Among the topics discussed on this site are at least three that are significant to missionary work:

1) The impact of the internet.
2) The extent to which missionaries become convinced
members as opposed to converting nonmembers to Mormonism.
3) Changing the minimum age to 18 and 19.

Simon Southerton* prepared a convincing graphic showing that as the internet has grown in Australia, the number of church units has leveled off. He and others have postulated that in the internet-savvy countries (generally the developed nations), church growth will suffer because people can so readily obtain the truth about Mormonism.

It’s also postulated that in developing countries (particularly African and Latin America), church growth will continue to increase partly because there is less access to the internet and hence less access to both sides of the Mormon story.

But elsewhere on this site, nickerickson** writes that he’s talked to missionaries in Brazil (a developing country) who say that investigators there are learning about the church from the internet and losing interest in baptism. In addition, I personally have looked at several exmormon-type sites located in Brazil, two of them maintained by former church leaders (at least one a bishop).

So, even though one could surmise that internet access is limited in a country like Brazil, it nonetheless appears that some people are becoming informed and consequently losing interest in the church.

Thus, the internet clearly can have a direct impact on investigators. Of course, the church is trying to avoid direct effects on the missionaries themselves by prohibiting internet use except for limited applications such as exchanging emails via the church’s own, no doubt carefully monitored links.

But what about the indirect impact on the missionaries? The church can’t control the questions that are asked by investigators. The church can’t keep people from asking about Joseph Smith’s marriages/affairs, Masonry and the Temple rituals, the Book of Abraham, etc.

We know from several postings on this site that at least some of the missionary guides at the Beehive House are fudging the truth about polygamy. Basically, it seems they don’t want to acknowledge that Brigham Young was a polygamist and that several of his wives lived in the house.

Are the Beehive House missionaries being specifically taught to lie about polygamy? If so, what is the impact on them (or at least on some of them) who know the truth, or eventually discover the truth for themselves? What about the other controversial topics? Are the missionaries specifically being taught to lie about them?

Back in the day, missionaries (at least where I was at) rarely encountered people who asked about controversial issues, and the church very effectively kept most of its members from ever pursuing or learning anything negative. In retrospect, we lied a lot; we just didn’t know it. Also, our training largely centered on dealing with scriptural challenges we might encounter.

But it would appear that many missionaries today are going to hear plenty about things the church would rather keep hidden.

So what happens when an 18-year-old male or a 19-year-old female is asked about Joseph Smith’s involvement with 14-year-old girls?

Even if the church has come up with canned answers, for the missionary, the “cat is out of the bag,” so to speak.

Come to think about it, a lot of 18-year-olds are in for a double whammy. They are awfully young for the shock of the temple ceremony, potentially followed by something that will contradict a great deal of their upbringing: Lying for the Lord.

Oh, and one other thing. Some say the purpose of the new age limits is to “snag” the young people before they have very much experience with life beyond high school. Well, they’re going to get lots of experience beyond high school, just not the kind the church wants them to have. And if they have any doubts when they return home, the internet and rfm will be waiting for them.

It seems possible to me that the missionary experience might just have the possibility of generating as many ex-Mormons as it does Mormons of conviction.



* http://simonsoutherton.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/google-apostasy-in-australia-and-new.html

** http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,853134,853960#msg-853960

That's an interesting point. It does seem like there could be more missionaries losing their testimony. The question is, do investigators confront missionaries with this information or just politely stop taking the lessons. Many people might think it rude to confront the elders with their new found information.

I had people ask me some questions, I dismissed them fairly easily because I never ran into anyone that was truly well read, just a few Christian extremists that are just as easily dismissed with the same arguments.

Haha, yeah, as a missionary, I did hear some weird stuff from church history, but I easily dismissed it all as lies. I definitely said Joseph Smith having 33 wives was a lie and testified about his having only one.

Now, exmos did make some cracks in the shell, especially when they told me how much they used to believe and told me my testimony was just emotions.

Yeah. Almost no one I know here in south Utah Co. can come to grips with JS and 33 wives; one-third already married to his followers (this isn't polyandry by the way, this is screwing your friend's wife); and one-third underage girls.

A couple of years ago I was touring the Visitor's Center in SL with an out-of-town friend who'd never been there before and was curious. I asked a missionary there where the golden plates are now. She very kindly and seriously told me they were locked up in a vault in the COB! (for their protection, doncha know).

Really. This girl can tell people, with a straight face, that the greatest treasure of humanity, the most conclusive proof that the restored gospel is true, just happens to be locked up in a vault a block from where we're standing! And it's kept secret from the entire world!?

