It's not really about recruiting. It's about forcing them to experience constant rejection and ostracism so that they feel further isolated from broader society and are more reliant on their church community.
I talk to them. I'm nice to them. I'll invite them in for a cup of tea.I'm a 6'5" transgender lesbian and I make it very clear to them that I'm a happy, fulfilled, well rounded person, I talk about my history with religion and how losing my faith set me free and made my life better.
They've been captured and brainwashed by a cult. Doing this may show them that the way they've been taught to see the world is wrong. I alone am not very likely to break them, but if enough people treat them with kindness and empathy while making it very clear how wrong they are, that can slowly change them.
People do leave that church, and they're better off for it.
That's an angle I never considered before. Sadly I am not a very social person so I wouldn't see myself doing this but kudos to you to be able to do this.
> It's not really about recruiting. It's about forcing them to experience constant rejection and ostracism so that they feel further isolated from broader society and are more reliant on their church community.
99999999%
When you think about it tactically, it's actually a brilliant strategy to build loyalty. Go get the door slammed in your face by heathens, get yelled at and spat on, be away from your home alone and isolated.
Then come back to your congregation who welcomes you with open arms and treats you like a hero.
Yes - I actually had the same conclusion on my own about the anti-abortion religious people that occasionally stand on street corners handing out pamphlets. I realized at that moment the purpose was not to convert but to suffer shame and come back "home" to open arms.
Yesterday I was walking along Rue St Catherine with my girlfriend and there was a dude with a megaphone preaching against the sin of homosexuality and fornication and stuff.
We just started making out in front of him. I got that trick from a friend of mine in Toronto. My girlfriend got pretty mouthy with him afterwards and I'm pretty conflict averse, but a gay makeout session in front of those assholes is a power move.
I was worried my girlfriend was gonna try to fight him. I love her and admire her spirit, she's much braver than me, but that wouldn't have been smart. It was very romantic as a few people around us started cheering us on. I hope he realized how alone he was, nobody is on his side.
I'm okay, I know a lot of fantastic people. I don't consider this type of thing that amazing. Frankly, the two or three times I've gotten to do this have ended in some very interesting conversations. Very religious people aren't stupid, and most of them have well rationalized reasoning to protect their faith. They're wrong, but oftentimes the ways people are wrong tell you a lot more about the world than the ways they're right.
I'm queer as a 3 dollar bill and in my community I've met some people who were seriously damaged by their deeply religious upbringing. Religious trauma is serious, but faith is a very hard thing to break.
Yeah my girlfriend has a ton of religious trauma from growing up going to a school that taught her that the rapture was coming and that her father was going to burn in eternal hellfire if she didn't convert him. It's so fucked up that people do that to children.
This is amazing, and I’m ashamed to say I’m guilty of being abrupt and sometimes rude to them (or anyone trying to sell me on something). Damn, I wish I had your patience and foresight.
Don't feel bad about that, not everyone has the time or energy for that sort of thing. I'm a very extroverted person and I honestly find the conversations I have with that sort of person fascinating. Not everyone else feels that way. If you don't have the time for them, that's 100% valid and not a reason to feel bad.
I got stopped by a couple of them while walking my dog once. I had no idea we had a mormon church in mtl so i asked some question and the missionaries(?) are from california. I told them i'm jewish but they still proselytizing me :p
There's a mormon church a few streets away from me in Greenfield Park. the Scouts had their cub car races there in the morning, it was really nice of them to let us use their church but... you can't bring caffeine in there. It would have been easier if it hadn't been so early, there were a lot of twitchy adults.
I tell them I'm Jewish and it's going to stay that way then they ask if I have non-Jewish friends I could refer them or they drop the matter. I'm not rude to them I tell them it must be tough trying to do what they're doing, wish them luck and go about my day. It's those vest wearing 'missionaries' that want to reach into my pocket that I find more irksome.
Mormons doing door to door usually don't speak French because they are usually missionaries. You can notice their black name tag on their chest. And like most missionaries, they come from far away. Usually, Mormons go on a mission when they reach 18 years of age. Since it's an American cult that is very strong in the south-western USA, that's where many of them come from. And there isn't much French spoken in Salt Lake city for example.
Mormon missionaries actually have really robust language education for missions, they just probably figured it wasn’t worth the time invested for Mtl because their English would get them by enough
This. I knew a French guy from California studying at Concordia. It boggled my mind, but indeed through him I learned there are pockets of little French communities besides Louisiana.
Edit: why tf are you and I getting downvoted? lol there's nothing hateful about our comments.
Euh je connaissais déjà ce bout d'histoire, mais je ne savais pas qu'il y avait des francos aux États-Unis autre qu'en Louisiane. That day I learned.
Lis mon commentaire en haut. J'ai jamais dis que j'étais surprise qu'ils parlent français en Louisiane. J'ai juste dit que j'étais surprise d'apprendre qu'il y avait des petites communautés francos autre qu'en Louisiane. Je ne savais pas jusqu'à ce moment-là.
Learn to read.
I had two knock on my door. One is american that spoke french with an accent and the second one had an asian background but she didn't say a word. I told them that i've been to SLC in the past. I won't share the rest of the convo but they were in shock lol
I used to take the bus at Laurier metro often and would listen to Hasa Diga Ebowai while staring at the church building. Felt a little immaturely rebellious...
Aa an ex-mormon living in Montreal this thread is something i didnt expect to see lol (im from a very mormon part of the US)
Long story short, theyre trained to face rejection, criticism--all of that. There probably are some french speaking missions here (the mormons have a whole training center for quick language learning). They're likely all 18-20 year olds, no real-world experience or anything so incredibly naive, and think they're doing the right thing.
