Duncan Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865632573/LDS-Church-announces-new-resource-for-returning-missionaries.html That's cool
Teancum Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 I wonder why this is necessary? Why do you think it is cool?
Duncan Posted July 16, 2015 Author Posted July 16, 2015 I wonder why this is necessary? Why do you think it is cool? some? many? struggle when they come home so hopefully this will be a good thing, they start a mission in the MTC they should end it with something similar 1
Teancum Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 some? many? struggle when they come home so hopefully this will be a good thing, they start a mission in the MTC they should end it with something similarWhat do RMs struggle with?
Duncan Posted July 16, 2015 Author Posted July 16, 2015 What do RMs struggle with? life! did you serve a mission?
Teancum Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 life! did you serve a mission?Yes I did serve a mission. I was married within six months of returning home and we had our first child a year and two weeks later and two more two years apart afternoon that with one more eight years later. I worked through college with my DWs help while,the children came along. I followed what I will call the Kimball plan.I know life is a struggle. Funny thing is it never stops being a struggle and in fact can get harder as one moves on in life. The struggles I had as an recent RM seem nothing compared to so much of what has come later in life.I was looking for more specifics. I looked at the articles and it is not clear what these lessons or courses are designed to specifically help with.
Popular Post Calm Posted July 16, 2015 Popular Post Posted July 16, 2015 (edited) Many have a problem adapting from the highly structured, intensely spiritual (or if one prefers religious) life to one where they get to choose a variety of responses that are all good or not so good without too much commentary on their choices from others...many will be on their own for the first time given the younger age for missionaries. Culture shock so to speak. I would assume by helping the missionary provide some form of structure for himself, it is like a substitute for a halfway house for returning missionaries. By starting it before and during the mission, the individual has already incorporated it into his life. It is like if one has been having a daily routine of exercise, it is easier to continue when grtting a new job or new home than starting it at the same time one is having to put mental resources into adapting into other changes in one's life. Or for another example, it has been shown that when under stress, changes in diet can add to that stress so the best emergency preparedness or food taken in to help others is food they are already eating (assuming it is decent nutrtionally speaking). Having some things consistent in the midst of great change can help returning missionaries deal with stress. It probably would not be a bad idea to adapt it to other life changing events lije getting married, etc. Edited July 16, 2015 by calmoriah 5
Bobbieaware Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 (edited) I'm wondering what it would be like to live with someone who immediately homes in on the negative side of virtually everything in life? It reminds me of a cartoon I watched as a kid called "The Sunshine Makers." It featured a sort of spiritual war between a group of happy, positive-thinking gnomes and a group of glum, negative-thinking gnomes. Before their ultimate conversion to the "bright side," the glum gnomes would walk around singing a depressing song that sounded like a funeral dirge and I can still remember the lyrics: "We're happy when we're sad, we're always feeling bad. How are you? Terrible! That's fine! We're happy when we're sad." Edited July 16, 2015 by Bobbieaware
Duncan Posted July 16, 2015 Author Posted July 16, 2015 Yes I did serve a mission. I was married within six months of returning home and we had our first child a year and two weeks later and two more two years apart afternoon that with one more eight years later. I worked through college with my DWs help while,the children came along. I followed what I will call the Kimball plan.I know life is a struggle. Funny thing is it never stops being a struggle and in fact can get harder as one moves on in life. The struggles I had as an recent RM seem nothing compared to so much of what has come later in life.I was looking for more specifics. I looked at the articles and it is not clear what these lessons or courses are designed to specifically help with. If I am picking up what you are laying down I too did the Kimball plan but it blew up in my face. I don't know anything more than what the article says, so I can't speak to specifics. Where did you serve your mission?
