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  • #46
    Originally posted by Goatnapper'96 View Post
    For Jarid:

    My favorite Elder Monsonisms:

    1.) He was a district leader in my zone and one of the missionaries was a stereotypical BYU coed whose daddy was a MP in DC South, I believe he took the place of the GA who took the place of Art's horizontal bopping MP, and so she was allowed to go on her mission early. She was batshit crazy and only wanted to get married. However, she was sporting a lil more in the pooper than most fellas want in 21 year ol' something. I mean a lil cushion for the pushin' might appeal in your forties but when they spank that thang in the early 20's they want to see a quarter bounce waist high...I digress. Elder Monson was an uncouth 100% Eastern Utah redneck who had been rode hard with Jarid's clique. He had no time for molly mormons or LDS aristocracy. Especially fat ones who cried alot. One day he had enough of this dear sweet sister and informs her "get the hell away from me ya cow!" To which she responds "since I am not a British girl, I will pretend I don't know what you just said!" To which Monson responds: "Leave me alone, bitch!"

    2.) Elder Monson was what one might call a Lion of the Lord. The type of dude who could believe God called those he did not like to cotton growing missions in Moapa. He baptized a gentleman and after the 4th week of the dude not getting the AP, he went entirely bloodshot eyed postal on the Bishop right in the chapel foyer. Members of the ward could not believe the language the Elder used in public. It was one of many visits I made with him to soothe ecclesiastical leadership/missionary relations. How he would chafe when he had to apologize. He later informed me the apologies were insincere, shocking I tell you, and that the only two sincere apologies he gave were to his mother and to some Sister such and such because he and Jarid killed her goat, in a drunken stupor I assume, with a two liter bottle of pepsi, some dry ice and a box of nails.

    3.) Later in his mission an AP ordered him to baptize the 10 year old son of a ward mission leader. Monson did not think the lad ready and respectfully declined. The AP announces that and he and his comp will then teach the kid and baptize him. Now the AP was the anti-matter to an Eastern Utah redneck. He had nice suits, soft hands, was born and raised on the Eastern SLC bench and was on a tennis scholarship to the BYU. Elder Monson paused, and then offered this prophecy "if you and your comp do that I will attend the baptism and two of us will go down in the font but only of us will come out. You wanna guess who the two who go down are and who the one that will come out will be?" The AP starts crying and asks if "he had offended Elder Monson in the pre-existence?" To which Curt replies "Dammit you know I can't remember that shit, it this life where you keep pissing me off!"

    Save me the comments about handling this message to Jarid via boardmail.
    That sounds like Monson to a "T". He cared little of tender feelings that were less than sincere. The man has a heart of gold though, and is loyal to a fault.
    "The first thing I learned upon becoming a head coach after fifteen years as an assistant was the enormous difference between making a suggestion and making a decision."

    "They talk about the economy this year. Hey, my hairline is in recession, my waistline is in inflation. Altogether, I'm in a depression."

    "I like to bike. I could beat Lance Armstrong, only because he couldn't pass me if he was behind me."

    -Rick Majerus

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    • #47
      Originally posted by Goatnapper'96 View Post
      Art's MP did not finish his term. When he was released for adultery, they sent in a GA to head the mission for about a year, I think the GA was named Sontac.
      Sonntag? He came to our mission once. We had a football-playing elder in our zone, and Elder Sonntag was talking to a group of elders. Suddenly, to the surprise of Elder football player, Elder Sonntag said, "You think you're tough, don't you?" and punched him in the chest. At that moment, I walked up, and Elder football player said, "Why don't you punch Elder SoCalCoug in the chest?" Elder Sonntag replied, "What chest?"

      Yes, I've been made fun of by a G.A.
      If we disagree on something, it's because you're wrong.

      "Somebody needs to kill my trial attorney." — Last words of George Harris, executed in Missouri on Sept. 13, 2000.

