen protector and case just to make sure. However during the process my bank thinks fraud happened so I have to lie or tell the truth to my parents about my actions. The end result could go many ways. The worst may be that I get kicked out of the mission and house. Or it may not matter and I'll be fine. It may sound trivial, but missions are serious to mormons...

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday or missionaries. At church the Sunday prior to thanksgiving, we were invited to seven different homes to enjoy dinner. If I'm quite honest, it's almost too much. But we relish in the good home cooked food, and we eat so much, it's almost sinful. Different families have different expectations when it comes to how missionaries behave on holidays. Some, want us knocking doors rather than having a Thanksgiving meal. Other's feel that it's more important to enjoy the holiday rather than to do our job. To me it feels that we should enjoy the holiday, and if someone asks about the church, tell them. This year we had Thanksgiving dinner at the new convert's house. The very same man we baptized had us at his place for dinner with his family. I felt a little bad having their food since both of them lost their jobs just the week prior. I made them some bread to go along with dinner as I grew up with manners. You always bring a dish to a family dinner, but I also thought that the extra food, even if it's a few Loaves of bread would help them greatly. I think, they may have spent money on us that could have been used to fix their only car, a beaten up minivan. Being a missionary puts you in tough places. Eating food that you know may be someone else's when it is presented to you can happen. We also get confided in often because the members and people know we either won't remember, or whisked away. We aren't counselors by anymeans, but it is often that a willing ear means more to someone than one might realize.

Soon the second transfer will come to an end. I have a few predictions as to what will occur between now and the next transfer. My current companion will get moved out, and I will be stuck with a highly 'valient' missionary. We find out this coming Saturday and the switch would occur this tuesday. Overall the second transfer was loaded with sitting on our devices being couch potatoes. Really it was glorious for me, I hate working. It will be interesting to see who my next companion is, and what he will be like.

A Disclaimer For All

Disclaimer II: In case you have not gotten the message, this blog will likely contain hard subjects. I am a real person dealing with real people. There is personal part of me in this blog. Mission rules are often broken, Missionaries are not little angels and will do explicit things. I Will write what I want to write, and I will write what I see fit. Whether or not my actions break mission rules I am not concerned, whether or not someone believes I should post something or not, I do not care. I believe that I should write a blog about my missionary life and how it operated from my perspective. What I post is not Pro-mormon, Neither will my postings be Anti-Mormon. There may be inappropriate subjects that may be unsuitable for younger reads.  If you disagree with my posts or disclaimers, exercise your freedom and discontinue reading... - October 28th 2017

Reddit on a smuggled Ipod

Like I said in my previous post, I smuggled an ipod. Some companions are okay with them, some are not. I found this on a reddit article, for those of you on your way to serve a mission here is some advice. Quote;"

This is follow-up to my original post: My story out and serving a mission as an Exmo.

Back several years ago when I was about to go on a mission in the middle of a faith crisis, I looked around the internet for advice on how to serve a mission when you don’t believe, and found nothing. I ended up having to figure it out as I went. Here is a bunch of the main things that helped me through: 

First: My notebook. By the time I finished the mission, I had filled this notebook to the brim with unauthorized readings: mostly quotes from philosophy books I had read, or other things that served as a spiritual/emotional support, and allowed me to continue developing my thoughts. Copying it all down by hand into a notebook was really annoying, but it was extremely valuable in avoiding the rebuke of obedient missionaries for reading things we weren’t supposed to. My personal studies were mostly spent studying stuff like this (with maybe a little time in the book of mormon or something so I could tell the other missionaries “what I had learned”) 

In line with the notebook, I also made good use of my camera. I would get friends to send me book PDFs, and I would literally take a picture of every single page, then read them off my camera screen. Depending on how desks were set up for study time, I could sometimes read off my camera, but make it look like I was reading the scriptures. Other times, I could read stuff off my camera with the excuse that I was reading emails from P-day that I didn’t have time to get through, or just going through old pictures. Once again, I was mostly interested in philosophy books, but I also read a book on Lucid Dreaming, as well as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. If you’re about to go, take pictures of all the books you want to read on your mission (overshoot how many you’ll want to read, depending on situation and schedules, I could sometimes read an entire book in only 2-3 days, so 50 books for your mission would not be overkill). Also, if you’re into porn, an easy way to hide it is to load a bunch up onto an SD card, then look at it on your camera. You’d have to be sure that you never leave that sd card in there though, as other missionaries can and will look at your camera pictures without warning. You could also bring an ipod touch or something similar and use that, although red flags would go up if anyone saw it. (I never actually did these with porn, but if you want to, I’m confident it would work) 

