Not sure how it's going in your neck of the woods but where I live it seems to be poor souls looking for fulfilment in life/suffering from mental issues that are being converted to the church.


One poor fellow seems to have become obsessed with Mormonism and seems to visit the chapel almost every day.He posts many photos on Facebook,all seemingly of himself and the sisters/elders/members at church.
He even posts pictures of how he managed to neatly align all the chairs he set out in church.

Here is an example of what he posts every few days:

https://www.facebook.com/aleksander.postrych?fref=ts


'Our church is growing every year.And every year the number of believers is growing.And we have more people who are joining our church.But despite that we have missionaries of many different nationalities.But the best job does THE AMERICANS.THE MISSIONARIES FROM AMERICA are the best and they are better than I could even ever can imagine.And all those things what they are doing is absolutely amazing.They are great people.Because only people from AMERICA they really have this power and talent to influence to the people and to encourage them to this religion.The Americans are the best people in the world,and nobody will never be better than them.Because they are doing it at the best possible level.And they are doing this with mastery,expertness and professionalism.And all the things what they do is from the highest level of professionalism and quality.And I consider the case that in my opinion only the God's kingdom (which is absolutely perfect) can be better than America.And I consider that AMERICA is such a wonderful place and beautiful and perfect country.And THE UNITED STATES is such a great country and place.That's why I would like to say that whatever and however I will do I will not be even in 1% good as them.Because AMERICANS ARE THE BEST !!! AND I LOVE THEM."GOD BLESS AMERICA !!!".

My mom did after she married my dad.

When my brother died from cancer both my parents decided to start cleaning up their act and get into church activity. Up to then it had been spotty at best.

After their divorce years later they both went inactive, but mom never stopped believing in it til she died.

Dad only believed in parts and some parts he'd let go. He was way more pragmatic than my mom and had a lot more common sense. The church gave my mom a sense of identity and family I think. Her parents were both orphans, so she spent her life seeking out family whether through her genealogy (including before she was LDS,) and adopting people along the way - like her mom had done when she was growing up to be her substitute family.

I think for her the church helped fill a void that way.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2016 06:07PM by Amyjo.

My former MIL is a convert who fell for it as she was a convert as an adult. She and my ex-husband's dad were completely inactive for much of their marriage, until he died of cancer, and she returned to full activity. My ex-husband then converted at 19, and as far as I know, he's still active because he's in it for the welfare system. She on the other hand, struck me as one of those who truly believes in the cult's teachings.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2016 06:38PM by adoylelb.

21 of them. Baptized them myself.

I looked at that facebook link. That poor guy is really hooked and from his writing, it would appear to me that he has some mental issues or is at least developmentally disabled to a degree.

Id have to agree.

I remember a convert from my active days, a young man somewhere on the autism spectrum, maybe Aspergers.
He talked extensively about his topic of interest; which was the gospel, Jesus, the bible, more Jesus.
I could tell he he had received a lot of help/therapy on how to hold a conversation because sometimes he would remember and say
"Oh, ok, your turn to speak"
If he ever had a FB page, I imagine it would be similar to this
mans

Edited to add this https://pathway.lds.org/
I'm not sure if this is what he is referring to



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2016 09:23PM by blakballoon.

What is this "Pathway" he talks about on FB?

Anyway, I list 3 things that IMO did my brother in:

#3. He'd just turned 18 and was eager to strike out in the world (pun intended, he did strike out when he became a mormon).

#2. The priest in our church was very political and could get riled up, while the guys down at the LDS church were very "arm around the shoulder" and "You're such a great kid".

#1! He was hot & heavy with a girl from huge family, and as soon as he got dunked, they were "just friends"....


I never asked him why he joined but hook line and sinker it was!

Chicken N. Backpacks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What is this "Pathway" he talks about on FB?
>
> Anyway, I list 3 things that IMO did my brother
> in:
>
> #3. He'd just turned 18 and was eager to strike
> out in the world (pun intended, he did strike out
> when he became a mormon).
>
> #2. The priest in our church was very political
> and could get riled up, while the guys down at the
> LDS church were very "arm around the shoulder" and
> "You're such a great kid".
>
> #1! He was hot & heavy with a girl from huge
> family, and as soon as he got dunked, they were
> "just friends"....
>
>
> I never asked him why he joined but hook line
> and sinker it was!

I think he might be talking about Pathway, online courses in relationship with BYU Idaho. https://pathway.lds.org/Main/Information

Sounds like a guy who is priming for immigration to the US -- he loves America and Americans.

will he get extreme vetting ?

As a former convert, I was suspicious but blocked out my brain with their fake love. Eventually my skepticism grew too powerful and killed my magical thinking part of my brain.

Sounds like someone wants to move to America.

Yeah, I did -- I baptized 4 of 'em on my mission that did.
Thankfully, they're all out now.

This guy sounds like he's more in love with AMERICA than mormonism. If mormonism had been a church from a 3rd-world country, he probably never would have given it a second glance.

We had a convert in our ward in British Columbia. I later moved to New York state for professional reasons. Who should I meet there in the Palmyra ward but our convert from BC. He moved to Palmyra to be close to the origins of the Church. With the Sacred Grove and Hill Cumorah (and the Pagent) so close by and the temple to be built just down the road, he could become involved in the Church every moment of the day!

i`m a convert joined in my 20s, I never really believed 100% into it all I was mostly there for the social aspect/dating scene in the YSA, not really active anymore but attend some singles events sometimes but there growing more and more sad to be at specially in the MSA age bracket

I've seen a couple of single adult men join for the social inclusion they got from the missionaries. Once they were baptized and the missionaries left they were very disappointed. They also were ordered by the bishops to get married when the only single women were significantly older than they were. I think the one went inactive almost immediately. He always enjoyed visits from the missionaries but stopped going to church entirely. I have no idea what became of the other man because I moved soon after he converted. I don't think he knew what he was getting into.

