I don’t understand the missionary mindset

Also last month they baptized a little girl (10 years old I think) from a non-member family who have never been to church but she came with her friend. Grandma, who has custody, came to the baptism, no one else outside church did. One member parent expressed some concern about something (of a sexual nature) the girl had said to her 11 year old son but that fazed nobody. I am indeed a pessimist in some respects and predict we’ll see little of this girl after she hits puberty and/or finds out things the church really believes about the WoW, chastity, etc. (This situation is much more complicated/complex than I’m able to express here.)

From how you describe it, I wouldn’t expect longevity from her either. I have a somewhat similar story. Back when I was 18 I brought my friend to our local YSA ward. He came from a NM family, only his grandmother was a member (she had the wisdom not to push him one way or the other). At church, the mission prep teacher got his hooks into my friend and sweet talked him into baptism. This guy came from a sales background and treated missionary opportunities the same way. Long story short, my friend had a shotgun baptism, and when things got a little hard he was gone in less than six months. He now views his membership as little more than just a phase he was going through. Anyone who attempts to get him back is going to be fighting an uphill battle.

I can’t help but wonder if more harm than good is done as a whole with our missionary culture. I know personally I have seen more damage done than successful, true conversions. It doesn’t help that some seem to approach it with an ends-justify-the-means approach, getting as many baptisms as they can in any way they can. But, I am also a pessimist as well as biased when it comes to these things. Perhaps there is a lot of good that comes from this culture. If there is though, I dont see it.

It’s the threefold (maybe fourfold) mission of the church. One of those “folds” is “Share the gospel.” Gospel sharing can be viewed benevolently as the desire to share happiness and good news with others. So it’s a kind of charitable act. It can also be viewed less benevolently as an opportunity for members to “show off” their dedication and parade those stories of their missionary successes to other members. It can be viewed cynically as an opportunity for the Church to get more revenue. I tend to believe that for the individual member, it’s more a combination of the first and second. A good friend of mine told me the story of how she helped her friend get baptized and it was totally from the best and kindests of places. This friend was also very cognizant of the fact that her baptized friend might fall away given some of the Church’s realities. My sister assisted in the conversion of an online friend whose life really did improve as a result of Church membership. This person was quite isolated from any kind of community and the sudden appearance of a readymade community was exactly what she needed. And yet, many, many, many get baptized and never return. I have felt for a long time that our missionary process could use an overhaul. Even while on my mission, I wished we implemented a “conversion” process rather than a “baptism” process. By the time I left my mission, I’m pretty sure the majority of people I helped baptize (I was down in Latin America) were not active anymore. But then if gospel sharing is JUST about saying “here’s the true Church, don’t join at your peril! Okay, we’ve done our part”, well, I guess we’re kind of good at that. Maybe. Anyway, missionary work is the least interesting aspect of the Church as far as I’m concerned. We have some lovely sister missionaries in our area now who are so earnest and kind and hard-working. I would never tell them that I believe that MOST of what they do is probably a waste of time. But I think it is.