Convert Baptisms are down once again and there are even more Missionaries. Does anyone still believe lowering the Missionary ages was inspired by god? Could the Mormon God have not know this would happen?

What a bunch of idiots at the top of the Mormon food chain.

Lowering the missionary age was not about getting more converts.
It was about retention of the missionary.

The old plan had you totally immersed in Mormonism until you
graduated from high school. You lived with your family and
attended Church with them, went to seminary etc.

Then you went away to college. For a whole year you lived away
from your parents, learned new ways of thinking and questioning.
At the end of this year was when the mission call came. A lot
of kids were saying "no thank you" at that point. They had
become enough of a thinking individual that they could question
things.

The lowering of the missionary age was to eliminate this year of
independent thought. Now the missionary is called WHILE living
at home and before exploring any thought outside his Mormon
bubble. He's sent to the temple then on a mission. All these
things are designed to embed him deeper into Mormonism so the
thought of leaving will be more difficult to entertain.

IMO, Baura nails the exact reason for lowering the missionary ages. It will be sometime before LDS statisticians analyze whether or not it has worked effectively and was worth the headaches of all those immature/sheltered kids who were not emotionally ready for a full-time missionary experience. It's probably been a very costly endeavor for LDS Inc. That too will have to be analyzed in the future. After all what is "The Value of a Returned Missionary?" Answer: "In three generations that young returned missionary’s posterity will probably account for over eighteen active adult tithe-paying members." https://pacific.lds.org/area-presidency/messages/2012/aug

So the whole idea is to get their hooks in them? These guys are worse than Joe Camel.

One of the wondrous doctrines of the gospel is Free Agency. However as this has resulted in people making unapproved decisions then the super inspired Correlation program and other programs geared towards better assimilation/retention have kicked in. For example, while under the carefully crafted control of the well-correlated YM, Seminary, and other programs these 17 year old children can be guided into getting their papers submitted and MTC start date setup. Then under the guidance of super-inspired District Leaders, Zone Leaders, APs, MPs, and the Brethren these missionaries can be carefully correlated and guided into full devotion while being reminded how all their upkeep was provided by the Church (i.e. ) and that now its payback time when they are 20.

How can they do payback? By being inspired through loving guilt-tripping by the power of the Spirit (and the blessed hormones that the Lord gives 20 year old virgin men) into being super obedient and thus quickly getting married under well-correlated single young adult programs, then starting to have children, and with having true believing parents, true believing in-laws, true believing wife, a child on the way into this union, student loan debts as far as the eye can see, and other marvelous blessings at age 20 these young men will see the joyous "endure to the end" path ahead of them and they'll learn to just submit, make lots of babies, and keep the wondrous cycle going generations ahead.

I bear testimony that the correlation program and other revelations really do work to keep this wondrous assimilation going forward. Isn't it marvelous how Heavenly Father has helped evolve Free Agency into this wondrous 21st century reality?

Full time proselytizing Missionary numbers are down again.
There were 88,000 in 2014, but at the end of 2016 this has fallen to just over 70,000.

Yep. Down 20% from the peak, and down almost 5% from last April. I'm sure the numbers will still reach 100k by 2019 like The Dodo predicted!...only if a "revelation" is received commanding all young women to serve.

Remember: the Main purpose for sending mishs is to Weld them to tscc; converting ppl is just frosting (But, the GAs won't admit that!)

I was on my mission when the age was lowered. The 18 year olds my mission got were all very stuck up people it seemed. Like they had something to prove. Of course a few cracked.

The number of missionaries is down on the past few years, but up on the years before that. Lowering the mission age was all about increasing the number of missionaries, and at this stage it looks like it has succeeded.

To a TBM though, you are right, increased missionaries should lead to more converts. To a TBM, a mission is not about brainwashing the missionary. Maybe the stats are weighing down on a few shelves at the moment? I would have thought that a thinking person still stuck in TSCC would have a lot of things on their shelf right now. Anyone who was around during the 1980's when growth was close to 10% should be wondering what has gone so wrong with TSCC in the 2000's.

I think most members realize the internet is working against them more than it is working for them. I also find people are simply less interested in being involved in a church than we were 30 years ago.