Missionaries

[_Black Moclips]

I served in Spain, Canary Islands, and let me tell you , it was rough. Since we had so few members, the only thing we could do was knock doors. I sometimes knocked doors, all day, for days on end. We would keep records of the buildings we knocked (most people live in high rise apartments) so we would know who was nice when we re-knocked it. Sometimes JW's left marks on the doors (since they knocked as well) for very nasty people, so we would avoid those. It got to be so depressing, that we would knock one building, and then the next building we would knock would be on the far side of the town, so at least we could spend some time walking and not being rejected. The whole two years was like seeing how far you could walk in the desert without water. I only had 2 baptisms my whole mission. One was an existing member's sister, and the other was a "golden" contact found by knocking. While the golden one ended up serving a mission, he left the church soon after because he was gay. Maybe he was golden because I was so good looking. I'm not sure.

[_Blixa]

Maybe he was golden because I was so good looking.

CFR

[_Black Moclips]

LOL! Nice one. Ok, ok. I'm average. Certainly no Jeremy Irons.

[_Blixa]

CFR

[_haleray]

I agree that tracking is one of, if not the least effective method of finding people. It has been stated that if someone is introduced to the gospel by a member-friend then he/she will be more likely to become a member. In a perfect world, a member will find someone for the missionaries to teach, have the discussions at their home, then, if the person gets baptized, will help them be active in the church and prepare them for the temple.
It is needless to say that we don’t live in a perfect world. On my mission, we did, what I feel was the job of Home Teacher, teaching a member’s son/daughter the gospel. We were even asked to do the job of a Bishop, find out whether or not someone was the father or the son in a family.
In defense of the missionaries for all of those who say that, the missionaries keep coming to their house, even when they ask for the missionaries to stop. Missionaries have no other resources then their own records to help them, these records, mind you, are kept by nineteen-year-old teenagers who, for the most part, never kept a record book in their life. There is no uniform form (like a telephone number) that allows anyone to tell missionaries to stop going to their house for as long as they live there. (not that I’m aware of, at least)

[_Inconceivable]

There is no uniform form (like a telephone number) that allows anyone to tell missionaries to stop going to their house for as long as they live there. (not that I’m aware of, at least)

It matters on the mission, then.

In OZ, we were commanded to tract 40 hours per week and keep accurate records. Period.

The weekly breakdown was:

80 hours prostyliting (being out of the flat)
40 hours tracting
15 hours teaching
12 discussions
4 book of Mormons

We were also required to challenge each new investigator to a baptismal date by the end of the first discussion. The baptism was to be set 7 days from the first meeting/discussion.

The MP testified that every worthy companionship would baptise 2 people per month. The average missionary baptised about 10 peoples in 2 years if I can recall. It left us all a lot of time to know we were unworthy.

Tracting:

Most areas could be "knocked out" within about 6 months. The "country" or outback (outside the city) could be done in about 2 months. We took very careful records. We were commanded to.

When we finished methodically knocking through the area, we started over..and over.. and over. On occasion, we'd get "inspiration" to skip over a section and knock a specific street. But most of the time we acted a lot like Monk when it came to coloring in completed sections of our areas. We always returned in the evening and knocked on all the unanswered doors.

We were taught that we should never take the first few "no's" for an answer. Many of the doors were literally slammed on us. I remember being terrified by the tactics of the AP when I worked with him, even though at the time I wanted to be like him because he had baptised a lot of people.

By the end of the mission, I can honestly say I enjoyed tracting. It was like fishing. You didn't always catch something but you knew that eventually you would. Oh yeah, I really don't have the patience for fishing anymore.

[_haleray]

There is no uniform form (like a telephone number) that allows anyone to tell missionaries to stop going to their house for as long as they live there. (not that I’m aware of, at least)

In OZ, we were commanded to tract 40 hours per week and keep accurate records. Period.

I’m not saying that we weren’t told to keep good records, but my point is that the records that missionaries keep are the only one that the missionaries have to go by. They don’t have records like the police do, or even what telemarketers have, like new move-ins, or people moving out.

[_collegeterrace]

There is no uniform form (like a telephone number) that allows anyone to tell missionaries to stop going to their house for as long as they live there. (not that I’m aware of, at least)

It matters on the mission, then.

In OZ, we were commanded to tract 40 hours per week and keep accurate records. Period.

The weekly breakdown was:

80 hours prostyliting (being out of the flat)
40 hours tracting
15 hours teaching
12 discussions
4 book of Mormons

We were also required to challenge each new investigator to a baptismal date by the end of the first discussion. The baptism was to be set 7 days from the first meeting/discussion.

The MP testified that every worthy companionship would baptise 2 people per month. The average missionary baptised about 10 peoples in 2 years if I can recall. It left us all a lot of time to know we were unworthy.

Tracting:

Most areas could be "knocked out" within about 6 months. The "country" or outback (outside the city) could be done in about 2 months. We took very careful records. We were commanded to.

When we finished methodically knocking through the area, we started over..and over.. and over. On occasion, we'd get "inspiration" to skip over a section and knock a specific street. But most of the time we acted a lot like Monk when it came to coloring in completed sections of our areas. We always returned in the evening and knocked on all the unanswered doors.

We were taught that we should never take the first few "no's" for an answer. Many of the doors were literally slammed on us. I remember being terrified by the tactics of the AP when I worked with him, even though at the time I wanted to be like him because he had baptised a lot of people.

By the end of the mission, I can honestly say I enjoyed tracting. It was like fishing. You didn't always catch something but you knew that eventually you would. Oh yeah, I really don't have the patience for fishing anymore.

Uh wait a minute here.

I will be going on my mission next year.

I admit, I never took any of the missionary preparation classes and did not plan on it cuz I feel I have a testimony already and have read the Book of Mormon twice.

I will be expected to do 40 hours of knocking on doors??? hooo boooy, i am not good at that. I thought I would be going to people that want to hear about the Gospel.

Perhaps I should see if the UVU Institute offers a missionary preparation course that I could take next semester.. at least so I know what a mission is like and I can decide then if I do still want to go.

[_ajax18]

TD, our leaders live in the 1950's. In the 50's, Fuller Brush and Avon went door to door. Door to door salesmen and door to door missionaries were nothing out of the ordinary. The rest of the world has moved on to the 2000's. Utah and our leaders are stuck in the 50's in some respects. The sales approach our missionaries use is not just foolish, it's downright destructive to the outcome. We'd have a lot higher retention rate of our converts if we'd revise the way missionaries teach.

I had always envisioned the Brethren as having younger advisors somewhere. Whether they listen to them or not is another issue. Or maybe it's just that nobody has a better idea, so until the government passes a law against it, it won't change.

Without tracting, I just don't see how you would occupy full time missionaries in doing what the brethren want, which is finding and converting people.

[_Always Thinking]

Uh wait a minute here.

I will be going on my mission next year.

I admit, I never took any of the missionary preparation classes and did not plan on it cuz I feel I have a testimony already and have read the Book of Mormon twice.

I will be expected to do 40 hours of knocking on doors??? hooo boooy, i am not good at that. I thought I would be going to people that want to hear about the Gospel.

Perhaps I should see if the UVU Institute offers a missionary preparation course that I could take next semester.. at least so I know what a mission is like and I can decide then if I do still want to go.

How much tracting you do totally depends on the mission (or the mission president). I served in Colorado. We had lots of contacts and plenty to do. We didn't need to tract to find people. I spent maybe 2 hours of my whole mission tracting. Seriously, we just didn't tract.

You may go to a mission that requires hours upon hours of tracting, or, you may go to one that requires none at all.

Just depends.