Mission call opening videos

[rongo]

We had a boy (a good boy) get his mission call several weeks ago. He will make a fine missionary. He called me on a Tuesday and asked if we could reserve the church for that Saturday night to open his mission call in front of the ward and record it. I suggested that he open it with his family, and then tell everybody where he got called to. He said that he wanted to do it with the ward and to record it for social media. Well, I said, we have youth conference on Saturday, and a dance, so most of the youth won't be there and the building isn't available. No problem, he said. What about the following Saturday?

Everything ended up "okay:" he waited and opened his call in a big extravaganza, like he wanted. I was flummoxed. Most missionaries and their families can't wait to open the letter and find out where they're going. In his case, despite his good performance in Aaronic priesthood quorums, the overriding motive and goal was a big social media frenzy. I'm seeing this trend more and more with youth, and I think it's a factor in some of their flame-outs as missionaries: the day-to-day reality of missionary work doesn't match up to the anticipation, build-up, and one-upping of getting social media mileage and traction out of the "reveal." To them, everything else is anticlimactic; the highlight of the mission for them is going to be the "reveal," and the mission and what happens on it is seen through this lens: photo ops, social media mileage, etc. But it all pales in comparison to the excitement of their "reveal."

It isn't just Mormon missionary youth. We see this in increasingly elaborate baby gender reveals, recruited athletes holding ridiculous press conferences with costume changes to "reveal" their school of choice, and other things. 

I really worry about youth and adults' increasing penchant for living their life on social media and on the internet and not living their life in real life. For some, this causes anxiety and depression because people are obsessively comparing their fake selves with others' fake selves --- their portrayed personae. For others, their addiction to social media and updates is itself a source of depression and anxiety. 

Are others seeing this trend of seeking for bigger and bigger mission call reveals? I think this is something that should be done quietly, with family, but of course, people choose their own way. I wanted to tell this boy, "Just go open your mission call with your family, and stop monkeying around with this elaborate reveal stuff. 

[bluebell]

Just because he wanted the opening to be a big event, is it fair to say that his motive for serving a mission was the reveal?  People tend to have ideas in their head how certain very special moments in their lives will go, but is it bad if they see a moment as a big event?

Personally, that would not be anything that i would want to deal with.  If i'd had my way i would have opened my call by myself when no one else was home, because I like to savor moments and process things on my own, but I recognize that that would be a horrible way to handle it for someone people.  

The hardest thing for most of us to understand are people who do things differently than how we would do them.  

[Calm]

I  would not be surprised if the Church comes out and says something about toning it down now such things seem to be gaining traction as a new tradition.

Seems like they have to do this every decade or so, huge farewells, etc.

[rongo]

He was willing to wait a month, if necessary, so the maximum number of people could be there. He also wanted a big video spectacle. Another thing I told him is that he needs to accept his call, and won't know the reporting date until he opens it, and it might be soon. We shouldn't be waiting around having no idea when we're even supposed to report because we don't want to open it until the big reveal.

You're right about "different strokes for different folks," and I didn't make a big deal of it with him after I gave him my suggestions. 

[Duncan]

Something i've noticed with these youtube mission call openings is everybody in Utah has fireplace, golly!!!!!! it's funny too when they can't even pronounce where they are going! then some one in the background is like, it's pronounced, "Ed min tin" not, "Ed Monton"

[bluebell]

3 minutes ago, Calm said:

I  would not be surprised if the Church comes out and says something about toning it down now such things seem to be gaining traction as a new tradition.

Seems like they have to do this every decade or so, huge farewells, etc.

I was thinking of the big airport homecoming tradition and it also sounds like a horror show to me.  I worry that people do those kinds of things without considered what the missionary would actually want.  Being filmed while being accosted by 5 branches of your family tree in an airport after not seeing your parents for 2 years seems like a lot of pressure.

Did they church actually say something about it?

[Duncan]

4 minutes ago, rongo said:

He was willing to wait a month, if necessary, so the maximum number of people could be there. He also wanted a big video spectacle. Another thing I told him is that he needs to accept his call, and won't know the reporting date until he opens it, and it might be soon. We shouldn't be waiting around having no idea when we're even supposed to report because we don't want to open it until the big reveal.

You're right about "different strokes for different folks," and I didn't make a big deal of it with him after I gave him my suggestions. 

where are they going?

[bluebell]

4 minutes ago, rongo said:

He was willing to wait a month, if necessary, so the maximum number of people could be there. He also wanted a big video spectacle. Another thing I told him is that he needs to accept his call, and won't know the reporting date until he opens it, and it might be soon. We shouldn't be waiting around having no idea when we're even supposed to report because we don't want to open it until the big reveal.

You're right about "different strokes for different folks," and I didn't make a big deal of it with him after I gave him my suggestions. 

I agree that people shouldn't be compromising their mission call in order to get the reveal just right.  The production shouldn't be more important than the call itself.

[Calm]

2 minutes ago, bluebell said:

Just because he wanted the opening to be a big event, is it fair to say that his motive for serving a mission was the reveal?  People tend to have ideas in their head how certain very special moments in their lives will go, but is it bad if they see a moment as a big event?

