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Just whip out camera and ask them if they would like to pose for a "Hustler" magazine.
Oh, yeah, they might run...
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maybe they'll surprise you.
After all, aren't they doing their missions when they're still in the "hormones raging" age?
For me the problem is when they come to the door. I have issues with people coming over without calling. The occasional neighbor with a neighborly matter, no problem. But every f***ing day, like these fools who were raiding us, and now I'm losing sleep, calling lawyers, resigning from the church, posting no tresspassing signs, and the topic over meals is how to tell a religion from a cult. Instead of defending this obnoxious and abusive behavior, get a clue because IT DOES NOT WORK, and if obnoxious is bad, STUPID and obnoxious is much worse.
At least in your home, you have some protection - you dont have to answer the door. When in Sydney, they stay in an apt complex near where I work. This is also located near a large park which is often utilized by workers at lunchtime. (Hyde Pk, if anyone's interested). I have seen them stop and talk to people who are just sittin' there eating their lunch..or trying to. I've also seen beggars do the same thing, and it s***s me, it's happened to me too. I deal with the public all day, lunch is my time to release some stress by looking at the trees, reading a book, whatever.
But they sort of have a 'captive audience', and it is much harder to a) avoid them, and b) be polite, especially if I've had a hard morning. But I do try and be nice. I find it best just to say, 'no but thanks, have a good day'.
You are entitled to your outlet and a pleasant lunch hour. So is everyone else. They have just taken advantage of that and invaded your space. Don't be nice. It's not necessary.
The other thing I wonder about is how can a couple of 20 year olds sell their "bill of goods" to adults in their 30s, 40s, 50s, who, in a modern country, probably loosely subscribe to a "lower-maintenance" mainstream Christian religion -- I'm talking Sydney, Toronto, Madrid, Buenos Aires. I'm just amazed.
You are entitled to your outlet and a pleasant lunch hour. So is everyone else. They have just taken advantage of that and invaded your space. Don't be nice. It's not necessary.
The other thing I wonder about is how can a couple of 20 year olds sell their "bill of goods" to adults in their 30s, 40s, 50s, who, in a modern country, probably loosely subscribe to a "lower-maintenance" mainstream Christian religion -- I'm talking Sydney, Toronto, Madrid, Buenos Aires. I'm just amazed.
I think the real target subjects of the missions being served are the missionaries themselves. The degree of indoctrination - cultlike indoctrination - that the persons on these missions are undergoing is quite high, and serves a lifelong purpose more relevant to the church than the likely few number of persons brought into the LDS fold by these missionaries. I for one, having been converted at one brief moment in my life, was not won over by being harassed by persons coming over without invitation. And when I was "converted," like so many others the church likes to count, it didn't stick. At all. For me. But for the missionaries involved in my conversion? A lifelong branding experience for their sorry a@#es.
I hope this doesn't come off as being sarcastic but how could you let someone that knocked on your door answer your beliefs for you? A weak moment? A bad time in your life? I really am curious. I say this with no malice. I have had many a weak moment but never turned to religion. I say this with all sincereity. I am truly anxious to understand how you wrapped your brain around that at the time?
It didn't have a thing to do with random missionaries. Had to do with preserving a sense of family for a young distraught mother, grappling with many very horrendous circumstances, and a very evil father of her child, whose whole family is LDS, and is indeed to this day entirely supportive. In essence, temporary insanity. He is long long gone, my activity was never more than brief, probably less than 3 months from start to end, and now the kids and I are close in space and spirit to his family. And they are unbaptized, ie like raw meat to a wasp.
Call it what you want, I call it a lack of respect for those who want nothing to do with their religion. Their intolerance of gays and their right to happiness leaves me with nothing but contempt for them.
Based on your comment, they care more about a soul than a person.
I have a sign on my door. They ignore it. Whatever I do to them on my property is well deserved.
It there is a sign there, they shouldn't bother you.
That being said, I can't speak for others. I also wasn't attempting to convince you to think differently, but to understand the circumstances in which they operate, and use that in attaining your goal of them not coming back. Like I said, they don't want to keep visiting someone that hates them-nothing good in that for anyone.
They will always be in the same, small geographic area, and the actually missionaries can change as often as every six weeks. So their will always be somebody "new" to stop by who has not been there before. Understanding this can only help you.
I'm also a little unsure of your people vs a soul argument, so I won't respond to that. That's pretty much the same thing...
Dude, it's a white shirt and a tie-like any office in America with a dress code (minus the scriptures). That's a whole lot of cult members out in corporate America I guess.
I saw FOUR of them working on what looked to be "convert" lists....don't salespeople LOG their prospects?
It's also called being organized. You know, like there is two of you, and you might be there as little as six weeks, and them someone else will take your place, and that person might want to know who was interested, what their name, number, and address is. What's that you are saying? Why doesn't the other missionary, or the "constant" between moves just memorize all information and pass it along orally? Well, because that is what a pen and paper is for and it just works so darn well! We outgrew oral tradition a long time ago...written language does wonders for effectiveness. Imagine that!
Norcalmom101, thanks for answering. My in-laws are LDS but have never forced it on us. We have had plenty of missionaries visit the door. Perhaps because where we live, Georgia, they don't bother us quite as much as where they have a stronghold(CA, UT, CO & AZ) Some of the churches around here still preach that Mormons aren't Christian. Before my BIL & SIL got married she attended a church where one night the whole program was on "Why Mormons aren't Christians." My BIL, who is no longer a member of ANY church, got up and left. I think if we lived in a different part of the country we would have more problems. Thanks again for answering my question.
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