Hypothetical Holiday Inn Missionary Work

[nuclearfuels]

This is a hypothetical situation:

1. You stayed at a hotel - had a great time - and noticed the nightstand drawer did not include a Gideon's Bible.

2. On checking out you thanked the staff for a great stay, great breakfast, great pool, etc. 

3. You asked them if you could put some Bibles and Books of Mormon in the nightstands of each hotel room, like Marriott hotels do.

4. They say: You'll need to ask the manager. He/She's not here right now. You can call or email them. Here's their card.

5. You call and email, thank them for the great stay, etc. then ask if you can donate some scriptures to each hotel room. They say no or don't reply.

6. You reach out to Holiday Inn corporate HQ executives via LinkedIn, ask if you can take them to dinner, or just ask straight up: can I donate some scriptures to your hotels? (This would be something like an enterprise agreement that you alone, without authorization from Church HQ would be seeking/making.)

7. Holiday Inn exec's eventually agree.

8. What do you do now? 

a. talk to your Bishop

b. talk to your stake president

c. call Church HQ and ask for the Distribution dept

d. buy the scriptures yourself

=

In all seriousness though, how would you approach an effort like this - meaning how would you get Church HQ to distribute free scriptures to all the Holiday Inns (between 1,200 and 2,297)?

 

 

[blackstrap]

Did you make it a matter of prayer before you started ?

[mfbukowski]

3 hours ago, nuclearfuels said:

This is a hypothetical situation:

1. You stayed at a hotel - had a great time - and noticed the nightstand drawer did not include a Gideon's Bible.

2. On checking out you thanked the staff for a great stay, great breakfast, great pool, etc. 

3. You asked them if you could put some Bibles and Books of Mormon in the nightstands of each hotel room, like Marriott hotels do.

4. They say: You'll need to ask the manager. He/She's not here right now. You can call or email them. Here's their card.

5. You call and email, thank them for the great stay, etc. then ask if you can donate some scriptures to each hotel room. They say no or don't reply.

6. You reach out to Holiday Inn corporate HQ executives via LinkedIn, ask if you can take them to dinner, or just ask straight up: can I donate some scriptures to your hotels? (This would be something like an enterprise agreement that you alone, without authorization from Church HQ would be seeking/making.)

7. Holiday Inn exec's eventually agree.

8. What do you do now? 

a. talk to your Bishop

b. talk to your stake president

c. call Church HQ and ask for the Distribution dept

d. buy the scriptures yourself

=

In all seriousness though, how would you approach an effort like this - meaning how would you get Church HQ to distribute free scriptures to all the Holiday Inns (between 1,200 and 2,297)?

 

 

Why would they want to do that?

The only prophet they are interested in is profit!

It's extra work for no return on investment.

[CV75]

11 hours ago, nuclearfuels said:

This is a hypothetical situation:

1. You stayed at a hotel - had a great time - and noticed the nightstand drawer did not include a Gideon's Bible.

2. On checking out you thanked the staff for a great stay, great breakfast, great pool, etc. 

3. You asked them if you could put some Bibles and Books of Mormon in the nightstands of each hotel room, like Marriott hotels do.

4. They say: You'll need to ask the manager. He/She's not here right now. You can call or email them. Here's their card.

5. You call and email, thank them for the great stay, etc. then ask if you can donate some scriptures to each hotel room. They say no or don't reply.

6. You reach out to Holiday Inn corporate HQ executives via LinkedIn, ask if you can take them to dinner, or just ask straight up: can I donate some scriptures to your hotels? (This would be something like an enterprise agreement that you alone, without authorization from Church HQ would be seeking/making.)

7. Holiday Inn exec's eventually agree.

8. What do you do now? 

a. talk to your Bishop

b. talk to your stake president

c. call Church HQ and ask for the Distribution dept

d. buy the scriptures yourself

=

In all seriousness though, how would you approach an effort like this - meaning how would you get Church HQ to distribute free scriptures to all the Holiday Inns (between 1,200 and 2,297)?

