Should missionary casualties be honored? More Measures for reducing car accidents should be made

[riverogue]

There has been around 600 casualties. I was thinking, at the least, we could to erect some kind memorial, and a reporting system, for our fallen Heros, like we do for war casualties. It is surprising that we haven't.

Also, missionaries and their families need our prayers. Sorry for the outdated statistics, but from the time of Joseph Smith until 1989 there were 525 missionary casualties out of abt 447,969 fulltime missionaries. Being a veteran and aware of the approximate numbers of deployed soldiers in Afghanistan, the casualty rate is similar. It's a dangerous world out there for our missionaries. Most of them are hit by cars and die in automobile accidents. They are relatively inexperianced drivers, always on the road, and are often distracted while navigating and address searching in busy, unfamiliar areas. Murder is actually pretty low on the list. It seems that the Church could at least do some risk assesment and other training, rather than just saying, "drive safe". The church could implement technology to help keep the missionaries safe like a military does for its soldiers.

Anti-collision device now being installed in vehicles:

Ford, Lincoln Models Get Active Anti-Collision Technology Option

I remember when I was a missionary we would usually hunt down about a dozen or more new addresses each day. GPS would do alot to reduce distraction while navigating.

Drowsiness is a major cause of accidents. Providing non-drowsy, natural sleep aids such as Valarian, etc may be benificial. Valarian is nonaddictive and is supposed to relax ones mental anxieties enough that they can fall asleep. Alot of missionaries don't sleep well because of stress due to concerns over their investigators, their worthiness and success, adjusting to a new life, their families and friends at home, etc. Maybe we could provide it for them if the missionaries want it. Many of them don't have the money to buy it on their own.

Providing mental health couseling for missionaries would be beneficial as well. Mission presidents are not qualified to do this.

As far as financial support, I know on my stateside mission, 99-01, I was alloted only $140 per month. Any other financial support was nearly non existant. Less than a $100 of my stipend went to food. Not nearly enough to meet my dietary demands, especially since I was usually riding my bike 20 miles a day in the shearing humid Georgia heat. The rest went to buying missionary supplies, bicycle repair, replacement clothing, medicines, personal hygeine items, gasoline at times, electric bill if we went over the designated amount, and other unexpected expenditures. Dinner appointments were few and so my main diet consisted of cheap foods that are high in starch, pasta, bread etc. These foods make you drowsy, are not filling, and cause diabetes. I don't know what the churches food stipend is now, but if it's still small like it was in Georgia, they need to give a much larger allotment if possible. I'm sure the general authorities aren't suffering like that in their work, maybe that money could come out of their budget.

Edited August 3, 2010 by riverogue

[UrbanFool]

I don't know about other churches, but we have a calender we pass around every week and our congregation takes care of feeding our missionaries dinner (and I'm sure they're given lots of leftovers, cookies and other treats by members who can't help themselves.) Is this not standard?

[riverogue]

No. Have have been in 4 wards since my mission and have not seen a calendar once.

[Wingnut]

You say there have been around 600 casualties. Since when?

I don't know what mission you went to, or if you had cars in your mission, but I received video training at every single zone conference in my stateside mission.

As a driver, I never navigated. The non-driving companion always did.

We were always instructed that if either companion was ticketed or fined for any reason, that both would share equally because both were equally responsible for what happened in and to the car.

Mission presidents are not allowed to require their missionaries to get any less than eight hours of sleep a night, except for their first six weeks in the mission field. My mission president specifically sought out this information because he -- as a physician, professionally -- wanted us to get up 30 minutes earlier each day to exercise. Side story: His theory was that if we exercised each day instead of just on preparation day, that there would be less injuries on p-days and also to missionaries who walked or biked everywhere. What he ended up doing instead was have us still arise at 6:30 every morning, but allow 30 minutes for active exercise time, and he cut down our proselyting time by the same 30 minutes. He submitted his plan to SLC for approval, and they granted it. Our mission became a pilot program. It was so successful in that it both cut down on injuries and, in fact, improved our proselyting results, that the program was piloted in several other missions across the USA and eventually implemented Church-wide (I believe) in a general schedule change format. Any, the point of all that is that missionaries who are obedient and follow the rules do get eight hours of sleep a night, unless they have a sleeping condition, in which case, they would probably be treated for it already, prior to entering the mission field. There's no reason to assume that all missionaries need sleep aids.

I don't think that mental health counseling would be beneficial except to those who are already receiving it prior to entering the mission field, and perhaps not even to them. A missionary's lifestyle is so foreign to an outsider -- even an LDS counselor, and even one who served a mission previously -- that it would be difficult to effectively counsel a missionary.

Anti-collision devices -- in my opinion -- make for more careless drivers. "Why be a safe driver? The car will do it for me!"

Special technology and GPS are too expensive for missionary cars, especially if you're also complaining about the low amount of the monthly stipends, which vary from mission to mission.

