Mission President in France talks about self-abuse

Post by **_Doctor Steuss** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:29 pm

Why is a mission president in France talking to all of his missionaries in English?

Post by **_Runtu** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:30 pm

Doctor Steuss wrote:Why is a mission president in France talking to all of his missionaries in English?

Good question. I recall our mission president speaking to us in English only when there were no non-English speakers present. F. Burton Howard yelled at us for over an hour in Spanish, with a brief condemnation spoken in English.

Post by **_Doctor Steuss** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:33 pm

Runtu wrote:
Doctor Steuss wrote:Why is a mission president in France talking to all of his missionaries in English?

Good question. I recall our mission president speaking to us in English only when there were no non-English speakers present. F. Burton Howard yelled at us for over an hour in Spanish, with a brief condemnation spoken in English.

LOL. So, the condemnation was only for you danged whiteys?

Post by **_asbestosman** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:36 pm

Doctor Steuss wrote:Why is a mission president in France talking to all of his missionaries in English?

Mine always talked to us in English too. We did, however, write our weekly letters, pray, and sing in Dutch. We were also told to speak Dutch to our companions.

Keep in mind, most Europeans understand English. Depending on the place, they may even admit it.

Post by **_Runtu** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:39 pm

Doctor Steuss wrote:
Runtu wrote:
Doctor Steuss wrote:Why is a mission president in France talking to all of his missionaries in English?

Good question. I recall our mission president speaking to us in English only when there were no non-English speakers present. F. Burton Howard yelled at us for over an hour in Spanish, with a brief condemnation spoken in English.

LOL. So, the condemnation was only for you danged whiteys?

Well, the worst condemnation was, yes. I remember all the Bolivian missionaries turning almost in unison and asking, "¿Qué dijo?"

Post by **_Who Knows** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:40 pm

The Dude wrote:"The brethren call it 'self abuse' rather than 'masturbation.' It's a little bit softer...[pause] word."

The term 'self-abuse' doesn't even make sense. It's not like i'm doing it against my own will.

Counseling horny 16 year olds not to masturbate sounds more like self abuse to me.

Post by **_moksha** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:42 pm

Doctor Steuss wrote:Why is a mission president in France talking to all of his missionaries in English?

Are the Mission Presidents required to learn the language?

by the way, what websites is the Mission President exploring to see all these pornographic popups?

Post by **_Sethbag** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 10:03 pm

I've been using the Internet since before there was an "Internet", in the modern sense of the word. When it was all just email, newsgroups, and ftp. I never really got into gopher, since ftp seemed to work out well enough for me. I'll admit I was maybe a year late in getting onto the web. I didn't start with the web until 1994, when it was already a year or two old. Anyhow, in all that time, I don't think I've ever gotten a pornographic pop-up from a site that wasn't at least somewhat related to pornography. Since I'm not into porn, that means that I've hardly ever gotten a porn pop-up. And when I did it was because I accidentally (that's my story and I'm sticking with it!) clicked into a porn spam in my email and it pulled up the site. I agree with whoever says that if they got porno pop-ups up at home, then they were probably surfing porn sites to begin with, though I will allow the possibility that their computer simply got owned by spyware and other malware and that was popping up the porn. My machines don't get owned, so this has never happened to me.

I just think when you step back a bit and realize this grown, adult male is telling these 19 to 21 year old volunteers what email program they are required to use, the whole "control freak" thing simply cannot be avoided. It's amazing the level of control and guilt and such that MPs can maintain over their volunteers. One companion of mine on my mission was the son of a MP from the Frankfurt mission. There was no widespread Internet use back then, so he wouldn't allow his missionaries to open their email until P-day. Any letters they received during the week they had to just save up for P-day. Obviously there was the whole "no telephone calls to the parents or anyone else" rule, not just in Frankfurt but in every mission. by the way, this Frankfurt MP tried making his missionaries climb out of their beds and sleep on the floor to remind them of how much faith they needed to have, or something like that, until someone complained higher up and he was told to knock it off. Unreal.

Post by **_asbestosman** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 10:13 pm

Who Knows wrote:The term 'self-abuse' doesn't even make sense. It's not like I'm doing it against my own will.

Actually I heard that the etymology of the word masturbate comes from something denoting defilement. Here's what I got from dictionary.com

Altered (probably by influence of turbare "to stir up") from *manstuprare, from manu, abl. of manus "hand" (see manual) + stuprare "defile" (oneself), from stuprum "defilement, dishonor," related to stupere "to be stunned, stupefied" (see stupid).

Defilement may not be the same as abuse, but then again, there's more than one definition of abuse.

Post by **_Who Knows** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 10:17 pm

asbestosman wrote:
Who Knows wrote:The term 'self-abuse' doesn't even make sense. It's not like I'm doing it against my own will.

Actually I heard that the etymology of the word masturbate comes from something denoting defilement. Here's what I got from dictionary.com

Altered (probably by influence of turbare "to stir up") from *manstuprare, from manu, abl. of manus "hand" (see manual) + stuprare "defile" (oneself), from stuprum "defilement, dishonor," related to stupere "to be stunned, stupefied" (see stupid).

Defilement may not be the same as abuse, but then again, there's more than one definition of abuse.

Well then, the word 'masturbate' probably doesn't make sense either, except in some religious sense.