 

 

On my mission there was an elder that had an astounding amount of cash on him and his idea was to rent a helicopter and drop thousands of copies over the humble village of about 8,000. He could also hypnotize ducks to investigators' amazement, and detonated a homemade bomb on P-day (for which the local terrorists sent him notes of solicitation).

[OGHoosier]

2 hours ago, CV75 said:

He could also hypnotize ducks to investigators' amazement, and detonated a homemade bomb on P-day (for which the local terrorists sent him notes of solicitation).

...what

[InCognitus]

2 hours ago, CV75 said:

He could also hypnotize ducks to investigators' amazement

The right way to do it:

The wrong way to do it:

Not sure how useful it is unless you are a duck farmer like the guy in the first video.

[ksfisher]

14 hours ago, nuclearfuels said:

This is a hypothetical situation:

1. You stayed at a hotel - had a great time - and noticed the nightstand drawer did not include a Gideon's Bible.

2. On checking out you thanked the staff for a great stay, great breakfast, great pool, etc. 

3. You asked them if you could put some Bibles and Books of Mormon in the nightstands of each hotel room, like Marriott hotels do.

4. They say: You'll need to ask the manager. He/She's not here right now. You can call or email them. Here's their card.

5. You call and email, thank them for the great stay, etc. then ask if you can donate some scriptures to each hotel room. They say no or don't reply.

6. You reach out to Holiday Inn corporate HQ executives via LinkedIn, ask if you can take them to dinner, or just ask straight up: can I donate some scriptures to your hotels? (This would be something like an enterprise agreement that you alone, without authorization from Church HQ would be seeking/making.)

7. Holiday Inn exec's eventually agree.

8. What do you do now? 

a. talk to your Bishop

b. talk to your stake president

c. call Church HQ and ask for the Distribution dept

d. buy the scriptures yourself

=

In all seriousness though, how would you approach an effort like this - meaning how would you get Church HQ to distribute free scriptures to all the Holiday Inns (between 1,200 and 2,297)?

 

 

It sounds like setting out to build a tower without first counting the cost.

[CV75]

1 hour ago, OGHoosier said:

...what

Yes, leftist guerillas who employed homemade bombs as part of their messaging strategy.

53 minutes ago, InCognitus said:

The right way to do it:

The wrong way to do it:

Not sure how useful it is unless you are a duck farmer like the guy in the first video.

It was part of an object lesson for the discussion on resurrection.

At any rate, he did seek permission from the Mission President for the helicopter idea. If memory serves me correctly, the Mission President advised him to not do it.

Edited March 24 by CV75

[Calm]

20 minutes ago, CV75 said:

, leftist guerillas who employed homemade bombs as part of their messaging strategy.

Was this something you saw for yourself or only reported by the missionary?

He seems like someone who liked to ramp up the drama of life, needed excitement.  And who liked attention. Maybe told a story to get it.

[CV75]

21 minutes ago, Calm said:

Was this something you saw for yourself or only reported by the missionary?

He seems like someone who liked to ramp up the drama of life, needed excitement.  And who liked attention. Maybe told a story to get it.

I knew him and his companions, and he and they, plus the Assistants to the President all talked with me about the three items I listed. And there is a fourth: he could also pressurize his lungs for a minute and then have vapor release from his mouth and nostrils. His eccentricity and eccentricities brought him great joy. Sometimes he asked permission, but usually not.

ETA: just noticed you focused on the bomb. Yes, we has transferred because of this.

Edited March 24 by CV75

[The Nehor]

Dropping Book of Mormons from the air could kill someone or some animal.

[CV75]

3 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

Dropping Book of Mormons from the air could kill someone or some animal.

That may well have been part of his calculus.

[The Nehor]

1 minute ago, CV75 said:

That may well have been part of his calculus.

I never got the fun companions.

[MiserereNobis]

Just now, CV75 said:

That may well have been part of his calculus.

I imagine he was already planning the baptisms for the dead. Quite the missionary, he. Get ’em in this life or the next. 

