Missions are not boring!

[jkwilliams]

A coworker of mine, who was baptized in the church but has never been active, is currently reading the book I wrote about my mission. Just about every morning he comes over and says something like, "I just read about [an experience I had]. Did that really happen?" 

This morning he came by asking about a sister missionary who got pregnant, and when I confirmed it happened, he said, "You always think of missions as being boring, like really regimented, but wow, it is all so interesting."

I thought about this and replied that one of the first things I learned on my mission is that, despite the rules and reporting, you and your companion were pretty much on your own. You could have done just about anything and then just made up your reports (I knew people who did just that). But I also realize that what makes a mission interesting is both the stuff you expect to happen (or at least hope it will) as well as the unexpected.

So, I have some questions:

What made your mission "interesting"? What experiences that you expected made it interesting, and what happened that you hadn't expected that made it interesting?

For me, it's a lot of the little stuff, the things I take for granted but that cause other people to do a double-take: the weekly shower at my wife's house, using money as toilet paper, hanging by a toe on the outside of a packed bus. But it's the big stuff, too: saving an infant who was near death because we happened to have the recipe for a rehydration drink, meeting a family who had literally just been praying for God to send them messengers when we knocked on their door. 

[smac97]

1 hour ago, jkwilliams said:

A coworker of mine, who was baptized in the church but has never been active, is currently reading the book I wrote about my mission. Just about every morning he comes over and says something like, "I just read about [an experience I had]. Did that really happen?" 

This morning he came by asking about a sister missionary who got pregnant, and when I confirmed it happened, he said, "You always think of missions as being boring, like really regimented, but wow, it is all so interesting."

I thought about this and replied that one of the first things I learned on my mission is that, despite the rules and reporting, you and your companion were pretty much on your own. You could have done just about anything and then just made up your reports (I knew people who did just that). But I also realize that what makes a mission interesting is both the stuff you expect to happen (or at least hope it will) as well as the unexpected.

So, I have some questions:

What made your mission "interesting"? What experiences that you expected made it interesting, and what happened that you hadn't expected that made it interesting?

For me, it's a lot of the little stuff, the things I take for granted but that cause other people to do a double-take: the weekly shower at my wife's house, using money as toilet paper, hanging by a toe on the outside of a packed bus. But it's the big stuff, too: saving an infant who was near death because we happened to have the recipe for a rehydration drink, meeting a family who had literally just been praying for God to send them messengers when we knocked on their door. 

A few thoughts:

1. I served my mission in Taiwan.  The bulk of our "work" days, as in virtually all of it, was spent knocking on doors, contacting people outside, teaching lessons (I averaged 15-20 per week), and service projects. 

2. In retrospect, I wish we had done more service projects.  There was just something fundamentally good about serving others in simple, but needed, ways.

3. One memorable service opportunity was a twice-a-week trip to a nearby Catholic orphanage for handicapped children.  As I recall, our understanding was that most of these children were not "orphans," but had been abandoned.  Most of the nuns there were from Africa.  Far too many special needs for these few wonderful sisters to meet, so the missionaries came twice a week to spend a few hours helping feed the kids and just sit and play with them.  There was one little girl who had been born with some pretty substantial defects.  She had no external ears, and an ear canal on only one side.  She was over three years old, but was very small for her age.  I named her Sarah.  All she wanted to do was to be held, so I held her (she was small enough to be held like a baby).  She would press her head against my chest, I think to listen/feel my heartbeat.  I would feed her, then hold her for an hour or so.  I would talk around the room and hum songs to her, and she would cling to me like a spider monkey.  Putting her down was always difficult, as she would get upset, and the nuns would then get a little upset at me for indulging her.  But I did it anyway.  

4. I was able to visit several beautiful places in Taiwan.  The National Museum, Taroko Gorge, the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial, all sorts of places.  Perhaps my favorite spot was a tiny town on the southeast coast called Chenggong.  Very out-of-the-way.  We had to hitch-hike to get there from and return to our assigned area (55 km each way).  There was a beautiful waterfall in the mountains nearby.  We hiked to it a few times.  Probably not as safe as it should have been, but beautiful.  There was also an open-air restauraunt in the town that had some of the most delicious Chinese food I had during my two years on the island.  There was also a beautiful set of tiny islands just off the coast, called San Xian Tai:

I haven't been back to Taiwan since I left it in 1995.  I sure would like to return some day.

5. Learning the language was fairly difficult (listening/speaking and reading and writing are all quite different skill sets).

