lulu wrote:Well, I don't know what your experiences with Mormonism are, but it has been happy to baptize anyone who believed where ever they were found except in Black Africa.
This may very well be the case, but weren't the people who believed in other regions of the world able to hold the priesthood and set up indigenous priesthood leadership of some kind? So long as at least one man converted, the priesthood could be present in some capacity at least. My point about the need for organizational structure may not apply, but my point about the theological significance of priesthood being present still could.
lulu wrote:There are any number of places where the first Mormon converts were not baptized by missionaries, in fact, I would say that such is the exception.
The church proselytes however it can where ever it can and says whatever it thinks it needs to in order to get away with it.
Shall we start with the church in Vietnam, India, China or Brazil?
It would make a nice research paper but I'm not going to write it tonight.
If you think of any sources I could check out, please let me know. I have some basic knowledge of the history of Christianity in all of those countries, but the kinds of books I read on the global Christianity seldom have any interest in Mormonism. I'd love to learn more about how Mormonism got established in those countries.