More Changes to Missionary Program

[Arandur]

I strongly suspect that the recent missionary tech is mostly to teach youth how to use technology wisely and with purpose, and not so much to directly increase baptisms. Not saying that it can't also increase baptisms, but I think most of the benefits are to be found elsewhere.

I'm a huge fan of the interview as well. It directly addresses both testimony and conversion, and it makes it fairly clear what the missionary is signing on for, what the standard is, and so on. And the mental health struggles are no joke either - it's good to see that being tackled more directly. Now if we can just quit judging those who don't serve a mission or who come home early, we'll be good to go.

Missionaries in my last mission area have used them for years. They are helpful, but not anywhere near as much as I think the missionary program leaders think they are. I know a big time-waster in our mission was not making phone calls, because we had to pay for them from our own pockets, and they added up quickly (think a pre-pay phone). Not paying for phone calls would have been a game-changer for some. Of course, the other reason was it was so much nicer to set an appointment, spend an hour going and coming back, and they weren't home--for many missionaries, time-wasting felt like you were doing something, but were ok if nothing happened, because you didn't have to do finding.

I remember spending quite a bit of time printing maps of my areas, color-coding the homes of investigators, potential investigators, former investigators, members, and less active/inactive members. All so that planning could be more efficient and we'd know who was nearby whenever we needed more to do. A good idea in principle, but eventually it started to become the same kind of productive-feeling-time-wasting you're talking about. Having all that almost automagically on my smartphone sounds pretty great...until I realize how much more FINDING I'll have time to do now.

In all seriousness though, I think it's a pretty big help for those who have already learned and internalized why they were called. For the rest, it's another distraction tool that's perfectly capable of wasting more time. That's why I suspect it's basically a wash in terms of overall numerical results, but entirely worth it for the blessings that will come to those who are taking things seriously.

[EmmaLee]

I'm glad they are addressing the depression and anxiety thing more in these questions. I also have seen so many go out, thinking that because they are serving the Lord their problems will go away. (mental health issues) It doesn't and countless have come home. It's so sad to see. So what is it that's causing this huge spike of mental health issues? I know we have more missionaries out than in decades past, but I have never seen the amount come home early lately than ever before. When my brother's served, it was rare for a missionary to come home early other than for disciplinary issues. Even when my oldest son served 10 years ago, not many came home. Now it has spiked and is very common.

I have my theories....

That's a great question, kittycat. I think there may be many answers/causes, but I'll just share my thoughts on one right now. Most youth and young people that I know are absolutely immersed in social media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. they live on and through these platforms - they communicate with each other via these mediums, even when they are sitting right next to each other - it's the most bizarre thing to witness. There is a common blurb I hear all the time, not only from young people, but their parents, too, and that is - "if it hasn't happened on Facebook, it hasn't happened" - meaning, unless/until something is posted/announced on FB, it may as well have not happened at all (such as you got engaged, had a baby, got your mission call, went on a vacation, got divorced, etc) - as if FB is the arbiter of all that is real or true anymore (when the actual truth is, there are few things, if any, more FAKE than FB - and when I say FB, I'm referring to all social media). These social media platforms are reality for so many people, young and older - and that is, quite honestly, horrifying.

Now fast-forward a few decades to people my age. I am a 52 year old woman living in the Midwestern U.S. I am active in the LDS Church, have lived in the same place for 30 years, and have many female friends who are similar in most ways. I don't have enough fingers to count the number of my friends who have told me in private conversation how being on FB, et al, depresses them. How it makes them feel like they are "less than" everybody else - less talented, less beautiful, less wealthy, less popular (barf, thought I'd never hear that word after high school, but alas...), less happy, less exciting, less loved - less everything. It's one endless competition (kind of like church seems, most of the time, even in Primary, where all the 'games' involve winners and losers and require some children to be "better than" other children - why are we playing games in Primary anyway?? but I digress...). I am also on FB (although I'm seriously considering deactivating my account). I joined because all of my extended family (and many of my friends now, too) live far away and it's the best (and only, in some cases) way to keep in touch with them and their children and lives. I rarely post anything myself, and I only scroll through my 'feed' every couple of weeks or so - why? Because it is depressing! Other than seeing photos of my family and friends, and learning the latest in their lives, it's like a huge game-show of who can out-do each other and who can get the most 'likes' or views, etc.

