http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormonism-in-pictures-women-church-leaders-visit-south-korea

Church is growing everywhere - unlike what everyone writes on this board.

That's not the most unbiased source.

I have family that served in South Korea. If they are baptising like crazy they are soon inactive afterwards. They aren't staying.

Yes, it's like when a friend tried to get me into Amway. He said that when I became a "diamond distributor" I could quit my job and live off Amway. I carefully made note of all the past year's new "diamonds" and pointed out that they all lived in Japan. I asked him why there had not been a single new "diamond" in the US in well over a year. He became quite upset and I never became a distributor.

I ran into him a couple of years later and he was no longer in Amway. It was pretty much the end of future growth for Amway when most of it was occurring outside of the United States.

If LDS is booming in South Korea, my own (tongue-in-cheek) assumption would be that parents in Korea have learned from the Korean-American community that LDS membership can lead to LDS offspring obtaining admission to BYU in the USA.

Never, ever, EVER underestimate the drive of Koreans (and some other specific Asian groups) to get their kids to the US for American university degrees......ESPECIALLY in engineering and the sciences.

Join the LDS church and possibly get at least one of your kids a bona fide American university degree??

Next question: "Where do I dunk?"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2014 12:13PM by tevai.

...here, Kim Jong-un enjoys the televised General Conference with his girlfriend and other paid bootlickers. His longstanding interest in Church teachings helps guide him in his day-to-day decision making.........mostly in the form of executions.


http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1370000/kim-jong-un.jpg

Things are rockin' for the LDS in North Korea. Here soldiers mob a boat carrying the missionaries in their eagerness to receive the lessons. Hilarity ensues:

http://www.guns.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/nk.jpg

Good point.

Note that they never say TSCC is actually growing. In fact, they claim 86,000 members in 128 congregations, which is down from the peak of 175 congregations in 1997. (numbers at Cumorah.com)

The average number of people per congregation is almost 700. If it's the same as other East Asian countries, that also includes branches with less than 20 members attending.

I expect to see more stories like this, which pretend that TSCC never was interested in, you know, growth.

Except for Africa, we'll get lots of growth stories there.

Right. No where does the church article claim the church is "booming" or growing. Not sure if the op is just making a general, tongue in cheek, point or something, but the article doesn't say anything about growth. I think that's telling and they DARE NOT do that with South Korea because the church has SERIOUSLY been tanking there. As Outsider points out they have lost a TON of congregations in that country. Not only do they have abysmal growth in terms of baptism but they are closing and/or consolidating wards each year. They have shrunk by about a third since the 1990's. They are truly dying in the country.

In 2013 there were 83 Wards in So Korea.

In 1993 there were 88 Wards in So Korea.


In 2013 there were 45 branches in So Korea.

In 1993 there were 70 branches in So Korea.


In 2013 there were 16 Stakes, 4 Missions and 1 Temple in So Korea.

In 1993 there were 16 Stakes, 4 Missions and 1 Temple in So Korea.



In 2013 the average number of members per Unit(Ward or Branch) in So Korea was 673.

In 1993 the average number of members per Unit(Ward or Branch) in So Korea was 411.

In other words...
In the past 20 YEARS in So Korea, the only thing that the Mormon Cult and its Missionary Program has been able to produce is ExMormons (an average of 262 per Congregation).

The Mormon Cult is DEAD in So Korea.

http://cumorah.com/index.php?target=countries&cnt_res=2&wid=203&cmdfind=Search

Also, hasn't TSCC created a "Perpetual Education Fund" for third world members. Perhaps some are joining to avail themselves of this opportunity.

More than a few of Utah's pioneers joined the Mormon church to come to America via the old Perpetual Emigration Fund. We were always on the lookout during my mission for would be "converts" who only wanted to join after they had heard about the Church Welfare System. Joining an organization to avail oneself of benefits is, of course, nothing new.

Except for one thing: South Korea is anything but a Third World country, and I doubt that the PPF is available to them.

When I served in 2005, the feeling was that the church was dying in Korea and that it only survived because missionaries were baptising a new generation of converts as the old fell away. Missionaries, in their more cynical and honest moments, felt like the cycle was futile. I'm absolutely not surprised to see stagnating or falling numbers.

