In 1947, a survey was made of a number of returned missionaries for their ideas on the importance of various experiences and types of knowledge to the success of their missions. More about that, and the results of their survey, tomorrow. In the meantime, please take the following survey for comparison to the results in 1947.
This exercise might be most useful if, as a general rule, you answer questions according to how important you see each item today, rather than guessing at how important it was in 1947. You may have to do a little mental adjusting – in 1947, for instance, there was not yet any Church-wide set of discussions or even guidelines for what investigators needed to learn, although some missions were experimenting with such discussions. Knowing that, you might consider the question on “Lesson Preparation and Presentation” as roughly equivalent to teaching from Preach My Gospel. You should also recall that in most missions, the missionaries directed, or at least taught local members how to direct, auxiliary organizations and the many recreational activities of the MIA, accounting for the presence of those questions.
Please rank each item from 1-10, with 1 indicating low importance and 10 indicating great importance. Because of the nature of the 1947 survey (to be explained tomorrow), you may also use decimals – 4.6 and 8.5 are acceptable responses.
It’s a long survey (63 questions), but it should make for some fun discussion, either speculative in this post or responsive to tomorrow’s post.
How important is a missionary’s knowledge/experience with each of the following items to the success of missionary work? 1 = Low Importance; 10 = Great Importance
Interesting. Certainly my answers are all directed at what I see the current state of missionary work in the church, having recently completed 3 1/2 years as ward mission leader. I can see that I would likely have answered differently had I been around in 1947.
At that, having already completed the survey, I find myself reconsidering some answers, like how important is it that Elders understand how the Relief Society works. I should have rated that higher. Dramatics? I’ve seen too much of that, recently, so no.
Thanks, kevinf. The survey might be a little tedious, but the more responses we have, the more fun it will be to look at the results from 1947. This exercise suggests in subtle ways how much the Church has changed in 70 years, too.
In case you’re wondering, people are taking the survey, just not talking about it.
Weirdest question on the essay? Emerson’s Essays.
Also, the specific inquiry on Talmage’s AoF was interesting, as it is perhaps the least useful (and now the most doctrinally out-of-date) of the current approved mission library.
Yeah, I’m trying to track down anything about Emerson’s Essays and missionary work. It must have been a reasonably well-used reference in the years before 1947 for it to be named, but I can’t yet imagine how or why.
“I have always cherished a statement from Emerson’s essays: ‘Rings and jewels are not gifts, but only apologies for gifts.’ The only real gift is a portion of oneself. Service to others is an inherent part of the gospel.” — David B. Haight, 1976, for instance
The Other Clark, Talmage’s AoF hasn’t been a part of the missionary library since at least 2010 when I served, and I believe since the introduction of PMG in the mid-2000s. Maybe you’re thinking of Jesus the Christ?
I doubt that as many missionaries today are setting up branches from scratch, but of course they still do in new areas. If you are sent somewhere where that is the rule, knowledge of how to get things organized would be very important, and marriage counseling too I suppose. Missionaries in a ward though have less need of that sort of thing because it is already in place. Both elders and sisters need the same basic knowledge about the quorums and auxiliaries.
Nathan, I meant AoF, but obviously I’m out of touch with the current approved missionary library. It is interesting that JtC has outlasted AoF, yet AoF is the one specifically mentioned in the questionairre.
AoF was in the library when I was a missionary, but that’s the last time I read it. I’m curious to know in what way it’s doctrinally out of date.
One of the things I wondered was if this was knowledge they needed coming in, or knowledge they needed to develop. Some information is available as it is needed.
Situations vary from place to place. In some places, ward leaders are discouraged from seeing missionaries as handy all purpose primary workers or visiting teachers. They are supposed to be elsewhere during meetings. However, when restrictions were placed on proselytizing in Russia, the Volunteers there became much more involved in the day to day functioning of the ward, teaching classes that needed teaching, a doing a lot of home and visiting teaching.
It is also impossible to guess what general knowledge a missionary will need. I heard of a woman who was asked in a baptismal interview if she had ever had an abortion. Well, she hadn’t but she had always mourned the sad necessity of ending a ‘tubal’ (ectopic) pregnancy many years before. The elder involved had no idea what she was talking about, assumed it was some sort of abortion, and told her she was unworthy of baptism. It took the sisters who had taught her a number of phone calls to straighten out the mess (and the elder.)