Missionaries Now To Live With Members!

[nana]

Food drive. Maybe that isn't pampering. Sorry.

It's good intentioned, but what led to this? How much effort are the missionaries spending garnering pity about their lack of funds?

Question, ,because this thread has boggled my mind.

How much are the missionaries alloted for food, somewhere I read that it was 130.00 a month. That is 5.00 a day. And about the efforts they spend garnering pity, can they spend that effort getting a part time job so they can eat? or are they supposed to be out there pounding the streets for investigators so they can be "invited" to a members home for dinner?

[cjcampbell]

Did everyone else get the annoucement today that Missionaries across America will be hustled out of their apartments on September 1st and must find a member family to move in with?

Nope. No such announcement here.

[Calm]

I'm a pretty recently returned missionary.

People are not doing the missionaries favours by pampering them.

I agree this can happen. I remember one missionary who spent his dinnertimes with us showing us his new tech toys drawing out the time rather than scheduling appts, etc...once he became the senior partner. We heard very little about what was going on with the missionary work or sharing the gospel with us. He was an exception, most seemed to benefit in spiritual ways from interacting with families in the ward, including being more committed to helping build the church in that area. Plus families knowing missionaries well helps them get involved not only in the conversion process but also the retention. I am not sure how one handles these types especially since there are two people involved, not just the missionary taking advantage of the situation.

[oats]

I think we live on completely different diets, shop at different class stores, and by different levels of prepared food. I can't imagine how and what you eat, and I don't think you could imagine what missionaries eat, I guess.

[charity]

Question, ,because this thread has boggled my mind.

How much are the missionaries alloted for food, somewhere I read that it was 130.00 a month. That is 5.00 a day. And about the efforts they spend garnering pity, can they spend that effort getting a part time job so they can eat? or are they supposed to be out there pounding the streets for investigators so they can be "invited" to a members home for dinner?

In our ward, there is a Missionary Dinner calendar that is kept by the Ward Mission Leader. At the end of the month, the next month calendar is passed around in Relief Society. There is never a problem filling the calendar. When we had one pair of missionaries for two wards, we sort of fought over who would get them.

And they are not supposed to be working part time jobs. They are full time missionaries.

[Calm]

Question, ,because this thread has boggled my mind.

How much are the missionaries alloted for food, somewhere I read that it was 130.00 a month. That is 5.00 a day. And about the efforts they spend garnering pity, can they spend that effort getting a part time job so they can eat? or are they supposed to be out there pounding the streets for investigators so they can be "invited" to a members home for dinner?

All the wards I've been in for decades have passed around signup sheets for scheduling missionary dinners. In most of them, there was many times that as a Primary teacher, we didn't get much of a chance because the month was full by the time it got to us. Missionaries aren't supposed to be having to spend the time scheduling the dinners themselves, just confirming the date and time.

As to the $130 a month, this would be dependent on where they were living. In some places, they could live like kings on that amount for food.

[cjcampbell]

Question, ,because this thread has boggled my mind.

How much are the missionaries alloted for food, somewhere I read that it was 130.00 a month. That is 5.00 a day. And about the efforts they spend garnering pity, can they spend that effort getting a part time job so they can eat? or are they supposed to be out there pounding the streets for investigators so they can be "invited" to a members home for dinner?

Missionaries' allowances vary widely around the world and in the US.

There is a basic per missionary budget given to each mission. The mission president every year (and more frequently, if necessary) determines what missionaries need to live on and gets it approved by the area presidency. Then the area sends that amount every month to the mission office. The mission office then allocates it to the missionaries as it sees fit. Missionaries with special needs might receive more. Others might receive less. Some missions might pay the missionaries' utilities. Other missions might give the money to the missionaries and let them pay their own utilities. Some missions pay all auto expenses. Others give the missionaries an allowance. And so forth.

Some missions will not allow missionaries to eat at members' homes unless an investigator is present. Others encourage missionaries to eat at members' homes whether an investigator is present or not. Still others discourage missionaries from eating at members' or investigators' homes at all. Some may restrict missionaries eating at members' homes to a particular night or nights of the week.

