Conference Report and Analysis

[Hagoth]

Response to Jeffrey Holland's bemoaning of our inability to care for the poor: sell the mall! Sell the Florida holdings!

Other than that, I like a lot of what he's saying.

[MoPag]

Did I miss something?

Don't they usually announce how many new wards and stakes have been created? Was there no such announcement today and does this mark the admission of a downward trend?

I missed it too. Or did they just not do it. I'm at work so I can only catch some things. Anyone hear that part?

[Red Ryder]

Aliens must have kidnapped the real Holland. This replacement guy said people with differing sexual attractions are welcome to "sing in the choir."

Not bad. Stay in the boat just got replaced with "Join the Choir!"

[Hagoth]

Did I miss something?

Don't they usually announce how many new wards and stakes have been created? Was there no such announcement today and does this mark the admission of a downward trend?

I missed it too. Or did they just not do it. I'm at work so I can only catch some things. Anyone hear that part?

I think they just skipped it, maybe because it would be the first time ever to report a negative number?

[Hagoth]

I think there's a surgical treatment for vein jangling.

[fh451]

Response to Jeffrey Holland's bemoaning of our inability to care for the poor: sell the mall! Sell the Florida holdings!

Other than that, I like a lot of what he's saying.

Only heard about 2 minutes of his talk and managed to get turned off anyway. Apparently everyone is welcome in the church. Except for dirty atheists.

fh451

[Hagoth]

Response to Jeffrey Holland's bemoaning of our inability to care for the poor: sell the mall! Sell the Florida holdings!

Other than that, I like a lot of what he's saying.

Only heard about 2 minutes of his talk and managed to get turned off anyway. Apparently everyone is welcome in the church. Except for dirty atheists.

fh451

Well you would have loved the earlier talk (can't remember who it was) that compared atheists to diseased, scabby sheep and repeatedly called them sinners. How's that for welcoming?

[nibbler]

After Nelson's talk and now Ballard's talk I'm getting the impression that every member will be asked to have a printed copy of the Living Christ framed in their house somewhere.

I can't wait for our 5th Sunday combined meeting where we take turns reading it out loud.

Sigh. I suppose it's better than other stuff we could be taking turns reading out loud.

[MoPag]

Wow. Never thought I'd say this but I have to give some points to Ballard. A Heavenly Parents mention, and he mentioned not just Easter, but Palm Sunday too. Wow

[Random]

Did I miss something?

Don't they usually announce how many new wards and stakes have been created? Was there no such announcement today and does this mark the admission of a downward trend?

I heard no announcements of new wards and stakes, but maybe I didn't go far enough when I replayed that part of conference.
I replayed the statistical report over and over again until was sure I got the numbers right:
As of Dec (31?), 2016:
3,266 stakes
421 missions
30,304 wards and branches
556 districts
15,882,417 total membership
109,246 "children of record" born
240,131 converts
70,946 full tme missionaries
I was getting tired of replaying by this time and didn't want to replay any more, but there were over 33,600 other missionaries (like stake and ward, if they still have ward missionaries)
155 temples in operation
6 new temples built

[Random]

Does anyone have those statistics for April conferences of 2016, 2015, and maybe 2014? I'm wondering if there's a pattern. (Back to 2010 would be cool, but that may be asking too much.)

[MoPag]

Does anyone have those statistics for April conferences of 2016, 2015, and maybe 2014? I'm wondering if there's a pattern. (Back to 2010 would be cool, but that may be asking too much.)

Here is 2016
Church Units
Stakes 3,174
Missions 418
Districts 558
Wards and Branches 30,016
Church Membership
Total Membership 15,634,199
New Children of Record 114,550
Converts Baptized 257,402
Missionaries
Full-Time Missionaries 74,079
Church-Service Missionaries 31,779

[deacon blues]

I'd like to smack him.