filovirus Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 I have a brother who came off his mission and went straight back to his bad influence friends. I hope it's geared to people like him. It's tough seeing someone who preached the Gospel for two years lose his way so quickly. I continue to pray that he will be one of the prodigal sons of parable. 2
Duncan Posted July 16, 2015 Author Posted July 16, 2015 I have a brother who came off his mission and went straight back to his bad influence friends. I hope it's geared to people like him. It's tough seeing someone who preached the Gospel for two years lose his way so quickly. I continue to pray that he will be one of the prodigal sons of parable. I hope things go well for him! I have a friend who's sister is just off a mission and has suicidal thoughts and gets counselling, I wish her and your brother the best 1
Derl Sanderson Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 I came home from my mission thinking that I had "arrived." I was pretty sure that I had the whole church/gospel thing figured out. In that notion I was most definitely full of crap, and happily had some actual grown-ups in my life point that out to me. Today I see men and women in their 40's and older for whom the only point of spiritual reference is still their mission that is now decades in the rear-view mirror. That "plateau" is unsustainable and the spiritual vibrance of their missionary years has since gone stagnant. If this new effort by the Church can help returned missionaries see that their gospel journey has just begun, I think it's all for the good. 3
Caro Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 I don't know what the typical RM experience is. One month after serving my mission, I was killed in a car crash (the guy who hit me and ran from the scene was running from his first hit-and-run when he careened into me at 65 mph). My brother was in the process of being excommunicated, and World War III was taking place inside my home as a result. I had to lay in bed each day, completely ignored and unable to move or sit on my own, never mind stand up and get out of the house... and listen to the constant bickering about how he was destroying his life. The crash left me with almost complete amnesia of my mission years and left me in a state of total depression. Could I have used something to help me at the time? I certainly could have. I don't know whether this program will give the new RMs access to counseling services or even suggest it, but if there is anything out there to help RMs make the transition, it is welcome in my book.
Calm Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 " I was killed in a car crash"Are you missing a crucial word, perhaps "almost" here?Otherwise this reads as a parody. 2
stemelbow Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 I don't know what the typical RM experience is. One month after serving my mission, I was killed in a car crash (the guy who hit me and ran from the scene was running from his first hit-and-run when he careened into me at 65 mph). My brother was in the process of being excommunicated, and World War III was taking place inside my home as a result. I had to lay in bed each day, completely ignored and unable to move or sit on my own, never mind stand up and get out of the house... and listen to the constant bickering about how he was destroying his life. The crash left me with almost complete amnesia of my mission years and left me in a state of total depression. Could I have used something to help me at the time? I certainly could have. I don't know whether this program will give the new RMs access to counseling services or even suggest it, but if there is anything out there to help RMs make the transition, it is welcome in my book. Better to die just after your faithful mission, I guess. Talk about thread necromancy.
rongo Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 Is anyone else concerned with the lack of resilience in our young people (not just "our" young people, but pretty much all young people today) that makes something like this perceived as necessary to keep RMs from going to pieces? If people lack this kind of resilience, no "program" is going to really help them. The mission we live in is piloting much more than this. The last six months of the mission is spent receiving "life skills" training: resume writing, dating, time management, budgeting, marriage communication, etc. Missionaries are pulled from missionary work for this "life skills" training, for six month to get them prepped to reenter civilian life. And since I can't remember the Church ever piloting anything it didn't end up implementing, this will be coming soon to a mission near you . . . I blame the families and parents in the Church, not "the Church" for this state of affairs. We are working with the hand we are dealt. It's obvious that missions in North America have become much more an extension of the youth program (in an effort to stop the hemorrhaging of young people) rather than actual missionary work. And, in my experience, more depression and anxiety is caused by our attempts to shield them from the struggles and hardships of the past than we protect them from (a Seventy told us at stake conference that we are to shield missionaries at all costs from any negative experiences, and to see that they only have positive ones). I see "My Plan" as yet another troubling symptom of serious problems among our young people as a group.
Buckeye Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 Is anyone else concerned with the lack of resilience in our young people (not just "our" young people, but pretty much all young people today) that makes something like this perceived as necessary to keep RMs from going to pieces? If people lack this kind of resilience, no "program" is going to really help them. The mission we live in is piloting much more than this. The last six months of the mission is spent receiving "life skills" training: resume writing, dating, time management, budgeting, marriage communication, etc. Missionaries are pulled from missionary work for this "life skills" training, for six month to get them prepped to reenter civilian life. And since I can't remember the Church ever piloting anything it didn't end up implementing, this will be coming soon to a mission near you . . . I blame the families and parents in the Church, not "the Church" for this state of affairs. We are working with the hand we are dealt. It's obvious that missions in North America have become much more an extension of the youth program (in an effort to stop the hemorrhaging of young people) rather than actual missionary work. And, in my experience, more depression and anxiety is caused by our attempts to shield them from the struggles and hardships of the past than we protect them from (a Seventy told us at stake conference that we are to shield missionaries at all costs from any negative experiences, and to see that they only have positive ones). I see "My Plan" as yet another troubling symptom of serious problems among our young people as a group. Wait, your missionaries get to date during the last 6 months? That'll definitely up the percentage of youth going on missions.