Mission presidents have a lot of leeway on things like this. (Actually, they have a lot of leeway on just about everything.) Area presidents may make suggestions that mission presidents do something different, and mission presidents may or may not take that advice. The thing is, an area president will not order a mission president to do anything. He does not have the keys to do that.

So your experience of what missionaries do in your mission may be quite different from what you would experience in the next mission over.

[freakin a man]

I guess I was lucky. Due to my low needs and wants on my mission, I was able to keep more money in the bank than most of the other missionaries. They spent their money on things that I did not interest me. As a result, I finished my mission with well over a thousand dollars in the bank.

[cjcampbell]

I should point out, too that standards for missionary apartments, diet, etc., are set by the Missionary Department in SLC. There are some places around the world, of course, where those standards are difficult to meet. For example, missionaries are not supposed to live in the same place where church meetings are held without prior approval from the Missionary Department. Yet, I know from personal experience that there are missionaries living in meetinghouses, and that members are even taking the missionaries' food during meetings! Missionaries may not be allowed to ride motorcycles, but I know places where motorcycles are virtually the only means of transportation. So mission presidents have to have a lot of flexibility and deal with problems that come up.

The Missionary Department may tell mission presidents that it wants missionaries to live in members' homes (and this seems a bit unlikely to me, but I suppose it could happen), but that does not, by any stretch of the imagination, mean that such a program is likely to actually be implemented on the same day in every mission in America. The Church has legal obligations, leases and things like that, which would make a Sept. 1 implementation of such an enormous change almost impossible.

[nana]

Add it up:

5.00 pound of hamburger

1.50 loaf of bread

2.50 milk

2.69 p nut butter

.50 can of tuna

1.00 noodles

.50 can of veggies if they are on sale.

4.00 cheese

2.69 bacon

1.19 celery

.89 can of soup

1.39 saltines

2.00 baloney

2.39 mayo

1.19 18 eggs

1.89 potatoes

.79 margerine

2.89 orange juice

these are a few of the prices I paid at walmart the upscale store I shop at and the high class f

foods I eat.

Note, I didn't add much produce as it is too expensive for my blood most of the time.

[rick7475]

All this hype about missionaries who can't feed themselves ...

The males are not all 19 year old boys raised on their mother's cooking unable to fend for themselves.

I left on my mission when I was 24 having finished a university degree and 6 years in the army. In one of my districts there was an ex-marine, an ex-submariner, various men who had lived at colleges for a year or more, or who had worked at various jobs to earn money. The level of competence is a little higher than some would give these men credit for. One missionary lost his father and stayed out, and I knw of one missionary who not only lost his mother when he was out but a companion of his was killed in a car accident, yet they persevered and finished their missions with more maturity than I had ever seen.

Some are immature and childish, but many are serious and have worked hard to save their money to help offset the costs.

In my first area, our appartment was a basement appartment in a member's home. She was a widowed sister who treated us very well and fed us on occasion. But we had the intelligence to live on less than what was required and eat well.

These men are dedicated, competent, and believe it or not have the intelligence and dedication to work out a meal budget and eat well.

[Calm]

I've only seen about one missionary come home looking too underweight and that was due to health issues, not limited food. I cant' remember one missionary that looked unhealthy in the past 3 decades I've been paying attention. I would have done something about it as I'm sure most of the mothers in the wards I've been in would have done (and this included a number of missionaries over in Russia while we were there).

[Bsix]

Today's missionaries are wimps. Why in my day, we were real missionairies. We raised our own chickens for food...harvested our own veggies...lived in a bus by the river...manufactured our own clothing...we walked 100 miles per day...up hill both ways...in the snow...while being attacked by dogs...and that was just our "P" days...and we...

You get the idea.

Six

[alphalingo]

I believe there are some missions and areas where the missionaries have lived with members for years and years. In Chile where I served, we were ALWAYS with members. We almost never saw them though, because of our schedule and theirs.

It was great for us, because as they made a little bit extra food, and we didn't have to come home early to make dinner.

There were some good opportunities to be examples for the kids, and I know we ate better (healthier, etc.) than if we would have eaten on our own.

