Sleeping In

I received a comment on one of my posts about a mission president catching some missionaries sleeping. I know that most missionaries are very conscientious when it comes to keeping the mission rules. A few of them slip from time to time doing such things as reading a newspaper, watching a T.V. show, or playing video games. A companion and I actually baptized a whole family by playing ping pong with them every week. I felt a bit uncomfortable with it but I saw the benefits which I felt outweighed the negative. I actually think missionaries should be more creative in ways of bringing investigators into the church. I am not condoning wholesale mutiny or goofing off by breaking rules. I think you should obey the rules exactly. I learned on a mission it is easier to get forgiveness than permission but I was surprised at how easy it was to get permission if you would just ask. We had permission to play ping pong with this investigator family.

The biggest rule that plagues missionaries in my opinion is sleeping in. I could work twelve hours a day until nine p.m. without much effort but every morning for two years I struggled to get out of bed in the morning. My mission president was a devious sort he would send the District Leaders, Zone Leaders, and Assistants out on a quarterly basis to check up on us elders. They would come over on a pretense that they just wanted to have breakfast with us. That is how I caught on. When I saw orange juice or pancake mix in their hands I knew they had been sent. I actually had trouble getting up and usually slept in an extra ten or fifteen minutes for probably half my mission. Most of my more faithful companions used it as alone time. I wonder how many others suffered from mind over mattress. I wish I could say I always got up on time but that would be a lie. I would like to hear positive and other experiences about this pernicious practice.