6. I really came to love the Chinese people.

7. A few interesting experiences:

• I had two physical altercations on my mission, each involving a man beating a woman.  Both times the man was inebriated. 
• I hitch-hiked in an "ambulance" carrying a dead body.  Long story.
• I had a few experiences with typhoons. 
• I cleaned up public parks, most of which were very overgrown and heavily littered.  Hard work, but the locals were very appreciative.
• I helped change bed linens in a hospital.  The hospital didn't have fourth floor, because "four" in Chinese sounds similar to the word for "death." 
• The hospital also, for reasons unfathomable to me, kept a large collection of aborted fetuses, in jars of formaldehyde, stored on tables under the stairway, in full view of all passers-by.  The sister missionaries always took the elevators, as they did not want to talk past this display.
• While was a Zone Leader I had a young black missionary in my zone.  He was the son of Joseph Freeman, the first black man ordained to the priesthood after the 1978 Revelation on Priesthood.  Elder Freeman was a good guy.  He did face a bit of discrimination, though, as Taiwanese folks back did not have the best perspective on American blacks (mostly derived, I think, from the glut of "gangster" movies in the late 80s and early 90s).
• Prior to me serving my mission, I spent 18 months in the Army, 12 of which were spent studying Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California.  8 hours a day for 12 months.  And then I was called on my mission to . . . Taiwan.  However, on my mission I met and taught a Russian family.  The father spoke some English, but the mother and daughter spoke none, and none of them spoke any Chinese.  The mother and daughter saw an ad for free English classes for kids taught (we missionaries were the teachers), and the mother decided to take her daughter.  I happened to be teaching the lesson as they walked in, and as soon as I realized they were Russian, I switched over to Russian and began chatting with the daughter.  We then set up appointments at their hope.  I gave them my Russian Book of Mormon (probably the only one on the island) that included my testimony in Russian.  I was, as far as I knew, the only missionary on the entire island who spoke Russian.  I taught them 2-3 lessons, then I was transferred.  I never found out what happened to them.

8. I had a companion who considered himself quite a basketballer.  He was only 6' tall, which is not much in America, but made him quite formidable in Taiwan.  He heard that Patrick Ewing was coming to Taiwan to promote his line of shoes, and that he would be judging an all-island high school dunk contest.  Somehow my companion secured permission from the mission president to attend, so we went.  It was in a large sporting arena in Taipei.  Somehow my companion persuaded the officiators to let him participate.  Unfortunately, he had sprained his ankle a few days later, so he couldn't complete the dunk.  However, none of the other participants did, either.  He did, however, get to meet Patrick Ewing.  

9. My greatest regret from my mission was being a bit too distant.  I went into the Army right out of high school, which was quite a shock.  I spent 1.5 years in training, then went home for three weeks, then went into the MTC.  I was a bit too regimented.  I was not as attentive as I would have liked in terms of just getting to know the wonderful people of Taiwan, as well as other missionaries.

10. On the other hand, I worked very, very hard for the full two years.  I took the work seriously.  I was sincere.  I studied the language, I followed the rules, I knocked on countless doors and spoke with probably thousands of people.

Thanks,

-Smac

Edited August 27, 2018 by smac97

[CV75]

59 minutes ago, jkwilliams said:

A coworker of mine, who was baptized in the church but has never been active, is currently reading the book I wrote about my mission. Just about every morning he comes over and says something like, "I just read about [an experience I had]. Did that really happen?" 

This morning he came by asking about a sister missionary who got pregnant, and when I confirmed it happened, he said, "You always think of missions as being boring, like really regimented, but wow, it is all so interesting."

I thought about this and replied that one of the first things I learned on my mission is that, despite the rules and reporting, you and your companion were pretty much on your own. You could have done just about anything and then just made up your reports (I knew people who did just that). But I also realize that what makes a mission interesting is both the stuff you expect to happen (or at least hope it will) as well as the unexpected.

So, I have some questions:

What made your mission "interesting"? What experiences that you expected made it interesting, and what happened that you hadn't expected that made it interesting?

For me, it's a lot of the little stuff, the things I take for granted but that cause other people to do a double-take: the weekly shower at my wife's house, using money as toilet paper, hanging by a toe on the outside of a packed bus. But it's the big stuff, too: saving an infant who was near death because we happened to have the recipe for a rehydration drink, meeting a family who had literally just been praying for God to send them messengers when we knocked on their door. 

You'll have to buy my book to find out! :)

[jkwilliams]

1 minute ago, CV75 said:

You'll have to buy my book to find out!

This is not a sales pitch for my book. 

