missionary work

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Ambassador Huntsman Probably Won’t be a Super Missionary

19 May 2009 @ 4:42 pm | 4 comments

A Utah legislator’s personal blog got national attention when he suggested that an Ambassador Hunstman may do wonders to advance LDS missionary work in China.

Thoughts that Ambassador Huntsman will be a missionary or advocate for the LDS Church seem misguided. That won’t be his job and it would be a disservice to his duties. But, his appointment will likely result in greater Church exposure in China and hopefully Huntsman will add a favorable impression.

The SL Trib has an interesting summary of the state of the Church in China.

Despite China’s prohibition on missionaries, the LDS Church has 11 international branches in nine cities for its expatriate members.

Expatriate Mormons first started arriving in mainland China in the late 1970s “as diplomats with the embassy or consulate staffs of foreign countries, followed by those assigned to Chinese offices or branches of major international corporations expanding into the new People’s Republic of China market,” according to a Jan. 10 article in the LDS Church News . “Increased educational opportunities and exchanges followed, bringing additional foreign members as English teachers, students and guest instructors and professors to the international branches. More recently, the latest wave of expatriate members coming to China includes entrepreneurs and owners and operators of small businesses.”

BYU has been sending singing groups to China since the early 1980s, and students to the school’s study abroad program almost that long. It also sponsors the China Teachers Program, sending mostly retired LDS couples to various universities to teach English for one year.

Before the school sends any of them, however, they have to agree to some strong inhibitions on promoting their faith. They can answer questions about Mormonism, but not initiate any conversations about their faith. They may not teach missionary lessons or distribute pamphlets or copies of the church’s unique scripture, the Book of Mormon.

50 years of “Every Member a Missionary”

Fifty years ago this month, in the spring of 1959, President David O. McKay (1873–1970) addressed members gathered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for the 129th Annual General Conference of the Church. As President McKay closed the meeting, he shared his testimony of the restored gospel and left the members a charge that remains in effect today.

President McKay related how in 1923, in response to negative public opinion in the British Mission, the Brethren sent instructions to the members stating: “Throw the responsibility upon every member of the Church that in the coming year of 1923 every member will be a missionary. Every member a missionary! … Somebody will hear the good message of the truth through you.”

2 April 2009 @ 3:35 pm | No comments

Prepare Ye The Way of the Lord has an interesting run through of who served a mission in the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve Apostles.

It seems that the less senior apostles are more likely to have served as full-time missionaries. The older apostles were not full-time missionaries probably because there wasn’t as much emphasis back then and of other intervening circumstances (war).

13 October 2008 @ 12:30 am | 1 comment

The Des News confirms that U.S. missionaries are no longer being sent to Russia due to visa problems.

14 July 2008 @ 10:41 pm | No comments

LDS Church Stops Russian Mission Calls

9 July 2008 @ 1:52 pm | 26 comments

BYU NewsNet: LDS Church Stops Russian Mission Calls

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has stopped calling missionaries from North America to serve in missions in Russia, officials at the church headquarters in Salt Lake City said.

“The missions are fully staffed and the work is going forward,” church spokesman Rob Howell said. “They have more missionaries than they can use.”

Howell would neither confirm nor deny the decision was influenced by the difficulty of obtaining and renewing visas for North American missionaries.

Somewhat related, my local Maryland elders told me (so take it for what it’s worth) that the Church was also making significant cutbacks in new missionaries being sent to the U.S. East Coast, sending more to the West where there is greater success.

I don’t think the East Coast is as uncooperative as the former Soviet block, but maybe not by that much.

UPDATE: Strange, but as Juvenille Instructor and BCC have noticed, the article has now been pulled. Google cache has it here.

Elder Ballard’s Call to Inform

21 April 2008 @ 5:10 pm | 3 comments

On the heels of attending a prayer service for Pope Benedict the 16th, Elder M. Russell Ballard spoke at the BYU Management Society dinner this weekend.  The dinner is an annual gathering in Washington, D.C. that includes area members as well as prominent people and dignitaries. 

