Phone message from an LDS Elder? How?!?

[holierthanyou]

I came home from work to discover a voicemail message from Elder X in a neighbouring town, saying he thought I might be interested in hearing a bit more of the story of his church, and that he was interested in learning more about my beliefs.

 

I have never heard of a call like this before- do the fundy missionaries cold-call people in the phone book and just leave messages? For some reason I thought the LDS Elders were a little bit more "low key" than that.

 

Anyone else have any experiences?

[mirele]

I came home from work to discover a voicemail message from Elder X in a neighbouring town, saying he thought I might be interested in hearing a bit more of the story of his church, and that he was interested in learning more about my beliefs.

I have never heard of a call like this before- do the fundy missionaries cold-call people in the phone book and just leave messages? For some reason I thought the LDS Elders were a little bit more "low key" than that.

Anyone else have any experiences?

Wow, this is new...usually Mormon missionaries make their contacts in person, either via door to door tracting or talking to people in public.

A couple of questions:

* Do you live in an area where there are a lot of gated communities? (Thinking that the elders may be trying to drum up business where they can't go door to door.)

* Do you know someone who is Mormon? Your name may have been given by a friend, coworker, etc. to the local missionaries.

It's my understanding that there are now missionaries doing (some) mission work on the Internet (as in chatting with interested people on mormon.org), but for the most part, it's still the standard public meet'n'greet. If I were a betting woman, I'd say one of your friends put you down for a missionary visit. (Back in the day some of us would sign up our friends over at Temple Square for mishie visits, but we were evil that way. :mrgreen: )

[Deleted06]

I have had young LDS men come to my door to "spread the word" but I have never had a message left on my phone from the LDS church...or any other church for that matter.

[holierthanyou]

Wow, this is new...usually Mormon missionaries make their contacts in person, either via door to door tracting or talking to people in public.

A couple of questions:

* Do you live in an area where there are a lot of gated communities? (Thinking that the elders may be trying to drum up business where they can't go door to door.)

* Do you know someone who is Mormon? Your name may have been given by a friend, coworker, etc. to the local missionaries.

It's my understanding that there are now missionaries doing (some) mission work on the Internet (as in chatting with interested people on mormon.org), but for the most part, it's still the standard public meet'n'greet. If I were a betting woman, I'd say one of your friends put you down for a missionary visit. (Back in the day some of us would sign up our friends over at Temple Square for mishie visits, but we were evil that way. :mrgreen: )

Hmm, very interesting! I am trying to think of all the people I have met in the last couple of months, but none of them are in my particular town. I don't live in a gated community (I live downtown), and we don't even have an LDS church in this town, which is part of what made me curious. Maybe they just don't want to drive to do door to door if it's not nearby?? There are 3 LDS churches within an hour's drive from here, but all in different directions, and none closer than 45 minutes away.

I don't *think* I know anyone Mormon in town, but maybe I do and they just haven't shared that info? If so, interesting if they aren't comfortable sharing their religion with me, but have no problem signing me up for a missionary from their church to share the religion with me! :lol:

[sassyNoz47]

Its usually door to door but I got a letter once to mr and mrs ... .... from the Maxwells ugh

[Lostie]

Its usually door to door but I got a letter once to mr and mrs ... .... from the Maxwells ugh

Why did you get stuff from the Maxwells?

[leena_noor]

Did he use your name? Could it possibly be a wrong number?

[holierthanyou]

Did he use your name? Could it possibly be a wrong number?

He used my first name. Of course, my first name is listed in the local phone book, so it could be from that? But not a wrong number.

[silverspoons]

My husband served an LDS mission and said he thinks it had to be a refferal. It could have been a member that referred you or there are placed in temple vistor centers that you can refer someone. There is also a phone number for refferals. My husband mostly did door to door tracking but did get refferals and called first just in case someone had put a refferal in as a joke. There was no sense in him riding his bike miles in the snow if the refferal was fake. He said if the person did not call back he did not go to their house or bother them anymore. Of course my husband coverted no one on his mission(he mainly went because he needed a break from raising his brothers and sisters after his dad died and it was the acceptable way to get away for 2 years).

If you ever felt like a missionary was being too pushy, just call the local ward. The bishop would inform the missionaries to back off.

[holierthanyou]

My husband served an LDS mission and said he thinks it had to be a refferal. It could have been a member that referred you or there are placed in temple vistor centers that you can refer someone. There is also a phone number for refferals. My husband mostly did door to door tracking but did get refferals and called first just in case someone had put a refferal in as a joke. There was no sense in him riding his bike miles in the snow if the refferal was fake. He said if the person did not call back he did not go to their house or bother them anymore. Of course my husband coverted no one on his mission(he mainly went because he needed a break from raising his brothers and sisters after his dad died and it was the acceptable way to get away for 2 years).

If you ever felt like a missionary was being too pushy, just call the local ward. The bishop would inform the missionaries to back off.

That's interesting to know, thanks for sharing silverspoons. I don't mind (as long as they don't keep calling back), I was more just confused. Thanks for explaining more of how it works.

[Swamptribe]

Ya know, you could always call him back and demand to know who they got your name.

[silverspoons]

Ya know, you could always call him back and demand to know who they got your name.

This is also true. If you did want to call back the missionaries have a logs and they would tell you who reffered you and via what method. On rare occasion if they got a refferal from a bishop or another missionary that did not cover that area they might have to check on the source. You would be surpirsed at the record keeping. My husband said a good 3-4 hours a day was paperwork.