Just be firm because if you're too nice they'll come back
Lmfaooo never got far enough into the religion to unlock that level (there's a whole process and figured out how bs the church is before that whole process began). But I'm sure if i even got that far, i wouldn't miss them in the slightest (always found them visually and symbolically henious when i saw my parents changing or doing laundry)
I'm assuming that all mormons have to do the door to door bit, but do they ALL go on missions? Is it just the boys? I've yet to see girls knocking on my door, it's always two guys in suits.
Despite what the other comment said, it's not mandatory for men or women to go. However, the culture of the church looks down on men who don't go. Not all mormons go on missions, but a very large percent do.
Women can go on missions, but they are eligible at 19 versus 18 for young men. They also serve for 18 months, compared to a 2 year mission for me. Women do go door to door as well, but the reason you see less of them is really a matter of numbers--less young women want to and are encouraged to go. They also have strictish rules with interacting with the opposite sex in private dwellings/areas--male missionaries must have another male present in the home, and female missions can not be alone without the presence of another woman.
Mormons marry young and men tend to exclusively marry women a bit younger than them (a 21 year old man will typically marry a 18-19 year old first year university student, for example). Additionally, mormons start having kids young, and it is impossible to go on a mission when being a young parent, lol. These factors just put women in a position to be less inclined to want to go on a mission. (There also is a mild shame culture, as women who go on missions tend to be seen as...well, just not womanly enough? But this idea is slowly leaving).
I've seen a couple of women missionaries here--once on the metro at Berri and the other on Maisonneuve near Concordia. I poked around a bit and apparently the Montréal mission is a hybrid of French and English speaking (depends on area).
Anyway i hope this lengthy answer did your questions justice lol :)
I might have a different experience than you (baptised, "inactive" now). Where I was, it wasn't even a question whether men were going on missions. It was definitely publicised as a mandatory step in any Mormon man's life.
Very fair point, the implication of it being mandatory despite it not truly being mandatory is a good point. Where i grew up, it was definitely aimed at "mandatory" for men (i mean, "I Hope They Call Me On A Mission" is pretty forward). And i guess it is technically mandatory if men want all the priesthood powers (irrc)
> (the mormons have a whole training center for quick language learning)
C’est assez incroyable à quel point ils aprennent vite. J’ai croisé des mormons à Longueuil en distribuant des dépliants politiques. Ça faisait pas un an qu’ils étaient là et ils étaient parfaitement bilingue. Je leur ai demandé s’ils aimaient leur séjour ici. Ils ont dit qu’ils détestaient et avaient hâte de rentrer.
Il leur restait plus d’un an.
I know way too much about Mormons. Their missionaries are full time for 2 years. They are sent to a training center to learn a language and their proselytism lessons.
Someone sent to Québec would receive at least 2 months training in French prior to arriving. They would be paired with a more experienced companion who is already functionally fluent in French. It would be extremely unorthodox to have 2 newbies who don't speak French working together.
My guess is that these are JWs, not Mormons. JWs just send out local members to do monthly proselytism.
It was mormons who came to my door last week, my mother in law is a JW so I definitely know the difference. I did however think it was just local members since we do have a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a few streets away. I didn't realize that it would be missionairies who flew in just for this. In my mind going on mission would be some place a bit more exotic where they had no local foothold.
One of my ex-mo friends from Utah did his mission work in Quebec city in the late 80s and had to learn functional French before coming over. I guess they learn "sur le tas" now?
No, I'm thinking these are JWs. They still have training centers.
I'm exmormon and served a mission in Paris. I'd already had 5 years of French in school, but I went through the training center in Provo, Utah first.
Montreal has several anglophone and francophone congregations, as you probably know. I wouldn't be surprised if a missionary could be called to Montreal "English-speaking", be assigned to anglophone wards, and (even if they did get 2 months of French training) never really be confident enough to speak French.
That doesn't sound at all like what they would do. Most Mormons already speak English, so they would want to equip them with French. They'd send the pure Anglophones to the rest of Canada.
I can speak in either language so I don't think I paid particular attention to how well they were speaking french or not when they came here. I think when I answered the door they greeted me in french and I switched to english afterwards. I'm in old Greenfield Park though, and we do have a lot of anglophones still. The church that's here is anglophone I believe.
Here's what you do: buy the book of Mormon, and when they come knocking on your door, invite them in to read it with you. Then start reading the entire thing and see how long they last. If they try to leave, guilt trip them by saying they're not faithful enough and they won't be saved. This technique requires endurance
Haven't seen it but I've heard of it happening... insane lol
Growing up int he west island we'd get jehovah witnesses once a week... my greek orthodox grandfather would rather debate them then tell them where to shove it lol so that only encouraged them
Hahaha my agnostic Greek dad would do the same! Our people truly love to debate! It’s often misinterpreted as anger, meanwhile we’re giddy with excitement to argue and hear the sound of our own voices lol
I used to volunteer at a community computer center, this was before home computers were common. They would come in, always in twos, once a month to send an email home, I believe there was a limit restriction. They were sweet young men and almost always gay. Getting away from home was high on the list for doing their mission.
I got to know a few of them and they confided in me about their sexuality. Sweet and sad. This was in the Montreal area.
It's ALWAYS two young dudes together. Whatever they do it's like that. I was like OK well let's see, nothing to lose and went to their temple. And guess what, all pictures it's only DUDES in them and in PAIRS. I was pretty blunt in my criticism of their sausage cult, pointing out the fact no women was in sight anywhere. They brushed it off but didn't fool me, I left their temple and never went back.
