Seems to me that back in the day (my era of missionary work) we were told that the Holy Ghost had already prepared the righteous to be "ripe and ready to harvest" for us missionaries to just pick them off like ripe fruit on a tree. We would just go out tracting and those ready to join the church would hear our words and automatically know from a stirring in their heart that they were hearing just what they were looking for. Those who were not ready or not righteous enough would not understand and that would be okay because it wouldn't be right to throw "pearls before swine".

Now it seems that the Holy Ghost is no longer doing His share of the missionary work. Members and missionaries are being taught how to become as obnoxious as possible towards inactive members in order to herd them back into the fold. Missionary efforts to non (never) Members who don't know anything about Mormonism sound almost like going after potential coverts with a baseball bat.

Sayings like "the still small voice" seem to have been abandoned in Mormon lingo these days. Shouting from the tree tops is more the current style. Seems like gathering converts more resembles Satan's plan to force people into belief than let their hearts be turned by the Holy Ghost.

Anyone else notice this dramatic change?

Yep.

Nice post! D&C 4:4 may be outdated now. Memorized section 4 while on my mission in the mid 1970s, and it wasn't applicable even then...at least in my mission in Mississippi and Louisiana.

the same shit back in 1961 when he was establishing the first European stakes. Europe was about to see a new flowering of membership growth through the workings of the holy spook.

Funny-how-it-just-didn't-happen-ly yrs,

S

He's in Tahiti