Second: Music! This is sooooo important, at least it was for me. Even if I could listen to only one or two good songs a day, it would be in my head the whole day and was an incredible support. I started the mission with an old ipod with only classical and mo tab on it. That was a huge mistake. By the end though, I had gotten several mp3 players (I had one for public music I’d play with other missionaries, one for my own normal music, and one for all my podcasts.) a large collection of flash drives, several sets of earbuds, a nice set of speakers, and even a 1 TB hard drive. Get nice speakers that sound good, and for the mp3 players, the best ones are the USB mp3 players, because they are so small and easily hidden. I would collect all the music I could from other missionaries or members, such that when I ended the mission, I had 60-70 GB of music. Make sure you bring the music that you normally listen to and like with you when you serve! 

So, I would always probe my new companion to get a sense for what music they were okay with and what they weren’t okay with. I had 2 or 3 companions who were down for anything which was awesome. We’d lay down the EDM during studies haha. But when they weren’t okay with it, I would listen to music while I showered, or occasionally when I was in bed, if I could sacrifice some sleep. I had a bathroom bag with soaps and toiletries in it, and in the bottom was a sock that blended in to the bag itself so it was hard to notice. Inside the sock, I stuffed my 2 usb mp3 players, a pair of headphones and a wall charger, so while I showered I could listen to one and have the other charging on the wall. If I wanted to listen in bed, I’d sneak it to bed in a pocket, then hide it in my pillowcase when I was done, and grab it in the morning and put it back in my bathroom bag sock. And remember that one usb mp3 player had mormon podcasts on it, so I used the same techniques to listen to Dehlin, Larsen, etc.

Third: Nevermo or exmo friends: This is, by far, the most important of them all. You HAVE to have someone on the outside you can write about what’s going on, without judgment, without them telling you you’re wrong or sinning or whatever. I had my two siblings who I have to blame for successfully finishing (shoutout to you both! I love you!). I also kept in contact with the exmo missionary that gave me the philosophy book in the MTC. He also successfully finished his mission. 

They not only were my emotional vent and support, but they were my suppliers too. Whenever I needed something, be it music, book pdfs, or actual materials, they were there to get it to me 

Fourth: Supplements. One of my exmo siblings was getting into supplements at the time, and I was interested, so he sent me some, and it made the rest of my mission so much easier. First one I started using was melatonin. Anyone who goes on a mission knows that you’re constantly sleep deprived, and there just isn’t enough time at night to transition from full out work to sleeping (most nights we’d finish mission work at 10:00 or later, and then be expected to be in bed sleeping at 10:30. Given how sudden that was and how little sleep you get in general, melatonin helped me to make the most of the sleep time I did have. I actually bought the melatonin at the MTC store. Quick note though, don’t be stupid like I was and use it every day. Melatonin dependence is a real thing. 

The most influential one was caffeine. Because I didn’t actually believe or support what I was doing, I was almost incapable of developing motivation to go do stuff, and I was a rather lazy missionary at first, which kept on getting me into trouble, and was really painful, and depressing. The caffeine helped me to go do things simply because I had energy and I had nothing else I could do. Its a really good way to fake zeal. It also made the whole mission experience much more enjoyable. What I did was I got caffeine pills, which I would dissolve into a small water bottle that I kept with me in my bag. Drink a swallow or two and I was good for the day, and my companion would simply think that I was rehydrating. 

There’s another drug called Phenibut, that was incredible. I don’t know how, but this guy makes you sleep really well, and also makes you more social, which is exactly what I needed as a missionary. Problem is, you can’t use it more than once every 4-5 days, so I saved it for special occasions, like presidents interviews or conferences or the like. 

I also had anxiolytics that were helpful in relieving stress (stuff like ashwaghanda or tianeptine) and racetams that boosted brain activity (stuff like alpha GPC, Choline, or Noopept). These were more mild. (Note: All of these are perfectly legal, although you could potentially have problems across country lines, depending on where you go. I didn't.) Of the above, I strongly strongly recommend that you bring a stash of caffeine with you. The rest, you can pick and choose, based on whether it sounds useful 

Fapping barely needs to be mentioned. Do it a lot; it’ll help. (I did it under the table once or twice during comp study. Lol, good times.) 

