Missionary response time?

[Hyena]

I Understand that like anybody missionaries probably have many things to do. But do they typically take a long time to respond say several days, Or should I seek out a new missionary If a certain amount of time passes?

I begin email communications with a missionary several days ago but he only replied once asking to know little about myself. I responded with a few things about my age and what I like to do for hobbies. But it has been about three or four days now.

Should I just consider myself abandoned and seek out another missionary to contact? Does this happen sometimes? do missionaries sometimes decide that investigators aren't worth it? Might I have said something that disqualified me from Joining the LDS church?!

It has me worried... If necessary I'd gladly post the contents of that email here.

[selek]

As a general rule, missionaries are assigned to a geographic area and proselyte within that area.

Also as a general rule, they do not do their work via email, but face-to-face. They also generally only have computer access once per week (during their P-day, which is used for preparation and non-missionary labors such as letter writing).

I would be interested in hearing how you came in contact with this individual, and the circumstances.

I would not take the lack of a timely response personally- there are simply too many factors involved.

Not knowing any specifics, it is hard to speculate- but I would suspect the delay falls into one of two categories: either the individual you have been in contact with has been too busy to respond, or he (or she) has passed your information onto those who can meet with you- but they have not yet followed up.

[selek]

It would also be wise to consider that- for all that they are volunteers serving the Lord- missionaries are people just like everyone else.

They come in all shapes, sorts, and varieties: ranging from those who are on-fire with enthusiasm and zeal to those who are just marking time waiting to go home.

Allowing one set of missionaries (or one rude person at Church) come between you and understanding the Gospel falls dangerously close to "relying upon the arm of flesh."

Don't let one bad experience- or one forgetful person- color your impression of an entire faith (whether Mormon or any other).

[Hyena]

I was put in touch with this missionary when I went to Mormon.org and began chatting with the missionaries there. (They have a chat option for asking questions and the like).

After an hour or so they (there were two female missionaries chatting simultaneously with me) both agreed that I would be better served speaking with a missionary. I'm still rather... shy meeting new people, so they suggested I could communicate with one of their "email" missionaries. They took my information and the next morning I had received a pleasant email of introduction from the Elder (I've been omitting names for their protection?) I responded in kind, and then he responded asking questions about my experiences with the church members I've met, if I've read the book of Mormon, and what my hobbies are, how old I am, stuff like that.

I responded and it's been a number of days since then. Perhaps it is as you say, his time is restricted on the computer? I did not consider that missionaries might have limited access to technology, just as they only call home to their mothers on several days a year I understand.

I'm not letting a bad experience derail me from examining if this is a faith for me. Quite the contrary, I'm more concerned that I could be rejected by a faith. I know that right now the LDS Church is sort of trying to make an argument for why I should place my faith and devotion and works into IT.. but I never stopped to consider that the church might be investigating ME in return to decide if I'm worthy to be a part of IT.

I'll have to contemplate this in future.

[skippy740]

To my understanding, mormon.org and "email missionaries" work generally out of the MTC - to field requests and have basic conversations. "Email missionaries" are not the primary means of teaching the gospel, but having basic conversations... probably not quite as in-depth as we've had here with you on LDS.net.

What needs to happen is for your request to be forwarded from the MTC, to your local mission president's office, who will forward the request to the appropriate set of missionaries in your area.

It takes a little bit of time to coordinate between departments.

If you want to hurry the process along... you could call your local meeting house. Someone will answer the phone and help you get in contact with the local missionaires.

LDS Maps

This is not unheard of. When I served my mission in Tennessee, we had a lady call up the Church building and asked to have a visit from the missionaries. They called us up and relayed the information. We called her and set a time to meet. She was baptized within 3 weeks.

[rayhale]

Response time greatly depends on the individual missionaries. I know that missionaries are being allowed to use the internet more than ever. This may help missionaries with responding to people faster than in the past. The fastest that I know of that I responded was around 5-6 hours, since the person called the 1-800 number sometime around 1-2 A.M. before the Missionary Department faxes all the requests to the Mission Presidents, and we went to the house the first thing in the morning, around 9-10 A.M. Needless to say, the person was surprised to see us.

[pam]

I'm certainly hoping that after 7 months this person has been contacted since this thread was started in December of last year.

[NightSG]

Hyena has been posting more recently elsewhere on the board, so I would hope there's an update of some sort.

[Lakumi]

the missionaries I first talked to had asked to keep in contact, and they send me an email about once a month, I think they find me interesting, they have liked many of my sayings. I remember they suggested I watch the last General Conference that happened, like a day or two before it happened (If memory serves me right that was the first email they sent me after our chat on Mormon.org). And I did and I enjoyed it, enjoying the music and President Boyd K. Packer's speech where he rhymed, will have to look that one up again). Well I went off on a tangent there.

[pam]

President Packer's talk was awesome.

[Lakumi]

President Packer's talk was awesome.

never enjoyed rhyming so much