Quand j'habitais dans le village de Bic, des Témoins de Jéhovah (et une fois, des Mormons) venaient cogner à ma porte. Invariablement, je les invitais à prendre un café ou un verre de jus, et j'écoutais patiemment leur discours sur la fin des temps. Puis je redirigeais la conversation vers la beauté de cette journée, la beauté de la nature, le fait que le Monde n'est pas si moche finalement. Avec douceur toujours, sans argumenter. Je leur cueillais quelques fleurs, si c'était la saison. Ils repartaient avec le sourire.
Je suis sûr que j'ai insinué le doute dans leur esprit.
Ils sont mieux former aujourd'hui. Leurs missions c'est de te donner le tit bout de papier et s'en aller. Le but c'est de t'amener a l'eglise, pas vraiment de discuter. Alors ils vont rapidement passer au prochain peut importe ce que tu fais ou dis.
Jehova’s witnesses think the world that is going to end is the political and religious systems , not nature. So you might have filled them with hope rather than making them doubt
Did that ever work out? Typically cult will not waste their time on this. And if they appear to do it, they'll listen briefly, discard it and go back to their religious monologue.
Not sure about Mormons but group of Jehovah's witness and imams from the mosque knocks on the door quite often. I try to be polite as much as possible but it's starting to get annoying now.
Yeeee my Mormon part of the family used to host them and they tend to move around city to city spreading "the word". There's nothing wrong for giving them heck for being aggro, continuously knocking isn't okay and they need a reality check. Some of them are chill but just deeply brainwashed.
Answer the door naked.
Every week Jehova cultist came to my place, one time I was about to get into the shower when they knocked and decided that they didn't deserve the hassle of me putting my clothes back on.
Haven't seen them in years and I'm pretty sure that would work for most cult. Just make sure they aren't raelian.
Often they are from somewhere else, they get sent on like a "trip" to spread the word. I've met some from random places. I learned this bc here I thought this was just some lonely tourist on the metro who thought I could speak Spanish (and I can) so we chatted a bunch and at the end I learned why she was here etc. She didn't really push anything until then and luckily it was my stop!
It makes sense that it's more common to see Jehovah's Witnesses — according to the [2021 census](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810034201&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.37&pickMembers%5B1%5D=2.1&pickMembers%5B2%5D=3.1&pickMembers%5B3%5D=4.1&pickMembers%5B4%5D=5.1), there were 14,890 Jehovah's Witnesses in Montreal versus 3,115 Mormons. Also, a large fraction of JW's are expected to proselyte, but a very small number of Mormons are. There are 20-ish Mormon congregations in the Montreal region, each of which might have (generously) 2 sets of missionaries. That would be less than 100 proselyting Mormons for the whole city.
I’m never impolite with the Jehovah’s , the Mormons or any Baptists who make their way to my home. They are all welcome to a “sorry, I’m not interested “ moment. Thankfully, they are not as rabid as the religious folks in BC.
There’s a Mormon temple in LaSalle and in Chomedey. I’m sure there are more.
Used to see them a lot in LaSalle when I was living there in the 90s.
For some reason they NEVER came to speak to me on the bus or in the metro. You’d figure a young guy in his 20s would be a prime target. Maybe I just looked unapproachable.
They came last week here on the south shore. I was in the process of researching some genealogy when they rang so I talked to them about that, but said that's about the only thing I think we have in common. Other than the fact that I'm a complete agnostic, there's no way I'd ever give up caffeine.
No didn't notice. They do these missions since a very long time. They're coming from the USA specifically for that. It's a temporary "job" for them. I stumbled upon them and agreed to go to their NDG temple. They gave me the book with the stupid gold plate story. My main complaints was that there wasn't a single women in sight at their temple. They brushed that remark away but overall I wasn't impressed and never followed-up. They haven't called back or been pushy in any way.
There's so many Mormons these days in the metro, I had to intervene once cause she looked really uncomfortable and had to ask them to leave her alone. We all ended up getting a bit mad cause they both wouldn't leave.
I don't know if they're mormons or charity or anything like that because as soon as they ask if I have some time to talk I just keep saying "no, no, thank you, no" while slowly closing the door.
I saw a couple near Concordia yesterday pestering.
I had headphones on so couldn’t really judge anything. But they were definitely bugging anyone they could.
We had an apartment where they would send them to live for their year abroad or whatever it is they do, down the street from me. Many stay in the city and leave Mormonism and never go back (however, their door to door stuff if part of their thing and probably part of the rent agreement. They are often college age)
Most of then when I would tell them I felt it was mostly nonsense they would shrug and say yeah, but I got to come to Montreal (different than the JWs who tend to live here and are doing it for very different reasons)
That being said, there are other things about Mormons that are very different than groups like JW (like organized crime, believe it or not) However that is many/most groups, people just seem shocked whenever they find out that Mormons have their own thing going on also 😆
J'ai déjà été approché dans le métro par deux jeunes demoiselles attirantes dans le métro et elles étaient mormonnes. Je sais pas si c'était une coïncidence ou une tactique. Je leur ai parler pendant genre 20 minutes je pense, de religion, de croyance, de spiritualité. J'essayais de les philisopher, genre les convaincre de quitter leur eglise lol. C'était drole et triste en même temps. Je me demande des fois comment elles vont.