It apparently never occurred to her that either she's lying and I know she's lying, or she's as gullible as the day is long.

I think you raise a good point. I think many sheltered 18 year olds will be confronted with unflatering information about the cult for the very first time on a mission. Because of all the family pressure I doubt many will be able to do much more than grin-n-bear-it until they complete their 24 month sentence....but the seeds of doubt will have been planted.

I know when I went through the IHOH (international house of handshakes) for the first time sitting there in my baker's hat watchin people waive their hands in the air and chant "Hear the word o' my mouth" I was wondering if I somehow joined a cult. I ran out of that building shocked by what I had seen. Add to that the colorful facts about Joseph Smith would have made my head pop.

NoToJoe (unregistered) Wrote:
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> "I was wondering if I somehow joined a cult."

Put that on a T-shirt please.

Beautiful.

Top

I think it depends on how determined one is to believe that the Church is true, no matter what opposition they are facing. I'm a good example of that.

Back in 1998, I got my first computer. Within a few days of getting on-line, I became involved with an LDS chatroom on MSN. Within about 4 months, I was asked to be a host of that chatroom. I eventually ended up becoming a Team Leader, where I trained new hosts.

This forced me to become a sort of amateur apologist. Whenever I was on duty, I had a few books near me and even a little pamphlet called, "How to Answer Anti-Mormon Questions." That was always my quick-reference guide.

It didn't matter what questions were posed to me. I figured there was an answer to everything they could throw at me. Like most Mormons, I had the assumption that the Church is true, so therefore the answer to every equation had to = the Church is true.

So you sort of back-engineered everything in order for that to be the conclusion. No matter what problem was posed to me, the answer must = the Church is true. There was no other possible answer, so there had to be an explanation for everything.

I didn't see the problems with the Church in a new light until I got to the point where truth became more important to me than needing the Church to be true.

I actually expected that the answer would still be that the Church was true. It's absolutely shocking and earth-shattering when you realize that the answer was not what you were expecting.

But until one gets to the point where they are willing to search out the answers, no matter what the conclusions will be, they are literally blind to the problems. The search for truth, no matter what that truth turns out to be, is the only way for that blindness to leave and to finally bring that light into focus.

That is really interesting!

Brazil has pretty widespread Internet access. South Korea has better access than the US! Quite a few foreigners also have some knowledge of English, and can glean some information from places like RFM. If nothing else, they can grab a friend and ask them to tell them what the web site says.

I was in Brazil, and a fair number of converts joined because they wanted a chance to rub shoulders with Americans. Debunking the BoM doesn't really affect that all that much. The US invasion of Iraq in 2002 probably cost LDS Inc as many foreign converts as any other single event in the last quarter century. Their numbers did take a hit in 2002 and 2003.

I could see it affecting the mishies that aren't really "into" Mormonism and are just serving their missions because they were expected to.

Those deeply entrenched in the "truthfulness" of it won't be swayed at all. Facts don't change feelings.

And honestly, growing up in the "mission field" I heard a lot of weird stuff about Mormonisms by nonmembers. Now I know some of it was true and some of it was absolute craziness. It was easy to just dismiss the whole thing as lies.

I agree with the other posters that the internet will hurt investigators much more than the current flock.

This is the very reason in 1995 on my mission in Taiwan a former bishop who helped construct the temple in Taiwan had lost his faith. My companion introduced us and this wonderful man had bought a copy of morminisim Shadow or Reality from the Tanner's (Sandra Tanner rocks by the way!) I did not believe that anything could hurt my testimony. So, I read the book for about a half an hour. Nothing jumped of the pages at me to shake my testimony at the time as I wanted to check out the references before I believed the things I was reading about JS and BY teachings.

Offcourse I thought they were made up lies. My trainer had said something important to me in my first area in Taiwan. He said " when we get home we should really read up on church history to find out what is really going on here". So, I think all these expereinces planted a seed for me to want to study church history and be open minded to all sources of information. I did want to confirm if the things I had read about were true or fabricated. I have now 16 years later confirmed the things I first read about on my mission at the church history library they are all authentic.

So, my point is we all have a job to help point the missionarys towards the truth in small ways. Be kind to them and point them towards the truth. I think it can work. It will take time but we can have some small influence.

I usually keep some articles from lds.org on hand about the rock in the hat. I am thinking about buying a bunch of copies of "A insiders View" by Grant Palmer handy to pass out to TBM's and missionarys alike.

I am encouraged so many people are slowly hearing the truth it is gaining momentum.