PS Why are we taking an anecdote about one person doing what they call a "food drive" for two missionaries in their area and using that to make comments about all missionaries and looking for pity? )

My family of 4 spends $250-300 a month, so just over twice the number Nana says she heard once upon a time.

The food thing? It's a non-issue. But you can pretend it's one.

[Doc]

Today's missionaries are wimps. Why in my day, we were real missionairies. We raised our own chickens for food...harvested our own veggies...lived in a bus by the river...manufactured our own clothing...we walked 100 miles per day...up hill both ways...in the snow...while being attacked by dogs...and that was just our "P" days...and we...

You get the idea.

Six

Thanks for the laugh Six.

Sounds like you went to the same mission I did.

Doc

~

[auteur55]

This just makes me sad. That the church can spend over 2 billion on a mall, but can't feed their missionaries

Actually word got out that the missionaries cupboards were bare and one member secretly started a food drive. I don't think Missionaries go hungry here in the states. Some may eat better than college students. In areas where there are less and weaker members of the church some missionaries may struggle a bit but they are taught valuable budgeting lessons. Once you learn to live on such a small allotment you can live on anything. I was greatfull I starved a bit on my mission.

They said today that the change would be all of the states and Canada. Unless my bishopric reported wrong but I doubt it since they read the letter from the First Presidency.

[Pahoran]

How pathetic is that? a food drive for the missionaries because they are not getting enough food? Good Grief, maybe a mall in every mission would be a good idea, they could have vouchers for the food courts.

But it wouldn't come from tithing .

This just makes me sad. That the church can spend over 2 billion on a mall, but can't feed their missionaries.

IOW, your patronising, condescending and otherwise just generally insincere sympathy for the missionaries is just an excuse to slam the Church for something unrelated. Got it.

Don't lose any sleep worrying about the missionaries, Nana. They don't need your pity.

Regards,

Pahoran

[Thinking]

"If it ain't broke don't fix it!"

Most changes occur because bad things are happening under the current arrangement. If Emma would never have complained about the mess from the chewing tobacco, would the Church have the WoW?

My guess is that there have been too many problems which have been a direct result of two young men or women (who don't know each other) sharing an apartment. Every situation will present a unique set of challenges. As some posters have revealed, there are already some sets of missionaries who are living with members. I'll bet there have been fewer problems in those situations, prompting Church leaders to make the change.

[Kenngo1969]

[YAWN!!!!] Uh, excuse me ... this is just old news: I served in the California-San Diego Mission from November 1988-November 1990 ... Rent in the San Diego area is among the highest in the U.S. With only the rarest of exceptions, missionaries lived in members homes (and, I would presume, still do, since I doubt rent has gone down ...)

[Garden Girl]

1959-60 Rialto, CA... while I was away at BYU, the missionaries lived with my parents... my folks loved it, and it brought an added "spiritual" feeling to the home. In fact, I think it was the exception in those days for missionaries NOT to live in members' homes.

The Garden Girl

[cjcampbell]

How pathetic is that? a food drive for the missionaries because they are not getting enough food? Good Grief, maybe a mall in every mission would be a good idea, they could have vouchers for the food courts.

But it wouldn't come from tithing .

This just makes me sad. That the church can spend over 2 billion on a mall, but can't feed their missionaries.

The church manages to feed its missionaries quite well. There will always be some missionaries who can't seem to manage their money, however. I have known missionaries to buy stereos with their food money. I have little sympathy for them. Certainly the members should not be holding food drives for missionaries. That is just outrageous. The missionaries get plenty of money for food and other necessities. Most get some money from home for a few luxuries.

If missionaries were really starving the stake presidents would be on the phone to the mission president.

What makes me sad is the billions the Church spends on humanitarian services all around the world, the millions of man-hours of volunteer services rendered by the members, the educational and welfare programs in every nation on earth -- and all some people seem to be able to see is the mall. Talk about tunnel vision.

[Christian]

So this will save money?

Whose money will it save?

Will missionary families pay less now per month to have a missionary out? or will the savings be diverted to other costs either in our out of the missionary program? or to other parts of the world?

[Rincewind]

Err...

While the scope announced in the opening post is...interesting, the actual situation is not really new.