Several women I know have literally stopped being real-life friends with each other BECAUSE of things that have been posted (or not posted, in some cases) on social media. One friend just emailed me yesterday saying how another mutual friend of ours "unfriended" her because she wouldn't stop being FB "friends" with some other women who she didn't like. What?! Are we back in 7th grade or ?? And this is just one example of MANY similar that I could share. I just shake my head in disbelief and sadness. These are all women over 50 - intelligent, healthy, active, seemingly 'normal' women - and they are losing real friendships because of nonsense like this?? So my point is, if these types of things are happening to LDS women in their 50's (and older), what do you think is happening to our young, very impressionable, confidence-lacking, immature (age-wise, anyway) youth?

In the end, I 100% believe social media has done irreparable damage to countless people, and especially our youth. Any perceived 'benefits' that can be derived from social media are far and heavily outweighed by the negative, damaging aspects - so it troubles me greatly to know that youth (because that's what 18 year old boys and 19 year old girls are) are being forced to deal with social media while on their missions. Not to mention that many of these youth have NO IDEA how to talk to an actual real person face-to-face, since they have spent the majority of their lives only talking to people via text, phone, and messaging on social media. Many studies have been done about this, and every one of them (that I've read, anyway) show that if someone is suffering from any kind of depression or anxiety, the very last thing they should do is get on social media - and the dozens of sad experiences with my more-than-middle-aged friends tells me that it's not just the youth that are affected in such bad ways.

I remember years ago when the Church publicly advised members to not join "My Space" - the precursor to Facebook. I was in the YW presidency at the time, and we had several Sunday lessons on that very topic, and strongly advised the girls to not join, pointing out all the inherent dangers of such a platform - and to set an example, none of us leaders joined either. Now, fast-forward a couple of decades, and not only do the apostles themselves have Facebook accounts, but they encourage us all to, and force the missionaries to participate, as well (and yes, it is done by force - if you want to serve an LDS mission, you WILL be on FB and you WILL participate and make contacts that way, and if you're not "successful" at getting baptisms via FB, you ARE indeed a loser, etc. - I'm not sure if this is in every mission now, but it was most definitely the case in our youngest's mission in California - they had no choice whatsoever about being on FB or not - that, by definition, is force).

So anyway, that's my long way (sorry!) of saying that I believe one of the main reasons (not the only, but the main) for this massive spike in mental/emotional health issues with our youth/missionaries is caused by their participation in social media and all the factors that are involved in those experiences.

[AI2.0]

I think some of you are thinking this is an all or nothing program. Do you think that social media means the missionaries won't knock doors? I can assure you that it doesn't. It only expands the different ways that they can do finding and contacting. It adds an additional tool to the many methods used for bringing the message of the gospel to all the world.

I'm a ward missionary and I can tell you that our fulltime missionaries use technology (they have their tablets and most of them have cracked screens:)) but it doesn't replace old fashioned door knocking--and in our Stake, we stake missionaries also door knock. We keep extensive records of the residences in our ward boundaries and try to know who is behind every door. This can be hard because we have apartments which have a higher turnover, but this also gives us more opportunities to share the gospel as people come and go.

We still do it, but, I can tell you that cold door knocking is not as effective as finding through contacts--referrals or those who seek out the church because they have questions about it. It's also much harder to even get people to answer their doors --during the day many people work (decades ago more women were at home) and at night, many don't want to open their door to strangers. Do we write these people off because they either don't or won't open their doors? I think using the internet and social media is possible way to reach these people.

