DAVID B. TIMMINS September 29, 1988 Voice From Abroad Column Sunstone Review 331 So. Rio Grande Suite 30 Salt Lake City, Utah 84101-5926 LETTER FROM SONORA, MEXICO While it is probably no surprise to most Sunstone readers to be told that Mexico is the fastest growing region of the Church in terms of new membership -- currently experiencing 2,500 baptisms per month -- some may be astonished to realize that the Church in Mexico in 1988 is almost at the same level as was the entire Church as recently as 1935. With over 350,000 members, 550 wards, 91 stakes (in 37 Regions), and 14 missions (with 9,200 full-time missionaries) in a nation of 91 millions, the contemporary Church in Mexico is possibly more influential here in national life than it was in the United States fifty years ago. While for a number of reasons the participation of Mormons in Mexican history has been deliberately omitted from written accounts (for a discussion of events and reasons see my submission to Sunstone regarding the role of a Brigham Young/Samuel Brannan loan to President Juarez which bought the first Winchester repeating rifles for any army in the world, helping repel the Maximilianist invasion which took place while the US was preoccupied with our own Civil War). Only a handful of European countries received missionaries earlier than did Mexico. Indeed, a mission to Mexico was one of Brigham Young's earliest undertakings upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley. The earliest Mexican converts were baptized in Chihuahua on April 2, 1867 by Helaman Pratt. Some years later, as a result of the Emilio Zapata revolution, the earliest martyrs of Mormonism in Mexico were Rafael Monroy and Vicente Morales, shot on July 17, 1915 at 8 p.m. by Zapata supporters when they refused to recant their testimonies. A substantial number of fourth generation local members trace descent from Hermanos Monroy and Morales. Rapid growth of Church membership in Mexico has inevitably been attended by a number of leadership problems. And while there has been no artificial restraint on baptisms, as in some parts of Africa, new bishops, many with only four or five years in the Church, some of limited literacy, often are overwhelmed by problems of financial, records, and personnel management. Subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle, pressures to maintain the pace of expansion mean that most wards are maintained at minimum size, i.e. at 300 members, and usually less. Since families are large in Mexico, this means that the majority of the members of any given ward are children. And since fellowshipping programs are unfortunately little more advanced here than in most other parts of Mormondom, attendance in the average ward is only about 25 per cent. Taking my own ward as a typical example (and it is pretty typical -- though located in one of the more advantaged barrios of one of the more affluent cities of one of the more prosperous states of Mexico), this means about 75 persons per Sacrament meeting. And it can be assumed that almost 50 of those in attendance on a typical Sunday will be children and teenagers. Active adult membership can thus be calculated at about 25, of whom 18 will be women or the elderly, leaving only six or eight Melchizadek Priesthood holders, bishopric included. Hardly enough to staff minimally Quorum and Auxilliary positions, let alone attend to Home Teaching. No wonder then that when I was called to be High Priest Group Leader and made my first calls on quorum colleagues I was told it was the first visit some of them had ever had. The Wasatch Front mentality of some at Church Headquarters has been of little help in resolving these problems. When our bishop departed and, as First Counselor, I was asked to act as Encargado de Barrio until a new bishop was selected (it took over six months) I found one of my most difficult tasks was to find out who the ward teenagers were in order to schedule periodic worthiness and pre-mission interviews. (As an aside -- having to go through and update poorly maintained membership records, sending on to other wards or the Mexico City Area Office those for people who'd moved, we ended up with less than half the members of record at the time I took over). At an Area Leadership Meeting, I asked some Salt Lake records management specialists why bishops overseas did not receive quarterly age-group print- outs as bishops in the US and Canada do to assist with this responsibility. I was told that Mexican bishops "wouldn't know how to use this tool". (You really never know until you try, do you? And speaking with other local bishops, I found most would be eager for such assistance). A few months later, when the Mexico City Area Office decided to computerize membership records anyway (but still not distribute copies to wards and stakes), I again asked some Anglo officials whether they couldn't include a few supplementary data (e.g. on educational and professional qualifications) to make the bishop's task a little easier, I was told this was impossible "because of the Privacy Act". Do Salt Lakers really not realize that the US Privacy Act does not extend to membership outside of the US? And even within the US the possibility exists of signing a Privacy Act waiver. I personally doubt that many members would hesitate to sign such a waiver in order to permit inclusion of supplementary data regarding educational attainments and career qualifications, which could be of enormous benefit to the Church in identifying individuals for specialized mission or other calls (see below), or for sociological studies which could be of enormous benefit to BYU and other scholars in undertaking any number of inquests of use to Leadership in evaluating the direction of Church growth and tagging emerging problems for attention. Few Mexican bishops (indeed, relatively few bishops in the Church at large) possess the background or training of traditional clergy to deal with marital problems, child abuse, homosexual counseling, and other personal problems. Based on the experience of a handful of retired Family Service specialists working in some European Stakes and missions, the suggestion has been