{"id":31418,"date":"2014-08-15T12:48:24","date_gmt":"2014-08-15T17:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=31418"},"modified":"2014-08-20T19:18:04","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T00:18:04","slug":"the-hypothetical-missionary-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2014\/08\/the-hypothetical-missionary-library\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hypothetical “Missionary Library”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"if\"<\/a>As a companion piece to Dave’s post on missionaries<\/a>, let’s talk about the approved missionary library.<\/p>\n

I have concerns about what missionaries study, know, and teach<\/a>. The typical\u00a0missionary develops\u00a0far more motivation to read and study “the literature of the Church<\/a>” than before\u00a0the mission, but is far more restricted, although mission presidents have leeway to relax this. Certainly the primary content of missionary study should be scripture and the doctrine, but I think by narrowing the library too much, we miss real opportunities both for the missionaries themselves and the people they teach.<\/p>\n

My own mission studies greatly affected my life<\/a>, and missionaries tend to be the front line for questions from non-LDS, often about topics they’ve never heard of. As expressed by a friend, “It is just ridiculous that investigators can investigate (research the Church) but missionaries cannot research or study to give answers to questions. It is appalling that on most issues, missionaries can learn more from\u00a0<\/span>Internet<\/span>-informed investigators than the investigator can learn from the missionary.”<\/span><\/p>\n

On my mission (Europe, 96-98), you could buy a coherent collection called The Missionary Library<\/a>. A revised, smaller collection is\u00a0still available to purchase (12$ from the LDS catalog here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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OLD<\/strong><\/p>\n