I trust the leaders that they are praying and working to receive inspiration on ways to use the technological tools to our advantage in bringing the message of the gospel to all people around us. There's no reason to second guess the leaders and have a negative attitude towards any changes or innovations they attempt to introduce.

Also, I don't know how many missionaries are returning home early these days--but about 10 years ago the percentage was one in fifteen returned home early. In my ward we've only had one missionary return home early out of the last 15 to serve and she had a health issue which could not be treated in the mission field--so that statistic was correct in my ward even today with the lowered age the last few years. I think it's great that the leaders are working to help missionaries who have to return home early to find ways to finish the mission at home and feel that they've served successfully.

[EmmaLee]

Our youngest son got home from his mission in 2015, so fairly recently. His was the first mission to go with the iPads and using Facebook as a way to contact people. When these were implemented, their daily schedule (given to them by their mission president) went down from 6 hours of door-to-door tracting per day, to 2 hours of door-to-door tracting per day, and 4 hours of online work per day. There was no rise in baptisms - in fact, the numbers went down - and the retention rates of those who did get baptized, went WAY down. No emotion, just facts (and the paperwork to prove it).

[JohnnyL]

6 hours?? Wow. We were at 10 hours of work/ day (except P-days), and I know that was part of our problem.

I can't imagine what I would do for 4 hours of online work/day, especially after the first week or two...
Bible bash on online forums??

[EmmaLee]

6 hours?? Wow. We were at 10 hours of work/ day (except P-days), and I know that was part of our problem.

That 6 hours of their 10-11 hour work day didn't include discussions or having meals at member's houses, or standing in the park trying to talk to people (something they were told to do for usually 1-2 hours every day), or the constant interviews/meetings they had, etc. - it was strictly 6 hours of door-to-door knocking. They were not to leave their apartments until 10:00am every day (from 6:00am-10:00am was exercising, showering, eating breakfast, individual study, companion study, planning, etc.) and they had to be back inside their apartments by 9:00pm every evening, which left about 10-11 hours per day to do missionary/member work.

I can't imagine what I would do for 4 hours of online work/day, especially after the first week or two...
Bible bash on online forums??

Very few of the missionaries could figure out what to do with all that online time, too (at least that wasn't against mission rules...).

[EmmaLee]

https://www.lds.org/church/news/church- ... 02117_CTA5

"The First Presidency has released a set of standard questions for bishops and stake presidents to use while interviewing prospective full-time missionaries.

“Church leaders desire that this sacred time of service be a joyous and faith-building experience for every missionary, from young men and women to senior couples,” according to materials that accompanied the official letter dated October 20 to stake presidents and bishops.

The questions are intended to help prospective full-time missionaries understand and better prepare so they are not only “worthy, but physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared for missionary service.”

President Gordon B. Hinckley emphasized the importance of having good mental and physical health while serving a full-time mission. “[Missionary] work is rigorous,” he said. “It demands strength and vitality. It demands mental sharpness and capacity. … Missionary work is not a rite of passage in the Church. It is a call extended by the President of the Church to those who are worthy and able to accomplish it. Good physical and mental health is vital, … for the work is demanding, the hours are long, and the stress can be heavy” (“Missionary Service,” First Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting, Jan. 2003, 17–18).

Priesthood leaders use standard questions for baptism and temple recommend interviews, but until now, a list of specific questions for interviewing missionary candidates has not existed.

The questions do not indicate a change or addition to the requirements for full-time missionary service. They reflect the same standards found in the scriptures, Church handbooks, and other Church materials.

Those considering missionary service can use the questions to gauge their own preparedness and have meaningful conversations about the qualifications for missionary service with their parents and priesthood leaders.

According to the Frequently Asked Questions document provided by the Church, information relating to the physical, mental, and emotional preparedness of the missionary candidate will be shared with medical professionals in the Missionary Department and will help in determining the best assignment opportunities for missionaries.

For worthy candidates not eligible for full-time service, priesthood leaders can help identify other appropriate service opportunities, such as serving as a Church-service missionary, volunteer, temple and family history consultant, temple worker, and more.