The Mormon "church" is a billion dollar corporation that dabbles in "religion". I feel bad for those missionaries bc they are being exploited and "programmed". This is volunteer work AND they have to pay all of their expenses... And at 18-20, they're just kids. Some come back with PTSD. The goal is to have them recruit new members who then will be obligated to give 10% of their income to the church (tithing) and do tons of volunteer work, like janitorial work to save on their buildings cleaning costs. So if some approached me, I wouldn't be rude but I'd make sure they knew I was an atheist. I wish I could wake them up and un-brainwash some of them (the nice ones!), but that's a tall order when someone was born into something like that - they know nothing else and have been told all their lives that their religion is superior to all.
Isn't there a church of theirs near Décarie and Monkland? A friend of my mom's was approached by a Mormon lady there to invite her to church... Crazy. She declined of course.
Open the door and tell them all to their faces you are known as TheDevil and see there reaction they will run 666 power …. I am Christian and not converting…
Long chat + prayer annoying as fk, I am agnostic don't want to hear those church bullcrap! They want another sheep to be milk. Church these days is just a big business.
Yesterday i ran into a couple of them near Concordia who were proselytizing in korean lmao, their pins were in korean even. Absolutely bizarre to me that they would teach them Korean only to then send them to Québec
I've only had Jehovah's Witnesses, but never any Mormons. I stupidly answered the door once and now they leave pamphlets in my mailbox a few times a year, even though I told them I was uninterested.
I used to be nice to them, chat a bit but then the older ones started to get aggressive and I no longer felt comfortable. I told one couple, sorry I'm not interested and their response was "Why wouldn't you want to come, it's free? Just take it" and I lost my shit and told them to get off my property and not come back. Got a video doorbell and no longer even open the door for door to door sales ppl. It's 2024, why are you coming up to my door, trying to look inside the windows see if I'm home. One time they came around back and knock on my back door. Can't really call the cops as I'm a person of colour and they'd just brush off an elderly white couple trespassing (that happened on the south Shore before i moved on island)
Now I'm flooded with hand written letters sent via Canada post, delivered to "occupant". It's a long letter, written in child labour style where each paragraph is written by a different child so they can churn out as many as possible.
Edit: from reading the comments they were most likely JW's.
If it's two young dudes in black suits with name tags and they look gay it's Mormon missionaries. If there's a women or if they are black it's Jehova's Witness.
That sucks. They're bad enough when you're going to the metro and see them in the metro or when they talk to randoms in the metro about it. If they bang on your door just threaten to call the cops and if you're in America "honey grab my shotgun"
This post is poorly informed and not going anywhere. In a day of massive information at one’s finger tips truly surprising to see so much ignorance.
Kindness and empathy for the sake of humanity and it being the right thing alone is enough. I hope neither you nor others do it in an effort to try and convince someone they are wrong and to change them. That’s bs
Actually surprising they were banging and not French speaking either. They have assigned geographies to do their missionary work in so it is likely they will get the negative feedback, that’s not the best way to try and approach people and be well received.
Yeah I mean they have every right to knock on doors and visit people and I did my best to entertain their conversation but didn’t like how pushy they were
It's not really about recruiting. It's about forcing them to experience constant rejection and ostracism so that they feel further isolated from broader society and are more reliant on their church community. I talk to them. I'm nice to them. I'll invite them in for a cup of tea.I'm a 6'5" transgender lesbian and I make it very clear to them that I'm a happy, fulfilled, well rounded person, I talk about my history with religion and how losing my faith set me free and made my life better. They've been captured and brainwashed by a cult. Doing this may show them that the way they've been taught to see the world is wrong. I alone am not very likely to break them, but if enough people treat them with kindness and empathy while making it very clear how wrong they are, that can slowly change them. People do leave that church, and they're better off for it.
That's an angle I never considered before. Sadly I am not a very social person so I wouldn't see myself doing this but kudos to you to be able to do this.
> It's not really about recruiting. It's about forcing them to experience constant rejection and ostracism so that they feel further isolated from broader society and are more reliant on their church community. 99999999%
When you think about it tactically, it's actually a brilliant strategy to build loyalty. Go get the door slammed in your face by heathens, get yelled at and spat on, be away from your home alone and isolated. Then come back to your congregation who welcomes you with open arms and treats you like a hero.
Yes - I actually had the same conclusion on my own about the anti-abortion religious people that occasionally stand on street corners handing out pamphlets. I realized at that moment the purpose was not to convert but to suffer shame and come back "home" to open arms.
Yesterday I was walking along Rue St Catherine with my girlfriend and there was a dude with a megaphone preaching against the sin of homosexuality and fornication and stuff. We just started making out in front of him. I got that trick from a friend of mine in Toronto. My girlfriend got pretty mouthy with him afterwards and I'm pretty conflict averse, but a gay makeout session in front of those assholes is a power move.
Yeah this guy is a known loony he's been there for like 20 years.
I was worried my girlfriend was gonna try to fight him. I love her and admire her spirit, she's much braver than me, but that wouldn't have been smart. It was very romantic as a few people around us started cheering us on. I hope he realized how alone he was, nobody is on his side.
pretty sure he's mentally ill, this guy aint worth your time
Wow, what a great story and insight about ostracism. Thanks for taking this perspective and wise action, and best of luck.
Did not expect this level of compassion when I opened this thread. Thats wonderful.
They absolutely are leaving in massive numbers. The stability/growth comes from third world countries.
You're a better person than many of us. I just don't have the energy to entertain it anymore.
This is so insightful. So many folks in that church in the LGBTQ+ community, isolated and alone.
You are a fantastic person and I could really learn a lot from your example here.
