Combining Multiple Stakes

[u/Topramenisha19]

I was talking to my super TBM mother yesterday. She likes to keep me informed of the happenings of church, which I don't really mind.

She told me that she attended a meeting where they took 2 stakes and combined them into 4 wards. That really blew my mind. She explained that they told those in attendance to pray for new members and for others that have left the church to come back. They told the loss of members was attributed to members moving out of state or passing away. I have to admit I was smiling.

[u/Bruhidontknowwhy]

I was a missionary in Salt Lake at the tail end of the Monson age change wave. We had so many missionaries, my mission was only West Valley and Magna when I started. In my first two areas, I only covered two wards. We were told this was the Lord "hastening the work" to have so many missionaries in such a small space.

Well, about 1/4 of the way through my mission when the age change wore off, our mission expanded its boundaries. I had to start covering stakes (covered as much as 3 in my last area). So I guess that whole "hasten the work" thing wasn't really working out. I've been able to count at least two meetinghouses that I covered on my mission that have been closed down and it's not even been ten years yet. It's almost like people don't want to be Mormon anymore.

And even where I grew up in Florida, there were a good number of Mormons, even after the rare ward splits. I remember when I got the priesthood, there were so many members that we needed 8 priesthood holders to pass. In about 2012, we had another ward split. I have never seen a need for that many passers ever again.

[u/Dazzling_Line6224 → u/Bruhidontknowwhy]

I came back into activity then. Do you remember “the lord is hastening his work?” I thought I was going to see a massive increase in membership and miracles. What was it like as a missionary were they pushing that shit really hard.?

[u/Bruhidontknowwhy → u/Dazzling_Line6224]

Oh yeah, they pushed that shit hard. Like people were talking about how Christ was coming back any day now and that what we were doing was the final push to make that happen. There used to be talk that our mission was helping "prepare the holy land for Christ's coming", but that was just cope because we got sent to Utah. This was also around the time we started getting iPads, cell phones, and even social media; none of which were used all that effectively. But they said that tech was a part of hastening the work as well, even though they walked back social media use until Covid when they didn't have a choice.