Everybody has experienced male investigators who were very interested in the sister missionaries but had no interest in talking with the Elders. I met several older gentlemen who joined the Church who took a lot of interest in the elders inviting them to dinners and activities, socialized with them a lot. No wives, no children. Three of these members were some of the nicest, most intelligent members I associated with. Once we invited a woman to church who was an investigator and she had worked with one of these guys and grown up in the same town and they seem to hit it off quite well. After she visited church we asked how she liked church and she told how much she liked brother x, she asked us if he had ever told us about his boyfriend, and how he died. I had a huge revelation that day being a sheltered 19 year old from Utah. The local members were aware of this and had live and let live attitude, but it was not the US and it was not the same church as it is today.

One of the members from my home town proudly recollects being a yobbo back in the 70s and after seeing a gorgeous girl get on his bus, decides to follow her - all the way to the church building. He joined, they married he eventually became bishop. Still tbm, I believe.

My uncle converted back in the 60s and my then teenage mum 'felt the spirit' during the baptism and she joined. I reckon she felt the need for my uncle's approval since he was eldest sibling and she was youngest and they had lost their father when she was 8; he'd been sickly since serving in africa during the war.

A couple of years previously my then teenage father and his parents and siblings all joined for whatever spiritual reasons they had, his siblings promptly left when old enough. In this instance, I don't understand my father but my grandparents both killed people during the war - I reckon it a safe bet they wanted the baptism for remission of sins. I think this may have been the case with a lot of europeans during the 1960s expansion.

A friend of the family a similar age to my dad joined too and even served a building mission. Unsure when exactly he stopped attending but it was definitely before my time.

Most people in scotland when I was growing up (70s & 80s) were converts and quite often converted with young children. Born in the church kids were rare then. We were allegedly 'special' because we had 'always had the truth'.

When I was in primary and then the youth program, most of the other kids were converts who joined with their parent or parents. There were other BICs in other wards (and my cousins) but they were on the whole devout believers (still are, too) who knew their scriptures and who didn't sneak away to drink cider or smoke cigarettes during the stake youth discos. Most of those BICs still attend and are married with their own BIC kids, some returned RMs, some married and producing grandchildren.

Young lives squandered. It is quite sad, really.

He was caring for her 24/7. Her behavior was becoming more and more erratic, driving and getting lost, wandering away. His health was suffering and he was drinking too much.

One day, the sister missionaries knocked on his door and took over. He joined the church and they were both baptized. She was so deluded by then, she may have thought she was going swimming.

In her lucid days, she was an intelligent, insightful woman. She'd have never joined on her own.

When she passed, she had a Mormon funeral complete with the Plan of Salvation. All of the friends who had known her were stunned. He presided over her graveside service citing his "Melchizedic" priesthood authority.

After about a year and a half, he remarried and in 6 months was out. Whew!

I have to say, the sisters helped him a lot and they deserve credit.

Isn't it a possibility that many of us posting here fell for it hook, line & sinker?

I've seen many converts like this and they were always illegal immigrants trying to get a spouse with a passport from a European Union country. This guy is similar: he loves America, he loves Americans, and he sure loves American sister mishies.

When I lived in Spain, the American elders were quite popular with South American girls dreaming of moving to Utah and making a career as a SAHM. But whenever there was a SPANISH mishie (or at least another European, like a Finn or an Englishman), he became their superstar.

Funniest time was when at some church event I introduced a room filled with mostly youngish women a newly arrived mishie. A tall white guy with black hair and grey eyes and a Spanish surname? It made them all straighten up their backs, twitch their ears and smile a little harder. All their interest faded when they heard he had come straight from his native Uruguay.

My dad felt the same attention the men in your descriptive, after my parents divorced and he went to a couple singles functions at church.

He was stormed by the women there! Any man in their radius was suddenly everyone's target as the women preyed on him for their attention.

What they wanted was a man period. Whether it was to be taken care of, a sex partner, or companion or combination of the above, those women were like vultures according to my dad.

He quickly went inactive deciding that was enough of the "good life" for him as a Mormon.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2016 03:43PM by Amyjo.

we used to call that particular sickness some girls suffered with 'elderitis'; an infection caused by the presence of foreign elders, symptoms included giggling and blushing a lot.

I suppose the male equivalent must be sisteritis, perhaps shortened to sistitis? (yes, that is a terrible pun). Sister missionaries were not so common a generation ago as they are now.

I saw many people fall for it. In the 70's I was stationed, militarily, in northern Maine. When I got there the branch had 35 members. Three years later the branch had over 300 members. Why?

Because the branch was a group of loving and kind people. Lots of good times. We were each other's extended family. It was fun. It was spiritual. We all took care of each other. It was a time and place where 'charity is the pure love of Christ' really meant something. Perhaps the best three years of my life...and then I moved to Utah morgdom. Not even the same church. Not even.

Aha! My brother was stationed militarily in the far reaches of Northern Maine in the late '70's, but was also a "supply priest" for a couple of small Episcopal churches in the area, like Limestone.

They must have been small churches because the mormons grabbed all the religious people! :-)