My husband said that abour 4/5 refferals that did not come directly from a member (but from the vistor's center or phone number) were fake leads.

Imagine how tempting it is for kids (or adults) if you are at a computer at the vistors center to type in the name of someone you don't like or you want to be bothered. I just feel bad for the young men. In my cul-de-sac there are 6 young men on missions and 2 have been attacked because of going into bad areas of cities on leads which were most likely fake. I actually think the phone calls are a good idea but should be worded to say that a a member reffered you and if you are interested please call back.

[Anxious Girl]

This may be a stupid question, but is it possible to ask the state government to stop door-to-door religious salespeople to stop asking them to join their religion if they ask you through the phones/door-to-door? It seems to happen around my area during the summer during my or my grandmother's neighbor, despite the religious decorations in the front lawn in my grandmother's neighborhood...

[ilovetchotchkes]

This may be a stupid question, but is it possible to ask the state government to stop door-to-door religious salespeople to stop asking them to join their religion if they ask you through the phones/door-to-door? It seems to happen around my area during the summer during my or my grandmother's neighbor, despite the religious decorations in the front lawn in my grandmother's neighborhood...

Doubtful. Even with a whole bunch of "no soliciting" signs, I get people weekly. One argued with me that Judaism and Christianity were one and the same when I said "no thanks, ".

[sassyNoz47]

Why did you get stuff from the Maxwells?

I'm still not sure but it was about 2 summers ago. I let my gma take my older kids to her new church for summer bible school. They had a family night on the last night and I went, it was total imo fundie. They wore matching clothes and they the kids that attended the church who weren't home schooled had to go to "school" there at the church everyday.

After seeing some of the things I saw I never let my kids go back. But they had my name and adress from something the kids filled out. It was after that I started getting some odd random snail mail from several different groups. Thats when I got the letter really it was like a news letter (reminded me of a christmas letter) from the Maxwell's. I didn't even know who they were at the time. My gma had a letter to she claimed the church used some sort of teaching material from them. She also claimed they sang and were soo wonderful. I returned to sender the 2nd one I got and havent got anymore since. We live only a couple hours away from them that might of been another reason it came here.

[Jessica]

If you know someone who is LDS they could have given your number to them.

[holierthanyou]

Doubtful. Even with a whole bunch of "no soliciting" signs, I get people weekly. One argued with me that Judaism and Christianity were one and the same when I said "no thanks, ".

You could have offered to let them convert to Judaism if they were really "the same". Lol

[valsa]

You could have offered to let them convert to Judaism if they were really "the same". Lol

I would have paid to see them wiggle out of that one.

[tankgirl]

Doubtful. Even with a whole bunch of "no soliciting" signs, I get people weekly. One argued with me that Judaism and Christianity were one and the same when I said "no thanks, ".

I found this out accidentally from a neighbor whose freaky Baptist church said I was on their do not knock list. Basically all you tell them is "I am not interested, add me to your do not knock list". It is the same as the phone solictitors deal, they get from the time you tell them, to a reasonable time to get you on their paperwork, they come back too many times you can sue. It works for a year or two, they come back, you tell them again, they stop showing up. Overall it worked for us pretty well, except when some weird one started to come by, not knocking but dropping fliers. UGH!

[Librul]

I just feel bad for the young men. In my cul-de-sac there are 6 young men on missions and 2 have been attacked because of going into bad areas of cities on leads which were most likely fake.

I don't wish anyone to be attacked, but on the other hand, I don't feel sorry for men for having to follow up fake leads. Door to door missionaries are annoying people who didn't ask to be annoyed. In my old neighborhood, the Mormons and the Watchtower folk were relentless and rather rude and lacking any respect for my faith and my denomination. Those poor young men believe I am going to hell for my views. I'm nicer. I just wish they would go away.

[Jinger_Cat]

Have you ever called the phone number on the commercial to get your free copy of The Book of Mormon? Oh.....wait.....am I the only one who does that? (Hey! It's free!)

Anyhow, that's how I got on the calling list.

[Guest Anonymous]

Is there any way you could have given away enough information about yourself on FJ, for someone to have referred you from here....

Maybe because you have called out other people who have left their email addresses open to public view?

Whatever, I'd definitely return the call and ask for details of who gave your name and number to them... :P

[Rachel333]

I don't wish anyone to be attacked, but on the other hand, I don't feel sorry for men for having to follow up fake leads. Door to door missionaries are annoying people who didn't ask to be annoyed. In my old neighborhood, the Mormons and the Watchtower folk were relentless and rather rude and lacking any respect for my faith and my denomination. Those poor young men believe I am going to hell for my views. I'm nicer. I just wish they would go away.

They don't, actually, but I know that's not the point. They are pretty annoying.

From what I understand, most missionaries hate door-knocking, too, and missions are moving away from it as it's not very effective. We get the JW's occasionally, but in all the years we've lived at our house I don't think we've ever had Mormons. I see the sisters on campus pretty often, though.

[holierthanyou]

Is there any way you could have given away enough information about yourself on FJ, for someone to have referred you from here....

Maybe because you have called out other people who have left their email addresses open to public view?

Whatever, I'd definitely return the call and ask for details of who gave your name and number to them... :P

Haha, no, not from here. My email address isn't visible on FJ, and it's not my "real" email address anyway, so it's not tied to anything else.

[holierthanyou]

Mystery solved: I mentioned it at work and two other people had experienced the same thing- one was also yesterday, the other one last week. Perhaps a temporary worker/replacement turned in our names (?).