One I accidentally stumbled into was moonshine. A combination of factors made me accidentally ferment a drink I had. That was a fun day, doing missionary work buzzed. I was able to recreate it once without problem, but brewing alcohol as a missionary is pretty sketchy. (you can buy wine yeast in tiny little packets that are easily hideable. Not sure how well you could hide the actual alcohol. Proceed with caution) 

If you’re willing to explore boundaries with your companions, you’ll find at least a couple who are really lenient. I had one companion, for example, who would go with me to an internet cafe most days of the week for an hour or two and play video games and surf the web. You’ll get breaks like that during your mission. I personally spent many hours on this sub during my mission, enough to keep basic tabs on what was going on in the exmo world. 

The biggest thing to understand is that the mission experience is incredibly unpredictable and volatile; coping methods that work in one instance may not work in another, so always be ready and exploit any opportunities you get. And develop your own coping methods on top of this. Always be ready and watchful. 

One last topic to touch upon: how do you feel okay with yourself when you go door to door peddling a belief that you know is wrong and harmful? I approached the mission having this be my biggest fear, but it never really became a big problem. I was never ethically disgusted with myself for teaching missionary lessons. Explaining why takes some time. A big part of it is the fact that, due to the nature of my own faith crisis, I had found a lot of principles within the church that I liked, that resonated with me. I learned how to teach my own philosophical viewpoint using the jargon and structure of missionary lessons, and as much as I could, I left the rest for my companion to teach. And, using my background in debate, I went into many conversations simply seeking the thrill from successfully playing devils advocate, then feeling satisfied to see the majority of people, even then, recognize it for the bullshit it was and turn us away. I also thoroughly enjoyed listening to these people, as they explained their own theological and philosophical viewpoints on life. It really helped me broaden my perspective on what is out there. 

There is an episode of Skeptoid that tackles this very question, and does it brilliantly. Read or listen to it here. he can describe better than I can why I saw no ethical problem in peddling the gospel as a non-believer. He also does two episodes on the BOM and BOA that are really good. 

I said up above that the most important part of succeeding is having nevermo or exmo friends you keep in contact with. I know some of you might not have this luxury. As such, I wish to reach out. If you, or anyone you know, needs to finish a mission as an exmo and going home is not the right answer for them, let me get in contact with them! /u/FearlessFixxer : I signed up for the underground handcart company, but I don't think its specifically set up for this sort of situation. Any ideas on ways we can reach out to those in similar circumstances? 

I know I’m not the only one who has served as an exmormon. What coping techniques did you employ to get through?

Sent from my iPod

This little piece is by FearlessFixxer on reddit. Go and thank him for his post!

The Missionary Training Center (August 16th - September 4th 2017)

The Missionary Training center is a little couple square mile complex near BYU Provo in Utah. It's abbreviation is 'the MTC'. Most stateside, and English speaking missionaries go to the Provo MTC. There are several complexes throughout the world but this is the one I know. I spent three whole weeks there, and I hated the schedule. I remember being picked up by what looked like an ice cream truck from the airport, and being dropped off onto what looked to be a college campus with high wrought iron fencing. The moment I went into the MTC I knew I wouldn't be in the real world for another 3 weeks. After we got our little welcome and time to meet our 'residence mates' we immediately got placed in classrooms. Besides the two new buildings, all the other ones are outdated and from the 70's it seems. Lots of the concrete sidewalks are smooth from the many thousands of shoes that scrape across it each day.

We woke up at 6:30 and not a minute later, and were showered an waiting in line for breakfast by 8:30. We got around 10 actual minutes to eat because the lines were long. Then we studied preach my gospel which is essentially the teaching manual that missionaries use. We ate lunch afterwards. Did our TRC's (Fake investigators that we 'teach'.) Studied in class some more, and then had dinner. Studied yet again, and then went to bed. Sundays were ok, but we spend a lot of time singing hymns andpraying. Overall, there was a huge difference between the missionaries who just arrived, and the ones near the end of their stay. Each week felt like a month, by the end of the three weeks you felt like a seasoned veteran of the MTC.

Funny things happened all the time. A Polynesian Elder Broke a toilet seat. We built bridges, we stuffed a guy into a luggage case. We did funny and dumb things. I don't think I've laughed as hard as I have at some off the things I saw and did in the MTC. Really it was a college dorm, just with people who are mormon. We broke things, we pranked people, and we hide spoons in people's stuff. Hilarious, yet it was the only fun we had, one hour at a time. 
At the end we each threw one tie into a bin, and blind folded ourselves. The District leader (leader of up to 7 companionships) drew the first one. Whomever put that tie in was the next to draw a tie. I ended up with a good tie, and was glad to have it.

Overall, I disliked the MTC. Too many emotions, crying, and crazy leadership. I liked my freedom, and the MTC gave me none. I did enjoy moments nonetheless, but the bus ride to the airport I enjoyed more. Overall, I really wish that I made more friends, but I was never going to make them there...

