17. Street Contacting 

Problem or situation. English classes had become an effective method of finding investigators and developing a trusting relationship and rapport with them, but the process had several limitations. The first limitation was time. Missionaries typically passed out handbills announcing a free introductory English class to be held on the following Tuesday evening. The missionaries gave a personal interview to those who came to determine their level of English ability and to invite them to listen to the gospel

message if they were interested. Then they assigned them to the appropriate regular English class, which was held on Thursdays. If the person were interested, the missionary also scheduled a time to teach them the lessons or discussions.

The main problem with this was that if no one came to the introductory English class, or if those who came were not interested in hearing the discussions, the missionaries had to wait another week to pass out handbills and start the process over again. Even when several did come and were interested in hearing the lessons, the missionaries could teach them all within a day or two and still have a lot of unproductive time to fill until the next introductory class.

A second and related problem was the swelling numbers of people attending the regular English classes. Most of them seemed to have no inclination to hear about the gospel, but the missionaries were spending more and more of their time teaching them English. 

Action taken. (3-79) BEGIN EMPHASIS ON DIRECT STREET CONTACTING.

 (Productivity label: not labeled) 

Two steps taken by several individual missionaries led us to something that eventually revolutionized proselyting in the mission. The first step was the discovery by certain missionaries that a personal contact and invitation to attend the English class was far more productive than just impersonally handing out handbills. These observant missionaries discovered that the English class attenders were primarily those with whom they had talked on a personal basis and had specifically invited to attend. These missionaries thus began a new approach to soliciting English class attendance. Rather than silently passing out hundreds of handbills to anonymous faces, they began approaching a few specific individuals, introducing themselves, explaining about the free English classes, and personally inviting them to attend.

Through this approach they found they could fill their introductory English classes with just an hour or so of selective contacting a day or so before the class. Not only was this a great saving in time and handbills, but it produced better results: a much higher percentage of those contacted this way were interested in hearing the discussions. They already knew the missionaries personally to some degree and had begun to develop a trust relationship with them.

The second step that had a profound effect on our proselyting was taken by a missionary who didn't like to wait another week for the next English class to get more investigators. He simply skipped the English class process altogether and began inviting people directly to listen to the gospel message. A surprisingly high number were interested in hearing the message and made appointments to come to the Church to listen.

At first appointments were made for a day or two later or for that evening. But for missionaries who didn't have anyone to teach at the moment and sincerely wanted to be teaching, that was too far off. Some of these missionaries discovered they could often make appointments for that very moment--take the contacts back to the Church and give a short introductory lesson right then. The missionaries who began doing this direct street contacting began to teach many times the number of lessons as the other missionaries and, as a result, began to have many more convert baptisms. As they began explaining to the other missionaries what they were doing to have such success, the method of direct street contacting began to spread throughout the mission. 

Results of the action. There were three main results of this gradual shift to direct street contacting. First, it was a more effective use of the missionaries' time, because if they didn’t have anyone to teach at the moment, they could always go find someone to teach right then. Second, it helped improve the missionaries' skills in both contacting and teaching. Because they were doing so much more of it, they got better at it. And, finally, it put more personal control and responsibility on the missionaries--they could always find and teach someone if they wanted to--it was available to them: they controlled it; no excuses.

In order to understand the results, it is necessary to understand what the missionaries had been accomplishing up to this point. Even after my push for a new vision during the first six months of the mission, by January 1979, the missionaries were only teaching two or three introductory lessons per week and only six regular lessons per week, on the average. This was a total of only eight or nine lessons of any kind per week, which took approximately 9 of their 50 hours of weekly proselyting.

Six months later, after the introduction of direct street contacting--with some refinements that I shall explain later--the number of introduction lessons increased to seven per week, and the number of regular lessons to ten, for a total of seventeen lessons. To teach these, they spent 15 of their 50 proselyting hours. These were mission averages. Some missionaries taught many more than this. As some missionaries expressed in their letters to the mission president: 

            After that last conference I decided it really was possible to do whatever I wanted to do, and not let obvious realities get in my way. So we decided we were going to introduce 12 people and pick up 6. Well we introduced 15 people and picked up 12. By the middle of the week I was so excited I could hardly sleep.

