Missionary drought in our stake

[MikeWaters]

In Stake Conf. yesterday, they said our Stake averages sending out 18 missionaries per year. This past year, we sent out 2. They said we need to do better.

I don't know what the other wards in our stake are like, but overall we have pretty weak sauce for youth. Most will be lucky to go college (at all). We live in the city, so they are either going to a crappy public school or getting crappy home school (for the most part; a couple have gone to private school).

And it seems like the young women have even worse prospects than the young men, but there is no obj. measure of progress like missions for them.

I know in our ward, our bishop(s) have put some of the best leaders into the youth callings to try and help. It's tough stuff.

[il Padrino Ute]

Utah and Idaho not having high numbers. However, right here, smack in the middle of Zion, the Stake I'm in has low numbers. In fact, in my ward we have 2 Priests, 3 Teachers and 2 Deacons that are active. If we count the inactives, there are 3 Priests, 4 teachers and 4 Deacons. Our Stake currently has 13 missionaries out in the field and within the next year, we'll only send out about 4 prospective missionaries while 7 return.

Granted, most of our numbers are not because the number of non-LDS is high - it's because most of the members in the Stake are either retired or their kids have grown and married and raising their own families. My four kids make up about 15% of the entire primary.

[ute4ever]

So to recap, the brethren raise the bar, then auxiliary leaders complain that the numbers dropped?

[MikeWaters]

you know how it is. What is new is old, and what is old is new.

The pendulum will eventually swing the other way.

I don't know what the right answer is.

But it does remind me of my mission. Before I got there, the old mission president had many strict rules about requirements for baptism. For example of the rules was no smoking for 3 weeks. And maybe church 2-3 times.

Well, the mission president that I served under changed the rules. No smoking for one week and church once.

Baptisms were greatly increased. And the retention was the same. Net effect--a lot more Mormons. And probably a lot more missionaries that felt better about their efforts.

I wonder if the same principle can't be true about missionaries. I hear horror stories about entire missions gone astray, and that's really sad. So I don't know what went into the decision making.

I wonder what percent of mission presidents come from Utah. My guess is too many. That they are really neglecting to use the talent in other parts of the church. Ineffective mission presidents perhaps can be the result of the sometimes ineffective system of using poorly trained lay clergy.

I feel bad for guys with bad mission presidents. I was lucky to have one of the best.

[Parrot Head]

In my ward here in Oregon, we have about 12 kids total in YM, but it's amazing what a few strong parents can do to strengthen the entire group. We've had 6 leave on missions since April, two girls and 4 guys. The guys all hung out together and were good friends and the were all in the MTC at about the same time including two others that moved up to Portland in the recent years. So there were six good friend that were in Scouts and YM together for a while. Makes an amazing difference. Contrast that to my Bay Area ward that was in the pits -- urban, low youth count, apathetic parents. That ward had three missionaries in the 2 years i was there -- all from the same family, but the 2 guys, well, left a little late. But they went!

As far as mission presidents go, I was in a "bombero" mission like Mike mentioned. (firefighter)

[SteelBlue]

My mission president was from Utah but he was one of the best. He's like a second father to me. He understood what worked and what didn't in a mission that had the lowest baptism rate in Europe. Looking back I can see that his focus was as much on helping us to become good men as it was on gaining converts.

I'm still ambivalent about "raising the bar". On the one hand, I can see what they want and it makes sense. It would be easy to fill whole missions with slackers if there weren't a high standard. However, it seemed to me that in my day (89-91) most of the guys who went out were worth having out there. Most of them were better men by the time they left. Sure there were guys that wasted 2 years, but they were definitely the exception. I have to say that some of our best missionaries were those who had some "trouble" before coming out. They often had superior people skills (might be part of what got them in trouble in the first place) and people seemed to relate to them well. I'm not trying to say that there weren't many great Elders who had been righteous throughout their youth. But our mission definitely benefitted from having some elders that probably wouldn't have made the modern day cut.

[realtall]

It was our Stake Conference yesterday too. Interesting.

[outlier]

Originally Posted by il Padrino Ute

I can understand that the numbers of YM in Stakes outside Utah and Idaho not having high numbers. However, right here, smack in the middle of Zion, the Stake I'm in has low numbers.

Apologies if this was meant ironically, but otherwise I don't think what you're saying makes any sense. Why would members inside Utah be better off than those outside? When my parents left Utah to raise their family in the Seattle area, their siblings all thought they were crazy. 38 years later, my parents' kids are all active in the church (assuming you count me), while their brothers and sisters all seem to have at least one wayward kid apiece. Again, limited sample size and all that, but I don't think there's any reason for anyone to believe that raising good Mormon kids is easier to do in Utah. Or at least, I haven't seen any sort of empirical evidence to suggest such.

o

[myboynoah]

Originally Posted by outlier

Apologies if this was meant ironically, but otherwise I don't think what you're saying makes any sense. Why would members inside Utah be better off than those outside? When my parents left Utah to raise their family in the Seattle area, their siblings all thought they were crazy. 38 years later, my parents' kids are all active in the church (assuming you count me), while their brothers and sisters all seem to have at least one wayward kid apiece. Again, limited sample size and all that, but I don't think there's any reason for anyone to believe that raising good Mormon kids is easier to do in Utah. Or at least, I haven't seen any sort of empirical evidence to suggest such.

o

Interesting point. But I think he's talking about numbers here, not faithfulness. My experience has been that wards in the Mormon cultural zone tend to have a stronger numerical base than those outside. Perhaps that would lead to greater numbers of youth. For example, we have roughly 7 young men (3 active) and 5 young women (3 active) in my current ward. Average Sac Mtg attendance is 70 each week. This is not uncommon in our Stake, and something I've seen elsewhere outside Utah and SE Idaho.

You are correct that faithfulness does not depend on location. I know plenty of people outside of the Mormon Cultrual zone that have drifted away from the Church.

:wink:

[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.

My cousin lives in South Jordan and in his ward alone, there are three quorums of Deacons, 2 quorums of both Teachers and Priests. His ward also has 28 missionaries out in the field.

Compare that to the numbers from my area and you'll see what I trying to say.