sunstoned Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 From what I have read (much of it on this board) there is a retention problem with returning missionaries. Perhaps one of the aims of this program is to help address this issue.
rongo Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 I think a principle that applies here is a statement Elder Benson made in GC in 1967 (talk: Not Commanded in All Thingss). He said that the more that God has to spell out, the more our blessings are diminished. He gave several examples: 1) Family home evening: parents' responsibility to teach their children in the home has always been taught in the scriptures. But many didn't do it. The Church set aside a weekly day for this. But many still didn't do it. The Church published a manual with prepared lessons. But many still don't do it. [Fast forward to 2015 --- are we better than 1967?] 2) Food storage: he traced the incremental actions of the Church making food storage easier and more convenient --- up to 1967. [The pre-prepared kits people could just order from the Church were far in the future]. "Yet today, a famine of one year's duration would sweep off many members, including ward and stake leaders." Young LDS people who have served missions should be competent adults, able to plan and execute their life plans without a formal church program, forms, reports, and interviews. But, because this is clearly no longer the case, the Church has to turn to a "law of Moses/telestial law" system using reports, forms, interviews, and workbooked life plans to try and help young adults be competent adults. It may be necessary, but I think we forfeit blessings we would have had if we were able to accomplish these things without all the training wheels.
strappinglad Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 Ya gotta start them youngsters off early with real life experiences. Kids around here begin in the coal mines at age 8 and then it goes downhill from there. I jest of course , but I have found that students who were raised in a rural environment had a better work ethic and were more immune to some of the hard knocks .Nothing like having to muck out the barn on a regular basis to make one appreciate tracting in the Mexican highlands. Those rural experiences are few now. What parents can do to toughen their kids up a bit is limited. Organized sports helps some. Between helicopter parents and politically correct behavior I fear for our youth. 2
rongo Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 Wait, your missionaries get to date during the last 6 months? That'll definitely up the percentage of youth going on missions.I know, huh? My second mission president told us about mission dances they used to have in the 1950s. Times have changed. The training/classes are theoretical for when they reenter civilian life. Dating rather than indefinite "hanging out," etc.
Calm Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 . Organized sports helps some.Unfortunately some coaches aren't teaching their kids proper body posture or overdoing it on not completely developed bodies. My niece is a soccer player and is now in quite a bit of pain, they think it is arthritis from the repetitive motions. A physical therapist relative says young tennis players have rigid backs that are becoming malformed and treated one young wrestler whose thighs were so overdevelop it was causing circulation problems when pressure was putvon them.
bluebell Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 And since I can't remember the Church ever piloting anything it didn't end up implementing, this will be coming soon to a mission near you . . .Just an aside but the church has in the past piloted something that it did not implement so it can happen. My mission was part of a pilot program where the missionaries worked with members to get their friends to do genealogy and introduce them to the gospel that way. It never went anywhere. 1
Caro Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 " I was killed in a car crash"Are you missing a crucial word, perhaps "almost" here?Otherwise this reads as a parody. No. I was killed in the crash. I had a "Near Death Experience". (I call it an NDE only because doctors and scientists refuse to call it was it is--a Death Experience.) I woke up in the hospital with doctors and nurses swarming around me. The first words that I heard were literally: "Young lady, you are lucky to be alive." I attempted to hit the doctor who said that, because I felt anything but lucky to be alive. It was beautiful on the other side, beyond description, and I did not want to come back. 1
Buckeye Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 No. I was killed in the crash. I had a "Near Death Experience". (I call it an NDE only because doctors and scientists refuse to call it was it is--a Death Experience.) I woke up in the hospital with doctors and nurses swarming around me. The first words that I heard were literally: "Young lady, you are lucky to be alive." I attempted to hit the doctor who said that, because I felt anything but lucky to be alive. It was beautiful on the other side, beyond description, and I did not want to come back. Awesome. Welcome aboard. I hope you find as much beauty on this board (though we have some Canadians so don't hold your breath).
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