Personally, that would not be anything that i would want to deal with.  If i'd had my way i would have opened my call by myself when no one else was home, because I like to savor moments and process things on my own, but I recognize that that would be a horrible way to handle it for someone people.  

The hardest thing for most of us to understand are people who do things differently than how we would do them.  

It is similar to weddings.  I would have preferred to just go to the temple with my husband, take off for a week, and then get back and live my new life.  Instead because of others' expectations a good part of my life pre, during, and postwedding was focused on including strangers in something I needed to be very personal.

I don't mind traditions, I understand why many take joy in having large weddings or other events...they connect to others through such events and there is nothing wrong with that; I just wish we were more accepting of people who did things differently because it feels more meaningful to them.  I think there is more variety these days, so one doesn't just go along because it never occurs to one that it can be done differently.

[Amulek]

17 minutes ago, rongo said:

Are others seeing this trend of seeking for bigger and bigger mission call reveals?

Not that I have seen, at least around me. And I live in Texas, where everything is bigger. 

[CV75]

21 minutes ago, rongo said:

We had a boy (a good boy) get his mission call several weeks ago. He will make a fine missionary. He called me on a Tuesday and asked if we could reserve the church for that Saturday night to open his mission call in front of the ward and record it. I suggested that he open it with his family, and then tell everybody where he got called to. He said that he wanted to do it with the ward and to record it for social media. Well, I said, we have youth conference on Saturday, and a dance, so most of the youth won't be there and the building isn't available. No problem, he said. What about the following Saturday?

Everything ended up "okay:" he waited and opened his call in a big extravaganza, like he wanted. I was flummoxed. Most missionaries and their families can't wait to open the letter and find out where they're going. In his case, despite his good performance in Aaronic priesthood quorums, the overriding motive and goal was a big social media frenzy. I'm seeing this trend more and more with youth, and I think it's a factor in some of their flame-outs as missionaries: the day-to-day reality of missionary work doesn't match up to the anticipation, build-up, and one-upping of getting social media mileage and traction out of the "reveal." To them, everything else is anticlimactic; the highlight of the mission for them is going to be the "reveal," and the mission and what happens on it is seen through this lens: photo ops, social media mileage, etc. But it all pales in comparison to the excitement of their "reveal."

It isn't just Mormon missionary youth. We see this in increasingly elaborate baby gender reveals, recruited athletes holding ridiculous press conferences with costume changes to "reveal" their school of choice, and other things. 

I really worry about youth and adults' increasing penchant for living their life on social media and on the internet and not living their life in real life. For some, this causes anxiety and depression because people are obsessively comparing their fake selves with others' fake selves --- their portrayed personae. For others, their addiction to social media and updates is itself a source of depression and anxiety. 

Are others seeing this trend of seeking for bigger and bigger mission call reveals? I think this is something that should be done quietly, with family, but of course, people choose their own way. I wanted to tell this boy, "Just go open your mission call with your family, and stop monkeying around with this elaborate reveal stuff. 

I'm planning to do the same thing with my deathbed confession. Roll the gurney right into the cultural hall, up  a ramp and onto the stage, multi-media retrospective of my life (vintage baby pictures and all)... and yes, my theme song, "Miami 2017".

[Calm]

3 minutes ago, bluebell said:

I was thinking of the big airport homecoming tradition and it also sounds like a horror show to me.  I worry that people do those kinds of things without considered what the missionary would actually want.  Being filmed while being accosted by 5 branches of your family tree in an airport after not seeing your parents for 2 years seems like a lot of pressure.

Did they church actually say something about it?

I remember things being said in my area a few times...even back when my brothers were going, but they could have been local. 

[JAHS]

Here's how my mission call went back in 1972.  I brought the mail in, saw the letter from Salt Lake; opened it and saw I was going to Austria.
Gave it to my mom ; she read it and yelled out AUSTRALIA ??
No mom! Austria !

That's all the excitement I got out of it. 

[CA Steve]

39 minutes ago, rongo said:

I really worry about youth and adults' increasing penchant for living their life on social media and on the internet and not living their life in real life. 

While I am in agreement with all of what you say, i find the need to have a revel party for baby gender or for a mission calling, way over the top, I think one can no longer separate social media from real life. While I don't understand the need to tweet, snapchat, facebook,  text or whatever the latest fad type of communication there is, it is not going away. I also think that one problem the church faces is its own inability to incorporate social media in a meaningful way with its members, especially the youth. This is, in small part, a reason our youth are leaving.

You know, this does give me an idea. If the church were to figure out a way to incorporate social media with mission callings, something like a live face time session with a general authority in which the prospective missionary was told his or her calling location by the authority live, it would add an element to the calling that would probably be highly attractive to youth. I realize the logistics would be difficult given the number of such calls that would have to be made but it would be easy to call a few more 70's just to cover that assignment.

Are there any general authorities who tweet? There should be.

[Bob Crockett]

I don't like it either but I can't really put my finger on why.  I think it is innocent self-aggrandizement.   I had a stake president tell his high council that as a general rule he did not attend missionary farewell addresses because the true measure of a man (or sister) was his homecoming.

