Talk:Missionary
From Academic Kids
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Pretty one sided
I'd like to see some discussion of some of the negative aspects of missionaries and they way being sent on some missions is designed to alienate you from the public, not to convert people.
- Huh? I assume you're referring to LDS Missionaries? I was one, and I was under the impression I was sent to spread the word (and my sons plan on doing the same when they are old enough). Do you have any sources? Could it be done in a NPOV fashion? — Frecklefoot | Talk 18:51, Feb 28, 2005 (UTC)
Mary Sleser
Mary Sleser was a missionary to Africa, she was known as "White Ma" by the Indian Tribes.
Mary settled conflicts, and arguements.
European culture vs. Christians
"They were successful in obtaining several thousand converts to the faith, but adoption of European culture was slow, retarding acceptance of the new converts as real Christians." Huh? What does European culture have to do with being real Christians? -phma
- The editor doesn't acknowledge that missions often had non-imperialistic motivations, even if the arrival of missionaries was always a harbinger of imperialistic expansion during the colonial period. The paragraph is dealing with complex and controversial material. It would take great skill to treat the topic in a "neutral" way (so, I'm leaving it alone). Mkmcconn
Mormon missionaries fluent
I don't really agree with this sentence from the article: "Often, missionaries are fluent in the language they study at the end of the six-week period." From what I understand, LDS missionaries are given a set of common phrases to learn as well as basic syntax for the foreign language, but I don't think they are often fluent in the language by the time they arrive at their destination. Many say they are completely lost for the first few weeks while learning the new language. After they are immersed in it, however, they learn it more quickly. I may be wrong, however, so please correct me if I'm wrong. I served a domestic mission, so I didn't go through the foreign-language training. —Frecklefoot 15:40, 16 Feb 2004 (UTC)
- The official MTC website says that foreign-speaking missionaries are trained for 8 to 10 weeks, and I was there for 9 weeks learning Spanish, so I made the change. —Hawryluka 15:57, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Cool, thanks for making the change! :-) — Frecklefoot | Talk 18:05, Aug 6, 2004 (UTC)
If this can help, I've met a number of LDS missionaries in France and none of them were "fluent". David.Monniaux 13:10, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Searching problem
I was searching for Missions which took me to "ambigous" page about all kinds of "missions"
I clicked on Mission (Christian) [one of the links] and that brought me to a page of the same name. It only contained a short 2 sentence blurb and no links (stub) to something as full as what I found in Missionary! I don't remember how I got to Missionary but that page has everything on it!
I copied the Christian Missions section to "Mission (Christian)" but I didn't want to remove so much from Missionary without some comments from others.
Does this make sence? Strbenjr
- Sorry it's taken so long to respond, but people will be more inclined to answer, Strbenjr, if you sign your posts. You can do this ny using 3 or 4 tildes, e.g. ~~~~. The latter version signs your post and adds a time stamp--three tildes signs with no timestamp. The 4 tilde version is preferred by most.
- Next, what do you want to do? Create a seperate article for Christian missions? If there is a seperate article with Christian mission information in it, it should be deleted and any links to it redirected to the Christian section of this article. This article isn't big enough to be split up into seperate articles yet. — Frecklefoot | Talk 18:04, Aug 6, 2004 (UTC)
- I remember coming back a few times but didn't see a response until now. Sorry I didn't leave a Signature but I am glad to know how to do that now.
- Obviously I made the change that I was asking about. I also changed references from other pages so they don't go to the old stubs and other places when they are obviously refering to religous missions.
- Strbenjr 00:55, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
LDS missionaries
Full-time proselyting missionaries are required to adhere to a dress code: for men, dark trousers and suit coats (which are optional in hot climates), white dress shirts, and ties are required;
That, I understand. However, I noticed that, quite often, LDS missionaries preaching in France wear backpacks whose color violently clashes with their suit. I understand that LDS policy is to wear professional, strict attire, but why doesn't this extend to accessories? David.Monniaux 13:12, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- I don't know. When I was serving a mission, we weren't allowed to use them. The allowance nwo is a rather recent. AFAIK, there is no "dress code" for backpacks. Perhaps there will be someday. — Frecklefoot | Talk 19:04, Feb 8, 2005 (UTC)
- I have heard that backpacks are Strongly discouraged in general - but it is a mission president's call. And, obviously, it has not (as yet) made its way into the white handbook. I think the missionaries that have been allowed to use them are doing future missionaries a disservice by not using backpacks that are dark in colour - more likely to get noticed and possibly banned. I sure wish I could have had a backpack on my long walks. User:Trödel/sig 20:03, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- I agree missionaries should use backpacks in dark, conservative colors. I sure would've appreciated being able to use them too. Luckily, I had a car in most my areas, so getting stuff around wasn't too hard, but it sure would've been easier on bikes with backpacks.
- What's worse than using backpacks in garrish colors is using backpacks with inappropriate decals and patches. I went on trade-offs with a missionary who had Smashing Pumpkins and Pink Floyd patches on his backpack. I love Pink Floyd, but I don't think emissaries of the Church should be proclaiming them on their clothing. — Frecklefoot | Talk 21:28, Feb 8, 2005 (UTC)
LDS long
Take a look at Missionary#LDS_missionaries. It's more than twice as long as any of the other entries! I'd like to propose that we create a new article just for LDS missionaries and trim the entry in this article. We would, of course, provide a link to the main article from the smaller entry. This would have a number of benefits:
- We could go on and on as long as we like about LDS missions
- We could better organize the topic
- We could go in depth into topics which aren't discussed, such as zone leaders, district leaders and assisstants to the president.
What does everyone else say? — Frecklefoot | Talk
- I agree with this. Missions are a important part of LDS Culture. User:Trödel/sig 16:31, 13 May 2005 (UTC)
This topic has been dead for a long time. Does anyone else have strong feeling against an LDS Missionary article? If not, I vote we go ahead and create this article. — Frecklefoot | Talk 22:00, Jun 11, 2005 (UTC)