The First Transfer (September 4th - October 18th 2017)

To begin a transfer is a period of six weeks. In these six weeks, you serve with a companion whose gender is the same as yours, and you work as a missionary in a specific Geographical area. This area is within a District Leader's assigned area, which is also within a zone which the Zone leaders control, which is in a Mission that is controlled by the Mission President. I was called to serve in the [deleted] , comprising of [deleted]. The first thing to know about the 'field' in mission work, is that the companion you serve with will either make or break your transfer. It is not uncommon to server multiple transfers with the same companion in the same area. The other thing about missionary work you should know, is that the only time the president knows what you are doing, is if your leaders catch you, or you snitch or tell him. This makes for interesting results.

In my first transfer my trainer, essentially a coach my same age was a District leader. This is interesting becauase often times, the leaders are less obedient than the lower down missionaries. I have already seen my zone leaders break rules left and right even worse than my district leader. As far as where I'm serving, I served in a little town, 10/10 would visit. 2/10 would stay.

I'll admit to not liking the Missionary lifestyle. I was a heavy smoker/vaper before my mission. I also had a not so clean mouth, and spent a large portion of my time on video games. I enjoy those things, and I enjoy making my own decisions without having to answer to someone about it. You never make it far without being in sight of your companion. The only times I would be able to break a rule is when my companion would be in the bathroom, or otherwise busy with a leadership task. I do not condone breaking rules, but, I don't like them. Really, I am still new to missionary work, and I have yet to really see all the little bits and pieces work together. I will explain in better detail at some other time. Really, just writing a blog is against the mission rules. Let alone, checking that blog on an ipod touch I smuggled in. Maybe sometime in the future, that'll finally be allowed.

If you have never served a mission before, there are lots of little rules that come up. Things like a curfew, wake up times, and general things. For example, we must get up every morning at 6:30am, and be in bed by 10:30 every night. We are also only supposed to communicate back home with email, not Google hangouts, not skype, only email that is filtered by the church. This makes things hard if you want some extra support. Most companions are okay with 'emergency' emails. But sometimes you don't always get lucky. And sometimes you will not always have wifi in your apartment/house. It's a luxury to have wifi at your apartment. Part of me thinks that the church doesn't hand out wifi because missionaries will get lazy. Which they are correct on. Once we got wifi in our apartment from a more than happy to help catholic father (bless him, he is a great man.) we got lazier and lazier.

Besides that, the first transfer was not too eventful.

What is a Mormon mission really like?

Hello, as you may have guessed from the title I will detail as often as occasion will permit what a Mormon or LDS mission is really like. In no way is this a Pro Mormonism blog, neither will it be a anti Mormonism blog, this is simply a method of telling my story and what it's like.

To give you some sort of semblance of a preface, I grew up in a Mormon family. My extended family are members, my immediate family are, everyone within the family are members. Total Mormon culture. I grew up with this culture, and for a time I thought everyone went to church like I did. I was taught as usual by Sunday school teachers and by the leaders. Looking back upon this, I don't notice anything unusual about what was being taught, or about how things operated, it's likely I don't remember the all the little details. Things changed as I got older, and became a teen. As with most people I hope, there is a little bit of resistance to their parents teachings. From what I see this is normal, and expected. I was rebellious in that I broke my parents rules behind their backs, all, the, time. What I did do isn't important, got into trouble with friends, experimented with things and life goes on.

The pressure started when I was a senior in highschool... For those who were not of mormon 'lineage', there's a certain pressure for a young man, (and oft' times a young women) to serve a full two year mission. Almost as a 'coming of age' trial.
It was expected that I go, and up until that point in time I was not a clean mormon. I broke rules all the time without anyone else knowing. A mission would seriously change things, but I went regardless. I knew better than to want to go another way, it would be odd if I didn't go and I knew I would almost be shunned in a way I can't explain. Really, I didn't want to go, however I knew of no other way to get on with life. I had already deferred my education until 2019, I couldn't spend two years with my parents like that.

Overall, I never wanted to go. I would have rather gone straight to college. I went because I was pressured to, and I didn't know any other way. I will not say I won't have good positive experiences, or that this is necessarily an evil practice. But I won't say that a mission is always the right way to go...

Disclaimer: As of October 28th 2017 I am still on my mission. I will NOT be able to update or respond to comments every single day. Missionaries from the church of Jesus christ of Latter day saints get very little contact with the world. I will write what I will write and there will be hard things in here, sarcasm, and many broken mission rules.