Parents and leaders can help youth understand that the Lord values all of the ways His children serve Him, share His gospel, and build the kingdom.

“Young men and young women with serious mental, emotional, or physical limitations are excused from full-time missionary service,” Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said. “They shouldn’t feel guilty about that. They are just as precious and important to the Church as if they were able to go into the mission field.

“But while they don’t serve full-time, they can take every opportunity to find and help people join the Church. They can be member missionaries in college, at work, and in their neighborhoods. They ought to go forward, have a wonderful and full life, and help build the kingdom wherever they are” (“How to Prepare to Be a Good Missionary,” New Era, Mar. 2007, 6–11; Liahona, Mar. 2007, 10–15).

Suggestions for priesthood leaders

Share interview questions with all prospective full-time missionaries and their parents before the interview and encourage them to review and discuss them.
Discuss the interview questions as a ward council.
Consider a fifth-Sunday discussion or other forum to share the interview questions with the adults and discuss ways parents can help youth prepare for missionary service.
Share the interview questions with young men and young women beginning at an early age to help them understand the standards and qualifications for full-time missionary service.

Suggestions for parents

Take an active role in helping your children prepare for missionary service.
Share the qualifications for missionary service with your children and help them in their efforts to understand and live the standards.
Use interview questions as topics for family home evening lessons and discussions.

To learn more about the future of missionary work in the Church, see this news release."

[JohnnyL]

6 hours?? Wow. We were at 10 hours of work/ day (except P-days), and I know that was part of our problem.

That 6 hours of their 10-11 hour work day didn't include discussions or having meals at member's houses, or standing in the park trying to talk to people (something they were told to do for usually 1-2 hours every day), or the constant interviews/meetings they had, etc. - it was strictly 6 hours of door-to-door knocking. They were not to leave their apartments until 10:00am every day (from 6:00am-10:00am was exercising, showering, eating breakfast, individual study, companion study, planning, etc.) and they had to be back inside their apartments by 9:00pm every evening, which left about 10-11 hours per day to do missionary/member work.

I can't imagine what I would do for 4 hours of online work/day, especially after the first week or two...
Bible bash on online forums??

Very few of the missionaries could figure out what to do with all that online time, too (at least that wasn't against mission rules...).

OK, that sounds different!

I'm curious, what suggestions did the church/ mission president offer when the missionaries told them they didn't know what to do online?

[EmmaLee]

6 hours?? Wow. We were at 10 hours of work/ day (except P-days), and I know that was part of our problem.

That 6 hours of their 10-11 hour work day didn't include discussions or having meals at member's houses, or standing in the park trying to talk to people (something they were told to do for usually 1-2 hours every day), or the constant interviews/meetings they had, etc. - it was strictly 6 hours of door-to-door knocking. They were not to leave their apartments until 10:00am every day (from 6:00am-10:00am was exercising, showering, eating breakfast, individual study, companion study, planning, etc.) and they had to be back inside their apartments by 9:00pm every evening, which left about 10-11 hours per day to do missionary/member work.

I can't imagine what I would do for 4 hours of online work/day, especially after the first week or two...
Bible bash on online forums??

Very few of the missionaries could figure out what to do with all that online time, too (at least that wasn't against mission rules...).

OK, that sounds different!

I'm curious, what suggestions did the church/ mission president offer when the missionaries told them they didn't know what to do online?

I'd have to ask our sons - I will do that and report back.

[EmmaLee]

6 hours?? Wow. We were at 10 hours of work/ day (except P-days), and I know that was part of our problem.

That 6 hours of their 10-11 hour work day didn't include discussions or having meals at member's houses, or standing in the park trying to talk to people (something they were told to do for usually 1-2 hours every day), or the constant interviews/meetings they had, etc. - it was strictly 6 hours of door-to-door knocking. They were not to leave their apartments until 10:00am every day (from 6:00am-10:00am was exercising, showering, eating breakfast, individual study, companion study, planning, etc.) and they had to be back inside their apartments by 9:00pm every evening, which left about 10-11 hours per day to do missionary/member work.

