Feeding missionaries

I know this isn't tech related, but I can't get an answer elsewhere... The mission president in our area recently sent a letter to the stakes and wards about the new schedule for missionaries. In addition to the time changes for planning, etc., he also said the members could only feed the missionaries one meal per week. I have been trying find out if this is just our mission area or church wide. (Moderators are free to delete this if they feel it is too far off topic.)

zaneclark wrote:I know this isn't tech related, but I can't get an answer elsewhere... The mission president in our area recently sent a letter to the stakes and wards about the new schedule for missionaries. In addition to the time changes for planning, etc., he also said the members could only feed the missionaries one meal per week. I have been trying find out if this is just our mission area or church wide.

Policies on feeding missionaries are set by the mission president. What you described is certainly not the policy in the mission where I live.

One of the key aspects of the new missionary schedule is adaptibility and flexibility based on particular areas, so it really wouldn't make sense for the new schedule to become more restrictive with a single world-wide policy.

We haven't received that direction in North East Indiana

We were told we could only feed the missionaries once a month and it could only be an hour long, also single sisters could not feed the missionaries unless a priesthood holder was present.

We have seen these policies change from time to time in our mission. The reason has never been given, but we do our best to support the missionaries within the current mission rules at the time. When I served my mission (many moons ago), our mission president set some drastic and restrictive policies in place. However I knew it was to correct inappropriate behavior with some missionaries and I believe it was only temporary (I finished my mission before the policies changed).

Section 2.4.5 of the Missionary Standards guidebook, "Meals with Others," provides the official guidelines for meals with members (or non-members) that apply to all missionaries.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... ng#title25

A little further up in the same chapter, it's mentioned that lunch and dinner during a day should be no longer than 2 hours combined – I expect in most places that would work out to be an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner.

Additional guidelines can be set by the mission president based on the needs of the mission, missionaries, and members in the area.

sbradshaw wrote:Section 2.4.5 of the Missionary Standards guidebook, "Meals with Others," provides the official guidelines for meals with members (or non-members) that apply to all missionaries.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... ng#title25

A little further up in the same chapter, it's mentioned that lunch and dinner during a day should be no longer than 2 hours combined – I expect in most places that would work out to be an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner.

Additional guidelines can be set by the mission president based on the needs of the mission, missionaries, and members in the area.

Thank you for posting something like this

I am wondering if it is church policy to ASSINGN members to feed the missionaries. In our ward there is a person with a calling that calls members and sets up meals for the missionaries. it seems to put members in an awkward situation.

The wards we have lived in have always handed around a missionary da calendar in Relief Society. Seems to work ok.

Our ward has moved to an online sign-up app and post it on the ward FB page. Many members use that. Cold-calling members who have not agreed in advance to host the missionaries for meals seems a bit presumptuous, but that is just my personal opinion. Some will be fine with it (or even prefer it), but others could be offended or put in a financial bind if they don't feel comfortable declining.

hammondpaul wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 8:42 am I am wondering if it is church policy to ASSINGN members to feed the missionaries. In our ward there is a person with a calling that calls members and sets up meals for the missionaries. it seems to put members in an awkward situation.

As far as I can tell, feeding the missionaries is not an official church program. At least, I can't find any mention of it in the Handbook. If true, that makes it a church activity organized by the local leadership.

The closest thing I can find in the Handbook is section 20.6.1 on activities: "Members may provide food if doing so is not a burden." Also section 20.2.2: "While gathering in activities can be a blessing, members should not be made to feel obligated to attend every activity. Activities should not put undue burdens on leaders and members."

The Missionary Standards manual, which is aimed at the missionaries, does mention "Meals with Others" and doesn't go much beyond "your mission president and the local stake president will provide guidelines for scheduling meals with people in your mission."

Personally, I agree with the others that assigning people who have not volunteered is likely to create problems. I would raise the issue with local leaders.

As a former RS president in a stake where our Stake President insisted that every day the missionaries have dinner provided, I can tell you that it is an arduous task to fill their dinner calendar. Yes, we used the pass around calendar. Yes, we used the online signup. Yes, we called people. Yes, we in the RS presidency fed the missionaries many times each month. Did the missionaries appreciate the HOURS we spent taking care of their dinners? No. In fact, the sisters got to be resentful enough that I had to create a “thank you” template for the
Missionaries to send to the sisters after dinner was provided.

Coincidentally, we just completed a 3 hour dinner event with four missionaries so I expect the 3-hour rule is not strictly enforced.

I would encourage anyone where an "organized" program exists for providing meals for the missionaries, to ask their local leaders for details behind the purpose of that program. I imagine that most every time, somebody somewhere has a meaningful goal behind the program, beyond simply feeding the missionaries -- but that goal may not be communicated, and local members simply hear "we need to feed the missionaries!". There might be a local Mission goal to contact every member in their home, and missionary meals are a part of that program. Or anything the Mission President or Stake President is trying to accomplish in supporting local members in their own efforts to share the gospel.

If the local leaders are coordinating with the local Mission (mainly Stake President with Mission President) about this, then communicating this goal to members will likely help things work more smoothly. And for those cases where it's not anything driven by the local Mission but rather by local ward/stake leaders, I'd personally request they coordinate their efforts with the Mission leaders so that local members are doing things that align with the missionaries' own goals.

Regarding 2.4.5 in the Missionary Standards guide, I know that even as a pretty good 19-year-old missionary, I (a) was not always respectful of member's time, (b) was not always outwardly grateful, and (c) had experiences where we tried to share a message after our meal and members sometimes tried to rush us out instead. So having everyone (members, leaders, and missionaries) on the same page about missionary meals is an ongoing effort, and communication and coordination is key.

zaneclark wrote:
> I know this isn't tech related, but I can't get an answer elsewhere... The
> mission president in our area recently sent a letter to the stakes and
> wards about the new schedule for missionaries. In addition to the time
> changes for planning, etc., he also said the members could only feed the
> missionaries one meal per week. I have been trying find out if this is
> just our mission area or church wide. (Moderators are free to delete this
> if they feel it is too far off topic.)
This was implemented in our area about a year or two ago.
Here, the rule is, one meal, once a month, one companionship. Before then, we were having 4 to 6 missionaries in our home every Tuesday or Thursday and we'd play games and get to know each other while supper was being finished. We got to welcome new missionaries and have little farewell dinners for those leaving. I never felt burdened. The tradition started because our 2 Elders didn't have a car so they would carpool with Elders from other areas. It made little sense for those 2 to travel back to their own area and return again in an hour or two to fetch our Elders again - so they stayed for supper too. And sometimes... both areas would be available to bring them over. It made me very sad when the rule was implemented because I love having missionaries over. I never felt like they were a burden on us. Whenever, we had more missionaries than we were expecting, we say we're having loaves and fish - everyone ate and sometimes there was even seconds

As the post by zaneclark is from 2017, there may have been multiple changes in per-mission policy since then. In the missions I have lived in the past few decades, the mission policy changes every few/several years. In addition to the issue of the food possibly a burden on members, some changes have stated that the mission president wants the missionaries to spend the evening hours mostly with investigators or potential candidates for taking discussions rather than in the homes of members.