LDS Missionaries among the Homeless?

[_Bazooka]

Going back to the OP.
Do LDS Missionaries ever go out among the homeless? Do they have a policy for or against such visits?

Here is the current instruction to Missionaries about how to allocate their time and efforts:

The Weekly Planning Session
Once you have set goals, decide how you will achieve them. You and your companion should hold a weekly planning session on a day and at a time that is less productive for proselyting, such as Thursday or Friday morning. Your mission president will set the day and time of the weekly planning session. This weekly planning may take two to three hours to complete.

Your discussion should focus on the needs of people and how to help them progress. During this weekly planning session, review past goals and set new goals for the coming week. Consider every aspect of your proselyting.

Sunday evening is the recommended time for the weekly call-in report. A Sunday-evening report provides the most accurate and timely status of the mission because most baptisms and confirmations take place on Saturday or Sunday.

Because the day you hold your weekly planning session is likely to be different from your reporting day, approach your weekly planning with 10 days in mind. For example, if your weekly planning session is on Thursday, you will review the progress on your goals so far that week, and you will plan what you need to do to achieve these goals through Sunday. Then, set goals and make plans for the next week from Monday to Sunday. On Sunday evening you will total and report the results from the past week, and you will have your plan ready for the coming week. Below is a description of how the planning guidelines apply to a weekly planning session.

1. Pray for and seek inspiration. Before you begin, have your Missionary Daily Planner and area book near. Begin your planning session with prayer. Seek inspiration as you discuss the needs of people and plan how to serve them and help them progress in the gospel. Pray specifically for your investigators. Have the faith to ask Heavenly Father to bless them with answers to their prayers, with a desire to attend church, and so forth.
2. Set goals and make plans for investigators to be baptized and confirmed in the coming week. Review the Teaching Record for each person who is committed to be baptized or confirmed in the coming week. Discuss the arrangements you need to make for baptismal interviews, services, and confirmations. Using the Teaching Record, discuss any commitments these people may be struggling with and how you can help them. Plan to make daily contact with them. Discuss how you can help the ward mission leader coordinate with the bishop for their confirmations in sacrament meeting.
3. Set goals and make plans for investigators with a baptismal date. Review the Teaching Record for each person who will be baptized in the coming weeks. Talk about lessons you need to teach them. Consider how you can help them prepare for baptism and confirmation. Discuss investigators who were not baptized on their scheduled day. Carefully consider and discuss their needs. Set new goals and make plans that will help them progress toward a specific day and time when they can enter into the covenant of baptism and receive the ordinance of confirmation. On your Teaching Record, mark in pencil the principles you plan to teach and the commitments you will help them keep. Determine what you can do to help them receive these lessons and keep these commitments.
4. Set goals and make plans to help investigators attend sacrament meeting. Review the Teaching Record for each investigator, and discuss his or her attendance at sacrament meeting. For investigators who are attending sacrament meeting regularly, discuss what you need to do to help them continue to have a spiritually uplifting experience. For those who have never attended sacrament meeting, who have attended only once, or who attend occasionally, discuss what might be keeping them from coming. For example, they might need help with transportation, they may be afraid or unfamiliar with Latter-day Saint services, or they may have had a negative experience in the past. Discuss what you can do to help them overcome these barriers. Set goals for the number of investigators you plan to have in the next sacrament meeting. Plan who will take these people to church, who will greet them, and who will sit with them during meetings. Plan to contact quorum and auxiliary leaders and any teachers responsible for the classes the investigators will attend. Plan to inform the bishop. On the Progress Record, list ways the ward council can help. Make plans for what you need to do on each day of the week to prepare these people to attend.

5. Set goals and make plans for lessons to be taught to progressing investigators. Review the Teaching Record for each progressing investigator who was taught with a member present. Talk about how you feel they are receiving the message. Review the commitments and events from the Teaching Record that they are striving to keep or complete. Discuss how to help ward members and the ward council remain involved in their progress. Set goals for the lessons you will teach; the commitments you will help them keep, especially attendance at church; and important experiences you will help them have over the next several weeks.
Review the Teaching Record for each progressing investigator who was taught without a member present. These investigators may be people you found through your own efforts. Discuss which priesthood or auxiliary leader could be invited to friendship them. Review the lessons you will teach and the commitments you will help them keep. Set goals for the lessons you will teach, how you will involve members, and how you will help these investigators attend sacrament meeting. Record these goals on the Teaching Record, and make the necessary plans.

