Another Missionary Death

[Swiper]

Another missionary death. This is the 13th death this year. I can't help thinking that the church are sending them out way too young and inexperienced.

LDS missionary hit and killed by vehicle in Calif. | ksl.com

[pam]

And the majority have been things that could have happened at home as well. I don't think the age has anything to do with it.

[Vort]

[quote=Swiper;774876I can't help thinking that the church are sending them out way too young and inexperienced.

I suspect this is untrue. I bet you could help thinking that.

[Maureen]

Mormon missionary from Idaho electrocuted, dies in Mexico | KTVB.COM Boise

I would think the odds for tragedy are higher when there are more missionaries.

M.

[Dravin]

I would think the odds for tragedy are higher when there are more missionaries.

M.

All else being equal* you'll expect a greater number of tragedies not necessarily an increase in incidence. For example, if the incidence of tragedies is 1 in 10,000 missionaries per year then with 50,000 missionaries you'll expect 5 tragedies per year, with 100,000 missionaries you'll expect 10 tragedies per year. Twice as many tragedies but the same incidence (or in other terms more tragedies but the same odds for tragedy).

*An important caveat.

Edited October 11, 2013 by Dravin

[pam]

A few years ago I probably would not have even heard the news of a missionary being killed. Then I moved to Utah and I get the news from KSL (mostly) which is owned by the Church.

Then you add in people sharing that news throughout social media and all of sudden we have a perceived problem.

There are people who are electrocuted, hit by a car and killed in car accidents every day. We don't hear about that. But because the LDS community feels for one of its own, the news is shared among that particular community.

[slamjet]

This happened in the mission I live in so I'll add my .02, not that I need a reason...

I think that in this case there are two factors at work:

1) All the mission cars have been taken out of the mission except for very, very few. This will expose missionaries to more danger while traveling, especially in the big cities.

2) The roads in Arcadia, let alone the valley areas are not conducive to bicycles. There are some very, very fast thoroughfares around here, especially in that town.

So at the risk of sounding callous, it was an event waiting to happen.

[Swiper]

This happened in the mission I live in so I'll add my .02, not that I need a reason...

I think that in this case there are two factors at work:

1) All the mission cars have been taken out of the mission except for very, very few. This will expose missionaries to more danger while traveling, especially in the big cities.

2) The roads in Arcadia, let alone the valley areas are not conducive to bicycles. There are some very, very fast thoroughfares around here, especially in that town.

So at the risk of sounding callous, it was an event waiting to happen.

I agree. Most roads in American cities are not made with bicycles in mind. It is considerable more dangerous for missionaries to bike on streets than driving in cars. I guess the church made a cost-benefit analysis when taking away the cars for the missions and thought it was worth it.

[pam]

I just found out that Elder Kunz who was one of the most recent to die was the son of a missionary assigned to my area when I was a teenager. How sad.

[Guest]

Another missionary death. This is the 13th death this year. I can't help thinking that the church are sending them out way too young and inexperienced.

LDS missionary hit and killed by vehicle in Calif. | ksl.com

Do you also think we should wait until, say, their 20's to send kids off to college?

[dahlia]

I saw an elder alone on his bike in the middle of our big street here. Don't know where his companion was, but the poor elder was looking at traffic whizzing back and forth... of course, I'm in my car in a lane where I can't pull over and see what's wrong.

With more missionaries, we now have 4-5 in our ward. The elders who come out my way have quite the bike ride, and the weather is not bad now. I can't imagine what it will be like in the winter. We have a decent public transportation system for a small town, but not really suited for tracting. You really need a bike or a car, and a car would be better, but I hear from our guys that they won't have the car very much at all (they used to switch with the sisters).

I think that statistically the number of missionary deaths is lower than in the general population for this age group, but that doesn't help when you hear about them. It's always so sad.

[Seanette]

Seems to me like a certain adversary is having a VERY negative reaction to the increase in missionary work and is trying to fight it. Not that that's going to work, of course.