DiscussMormonism.com

Every baptism I had in Brazil, which numbers 100s was a direct result of street contacting or door knocking.

I realized pretty early that it was a pure numbers game. About 2% of everyone we taught made it to baptism, so if we taught 60-70 quick first discussion a week, the law of averages worked out to baptisms every week. It's a miracle! Winowing downwards we would teach about 25-30 second discussions, 15-20 thirds, etc etc till there were only 2-3 6th discussions a week. We called it teaching the elect already prepared by god......

In the newsletter our stake puts out, the SP mentioned that a year ago there were 12 missionaries assigned to our stake. Now we have 34. That dramatic increase tells me that many more of the new missionaries are being sent stateside rather than abroad and it tells me we are going to have a lot more missionaries who have nothing to do. It's not like the stake was keeping the 12 missionaries we had a year ago busy. 34 missionaries for one stake? Wow.I don't know what they expect these kids to do, especially if tracting is being phased out.

I also spent 6 months stateside waiting for a visa. Cultural differences will make it so the majority of those 34 missionaries in your stake are going to have to be pretty creative to keep them selves entertained..... English speaking stateside we were lucky to teach 5 discussions a week. Stateside was more about working consistently with a few families until they relented. In Brazil as the people are more open to receiving religious visitors it was all about a number funnel. Even if they didn't want to hear you message there is still an cultural expectation to allow visitors into your home and offer them refreshments.

Madison54 wrote:Once the missionaries receive their ipads, won't they be spending a lot of time in their apartments (on social media, etc.)? Or has that plan changed?

If they just give it to them to do on their own, then I would say yes. They should probably have a church building they go to each day with a member of the ward who can keep an eye on them. I am not sure how successful social networking is going to be for them.

Also, have they actually started doing any tours of local church buildings as promised?

Not sure, but I hope they don't focus on this to much. I doubt it will do much. Can you think of a more boring tour. I wonder if missionaries will be spending a lot more time at the chapels in the future.

in my opinion they still don't get it. They understandable think the church is true, and that the spirit converts people. This gives them a lot of incorrect thinking on how to get more converts. Personally I think more non-religious focused social activities will do the best at getting potential converts, and help those already in the church to stick around. The problem I have seen is a move in the opposite direction.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7656 ... tml?pg=all

a year ago they announced 58 new missions. here are some of the highlights.

Liberia Monrovia

Idaho Nampa

Idaho Twin Falls

Colorado Fort Collins

Illinois Chicago West

Kansas Wichita

Oregon Salem

Washington Federal Way

Arizona Gilbert

Arizona Scottsdale

California Rancho Cucamonga

and... are you ready for it..... ready?

Utah Salt Lake City East

unless the salt lake city east mission includes alta, snowbird, brighton and solitude, this is pretty much the shittiest thing you could do to someone that is paying to volunteer for 2 years. though, rancho chimichunga and scottsdale would have to be up there for the the biggest kick in the crotch too. i am sure these are all great places, but not so great for a missionary.

nampa idaho? they needed a mission home and mission president in nampa? good god.

why me wrote:I have had two children serve missions and they both tell me a different story than what is written on this thread. It is amazing just how negative everyone is. I think that a lot of what is written on this thread is wishful thinking on part of exmembers.

Whyme's response is interesting, and not due to the fact that he acts like a bot and just repeats some trite phase without substance. It's interesting because whyme's one purpose is to insist that all is well in zion, no matter what, and no matter that his own personal devotion to the LDS church is minimal in real life. He's reverted to "you all are lying" because he can't think of a way to spin this positively, and that's what is interesting.

I think this is definitely a sign that all is not well in zion, and they know it. They woulnd't make changes like this unless they felt they had to, that the alternative of leaving things as they were was not an option.

I have noticed that more missionaries come home early now-a-days. My fiance has two nephews and one niece who came home early off their missions (out of 8 nieces/nephews who served) within the past five years. They all came home for emotional reasons. When I was a missionary, you'd have to be physically on your deathbed to be sent home early. I never heard of anyone being sent home early for emotional reasons. Heck, if they sent home missionaries for being depressed, the vast majority of us would have been sent home. I think they had to do something to make missions less stressful and depressing.

the lds church would increase its conversions and number of volunteers exponentially if they changed all the missions to 100% service missions. the missionaries could be learning trades, and actually serving people for two years. the church could be building schools and goodwill, rather than wasting 2 years of everyone's life and annoying the hell out of people.

My sister told me that her husband's niece has been called to serve a mission in Zambia. Safe, peaceful Zambia.

https://www.osac.gov/pages/ContentRepor ... ?cid=14048

why me wrote:perspective investigators

What is a perspective investigator? A person who just has everybody over for a chat, including JWs, Mormons, and Scientologists, because she is just curious as to how other groups of people (some with admittedly more bizarre perspectives than others) view the world?

Mayan Elephant wrote:the lds church would increase its conversions and number of volunteers exponentially if they changed all the missions to 100% service missions. the missionaries could be learning trades, and actually serving people for two years. the church could be building schools and goodwill, rather than wasting 2 years of everyone's life and annoying the hell out of people.

Looks like we found something that John Fowles and Mayan Elephant agree on:
http://m.sltrib.com/sltrib/mobile3/57390741-219/missionaries-church-mormon-fowles.html.csp