Proselytizing missions in Europe are two years wasted.

[_lostindc]

I wonder why Mormon God and his 15 hapless helpers cannot figure a better way to get the message to more people, more effectively.

How's their internet experiment working out for their missionary efforts?

They send out 80,000 young missionaries to teach anyone who will listen.

The internet "experiment" is working well. The command is to tell all the world, conversion is just a side benefit. In other words You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink no matter how much you salt the oats.

Do you have any numbers to support the claim the internet experiment is "working well"?

[_Gaelan_Ainsworth]

They are also being encouraged to use Skype a lot more to include members. I told them (and they agree) that we will do everything we can to have live members at appointments instead of Skyping in members. I would have found having Skyped-in members to be weird, if I were an investigator.

When I was presented with a Skyped member, it was indeed very odd, the senior missionary had just been transferred, and the once junior missionary wasn't adapting well, as it was his first area, and now his first time as the senior, so he and the new junior sought to bring me into the fold by showing me that they aren't all stuffy guys with books, and they can use technology too. That meeting ended with a realisation that I preferred live members, and they were resolved to read and pray harder for me.

While I understand that we live in a technologically enhanced era, some 150 years on from when Joseph Smith Jr envisioned missionaries, it was eerie and disconcerting to have to talk at a screen.

[_Tobin]

The internet is the future. Just like at the start of the 20th century, electricity could do EVERYTHING.

[_SuperDell]

Not totally wasted. You can come home and tell one and all you know a new culture and pretend you are cosmopolitan. If you really paid attention you can swear in a new language.

[_bcuzbcuz]

Not totally wasted. You can come home and tell one and all you know a new culture and pretend you are cosmopolitan. If you really paid attention you can swear in a new language.

My 2 ½ (note the HALF) years on my mission was the best 2 ½ years of my life. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

[_Chuck Finley]

…asked for contact information so I could write their parents and tell them what a great job their sons are doing. These elders have, on their own initiative, knocked on doors when they don't have appointments, even though they technically aren't supposed to in our mission. And this has borne fruit…

So they disobey the rules, yet they are blessed for their disobedience and are doing a great job. Please explain to me how that works.

[_hagoth7]

That wasn't my experience at all (northern Germany, 1994-1996)...we were able to have many conversations and gospel conversations on a daily basis...And there were a lot of adventures and interesting experiences in the course of door-to-door, street contacting...

I agree. We had plenty to keep us busy. (And I served just north across the border from you, in Denmark.)

The only time I felt like I was wasting time was as a zone leader. I didn't realize it that way at first. More specifically, we were expected to do a monthly newsletter for those in our zone, which took a couple of hours each month. One day, while doing the layout on the newsletter, a father of a friend arrived at our door from across the Atlantic without notice (having received permission from the Mission President). As I opened the door and let him in, I realized he was seeing our newsletter. He didn't say a thing, but seeing our efforts through his eyes, I suddenly realized what a relative waste of time any preaching-to-the-choir newsletter was, when we had instead come thousands of miles for a much more important purpose. And I decided I didn't want to spend my waning days there doing any more newsletter layouts, or compiling any more weekly zone reports. So I politely asked the Mission President to demote me and let me go back to being a regular missionary. He subsequently obliged and made me a trainer again (one who is assigned to train a new missionary).

[_hagoth7]

...In other words You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink no matter how much you salt the oats.

:::shaking salt:::
:::shaking salt:::
:::shaking salt:::

I believe European missions will become more effective and more productive.

[_hagoth7]

Not totally wasted. You can come home and tell one and all you know a new culture and pretend you are cosmopolitan....

Meh.

When I came home, I broke with years of missionary-return tradition and shared my testimony from the pulpit in English instead of in the language of my mission.

At the end of the meeting, I still remember how one of the men in that ward - who hadn't been a member very long, came up and thanked me for bucking what he considered an annoying and useless tradition.

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/New Testament/1-cor ... ang=eng#27

[_hagoth7]

...In other words You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink no matter how much you salt the oats.

:::shaking salt:::
:::shaking salt:::
:::shaking salt:::

I believe European missions will become more effective and more productive.

This reminds me of a temple open house several years back, where volunteers afterwards passed out dessert and a bottle of water. I noticed the ingredients on the label...water and salt...and smiled.