made that a new type of adult mission service be undertaken in which retired professionals could be called on full-time volunteer missions to staff regional Church counseling centers to which bishops and stake presidents could refer such cases, as is now done by wards and stakes near enough to Church Headquarters to make use of LDS Social Services. Based on talks with a sensitive and successful Mexican Mission President, I am convinced that such units could be of significant help to the many missions in Mexico in helping to resolve some of the moral and intercultural problems of the thousands of local and Anglo missionaries working under considerable stress in Mexico. For many years, Mexico benefited from one of the most broadly based programs of Church Primary and Secondary education since the turning over of Church schools to State authority in Utah some hundred years ago. Wisely, most agree, as Mexican public education has become more widespread and adequate, these schools were closed three years ago and Church funding has been concentrated in other areas. The present generation of Church membership counts among its members substantial numbers of young professionals: accountants, lawyers, medical doctors, dentists, teachers, and technicians. Unfortunately, however, large numbers of less talented, or less financially fortunate LDS youth end up as low-paid clerks and laborers, diminishing their capacity to give their own children a leg up in life and minimizing the tithes and offerings they will pay. A not inconsiderable number of the latter fall into inactivity, partly because they feel they are "not keeping up" with the Church image of progressiveness, and partly because they feel they just can't afford tithing, fast offerings, and ward budget on a subsistence income (the typical wage in this above-average-income part of Mexico is less than three US dollars a day). The typical ward budget contribution in this part of the world is less than US $5 per family per year! Our ward went without lights, loudspeakers, and airconditioning for three months last summer in 120 degree weather simply because we ran out of budget six months into the year. It has been suggested that were Church membership records broadened to include professional qualifications, retired auto mechanics, welders, carpenters, builders, and a wide variety of technicians could be called to staff a series of regional training centers throughout Mexico and Latin America (and, perhaps, eventually Africa and Oceana) where intensive, short-course technical training could be provided LDS youth, enabling them to find better-paid work than at present. A special mission call from Church Headquarters as in the days of Brigham Young (instead of relying on the sometimes spotty initiative of local bishops) might in many cases inspire a retired, or ready-to-retire, skilled worker to accept a mission in which he, or she, could put his/her skills to work training others. Association with young proselyting missionaries and active LDS students might well reinvigorate the flagging testimonies of some of those retired adults wlling to accept such calls. A third possibility remains for retired folks with musical skills. The Tabernacle Choir and BYU Dancers are great hits when they travel abroad. But because of the numbers involved, transportation costs and associated costs are high and these groups can appear only in large cities even during their relatively infrequent trips abroad. Education Week provides an example of what might be done in this field, but with the difference that music is not language-limited as is university level lecturing. The Church has no end of first class talents. And, based on the experience of my own brother-in-law, former accompaniest to Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Joey Heatherton, and the Laverne and Shirley Show, who has served three full-time missions since his retirement, I think the suggestion has real merit. Bob has played to overflow audiences in most major cities of France, England, and Scotland, enabling members to bring their friends to an LDS cultural presentation where they can meet the bishop and other local authorities, discovering that Mormons are as cultured as other Frenchmen, or Scots, or Whatever, and that an LDS Church is a cultural ornament to any neighborhood. Whether such Quarterly programs of volunteer musicians (travel and lodging only paid by the Church) should be managed by the BYU, the Tabernacle Choir, the Missionary Department, the Church's Ambassador at Large, or a new division is immaterial. Such regularly scheduled programs in Mexico (and elsewhere) could provide a large step forward in fellowshipping and providing new teaching contacts to the full-time and stake missionaries. Back to the problems of rapid growth. A few years ago, the Paris, France Stake found it necessary a reculer pour mieux sauter (take a step back in order to make a leap forward), consolidating a few overstretched units. In order to sustain the remarkable growth record in Mexico, it might be found not only useful, but essential, to undertake a study of which units might be temporarily consolidated to protect gains and avoid the costly loss of expensively acquired converts for lack of Priesthood to Home Teach and Fellowship. Alternatively, perhaps ways can be found to consolidate only Primary and Young Women's/Men's acitivities so that enough classes can be formed to assure that each age group has its own teacher and receives the essential testimony forming support of these programs. Anyway events here are looked at, Mexico is a trend-setter for the Church, in baptisms, in demonstrating the need for new leadership development programs, new hybrid organizational forms for understaffed wards and stakes; and in forcing policy choices regarding decentralized social service and Education Week-type/music activity programs for non-English speaking regions; and in initiating new technical training programs for LDS youth where local education remains insufficient. All of which could open the way for new social service missionary possibilities for the increasing number of relatively well-to-do retired LDS couples.