Called to Prostitute? (4)

There were rules that guided conduct on Temple Square like most other LDS Church missions. The mission was a visitor's centre so it brought all sorts of people to the square. There were the ones who we called or nicknamed 'Anti Mormons.' Those ones stood in front of the gates and discouraged people from entering the square so they wouldn't be 'bewitched' by the beautiful sister missionaries or the love of the elderly couples. It wasn't for nothing as most people who came through Temple Square would often agree to have missionaries talk to them more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In talking about the excesses of this witch hunt that masqueraded as missionary work let me continue to talk about the main defining themes seen as follows?

Missionary or mercenary: Who knew the people who were hardly missionaries and were mere emissaries or mercenaries used by their own countries to look up the United States of America? That could really cause a problem for that Church or other churches in similar endeavours. Politics isn't all the world is about. Separate religion and state, please. 

Telecentre: This was where the young female missionaries called investigators or friends of members of the Church to 'invite' them to learn about the religion. It was here that I followed the cue of some other missionaries to call a family friend in Nigeria. I had known this woman, Mrs Stella Chinyere Amuta (not to her daughter Nneoma Amuta or any other family member) since childhood. I was around when she married and had all her children. She was my mother's friend. I had asked my mother if it was alright to call her friend and ask her to receive missionaries at Aba, Abia State, Nigeria. Mrs Amuta was Catholic. She had asked me for money to be sent to her but I intimated her that I didn't have any savings from my $136/month feeding allowance. Ada Obasi told me to send some money to the woman but I intimated her that it was against mission rules to do so. She probably had other means of making money other than what we were all paid. The other missionaries got money from their families. But I was getting nothing from mine. Mrs Amuta was a civil servant in Nigeria and had never given any gift of money to me all my life. I would have sent some money to her if I had a work visa. The R1 visa that the foreign missionaries got didn't allow us to work and we didn't pay tax. It wouldn't even let us apply for a green card as our work was purely volunteer. 

I wouldn't know if she was one by birth or by marriage but she had never attended any event organized by the LDS Church. Being on a mission in the USA, I thought it would be nice to let her know the teachings of the Church I attended with my family since my childhood. I asked another missionary Ada Onwuchekwa Obasi to help me place the call in line with the mission rules. She agreed to make that call. I asked her to call a friend of mine too who was resident in Nigeria. He was an airman from the Air Force Comprehensive School that I had served for my NYSC in Ibadan. Such calls were never made intimate. They were supposed to be professional and moral. She asked me to call a friend of hers too, a man. He, like, Mrs Amuta and the airman, one Moses Giwa agreed to allow visitors to teach them about Joseph Smith's vision and other teachings of the Church that he founded. This was in 2007. There were other missionaries who placed calls to other destinations through other sister missionaries. I haven't heard that those calls were taken beyond the mission. I don't know what arrangement Ada Obasi and the mission had with those investigators that I introduced to them. I believe that Ada took the conversation beyond missionary to mercenary. I think that if the LDS Church has any shred of dignity left in them, they should call her to order. She regularly called a man in Houston, Texas, while on Temple Square. I don't know their relationship. But I know that she was once a telecentre director and that must have empowered her to such calls whether they were related to her work or not. Double standard is not the hallmark of sainthood. This wasn't a place for call girls, I had supposed. There were other directors in that capacity, I'm yet to know that it's been a jamboree for them since Temple Square. I didn't ask these people to meet up in real life. They lived in different parts of the country. Now, they are congregating in Aba, to do whatever that's only known to them. I didn't connect Ada Obasi to Peter Garba nor anybody else from Ibadan, Nigeria.

Freedom/Permissiveness: Like I said earlier, Temple Square was restricted and many things that other missionaries did we weren't allowed to do. 

Literacy/Illiteracy: It wasn't enough to say that 'whom the Lord called, he qualified.' I didn't want any respect for being able to tell the difference between 'mop' and 'mob.' I should be respected nor ridiculed for knowing it. Virtue isn't a shame, vice is. People oughtn't worry about those who want to do the right thing. God sees the heart and not man. Intent, of course, is seen in the ensuing actions.

Bottom power: Perhaps it should be interesting the interplay of integrity and bottom power on Temple Square. Was there every the use of sexual favours promised or given in the allotment or callings given to the young sister missionaries? Should that be a problem for that Church if merit were enthroned in its administration? Why let women sell themselves short or get a leg up for whatever reason? Sainthood is not by force. Are we being watched for tenacity, ingenuity or power hunger? What about corruption, the green monster that destroys everything in its wake sooner or later?

