In the Mormon church a mission is hammered into every boy who grows up in the church. You are expected to go. You are told you were put here in a Mormon family, by god, to go on a mission and bring the truth to people all over the world. 19 was the age for all young men to go and 21 was the age for women. The ages have changed to 18 for boys and 19 for girls. They encourage girls to get married instead of going on a mission, but make it optional for them.
They require each person who will go on a mission to be "worthy". This requires you to have one on one interviews with leaders and confess anything you have done. You are required to have been consistently attending church and paying 10% of your income to the church. You need to have read the Book of Mormon and studied other church materials. You have to confess any viewing of pornography or masturbation and it is required that you have restrained yourself from doing it at all for a set period of time. I think it is around 6 months. You have to confess any sexual things you have done with anyone else, and if you have done too much, you can't go. I may be wrong, but as I understand it, if you have had sex more than once then you are disqualified from going. You also have to have to follow the word of wisdom (no coffee, tea, alcohol, or drugs) and have to have repented for any breaking of it and are required to refrain for a certain period of time.
I was generally a good Mormon boy, so I hadn't broken the word of wisdom. I was a virgin and had only made out a couple of times and stayed at first base, so that wasn't an issue. Like pretty much every straight teen, I had looked at porn on the internet and I had discovered masturbation when I was like 8 so I had to confess that and refrain for a time. That was the most difficult for me, but I was determined to be worthy and I really did refrain and was honest with the leaders to go on a mission.
You also are required to go through the Mormon temple before you go on your mission. You have to pass the same worthiness interview for the temple. I will write an entire post on the temple. If you want to see the entire weird session here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VrsFEiTpsQ
So as you are getting ready, they give you some paperwork to fill out. You tell them whether or not you would go overseas and are willing to learn a new language, general information about yourself and you also include a picture of yourself. After you fill out the packet and pass the worthiness interviews, you send it in and wait back to hear where you are going. I was pretty excited and it took about 3 weeks to get back to me. When I got it, I had all my family and friends over for me to open it. You have no idea where you are going until you get the letter and it is possible to go pretty much anywhere and learn any language. It tells you where and when you start. My mission was the Valencia, Venezuela mission. I reported to the training center on December 19, 2001.
Every missionary goes to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) before going on the mission. There are a few of them around the world, but the largest and main one is in Provo, UT. If you are going to learn a language, this is where you learn the basics. It is also where every missionary learns how to sell the church. Those who learn a new language go for 2 months and those who don't only are there for 2 weeks. I was learning Spanish so I was there for 2 months.
Going on a mission is really fucked up. You are not allowed to watch movies, listen to non-church music, read non-church books, follow the news, like any girls, or communicate with your family outside of letter writing. The only phone calls you can make are on Christmas and Mother's Day (Fathers can fuck off). You give up every part of your identity and give your entire life to the church. You have a set schedule at the MTC and every minute of the day is accounted for. You are to get up and go to bed at a certain time, study church materials, go to classes, and eat meals. The biggest decisions you get to make is what you eat from the cafeteria (it is just the BYU cafeteria food) and what you do with your gym time. They control everything you do and think and you are basically brain washed there. The main difference from a crazy cult is that they don't deprive you of sleep. You go to bed right at 10:30 and get up at 6:30.
It is amazing how crazy this is to me now. At the time, I grew up with the idea of going and was told how it would be, so it wasn't weird. They teach you not to allow yourself to think about worldly stuff. So if you are thinking about a song you like or your family or anything from your life before, you are expected to stop it and start thinking about church stuff. I really tried to be sincere and it lead to a lot of repression and emotional problems for me. I would feel guilty for enjoying anything that wasn't part of the church and would push it down. This didn't go away after the mission and I have struggled for years trying to not punish myself for enjoying things. This is a dirty little secret for the church. Tons of missionaries are developing emotional disorders such as depression and anxiety, and it isn't discussed much. The way the church works it that it can't possibly be a problem with the system since it came for god, so the problem is with the missionary. So not only do they give you a disorder, but then they tell you it is your fault for not dedicating yourself properly. You must have done something wrong and the answer to fix it is to push yourself to do what they say in a more obedient and exact way.
I feel like this post is too long and boring so I am going to stop here. I will write more about the MTC and what it was like going to Venezuela in the next post.
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