      "Nothing is too good to be true, nothing is too good to last, nothing is too wonderful to happen." - Florence Scoville Shinn

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      • #48
        Churchy: Found and baptized an elderly woman in Seville, Spain who had witnessed the death of her father in the 1930's at the hands of the fascist regime that had taken over following a bloody civil war. Why do I mention her father's death? He had been killed after they discovered he had been baptized a member of the church following a visit to England. My companion has my eternal gratitude for convincing me to track late that evening.

        Non-churchy: Bullfight, Seville v Real Madrid, World Expo '92, and witness to the 500th anniversary of the sailing of Columbus (a regatta unlike anything I've ever seen).

        Worst part of the mission: 3 muggings, back injury limiting mobility for nearly a month, and having strawberries thrown on my brand new shirt. I was relatively healthy and had very few negative experiences, unlike many missionaries.
        "Either evolution or intelligent design can account for the athlete, but neither can account for the sports fan." - Robert Brault

        "Once I seen the trades go down and the other guys signed elsewhere," he said, "I knew it was my time now." - Derrick Favors

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        • #49
          Originally posted by SoCalCoug View Post
          Sonntag? He came to our mission once. We had a football-playing elder in our zone, and Elder Sonntag was talking to a group of elders. Suddenly, to the surprise of Elder football player, Elder Sonntag said, "You think you're tough, don't you?" and punched him in the chest. At that moment, I walked up, and Elder football player said, "Why don't you punch Elder SoCalCoug in the chest?" Elder Sonntag replied, "What chest?"

          Yes, I've been made fun of by a G.A.
          That has to be him.
          Do Your Damnedest In An Ostentatious Manner All The Time!
          -General George S. Patton

          I'm choosing to mostly ignore your fatuity here and instead overwhelm you with so much data that you'll maybe, just maybe, realize that you have reams to read on this subject before you can contribute meaningfully to any conversation on this topic.
          -DOCTOR Wuap

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          • #50
            One of my favorite memories was a trip into Boston that I took one time with three other elders. We were all serving in the Montreal mission at the time.
            PLesa excuse the tpyos.

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            • #51
              Originally posted by clackamascoug View Post

              I've alway wondered though... why stabbed 69 times.
              Ron Yengich could probably convince a jury in Utah that it was suicide...

              schadenfreude:
              - A local preacher from a small congregation would heckle us every time he saw us in public. During the riots he was trying to steal a TV, got beat up and put into a coma.

              Cool:
              - During said riots, the local Hell's Angels contingent patrolled our area with shotguns full of rock salt. Our town had a Harley dealership and two big biker bars. Not one of the stores on Colorado Boulevard was burglarized...

              - Former byu legend and Boston Celtics first round lazy-ass mistake Michael Smith grew up in one ward. His father, a wonderful guy, was in the Stake Presidency. In stake conference he would call up youth out of the audience to give a 3-minute talk (everybody was required/requested to prepare a talk and carry it with them always).
              One of the people was an active non-member from a part-member family. Pres Smith asked him to stand, then challenged him to be baptized. He accepted. That was probably something better left to a private conversation, but the guy felt like a celebrity so maybe that is what he needed.

              - All 3 (yes, 3) of my mission presidents are in the Seventy. Two of them would randomly drop in at 6:00 am for Companionship Study.

              Horrific:
              - Watching the city burn during said riots. The final tally, as I recall, was around 7500 structures destroyed or damaged by fire.

              - The area we were in at the time was the Heroin capital of America. I believe Meth was a huge problem as well. I could spot the addicts a mile away, and it seemed the majority of the people we would meet tracting were high at the time (blue/white lips and tongue, thousand-mile stare through droopy, glassy eyers, etc). Bad teeth (grey, stubby) went with the territory as well - I think that is more of a Meth thing.

              - I fell off a ~15 foot cliff mountain biking the Angeles Crest Trail on a P-day. Could have been worse. I stopped 30 feet short of the 300 foot sheer dropoff...