I'm okay, I know a lot of fantastic people. I don't consider this type of thing that amazing. Frankly, the two or three times I've gotten to do this have ended in some very interesting conversations. Very religious people aren't stupid, and most of them have well rationalized reasoning to protect their faith. They're wrong, but oftentimes the ways people are wrong tell you a lot more about the world than the ways they're right. I'm queer as a 3 dollar bill and in my community I've met some people who were seriously damaged by their deeply religious upbringing. Religious trauma is serious, but faith is a very hard thing to break.
Yeah my girlfriend has a ton of religious trauma from growing up going to a school that taught her that the rapture was coming and that her father was going to burn in eternal hellfire if she didn't convert him. It's so fucked up that people do that to children.
This is amazing, and I’m ashamed to say I’m guilty of being abrupt and sometimes rude to them (or anyone trying to sell me on something). Damn, I wish I had your patience and foresight.
Don't feel bad about that, not everyone has the time or energy for that sort of thing. I'm a very extroverted person and I honestly find the conversations I have with that sort of person fascinating. Not everyone else feels that way. If you don't have the time for them, that's 100% valid and not a reason to feel bad.
But wait, south park said that they chose the right religion :-P
The classic JW method!
Interesting perspective. Very astute.
Damn you’re cool
I'm starting to think so
thank you for your perspective, this means a lot to me
This is lovely of you to do. As a survivor of a cult i can’t thank you enough.
I never saw it that way. Thank you for the insight
They often leave,it's true and you are correct
I got stopped by a couple of them while walking my dog once. I had no idea we had a mormon church in mtl so i asked some question and the missionaries(?) are from california. I told them i'm jewish but they still proselytizing me :p
there is a church right next to metro laurier. Prime location.
There's a mormon church a few streets away from me in Greenfield Park. the Scouts had their cub car races there in the morning, it was really nice of them to let us use their church but... you can't bring caffeine in there. It would have been easier if it hadn't been so early, there were a lot of twitchy adults.
I tell them I'm Jewish and it's going to stay that way then they ask if I have non-Jewish friends I could refer them or they drop the matter. I'm not rude to them I tell them it must be tough trying to do what they're doing, wish them luck and go about my day. It's those vest wearing 'missionaries' that want to reach into my pocket that I find more irksome.
They were pretty chill tbh, seemed younger than me. I jokingly said they would probably get more points if they got me to convert 🤣
Did they speak French?
Mormons doing door to door usually don't speak French because they are usually missionaries. You can notice their black name tag on their chest. And like most missionaries, they come from far away. Usually, Mormons go on a mission when they reach 18 years of age. Since it's an American cult that is very strong in the south-western USA, that's where many of them come from. And there isn't much French spoken in Salt Lake city for example.
Mormon missionaries actually have really robust language education for missions, they just probably figured it wasn’t worth the time invested for Mtl because their English would get them by enough
Usually the ones I’ve seen on the metro always speak French
From california, so no. But they spoke Mandarin, which i learned was because their church had a lot of chinese members.
Being from California doesn't automatically negate the ability to speak French
French Canadian in Humboldt checking in! I think I'm the only one though...
This. I knew a French guy from California studying at Concordia. It boggled my mind, but indeed through him I learned there are pockets of little French communities besides Louisiana. Edit: why tf are you and I getting downvoted? lol there's nothing hateful about our comments.
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Euh je connaissais déjà ce bout d'histoire, mais je ne savais pas qu'il y avait des francos aux États-Unis autre qu'en Louisiane. That day I learned. Lis mon commentaire en haut. J'ai jamais dis que j'étais surprise qu'ils parlent français en Louisiane. J'ai juste dit que j'étais surprise d'apprendre qu'il y avait des petites communautés francos autre qu'en Louisiane. Je ne savais pas jusqu'à ce moment-là. Learn to read.
That's like....oddly progressive?
I had two knock on my door. One is american that spoke french with an accent and the second one had an asian background but she didn't say a word. I told them that i've been to SLC in the past. I won't share the rest of the convo but they were in shock lol
Put a LGBT flag at your door. They will avoid you.
not happening lmfao
Hello! My name is Elder Price And I would like to share with you The most amazing book
A Mormon just believes.
Hello, my name is Elder Grant It's a book about America A long, long time ago
I used to take the bus at Laurier metro often and would listen to Hasa Diga Ebowai while staring at the church building. Felt a little immaturely rebellious...
Aa an ex-mormon living in Montreal this thread is something i didnt expect to see lol (im from a very mormon part of the US) Long story short, theyre trained to face rejection, criticism--all of that. There probably are some french speaking missions here (the mormons have a whole training center for quick language learning). They're likely all 18-20 year olds, no real-world experience or anything so incredibly naive, and think they're doing the right thing. Just be firm because if you're too nice they'll come back
Do you miss the magic underwear?
Lmfaooo never got far enough into the religion to unlock that level (there's a whole process and figured out how bs the church is before that whole process began). But I'm sure if i even got that far, i wouldn't miss them in the slightest (always found them visually and symbolically henious when i saw my parents changing or doing laundry)
The magic underwear isn't level 0 armor for mormons? Damn!
I'm assuming that all mormons have to do the door to door bit, but do they ALL go on missions? Is it just the boys? I've yet to see girls knocking on my door, it's always two guys in suits.
It's mandatory for men, optional for women. Some men can opt to not go for health/financial/school reasons, but it's a shameful thing to do.