I can't imagine what I would do for 4 hours of online work/day, especially after the first week or two...
Bible bash on online forums??

Very few of the missionaries could figure out what to do with all that online time, too (at least that wasn't against mission rules...).

OK, that sounds different!

I'm curious, what suggestions did the church/ mission president offer when the missionaries told them they didn't know what to do online?

I'd have to ask our sons - I will do that and report back.

Answer - "We were told to just put the iPads away and go out contacting."

Glad we had to pay $400 for that.

[AI2.0]

Our youngest son got home from his mission in 2015, so fairly recently. His was the first mission to go with the iPads and using Facebook as a way to contact people. When these were implemented, their daily schedule (given to them by their mission president) went down from 6 hours of door-to-door tracting per day, to 2 hours of door-to-door tracting per day, and 4 hours of online work per day. There was no rise in baptisms - in fact, the numbers went down - and the retention rates of those who did get baptized, went WAY down. No emotion, just facts (and the paperwork to prove it).

Maybe your complaints should be directed at your son's mission president as he's the one responsible for implementing the program by having him spend four hours a day online without much understanding of what he was supposed to do. My nephew also was out during the time they used Ipads and he still spent plenty of time tracting. They had several baptisms, but they were in a more productive area(lower socio-economic). Our full time elders and sisters in our stake do not spend four hours online, they are out tracting a lot. But, they do not have that many baptisms--and this is the same as it was before the ipads and online work. However, we have a sister from our ward who is serving presently and she has at least one baptism a month--and they are allowed to use social media. You see, I don't think it's the social media that is causing lower baptisms; there are several factors that determine baptism and retention rates.
And if this is the Santa Rosa, Calif area we are talking about, that's part of the problem. I grew up in that mission (it was larger then) and I can tell you, the northern california area does not see a lot of baptisms anyway. My old ward I grew up in is practically a branch now, because the LDS faithful move away and the majority of wealthy white people who live in the area are not interested in religion. You could tract all day and night and still have little success. You can't force people to be interested in God and spiritual things, they must be open to it.

[yjacket]

I'm glad they are addressing the depression and anxiety thing more in these questions. I also have seen so many go out, thinking that because they are serving the Lord their problems will go away. (mental health issues) It doesn't and countless have come home. It's so sad to see. So what is it that's causing this huge spike of mental health issues? I know we have more missionaries out than in decades past, but I have never seen the amount come home early lately than ever before. When my brother's served, it was rare for a missionary to come home early other than for disciplinary issues. Even when my oldest son served 10 years ago, not many came home. Now it has spiked and is very common.

I have my theories....

It's actually quite an easy problem to solve it has two roots that are separate but related. Parents aren't raising tough kids. Parents are allowing their children access to the world in the form of youtube/social media way, way before their brains can handle it.

There is a really, really, really, really did I say really strong correlation between the advent of the smartphone and the web 2.0 and the tanking of children's mental health issues. You say 10 years ago when your oldest served not many came home . . .guess what happened in 2007 . . .the IPhone 1 came out.

And instead of parents and being tough on their kids, they give them access to the entire world. It is like handing a 5 year old a loaded gun and saying "have fun!!!" There is absolutely 0 good reason why a child should have a smart phone, they don't need access to the internet 24-7, they don't need access to snapchat, facebook, etc. If a parent wants a child to contact them, great give them a dumbphone. A smartphone is just dumb. People have been raising children for 1000s of years yet according to just about all metrics this current generation has more emotional problems, more mental problems, are less ready for the real world than any other generation prior.

Honestly, if your child isn't ready for the real world, you should look in the mirror, b/c that's who's job it is to help them get ready for it and to teach them the hard knocks of life prior to when they will really learn the hard knocks.

There are potentially some really bad problems with giving missionaries access to smartphones. Personally I see why the Church is doing it . . .I'm not convinced from an individual missionary standpoint it is really a good thing.

