6. Studying the Conversion Process 

Problem or situation. Two and a half to three months had passed since I began serving as mission president. As a mission, we now had a new vision of what could and should and would be done in missionary work. Individual missionaries were beginning to both believe and achieve portions of the new vision. New missionaries were being assigned to missionaries who were baptizing and learned from the beginning what they should and could accomplish. We had a unifying proselyting handbook which gave a foundation and a direction for accomplishing our vision. The Mission Assistants were back in branches proselyting and attempting to demonstrate that the new vision could, in fact, become a reality. And the members and missionaries were working together toward a common vision: to bring in hundreds and thousands of converts. Yet little was happening in terms of convert productivity. The conversion rate was still very low--among the lowest in the area: 9, then 18, then 25. I had expected hundreds by now, and we were growing by fives and tens. I began to wonder whether the vision we had could be accomplished in Japan. Maybe 15 or 20 converts for a whole mission was all that could be expected here. What more could be done that we weren't already doing? The missionaries were going house to house every day. They were contacting many more people than before. They were teaching more lessons. But the number of converts was not increasing much overall. I felt I had promised the missionaries that if they would see and accept a greater vision and work harder towards achieving it, great things would happen. They were beginning to accept that new vision and to put forth more effort, but the results weren't changing. The vision of hundreds and thousands of converts was not being achieved. And I believed that when visions are not being achieved, they begin to wane. Even mine was waning. Maybe it couldn't be done in Japan. Maybe the Japanese people were too different.

Yet I observed that there were many fine Japanese members in the Church. There were Bishops and Relief Society Presidents, Stake Presidents and High Counselors, and thousands of mature, active members. Almost without exception, they were converts of recent years. Where had they come from? Were there more? Were we now doing what the missionaries who found them were doing? How could we know? 

Action taken. (9-78). DO CONVERT QUESTIONNAIRES AND SUMMARIZE THEM. SURVEY THE PRIESTHOOD LEADERSHIP IN OUR WARDS AND STAKES AND FIND OUT HOW THEY HAD BEEN CONTACTED AND WHAT THE CIRCUMSTANCES HAD BEEN AROUND THEIR CONVERSION. (Productivity label: Information.) 

As mission president, I began to do the first surveys with my own counselors and the stake presidencies with whom I was meeting. The results were so interesting I began to assign missionaries to do the same surveys with the priesthood leaders and active members in the wards and branches where they were assigned. Since we were emphasizing bringing families into the Church rather than single individuals, most of our surveys were done with married priesthood leaders with families. The survey asked such questions as:

            How were you first contacted?

            What interested you about the Church?

            How old were you at the time?

            What was your occupation--at the time of conversion and at the time of the survey?

            Were you married at the time?

            How long were you taught prior to baptism?

            What were the main factors affecting your decision to be baptized?

            What were the main factors affecting your continued activity?

            What could have been done to make the process even better for you? 

Results of the action. There were two parts to the results: first, the results of the survey itself, and second, the effect that the results had on us, the mission. (See Figure 5.)

The survey showed that the majority (over 65%) of current active members we surveyed had been contacted through a mission-sponsored free English class, which constituted their initial interest in the Church. The average age was close to 18, with almost all of them being between the ages of 14 and 22. Most of them were students at the time of their conversion and were now either self-employed or worked in a family- or Church-affiliated occupation. Ninety-nine percent were single at the time they joined the Church and were later married, often to someone they met at church. The period of time between starting the lessons and receiving baptism varied from two or three days to two or three months. The average time was two to three weeks. Their conversion had been affected most by what they described as "the example of the missionaries." Surprisingly, many had not been continuously active but had gone through periods of inactivity along the way.

The main result of this information to the mission was a change in whom we directed our proselyting efforts toward. We had been going after families almost exclusively while almost all of the families that were then in the Church had come in as single members and later married. We had been ignoring the students while they had been the main source of the current active members of the Church. We had been expecting to teach people for weeks and months when the current active members had often been taught for only days and weeks. Free English classes were now almost nonexistent though they had been the source of the initial contact and interest of the majority of our active priesthood leadership. The following three actions/changes were direct results of the survey.