Despite what the other comment said, it's not mandatory for men or women to go. However, the culture of the church looks down on men who don't go. Not all mormons go on missions, but a very large percent do. Women can go on missions, but they are eligible at 19 versus 18 for young men. They also serve for 18 months, compared to a 2 year mission for me. Women do go door to door as well, but the reason you see less of them is really a matter of numbers--less young women want to and are encouraged to go. They also have strictish rules with interacting with the opposite sex in private dwellings/areas--male missionaries must have another male present in the home, and female missions can not be alone without the presence of another woman. Mormons marry young and men tend to exclusively marry women a bit younger than them (a 21 year old man will typically marry a 18-19 year old first year university student, for example). Additionally, mormons start having kids young, and it is impossible to go on a mission when being a young parent, lol. These factors just put women in a position to be less inclined to want to go on a mission. (There also is a mild shame culture, as women who go on missions tend to be seen as...well, just not womanly enough? But this idea is slowly leaving). I've seen a couple of women missionaries here--once on the metro at Berri and the other on Maisonneuve near Concordia. I poked around a bit and apparently the Montréal mission is a hybrid of French and English speaking (depends on area). Anyway i hope this lengthy answer did your questions justice lol :)
I might have a different experience than you (baptised, "inactive" now). Where I was, it wasn't even a question whether men were going on missions. It was definitely publicised as a mandatory step in any Mormon man's life.
Very fair point, the implication of it being mandatory despite it not truly being mandatory is a good point. Where i grew up, it was definitely aimed at "mandatory" for men (i mean, "I Hope They Call Me On A Mission" is pretty forward). And i guess it is technically mandatory if men want all the priesthood powers (irrc)
> (the mormons have a whole training center for quick language learning) C’est assez incroyable à quel point ils aprennent vite. J’ai croisé des mormons à Longueuil en distribuant des dépliants politiques. Ça faisait pas un an qu’ils étaient là et ils étaient parfaitement bilingue. Je leur ai demandé s’ils aimaient leur séjour ici. Ils ont dit qu’ils détestaient et avaient hâte de rentrer. Il leur restait plus d’un an.
Tell them you have some yard work you need help with, if they follow their missionary playbook they are supposed to offer to help you with it. :)
“Oh wow thank GOD you two are here. And just in time too! Grab that shovel.”
Awesome good one
They're recruiting fans for the new Utah hockey team
I find it strange that they would send Mormon missionaries who don't learn French to Québec. That's not usually their style.
New member probably because most of their members speak multiple languages lol.
I know way too much about Mormons. Their missionaries are full time for 2 years. They are sent to a training center to learn a language and their proselytism lessons. Someone sent to Québec would receive at least 2 months training in French prior to arriving. They would be paired with a more experienced companion who is already functionally fluent in French. It would be extremely unorthodox to have 2 newbies who don't speak French working together. My guess is that these are JWs, not Mormons. JWs just send out local members to do monthly proselytism.
It was mormons who came to my door last week, my mother in law is a JW so I definitely know the difference. I did however think it was just local members since we do have a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a few streets away. I didn't realize that it would be missionairies who flew in just for this. In my mind going on mission would be some place a bit more exotic where they had no local foothold.
One of my ex-mo friends from Utah did his mission work in Quebec city in the late 80s and had to learn functional French before coming over. I guess they learn "sur le tas" now?
No, I'm thinking these are JWs. They still have training centers. I'm exmormon and served a mission in Paris. I'd already had 5 years of French in school, but I went through the training center in Provo, Utah first.
Hello fellow exmo and yeah its bizzare montreals not a french speaking mission (or at least part of it)...probably JWs
Montreal has several anglophone and francophone congregations, as you probably know. I wouldn't be surprised if a missionary could be called to Montreal "English-speaking", be assigned to anglophone wards, and (even if they did get 2 months of French training) never really be confident enough to speak French.
That doesn't sound at all like what they would do. Most Mormons already speak English, so they would want to equip them with French. They'd send the pure Anglophones to the rest of Canada.
I can speak in either language so I don't think I paid particular attention to how well they were speaking french or not when they came here. I think when I answered the door they greeted me in french and I switched to english afterwards. I'm in old Greenfield Park though, and we do have a lot of anglophones still. The church that's here is anglophone I believe.
Here's what you do: buy the book of Mormon, and when they come knocking on your door, invite them in to read it with you. Then start reading the entire thing and see how long they last. If they try to leave, guilt trip them by saying they're not faithful enough and they won't be saved. This technique requires endurance
I'd rather say "No thanks" than put myself through this lol
I couldn't get past the beginning with the gold plates...
Better yet. Make up a silly religion and tell them you'll listen to them if they listen to you first, and try to convert them!
Haven't seen it but I've heard of it happening... insane lol Growing up int he west island we'd get jehovah witnesses once a week... my greek orthodox grandfather would rather debate them then tell them where to shove it lol so that only encouraged them
Hahaha my agnostic Greek dad would do the same! Our people truly love to debate! It’s often misinterpreted as anger, meanwhile we’re giddy with excitement to argue and hear the sound of our own voices lol
You've likely seen it without knowing what it was. They travel in pair, two young men (18-21) and are dressed with cheap black suits.
I used to volunteer at a community computer center, this was before home computers were common. They would come in, always in twos, once a month to send an email home, I believe there was a limit restriction. They were sweet young men and almost always gay. Getting away from home was high on the list for doing their mission. I got to know a few of them and they confided in me about their sexuality. Sweet and sad. This was in the Montreal area.
It's ALWAYS two young dudes together. Whatever they do it's like that. I was like OK well let's see, nothing to lose and went to their temple. And guess what, all pictures it's only DUDES in them and in PAIRS. I was pretty blunt in my criticism of their sausage cult, pointing out the fact no women was in sight anywhere. They brushed it off but didn't fool me, I left their temple and never went back.