Edited August 3, 2010 by Wingnut
correct punctuation

[skippy740]

I served in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission - very much like Georgia.

If a missionary has a hard time sleeping, it's probably because they didn't work hard enough that day.

A missionary who is WORRYING about investigators is worrying over too much that they cannot control. A missionary's job is to teach with the spirit. It's up to the investigator to accept the challenges and invitations asked. If they don't accept, it's THEIR CHOICE. No amount of "worrying" will change that. You can love your investigators, but you must love them enough to let them make their own choices in life.

I believe a mental health evaluation is performed BEFORE one submits their application to be considered for missionary service. If one is fit for service, they are selected and called. If one isn't, they shouldn't be in the mission field. If they develop a mental health issue, it may be up to the Mission President to sent that missionary home - especially if they are impeding the work in the particular area. And yes, I've known missionaries who have been sent home for exactly such reasons.

GPS? These missionaries are supposed to be limiting the amount of technology they have available to them. It's a time to grow closer to the Lord and rely more upon him and sound planning principles, instead of technology. I'm more in favor of a minimalist technological missionary experience.

Should missionary casualties be honored? They have been. Joseph Standing was shot in Georgia. His companion, Rudger Clawson went on to serve as an Apostle.

Rudger Clawson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See lower down on this one for the Joseph Standing memorial in Georgia:

Joseph Standing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[riverogue]

that number dates back since the churches organization. Its about 500 missionaries that would have died in auto accidents during their two year missions. 1/900 about. but that's only during those two years. Do the math a missionary is much more likely to die in auto accidents.

we did recieve a short training lesson every two months: we would usually review the accidents that happened since the last zone meeting. It was kind of embarrasing for the missionaries present in those accidents. I do not recall any video though.

Getting 8 hours of sleep in an 8 hour alotted period is easier said than done.

I agree, not all missionaries need sleep aids.

Perhaps mental health professionals wouldn't be able to relate very well to such a foreign lifestyle. I was throwing ideas out there. But I dont think mission presidents are qualified either

Edited August 3, 2010 by riverogue

[Wingnut]

that number dates back since the churches organization. Its about 500 missionaries that would have died in auto accidents during ther two year missions. say lifespan is 80. so 500 lives /(80yrs/2yrs) = 12.5 so If the same rate of death by car accident existed throughout life as it does in the missionary field abt 1 in 12.5 people would die in car accidents.

I'm not sure what life span has to do with anything here, but let's look at some other numbers. You say your figures are through 1989. That's 159 years since the Church's organization. You quoted 525 missionary deaths in that time. That's 3.3 missionary deaths per year since the foundation of the Church. Currently, the Church averages around 50,000 missionaries in the field each year. The 3.3 per year figure works out to .0066% of missionaries who serve. Using your overall number of 447,969 missionaries ever, the number raises slightly, to .12%. Incidentally, I'd like to know where you're getting your numbers from, and I'd also like to know --since you brought it up -- where you're getting your Afghanistan numbers from, since I'm pretty sure the death toll of war is greater than .12%. Regardless of that, .12% of missionaries since the founding of the Church is hardly anything to balk at.

we did recieve a short training lesson every two months: we would usually review the accidents that happened since the last zone meeting. It was kind of embarrasing for the missionaries present in those accidents. I do not recall any video though.

Then your mission president wasn't showing them to you. The Church Missionary Department has missionary-specific training videos that are to be shown to all missionaries at regular intervals. Also, did your mission really have so many accidents that the bulk of your driver training time was relegated to reviewing past screw-ups?

Perhaps mental health professionals wouldn't be able to relate very well to such a foreign lifestyle. I was throwing ideas out there. But I dont think mission presidents are qualified either

Mission presidents are not qualified to be mental health professionals, but they are endowed with powers of discernment, wisdom, and the right to revelation on behalf of those in their stewardship.

[riverogue]

I looked through my math and I think it was bad , but since changed it in th above post. 1 auto death in 900 during a 2 year period is poor though. I would qoute for you the source if I could find it again. sorry about that.

I know that I had substantial mental health issues before and during my mission (depression, social phobia, excessive anxiety disorder). so much so that my bishop didn't expect me to serve a mission. When I said I wanted to go, he was surprised, and I went. I never went through any kind of mental health evaluation. I didn't know they do that. And I never recieved anykind of mental health couseling from my mission president. Usually interviews with the mission president was an in and out gotta get the job done kind of thing to be done once every two months

Edited August 3, 2010 by riverogue

[Wingnut]

I know that I had substantial mental health issues before and during my mission (depression, social phobia, excessive anxiety disorder). so much so that my bishop didn't expect me to serve a mission. When I said I wanted to go, he was surprised, and I went. I never went through any kind of mental health evaluation. I didn't know they do that.

When you went in 1999 they wouldn't have. When the bar was raised -- at the end of 2002 -- qualifications to serve became stricter, and it may be a part of application now. I served 2002-2004, so I don't know personally.