Elder Rasband cautioned against using number of Baptisms as a measuring stick of success for missionaries and eliminating the role of Jesus Christ in the baptism process. “It is critical to remember and reinforce baptism’s antecedent connection to the Savior,” Elder Rasband said. “Our purpose is not to ‘get baptisms’ per se, but to invite people to take upon themselves the name of Jesus Christ and to receive a remission of their sins through His atoning sacrifice, which is symbolized by the ordinance of baptism.” **********************************************************
I served a mission that was all about numbers. At the end of my mission I had my final interview with the mission president before returning to civilian life. Needless to say, my group were a bunch of dead-beat shit heads. We had been a tremendous disappointment. My nonchalant attitude only fueled the ire of the MP.
"Elder Goop, How many baptisms did you have?"
-I don't know. Offhand, a dozen or so.
"What do you mean you don't know! Weren't you paying attention? No wonder you have had a miserable mission."
-I am glad that it's over. I helped a lot of people; even reactivated some members. I think that's important.
"Wrong. You were here to baptize new converts. Not to plant seeds. Not to pick up someone else's fallen fruit (a cheap shot at reactivation of less actives- which was part of a church pilot program that my mission had spearheaded no less!). Well the Texas _____ Mission averages 22 converts per missionary. You were well below that. You should feel ashamed for wasting the lord's time."
He never told me my official number of baptisms. To be honest, I lost track. I found a lot of people, but I was almost always transferred out of the area just prior to their commitment to be baptized. I baptized a bunch of converts that the sister missionaries had taught because the sisters thought that the zone and district leaders were asses. Did I count those? I also got transferred into pending baptisms, but I really didn't know those people and I never considered ownership of those baptisms.
After I got home, I had to wait several days to be officially released by the stake president. I had to prepare a report for their Thursday night meeting and once again, I stumbled to calculate a precise number. Yes, they were hell-bent on numbers. And now it no longer matters?
I served a mission to Madrid Spain from 1976-78. The MP was G. Sterling Nixon. He was all about numbers. He wanted a ton of baptisms so that a stake could be organized in Madrid during his term. It would be the first stake in Spain.
Nixon pushed baptisms so hard that he wanted 100 in a single month. The mission average was around 10-15 per month (if that).
He used one of the young missionaries as a PR guy (a Princeton University guy who is now a judge somewhere in the USA). He was brought in (had no companion) as an additional office staff member to organize press releases etc. for several months.
The event was such that each missionary companionship with the prospective new convert, would travel from all the distant places in the mission boundaries to Madrid to hold the baptisms in the little chapel at Quatro Caminos (four corners, also a Metro stop on the underground subway system).
The chapel was located on the basement and ground level floors of a tall apartment building complex. It had a small chapel, typical Mormon stand, piano, organ, pulpit and the accordion back sliding doors that opened into a small cultural hall.
Downstairs were classrooms and a baptismal font. The font was not below grade as we see in modern buildings today. Rather it had steps you walked up to the font, and steps going down into the font.
Well, after a ton of publicity the baptismal day came. There were only about 70 baptisms. Missionaries and their converts were scheduled throughout the day to make the whole thing work smoothly.
The most popular daily periodical in Spain is called "El Pais." The following day it had a picture of three missionaries standing and conferring the Mormon holy ghost on a new convert. This was on the FRONT PAGE in color. I still have a copy of that edition in my file cabinet. The Elder in the middle was a guy named Hal Astle. Why I remember his name I'll never know?
The traditional name tag the missionaries wore in their suit or coat pocket was usually the black one with engraving that revealed in white lettering the name of the church and the missionaries name.
But, MP Nixon had new ones made up. They were all white and the engraving which revealed the lettering in black. To top it all off it had a GOLD angel moroni on it too with a little tag in gold that said, "El Ano del Estaco." (The year of the Stake). That was suppose to make investigators ask questions as to what it meant.
Well, I left for home after two years. During my stay I spent 8 months in the office in charge of all the historical material, including all baptismal information. I was required to write a personal letter for every new convert (from a form letter) on the IBM electric typewriter. I got so good that I rarely made mistakes. Each letter was then given to MP Nixon for his signature and I mailed it out.
Looking back I remember that the Stake didn't get organized until a couple years later, AFTER MP Nixon had fulfilled his 3-year term.
So, the OP is right. It was all about NUMBERS. N-U-M-B-E-R-S!
Messygoop as it should be. I was always annoyed that the mission leadership wanted me to lie about numbers just after telling me I needed to be obedient as possible for the holy sales spirit to work.
I kept telling them the truth which infuriated them to no end. Finally they stopped calling and asking for my numbers and just began to make it up on their own. I also served in Texas.
Mormons and their doublespeak, convoluted language--ugh! This statement from Rasband is an outright lie! Mormonism has always been about the number$. He's trying to re-write Mormon history, again, through denial, denial, denial.
Baptism is now an ugly word, like the word "Mormon."
So, they don't "baptize people into the Mormon church", anymore.
They: "Invite people to take upon themselves the name of Jesus Christ and to receive a remission of their sins through His atoning sacrifice, which is symbolized by the ordinance of baptism.” into "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
Stop insulting us by throwing a lot of meaningless words at us. I hope the Mormons use those mouthfulls of words on non-Mormons, and have the non-Mormons lose interest and walk away mid-sentence.
Thank you--I really enjoy hearing about people's missionary experiences--the truth of it!
Since I was in the age of Kimball and marrying RMs and TMs, I thought I had to have an RM. I even talked my boyfriend at college into going on a mission at age 20 as he hadn't gone yet.
My current boyfriend told me he would convert back in 1978, but didn't believe, but he felt a couple should be on the same page where religion is concerned, BUT he would not serve a mission. There were other reasons I didn't marry him, but I just thought I had to have an RM. Most of the bishops in this ward since I moved here 34 years ago ARE NOT RMs.
It has been really eye-opening to hear what missions are really like after coming to this board.
As far as you wasting the Lord's time, messygoop, nope, you wasted YOUR time and YOUR MONEY. I love how they make it sound as though all your sacrifice meant nothing.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2020 02:48PM by cl2.
messygoop Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > And now it no longer matters?
Even back in the 90s it was speak about people push about numbers. Mormonism is great at duplicity. Harder now to catch them in the act. My daughter was the top baptizer in her mission for a few months. The Area Auth or whatever wanted to go to lunch with her. They strung another sister compship along and they were treated like they were invisible and my daughter was talked to and paid much attention.