[jkwilliams]

14 minutes ago, smac97 said:

A few thoughts:

1. I served my mission in Taiwan.  The bulk of our "work" days, as in virtually all of it, was spent knocking on doors, contacting people outside, teaching lessons (I averaged 15-20 per week), and service projects. 

2. In retrospect, I wish we had done more service projects.  There was just something fundamentally good about serving others in simple, but needed, ways.

3. One memorable service opportunity was a twice-a-week trip to a nearby Catholic orphanage for handicapped children.  As I recall, our understanding was that most of these children were not "orphans," but had been abandoned.  Most of the nuns there were from Africa.  Far too many special needs for these few wonderful sisters to meet, so the missionaries came twice a week to spend a few hours helping feed the kids and just sit and play with them.  There was one little girl who had been born with some pretty substantial defects.  She had no external ears, and an ear canal on only one side.  She was over three years old, but was very small for her age.  I named her Sarah.  All she wanted to do was to be held, so I held her (she was small enough to be held like a baby).  She would press her head against my chest, I think to listen/feel my heartbeat.  I would feed her, then hold her for an hour or so.  I would talk around the room and hum songs to her, and she would cling to me like a spider monkey.  Putting her down was always difficult, as she would get upset, and the nuns would then get a little upset at me for indulging her.  But I did it anyway.  

4. I was able to visit several beautiful places in Taiwan.  The National Museum, Taroko Gorge, the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial, all sorts of places.  Perhaps my favorite spot was a tiny town on the southeast coast called Chenggong.  Very out-of-the-way.  We had to hitch-hike to get there from and return to our assigned area (55 km each way).  There was a beautiful waterfall in the mountains nearby.  We hiked to it a few times.  Probably not as safe as it should have been, but beautiful.  There was also an open-air restauraunt in the town that had some of the most delicious Chinese food I had during my two years on the island.  There was also a beautiful set of tiny islands just off the coast, called San Xian Tai:

I haven't been back to Taiwan since I left it in 1995.  I sure would like to return some day.

5. Learning the language was fairly difficult (listening/speaking and reading and writing are all quite different skill sets).

6. I really came to love the Chinese people.

7. A few interesting experiences:

• I had two physical altercations on my mission, each involving a man beating a woman.  Both times the man was inebriated. 
• I hitch-hiked in an "ambulance" carrying a dead body.  Long story.
• I had a few experiences with typhoons. 
• I cleaned up public parks, most of which were very overgrown and heavily littered.  Hard work, but the locals were very appreciative.
• I helped change bed linens in a hospital.  The hospital didn't have fourth floor, because "four" in Chinese sounds similar to the word for "death." 
• The hospital also, for reasons unfathomable to me, kept a large collection of aborted fetuses, in jars of formaldehyde, stored on tables under the stairway, in full view of all passers-by.  The sister missionaries always took the elevators, as they did not want to talk past this display.
• While was a Zone Leader I had a young black missionary in my zone.  He was the son of Joseph Freeman, the first black man ordained to the priesthood after the 1978 Revelation on Priesthood.  Elder Freeman was a good guy.  He did face a bit of discrimination, though, as Taiwanese folks back did not have the best perspective on American blacks (mostly derived, I think, from the glut of "gangster" movies in the late 80s and early 90s).
• Prior to me serving my mission, I spent 18 months in the Army, 12 of which were spent studying Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California.  8 hours a day for 12 months.  And then I was called on my mission to . . . Taiwan.  However, on my mission I met and taught a Russian family.  The father spoke some English, but the mother and daughter spoke none, and none of them spoke any Chinese.  The mother and daughter saw an ad for free English classes for kids taught (we missionaries were the teachers), and the mother decided to take her daughter.  I happened to be teaching the lesson as they walked in, and as soon as I realized they were Russian, I switched over to Russian and began chatting with the daughter.  We then set up appointments at their hope.  I gave them my Russian Book of Mormon (probably the only one on the island) that included my testimony in Russian.  I was, as far as I knew, the only missionary on the entire island who spoke Russian.  I taught them 2-3 lessons, then I was transferred.  I never found out what happened to them.

8. I had a companion who considered himself quite a basketballer.  He was only 6' tall, which is not much in America, but made him quite formidable in Taiwan.  He heard that Patrick Ewing was coming to Taiwan to promote his line of shoes, and that he would be judging an all-island high school dunk contest.  Somehow my companion secured permission from the mission president to attend, so we went.  It was in a large sporting arena in Taipei.  Somehow my companion persuaded the officiators to let him participate.  Unfortunately, he had sprained his ankle a few days later, so he couldn't complete the dunk.  However, none of the other participants did, either.  He did, however, get to meet Patrick Ewing.  

