Missionary drought in our stake

[MikeWaters]

One kid leaving the church per family is not too bad, IMO.

[outlier]

Originally Posted by il Padrino Ute

I was talking about sheer numbers. It had nothing to do with faithfulness nor activity and I apologize if that's how it came across.

Sorry, I'm obviously a little sensitive to the issue. I think it started that during that testimony meeting in Rupert, Id. (sic) where the woman got up and started crying about her poor sister who moved out into the "mission field" (suburban Seattle) where the whole family would suffer because there weren't any members of the church. I noticed a bit of that mentality still when I was living in Utah last year -- granted, it was Utah County.

OTOH, I really would like to see some sort of empirical study aimed at where the "best" place is to raise good Mormon kids. Obviously there'd be some quibbling on the criteria (what does "best" mean? what's a "good kid"? how would families be separated out into demographic test groups? etc.), but with enough data, you could create a heck of a pivot table. I wonder if something like that already exists among some privileged echelon...

o

[MikeWaters]

there would be a lot of confounders in such a study. For example if you were to compare people raised in Utah, who then moved out of state after college, versus those who did not.

You followed their kids, how many went on missions, etc.

Well it is a very different person that chooses to move away, versus the one who chooses to stay.

My guess, based on limited personal observation, is that missions probably highly correlate with family activity (duh) and educational status (parents education and kids's plans/likelihood to go to college).

[outlier]

I'd like to see activity rates measured against Meyers-Briggs personality profiles, too, FWIW.

o

[creekster]

I'd like to see activity rates measured against Meyers-Briggs personality profiles, too, FWIW.

Good idea. Hasn't anyone ever done something like this? I suspect that they have for church attendance in general, but it seems like it would be very interesting with respect to the LDS community.

[SoCalCoug]

I'd like to see activity rates measured against Meyers-Briggs personality profiles, too, FWIW.

I think that would be a fascinating study.

I'm an INFP, and I find that many things required of missionaries, such as striking up conversations with strangers, were very difficult for me. I felt like because I was very introverted, and forced outgoingness wore on me, that I wasn't a very good missionary, or that I wasn't doing the things I should.

I think there are many arenas - both church and work - where people would benefit from a better understanding of people's personalities, and their strengths and weaknesses. We often look at ESTJ's as more righteous than others, simply because they are natural leaders, and are more outgoing and charismatic and energetic. I can "pretend" to be an ESTJ, but it's really taxing on me. Thus, I'm not actively seeking to be in leadership positions.

Too often, people equate being extroverted with being righteous.

[UteStar]

On a sidenote, when I went on my mission, my home ward (SLC) had 33 missionaries out in the field. Now, that included four mission presidents and wives but man, that was pretty crazy. At one point, we had either a missionary farewell or homecoming for 9 out of 12 weeks. I have no idea what it is like now, but I would be shocked if there were more than 5-10 missionaries out from that ward.