By: Eric Nielson
Before I get into this, I want to make it clear that I believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth, and declaring this is among the most important things we can do. I gladly served a mission for the church in Georgia, and enjoyed it very much. I have been directly involved with getting one individual and one family to join the church since my mission.
Now after having said all that, it seems evident to me that I feel less urgency regarding missionary work than some people seem to feel. Particularly the inviting part. I suspect that my level of urgency in inviting is lower than it should be. I would like to review some of the reasons why this might be, and I welcome your corrective advice.
By: Eric Nielson
I received a copy of an email from one of our High Council members that informed us that ward mission leaders were supposed to report baptism numbers and goals every month to the stake. The reason for this was reported to be that baptism numbers in North America were down 80% this year. This is a huge drop in baptisms over a significant amount of time in a large area. From the email, it appears these numbers are coming from an Elder Pitts who is our Area Authority Seventy.