THESE MISSIONARIES ARE AN INTERESTING BUNCH

 

 For the most part, missionaries live a simple life without many frills

 

Having raised eight sons and daughters of our own, all of whom have served as full time missionaries for the Church, it is amazing to think that after all of these years, we can still be surprised at some of the things we discover visiting the young elders and sisters in their apartments each month. In some instances we recognize that with their limited available resources, these innovative missionaries are living proof that necessity is still the mother of invention.
 

• If a light switch on the wall flickers on and off, you use duct tape to keep it in the "on" position and then add an extension cord in the wall outlet with an on/off switch
   
• If a piece of furniture in the apartment is damaged, you hold it together with duct tape
 
• When a venetian blind has a broken slat, duct tape makes it appear to be right again

Look carefully at the picture above, and it is quite apparent that one bed is taller than the other. Due to missionary transfers, sometimes a two bedroom apartment for four elders may only have two young men in it for a while. When this happens, the remaining missionaries typically will take the mattresses from the unused bedroom and stack them on their own beds. We assume that the elder who sleeps in the high bed must take a flying leap to get on top of all of those mattresses at night.

 

Not all of the places where our missionaries live are modern garden-style apartments. Indeed, in the inner city of Baltimore, we have four elders who live in an older building that was a downtown hotel some years ago. With its 14-foot ceilings and 10-foot tall windows, there are certain challenges in trying to make this place feel like "home" after a long day out and about the city. Last month when we entered this apartment we found the couch turned upside down and the cushions missing. Why? The missionary in charge decided that the couch cushions were needed in the bedroom where he stuffed them in those tall windows to block out the street lights at night to help the elders sleep better. The simple explanation for why the couch was upside down was to ensure that the missionaries would not spend too much time sitting down when they had other work to do.

 

The elders frequently provide service to Church members who are moving from one place to another by helping them load and unload the truck and by doing whatever they can to set-up beds, carry furniture and boxes. As a result, it is not uncommon for the people they help to offer the missionaries surplus items that the family no longer needs. We have found everything from keyboards to chairs, tables, and sofas in apartments following the "good turns" performed in helping others.

 

There are lots of other strange and unusual things that have been found in the apartments including bowling balls, a skateboard, fireworks, 33 rpm vinyl records, a rubber snake, and even a sizable collection of automobile hubcaps that covered an entire wall of a room. When elders complete their missions and go home or are transferred to another proselyting area, they frequently leave items of clothing behind. Sister missionaries (especially from California) almost always buy a heavy coat to use here in Maryland during the winter months; but then, they give it to the mission for another sister rather than carry the garment home where it might never be worn again.