http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/198134p-171112c.html
It seems the Mormon's are having the same recruiting problems as the JW's.
| It's hard-knock life |
DAILY NEWS WRITER
| Young missionaries gather outside new $10 million Mormon temple at 65th St. and Columbus Ave. |
"Hello. We're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," Reden, 19, tells her, "and we want to share a message with you."
"No, no, no," the woman says, motioning him away.
"All right," he tells her, "have a great day." He and companion Jeff Hildebrandt, 20, then head to the next apartment.
"We really are excited about this message; it's something that means so much to us," Hildebrandt says later. "But it's hard when you talk to a thousand people a day; you've been turned down a thousand times - you get frustrated."
In its 175th year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church, has 12 million members worldwide. Yet while its 60,000 missionaries have been successful recruiting in foreign countries, they have struggled to find new members in the U.S.
But not so in New York, where membership has increased 38% over the past 10 years. This month, the church celebrated the opening of a new, $10 million temple near Lincoln Center.
Joseph Smith organized the Mormon Church in Fayette, N.Y., in 1830, and the New York City mission, established in 1839, was one of the first. Religious persecution eventually forced Smith and his followers to settle in Utah.
To the outsider, the missionary life is as regimented as boot camp. Missionaries rise at 6:30 a.m., spend the day visiting apartment buildings and homes, setting up meeting tables on the street, teaching lessons to potential converts and, after planning for the next day, get into bed by 10:30.
"We don't date, watch TV, go to the movies or plays," says Hildebrandt, who isn't allowed to listen to music other than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and classical selections - not even his own CDs. "We're 100% focused on this. It's kind of like a break from reality."
Because it includes locales as diverse as upscale Stamford, Conn., and the poverty-stricken South Bronx, this mission is one of the most challenging for its young workers, even compared with far-off Third World locales.
It is hard enough to convert Americans, with their high level of religious and secular educations, but misconceptions spawned by the Internet have made it even more difficult, Hildebrandt said.
He has had people tell him the church is a cult and that they sacrifice animals. One woman in the Bronx even said she was afraid of live snakes and coffins that she'd heard were part of the baptism ceremony.
On the upper West Side, missionaries might be able to find one person to teach a 45-minute lesson to per week, and baptisms are rare. But the budding Harlem branch of the mission has 10 to 15 sitdown lessons and one baptism into the church every week. And the Jehovah's Witness chamber hall the church rented a few years ago is filled during services.