6. Set goals and make plans for lessons to be taught to all other investigators. Review the Teaching Record for each investigator who is not progressing. Discuss why each investigator is not keeping commitments. Discuss how you will involve priesthood and auxiliary leaders in friendshipping these investigators. Discuss many of the same items suggested in step 5. Set goals and make plans to help these people progress. Write these goals on the Teaching Record.
7. Set goals and make plans to contact and teach referrals received from members, investigators, nonmembers, and Church headquarters. Review Potential Investigators forms. Review all the referrals you have received. Review the referrals you have not yet contacted. Set goals and make plans to contact as many referrals as possible during the week—preferably all the referrals. Referrals from Church headquarters should be contacted within 24 hours, if at all possible. Discuss how you might approach each person or family and what message you might teach. If the referral is from Church headquarters, discuss how you will teach a gospel message using the video, book, or other material they have requested. Make sure you have the item they requested. If appropriate, contact the referral by phone and schedule an appointment. Discuss what follow-up you should do.
8. Set goals and make plans to seek more referrals from members, investigators, and nonmembers. Prayerfully identify other members and investigators you can visit. Plan how you will help them invite their friends and family members to learn about the restored gospel. Discuss how you will invite them to participate in missionary work. Schedule appointments and make necessary plans.
9. Set goals and make plans for lessons you will teach to recent converts and less-active members. Review the Teaching Record for each recent convert and less-active member you are teaching. Set goals and make plans for lessons you will teach. Determine how you will help these people attend sacrament meeting and keep other commitments.
10. Set goals and make plans to find new investigators. Review the previous week’s efforts to find new investigators through referrals, service opportunities, and personal finding activities. Refer to the information in the “Potential Investigators” section of your area book. Discuss why some people became new investigators and others did not. Set goals for how many new investigators you will find this week. Identify people who are likely to become investigators. Also identify members and part-member families you want to visit, referrals to visit, and service opportunities you will seek. Plan which finding tools you will use, such as pass-along cards, videocassettes, DVDs, scriptures, or brochures. Also discuss where you will go to contact people, how many people you will contact each day, investigators you will ask for referrals, former investigators you will visit, ways the ward council can help, and so on. Make specific plans for the next day. Fill in all remaining time with finding activities that will help you achieve your goals. Set goals and plan to talk to as many people as the Lord puts in your path. Always strive to find people to teach.
11. Plan how to work with the ward council. The bishop is the presiding authority. Respect and honor his authority. Under his direction, review the Progress Record used in the previous missionary coordination meeting or ward council. Discuss assignments you have received from the bishop or ward mission leader, and report on whether you have completed them. Discuss how to involve others who can help, such as the ward mission leader, priesthood and auxiliary leaders, and other members. Carefully prepare a Progress Record for the upcoming ward council meeting, priesthood executive committee meeting, or missionary coordination meeting. Make sure it is neatly written and clean. Set goals and make plans to work in harmony with the ward leaders. When possible, make copies of the Progress Record for the ward leaders who will attend.
12. Schedule meetings that occur regularly. In your Missionary Daily Planner, schedule meetings that happen regularly, such as district meetings, zone conferences, interviews, and Church meetings. Discuss assignments you need to complete prior to any of these meetings, and add them to your Notes/To Do List.
13. Conduct companionship inventory. At the end of your weekly planning session, share with your companion appropriate goals, and ask for his or her help to accomplish them. Discuss the strength of your relationship with your companion. Discuss any challenges that may be keeping your companionship from working in unity or from being obedient. Resolve conflicts. Share with your companion what you think his or her strengths are. Ask for suggestions on how you can improve. If needed, set goals that will improve your relationship. Conclude with prayer.

What can we conclude from this about the level of importance of Missionaries spending time helping the homeless?
http://www.LDS.org/manual/preach-my-gos ... y?lang=eng

[_Bazooka]

I tell you what mak.
Over the next month or two, the church is due to publish it's financial data in countries where it is legally obliged to do so.
When it does, let's you and I have a look at the numbers and discuss them and see what it tells us about the fiscal priorities of the Church.

Why wait? Here's Great Britain's publication of the Church's 2011 income and expenditures. Not terribly detailed, but perhaps you can find fault with it anyway.

Mak, from the published detailed financial accounts for the UK for year ending 2011 (which you can access through the link you provided).

