An increasingly common sight on the streets of Vilnius.
Having grown up roughly two hours from Salt Lake City, the heart of world Mormondom, I know missionaries.
More than half of the men who graduated from high school with me went on missions for the Mormon Church, issuing forth with their Bibles, suits, and nametags to save the world. When I had been in Lithuania for only two weeks, I was sitting in the park on Vokečiu, wondering how the hell I would survive in a country 5,000 miles from home, and lo and behold two missionaries walked by.
I was hard-pressed not to run up and hug them, but their church forbids it and I really don’t like talking about God, so I let them walk by, just thankful that there is a little piece of home wandering around Vilnius.
Since then I have seen them quite a few times, always walking the main streets, always cheerful and wholesome. I always dodge them, but every time there is that moment when I feel like I am back home. One day, walking down Gedimino Prospect, I had just passed them and was smiling to myself, when I was stopped by a tall man with bright eyes, who asked me how I was doing. I thought I had passed the missionaries, so I decided to just be friendly. I mean, who am I to guess at the intentions of a person stopping me on one of the busiest streets in Vilnius — he could have just wanted to talk, right?
Wrong. He was a missionary, but one disguised as a normal guy. I don’t think that people stop for them often, because he got a little frantic, gesturing at his chest and trying to explain the mystical union of science and religion. During his talk, I noticed another person standing off to the side beginning to inch up to us. I am not sure if he was they shy one, or if they think it is less threatening to walk up to single women if only one approaches (if so, they are totally right).
Once he got close enough to join the conversation, he asked me what religion I am, and if I was an atheist. At this point, I began to notice that I was being missionaried (I am slow, I know), so I asked if the thing they were promoting was more of a religion or more of a science. They really didn’t want to answer that, but after a few tries they admitted to being a religion.
Sensing, perhaps, that I was about to walk away, they asked if I would come to one of their meetings. I asked where it was. They said it was in an apartment. I politely refused, mostly because I have seen a lot of movies and I didn’t want to end up in a bathtub full of ice with my kidneys missing. They gave me a web address, though, and as I left I called out “hey, you are right behind the Mormons, so you might have to fight for converts,” to which they replied, “we will work with them.” Say what you want about these guys, they are well-trained.
Since then, I have seen them on and off, probably about once a week. Last week, the tall one tried to stop me three times, and the guy who hangs out in the back until he is necessary was with another woman who stopped me. It’s gotten to the point that I see them more than I see some of my friends.
This has led me to a great curiosity about who they are, what brings a person to a life of missionary service. I am still trying to figure out how I can satisfy my curiosity on that front and not have to sit through six sessions of religious videos. Probably I can’t. I am deadset on getting the tall one’s name next time he tries to stop me, because if I am going to see him so often, the least I can do is greet him by name when I turn him away.
Charissa Brammer is an American student that has been studying at Vilnius University since the fall. Read more of her writing here.
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Views expressed in the opinion section are never those of the Baltic Reports company or the website’s editorial team as a whole, but merely those of the individual writer.
That missionary put me in a rather awkward position.
You might want to just talk with them. I love finding new perspectives on life. I seriously doubt you have much to lose. I have talked with them before. If you want them to back off, they will. They seem to be more focused on inviting people to hear them, instead of ramming it down your face.
What you’re going to find is that if you try being friendly towards them, they’ll take that as the impetus to try to convince you to become an apostate to whatever your present faith is, as that is what their job is while on their mission. They may let their guards down a bit, but they’ll see you as nothing more than a “golden prospect” to become a Mormon and join their cult.
If you are tired of watered-down religions coming out of the west, talk to the Mormons. They have religious ordinances that have been lost to Christianity for nearly 2000 years. Sure the Pope himself still practices some of them, but not many other people understand them, because nobody reads that stuff anymore.
As a former Mormon Missionary myself I have to say it’s unusual for Mormon Missionaries to be dressed in regular street clothes (sans white shirts and ties) while they’re out proselyting. I have to tell you that it’s very unlikely that you will be on a first name basis with Mr. Missionary. They are instructed not to give their first name and will request that that you call him by his Mormon priesthood office of “Elder”. They have their reasons for this, but I think it’s really about trying to present themselves as authority figures. Their usual garb is an integral part of this presentation and that’s why I am surprised they are not wearing them. It must not be working anymore. In the age of the internet it’s tough peddling religion. Mormons are increasingly getting painted into a corner.
Porterfield,
Some of the lost ordinances are straight out of the pagan Gnosticism that Smith studied while in Nauvoo. And much of what the Pope practices comes from Egyptian mythology. The symbols are everywhere, from the pine cone statue to his head gear. Catholics and Mormons purport to practice Christianity on the surface, but are far from it.
Visit mormon.org and find out for yourself. Carol, if believing that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that there is no salvation for me but by, through and of Him; If believing that God still speaks to man; if visiting the sick, the fatherless and the widows; if partaking of the emblems of Christ’s body every week in remembrance of His eternal sacrifice are all indicators of a lack of depth on my part as a Latter-day Saint (Mormon) Christian, then I guess I’m really not the type of Christian you have put your stamp of approval on.
From experience traveling the Baltics, if you are in a smallish city and need a decent toilet near the center then befriend the Mormons. Best thing they bring from the West is great plumbing.
RE:Carol and Dan As a former Mormon and Melchizedek Priesthood holder, I concur with what Carol had to say about the pagan Gnostic roots of Mormonism. The entire Temple endowment ceremony is straight out of a Gnostic textbook! I think the Mormon leadership put Jesus’ name as part of the church’s official name to gloss over those roots. Because once you’ve gotten far enough along to actually get to go the Temple, you’ve put so much time effort and energy into Mormonism you don’t want to admit you’ve been decieved.
One of the main purposes of the teachings and principles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to provide a way for people to improve themselves, their families, and their relationship with others. Is this a bad thing? I don’t feel I’m being deceived or taken advantage of when I am taught how to love my neighbor or offer service to those around me, to be selfless instead of selfish. When I look to the general leadership of the Church I see men of good standing, integrity, well-educated, and of a humble and honest heart. As another poster mentioned, try visiting mormon.org and see for yourself what we really believe.
Visiting Mormon.org will only provide you with the church’s long developed PR department and missionary departments’ efforts to lure decent unsuspecting people into what is essentially a multinational corporation masquerading as a religion.
In truth it is not the convincing power of books or words or of street contacts and arguments that makes someone a “Mormon” but the Spirit of God which speaks to the heart of the individual. That Spirit comes from God and only God can give that Spirit which brings peace to the heart and soul of the person, a Spirit of love, compassion and mercy, a Spirit of comfort and understanding – a Spirit that illuminates the darkened mind and causes within the soul a full and complete conversion so that all which the Prophets have written in old times and new meet in one full and complete appreciation of the Atonement of Christ. It is a Spirit of real joy that must be felt to be experienced. I am saddened to hear that some can so easily dismiss that Spirit from their lives and adopt the ways of an increasingly unchristian world.