Elder Ballard’s speech surveyed the church’s experience in the public eye for the last year and repeated his recent calls to engage in public and online discussions about the Church. His overall conclusion was that the past year has been a good experience, saying “I’d much rather have people talking about us than ignoring us.”  Most of the confusion results from those caught between two extremes of critics: conservative Christians who try to marginalize the Church as a cult and those opposed to the Church’s political stands on moral issues.
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Gaining Recognition in New Countries

9 April 2008 @ 1:55 pm | 2 comments

Elder Lance B. Wickman spoke Monday (busy guy) outlining the efforts and process the Church undergoes to operate in new countries.

According to Elder Wickman, in order for the church to become established in a particular nation, it must obtain what he called “legal recognition.” That status entails members being allowed to meet and pay tithing. Missionaries must be permitted to proselyte, and the church must be able to purchase real estate, open and operate bank accounts, and print and distribute literature.

“To the extent that any of these is legally unavailable, the church is not established,” Elder Wickman said. “To that extent, it is not recognized.”

Elder Wickman outlined the three stages that lead to recognition: registration, credibility and respectability.

While credibility is getting on “the right side of the cult line,” respectability is basically being on good terms with whoever approves the visas. Plus, he talks about the small but growing presence in China.

Catholics forgive missionaries, criminal investigation over

21 March 2008 @ 12:53 pm | No comments

“Advice for LDS Combat Soldiers“:

There is a huge disparity between what a father must say to a combat soldier versus what he must say to a LDS missionary. The difference is at times stark but completely necessary. Yet, in other areas the advice can be the same.

20 March 2008 @ 12:05 pm | No comments

Happy Birthday Samuel Smith

“Since Samuel’s first missionary service,” said Elder Ballard, “the Church has called over one million missionaries to serve in 348 missions, now teaching the gospel in 176 nations and in 164 languages and dialects.”

13 March 2008 @ 2:31 pm | No comments

Shifting the Church’s focus to retention:

In the early days, the church had to keep moving or die. The Saints kept an eye single to Zion as they trudged across the plains. If they stopped to mourn or weep, the weather and wilderness would do them in. Dozens were buried in shallow graves. . .

The dangers are different now. Mortal lives are no longer so much at risk, but spiritual lives are. And that means less “pushing” and more “lifting.” The word “active” today is not so much about “action” — teaching, attending, contributing. It’s more about being “active” the way electric wires are active. It’s about the spark, the current within. It’s about the inner — not outer — life. It’s about what’s in the heart, not what’s on the list of things to do today. It’s how we should look at all people.

14 February 2008 @ 2:20 pm | No comments

YouTube – Elder Ballard Invites Mormons to Join Internet Conversation

17 January 2008 @ 6:17 pm | No comments

The SL Trib looks at the return to BYU’s Jerusalem Center since it reopened.  The story emphasizes the need for its students to NOT talk about the Church:

“We do not proselytize. Even if someone asks, we tell them we are Christians and that’s all we can say,” explained Jill Heyes, of Salt Lake City, who in November was nine months into a year of volunteer service with her husband. “It goes right against everything we learned growing up.”

Missionary work is banned in Israel, where an aversion to conversion, forced or otherwise, reigns. Historical scars such as the Crusades and Spanish Inquisition likely weighed on the minds of those who founded the modern Jewish state. So written into the lease BYU signed for the 5 acres of land, upon which it built the sprawling 125,000-square-foot building, was a condition prohibiting all proselytizing, said Jim Kearl of BYU, who’s overseen the center since 1989, one year after it opened. Students and adults who come to BYU Jerusalem must sign an agreement to uphold their end of the deal.

“The integrity of the church is on the line,” Heyes said. “We have to keep our promise. . . . We will do that until the Israeli government says you can teach. And they haven’t said that.”

28 December 2007 @ 7:06 pm | No comments

Unique missionary opportunties: Pakistani looking for a book on bomb making leads him to something a little safer.

12 September 2007 @ 9:42 am | No comments