What are they drinking in the pictures? In one I see tea cups and in another I see a drink the color of tea.

Is it just me, or do mormons love taking pic's of themselves. They are leaders alright. Leaders in having the goofiest facial expressions ever known.

Quote from a photo caption on a Seoul, Korea missionary blog:

January 29, 2014 -- "The first baptism for almost two years in our area! Elder Weight's first time baptizing someone! More on this next week!"

http://trevorsmissionblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/spam-is-traditional-gift-here-in-korea.html

I served there a LOOOOOOONG time ago. In fact, it was a whole other lifetime ago. If you look at the blog, they are baptizing what appears to be a middle school student. That's what it was like when I was there. Baptisms were nothing but middle, high school and college students. They had visions of the English language and America dancing in their heads. A baptism of a grown adult who was the head of his own family was rare, rare, rare. It looks like not much has changed.

Empty Suits don't make gentlemen (or gentlewomen)
Fake Smiles express no kindness
Cheesy Stories aren't wisdom

Power is No Substitute for class & competence.

Isn't South Korea Communist?

This can't be a serious question. It's got to be a joke.

No one can be that unaware of the differences between North and South Korea. Not in the era of Wikipedia, Google and... the news.

And I can't believe there's any American over 20 who hasn't at some point heard the phrase "Korean War."

Served a mission to South Korea decades ago. I have been back a number of times to visit and for business. South Korea is an extremely well educated people and that has led to above average leadership in the units. However, with the economic progress over the years, the # of baptisms has dropped significantly. There has been little growth in the church (if any) over the past couple of decades. But, overall, SK has been a success story for the church over the past 50 years. But, this article is attempting to give a picture of progress and strength. To me, it is a mixed bag. The leadership in South Korea has been so much stronger than many countries but the retention rate is low and many of their strongest leaders have moved to the U.S. over the years. By the way, the Korean War led to many members (who served in the Korean War) having interest in Korea and then going back as either missionaries, mission presidents, or in some capacity after the church officially started with some organization (mission, branches, etc.). I have met returned missionaries who are examples of this and have read books by early Korean church leaders that point this out. In other words, they got a shot in the arm and then found there was acceptance of the church in the 60s and 70s. But, as you have all stated, it is very different now. The church is attempting to imply that there is still strength, growth, and so forth. Any suggestion of continued strength and growth is a fallacy. But back in the 60s and 70s, Korea was considered one of the great Mormon stories in the world (high number of baptisms, strong leadership, etc.).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2014 05:28PM by sam.

All's well that ends wellsville.

All of Wellsvilles posts are links to these Mormon-sanctioned articles showing how great TSCC is doing. I think Wellsville is a TBM

Wellsville has been posting under the influence of one too many happy pills. No wonder wellsville feels so well. Wellsville seems a bit too defensive of the morg to be an exmo. Sorry wellsville but korea is another slam dunk for the exmos. The morg is the new titanic, that beoch is going down (which is something good mobots are not supposed to do, pitty the ladies).

I've wondered if Wellsville ever looks at the replies to his posts.

Interesting read, Sam. When I served, SK had 2 missions. The mission I served in had zero wards and zero stakes. The MP and his 2 counselors were the only HP's in the entire mission, that's half a country.

When I was there, we only had one mission and the missionaries did a lot of the unit leadership. But, it was at the early stage. Over 2 years, I (and my companion) baptized around 70. I might have been at the high end but not that much. But, missionaries that return from Korea now tell me they baptized just a few. I have followed it closely and knew some of the big leaders (like Spencer Palmer who died a few years ago-he was an early mission president and then the first president of the Seoul Temple). He was a big advocate of Korea and the people. But, he mentioned how the # of baptisms had slowed substantially

Color photographs. I'm convinced things are booming.

DW was one of the first female missionaries for TSCC in South Korea. This was back in the mid-70's. She was only moderately successful, and it seems that the biggest impediment was evangelicals, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. soaking up all the gullible. There's an incredibly large evangelical bible-thumper presence in SK, they put Mormons in the shade.

Spencer Palmer also played the part of the preacher in the temple film when I first went through.