Total donations from members - £33,652,000 (Tithing, Fast Offering, Humanitarian aid, Book of Mormon fund etc)

Total expenditure on 'charitable activities'
Provision of worship facilities - £23,790,000 (of which £11.3 million is support/staff costs)
Religious education - £5,943,000 (of which £5,131,000 is support/staff costs)
Missionary work - £6,981,000 (of which £555,000 is support/staff costs)
Genealogy work - £5,204,000 (of which £5,082,000 is support/staff costs)
Community projects - £4,761,000 (of which £352,000 is support/staff costs)

Total £46,679,000

Statement from the accounts:

During the year £1,876,000 (2010:£1,801,000) was spent for the relief of the poor and needy not only in the United Kingdom and Ireland but also other countries in Europe and Africa.

What do these figures tell us about where helping the poor and the needy ranks in the list of spending priorities?
Dead people are three times more important than living people perhaps....come to think about it, what do you hear more at Church "You need to go to the temple more often" or "you need to do more to help the poor and the needy"....

(It's worth noting that, in comparison to the £1.9m spent helping the poor & needy across Europe and Africa as well as the British Isles, £1.4m was spent on general administration costs of the support staff - that's pens, paper, staples etc. £1.2m was contributed to the Church employee pension fund, and £1.1m was spent on acquiring new motor vehicles.)

[_subgenius]

With your proclivity for trying to use questions to evade and distract from the actual issues....

Right back at ya.....

to be fair Zooka also does THIS
as seen in this post

[_subgenius]

...(snip)...What do these figures tell us about where helping the poor and the needy ranks in the list of spending priorities?...(snip)...

they tell us nothing. They do not even offer insight into the market prices for anything involved.

For my family, i spend more on orange juice than i do on bread in a week. This does not meant that orange juice is a priority in our house...nor does it mean that we sacrifice bread for OJ...or that we do without bread because of our OJ desires.

[_subgenius]

Subby, not sure why you're bumping me when it is you that faces the first unanswered question on this thread.

Perhaps instead of bumping, you should be answering...(but nobody expects you to)

viewtopic.php?p=734742#p734742

[_maklelan]

I don't think so.

Even if you've disabused yourself of that notion, you're certainly not about to be more explicit in your claims so that readers are not misled.

It is, it fails to live up to the standards it declares are important.

No, it fails to meet a threshold of living up enough to a standard that you've arbitrarily declared to be important.

The Church tells members to give generously to charity whereas 'it' spends the equivalent of 26 years worth of humanitarian aid on a shopping mall that the leaders profess to not anticipate a gain from, aside from making downtown Salt Lake City a bit prettier.

It also gives generously to charity, and when people in need ask, they give.

How much, in comparison, has the Church spent on helping the homeless of Salt Lake City - Less/A lot less/massively less/so much less it's embarrassing to Christ?

How much is enough for you? Give me a number. Tell me how much money you arbitrarily declare to be an acceptable amount of charitable giving?

Feel free to supply more figures so that we can form a stronger opinion then.

Not my place. You're certainly happy to draw firm conclusions from your uninformed assumptions, though. Obviously that kind of prejudice isn't going to be overcome by mere facts and figures. You've got a rhetorical point to uphold.

Lots, search the archives and you'll find it all. Or perhaps you could do the math yourself. According to those figures, how much was spent on each of the following:
1. Helping the poor and the needy = ?
2. Everything else = ?

So, no, nothing to say about 2011.

Well, if the pattern is consistent, when the Apostles intimate that cost cutting is going to be necessary it usually means people like yourself either lose their job entirely or that members have to take up the slack on an unpaid basis by doing jobs that were previously salaried. Such as cleaning the Chapel toilets.

Please provide documentation for this pattern.

How do you know that what I understand has no bearing on anything?

Because you don't understand jack and it very obviously has had no impact whatsoever on anything the church has done. Do you contend that your misapprehensions have had an impact on the church and its decisions?

One could argue that the Apostles intimation that they wish to cut costs so that they can spend more money on helping the homeless is as a direct result of people holding their activities up to the light and posting on message boards that the Church has spent 26 years worth of humanitarian aid on an upmarket shopping centre in downtown Salt Lake City. Somebody is forcing them to change, maybe Christ is unhappy with how His Church is being run.

No, one could just assert it. Not a one of you has any insight whatsoever to what I'm talking about. You're just making assumption after assumption, based on assumption.

Do you think Jesus is pleased with His Church developing City Creek?
If Jesus was living on earth today, do you think He would have spent $1.4 billion on an upmarket shopping mall?