            We introduced 17 people yesterday in our half day of proselyting. This place is going to be great. My heart is filled with sweet anticipation of the great things that lie ahead of us here.

            This week has been amazing. The Lord seems to be pouring out His Spirit on us greater than I ever could have expected. We surpassed our 30 cottage meeting goal and got 40. We introduced 23 people to the gospel and moved 3 old investigators into preparation for baptism. What is happening is truly a miracle (Missionary Letters, 1978-1981).

18. Setting Up Physically for "Streeting" 

Problem or situation. As the concept of street contacting (or "streeting" as we called it) caught on, the missionaries began to experience its limitations. The primary limitation was associated with distances. The idea was to contact people on the street with the intent of walking them back to the church and teaching them an introductory lesson right then and there. Thus, street contacting was done mainly around train stations, bus stations, major shopping areas, and other high traffic areas. I soon observed that certain missionaries seemed to be having much greater success at street contacting than others.

In looking more closely at what was causing this difference, I discovered that one of the major differences was the location of the church in relation to the contacting area: the closer the church was to the contracting area, the more introductory lessons the missionaries taught. The further away the church was from the contacting area, the fewer they taught. It was obviously more difficult to convince someone to walk back to a church that was some distance away. The tolerance seemed to be very small. If the church was two to three minutes away, people were willing to go. Four to five minutes made it a little harder, but still acceptable. Over five minutes became progressively more difficult, and rarely could a missionary get someone to walk back to a church that was as far as ten minutes away.

The problem or situation in the mission was that most of our church buildings or rented spaces were more than ten minutes from good contacting areas. Of the twenty-one wards and branches from which the missionaries were proselyting at the time, only one was within a three-minute walk from a good contacting area. Another one was six to seven minutes away. The remaining nineteen were ten minutes or more from good contacting areas. Some were more than fifteen minutes away.

This appeared to be a cultural difference. In the United States, Mormons (and most others) tend to build churches in the suburban areas where the people live. The members then drive to church. To have a church next to a train or bus station would be rare indeed. But in Japan the normal mode of transportation is train or bus. Driving personal cars is the exception. Commuter trains and buses literally go everywhere, and stations dot the map far more frequently than in the United States. Where several of these lines meet, major commercial areas (including shopping, schools, businesses, etc.) have developed. The further away the church buildings were from these centers, the further the members and, in our case, investigators, had to walk. Yet most of the Mormon church buildings in Japan were built after the U.S. model: some distance from these commercial centers. This physical limitation made street contacting very difficult in many areas. 

Action taken. (3-79) MOVE THE MISSIONARY APARTMENTS CLOSER TO PROSELYTING AREAS FOR STREETING TO DOUBLE AS TEACHING STATIONS FOR STREET CONTACTING. (Productivity label: Physical.)

As mission president, I had little control over the location of wards and branches, but I had almost complete control over where the missionaries lived. In Japan it is common to find rental facilities which have offices and shops in front and living quarters in the back. This was ideal for us. I decided to move the living quarters of the special ensign missionaries working out of the mission office closer to a good contacting area. I rented a combination office/living quarters for them that was within a two-minute walk from a good contacting area. We called it a "proselyting post" [Dendo-Sho in Japanese]. The missionaries then began contacting people and teaching them at teaching stations set up at the proselyting post. As it proved effective, we moved more and more of the missionaries' living quarters to proselyting posts close to good contacting areas. 

Results of the action. The results of this first experimental proselyting post were phenomenal. I assigned two of my finest sets of the ensign missionaries to this first proselyting post. Their numbers of introduction lessons, regular lessons, and convert baptisms soared. Within two months the two sets of missionaries had brought in 20 converts. Within six months we had a fully operating branch with 50 members. (Mission Statistics, 1978-1981).

Proselyting posts continued to expand and became an important and integral part of our proselyting effort for the duration of the three years. 