7. Emphasizing a Lower-Aged Investigator 

Problem or situation. Though our desire was to bring families into the Church, the convert survey pointed out that almost all the currently active members of the Church in Japan had come in while they were still relatively young--almost all of them between the ages of 14 and 22. In looking at the social and economic structure of Japan, we began to see many factors which might explain why this was the case.

            Japan is one of the most highly structured, homogeneous societies in the world. The home and family exert strong pressure on its members to conform to the norms of Japanese life. Among these norms are Buddhism (in name if not practice), ancestor worship, family recreation on Sunday.

In the later college years, a year or so before graduation, the young men were recruited by what were usually their life-long employers. They then became company men and transferred many of their loyalties and allegiances to the company. The company became the center of their social as well as economic life. Part of the socializing involved going out after work to drink and socialize with fellow workers and supervisors. Again, conformity to the norm was highly valued, and to go against it almost certainly blocked one's standing and potential for progress in the company. To job-hop was not the option it was in the United States or many other countries, so they conformed.

With such extreme pressures from both sides to conform to activities such as drinking, smoking, and Sunday recreation--activities incompatible with the standards of the Church--they were not as free to pursue the teachings of the missionaries. Society dictated what they would do. But there was an eye in the hurricane--a brief period where they were relatively free to make their own choices. As they were freeing themselves from the family pressures--often physically away from home--but before they had come under the more powerful company pressures, they enjoyed a degree of freedom. These were the years from mid-high school to late college. And these years coincided with a time of searching for identity, establishing values, and determining their purposes in life. It is understandable that this was the period of time when most of the Japanese members had come into the Church.

The women had a similar if briefer period of personal choice but then followed their husbands' direction. It was often very difficult for them to be active members of the Church if their husbands were not. But a male member would almost always bring his wife into the Church if he did not originally marry a member of the Church.

It seemed that if we really wanted to bring families into the Church, we would have to do it by bringing the parts in and joining them into families later. 

Action taken. (7-78) PUT EMPHASIS ON A LOWER AGE CONVERT, PARTICULARLY COLLEGE STUDENTS. (Productivity label: Break down barriers.)

We began to direct our efforts more towards a younger age group, focusing especially upon college students. We shared the results of the survey with all the missionaries and the members, most of whom were already somewhat aware of the results since they had been involved in the surveys. We explained the social and economic factors which we felt had caused the results and then began to work out strategies which would take advantage of the situation rather than allow it to work against us. 

Results of the action. Visions soared again. Not only was there a reasonable explanation of why our renewed efforts at door-to-door proselyting had not broken through and produced better results, but we also had a solution which showed much promise.

At the same time there was some resistance from both missionaries and members. Young single people were not families, and the Church was emphasizing the conversion of families. We had never given up on the goal of families. Rather, we wanted to achieve the goal instead of just talking about it. It was like the goal of putting a home on a lot: though a completed home can be moved intact to a specified lot, it is much easier to bring the parts to the lot separately and assemble them there.     

Responses from the missionaries indicated we were on the right track. An item from my personal journal from August 10, 1979, reads:

            Elder                                 , who [completed his mission and] went home today, told me that he had had some trouble getting rid of the old ideas from the old mission. He said that during his 1st year he had 1 baptism through the house-to-house (which was all they ever did). He said they taught and screened people so carefully that when they did join the Church, they were stake president material. He said the most successful elder he knew baptized 15 people using those careful screening techniques of teaching over a long period of time, several times attendance at church, passing a 2 hour, 68 question baptismal interview, etc. etc. He said he talked to that elder before leaving and found out that even with that screening, all of them--all l5--had gone inactive. He said at the same time he has watched our branches grow steadily with active people. He said that he admired and respected me for having the guts to do what I knew was right and make things happen (Groberg, 1978-1981). 

I noticed some indication that the pieces were coming in and being united in the Church. Happenings such as those expressed by one missionary in his letter to the president were not infrequent: 

Dear President,

We were able to have 25 cottage meetings this week. We picked up some good investigators and had much success. I love the people here. I love the people I've baptized. Two of them are getting married this month. One on the 10th, one on the 31st. And one a year from April. The happiest thing of my life so far is this Wednesday, when the father of this family I love is getting baptized (Missionary Letters, 1978-1981).

Return to previous page