Older missionaries..?

[EruditioSalvatus]

So, I've had "the talk" from a few set of missionaries in the past couple of years. While they have a stronger grasp of many things canonical (except for the truly queer questions I often have) than others I've have always run into a problem. Unfortunately these missionaries tend to lack real world experience which greatly hinders the teaching process. Most of my 'religious experiences' (or revelation, testimonials, et cetera) come from very hard, very real life events which are completely lost on neophytes of the world.

When I ask older persons of church station I get the Catch 22 of 'well, you need to talk to the missionaries."

In short the missionaries are a nice bunch of kids, but is there any way one could talk to someone... older for all this?

[beefche]

I'd ask the missionaries to bring the "ward missionaries" or "ward mission leader." These are individuals who live in your regional boundaries that have been assigned to be missionaries (of a sort). They assist the young full time missionaries in their duties (but are not full time--they have jobs and families and do the church stuff on a 'part time' basis).

You might even ask the missionaries to have a couple assigned to you to answer these questions--like a "home teacher"--another duty assigned to people in your area to see to the welfare of assigned families.

[Dravin]

You can also ask to speak with the Mission President/have him sit in on a lesson with you, that may or may not be practical depending on a variety of reasons.

[beefche]

Before I'd go to the Mission President, I'd ask for someone from the ward. Two reasons: one, the MP is a very busy man and is much like a GA in that he doesn't have the time/resources to visit investigators on a regular basis. Second, having someone from the ward visit allows friends to be made within the ward and we are asked to befriend investigators and help them adjust to the ward/church.

[puf_the_majic_dragon]

All very good suggestions :) You can also ask on here, but I can't guarantee every answer you get will be worth anything.

I for one am almost 26 and preparing for a mission. We're a minority, but there are older more experienced missionaries out there. Why don't you ask this question of the missionaries you've spoken to? Maybe they know someone who can help.

[bytebear]

Another option is to just start attending church regularly. You hopefully will make some friends there too, that you can have over and discuss religion with. The missionaries can be there too, and you can find someone who you feel is more akin to your kind of life experience.

[Dravin]

Before I'd go to the Mission President, I'd ask for someone from the ward. Two reasons: one, the MP is a very busy man and is much like a GA in that he doesn't have the time/resources to visit investigators on a regular basis. Second, having someone from the ward visit allows friends to be made within the ward and we are asked to befriend investigators and help them adjust to the ward/church.

My mission president took the time to go out with the missionaries on a fairly frequent basis, even had investigators taught in the mission home. It of course varies by Mission President and is one of those factors that may not make it practical, another big one is distance from the Mission Home, he understandably got out with the missionaries when they taught (actually he even went tracting with missionaries a few times) more frequently the closer they were to Spokane, the missionaries out in Troy and Libby Montana understandably saw a lot less of him out there. Doesn't hurt to ask though, the worst that gonna happen is he's gonna get told its not practical (and you never know, he might be able to pester him for a bit at a near by Zone Conference), he also has two councilors he can send in his stead, actually if one of the councilors is closer I'd just ask for the councilors to start with rather than the Mission President (both of whom on my mission made a point of spending time out and about with the missionaries but that may not be the case where he lives, but once again, doesn't hurt to ask).

You are right that baring a very local councilor the Mission Presidency won't be able to go on a routine basis (most likely), and its best if its somebody from the ward but it depends on the nature of the questions if that will help and its better than nothing, its just one more option he has out of multiple.

[mnn727]

Please feel free to ask here, we have a wide variety of people here, young old in-between, converts, life-long members, etc. We don't always agree on everything but you should see a consensus.

perhaps ask as part of the answer to give a brief personal background so you can see where we're cvoming from -- I'll start: I'm a 53 year old convert of 16 years now, raised in an milder offshoot of Pentacostalism and investigated many (11 or 12) denominations before becoming LDS -- spent over a decade as an agnostic inbetween there also.

Edited July 14, 2009 by mnn727