Comments on: Jackass Missionaries: Where Are They Now?

By: RW

RW — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 02:51:32 +0000

I just have to say that this has been an interesting read. I’m a little concerned that we’re all airing our dirty laundry on the public Web, or at least not telling the whole story of what we learned from these experiences that made us into stronger, smarter, and more spiritual members after the mission than we were before.

I’ve often heard the statement, “The Church must be true because if not, the missionaries would have destroyed it years ago.”

Truth is, I had every best intention of serving the most 100% perfect mission anyone could ever serve. Yes siree, I was going to be the Moroni of my mission and no bad companion or mission president was going to influence me otherwise. Well, I think we call that pride. Today when I look back, I still feel that I was a good (enough) missionary, but that the Lord was somewhere in Heaven rolling his eyes and laughing at the stupid situations I got myself into because of my naiveté at the tender age of 19-21. Yes, I was an “adult”, but by no means had I fully matured.

But I’ve learned since that the Lord is not ignorant of this fact. Instead, as Alma said, “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.” I certainly was small, simple, and foolish, but what gives me hope and understanding is that despite all of that, there grew in my last area a branch of 7 new members into a ward of several hundred. Nearby, within walking distance of the apartment I lived in, a new temple will soon be built.

Though the Lord doesn’t excuse us when we intentionally sin and try to cover it up, I believe that when we make mistakes that come from lack of understanding, he applies the grace of the Atonement as we come to realize what happened and seek to repent and make restitution.

When one of my companions, a native of the area who had severe mental issues (bipolar and paranoia), sneaked away from me one night to go make out with a young woman we had been teaching with her family, I was devastated when I discovered them together. I felt so angry at him and so stupid for trusting him and not listening to the Spirit when I was told to check on him. But the Lord spoke to me by the Spirit and prompted me to not fear, but swallow my pride and the temptation to make him take the heat. Instead, I turned myself in and take full responsibility for my companion’s actions. To this day, I believe that this was one of the defining moments of my life in that the habitual excuse-maker in me was replaced by someone with enough chutzpah to do the right thing.

In the end, the mission president had mercy on my companion and I and we lived up to his challenge to not mess up again. Ever since then, when faced with a weighty dilemma, I look back on that moment and make myself apply that situation to the current one. It’s been good for me.

There will always be “bad” missionaries. There will be many more “good” missionaries who end up doing bad thing because of immaturity, peer pressure, or even pressure from home. That doesn’t mean the Church isn’t true, nor that it, as an organization isn’t perfect. It just means that the people in it and running it are imperfect. The Lord knew this and that’s why there’s an Atonement and forgiveness…to make all things right and new again.

By: sn

sn — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:25:29 +0000

Stumbled upon this randomly, sorry for the late post.

I waited for my missionary and ended up marrying him a few months after he got home. I wish I would have known the sorts of things that were happening in his mission, before we hurried into marriage. He was just about to start an intense schedule at BYU, and I wanted a summer wedding, and we didn’t think we could wait a whole year. Dumb reasons to rush marriage, for sure.

Whether or not he personally participated in terrible acts on his mission (such as naming and baptizing inanimate objects to boost numbers), it damaged his testimony severely, to the point that he only attends church out of perceived social pressure, and doesn’t support religious activity at home at all. Which is VERY hard for me. And most of his mission friends have left the church entirely.

So, consider yourself vindicated, but I do hope that the 3% and growing hopes will turn out sooner than later… :-)

By: Times & Seasons » Making Peace with Missionary Work

Times & Seasons » Making Peace with Missionary Work — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:47:32 +0000

[...] isn’t because I was one of those “jackass missionaries” that Rusty attacked so eloquently last year. Sure, there was plenty of misbehavior on my part [...]

By: kyle

kyle — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:15:41 +0000

from comment 70, yah, one of my zl’s(at the time of the incident not a zl) gave all the discutions to a girl in one day. she did not have family ties to the church and was pretty young, not shure but less than 18yo, well she got baptised that day(had been to church with freinds before, just never wanted to talk to the missionarys)and now she is one of the strongest members of that ward. so you never know.

