You who were rebels on your mission:

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by RockyBalboa

About 7 months left in my mission...Good Ol' Roger Ball from Idaho,,,aka King B Beef Jerky man and Millionaire several times over became our new Mission President.

Our first ZL meeting with all the ZL's we told the President the last thing you should do is tell the missionaries that you trust them to do the right thing.

He ignored our advice and that mission went to hell in a hand basket for about 18 months.

He just needed time to find his niche as MP, but when he said to the missionaries "I trust you to do the right thing and follow the rules." He basically signed the spiritual death warrant of that mission.

My 2 years were up and things were really beginning to unravel. About 6 months later the MP went on a binge and purge throughout the mission and sent several elders and a few sisters home.

It took him being out there for 2 1/2 years before the mission got back to the point where it had been.

The point: NEVER trust 19 year old men away from home.

my mission president had to trust the missionaries. He is sitting in his office two thousand miles away from you. and you are sitting on a small island.

[SteelBlue]

Originally Posted by creekster

I have never liked to follow rules. I took great pleasure at breaking them just to bother people.

The more I learn about you, the more I think we are related.

I had a good man for a MP the first 8 months. He took an approach to missionary work that was very different from mine. We butted heads a few times, but generally in a respectful way. My second MP was seriously like a 2nd father to me. He put up with a lot of immaturity from me and helped me to turn my mission into an amazing experience. I'll never forget the smile on his face as I tried to explain to him why I should be allowed to listen to Bob Marley. "President, it really relaxes me and he delivers a positive spiritual message."

[Surfah]

My first MP was awesome. He was a lawyer from South Africa who had a home at Jeffreys Bay. Our entire first interview centered around surfing.

My second MP was amazing too. He was released shortly after I returned home as he was called to be a GA.

To be honest, I was rebellious before my mission. And because I busted my ass just to be able to go on one, it made no sense to me to slack off and not work. As a leader I was prescriptive but not preachy. I wasn't an in your face type of guy. I just tried to work harder than everyone else and most people respected me for that. I was fortunate that I got along with all of my companions as well. I think my size helped.

[creekster]

Being rebellious doesn't necessarily mean you are not working. Sometimes you just work differently. Of course, sometimes it does mean you're not working hard. It all depends.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by Archaea

I enjoyed my MP very much, a dentist from Sandy or Murray, who lated served in the Utah Legislature. He was very kind.

As a new convert, I followed the rules, worked extra hard, studied longer than most and gave it my all. I was not rebellious but didn't nark out those who were.

I suppose I was serious, lacking talent of any kind other than the ability to work, but having grown up outside the Church, I was not naive as to the things of the world, just to matters of the Church culture. I understand a number of my comps are inactive. Too bad.

I was so thrifty, I came home with extra money I had invested in German securities.

He was my dentist. His office was in Murray. Great guy.

[Archaea]

I liked him so much, as well as his wife.

According to the rebels here, I was a total nerd, complying with rules. I experienced some modest success, but I suppose, looking back at my photos, I was somewhat nerdy.

I don't regret following the rules. However, we didn't have any real weird rules that I recall, except one,

We had to use Sie, formal you, instead of informal tu. That was weird, and something I never understood. The Germans looked at us as if we were weird. You live and work twenty-four hours per day, but you're on formal terms? I obeyed even though it was weird.

[il Padrino Ute]

My MP was and still is a great man. His wife was even better. Both had lots and lots of patience with the missionaries.

I never knocked heads with him, but several missionaries felt that I was an AP so the MP could keep me in check. I really wasn't what I would call disobedient - I just liked to see how far the rules could be stretched.

[Archaea]

Did you use informal or formal you with your companion in Italy?

How about France or Spain?

When I visited the missionaries in France, my memory tells me they were offended when I spoke using tu, instead of vous.

[Faith]

My first MP was super cool former FBI guy who cleaned up the mission. He was very by-the-book and I was afraid that I would clash with him, but we got along beautifully.

I had many problems with my second MP. He belileved in "following the Spirit", and I thought that I would adore him (because I am very much like that), but instead ended up with some pretty scarring experiences.

He told my companion that she wasn't spiritual because she didn't cry when bearing her testimony.

He also would often go into long discourses about how blessed women were to have their periods to remind them of Christ's sacrifice.

He also made my personal information about having been arrested as an act of civil disobedience ( I had to list it on my mission papers) available to the boy missionaries who worked in the office. That info. about me spread like wildfire in my mission.

Probably one of the worst experiences was when I had been sick for at least 3 months with a fever and he told me that I was sick because I needed to repent of something. Let me tell you, I was in constant prayer to find out what he knew about me that I didn't know about me.

I don't detest him anymore. I learned a valuable lesson about the humanity and imperfection of even "the Lord's Annointed". I even ended up inviting him to my Wedding.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by Archaea

I liked him so much, as well as his wife.

According to the rebels here, I was a total nerd, complying with rules. I experienced some modest success, but I suppose, looking back at my photos, I was somewhat nerdy.

I don't regret following the rules. However, we didn't have any real weird rules that I recall, except one,

I didn't think people who followed the rules were nerdy for that reason alone. To the contrary, I only thought the nerds were nerdy, wheterh or not they followed rules. Simply following the rules didn't bother me either, it was the poeple that were in my face about making sure that I followed the rules that bothered me. FOr their benefit I broke many rules simply to show them I could. Well, that and the fact that i was never much good at leaving music behind, nor was I much good with a steady diet of MoTab on P-Day.

I'm not proud of having broken rules nor would I encourage anyone esle to do so. I just had to get through my own life the best that I could and that's how I happened to do it.