19. Building a Mission Image 

Problem or situation. A little before this time, I had received tape recordings of the presentations given at the mission presidents' training seminar I had attended prior to leaving for the mission field. In reviewing these tapes, I came across a discussion of the need to build a mission spirit and image, having our own song, our own symbols, our own traditions. The speaker, Elder Thomas S. Monson, had said: 

            If you have mission spirit, you'll have success. If you lack it, mediocrity will be your lot. I'm going to pay a tribute to a former mission president, Cliff Gledhill. When we met in his mission, the Great Lakes Mission, they had spirit the like of which I’d rarely seen. They had a mission song written to the tunes of The Caissons Go Rolling Along. One of the verses was "Up by six, out by nine, pray and study all the time. As the Great Lakes Mission goes rolling along." And then towards the end of it, "And when they ask which mission is the best," Boy they gave that "Great Lakes!" call (Monson, 1978). 

In rereading the counsel given to mission presidents by President Benson (1976), I found that he also encouraged mission presidents to build a mission spirit and image:

            Missionaries should take pride in being in the "best mission in the Church," and being "missionaries of excellence," as defined through inspiration from their mission president (p. 6). 

            President Benson (1976) also encouraged mission songs:

            It is my conviction that much good can come from a mission having an appropriate mission song, with great lyrics and uplifting melodies that motivate and inspire (p. 11). 

I felt a mission song would be of great value to our mission, especially as we were trying to carry out a vision quite different than what had existed before. At the same time, I tried to think of other ways I could build a mission image and spirit. 

Action taken. (4-79) CREATE A MISSION SONG, A MISSION LOGO, AND A MISSION IMAGE. (Productivity label: Motivational.) 

At this time my mission secretary happened to be an accomplished musician. I assigned him to write a mission song for us. I assisted with the words, drawing especially from the words of President Kimball concerning his vision of missionary work--now our vision--of what we were supposed to be doing.

Similar to the mission song described by Elder Monson, our mission song was inspired by a military melody. Close to the mission staff's apartment was a Japan Self-Defense base. Each morning the missionaries there were awakened by a faint bugle call from the base. The melody of the bugle call kept running through the mind of my mission secretary until it became the basis of our mission song. I found another missionary who could play the trumpet, and I worked out a bugle call--similar to the one used by the Japan Self-Defense--for our song. Later, we used two and three trumpeters for the song. We developed a tradition of singing the mission song at the conclusion of all our zone and mission conferences. (See Figure 10.)

To further develop a unified mission image, I also asked another missionary, one who was proficient at art, to create a mission logo to be used on our mission newsletter, letterhead, and other mission correspondence. Because both the famed Mount Fuji and the site for the future Tokyo Mormon temple were within our mission boundaries, we decided to combine these two symbols into a symbol for our mission. Later, other missionaries improved and refined our mission logo which we used not only on our letterhead and newsletters, but also on mission tie pins, cuff links, key chains, and necklaces. (See copies of mission logo, Figure 11.)

We continued to develop many other traditions within the mission to help unify it and build mission spirit and belongingness. Many of these traditions will be exemplified and explained in later changes/actions. 

Results of the action. In sports teams, clubs, and organizations of almost all types, each individual member wants to be a contributing part of a group that is achieving and moving forward toward lofty goals. My mission was no exception. The various symbols and artifacts such as the mission song, the logo, and traditions helped motivate individual missionaries to want even more to fulfill their missions in accordance with our mission vision. They appeared to be proud and happy--even excited--to be a part of the Tokyo South Mission to feel they had a special mission to accomplish.

As we sang the mission song at the conclusion of each mission meeting, they were reminded of and motivated to carry out their part in this special mission. The song outlined the purpose, the goals, even the activities they were to perform. "Onward! Follow the prophet's voice. Teach and testify each day. Thousands wait to hear our voice, and we must find a way!" Many missionaries related to me how the melody and the words of the song kept echoing in their minds: motivating, encouraging, helping as they were going about their daily activities.

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