Things To Do For The Missionaries

[Duncan]

This mission has essentially banned tracting, not totally but mostly. So now, the missionaries are scrambling to find things to do. I am the ward mission leader here and am trying to find things for them to do because busy missionaries are happy missionaries I believe. So, I have them finding less actives, part member families and they do service and teach one and trying to get another ESL class started up. We don't get a ton of member refferals so they do some tracting and street contacting to find people. I feel for them as I have been where they are myself. Does anyone have any good ideas of what missionaries can do to find people or what is working in your ward or at the very least how they spend their days-thanks!

[Calm]

See if they are allowed to volunteer at the local schools to help with tutoring, reading programs and such. It may require background checks so it may not be possible, but when they did this as my kids' school, the kids loved it...

Granted, this isn't done for missionary work, but it makes them more familiar to the community.

Edited April 29, 2013 by calmoriah

[Pandorian]

Wow. Forgive me, but that sounds like some REAL MBA thinking there, ie., stupid. I would say that if they aren't supposed to be tracting they should head to public places like parks, or festivals, or other places where there are lots of people around. Be out and about in public. I am sure that the idea of this sounds like leaking, or goofing off, but go where the people are.

Our mission president here also came up with a lame brain idea (I'm sorry, I call it like I see it) where the Elders and Sisters can't be separated EVEN for exchanges/splits...so those have dropped down to 0 here. We were trying to do a Ward blitz with the Elders, and the Bishop was trying to pair people off with the Elders, and they couldn't part from their companion, even with another worthy priesthood holder. So what happened is the number of people contacted was cut in half, some men went home, and the rest went out as threesomes, ie., the member driving a companionship around. The Bishop was fit to be tied. I thought his blood vessels were going to pop from his neck, and I couldn't blame him.

[rpn]

Serving children is a two fold problem. 1) Serving children raises risks of misunderstanding or worse that don't occur in other types of service. 2) If the goal is to meet and identify those who might be interested in learning the gospel, then children are not the ones who are the target group.

[JAHS]

Our missionaries have volunteered to work in the local library or at the homeless shelter/opportunity house. They have also helped members or investigators do physical work at their homes; reparing, landscaping, cleaning, etc. They have sometimes gone hometeaching with us to get to know the members better and to see if the members have any relatives or friends that might be interested.

[CV75]

This mission has essentially banned tracting, not totally but mostly. So now, the missionaries are scrambling to find things to do. I am the ward mission leader here and am trying to find things for them to do because busy missionaries are happy missionaries I believe. So, I have them finding less actives, part member families and they do service and teach one and trying to get another ESL class started up. We don't get a ton of member refferals so they do some tracting and street contacting to find people. I feel for them as I have been where they are myself. Does anyone have any good ideas of what missionaries can do to find people or what is working in your ward or at the very least how they spend their days-thanks!

Visit the sick and home-bound in the ward; do chores for those who can't do them; genealogy library shift -- anything but get into trouble, of course. Public access TV show. Community gardening. Asking members to help them do all the above. The more they are seen not doing traditional missionary work, the more awareness of their plight and whether these other wholesome, good, Christlike activities they are performing instead are serving or contributing to the purpose for which they were called and set apart.

[rongo]

Sorry about your local conditions, Duncan. I was in a tracting mission (usually 8+ hours of door-to-door per day), and I loved it (although most admittedly don't). It's nice for a directive to ban tracting to try to "force" members to keep missionaries busy with referrals, but the reality will be frustrated and stressed missionaries.

This won't help you, because your mission president isn't going to be swayed by anonymous message board anecdotes, but I think the aversion to tracting is highly misplaced. In my experience, it's much more effective than people think. I've shared this before, but I had to do a presentation for zone conference, and I polled (anonymously) the mission through the zones and districts on

a) favorite and least favorite finding methods

b) average number of discussions and BoMs placed per week

c) number of baptisms, mission to date

d) how, specifically, the people who were baptized, taught, or given a BoM were found.

e) how many hours of door-to-door they averaged per day.

The actual results surpassed my already existing expectations.

1) The favorite finding methods were media and member referrals. Door-to-door was dead last with almost no support.

2) Yet, almost all of the people baptized and taught had been found through door-to-door. Nearly every single investigator or convert.

3) Door-to-door hours per day were anemic. What else are people doing with their time?

The findings were presented via a game of "companionship fued" (similar to Family Feud, juniors against seniors). My mission president was blown away by the whole thing. Unbeknownst to us, Elder Holland had visited with him and told him our door-to-door efforts needed to drastically increase.

I had the reputation of being the "door-to-door king," but I knew from my own experience that door-to-door was more effective and fruitful than conventional wisdom (of most) admitted.

Our elders are also not allowed to tract in our mission, and I feel sad for them missionaries (and for those who will not be found because they aren't doing it). It isn't just finding people --- the whole experience is important (Wilford Woodruff, who ought to know, said that he learned the gospel "by shoe leather"), and for some people, they won't be ready to listen until they have rejected the offer or seen it being offered several times. So, even the rejections are important links in the chain, in the long term.

[CV75]

On a positive note, it may be good training for what is taught in the Lorenzo Snow manual, Chapter 19 on missionary work:

“This, then, should be our aim and object: to learn to make ourselves useful; to be saviors to our fellow man; to learn how to save them; to communicate to them a knowledge of the principles that are necessary to raise them to the same degree of intelligence that we have ourselves.

Go and make friends among the individuals by whom you are surrounded; or select one and try to start his feelings, his faith, his circumstances and his mind and try to enlighten them and if they are sinners, endeavor to save them from their sins, and bring them from their bondage in which they are placed to participate in the light and liberty which you participate in, for in this way you can do good through the information which the Lord has imparted to you.”

And:

“We expect … on our part, in order to accomplish this work, much patience, faith, diligence, perseverance, and long-suffering will necessarily have to be exercised and experienced; but in the cities … in which thousands ultimately received the Gospel, in several instances many months were spent in seemingly fruitless labors before a proper attention and observance to those principles could be procured. … We may in some [cases] have not only to employ months, but perhaps even years; but we feel assured, that through faith, prayer, works, and the blessing of the Lord, we shall ultimately overcome and triumph over all these difficulties to the honour and glory of God; and besides, we also ourselves shall have the gratification that we have done our duty, and cleared our garments of the blood of all men.”

But still...