Missionaries Now To Live With Members!

[Homestar Runner]

If there is a single sister in the home or your spouse is left home for long periods of time (basically 80% of the church) your home will not qualify.

Please, please someone tell me that "single sister" = female of any age.

Or, to put it differently:

Please explain the logic to me, of bunking 18 yr old boys, at the hight of their hormones, with the areas of their brains responsible for mature decision making not fully formed yet - bunking them in the same house with a horny, halfway physically developed 11 yr old girl.

HSR

(I hope this doesn't make me sound too much like a church critic. I just finished helping send someone to prison for 5-life for sexually molesting an 8 yr old girl...)

[cjcampbell]

The standards for missionary housing are pretty clear. I don't think every ward has someone with a vacant mother-in-law apartment that they could let the missionaries use. It is not as if they were Slobbovians, you know...

[Lachoneus]

Please, please someone tell me that "single sister" = female of any age.

I don't have a copy of the letter with me, but my recollection is that "single sister" would include a female of any age, although I seem to remember that a single, "older" sister would be able to host missionaries.

[Obiwan]

Missionaries Now To Live With Members!

Excellent idea in many respects. Coodo's to Revelation.

[Helmuth]

I did not hear this news and I would think it would be announced in general conference and a transition period would occur that would be more than a few months. I am sort of skeptical of this being a North American thing. Perhaps they should try it out in a single mission first to see if it works.

They did: Colorado Denver South. They have been doing it (all the missionaries living exclusively member homes) there as a trial-run for a little while now and it has, according to my informant, been successful and popular among both the missionaries and the members. So the Church was getting ready to roll it out to the whole country sometime soon. I received this report perhaps 6 months ago. And now, it seems, that plan has come to fruition. Pretty cool!

[dude]

At a family reunion over the weekend, I asked two relatives (one is a GA and one is in the MTC presidency), and they both confirmed this program is coming for sure. And when I asked if it was money related or "missionary behahavior" related and they both said it was all money, or words to that affect. Not because missionaries needed another watchful eye.

I have all the reservations spinner has talked about above. Especially this one:

If I were still a missionary, I think I would not be too happy about this program. Missionary work is stressful, but at the end of the day, we had an apartment, small and squalid though it may have been, and it was ours. We could relax and be 20 year-olds for a little while before starting all over the next day.

I think a nostalgic, very fun part of my mission was living with other missionaries on our own. (Ever see "Best 2 Years"?)

It's not critical I admit, but it's kind of a bummer if that goes away.

I spent 4 months on my mission living with members and it was good in it's own way. We grew to love them and they loved us. Almost too much. We had to regularly "pay our dues" with them socially, meaning we had to spend time talking with them everyday, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it added another dimension to our work. If we neglected them socially, they got bugged. I'm sure not all members are like that.

[dude]

One more issue about finances.

I agree with the suggestion that this is a huge distribution of wealth.

Someone said this will free up funds to assist missionaries in and from other countries.

If this goes nationwide, it will save a HUGE amount of money. If your son or daughter goes stateside, your $400 per month is now REALLY subsidizing the work somewhere else. Oh well, not a big deal I guess. It's been a socialized missionary fund for quite a few years now.