Posted on 10/12/2013 3:14:43 AM PDT by Colofornian
SALT LAKE CITY — An 18-year-old missionary for the LDS Church was killed in Southern California Thursday when he was struck by a vehicle while riding his bicycle.
It was the church's second missionary death in two days. Both missionaries had been in their assigned missions for less than a month.
Elder Andrew Edward Page, 18, from Charlotte, N.C., was hit while riding on Newburgh Street in Azusa, Calif., a little after 4 p.m. Thursday, according to Azusa police. He had been in the Mexico City Missionary Training Center for six weeks and had arrived in California about three weeks before the accident.
Elder Colt Daniel Kunz, 20, of Victor, Idaho, died Wednesday while serving in the church's Mexico Tampico Mission after coming in contact with a live electrical wire. Kunz arrived in Mexico less than a month ago.
Both were described by those close to them as young men who were full of love who helped lift others up.
Elder Page
Page's companion reported that the two were on bicycles and had missed the turn where they were headed, said Page's stake president, Bryant Baker. They were turning around when Page was struck.
"For some reason Andrew stopped for a minute and adjusted his pants leg and then he just kind of whipped around his bike and didn't look and a car was coming," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at deseretnews.com ...
I highly doubt that when they were all gathered at the MTC that one of them would be dead @ a rate of every 23-24 days.
Rest in peace.
His death doesn’t seem to me to be beyond the chance accidents that have befallen many people. I don’t know about all the other missionaries’ deaths over this year. To me, the hidden story in this is why a mission in Mexico City was preparation for a mission in Azusa, California.
Very sad about the deaths.
The number of full-time volunteer LDS missionaries currently serving around the world has increased over the last year from about 58,000 last year to over 80,000 now.
Just a guess, but more than likely the mission he was in was Spanish speaking.
Prayers for the families! Our youngest daughter finished her mission in February. She was in Oregon the whole time and we constantly worried, some of the towns she worked had a bunch of druggies. Now she’s back at BYU getting her Masters.
RIP.
Here locally, two Mormon yutes happened to cross paths with two African American yutes who just happened to be having a shootout over a crack deal. One of the Mormons was killed, the other wounded. It took 4 years until the shooter was sentenced.
***To me, the hidden story in this is why a mission in Mexico City was preparation for a mission in Azusa, California***
Learn to speak Mexican varient of Spanish?
Nah, could have stayed in California for that.
Well, the 80,000 was expressed expectation-wise by the church earlier in the year. When you count all the drop-outs it's actually over 6% less than that:
LDS Newsroom Facts & Statistics: 74,900 [one speaker announced "75,000" @ October 2013 General Conference]
And being sent in the greatest concentrations to third world countries where the internet is not prevalent...so “anti-mormon information” hasn’t salted the earth ahead of them.
Yes...starting this last half of this year, the Mormon church announced it would be pulling back on cold turkey door-to-door missionary visitation...they are redirecting their U.S. missionaries more to...
(a) digital world;
(b) visiting contacts established by church members;
(c) visiting the lapsed Mormons
But where true Internet info on Mormonism isn't readily available by the average local, no pullback was necessary on their door-to-door proselytizing.
Actually my ratio is wrong (need some a.m. coffee).
There's still over 15% left to the calendar year...which means at this rate, that "12" # could expand to 15.
So were there to be 15 deaths in 2013 among 74,900 ... that would mean the death ratio just for a single year = 1 in LESS THAN 5,000.
Also the ratio is even more prominent than that...because a 74,900 figure isn't really accurate either for the entirety of 2013.
45,000 "newbies" swelled the ranks this Summer now into Fall due to the lowering of the age to 18. So for half of the year, they were operating at a number of less than 59,000 missionaries. (29,000 or so went back home this Summer; and just less than 30,000 returned for a second year; the "newbies" have upped the count)
So, really -- per month -- by the time Dec. 31 rolls around, the Lds church will have "averaged" less than 67,000 missionaries on the mission field per month for 2013.
So, a rate of 15 missionary deaths over a 12-month span with an average of 66,900 missionaries per month =
(Mormons say just about all people are "saved" anyway ... and Mormons baptize the dead to give people a "2nd chance" to become "Mormon" in the afterlife...so, hey, if they're "saved" anyway...one way or another...maybe if you were thinking of becoming a Mormon missionary you could just "opt" to be one in the Spirit World afterlife & forego being one in the here & now)
We were moving a piano last weekend and two Mormon missionaries stopped to help. One of those kids was of Somoan decent and was 6 foot 6. He picked half of the piano up off the back of the truck like it was a feather and asked where we wanted it. It took 4 big guys to hold the other side. They would not take money but took a 12 pack if water with them. We stuck a hundred in the sack of water:)
I’ve never met a Mormon I did not like.
And another speaker said this: "It has scarcely been one year since I announced the lowering of the age of missionary service. Since that time the number of full-time missionaries serving has increased from 58,500 in October 2012 to 80,333 today."
The 75k number was from Aug. I think they need to update their website.
Missionaries start their missions at a "Missionary Training Center" (MTC) where they learn the lessons they teach and their assigned language (if new to them). They also get other general training and such - like learning the schedule by waking up at 6:30. For English missionaries they spend 2-3 weeks there. Foreign language missionaries can spend 8-12 weeks there.
Most missionaries go to the Provo, UT MTC. It has room for about 3,500 missionaries. With the change to the age requirements there are more new missionaries needing to be trained then there is room for in Provo. So the church opened an MTC in Mexico for those learning Spanish. It has room for about 1,000 missionaries. There have been a lot of state-side missionaries that have been starting at the Mexico MTC. It is funny to hear about a missionary being called to Azusa CA having to get a passport. You can be almost certain that this elder was on a spanish speaking mission.
There are a dozen or so MTCs through the world. Provo and Mexico are the largest. Most of the others only fit a couple hundred.
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