              -The MP banned all sports on P-Day due to the sheer number of injuries.

              - Meeting a guy tracting who was a photographer and an eye witness to the massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989. He had a stack of about 1000 pictures from the night. One of the news stations helped him escape by helping him climb over the wall (with his cameras). Seeing the pictures of what started as a civil sit-in protest turn into a horror with tanks driving up the stairs over the sleeping people was terrifying. He had pictures of bodies being rounded up and carried out by the dozens.
              I have purposely forgotten his name, his individual features, where he lived, etc as he asked me to. He was (rightly) terrified the Chinese government would find him and torture him.

              Spiritual:
              - attending the baptism of a man in the last stages of AIDS. He was completely covered with Karposi's Sarcoma, and was too weak to stand. A large Samoan elder carried him into the font and dunked him while the other baptized him.

              -reactivating a woman who was pretty far gone into Heroin. We were on splits with a member one day and saw her 2 year-old daughter walking along a busy street wearing only a loaded diaper. We picked up the girl, drove to her house, and discovered she was at the end of a 3-day bender with her BF, and was just getting sober enough to realize the little girl was missing. (FTR the little girl stayed at this woman's mother's house for a few weeks - looking back perhaps we should have called CPS). It was very similar to the movie Trainspotting.
              Over time we were able to help her change her life. She got clean, dumped the loser boyfriend, started taking care of herself, finished her GED, and was able to get a job.

              - Finding (through a referral) a PERFECT, prepared investigator. She breezed through the discussions and loved learning about the gospel. When it came to baptism, however, she simply couldn't do it. We finally got the answer out of her: She and her husband, a college professor in China, were high-ranking members of the Communist party and had certain priveleges afforded them (e.g. their jobs...). She feared if they joined a church they would be put on the outs with The Party, and would lose said privelege. She told us to be wary of any government that gets strong enough to promise everything, as it will be powerful enough to control everything as well.
              I thought, "This is the USA in 1992. What could possibly change to limit our freedom?"
              Last edited by NorthwestUteFan; 11-02-2010, 12:32 PM.

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              • #52
                Originally posted by NorthwestUteFan View Post
                - All 3 (yes, 3) of my mission presidents are in the Seventy. Two of them would randomly drop in at 6:00 am for Companionship Study.
                Did they show up with their pajamas on and a pillow so they could lie down on the floor and listen to the Truman G. Madsen: Joseph Smith tapes with the rest of the elders in the apartment?
                "Discipleship is not a spectator sport. We cannot expect to experience the blessing of faith by standing inactive on the sidelines any more than we can experience the benefits of health by sitting on a sofa watching sporting events on television and giving advice to the athletes. And yet for some, “spectator discipleship” is a preferred if not primary way of worshipping." -Pres. Uchtdorf

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                • #53
                  I served in Spain in the Mid-to-late 80s.

                  Some of my better memories:
                  * Walking out of a side door at a bus station in San Sebastian and having the police scream at us to run. We had just walked by a bomb in a suitcase.
                  * Having a companion wet the bed about 3 nights a week and leaving notes for the landlady (we rented a room from an older lady) begging her not to tell me. She always showed me the notes.
                  * Being with the APs my first month in Spain in a train station. A large group of kids came up and tried to mug us. One of the APs took off this bag he carried with a film-strip projector in it and swung it as hard as he could and hit one of the kids in the head. They took off running and left the one kid laying on the ground.
                  * Having one companion stick his head under his pillow every night and pray out loud, "God, please help me to love my companion."

                  Less than fantastic memories:
                  * Watching a guy on motorcycle drop a briefcase on top of a limo and then ride off. The briefcase was a bomb and killed some people in the limo. My companion and I saw that from about 50 yards away.
                  * Having the just released Branch President tell me and my companion that since all Apostles were Elders, and that he was and Elder...that made him an Apostle. Then he started prophysizing some crazy things. I called the MP and told him and the guy was disfellowshipped a few days later.