9. My greatest regret from my mission was being a bit too distant.  I went into the Army right out of high school, which was quite a shock.  I spent 1.5 years in training, then went home for three weeks, then went into the MTC.  I was a bit too regimented.  I was not as attentive as I would have liked in terms of just getting to know the wonderful people of Taiwan, as well as other missionaries.

10. On the other hand, I worked very, very hard for the full two years.  I took the work seriously.  I was sincere.  I studied the language, I followed the rules, I knocked on countless doors and spoke with probably thousands of people.

Thanks,

-Smac

Thanks for this. I could say the same things. My biggest regret is not providing more service. There was so much need around us, but we were told to focus on missionary work. My wife tells me that, since her mission was entirely focused on service, it balances out, and "our" mission was 50% service. 

[ALarson]

30 minutes ago, CV75 said:

You'll have to buy my book to find out!

Have you written a book?  If so, do you mind sharing the title (if it's published and available)?  If not, do you have anything to add in response to the questions in the OP?  I've enjoyed reading the responses so far! and hope others will share too.

And, may I add that jkwilliams's book is excellent and extremely well written.  If you've not read it, I highly recommend it.

Edited August 27, 2018 by ALarson

[Duncan]

The hardest part about my mission was the actual mission! I thought we shot ourselves in the foot, the nonmembers of LA were one thing but members were another. In April of 1998 I was at the MTC and was at the telecentre and got a call back from "1600 N. Pennsylvania Ave." and it was about whether or not "William Jefferson Clinton" age 52 got the Bible he ordered, so being Canadian none of that meant nothing and so I talked a secretary who explained to me who that was and where he was at. IIRC correctly this was before the whole Monica lewinsky thing broke open. This is where historical hindisght comes in, things you don't know at the time you only find out later, so when it did I pieced it together that someone who had access to that number and knew what was happening called for a Bible and a very naive Canadian had to call to make sure he got it.

We gave a very pregnant lady in distress a lift home and we thought she live a block or two away but no, she lived, way , way out of the mission boundaries, but you can't ditch a pregnant lady in order to keep the mission rules! I had a companion who had back trouble and we got permission to visit a chiropractor, except the office didn't tell us, nobody told us they only authorized one visit. So, we went and he did his thing and was told to come back and we told our ZLs and they said that's fine and so for 1.5 months we went every monday, well after that the mission office got a $2000 bill.........nobody told us it was for one visit!!!!!

The funnest time in my mission was when I was out 18 months and we lived in a whole house, my companionship and another and man oh man oh man did we have a good time!!!!  we baptized though so it was fine!!!!! hahahahhahahhaa

[Exiled]

There were ups and downs on my mission.  I loved learning a new language and spent a lot of time studying portuguese while in Brasil.  The people were great.  However, it was a sales job and the pressure to get numbers for me was always there and never left no matter what we were doing.  Looking back, I think P-Day should have been a full day and perhaps two.  Also, more service without pressure to get numbers would have been refreshing.  I worked hard and got a lot of baptisms but I was clearly burnt out by the time I was done.  I really didn't want to have much to do with the church as a result and checked out pretty much for a while after that.  I continued to go but only did so out of family obligation.  

 

[smac97]

My parents are presently serving a mission in Zimbabwe.  Here's a Facebook post from my dad that includes all sorts of pics of the wonderful people of Zimbabwe and the missionaries from all over the world serving there.  So far I have seen the following countries represented (amongst the missionaries): U.S., Zimbabwe, Austria, Tanzania, Denmark, South Africa, Australia, Uganda, Sudan, Sudan, New Zealand, Cameroon, Malawi, Tonga, DR Congo, Taiwan, Belize, England, Kenya, and Jamaica.

Thanks,

-Smac

[jkwilliams]

3 minutes ago, Duncan said:

The hardest part about my mission was the actual mission! I thought we shot ourselves in the foot, the nonmembers of LA were one thing but members were another. In April of 1998 I was at the MTC and was at the telecentre and got a call back from "1600 N. Pennsylvania Ave." and it was about whether or not "William Jefferson Clinton" age 52 got the Bible he ordered, so being Canadian none of that meant nothing and so I talked a secretary who explained to me who that was and where he was at. IIRC correctly this was before the whole Monica lewinsky thing broke open. This is where historical hindisght comes in, things you don't know at the time you only find out later, so when it did I pieced it together that someone who had access to that number and knew what was happening called for a Bible and a very naive Canadian had to call to make sure he got it.