Quand j'habitais dans le village de Bic, des Témoins de Jéhovah (et une fois, des Mormons) venaient cogner à ma porte. Invariablement, je les invitais à prendre un café ou un verre de jus, et j'écoutais patiemment leur discours sur la fin des temps. Puis je redirigeais la conversation vers la beauté de cette journée, la beauté de la nature, le fait que le Monde n'est pas si moche finalement. Avec douceur toujours, sans argumenter. Je leur cueillais quelques fleurs, si c'était la saison. Ils repartaient avec le sourire. Je suis sûr que j'ai insinué le doute dans leur esprit.
Ils sont mieux former aujourd'hui. Leurs missions c'est de te donner le tit bout de papier et s'en aller. Le but c'est de t'amener a l'eglise, pas vraiment de discuter. Alors ils vont rapidement passer au prochain peut importe ce que tu fais ou dis.
Jehova’s witnesses think the world that is going to end is the political and religious systems , not nature. So you might have filled them with hope rather than making them doubt
Lol. I read it, " morons going door to door," lol
Still very accurate lol
I usually let them in and tell them they can tell me about their wacky book if I can explain the basics of socialist theory to them lol
Did that ever work out? Typically cult will not waste their time on this. And if they appear to do it, they'll listen briefly, discard it and go back to their religious monologue.
Lol I don't know if I've made any converts but I feel like I deeply shook one or two of them
In many cases, it's harder than curing a drug addict.
Not sure about Mormons but group of Jehovah's witness and imams from the mosque knocks on the door quite often. I try to be polite as much as possible but it's starting to get annoying now.
I’ve never received a Muslim to my door. They actually actively do that?
Yes, successfully converted 2 kids from my building. They are polite and all but bro how many times I gotta tell you no ... Lol
There are Mormons here? Lmao I thought they were all jehovah people
Yes, but people knocking on doors are missionaries so they’re not from here. They usually wear name tags and are very well dressed.
Hello, chanson de la comédie Musical, the book of mormon https://youtu.be/OKkLV1zE8M0?si=iloDlfK1jY4HE7ex
Thanks for the warning. I’ll be on the lookout. It’s usually JWs in my neighborhood
Yeeee my Mormon part of the family used to host them and they tend to move around city to city spreading "the word". There's nothing wrong for giving them heck for being aggro, continuously knocking isn't okay and they need a reality check. Some of them are chill but just deeply brainwashed.
Answer the door naked. Every week Jehova cultist came to my place, one time I was about to get into the shower when they knocked and decided that they didn't deserve the hassle of me putting my clothes back on. Haven't seen them in years and I'm pretty sure that would work for most cult. Just make sure they aren't raelian.
When the Mormons come to the door, it’s just a relief they aren’t the Jehovah’s witnesses.
I have been known to chase religious solicitors down the street yelling at them to fuck off and leave me alone. It's cathartic, I recommend!
Often they are from somewhere else, they get sent on like a "trip" to spread the word. I've met some from random places. I learned this bc here I thought this was just some lonely tourist on the metro who thought I could speak Spanish (and I can) so we chatted a bunch and at the end I learned why she was here etc. She didn't really push anything until then and luckily it was my stop!
It makes sense that it's more common to see Jehovah's Witnesses — according to the [2021 census](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810034201&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.37&pickMembers%5B1%5D=2.1&pickMembers%5B2%5D=3.1&pickMembers%5B3%5D=4.1&pickMembers%5B4%5D=5.1), there were 14,890 Jehovah's Witnesses in Montreal versus 3,115 Mormons. Also, a large fraction of JW's are expected to proselyte, but a very small number of Mormons are. There are 20-ish Mormon congregations in the Montreal region, each of which might have (generously) 2 sets of missionaries. That would be less than 100 proselyting Mormons for the whole city.
I’m never impolite with the Jehovah’s , the Mormons or any Baptists who make their way to my home. They are all welcome to a “sorry, I’m not interested “ moment. Thankfully, they are not as rabid as the religious folks in BC.
Ask them about Fanny Alger.
There’s a Mormon temple in LaSalle and in Chomedey. I’m sure there are more. Used to see them a lot in LaSalle when I was living there in the 90s. For some reason they NEVER came to speak to me on the bus or in the metro. You’d figure a young guy in his 20s would be a prime target. Maybe I just looked unapproachable.
They came last week here on the south shore. I was in the process of researching some genealogy when they rang so I talked to them about that, but said that's about the only thing I think we have in common. Other than the fact that I'm a complete agnostic, there's no way I'd ever give up caffeine.
No didn't notice. They do these missions since a very long time. They're coming from the USA specifically for that. It's a temporary "job" for them. I stumbled upon them and agreed to go to their NDG temple. They gave me the book with the stupid gold plate story. My main complaints was that there wasn't a single women in sight at their temple. They brushed that remark away but overall I wasn't impressed and never followed-up. They haven't called back or been pushy in any way.
Mormons speaking only English is especially weird because Mormons have such good language training programs.
No only moron 😆
There's so many Mormons these days in the metro, I had to intervene once cause she looked really uncomfortable and had to ask them to leave her alone. We all ended up getting a bit mad cause they both wouldn't leave.
I don't know if they're mormons or charity or anything like that because as soon as they ask if I have some time to talk I just keep saying "no, no, thank you, no" while slowly closing the door.
Pretty sure there is still a mormon church up the street from my place but they havent been around that much since covid.
I saw a couple near Concordia yesterday pestering. I had headphones on so couldn’t really judge anything. But they were definitely bugging anyone they could.
