Comment by abtinf
3 years ago
Note that “mission” in the parent comment likely refers the practice of certain Christian sects that send out evangelists to proselytize in another geographic area. It probably is not referring to CIA operations.
(Posting this because there is a dead peer comment that seems to have misunderstood).
The LDS church specifically has a practice where many young LDS members go on a "mission" for two years. In fact it is so common that almost every LDS member would understand the phrase "[a specific person]'s mission" to refer to that two year mission for proselytizing.
Yeah but this site probably isn't composed of mostly Mormons
Thanks for the clarification. I'm not an American, so when I read that he was working for CIA and had been on missions in Russia (nearly got killed) without any context, and I assumed the worst.
This completely changes the meaning and makes more sense
This is how I interpreted the OP as well. Just replying to supply the word "missionary" in case it helps anyone make the connection.