This made me laugh. My wife uses this phrase a lot

[deacon blues]

Wow. Never thought I'd say this but I have to give some points to Ballard. A Heavenly Parents mention, and he mentioned not just Easter, but Palm Sunday too. Wow

I wondered if I heard that right

[MoPag]

Wow. Never thought I'd say this but I have to give some points to Ballard. A Heavenly Parents mention, and he mentioned not just Easter, but Palm Sunday too. Wow

I wondered if I heard that right

I like Red Ryder's theory about aliens abducting JRH. Maybe they got Ballard too. Well done aliens!

[Random]

............................ April 2017 statistics .......... April 2016 statistics
stakes ........................... 3,266 ........................... 3,174 -- (92 more)
missions ........................... 421 .............................. 418 -- (3 more)
wards-branches .............. 30,304 .......................... 30,016 -- (288 more)
districts ........................... 556 .............................. 558 -- (2 less)
total membership ...... 15,882,417 ..................... 15,634,199 -- (248,218 more)
new children of record .... 109,246 ........................ 114,550 -- (5,304 less)
converts ..................... 240,131 ......................... 257,402 -- (17,271 less)
full time missionaries ....... 70,946 .......................... 74,079 -- (3,133 less)


33,600 other missionaries 31,779 church service missionaries (not sure if these are the same categories)

I must have missed baptism of children of record. In any case, if I've made any errors above, please correct me.

(I hope the color makes it easier to follow along the lines.)

[Random]

I hope to see next April's statistics, considering Meilingke's posts.

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

So is it new that they no longer tell opposing voters to go talk to their stake presidents? No vocal acknowledgment of the opposing votes either. They have embraced a policy of completely ignoring them it seems.

[The Beast]

[Can of Worms]

............................ April 2017 statistics .......... April 2016 statistics
stakes ........................... 3,266 ........................... 3,174 -- (92 more)
missions ........................... 421 .............................. 418 -- (3 more)
wards-branches .............. 30,304 .......................... 30,016 -- (288 more)
districts ........................... 556 .............................. 558 -- (2 less)
total membership ...... 15,882,417 ..................... 15,634,199 -- (248,218 more)
new children of record .... 109,246 ........................ 114,550 -- (5,304 less)
converts ..................... 240,131 ......................... 257,402 -- (17,271 less)
full time missionaries ....... 70,946 .......................... 74,079 -- (3,133 less)


33,600 other missionaries 31,779 church service missionaries (not sure if these are the same categories)

I must have missed baptism of children of record. In any case, if I've made any errors above, please correct me.

(I hope the color makes it easier to follow along the lines.)

Thanks for this Random. It piqued my interest so I compared the April 2017 stats to the April 2012 stats to see if there were any trends over the 5 year span. Here's what I found:
- Stakes: + 8.68% from 3,005 in 2012 to 3,266 in 2016
- Missions: +21.33% from 347 in 2012 to 421 in 2016
- Districts: -5.92% from 591 in 2012 to 556 in 2016
- Wards & Branches: +4.44% from 29.014 in 2012 to 30,304 in 2016
- Total Membership: +7.44% from 14,782,473 in 2012 to 15,882,417 in 2016
- New children of record: - 10.65% from 122,273 in 2012 to 109,246 in 2016; dropped to a low of 83,035 in 2013
- Converts: - 11.82% from 272,330 in 2012 to 240,131 in 2016; peaked at 296,803 in 2014
- FT Missionaries: +20.27% from 58,990 in 2012 to 70,946 in 2016; peaked at 85,147 in 2014
- Church Service Missionaries: +46.75% from 22,961 in 2012 to 33,695 in 2016

To me the number of stakes and other units is an irrelevant measure as they are an easy number that can be adjusted to look like there is growth. What I find confusing is that the Total Membership number is up 7.44% at the same time that the New Children of Record and Converts are both reporting double-digit drop offs. That doesn't look sustainable to me. What is also interesting is the giant increase in the number of Church Service Missionaries. Is there really that big a jump or are they now counting roles that weren't previously counted? And, a 20%+ increase in FT Missionaries looks impressive but it looks to be trending downward again. There was a predictable spike after the mission age adjustments were made in 2012 and now it seems to have settled down.

I'm interested in knowing what other people make of these numbers. The membership figures just don't make sense to me.