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                  • #54
                    Epididymitis, having my left nut swell to the size of a golf ball. Taking a long, bumpy trip to Guatemala City where every little bump felt like getting kicked in the balls. Lying on the dr.'s table w/ my draws around my knees and getting my balls prodded by gloveless hands (wtf, guatemala?). I got put on tetracycline and was ordered to stay home and hydrate for a few days; I'm glad I didn't lose the testicle.
                    "I'm anti, can't no government handle a commando / Your man don't want it, Trump's a bitch! I'll make his whole brand go under,"

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                    • #55
                      Originally posted by Eddie Jones View Post
                      Did they show up with their pajamas on and a pillow so they could lie down on the floor and listen to the Truman G. Madsen: Joseph Smith tapes with the rest of the elders in the apartment?
                      Let us just say he didn't appreciate my "I was studying Lehi's dream on a higher plane by osmosis" answer to still being in bed at 6:15.

                      They specifically expected us to be already dressed in a shirt and tie, and to work out of the gospel doctrine manual or study the discussion manuals.

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                      • #56
                        Originally posted by SoCalCoug View Post
                        Sonntag? He came to our mission once. We had a football-playing elder in our zone, and Elder Sonntag was talking to a group of elders. Suddenly, to the surprise of Elder football player, Elder Sonntag said, "You think you're tough, don't you?" and punched him in the chest. At that moment, I walked up, and Elder football player said, "Why don't you punch Elder SoCalCoug in the chest?" Elder Sonntag replied, "What chest?"

                        Yes, I've been made fun of by a G.A.
                        Phillip Sonntag was my SP who sent me on my mission. Great guy, very fun-loving.
                        “There is a great deal of difference in believing something still, and believing it again.”
                        ― W.H. Auden


                        "God made the angels to show His splendour - as He made animals for innocence and plants for their simplicity. But men and women He made to serve Him wittily, in the tangle of their minds."
                        -- Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons


                        "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
                        --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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                        • #57
                          Originally posted by Commando View Post
                          Epididymitis, having my left nut swell to the size of a golf ball. Taking a long, bumpy trip to Guatemala City where every little bump felt like getting kicked in the balls. Lying on the dr.'s table w/ my draws around my knees and getting my balls prodded by gloveless hands (wtf, guatemala?). I got put on tetracycline and was ordered to stay home and hydrate for a few days; I'm glad I didn't lose the testicle.
                          So you're in danger of losing a nut and they give you medicine for acne? Remind me not to have any procedures done in Guatemala.
                          So Russell...what do you love about music? To begin with, everything.

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                          • #58
                            Originally posted by MarkGrace View Post
                            So you're in danger of losing a nut and they give you medicine for acne? Remind me not to have any procedures done in Guatemala.
                            I will indeed remind you. But if you don't make it onto CUF to check in before your procedure, at least remember to bring your own latex gloves.
                            "I'm anti, can't no government handle a commando / Your man don't want it, Trump's a bitch! I'll make his whole brand go under,"

                            Comment


                            • #59
                              Originally posted by TXJason View Post
                              I served in Spain in the Mid-to-late 80s.

                              Some of my better memories:
                              * Walking out of a side door at a bus station in San Sebastian and having the police scream at us to run. We had just walked by a bomb in a suitcase.

                              Less than fantastic memories:
                              * Watching a guy on motorcycle drop a briefcase on top of a limo and then ride off. The briefcase was a bomb and killed some people in the limo. My companion and I saw that from about 50 yards away.
                              What was behind all the terrorism back then?

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                              • #60
                                Originally posted by shoganai View Post
                                What was behind all the terrorism back then?
                                I'd guess the Basques.
                                "I'm anti, can't no government handle a commando / Your man don't want it, Trump's a bitch! I'll make his whole brand go under,"

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