This isn't my own writings but I love this. I love reading this which is a reminder to all members. This is a big help for us to help all young full time missionaries to concentrate in their work. :-)
This list isn't meant to make anyone feel bad, especially since many
members do some of these things without realizing that they are either
#1- against mission rules, or #2- may make the missionary feel
uncomfortable. Its just meant to be a list of suggestions of things
that you may not have thought about that you can do to help the
full-time Elders or Sisters you work with concentrate on their work and
spend less time being distracted.
Here is the list that the blog "Mormon Insights" gives, along with my comments added in red font:
1. Don't pay a compliment to one missionary without also paying a compliment to his/her nearby companion. Sometimes
one missionary is very charismatic or good-looking and tends to get
more attention than his/her companion, so its good to be sensitive to
this.
2. When missionaries are paying a visit to your home, try your best to keep the televisions, radios, and computers off. This
is so distracting when you're trying to keep the mission rules to not
watch TV/movies, etc at all during your missionary service. Imagine if
you were trying to avoid sweets and you went to a friend's house who
had 100 cupcakes sitting on the table.
3. If missionaries are available to be invited to dinner, keep the visit under an hour.
Its hard to leave when members/investigators want you to stay, but
missionaries are usually taught to keep visits under an hour and they
may have another appointment to get to. Every minute you keep them from
their work is a minute that they could be finding someone new to teach.
4. Don't ask missionaries about their girlfriends or boyfriends back home.
I know you're curious, but for someone who is trying to concentrate on
the work, having people constantly bring up boyfriends/girlfriends can
be hard. Especially if that significant other has recently dumped you
via letter or email (happens a lot!). Imagine having people
constantly bring the subject up when you're just trying to forget it.
5. When conversing with a missionary, try to keep conversations centered on Church-related or service-related issues.
6. Always respect the companionships of missionaries. Do not ask a
missionary how well he or she is getting along with the assigned
companion. (The missionary leadership will handle that question). Also,
if they aren't getting along as a companionship or the missionary
really can't stand his/her companion, they probably won't say so anyhow,
which puts them in the awkward position of having to pretend that
everything is peachy when they'd rather not discuss it with you.
7. Do not ask missionaries how many baptisms they have had. The number of baptisms is not an index of success. This
is really an okay thing to wonder about, since we may be curious about
how the missionary work is going in our area and throughout the
mission. However, there are better ways to find out than to ask "How
many baptisms?", which puts the focus on numbers. Here are some other
ways you can ask essentially the same thing: "Have you been finding
success in the area? (or "How was the work going in your last area?")
or "What have been some of your favorite experiences with investigators
so far?"
8. Do not
expect missionaries to stay in contact with you after they have left an
area or even after they have finished their mission service. Some
missions have rules about whether missionaries can stay in contact
with members in their former areas during the remainder of their
missions. It may seem silly, but missionaries do need to focus on
serving the members/investigators in their new area, so even if contact
is allowed its best to keep it limited.
9. Do not call upon missionaries in Sunday School to provide
scriptural support for some obscure doctrine that has been raised in
class. The authority of missionaries is in missionary work, not in
settling doctrinal debates. Most
of the time they know the basics (thats what they study and that's
what they are sent to teach), so don't assume that they are doctrinal
experts.
10. Do not ask a Sister or an Elder for their first name. The first name is Sister or Elder. Period. I
discovered on my mission that a lot of members think its fun to call
full-time missionaries by their first name, even if its just in the
member's home. They may mean well, seeing themselves as a parent-figure
and wanting the missionary to feel a little more normal, but remember
that the full-time missionaries go by their title for a reason - it
helps them (and us) remember that they are set apart for a sacred
mission)
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