I think I'm done entertaining your sophomoric rhetoric. It's clear you cannot provide anything more than juvenile rhetoric, and you're certainly not about to honestly engage any of my concerns with that rhetoric.

[_Bazooka]

The Church tells members to give generously to charity whereas 'it' spends the equivalent of 26 years worth of humanitarian aid on a shopping mall that the leaders profess to not anticipate a gain from, aside from making downtown Salt Lake City a bit prettier.

It also gives generously to charity, and when people in need ask, they give.

You can support this claim with the documentation you demand I provide, can you?

How much, in comparison, has the Church spent on helping the homeless of Salt Lake City - Less/A lot less/massively less/so much less it's embarrassing to Christ?

How much is enough for you? Give me a number. Tell me how much money you arbitrarily declare to be an acceptable amount of charitable giving?

Well, 10% of income seems to spring to mind. Howsabout the Church spends 10% of all it's income on helping the poor and the needy. That seems reasonable, don't you think? Jesus would say more was appropriate but let's start with 10% and see where we go from there. Estimates put Church income (excluding for-profit ventures) at somewhere in the region of $5 billion. So as a starting point let's see $500,000,000 being spent helping the poor and the needy. Even if it's much less than that, say $2 billion, let's see $200,000,000 being spent on helping the poor and the needy each year. (the Church spent $88,000,000 on humanitarian aid in 2011). Then we add on 10% of all the profits generated from ranching, hotels, property deals etc etc. It's a start don't you think and consistent with the standard required from members.

Feel free to supply more figures so that we can form a stronger opinion then.

Not my place. You're certainly happy to draw firm conclusions from your uninformed assumptions, though. Obviously that kind of prejudice isn't going to be overcome by mere facts and figures. You've got a rhetorical point to uphold.

So, still no facts and figures coming from you then....

Lots, search the archives and you'll find it all. Or perhaps you could do the math yourself. According to those figures, how much was spent on each of the following:
1. Helping the poor and the needy = ?
2. Everything else = ?

So, no, nothing to say about 2011.

You should have read the thread properly before leaping in to make this comment....

Well, if the pattern is consistent, when the Apostles intimate that cost cutting is going to be necessary it usually means people like yourself either lose their job entirely or that members have to take up the slack on an unpaid basis by doing jobs that were previously salaried. Such as cleaning the Chapel toilets.

Please provide documentation for this pattern.

Not my place (see your post above)

How do you know that what I understand has no bearing on anything?

Because you don't understand jack and it very obviously has had no impact whatsoever on anything the church has done. Do you contend that your misapprehensions have had an impact on the church and its decisions?

Why did the Church end polygamy? Why did the Church end the Priesthood ban? Why hasn't the Church repeated its actions of Prop 8? Why is the Church (slowly) coming clean about historical facts that have been known for a long time? I contend that when it starts to hurt the coffers, the Church changes.

One could argue that the Apostles intimation that they wish to cut costs so that they can spend more money on helping the homeless is as a direct result of people holding their activities up to the light and posting on message boards that the Church has spent 26 years worth of humanitarian aid on an upmarket shopping centre in downtown Salt Lake City. Somebody is forcing them to change, maybe Christ is unhappy with how His Church is being run.

No, one could just assert it. Not a one of you has any insight whatsoever to what I'm talking about. You're just making assumption after assumption, based on assumption.

And yet, you provide no factual, substantive, rebuttal to anything I claim using the figures I provide. Just your own wringing of hands and cries of "rhetoric" coupled with snidey remarks aimed at me personally. You don't seem like a very good example of a Mormon.

Do you think Jesus is pleased with His Church developing City Creek?
If Jesus was living on earth today, do you think He would have spent $1.4 billion on an upmarket shopping mall?

I think I'm done entertaining your sophomoric rhetoric. It's clear you cannot provide anything more than juvenile rhetoric, and you're certainly not about to honestly engage any of my concerns with that rhetoric.

Why can't you answer this relevant question? You avoid doing so at every turn. It's a simple question. Jesus heads the Church, the Church built City Creek, so, do you think Jesus was behind the project? Is He happy with the project? Does He approve/disapprove of spending 26 years worth of humanitarian aid on a single upmarket shopping complex in downtown Salt Lake City?

You won't answer/can't answer, because it's obvious Jesus Christ would have done/sanctioned no such thing. And well you know it.

Feel free to run away though....