A former Mormon has taken to TikTok to explain meanings behind the strict religion’s mystifying slang, including terms like ‘Trunky’, ‘Greenie’ and more.
Mormon missionaries are not allowed to engage in any kind of intimate physical or emotional activity with the opposite sex outside of their marriage, and the fitting slang terms surrounding these dating rules sure are interesting. An ex-Mormon TikToker spilled the tea on the Mormon missionaries’ terminology.
Former Mormon lists popular dating slang
Mormonism is a religion that describes the beliefs held by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and is known to be one of the stricter religions that includes members and missionaries following particular rules.
Mormon missionaries are volunteer representatives of the church. A mission is an expedition to spread the gospel to new people, aimed at expanding the church’s membership. Missionaries spend two years at their assigned missions, sharing information about their beliefs and inviting people to convert to Mormonism, as per Marin Theatre explains.
While missionaries may interact with members of the opposite sex, they may never.) be alone with them or engage in any kind of intimate physical or emotional activity outside the unity of marriage (for example, kissing, hugging, holding hands, flirting).
Alyssa Grenfell (@alyssadgrenfell on TikTok) was raised in a devout Mormon family, having served a full-time mission and married in an LDS temple. She then left the church at age 25 and now shares social media content about her experience as an ex-Mormon.
She started off the list with ‘mission goggles’ which refers to when you are so starved for romantic attention that you end up developing a crush on a less-than-attractive member of the opposite sex.
When missionaries experience a ‘sexy’ dream or get to interact with someone they are attracted to in their sleep, this is called God delivering a ‘tender mercy.’
‘Flirt to convert’ is when a missionary tactically flirts in order to get someone interested in the church.
More terminology used by Mormon missionaries
‘Trunky’ refers to when you are nearing the end of your two-year mission, so you begin to stop caring as much and therefore trying as hard. Alyssa compares this feeling to senioritis (the decreased motivation toward the end of education journeys felt by students) for missionaries.
In the caption of the video, ex-mormon Alyssa Grenfell threw shade at other missionaries and joked: “I think a lot of people are trunky for the full two years.”
‘Greenie’ describes someone who is brand new to the mission, and they don’t have any idea what they are doing, and are not trusted with anything.
Someone who will talk to the missionaries whenever they come around, but don’t want to commit to actually joining, is described as an ‘eternal investigator.’