By: kyle

kyle — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:05:49 +0000

well, i served in nicaragua recently, and found this forum just now. one thing i learned was that there are no rules on the mission other than to follow what the spirit dictates. now, due to the inability of many to recognise the spirit, and even fewer that constantly follow its promptings, we have the mission rules, to keep the not quite so mature people in check. it kinda reminds me of how Christ summed up the comandments into only two. during my mission we averaged about 400 baptisims a month, and had an extrordinary mision president, he was a convert, and had saved his money and worked for years to be able to go on his own mission. he really taught us to follow the spirit. which most of us strived to do. when it came to baptisims we had the general rules, but we were informed above all to follow the spirit.
shure, we had the classic missionarys that would do anything to baptise, which was annoying, especially when we had to go in and clean up the mess that that caused, but we still can’t generalise too much. i was not someone that baptised a lot of kids, i could probably count the number of kids under 14 that i baptised my whole 2 years on one hand. but then again there were some. i remember baptising a little girl that was only 9 years old. but she had a testimony, her parents wanted her and her brother to go to church and her mother wanted to be a member but was not married, and her relationship with her husband, er, life-companion, was complicated, she owned the house, he brought in the money, so since they couldnt be baptised they wanted their kids to be. that 9-year old girl knew more about the church than i did when i was nine, she was a genious really, she even told off a pastor of another church that came by telling lies about ours, so yah, you can’t judge a book by it’s cover, there are younger people that are ready for the gospel, there are older, learned men that are wise and insincere and want in on the church for alterior motifs, the only way to know is with the spirit.
just one more experience, on e missionary, elder lang, baptised two tenage girls of a family, they stayed active in the church even when he left the church i met them once in divisions, very nice people, i even thought that their parents were members, turns out they were not married and the husband liked to drink. long story short i was transfered into the area a year later, we(the missionarys) were now living in their house(it was divided in two parts) i was there 3 transfers and we would always talk to them and teach them and such. well,towards the end of my time there the sister was planning on going to spain to find work(nicaragua being the poorest country in the western hemisphere short of haiti), well, we used the leverage to convince her husband to marrie her, seing as their oldest son was now 23 years old and had a kid of his own. i knew that the missionarys in spain would baptise her if we could only get them married. well, i jokingly told her that she should get baptised before she leaves for spain. she had never been to church before, so i thought it really as a joke, as we liked to kid around. that night as we got home from zone conference with the MP i had the distinct impression that she needed to be baptised before she left. we got the permissions, had the zl’s interview her, and she got baptised, never having been to church before. she was confirmed in church, then left for spain. first couple of days there a random lady noticed that they were not from spain and and offered to take them to lunch, then invited them to church. when they got there the realised it was our church. i got transfered not long thereafter but got a call in my new(and last) area from her husband(he stayed with the fam. while she want with here sis to spain), turns out that he had stopped drinking, had gone to church and was now being baptised. so there are really no rules as to who will be active and inactive. i feel bad for the swimming hole batisim victims, but i don’t think they will be accountable for that if they didn’t know what they were doing, i feel worse for the missionarys that did the crime, as all the weight of those people now falls on their heads.

so in short it’s really hard to go and say what type of baptisims are legit and which are not just by looking at age or something superficial like that, but i’m not claiming that we should baptise every 8yo kid we see, that would be about as dumb as saying we should burn everyone before the age of eight so they get saved unconditionally. i think the end result for the perpetrator of either would be pretty similar though.

By: Seth R.

Seth R. — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:51:02 +0000

Dude, lay off the ALL CAPS button. It’s considered shouting.

And this isn’t a Myspace page where you get to spread gossip about all your personal enemies. What’s next? Their home addresses and phone numbers with a call for their swift excommunications? Or just a call for no one to sit next to them at the ward picnic?

By: THELEON

THELEON — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:11:01 +0000

I KNOW THOSE JACKASS MISSIONARIES. THE ONES THAT BAPTIZED LOTS OF KIDS IN ORDER TO BECOME AP. I SERVED WITH THEM IN THE NORTH GUATEMALA MISSION. THEY ARE ELDER SAMAYOA AND ELDER WAINRIGTH. THE MP WAS GORDON ROMNEY.

DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ELDER SAMAYOA. ELDER BRENT WAINRIGTH MARRIED ONE OF THE MISSIONARIES ON THE SAME MISSION (DANA WAINRIGTH NOW.) UP TO 2005 THEY HAD 5 CHILDREN AND ELDER WAINRIGTH WAS SERVING IN HIS STAKE PRESIDENCY. (SEE NORTH GUATEMALA MISSION WEB PAGE).

I JUST WISH ELDER WAINWRIGTH REPENTED FROM THOSE ACTIONS THAT CAUSED ELDER DEHLIN TO HAVE DOUBTS OF THE GOSPEL. NOW, ELDER DEHLIN HE HAS HIS PAST IN THE MISSION AS WELL. I WAS HIS SENIOR COMPANION. YOU WANNA NOW MORE? I TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT SOME OTHER TIME.

E. THELEON

By: Ammon

Ammon — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 23:24:59 +0000

A lot about what you said about Terry is slanderous and totally false. He was my zone leader and I knew all his dirty little secrets as all missionaries have. He did not go to Mexico city. He did not get busy with a woman, he did not go inactive. He did belong to the Patzun soccer team and traveled a bit but please be careful when you are speculating and insinuating about someone and damaging their reputation. He baptized a lot because people loved him. He brought peace to people and a couple of his baptisms are stake presidents now.

By: makakona

makakona — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 05:19:33 +0000

cheryl, i just saw your #71! email away, as i can’t find your email anywhere.

By: Seth R.

Seth R. — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 01:33:01 +0000

Yeah, we had our share of Polynesian elders in our mission too…

Man, that brings back memories.