My great-uncle in Utah used to rent a room out to the missionaries (back when he was still alive). It had its own separate entrance, so it was really like an apartment of its own.

On my mission in Germany, I lived in the basements (apartments) of two different members (in Hassloch and in Rossdorf), and I lived in the basement apartment of a non-member family (Mannheim-Schoenau). I found it efficient. The office paid our rent/utilities. (Unless we made excessive long-distance calls, in which case, we found ourselves paying for that and trying to explain that to the president or the APs. (Not me, tho. I didn't have anyone to call.)) We kept out of the members' hair for the most part, kept our rooms clean (much as we would for any apartment), and did our jobs. Generally, the members left us to do our work. (In Rossdorf, the wife was a member and insisted we have breakfast with them. I didn't look forward to it; German breakfast food is decidedly odd.)

Granted, it was back in '91-'93, but to answer another question that came up, our monthly allotment was, if I remember rightly, DM 300. Give or take. In USD, that was somewhere around $150-160. You got a bit more in certain areas, to cover extra transportation expenses (some areas had a car, and others, such as Pirmasens, were not allowed to have bikes, leaving them only public transportation or foot). That money covered food, haircut, tire patch kits, train fare (if needed), new socks, and other sundries. Careful planning meant that it would actually last all month. (I only came up short one month, and that was due to me buying too much Katjes. Silly me.)

In some cases, I can see it being good for the missionaries to be in an apartment attached to a member's home. In other cases, I can't see the good, but rather active harm; but I rather expect they'll take my (unnamed) concerns into consideration. They're not stupid.

It's not a new idea, nor is it a bad one. If true. Somehow, though, the scope of the situation sounds a wee bit like a myth. Could be true, of course.

[Baurak Ale]

I think this will have great spiritual advantages to the members and missionaries, I also forsee great scandel potentiality. As all the right factors are correctly in place and the stage is correctly set for scandels. I guess you can't have the one without the other.

Between not being trusted to not hit on a married sister and avoiding holding an investigators kid due to fears of miscontrued sexual impropriety it is indeed a strange time to be a missionary.

My thoughts to a minutia.

Regardless of rules or regulations imposed upon billeting missionaries in members homes. Homes are naturally organic places that only adhere to natural laws of the ebb and flow of life, a home is a soft place to fall and a soft place to fall doesn't adhere to strict rules of any kind IMO.

This idea would work excellently in a terrestial or celestial world but not I suggest a telestial one. But as I have always mantained 'it's not for us to question why its but for us to do and yarda yarda yarda.' I thought the church was rich, I understand the need for cutting costs but at the risk of unnecessary scandels, hmm. . . dunno perhaps its a risk worth taking. I think if a member had seen the inside of as many missionary appartments as I have they would not let a missionary touch their homes with a ten foot barge pole. Anyhow I think this is exciting and I can't wait to see what happens its sort of like the social experiment of BIG Brother reality T.V. show in my mind.

[Calm]

Actually word got out that the missionaries cupboards were bare and one member secretly started a food drive. I don't think Missionaries go hungry here in the states. Some may eat better than college students. In areas where there are less and weaker members of the church some missionaries may struggle a bit but they are taught valuable budgeting lessons. Once you learn to live on such a small allotment you can live on anything. I was greatfull I starved a bit on my mission.

They said today that the change would be all of the states and Canada. Unless my bishopric reported wrong but I doubt it since they read the letter from the First Presidency.

My brother about 20 years ago or so (right before they switched to the standardized rating) went to what we were told was the cheapest mission. It cost $40 a month for everything. He came home looking as great as when he left though he did say he was rather tired of beans. I think it was a wonderful experience for him and certainly helped him in his later life in a number of ways. I think of all of us siblings he's the one who has been not only the most sensible about money management, but the most successful.

As far as hardship for the two years...is that really a bad thing considering how so many in the world live this way? I can think of little else that would raise empathy in a young man than not only seeing how badly off some people can be, but partaking in some small way of the same sort of hardships.

We often praise secular programs that place well-off students and young adults with less fortunate individuals so that in sharing the experience both can benefit. I don't see much difference here.