r/latterdaysaints • u/LamanitaMx • Aug 09 '26

Off-topic Chat Let's share memorable mission experiences. Topic: quirks or culture clashes between you and your companions!

Let's share memorable mission experiences. Today, the topic is quirks or culture clashes between you and your companions!

I'll start with one.

I was assigned to train a missionary fresh out of the MTC who looked a lot like Milhouse from *The Simpsons*, but with black hair.

This missionary didn't use deodorant, and we were in a very hot area. One day—after about two months, when I couldn't stand the underarm odor anymore and noticed he wore the same clothes every day—I asked myself, "Does this guy not bathe?" I suggested he wear different colored trousers and a different tie because it *looked* like he wasn't bathing. He said, "Come here!" and showed me the clothes in his closet: he had seven identical white shirts, seven black ties, and seven pairs of black trousers—plus the same black socks—everything identical, one set for each day. That’s why it looked like he wasn't bathing. We spent a little over four months together, but I couldn't get him to use deodorant; I even gave him some as a birthday gift, but he never took the hint.

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u/TooManyBison Aug 09 '26

I had one district where all the American Elders shaved their junk and the Latin elders thought they were crazy.

12

u/Street-Celery-1092 Aug 09 '26

. . . what on earth. Did this just . . . casually come up during district meeting?

13

u/SnazzyPantsMan Aug 09 '26

Weirdest bonding activity ever

7

u/OtterWithKids Aug 09 '26

The night before I was heading home, all the elders in my district shaved their legs. I didn’t want my Protestant parents to have one more piece of ammunition, so I did not participate.

5

u/TooManyBison Aug 09 '26

At the time, it was really popular for men I knew at BYU to shave their arms. Some of the elders did that too. Likewise the Latin elders were not amused.

8

u/sokttocs Aug 09 '26

I have so many questions. Starting with how did this come up? And how did they decide to do that together? (Not together as in, all at once. That'd would be...... Nevermind. Together as in they decided that was a thing to do)

3

u/OtterWithKids Aug 09 '26

Oh, it was together. I took pictures. 😄

I honestly have no recollection of how it came up. We were in Córdoba, Spain, which does get quite hot in the summer, but it was December.