I learned in church today

[TripletDaddy]

Recently, a fairly detailed study of missions worldwide revealed that missionaries in our mission are among the happiest and most satisfied. He said several reasons apparently account for this, including, (i) our mission was the first, or at least among the first, to eliminate tracting, which resulted in a big drop in missionary stress levels, (iii) our mission's percentage of sister missionaries (apparently over 50%, but I may have not heard that correctly) is among the highest in the Church, which was by design.

As to the last point, he said that every male missionary will have viewed pornography (some a lot more than others)

huge shocker. missionaries that look at porn, dont have to tract, and are surrounded by women are magically happier.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Also every missionary in our mission just got an iPad mini. I asked if they knew how awful the maps are on apple products, they didn't get it.

[PaloAltoCougar]

huge shocker. missionaries that look at porn, dont have to tract, and are surrounded by women are magically happier.

Missionaries viewing porn while on their missions is not one of the current pilot programs, or at least was not mentioned as such.

[Topper]

Missionaries viewing porn while on their missions is not one of the current pilot programs, or at least was not mentioned as such.

You might encourage some diverse missionaries if it were.

[Katy Lied]

I was amazed at how sparsely attended our Stake Conference was. At least 1/3 less attendance than the last one. Also I was coming into the building right after the intermission hymn and I noticed tons of people leaving at halftime. I don't know why they have Stake Conference anyway. Is it an anachronism from our pioneer heritage where we needed Stake Conference to get the word out about the latest Church policies and doctrine? In today's twitter age, it seems a bit unnecessary, unless you're a teen aged girl scoping out all the teachers and priests for the next stake dance.

Our Sunday Stake Conference sessions seem to follow the same agenda as some of you: Invocation by woman, talk by young relief society president, talk by recent non-traditional convert, husband-and-wife team talks from stake presidency and area leaders, benediction by sinner recently restored to full fellowship. In our case, this last prayer given by someone who will be on the sexual predator list for the rest of his life. While I don't doubt his worthiness (and what business is it of mine anyway?), it still is weird that I won't allow my kids near the house of the guy who gave the benediction.

[Solon]

I was amazed at how sparsely attended our Stake Conference was. At least 1/3 less attendance than the last one. Also I was coming into the building right after the intermission hymn and I noticed tons of people leaving at halftime. I don't know why they have Stake Conference anyway. Is it an anachronism from our pioneer heritage where we needed Stake Conference to get the word out about the latest Church policies and doctrine? In today's twitter age, it seems a bit unnecessary, unless you're a teen aged girl scoping out all the teachers and priests for the next stake dance.

Our Sunday Stake Conference sessions seem to follow the same agenda as some of you: Invocation by woman, talk by young relief society president, talk by recent non-traditional convert, husband-and-wife team talks from stake presidency and area leaders, benediction by sinner recently restored to full fellowship. In our case, this last prayer given by someone who will be on the sexual predator list for the rest of his life. While I don't doubt his worthiness (and what business is it of mine anyway?), it still is weird that I won't allow my kids near the house of the guy who gave the benediction.

Ha. I haven't been to stake conference since I was a kid (and was forced to go), but my brother-in-law was re-baptized a year ago.
Sure enough, I just heard that he's speaking in Stake Conference next week.

Seems like you've figured out the template.

[Topper]

Ha. I haven't been to stake conference since I was a kid (and was forced to go), but my brother-in-law was re-baptized a year ago.
Sure enough, I just heard that he's speaking in Stake Conference next week.

Seems like you've figured out the template.

In Vegas, Conference is considered "Mormon Holiday".

[smokymountainrain]

In all locations where the church has stakes, Conference is considered "Mormon Holiday".

FIFY

[Solon]

FIFY

"Mormon Holiday" sounds kind of like an Audrey Hepburn movie where she falls in love with a Missionary in Rome.

We always called Stake Conference "bye week."

[Moliere]

"Mormon Holiday" sounds kind of like an Audrey Hepburn movie where she falls in love with a Missionary in Rome.

We always called Stake Conference "bye week."

It's also the week where the Stake Presidency/Auxiliaries get to pretend to be general authorities....hence why there is so much hype that comes down from the stake level surrounding the meetings....and why there is so much let down.

[clackamascoug]

We too had Stake Conference, and with a sick daughter and a wife who needed to look after her, I took the opportunity to watch 41 holes of match play golf. Daughter is doing better.

[Sleeping in EQ]

It's also the week where the Stake Presidency/Auxiliaries get to pretend to be general authorities....hence why there is so much hype that comes down from the stake level surrounding the meetings....and why there is so much let down.

Spot on.

[beefytee]

We had stake conference this week and it was great.

The stake president talked first about the Olympics and the Sky team in the TdF with their 1% philosophy. Elder Cook showed up on less than a week's notice and talk about assigning missionaries. He described it very similarly to how BigFatMeanie describe it. I believe it was BFM that clarified this on this board, my memory is failing.

The thing I hate about stake conference is that no matter how early you get there, those involved in the leadership meeting have saved all the soft chairs in the chapel. We didn't even try this time and got there just for the start of the meeting. And yes, I would rather sit for 3 hours on soft chairs than 2 hours on hard chairs, particularly with a tablet computer in hand.

Our kids are just getting old enough where they can survive 2 hours of sitting in one place.

[Donuthole]

We had stake conference this week and it was great.

The stake president talked first about the Olympics and the Sky team in the TdF with their 1% philosophy. Elder Cook showed up on less than a week's notice and talk about assigning missionaries. He described it very similarly to how BigFatMeanie describe it. I believe it was BFM that clarified this on this board, my memory is failing.

The thing I hate about stake conference is that no matter how early you get there, those involved in the leadership meeting have saved all the soft chairs in the chapel. We didn't even try this time and got there just for the start of the meeting. And yes, I would rather sit for 3 hours on soft chairs than 2 hours on hard chairs, particularly with a tablet computer in hand.

Our kids are just getting old enough where they can survive 2 hours of sitting in one place.

The RS room at our stake center has padded folding chairs. I usually just swap a few of them out for some of the hard metal chairs in the back of the gym.

Caveat: You will look like a genius and many people will copy you.

[smokymountainrain]

We had stake conference this week and it was great.

The stake president talked first about the Olympics and the Sky team in the TdF with their 1% philosophy. Elder Cook showed up on less than a week's notice and talk about assigning missionaries. He described it very similarly to how BigFatMeanie describe it. I believe it was BFM that clarified this on this board, my memory is failing.

The thing I hate about stake conference is that no matter how early you get there, those involved in the leadership meeting have saved all the soft chairs in the chapel. We didn't even try this time and got there just for the start of the meeting. And yes, I would rather sit for 3 hours on soft chairs than 2 hours on hard chairs, particularly with a tablet computer in hand.

Our kids are just getting old enough where they can survive 2 hours of sitting in one place.

The guy who spoke in our ward this Sunday also spoke about the Sky team and the 1% philosophy. I don't pay much attention to the TdF, so I enjoyed it and learned some things.