INTRODUCTION

This book is the Phase I and Personal Experience sections of D. H. (Dee) Groberg’s doctoral thesis. Dee began his service as president of the newly created Tokyo South Mission in July of 1978. He completed his service at the end of June 1981. During that time, the Tokyo South Mission experienced phenomenal success. A few years after his return to the United States he began a doctoral program in the Department of Instructional Science at Brigham Young University. He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy Degree in December of 1986. The title of his thesis is Toward a Synoptic Model of Instructional Productivity and is available in the BYU Library. This reproduction was made with a scanner. We probably didn’t catch get every error. Please forgive us.

Thanks to Dee’s efforts, we have a unique record of his experience as president of a new mission from beginning to end. It is important to remember the timing of Dee’s call. President Spencer W. Kimball had been in office for about four years. His famous call to all Church members to, “lengthen your stride” and his call to take the Gospel to all the world in 1974 was on the minds and in the hearts of leaders and members of the Church throughout the world. Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi has just been called as Area Administrator for the Japan-Korea Area.

Looking back from today’s perspective, it may be tempting for some to be critical of some aspects of what Dee did as a mission president. I don’t feel that way, myself. I think he has shown what can be done with missionary work in modern times in a way that is rare, wonderful and encouraging. And I urge all who read this to be careful to judge righteously. I have known Dee Groberg well since 1973. Though we have not always seen completely eye to eye, I have the deepest respect for him. I have learned as much from him as from any other human being except my wife and my parents. To me, he is a remarkable person---unique, talented, good, honest, hard working, an excellent learner and a very talented teacher. He is also very kind and deeply religious though he doesn’t wear his religion on his sleeve. 

I personally believe that the days of baptizing large numbers of members into the Church are not over. There are too many of our God’s children who need and will want to become Church members out there for me to accept the conclusion that the rate we are now baptizing will be sufficient. What we must learn to do better is to assimilate larger numbers of new converts. We can learn to do that assimilation work effectively just as Dee Groberg’s missionaries learned to find, teach and baptize new members in record numbers.

Times and situations change, but this information is presented in the hope that while reading what one great missionary of the past was inspired by the Lord and encouraged by his leaders to do, other missionary leaders will be inspired and guided by the Lord to do likewise. Wade W. Fillmore

PHASE I:  FIRST PERSON DESCRIPTION

A First Person Account from a Management Point of View (i.e. the Mission President's Point of View) of the Japan Tokyo South Mission from July, 1978 through June 1981.

Introduction and Background

On July 1, 1978, the Japan Tokyo South Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints--the eighth Mormon mission in Japan--was created by dividing the Japan Tokyo Mission into the Tokyo North and Tokyo South missions. The northernmost prefecture of Shizuoka was also transferred from the Japan Nagoya Mission and added to the new Tokyo South Mission. I was asked to preside over the new mission for its first three years, July 1978 through June 1981, serving under the Executive Administrator for Japan and Korea, Elder[1] Yoshihiko Kikuchi.

At the time the Japan Tokyo South Mission was created, July 1978, the average convert productivity rate of all of the Mormon missions world wide was six convert baptisms per missionary per year (Conference Report, 1987). The productivity rate of the Japanese missions was just under two convert baptisms per missionary per year, or about one-third of the Church average. The productivity of the Japanese missions had been declining for the previous few years (Missionary Department Annual Report, 1976-1981).

After I had been asked to preside over the mission, but before I actually began serving as mission president, Elder Kikuchi, who was visiting the Church headquarters in Salt Lake City, shared his vision with me of what he felt could happen in Japan. He explained that he felt Japan did not need to be so low in convert baptisms but could be as productive as any place in the world.

He explained that the average conversion rate was under 2 converts per missionary per year for the seven (now eight) missions in Japan. He said he wanted to increase that to at least 12 converts per year per missionary, or 1 per month, by the end of 1978, and by the end of 1979 to have the convert baptism rate up to 24 per year or 2 per month per missionary; then 48 per year or 4 per month per missionary by 1980, and so forth. Breaking it down for the new Tokyo South Mission--my mission--he said he hoped for 1,000 converts during the six months remaining in 1978, 5,000 during 1979, 12,000 during 1980, and 12,000 more during the first six months of 1981, when my term as mission president would end. His vision for the new Tokyo South Mission was about 30,000 converts during the three years I would be there (Groberg, 1978-1981).

