Three.JaredBees wrote: ↑December 8th, 2017, 4:52 am A little over a year ago in fast and testimony meeting a very heart felt and sincere Filipino sister shared her testimony / feelings. She mentioned how confused she was when she came to America 18 years ago and started attending her Mormon church in the states. She asked her husband why people don't say hello or physically embrace one another while they're at church with frequent regularity. She was confused at what she observed was quite the opposite. Her husband said this is how it is. this is how it's been and is stateside.
Now I'm not so quick to say that every Ward is like as the sister described.
Three people.
If I go to a congregation I have never visited before, spend three hours in the building, and only three of the 100+ people present welcome me before they ask if there are any visitors present at the start of priesthood meetings, then it is a friendlier than average ward. Only three people!
Once I visited a ward in Pullman, Washington, and spent three hours in the building. They announced at the end of sacrament meeting that there would be no Melchizedek Priesthood meetings because the men were taking care of primary, so I didn't go to priesthood. In three full hours in that building, not one person spoke to me,
Therefore, I believe almost all wards in North America are like what that sister described. I can't recall anybody ever offering a hand when welcoming me to their ward, and I have NEVER received a hug. But I have been to protestant churches where it feels like I've met every congregant before I leave and I have had more handshakes and hugs than I care to count.
I will say that I had a wonderful experience in the Victoria First Ward in Victoria, British Columbia. I assume that, since Victoria is a popular tourist destination, the ward members there have a lot more practice welcoming visitors and have placed a higher priority on making visitors welcome. This is the only LDS congregation I have ever attended where I felt the phrase on the building "visitors welcome" was totally honest. And that's a really sad statement.
One little thing that I would do if I were called to a Bishopric is to NEVER ask a visitor to introduce himself. I would ask the congregation member sitting next to them to introduce the visitor. I have visited exactly one ward where they did this, and it was one of the only two wards I have attended where I did feel somewhat welcome.
As the most recent posts on this thread show, church members have a long way to go.