[CV75]

1 minute ago, The Nehor said:

I never got the fun companions.

I had one who thought he was a son of perdition. He also drank coffee (previous to our companionship) so as not offend his investigators. I had to interrupt his praying because he was contorting his face and body and I had to ask him if he was OK. I found him on the roof praying in the position of Joseph Smith as portrayed in pamphlet artwork (looking up with the arms in an awestruck position (the First Vision). I asked the Mission President to get him some psychiatric treatment; he was soon admitted to the hospital for a severe parasite infection and in retrospect that may have had something to do with his mental health. We were given new companions while he was hospitalized (I visited him once and he shyly admitted it must have been something he had eaten) and from what I know, he did fine after that. I wasn't especially charitable during that phase so maybe the change in companionship helped him too.

[CV75]

12 minutes ago, MiserereNobis said:

I imagine he was already planning the baptisms for the dead. Quite the missionary, he. Get ’em in this life or the next. 

Ducks were next.

[MiserereNobis]

4 minutes ago, CV75 said:

Ducks were next.

I may be going to hell in a bucket, babe, but at least I'm enjoying the ride:

 

 

[InCognitus]

3 hours ago, CV75 said:

It was part of an object lesson for the discussion on resurrection.

I can see that as an object lesson for the resurrection, and it's better than what came to my mind first (which was this verse, "And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell." (2 Nephi 28:21))

So where did he get the duck?  Did he carry one around with him and use it as a door approach?  (That sounds like one of those jokes... "A Rabbi, a priest, two Mormon missionaries, and a duck walk into a bar...", or is that a rabbit instead of a duck?)

[CV75]

19 minutes ago, InCognitus said:

I can see that as an object lesson for the resurrection, and it's better than what came to my mind first (which was this verse, "And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell." (2 Nephi 28:21))

So where did he get the duck?  Did he carry one around with him and use it as a door approach?  (That sounds like one of those jokes... "A Rabbi, a priest, two Mormon missionaries, and a duck walk into a bar...", or is that a rabbit instead of a duck?)

There were often ducks, chickens, etc. pecking on the dirt floor homes in the smaller villages of this mission, doors and windows left open all day. Less often a hog might traipse through. I wouldn't want to hypnotize a hog though, they might get the wrong impression.

[GoCeltics]

On 3/23/2024 at 10:40 PM, nuclearfuels said:

8. What do you do now? 

a. talk to your Bishop

b. talk to your stake president

c. call Church HQ and ask for the Distribution dept

d. buy the scriptures yourself

=

In all seriousness though, how would you approach an effort like this - meaning how would you get Church HQ to distribute free scriptures to all the Holiday Inns (between 1,200 and 2,297)?

 

 

e. buy the scriptures yourself and sneak into every single room of one hotel.  When done, move to the next hotel.

[rpn]

Our good acts do not allow us to commit any one else's time, attention, resources of finances without their advanced agreement.     You buy them yourself.  (You might ask for a bulk price.  And you should hire people to place the books in the rooms or at least tip generously those who have do to that work too.

[Calm]

2 minutes ago, rpn said:

And you should hire people to place the books in the rooms or at least tip generously those who have do to that work too.

If he gets permission from the owners.

[pogi]

On 3/24/2024 at 8:13 AM, CV75 said:

He could also hypnotize ducks to investigators' amazement, 

It works with chickens too.  I learned how to do it on my mission from an investigator.   Our technique was only slightly different from the video.  We would tuck their heads under a wing and instead of petting their feathers, we would gently lift them up and down in a circular motion for less than a minute, and boom!  They were out. 

[Calm]

My husband has just added chicks to our family (for eggs and bug eating; it seems to have been a dream of his for some reason), so I will need to remember this one to amaze my grandkids.

[nuclearfuels]

On 3/24/2024 at 1:36 PM, ksfisher said:

It sounds like setting out to build a tower without first counting the cost.

How then would you approach this opportunity?

Talk to your bishop? Stake pres? Write a letter to HQ?