I had the impression that Mormonism was falling apart in England and that wards and stakes were being closed left and right. Guess that's not the case at all!

https://sisterfuhriman.wordpress.com/2017/06/06/small-simple/

Now, if you seriously dispute this claim and think she's making it all up, should I ask her father about it or should I just ignore all of this? He is a former bishop of another ward.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2017 06:22PM by Agnes Broomhead.

He will not react well to you questioning his DD's claim. You could wonder aloud what type of people are joining: middle-class families or immigrants looking for financial support?

In the United Kingdom, membership has declined in three of the last four years.

Did she mentioned the demographics? Just a guess, the convents are in their 20s, single, from all parts of the globe, and don't use technology in truth-seeking.

"Our goal was 15 for May and we DOUBLED IT!"

In other words this is not a typical month at all. Usually goals
are set high above current performance levels. So the typical
month MUST have been much less than 15.

In other news someone recently hit four home runs in one MLB
game. Also not a typical performance.

I had to look it up but the Population of London is just under NINE MILLION.

So if I visit London, they should ask me whether I want to be stabbed in the front or in the back.

I usually don't waste time on these mishie blog links, but Morbid curiosity led me to take a peek at this one.

First of all, I wonder if it's as offensive to the British as it is to an American to have some Bimbo draping herself in their flag and lounging around on the ground in it. It strikes me as ignorant and disrespectful to the country to which you are headed. But I'm off topic...

So, if you parse the sentence carefully, they could have "taught" 29 and baptized only one. It's like saying "we washed cars and cut lawns for 30 people," when you didn't wash 30 cars and cut 30 lawns, but you did something for a total of 30 people. And, they didn't "do" it but "helped" teach and baptize, whatever that means. For all we know, the baptisms could have been dead people: "we helped the teens who were doing it."

Anyway, I think it's B.S. and clever wordsmithing.

No, draping yourself in a flag like that is not particularly offensive AFAIK. I am not happy about the one withe the family holding the flag and she is shoving the BOM in your face.

I wondered about the flag, too, but it looks like she's sitting on a sheet of some kind so it's all over the ground.

Personally, I think Mick Jagger wrapping himself in the Union Jack is more inspired, or Kate Moss:

http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/-2AOZD5Wve_epczIolSvkwJ6OnQ=/fit-in/1200x9600/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F48308%2FKate_Moss_Vogue_-_for_online.jpg

The reason they have to say "helped teach and baptize" is because they're sister missionaries, so they can't perform baptisms. They teach and then the elders do the actual baptism.

When she says "we helped," she's clearly taking credit for the entire mission's results (assuming it's even true), and as others have pointed out, 30 isn't a big number in an area populated so densely. Even so, I still wouldn't be surprised if they "taught" some, baptized some others, and the total was 30. And now that I think about it, 30 is an awfully round number too. Not 28, or 33, but exactly 30. I remain skeptical. Not that it matters...in the large, I'm sure they are losing more than they gain.

nomonomo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So, if you parse the sentence carefully, they
> could have "taught" 29 and baptized only one. It's
> like saying "we washed cars and cut lawns for 30
> people," when you didn't wash 30 cars and cut 30
> lawns, but you did something for a total of 30
> people. And, they didn't "do" it but "helped"
> teach and baptize, whatever that means. For all we
> know, the baptisms could have been dead people:
> "we helped the teens who were doing it."

That's an interesting point you bring up.
However, I'm disinclined to think she's intentionally being shady with the terminology. It may be something else, I don't know what. It could be her relaying second-hand information from someone else.

Also note that she went to a very non-Mormon high school, with non-Mormon friends and classmates, and she's lived in her area for over 15 years, so there's none of that "Morridor influence". She could be making it all up, but by the time she gets back, I'll probably have already left.....

A bigger issue, not so much "offensive" as it is stupid and pandering, is the habit of missionaries wearing clothing feature that mission's NFL, MLB, or major state university insignia. The NFL shirts they were is downright preposterous, as these same young people won't turn on the TV to watch NFL Sunday action. So lame.

How would people in Philadelphia react to some Utah-born-and-raised missionary wearing Eagles fashion?

I agree with op47. Most British people do not revere the flag as Americans do.