[mirkwood]

I have some concerns about this.
The purpose of the missionary outreach of the church is to warn and to call all to repentence. But the emphasis seems now to be focussed on using technology to identify those who might have a religious interest. That is not the same thing.

When I served we knocked on every door and gave everyone the chance. We did this deliberately. We took the admonition to warn our neighbour very seriously.We wouldn't close down an area until we had knocked, and got an answer from, every door... literally every single one. We were very thorough.
We also baptised way more people then than they do now.

What years?

We did the same 86-88 and many of my co-missionaries were baptizing people who really were not ready or converted. I'd rather have a true convert then a statistical number.

[Sirocco]

I have some concerns about this.
The purpose of the missionary outreach of the church is to warn and to call all to repentence. But the emphasis seems now to be focussed on using technology to identify those who might have a religious interest. That is not the same thing.

When I served we knocked on every door and gave everyone the chance. We did this deliberately. We took the admonition to warn our neighbour very seriously.We wouldn't close down an area until we had knocked, and got an answer from, every door... literally every single one. We were very thorough.
We also baptised way more people then than they do now.

How does that work with apartments?

It was mostly apartments in my area of Edinburgh.
Wasn't ever a problem.

In Canada, at least in Ontario, people aren't allowed in to go door to door it's a bylaw offence or some such thing.
Only exception is the cable/internet company the management company is partnered with.

[EmmaLee]

Our youngest son got home from his mission in 2015, so fairly recently. His was the first mission to go with the iPads and using Facebook as a way to contact people. When these were implemented, their daily schedule (given to them by their mission president) went down from 6 hours of door-to-door tracting per day, to 2 hours of door-to-door tracting per day, and 4 hours of online work per day. There was no rise in baptisms - in fact, the numbers went down - and the retention rates of those who did get baptized, went WAY down. No emotion, just facts (and the paperwork to prove it).

Maybe your complaints should be directed at your son's mission president as he's the one responsible for implementing the program by having him spend four hours a day online without much understanding of what he was supposed to do.

We did direct our "complaints" to his mission president (although it was more questions being asked than "complaints"). Perhaps I will post his email response back to us - it was extraordinary - the pride, the self-righteousness, the hypocrisy - just oozing. He took extreme offense that we would dare contact him - let alone have questions about anything happening in "his" mission. Do you think for one second he wasn't getting his marching orders about the iPad program from SLC? He took great pains to announce on the mission blog that everything they were doing came directly FROM SLC. Mission presidents don't blink without direct orders from Church headquarters (he let us know this in his email response to us, as well). And there was not "much understanding of what he was supposed to do" because nobody knew what they were supposed to do. That's why they call it a pilot program. I guess somebody has to be the guinea pigs. I don't know how much of social media contact is still being done in any missions currently, or what affect, for good or bad, it has had on the work, etc. - no one else on LDSFF knows either.

My nephew also was out during the time they used Ipads and he still spent plenty of time tracting. They had several baptisms, but they were in a more productive area(lower socio-economic). Our full time elders and sisters in our stake do not spend four hours online, they are out tracting a lot. But, they do not have that many baptisms--and this is the same as it was before the ipads and online work. However, we have a sister from our ward who is serving presently and she has at least one baptism a month--and they are allowed to use social media. You see, I don't think it's the social media that is causing lower baptisms; there are several factors that determine baptism and retention rates.

Yes, I'm aware of that - I don't think anyone would believe otherwise, nor did I ever say it was caused solely by social media - if you read my posts, I said that is one of the reasons, possibly a main reason, but just one of the reasons. Our son had several baptisms while serving in California - slightly above the mission average, but that wasn't the point of my comments.