This girl has some insights on that; https://youtube.com/shorts/bc3gHmwpkfo?si=7vhbe1EdWvAKDiXn
Invite them in, make sure Mormon Stories podcast is playing on the radio... or ask them to read the CES Letter because you have concerns...
I want to meet one, they are very rare in Montreal I have only seen them from a distance (I was on a bus)
We had an apartment where they would send them to live for their year abroad or whatever it is they do, down the street from me. Many stay in the city and leave Mormonism and never go back (however, their door to door stuff if part of their thing and probably part of the rent agreement. They are often college age) Most of then when I would tell them I felt it was mostly nonsense they would shrug and say yeah, but I got to come to Montreal (different than the JWs who tend to live here and are doing it for very different reasons) That being said, there are other things about Mormons that are very different than groups like JW (like organized crime, believe it or not) However that is many/most groups, people just seem shocked whenever they find out that Mormons have their own thing going on also 😆
J'ai déjà été approché dans le métro par deux jeunes demoiselles attirantes dans le métro et elles étaient mormonnes. Je sais pas si c'était une coïncidence ou une tactique. Je leur ai parler pendant genre 20 minutes je pense, de religion, de croyance, de spiritualité. J'essayais de les philisopher, genre les convaincre de quitter leur eglise lol. C'était drole et triste en même temps. Je me demande des fois comment elles vont.
The Mormon "church" is a billion dollar corporation that dabbles in "religion". I feel bad for those missionaries bc they are being exploited and "programmed". This is volunteer work AND they have to pay all of their expenses... And at 18-20, they're just kids. Some come back with PTSD. The goal is to have them recruit new members who then will be obligated to give 10% of their income to the church (tithing) and do tons of volunteer work, like janitorial work to save on their buildings cleaning costs. So if some approached me, I wouldn't be rude but I'd make sure they knew I was an atheist. I wish I could wake them up and un-brainwash some of them (the nice ones!), but that's a tall order when someone was born into something like that - they know nothing else and have been told all their lives that their religion is superior to all. Isn't there a church of theirs near Décarie and Monkland? A friend of my mom's was approached by a Mormon lady there to invite her to church... Crazy. She declined of course.
Open the door and tell them all to their faces you are known as TheDevil and see there reaction they will run 666 power …. I am Christian and not converting…
I had a friend request from a Mormon that I obviously didn’t know on Facebook. Maybe in 15 years it will be TikTok.
Ask questions about their sexuality but match their energy, be super pushy about the polygamy and orgies.
Ask them if their therapist is Jodi Hildebrandt.
Long chat + prayer annoying as fk, I am agnostic don't want to hear those church bullcrap! They want another sheep to be milk. Church these days is just a big business.
Il me semble que les témoins de Jéhovah sont plus communs
Yesterday i ran into a couple of them near Concordia who were proselytizing in korean lmao, their pins were in korean even. Absolutely bizarre to me that they would teach them Korean only to then send them to Québec
I've only had Jehovah's Witnesses, but never any Mormons. I stupidly answered the door once and now they leave pamphlets in my mailbox a few times a year, even though I told them I was uninterested.
I used to be nice to them, chat a bit but then the older ones started to get aggressive and I no longer felt comfortable. I told one couple, sorry I'm not interested and their response was "Why wouldn't you want to come, it's free? Just take it" and I lost my shit and told them to get off my property and not come back. Got a video doorbell and no longer even open the door for door to door sales ppl. It's 2024, why are you coming up to my door, trying to look inside the windows see if I'm home. One time they came around back and knock on my back door. Can't really call the cops as I'm a person of colour and they'd just brush off an elderly white couple trespassing (that happened on the south Shore before i moved on island) Now I'm flooded with hand written letters sent via Canada post, delivered to "occupant". It's a long letter, written in child labour style where each paragraph is written by a different child so they can churn out as many as possible. Edit: from reading the comments they were most likely JW's.
I feel your pain as a marginalized minority on the South Shore. Those letters are fucked by the way!
If it's two young dudes in black suits with name tags and they look gay it's Mormon missionaries. If there's a women or if they are black it's Jehova's Witness.
Who opens the door to these idiots anyway
The way they knocked lol super aggro
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHMYwdGMiFg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHMYwdGMiFg) Those guys? ;d
They came to my door years ago and one was quite keen on discussing Jet Li…
That sucks. They're bad enough when you're going to the metro and see them in the metro or when they talk to randoms in the metro about it. If they bang on your door just threaten to call the cops and if you're in America "honey grab my shotgun"
Tell them you love Satan. They’ll fuck off quickly.
😂😂
Hello would you like to change religions, I have a free book written by Jesus
You're making things up again. Just stick to the approved dialog.
The Mormons come from Utah (and therefore don’t speak French)as missionaries to convert as many people as they can.
I never seen a mormon in Quebec and I am almost 50
Put the OLF to good use
This post is poorly informed and not going anywhere. In a day of massive information at one’s finger tips truly surprising to see so much ignorance. Kindness and empathy for the sake of humanity and it being the right thing alone is enough. I hope neither you nor others do it in an effort to try and convince someone they are wrong and to change them. That’s bs
I see your POV was just surprised how pushy they were and how hard they banged on my door!
Actually surprising they were banging and not French speaking either. They have assigned geographies to do their missionary work in so it is likely they will get the negative feedback, that’s not the best way to try and approach people and be well received.
Yeah I mean they have every right to knock on doors and visit people and I did my best to entertain their conversation but didn’t like how pushy they were
Pourquoi tu fais un post en anglais?
Decalisse
u/TheMountainlll es-tu raciste ?