SO do you think it is right or is it doctrine or policy or whatever the politically correct way of saying now when you hear that children can not even get a “You have been called to serve in the Blah Blah” Mission and have a quarterly activity living as missionaries do. While we would have stations all over the building with a host speaking of that country and every child would go through the area and learn from the country;s culture etc. Is it really true this can not be done? They can’t even wear a future missionary name tag..
Now is this really what the First President has stated somewhere that I could actually read or is this just a bunch of mambo jumbo of someone in power that said no because they said no…
Well, I COULD be wrong, but it sounds to me like personal preference on the part of the Church leader who vetoed it. Best you can do though is talk to the person directly and get their reasoning, try and compromise and if that doesn’t get you anywhere, adjust you activity. :( I know that sounds like capitulation, but unless it was totally wrong (what he did) then I don’t know if it would be worth it to push it. You could ask if he has some reference where this has been banned as an activity?
This is another reason Mormon Traditions bug me. People get the idea that something is “church policy” and think it’s doctrine. I have seen this sort of activity done before and don’t see what would be wrong with it? But what can you say?
Mary – if you email me I will send you the upcoming password for my blog so that you can continue reading.
Thanks!
no someone didn’t tell it to me personally just others are saying “someone” said or they “heard”. I did some research on the lds.org site and could not find a GA that said you can NOT do it. But then I worry about splitting hairs. What I did also find was a quote from 1990 Friend
“The counsel was given around 1999. It is printed in the October 1999 Friend in the Sharing Time lesson. Sydney Reynolds, the author of the article, was the 1st Counselor in the Primary General Presidency at the time. Here is the exact quote:
“Recently Church members have been counseled to not have children pretend to receive callings as full-time missionaries or wear pretend missionary name tags. However, preparing for full-time missions and being “member missionaries†is encouraged.”
It goes on to say that children are encouraged to be member missionaries. But I could not find anything that stated WHY they could not get a letter stating they have been called to serve in a …. mission or to wear name tags. I guess I just like black and white things. I don’t like general things like that left up to me to decide otherwise I would do everything I wanted to do.
I just wish things were more clear. I really REALLY want to do this activity next quarterly activity. I think the children would really love it. They could invite all their non-member friends who would then feel the welcome to come back. And we all know where children are parents are soon to follow.
hmmm, ok, well then I guess that’s the way it is. I wonder if there isn’t something you can do in a similar manner that will encourage missionary work? I hadn’t read that before.
Just to spread a light info to our northern brothers and sisters. It was the trend, in the past few years, to have little children wear little tags to church that said “future misssionary”. These were made in various fashions, some including the name of the church. It was one of those tchotke things you get at Deseret/Seagull/Mormon Bookstore, along side the Nephi action figures.
As far as why the policy is in place, i don’t know. My thoughts are that doing such an activity, while exciting and fun (I remember doing it), doesn’t really prepare a child for missionary service. It also infantilizes the missionary service. Missionary service should really be about teaching the gospel and serving people, not travelling to exotic foreign cultures.
I don’t think there is such policy. We just had a big Aaronic Priesthood Meeting a couple of weeks ago where everyone was issued “nametags” for the hour.
The bishopric was there and no one said boo.