Usurpation: Was Temple Square an avenue for people to claim other people's belongings? My luggage was searched when I arrived on Temple Square by my trainer. And the clothes considered 'unapproved' were taken away probably to Desert Industries (DI). Didn't they realize that I was going to use them in the 'outbound?' It seemed that there was a relish in confiscating those clothes. I didn't like my luggage searched and I hated to do it when it was my turn to train. Till this day, I think that mission just had an interest in looking in my luggage and personal items have continue to miss in my luggage even in Nigeria. I don't think that I gave anybody the right to usurp upon my property in any way. 

Stalking: What right has the Church to stalk its members? Any one member or anybody. In inviting missionaries to speak to 'friends' I hadn't asked them to become stalkers. Stalking could mean the harassment or persecution of someone with unwanted and obsessive attention. When missionaries are told to refrain from contacting certain individuals or investigators, it's beneficial that such entreaties should be respected for Christ's sake. You know, he once said 'Get thee behind me, Satan.'

Identity Theft: The LDS Church doesn't have the right to usurp an identity nor assign such to any other persons nor entities. They do not assign real names except in their Temple ceremonies where they give new names to initiates. Those names are usually secret and scriptural similar to the renamings during post baptism confirmation ceremonies of most Orthodox churches. I haven't heard that they are running a parallel government that allows them to do as they please in Nigeria. I haven't given anybody the right to use my name in any form and I have never done a name change. No relative of mine has the right to do so for me or by themselves. The customs that allow such are rogue, Satanic and come from contrivances, conspiracies and corruption. Recently, Facebook has many Ijeoma Njoku. I guess it's the wonder of social media - getting to your name sake or your impostor.

Infiltration: I suffer LDS Church stalking in many ways. One of such ways is by planting a member in everywhere that I work, live or attend a school. They come to the same cybercafe that I frequent. Being a public place I can't tell anybody where to go but it just shows that everybody likes a good thing (like I do) or they go there because I do. It's understandable if they were there before my arrival but many times, they would look for an easy pray to lure and convert in order to give me an LDS Church member in this place. I guess this is mockery owing to me writing to be removed from the Church memberships since 2013. I guess since inviting Mrs Amuta and others to investigate the Mormon Church I had asked to remain only where there were Mormons forever? Hmmm....

Hypocrisy: One man's hypocrite is another man's saint. What am I to say? Hypocrisy, which is the practice of claiming to have higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case, is often seen in the other than in oneself. Most people consider themselves righteous and willing to solve problems. They only serve selfish interests and will one day be shamed. Why do people go on missions? To meet people to shame, humiliate, have sex with, marry or get a scholarship or relocate to another city or country? It's important to learn from the prospective missionary the reason for going on a mission.

Diversity: Temple Square was diverse. Some of the missionaries were converts, while others like me had grown up in the Church, that is, been in the LDS Church since childhood. Those grown up converts had their orientations in other churches. Like I said in syncretism, I had to live with people who had grown up Muslim, Buddhist, pagan or any other world religion before joining the LDS Church. I didn't know but I thought that obedience to the mission rules helped bind all those orientations together. What I didn't like was the too many times we had to pray on the Square. That was rather heathen to me and quite tiring. Was God that vain or eager to be talked to ten times a day at least?

Diligence or Madness: I don't think that anybody needs to be told there's a difference between them. Diligence means careful and persistent work or effort. While madness means extremely foolish behaviour. One should watch one's own spectrum of behaviour: diligence or madness?

Prostitution to marriage: I didn't think that a mission was a call to prostitution. But I wonder if it was. If that was the case, then I answered the wrong call. I should have carried on with my life after all none of my LDS Church contemporaries served a mission after their education. The decision to do so was personal and not for any supposed gain until I decided three months to the end of my mission to apply for graduate school. I thought that graduate education would be better in the USA than in Nigeria. That I used the opportunity of the mission to initiate it was only an incident, fair to be judged opportunistic. It was in no way cynical. Perhaps the moralist could adjudge it expedient. I hadn't willed my whole life and liberties to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That would tantamount to slavery. God forbid. 

Sex on a mission: I didn't have sexual intercourse during the 18 month period of the LDS Church mission to Salt Lake City, Utah and Houston, Texas. This includes no anal, vaginal, oral, electronic or such sexual activity. I didn't have sex with a man nor a woman nor a beast. I would consider it hypocritical to practise what I preached against and condemned in other people. I didn't have the moral right to be the one to break the so called Law of Chastity and commit other people to keep it. If that's why I should remain single, OK. I guess that I should warn other people. DON'T DO THE LDS CHURCH MISSIONARY WORK.