We gave a very pregnant lady in distress a lift home and we thought she live a block or two away but no, she lived, way , way out of the mission boundaries, but you can't ditch a pregnant lady in order to keep the mission rules! I had a companion who had back trouble and we got permission to visit a chiropractor, except the office didn't tell us, nobody told us they only authorized one visit. So, we went and he did his thing and was told to come back and we told our ZLs and they said that's fine and so for 1.5 months we went every monday, well after that the mission office got a $2000 bill.........nobody told us it was for one visit!!!!!

The funnest time in my mission was when I was out 18 months and we lived in a whole house, my companionship and another and man oh man oh man did we have a good time!!!!  we baptized though so it was fine!!!!! hahahahhahahhaa

Reminds me of the 6 months I spent in the mission office, when I lived in a house with 5 other missionaries. We had such a great time together, and we are all still good friends today. The church made the mistake of giving us a Toyota Land Cruiser, which we used to its fullest potential.  Often we would all take our mattresses out on the balcony and sleep under the stars (the weather was always mild in Cochabamba). I remember one such night, a Christmas Eve, staying up half the night talking about our hopes and dreams. Good memories.

[jkwilliams]

2 minutes ago, smac97 said:

My parents are presently serving a mission in Zimbabwe.  Here's a Facebook post from my dad that includes all sorts of pics of the wonderful people of Zimbabwe and the missionaries from all over the world serving there.  So far I have seen the following countries represented (amongst the missionaries): U.S., Zimbabwe, Austria, Tanzania, Denmark, South Africa, Australia, Uganda, Sudan, Sudan, New Zealand, Cameroon, Malawi, Tonga, DR Congo, Taiwan, Belize, England, Kenya, and Jamaica.

Thanks,

-Smac

We had a sister missionary from Zimbabwe in my mission, though her passport was from Ireland. In addition to Americans, Canadians, and Bolivians, we also had British, German, New Zealander, Chilean, Dominican, and Mexican missionaries. 

[smac97]

2 minutes ago, Exiled said:

There were ups and downs on my mission.  I loved learning a new language and spent a lot of time studying portuguese while in Brasil.  The people were great.  However, it was a sales job and the pressure to get numbers for me was always there and never left no matter what we were doing. 

I never considered what I was going to be a "sales job."  I made no commission.  I obtained no benefit from my work except nice feelings.  

As for "numbers," my mission presidents emphasized the necessity of consistency and hard work, and generally advised that such things would, if attempted, yield results (contacts --> lessons --> baptismal commitments --> baptisms --> retention/reactivation efforts).  I never felt any undue pressure to "get numbers," though.  Just hard work and service.

2 minutes ago, Exiled said:

Looking back, I think P-Day should have been a full day and perhaps two. 

I am curious as to your thoughts on this.

2 minutes ago, Exiled said:

Also, more service without pressure to get numbers would have been refreshing.  I worked hard and got a lot of baptisms but I was clearly burnt out by the time I was done.  I really didn't want to have much to do with the church as a result and checked out pretty much for a while after that.  I continued to go but only did so out of family obligation.  

I am sorry to hear that.  I hope a reconciliation is possible.

Thanks,

-Smac

[jkwilliams]

6 minutes ago, Exiled said:

There were ups and downs on my mission.  I loved learning a new language and spent a lot of time studying portuguese while in Brasil.  The people were great.  However, it was a sales job and the pressure to get numbers for me was always there and never left no matter what we were doing.  Looking back, I think P-Day should have been a full day and perhaps two.  Also, more service without pressure to get numbers would have been refreshing.  I worked hard and got a lot of baptisms but I was clearly burnt out by the time I was done.  I really didn't want to have much to do with the church as a result and checked out pretty much for a while after that.  I continued to go but only did so out of family obligation.  

Yes, the pressure for numbers was disheartening to me, too. By the end of my mission, my companion and I were just ignoring the mission baptism goals because we thought they were absurd. 

[jkwilliams]

3 minutes ago, smac97 said:

I never considered what I was going to be a "sales job."  I made no commission.  I obtained no benefit from my work except nice feelings.  

As for "numbers," my mission presidents emphasized the necessity of consistency and hard work, and generally advised that such things would, if attempted, yield results (contacts --> lessons --> baptismal commitments --> baptisms --> retention/reactivation efforts).  I never felt any undue pressure to "get numbers," though.  Just hard work and service.

Did your mission have goals for numbers of baptisms? 

[smac97]

3 minutes ago, jkwilliams said:

Reminds me of the 6 months I spent in the mission office, when I lived in a house with 5 other missionaries. We had such a great time together, and we are all still good friends today. The church made the mistake of giving us a Toyota Land Cruiser, which we used to its fullest potential.  Often we would all take our mattresses out on the balcony and sleep under the stars (the weather was always mild in Cochabamba). I remember one such night, a Christmas Eve, staying up half the night talking about our hopes and dreams. Good memories.