[ksfisher]

1 hour ago, rongo said:

 

Are others seeing this trend of seeking for bigger and bigger mission call reveals? I think this is something that should be done quietly, with family, but of course, people choose their own way. I wanted to tell this boy, "Just go open your mission call with your family, and stop monkeying around with this elaborate reveal stuff. 

If I remember right I was at work when mine came.  My parents opened it and called and told me where I was going, then I went back to work.

[Jeanne]

48 minutes ago, Bob Crockett said:

I don't like it either but I can't really put my finger on why.  I think it is innocent self-aggrandizement.   I had a stake president tell his high council that as a general rule he did not attend missionary farewell addresses because the true measure of a man (or sister) was his homecoming.

This is me...like something doesn't sound right.  I would be embarrassed kinda sorta.

[Thinking]

I think it's gotten out of control. Even though there are no more official missionary farewells (the departing Elder is allowed to speak - but no family), we frequently receive missionary farewell announcements that are designed like wedding or graduation announcements.

[Judd]

1 hour ago, Duncan said:

where are they going?

He’s not going anywhere. By the time he opened his call, he had missed his date to report to the MTC.

[Jeanne]

4 minutes ago, Judd said:

He’s not going anywhere. By the time he opened his call, he had missed his date to report to the MTC.

No!!  Really??  This isn't funny....but it is...

[bluebell]

1 hour ago, CA Steve said:

While I am in agreement with all of what you say, i find the need to have a revel party for baby gender or for a mission calling, way over the top, I think one can no longer separate social media from real life. While I don't understand the need to tweet, snapchat, facebook,  text or whatever the latest fad type of communication there is, it is not going away. I also think that one problem the church faces is its own inability to incorporate social media in a meaningful way with its members, especially the youth. This is, in small part, a reason our youth are leaving.

You know, this does give me an idea. If the church were to figure out a way to incorporate social media with mission callings, something like a live face time session with a general authority in which the prospective missionary was told his or her calling location by the authority live, it would add an element to the calling that would probably be highly attractive to youth. I realize the logistics would be difficult given the number of such calls that would have to be made but it would be easy to call a few more 70's just to cover that assignment.

Are there any general authorities who tweet? There should be.

For myself, one of the reasons that I use social media is because it serves as a journal of sorts, documenting my family and our experiences.  You can buy a book that has all of your Facebook posts and pictures for each year for fairly cheap, and it's a document of everything that was really cool or fun--all vacations, and funny things my kids said or did--that year.  

On other social sites, you can look back over your posting history, and see things from years ago that you don't even remember anymore.  It's kind of neat.

[Tacenda]

35 minutes ago, Judd said:

He’s not going anywhere. By the time he opened his call, he had missed his date to report to the MTC.

That is hilarious, I think it should be the post of the week, or month!! 

I don't like how we put missionaries up on a pedestal. I'm sure it bothers them when family do this. Also, what about those that join the armed forces and go out. Or even when they head into the unknown when they go to college by themselves and have roommates they don't know from Adam. It feels wrong to me, like we're making them have big heads. 

Recently I watched a video of a gal that was in my ward before a ward split, open hers. She does have cystic fibrosis and maybe no one told her but she had her heart set on another country. Guess what? She's from Kaysville Utah, and they sent her to the Orem, Utah area. It was hard for hide her to hide her disappointment, and the room was silent for a bit, and you could sense how shocked everyone was. So in this case maybe it would be best not to have it be so public. 

 

[juliann]

2 hours ago, bluebell said:

I was thinking of the big airport homecoming tradition and it also sounds like a horror show to me.  I worry that people do those kinds of things without considered what the missionary would actually want.  Being filmed while being accosted by 5 branches of your family tree in an airport after not seeing your parents for 2 years seems like a lot of pressure.

Did they church actually say something about it?

I fly into SLC a lot. I hate the screaming welcoming committees and I always wonder bow the missionaries who don't have a rent a mob feel.  There is no way to avoid it because the airport has cordoned them off at the bottom of the escalator so this is the first thing every unsuspecting traveler sees when they reach SLC. I have to walk around them to get to the baggage claim. Hey, it just occurred to me that there is an elevator....

[The Nehor]

If I had to do it over again I would not even have my family around when I opened my call. I would tell them first though.

Social media is useful in keeping in touch. I love getting pictures of my sister and her husband on their adventures and of my nieces and nephews, especially those I do not live near. Beyond that I do not get the allure. If someone invited me to come watch their son open a mission call letter I would politely decline. Is it a show of support thing? I just do not get it.

[Rain]

I've seen the trend, but there are a number of kids that still want it more private. Some of them feel more strongly about that now because of the trend. 

I am hoping my son and my daughter, if they go, decide to do it more quietly. I am pretty sure they will choose more quiet - I had a rough time when my youngest decided to do his patriarchal blessing on his own! 

I did find 2 group openings more appropriate though. One was my oldest son's friend. He waited 9 months to get his call! Everyone was dying to know where he was going. Another one was a young man in our ward who lost his dad and then 5 years later his mom and the ward has really supported him through it all.