At this time the seven other missions in Japan had between 150 and 200 missionaries each. (Being a new mission, mine had only 120 missionaries at first.) These seven missions had been averaging between 2S5and 30 convert baptisms per month or just over 300 converts per year, or approximately 1,000 during a three-year period. Elder Kikuchi's vision was an increase of 25 to 30 times what had been happening. I was excited, but apprehensive, too. Because I had served as a missionary in Japan 18 years earlier when convert productivity in Japan had been closer to the Church average, I believed and expected that productivity could indeed be improved--maybe even as much as ten times what it currently was--but Elder Kikuchi's vision was beyond what even I could realistically believe at the time.

Then Elder Kikuchi gave me several photocopies of talks on missionary work given by President Spencer W. Kimball (Kikuchi, 1981), the Prophet and President of the Church at the time. (Later, Elder Kikuchi distributed copies to all the mission presidents serving in his area. (See Figure 4.) Elder Kikuchi told me that when I read these talks, I would not be able to sit still. As I read them, I began to understand that Elder Kikuchi's vision was but a reflection of President Kimball's vision. I began to feel what Elder Kikuchi was feeling, and even began to believe that it actually might be possible to accomplish the vision he saw. Among President Kimball's words were these (Kikuchi, 1981):

 I AM AMAZED AT THE BOLDNESS OF THE EARLY BRETHREN AS THEY WENT OUT INTO THE WORLD. THEY SEEMED TO FIND A WAY. Even in persecution and hardship, they went and opened doors which evidently had been allowed to sag on their hinges and many of them to close (pp. 11-12).

I believe it was John Taylor who said: "God will hold us responsible for the people we might have saved, had we done our duty" (p. 14).

SOMEHOW, BRETHREN, I FEEL THAT WHEN WE HAVE DONE ALL IN OUR POWER THAT THE LORD WILL FIND A WAY TO OPEN DOORS (p. 13).

I am under no delusion, brethren, to think that this will be an easy matter without strain or that it can be done over night, but I do have this faith that we can move forward and expand much faster than we are now (p. 21).

I BELIEVE THE TIME HAS COME WHEN WE MUST SHOULDER ARMS. I THINK WE MUST CHANGE OUR SIGHTS AND RAISE OUR GOALS (p. 22).

OH, OUR BELOVED FATHER IN HEAVEN, BRING ABOUT THE DAY WHEN WE MAY BE ABLE TO BRING IN LARGE NUMBERS AS AMMON AND HIS BRETHREN DID, THOUSANDS OF CONVER­SIONS, NOT DOZENS, NOT TENS OR FIVES OR ONES,

THOUSANDS OF CONVERSIONS. THE LORD PROMISED IT, HE FULFILLS HIS PROMISES (p. 63).

May we merit the promises that the Lord will do things that we can hardly believe. May we improve the efficiency of our missionaries, each bringing thousands of converts into the Church (p. 63).

And speaking to Mission Presidents he asked:

Is it possible that each of you could develop some Wilford Woodruffs and Brigham Youngs who could baptize hundreds and thousands? Can we raise our sights? (p. 96).

We are thinking and hoping for thousands of conversions by individual missionaries and missions (p 96).

EVANGELISTIC HARVEST IS ALWAYS URGENT. . . . Every generation is crucial. .. . We may not be responsible for past generations, but WE CANNOT ESCAPE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS ONE. And we have our time and our generation and ourmissionaries and our great potential (p. 25).

I doubt if your missionaries will burn with enthusiasm unless they catch it from you, an effervescent spark plug, always ahead of his missionaries in planning and thinking (p. 25).

IF WE REALLY WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, WE CAN! BUT, SOMETIMES TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, WE MUST DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY AND BETTER (p. 43).