Why do missionaries tract?

[RC Vikings]

I agree with all this. I think every morning and most afternoons could be spent doing service work and it would make the missionaries feel better, others would feel more positive toward missionaries and I wouldn't feel so bad about my kid knocking on doors all day.

[Sleeping in EQ]

If I served a mission today, and did so in the same place I did when I was nineteen, I wouldn't tract at all.

[CardiacCoug]

http://cumorah.com/index.php?target=law_harvest

I was reading through some of this online book about LDS missionary efforts. It's pretty interesting.

Among other facts, I learned that when you take into account long-term retention, the average 2-year LDS missionary is responsible for producing 1.2 new members of the Church. And with the general secularization of society, it appears that things are only going to get worse.

Given how fruitless missionary efforts (especially knocking on doors) are becoming wouldn't it make more sense for LDS missionaries to do some type of productive, practical service during the day rather than tracting? Then they could meet with members and investigators in the evening after doing service during the day.

In my neighborhood I know people get pissed off when missionaries knock on their doors, but everybody was really impressed when the ward and missionaries helped people clean up from Hurricane Ike.

Missionary Tracting = increase and reinforce negative stereotypes about the Church as a bunch of fanatical weirdos

Missionary Service = raise awareness that the Church is made up of good people who make huge sacrifices to help others

It seems to me like a no-brainer that more missionary time should be spent doing service activities instead of tracting. Think of what those 50,000 kids could accomplish by way of organized service activities -- and I think the number of convert baptisms may actually go up in the process, or at least stay the same.