I had one area in which the two companionships stayed intact for a full five months.  That was virtually unheard of in my mission.  We ended up becoming good friends along the lines you describe.  We had a traditional Saturday night schedule one one companionship stopping by a 7-11 to buy four large mango-flavored slurpees, and the other companionship would stop by the night market and buy four servings of "stinky tofu" (fermented tofu that smelled like an open sewer, but tasted great).  We would then meet back at the apartment, change into our pajamas, arrange the fans around the wooden couches in our apartment (this was during the summer), and spend a few hours talking and feasting on slurpees and stinky tofu.  We seldom talked about "inappropriate" stuff (girls, movies, etc.), but we did talk about goals, dreams, family, etc.  We maintained this tradition for many months.  It remains one of my most fond memories of mission.

-Smac

[smac97]

1 minute ago, jkwilliams said:

Did your mission have goals for numbers of baptisms? 

I don't think so.  I think the mission presidents left the baptismal goals at the zone level.  We also worked hard on the number of lessons taught.

Thanks,

-Smac

[bluebell]

Just now, jkwilliams said:

Did your mission have goals for numbers of baptisms? 

I remember one month having a numbers goal for baptisms.  I'm sure we probably had a goal every month but I only have a memory of that one month (who knows why).  The number goals that were most harped on in my mission were proselyting hours, talk-to's, and numbers of books of Mormon given out.  Those didn't bother me since at least they were something in my control.  Baptism goals never made sense to me.

[bluebell]

2 minutes ago, smac97 said:

I had one area in which the two companionships stayed intact for a full five months.  That was virtually unheard of in my mission.  We ended up becoming good friends along the lines you describe.  We had a traditional Saturday night schedule one one companionship stopping by a 7-11 to buy four large mango-flavored slurpees, and the other companionship would stop by the night market and buy four servings of "stinky tofu" (fermented tofu that smelled like an open sewer, but tasted great).  We would then meet back at the apartment, change into our pajamas, arrange the fans around the wooden couches in our apartment (this was during the summer), and spend a few hours talking and feasting on slurpees and stinky tofu.  We seldom talked about "inappropriate" stuff (girls, movies, etc.), but we did talk about goals, dreams, family, etc.  We maintained this tradition for many months.  It remains one of my most fond memories of mission.

-Smac

I lived in an apartment with 3 other sisters and we were together for 5 months (for the most part) and we had a tradition of all sleeping in the living room on P-Day eve and staying up late in the dark talking and laughing.  It was so much fun and I still think of most of those women as family.  

[jkwilliams]

1 minute ago, smac97 said:

I had one area in which the two companionships stayed intact for a full five months.  That was virtually unheard of in my mission.  We ended up becoming good friends along the lines you describe.  We had a traditional Saturday night schedule one one companionship stopping by a 7-11 to buy four large mango-flavored slurpees, and the other companionship would stop by the night market and buy four servings of "stinky tofu" (fermented tofu that smelled like an open sewer, but tasted great).  We would then meet back at the apartment, change into our pajamas, arrange the fans around the wooden couches in our apartment (this was during the summer), and spend a few hours talking and feasting on slurpees and stinky tofu.  We seldom talked about "inappropriate" stuff (girls, movies, etc.), but we did talk about goals, dreams, family, etc.  We maintained this tradition for many months.  It remains one of my most fond memories of mission.

Once a sister missionary from Utah was going home, and her mother and aunt met her at the mission home to travel around Bolivia with her. They brought a suitcase full of American candy and cookies, which they gave to us. I'm sure they expected us to share it with the other missionaries in the city, but we didn't. We divided it up among the 6 of us. One P-day Eve, we stayed up late playing UNO, betting with the candy. I can't believe we ate that much sugar. 

We never talked about anything inappropriate, either, though one of the APs always had his eye on one sister or another. We had this horribly ugly knit tie made of royal blue yarn that we used as an incentive not to complain or be sarcastic. Whoever complained the most or made the most sarcastic comments during a day had to wear the ugly tie the next day. I wore it a couple of times, but I was generally pretty positive. 

[jkwilliams]

5 minutes ago, smac97 said:

I don't think so.  I think the mission presidents left the baptismal goals at the zone level.  We also worked hard on the number of lessons taught.