Like nomonomo says, wordsmithing. No one in any European mission has baptized 30 people in one month. Just doesn't happen. And any current baptisms in Europe consist mostly of undocumented African immigrants, and people marginalized due to mental illness or poverty. Maybe back in the early days of the Spain and Portugal missions there were 30 per month. The church grew like wildfire there, and I suppose Mormon Co. thought that would go on forever. But now, of course, they are closing missions there, because the product has gone sour, even in Spain and Portugal. And because... Internet.

So, plain and simple, you think she's making it all up, right? Not that I doubt you.....

London is a huge city. There are parts of it where you witness 30 people packed onto on 5 feet of sidewalk. Even if true, so what.

I too find this surprising, but it's possible but not usual. In London there is a ward or Branch for every 500,000 people. The British membership has dropped for the last three years also at least six wards or branches closed so far this year! The church concentrates on immigrants and refugees. They join but rarely last long!

Cute sisters can baptize a lot of people. When the cute sisters leave, so do the great majority of their converts.

That isnt that many. 9 or 10 converts were baptized at the local cathedral last Easter. This happens every year and this is just one church and parish.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2017 08:39PM by bona dea.

WOW! 30 BAPTISMS...in a city with a population of 8.674 MILLION!

It's still 30 too many.

Wow! Not true. Sister Fuhriman [pronounce Furry-man?] is telling London porkie-pies. Worth going back to Hyde Park. If she wants to follow in the footsteps of Joyce McKinney, please form an orderly queue to volunteer to be picked up and tied to the bed. We are now forming a Sister Fuhriman fan-club.


Yeah, groovy!

FUR-man. Skye is her middle name. Which would make "G. Skye Fuhriman" sounds so much better.

30 while impressively high, is possible in London.

I had friends serving in London 30 years ago & back then, it was the highest baptising mission in the UK by a mile.

Obviously the quality of baptisms were a joke, as many (by my friends admissions) were god-fearing African immigrants that were easily coerced into getting baptized.

I remember one story where they had two baptisms lined up & told the two candidates to invite all their friends along.

Then after baptising the two, the missionaries simply asked if any of their assembled friends wanted to be baptized too? A few stepped forward & were duly kitted out in white clothes & baptized there and then. No discussions, no pre-baptism interview, just dunked & confirmed.

The poor Bishop turned up on Sunday to find 5 baptism slips on his desk, despite not knowing any of the 5 & almost certainly never seeing any of them again in the future.

The missionaries had a set of keys for the building and just came and went as they wished.

I reckon they are most likely Asylum seekers or similar with a struggle to speak or understand the English Language more fully and have simply been befriended and love bombed and think they are just attending another Christian Church.

Back in 2005-2007 I saw many Asylum seekers being pressured for baptism. One got baptised and no one ever saw him again! One who joined asked me not to blow his cover or any real intention as he was just following LDS protocol (but too smart to believe it). lol

later the Bishop wrote to the Mission President and ask him to show some caution when missionaries approach Asylum Seekers as many/most were seeking more for what they could get in terms of Asylum assistance, rather than becoming TBM Smithites!

I was also part of a Monthly target of 5 baptisms goal( myself included). The missionaries asked me to pray for five baptisms. I prayed for the target to fail and it did. I think they only suckered one in that month.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/2017 02:13PM by Zeezromp.

Of those 30 people, how many will remain mormons after one year ?

Semantics can be part of this "record" accomplishment. When she says "helped teach and baptize 30" it could possibly mean they taught 30 and one of them was baptized or taught 29 and baptized one. Also, if she is simply going from word-of-mouth it could be false or there could be a lot of record fudging which is rampant in Mormon churches and missions. I would not be surprised if even the mission record keepers do a lot of creative math in their reports. However, if incentives are given to investigators (not to mention missionaries and mission presidents), does anyone doubt that a needy street person would jump at the chance for a hot meal, or almost anything else, when only a dip in a baptismal font is required? London is a very large place and the odds of finding 30 needy, socially isolated, financially destitute, totally clueless, mentally challenged, non-English speaking, or just plain hapless human creatures to take the plunge is very high.

And this doesn't even take into account the missions or mission presidents who exact punishment for lackluster statistics.

I forgot to suggest that if an accurate understanding of this great feat is desired, ask this young woman how many of those baptized individuals attended church two Sundays after the baptism. Then a month after the baptism? Plenty of investigators get baptized just because they like the missionaries and do not know how to decline the high pressure tactics without being rude. But actually walking away from sacrament meeting is not nearly as difficult once the missionaries have departed their city.