And if this is the Santa Rosa, Calif area we are talking about, that's part of the problem. I grew up in that mission (it was larger then)

I don't know how big it was when you were growing up there, but the Santa Rosa Mission is still huge, geographically. It extends from the northern city limits of San Francisco, clear up to the Oregon border - and from the coastline on the west, over to where the Sacramento and Redding missions start in the middle of the state. A huge area - larger than many entire states. When my son was serving up in the Arcata/Humbolt County area, he and his companion spent a good part of their days driving to remote areas to teach people. That was his favorite part of his whole mission - talking to people face-to-face, non-city dwellers - especially among the Hoopa Indians (people whose faces weren't constantly looking at screens) - he grew to love them dearly, and has taken his bride back to visit them. He also enjoyed serving in Fairfield and the towns around there - and down in the hood of Vallejo (made some good friends among gang members - was an awesome experience - they actually watch out for the missionaries there; it's pretty cool).

and I can tell you, the northern california area does not see a lot of baptisms anyway. My old ward I grew up in is practically a branch now, because the LDS faithful move away and the majority of wealthy white people who live in the area are not interested in religion. You could tract all day and night and still have little success. You can't force people to be interested in God and spiritual things, they must be open to it.

Your last sentence struck me as humorous - as if you really believe that we all don't know that. But to be fair, I do know of some people who don't seem to know that (about force and spiritual things), but I'll forbear to mention who they are. As for northern Cali - yes, lots of snobs come from there, self-righteous, know-it-all, smug types. Lots of good people there, too, though - humble, teachable, non-assuming - those were the people the Lord directed my son to find and teach and baptize - genuine, real people he feels honored to have met (in person) and served and loved.

[JohnnyL]

Maybe your complaints should be directed at your son's mission president as he's the one responsible for implementing the program by having him spend four hours a day online without much understanding of what he was supposed to do.

We did direct our "complaints" to his mission president (although it was more questions being asked than "complaints"). Perhaps I will post his email response back to us - it was extraordinary - the pride, the self-righteousness, the hypocrisy - just oozing. He took extreme offense that we would dare contact him - let alone have questions about anything happening in "his" mission. Do you think for one second he wasn't getting his marching orders about the iPad program from SLC? He took great pains to announce on the mission blog that everything they were doing came directly FROM SLC. Mission presidents don't blink without direct orders from Church headquarters (he let us know this in his email response to us, as well). And there was not "much understanding of what he was supposed to do" because nobody knew what they were supposed to do. That's why they call it a pilot program. I guess somebody has to be the guinea pigs. I don't know how much of social media contact is still being done in any missions currently, or what affect, for good or bad, it has had on the work, etc. - no one else on LDSFF knows either.

A pilot program is not supposed to be like that! There's supposed to be a plan, it's like a research study, not just throwing things out of the blue into the water and seeing if they sink or float, lol.

Oh well, at least they tracted. My relative came back recently, and I think he did a few hours of tracting his entire mission. It was mostly helping people put in fences.

[samizdat]

In Mexico a few years back the missionaries were told to stop going door to door.

Today the number of baptisms is less than half of what it was 10 years ago.

Lots of consolidations too so far this year.

[Robin Hood]

I have some concerns about this.
The purpose of the missionary outreach of the church is to warn and to call all to repentence. But the emphasis seems now to be focussed on using technology to identify those who might have a religious interest. That is not the same thing.

When I served we knocked on every door and gave everyone the chance. We did this deliberately. We took the admonition to warn our neighbour very seriously.We wouldn't close down an area until we had knocked, and got an answer from, every door... literally every single one. We were very thorough.
We also baptised way more people then than they do now.

What years?

We did the same 86-88 and many of my co-missionaries were baptizing people who really were not ready or converted. I'd rather have a true convert then a statistical number.

1979-81

[Robin Hood]

I have some concerns about this.
The purpose of the missionary outreach of the church is to warn and to call all to repentence. But the emphasis seems now to be focussed on using technology to identify those who might have a religious interest. That is not the same thing.

When I served we knocked on every door and gave everyone the chance. We did this deliberately. We took the admonition to warn our neighbour very seriously.We wouldn't close down an area until we had knocked, and got an answer from, every door... literally every single one. We were very thorough.
We also baptised way more people then than they do now.