Thanks,

-Smac

I went home in January 1986. Our mission president set a goal for December 1984 of 1,000 baptisms for the mission. He said, "We are going to be the top baptizing mission in the church!" We were up north in the jungle, with no phone and no other missionaries for a good 500 miles, so we talked about it and decided that it was a ridiculous goal, so we weren't going to do anything different but try to find and teach good people. To reach that goal, each companionship would have to have at least 8 baptisms. We baptized 4 people, and they were wonderful people, genuinely converted, as far as I could tell. I still shudder to think of all the quickie baptisms and fudging that others had to do to get close to the goal. The mission had ~960 baptisms that month, IIRC.

[jkwilliams]

6 minutes ago, bluebell said:

I lived in an apartment with 3 other sisters and we were together for 5 months (for the most part) and we had a tradition of all sleeping in the living room on P-Day eve and staying up late in the dark talking and laughing.  It was so much fun and I still think of most of those women as family.  

It's good to know P-day Eve wasn't just a thing in my mission. In my first area, where we didn't have running water, we sometimes went into the city and got a hotel room for the night, so we could have a hot bath or shower. 

[smac97]

7 minutes ago, jkwilliams said:

I went home in January 1986. Our mission president set a goal for December 1984 of 1,000 baptisms for the mission. He said, "We are going to be the top baptizing mission in the church!" We were up north in the jungle, with no phone and no other missionaries for a good 500 miles, so we talked about it and decided that it was a ridiculous goal, so we weren't going to do anything different but try to find and teach good people. To reach that goal, each companionship would have to have at least 8 baptisms. We baptized 4 people, and they were wonderful people, genuinely converted, as far as I could tell. I still shudder to think of all the quickie baptisms and fudging that others had to do to get close to the goal. The mission had ~960 baptisms that month, IIRC.

I think the Church has moved away from that sort of thing.  I hope so.

Thanks,

-Smac

[jkwilliams]

Just now, smac97 said:

I think the Church has moved away from that sort of thing.  I hope so.

So do I. The depressing thing to me was that our mission president came into the mission saying that numbers weren't important, that his focus was on making sure every missionary was converted to the gospel. Numbers would take care of themselves, he said. But after he returned from a mission president's conference with a couple of apostles and some of the seventy, he was all about numbers. 

[Duncan]

Just now, smac97 said:

A few thoughts:

1. I served my mission in Taiwan.  The bulk of our "work" days, as in virtually all of it, was spent knocking on doors, contacting people outside, teaching lessons (I averaged 15-20 per week), and service projects. 

2. In retrospect, I wish we had done more service projects.  There was just something fundamentally good about serving others in simple, but needed, ways.

3. One memorable service opportunity was a twice-a-week trip to a nearby Catholic orphanage for handicapped children.  As I recall, our understanding was that most of these children were not "orphans," but had been abandoned.  Most of the nuns there were from Africa.  Far too many special needs for these few wonderful sisters to meet, so the missionaries came twice a week to spend a few hours helping feed the kids and just sit and play with them.  There was one little girl who had been born with some pretty substantial defects.  She had no external ears, and an ear canal on only one side.  She was over three years old, but was very small for her age.  I named her Sarah.  All she wanted to do was to be held, so I held her (she was small enough to be held like a baby).  She would press her head against my chest, I think to listen/feel my heartbeat.  I would feed her, then hold her for an hour or so.  I would talk around the room and hum songs to her, and she would cling to me like a spider monkey.  Putting her down was always difficult, as she would get upset, and the nuns would then get a little upset at me for indulging her.  But I did it anyway.  

4. I was able to visit several beautiful places in Taiwan.  The National Museum, Taroko Gorge, the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial, all sorts of places.  Perhaps my favorite spot was a tiny town on the southeast coast called Chenggong.  Very out-of-the-way.  We had to hitch-hike to get there from and return to our assigned area (55 km each way).  There was a beautiful waterfall in the mountains nearby.  We hiked to it a few times.  Probably not as safe as it should have been, but beautiful.  There was also an open-air restauraunt in the town that had some of the most delicious Chinese food I had during my two years on the island.  There was also a beautiful set of tiny islands just off the coast, called San Xian Tai:

I haven't been back to Taiwan since I left it in 1995.  I sure would like to return some day.

5. Learning the language was fairly difficult (listening/speaking and reading and writing are all quite different skill sets).

6. I really came to love the Chinese people.

7. A few interesting experiences:

• I had two physical altercations on my mission, each involving a man beating a woman.  Both times the man was inebriated. 
• I hitch-hiked in an "ambulance" carrying a dead body.  Long story.
• I had a few experiences with typhoons. 
• I cleaned up public parks, most of which were very overgrown and heavily littered.  Hard work, but the locals were very appreciative.
• I helped change bed linens in a hospital.  The hospital didn't have fourth floor, because "four" in Chinese sounds similar to the word for "death." 
• The hospital also, for reasons unfathomable to me, kept a large collection of aborted fetuses, in jars of formaldehyde, stored on tables under the stairway, in full view of all passers-by.  The sister missionaries always took the elevators, as they did not want to talk past this display.
• While was a Zone Leader I had a young black missionary in my zone.  He was the son of Joseph Freeman, the first black man ordained to the priesthood after the 1978 Revelation on Priesthood.  Elder Freeman was a good guy.  He did face a bit of discrimination, though, as Taiwanese folks back did not have the best perspective on American blacks (mostly derived, I think, from the glut of "gangster" movies in the late 80s and early 90s).
• Prior to me serving my mission, I spent 18 months in the Army, 12 of which were spent studying Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California.  8 hours a day for 12 months.  And then I was called on my mission to . . . Taiwan.  However, on my mission I met and taught a Russian family.  The father spoke some English, but the mother and daughter spoke none, and none of them spoke any Chinese.  The mother and daughter saw an ad for free English classes for kids taught (we missionaries were the teachers), and the mother decided to take her daughter.  I happened to be teaching the lesson as they walked in, and as soon as I realized they were Russian, I switched over to Russian and began chatting with the daughter.  We then set up appointments at their hope.  I gave them my Russian Book of Mormon (probably the only one on the island) that included my testimony in Russian.  I was, as far as I knew, the only missionary on the entire island who spoke Russian.  I taught them 2-3 lessons, then I was transferred.  I never found out what happened to them.

8. I had a companion who considered himself quite a basketballer.  He was only 6' tall, which is not much in America, but made him quite formidable in Taiwan.  He heard that Patrick Ewing was coming to Taiwan to promote his line of shoes, and that he would be judging an all-island high school dunk contest.  Somehow my companion secured permission from the mission president to attend, so we went.  It was in a large sporting arena in Taipei.  Somehow my companion persuaded the officiators to let him participate.  Unfortunately, he had sprained his ankle a few days later, so he couldn't complete the dunk.  However, none of the other participants did, either.  He did, however, get to meet Patrick Ewing.  

9. My greatest regret from my mission was being a bit too distant.  I went into the Army right out of high school, which was quite a shock.  I spent 1.5 years in training, then went home for three weeks, then went into the MTC.  I was a bit too regimented.  I was not as attentive as I would have liked in terms of just getting to know the wonderful people of Taiwan, as well as other missionaries.

10. On the other hand, I worked very, very hard for the full two years.  I took the work seriously.  I was sincere.  I studied the language, I followed the rules, I knocked on countless doors and spoke with probably thousands of people.

Thanks,

-Smac

I think there were one or two people from here who went to Taiwan around then, Shideler and Canteenwala

[Waylon]

My mission was pretty awful.  It was totally knocking doors for ten hours a day, trying to get numbers, being micromanaged, etc.  I was deeply introverted, and never could figure out what to say to people or be effective (in retrospect, I could barely make friends in high school and certainly never had the courage to ask girls out, so of course I was ill prepared to excel at missionary work).  I had a couple of major fights with my mission president, a man who I don't think ever really understood me and who I did not feel comfortable around.  I didn't baptize a single person the entire two years.

The best part about my mission was, when I got home, the experience made me take a long, hard look at the Church and how I truly felt about the Church, and to closely check out other religions as well (atheism, islam, protestantism, catholicism).  In so doing, I was very surprised when I found out the Church, the Book of Mormon, and the doctrines taught therein, really were all true!  I thought I had a testimony on my mission, but it is nothing compared to what I received afterwards, when I really did go through a period of deep questioning.  To get to this point, I did have to separate my feelings towards my mission with my feelings towards the Church, and approach my search for truth with an honest heart and an open mind.

My Act 2 with the Church has been wonderful, as I have embraced Mormonism as a deeply personal religion I absolutely believe in.  However, I still have negative feelings about my mission, and my solution for that has been to just disavow the whole thing rather than try and look for any silver lining.  My mission was a failure, and while I am glad I showed up for the Lord, I am more than happy that the whole experience is behind me.  I guess I am proof that you can be a good Mormon but not a good missionary (and, based on some of the lives of my companions, the inverse holds true as well).

I also know that my experience is not the usual mission experience, that most people have a much better time than I did, so I keep my opinion to myself a lot.  However, if my children decide to go on missions, I plan to have a long talk with them about exactly what my experience was.