How does that work with apartments?

It was mostly apartments in my area of Edinburgh.
Wasn't ever a problem.

In Canada, at least in Ontario, people aren't allowed in to go door to door it's a bylaw offence or some such thing.
Only exception is the cable/internet company the management company is partnered with.

Some laws are meant to be broken.

[gkearney]

One of the problems here is that a baptism, which is easy to count, does not a member make. It is rather like throwing jello at a wall and seeing what sticks. Changing one religion, or taking up a religion isn’t like changing your socks, but we treat it that way. I mean we ask people to make that commitment in a very sort time and the ack surprised when it seldom sticks.

[Sirocco]

How does that work with apartments?

It was mostly apartments in my area of Edinburgh.
Wasn't ever a problem.

In Canada, at least in Ontario, people aren't allowed in to go door to door it's a bylaw offence or some such thing.
Only exception is the cable/internet company the management company is partnered with.

Some laws are meant to be broken.

Yeah though I don't think the LDS church here will do that, considering what a stickler for the bylaws we are, in Ottawa police shut down a kid's lemonade stand because you need a permit, Lord only knows what they would fine the church for disregarding no soliciting laws in apartment buildings.

[JK4Woods]

No offense, but I really question what the heck they're doing. I served a mission, served as ward mission leader twice, served as the member of the bishopric working with missionaries (kind of twice), done exchanges, etc. It's a grand mess, from the Seventies and mission presidents on down, and it doesn't seem to get better with all the "wonderful changes".

I wish they'd stop worrying so much about numbers and worry a lot more about on-boarding, from day one. It's horrible. Other than the push for numbers, it's one of the biggest problems.

No, switching from a tablet to a smartphone is not going to be a huge key in success, lol.

I like the new interview questions. Maybe THAT should be the curriculum for SS and Mutual!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JohnnyL... I couldn’t agree more!
US wards who have two or less convert baptisms
per year usually assimilate the new convert families to full activity.

The onboarding program of the church is weak. Assuming a brief hello from the Bishop, a gospel essentials SS class and reliance on a home teacher to familiarize and cultivate deep roots to become solid members is truly inadequate. (It only works with popular converts... gregarious, humorous, and on equal socio economic stations).

Bring in a convert of a different race, who recently quit smoking, or has personal grooming habits different than the LDS norm, and more than likely, personal attention wanes pretty quickly with a bit of hidden relief when the odd-ball convert quietly falls by the wayside.

And that’s just in solid established wards.

Imagine what it is like when thirty percent of the ward is brand new. Onboarding into the program is so very less successful. 40 baptisms in a year for a new ward would result in four or five permanent keepers. The rest will fade away.

Even large dynamic wards who have high baptism numbers will have few keepers in ratio with faders.. meaning we always have more people fading away after baptism than sticking with it.

More thought needs to be put into the onboarding process.
Thanks!

[JK4Woods]

I'm glad they are addressing the depression and anxiety thing more in these questions. I also have seen so many go out, thinking that because they are serving the Lord their problems will go away. (mental health issues) It doesn't and countless have come home. It's so sad to see. So what is it that's causing this huge spike of mental health issues? I know we have more missionaries out than in decades past, but I have never seen the amount come home early lately than ever before. When my brother's served, it was rare for a missionary to come home early other than for disciplinary issues. Even when my oldest son served 10 years ago, not many came home. Now it has spiked and is very common.

I have my theories....

Pray tell... what are your theories?

[kgrigio]

My daughter is using a tablet on her mission in Japan (that we had to pay for), but she doesn't use it for virtual finding. She does have a FB account, but that is rarely used and is most often used for those she contacts to friend her. Her tablet is used extensively to show videos and help in her teaching lessons. I don't know if that will change going forward, but for her the tablet is a tool and not a replacement for the missionary work.

[JohnnyL]

I'd buy the cheap $100 tablets, seriously. Not sure why they decided $400 was a good price?