Saturday, June 20, 2020

Updated Country Profile - Mongolia

Click here to access the updated Reaching the Nations country profile for Mongolia. The Church in Mongolia used to experience very rapid growth, but has experienced very slow growth since approximately 2010. Member activity rates are also low and are currently estimated at a mere 16%. See below for the Future Prospects section of this article.

The Church in Mongolia maintains stable and stalwart leadership and an unusually high percentage of returned missionaries in general Church membership. However, the Church in Mongolia has experienced a stark deceleration in growth that began during the mid-2000s when leadership sought to reactive inactive members and prepare to organize the first stake. These difficulties were further compounded by increased government restrictions that have prevented proselytism and present nearly insurmountable obstacles to organize congregations in previously unreached cities. Even worse, member activity rates among returned missionaries appear unusually low. In sum, the Church in Mongolia has experienced slow growth for approximately the past decade combined with significant member inactivity problems. The outlook for growth within the foreseeable future appears mediocre given low member activity rates, comparatively few convert baptisms during years when finding has relied on member referrals, and the lack of sustained success with reactivation efforts. Efforts to help Latter-day Saint youth and young adults to marry within the Church, raise and retain children born into the Church, and revitalize Mongolia’s once vibrant member-missionary program will be needed to help reverse the ongoing trend of very slow growth. Mongolia appears a likely candidate for a small temple one day given its remote location and two stakes within a single metropolitan area. However, prospects will significantly improve for a temple in Mongolia once the number of active members consistently increases.

18 comments:

  1. I wish Mongolia was doing better right now. My wife is from there. New current mission president served his mission in Mongolia and his wife is Mongolian as well.

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  2. Great to read your report on Mongolia. A few random thoughts/notes after recently serving there as a missionary (left Mongolia in Feb 2020 with the COVID evacuation): the inactivity rate is definitely a problem - the estimated activity rate has been cited as 1 in 10, and as recently as 2019 only 10% of members who had been baptized in the last year were active (according to a stake high councilor there). There was no home teaching/ministering program implemented when I was there. Although many people earnestly look forward to the day that a temple will be in Mongolia, most optimistic estimates are 10 years in the future from members (Zaisan, a suburb of Ulaanbaatar, has commonly been cited as the prospective temple site). COVID-19 matters have also complicated things -- due to the mega church in South Korea that facilitated the spread there, our church in Mongolia got a lot of bad press in the Mongolian media since we're one of the largest Christian denominations there, and there were lots of rumors and false information spreading about us in Mongolia (there was a very anti-LDS media segment in the national news). The visa situation for foreign missionaries has been very touchy recently and will probably remain so for the near future. There are still a good number of youth from Mongolia still serving missions (for example, the congregation I was serving in only had about 60-70 active people at most, but they had 10 youth on missions and 8 actively preparing to put their papers in/had calls). Before COVID happened, the Selenge branch did actually have foreign elders serving as branch president (though I'm not sure what the leadership situation is now).
    One interesting area is the Murun area, which has experienced a lot of success in the past year -- at one point they had around 70-ish investigators coming to church in their branch alone. (also, minor detail, but I think the Mongolian members are actually districted for the Manila Philippines temple, not Seoul)

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    1. @touzai

      I've known a few Mongolian missionaries and ex-pats, as well.

      There was a Sister and an Elder on my mission in Kentucky. One from Ulaanbaatar, and the other more rural (a farmer and yert dweller, as I recall). The Elder ended up going to BYU at the same time I did, and we hung out a bunch and were friends for a while.

      Additionally, there were several Mongolian Elders sent to my home town of Stevensville, Montana (this, and my mission was all back around the turn of the century). Apparently, the Mongolian climate and the rural nature of Montana are similar enough that they used to send a fair number of Mongolians to my home state in order for the mission to not feel as much like a culture/climate shock.

      As I recall, I was told by some of these missionaries (or by some American missionaries who knew the situation), that military service was mandatory for all Mongolian citizens at around the ages of 18-20. The alternative was that if they wanted to serve a religious mission for two years, they were exempt from the required military service. I was explained that that was a large factor into why we see so many from Mongolia choosing to serve missions (compared to other east Asian countries and elsewhere). The implications from that (if it's true) would be that some would serve religiously because of personal conversion and conviction, and that others serve because it's the lesser of two evils to them.

      However, I have not yet had this "mandatory two-year military service" rule confirmed by any outside sources.

      @touzai

      Could you or anyone else here who is closer to the situation provide me with more info as to whether that rumor holds any weight?

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  3. @touzai, depending on your source used, the 2 Stakes and 1 District in Mongolia, are currently either assigned to the Hong Kong China Temple :

    https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/hong-kong-china-temple/district/

    or the Seoul Korea Temple (click on Temple link on left side) :

    https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=43.644068,116.829391&z=5&m=google.hybrid&layers=temple,temple.construction,temple.renovated,stakecenter,mission,area&q=Ulaanbatar%20Mongolia%20East%20Stake&find=stake:617261

    I hope this is any use to you. Although the Members may choose to attend Manila Philippines, instead while Hong Kong China Temple is closed for renovations.

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  4. I know of some former fulltime missionaries from Mongolia who left their home country, came to the U.S., even helped translate the Book of Mormon, but are now less active, I guess pretty far distanced from their former communities.
    I wonder how many Mongolians end up leaving the country? Or, what happens to their ex-missionaries? I wish we could track former missionaries better.
    Mongolia needs more new branches.

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  5. I had a Mongolian mission companion. My mission had about 10 Mongolian missionaries. I served from 2000-2002.

    Mongolia was one of the earliest countries to get the missionaries evacuated due to covid. I understand better now.

    On the notion that there are factions that actively oppose The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there, hate is a better situation to grow under than apathy. Bad press is usually better than no press. There may be exceptions but in general there is a chance for development.

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  6. I wonder once the church establishes in a country like Magnolia, the novelty wears off, and a cliquing church culture emerges, where newer converts feel less included, and older members prefer the status quo.

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  7. This weekend, Saturday, June 20th, the Irkutsk Russia District (2065819), which was last organized March 13, 2016, has been closed on Classic Maps site.

    https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=52.483216,104.058377&z=9&m=google.hybrid&layers=stakecenter&q=Irkutsk%20Branch&find=ward:433330

    It was reported on www.fullerconsideration.com/units.php

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  8. Hi all I will do jesus christ photo video with your family and kid in 2hr

    Pls check- https://bit.ly/3hXCelF

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  9. Matt, that last comment from "Computer and mobile" appears to be spam, and has been left by the same source on multiple posts here at around the same time. Probably would be a good idea to mark all such comments as spam, since they may be auto-generated and produced en masse.

    In the interim, Matt's latest posted list of the top ten nations with the strongest Church presence without a temple in any phase shows Mongolia ranking sixth on that list. Given that other nations are seeing more consistent growth overall, I wouldn't be surprised if, given the issues Mongolia appears to be having, other nations knock it further down on that list. But I would like to see a day when Mongolia does have a temple announced. Perhaps given its' recent transfer from the Asia Area to the Asia North Area of the Church, there might be more opportunities for the area presidency of the latter to work more consistently to fix the issues that exist in Mongolia in a more effective manner than the Asia Area presidency might have been able to do.

    A young man from my ward (alongside whom I served in Aaronic Priesthood Quorums) served his mission in Ulaanbaatar, and spoke fondly of his experiences there. I will be interested to see what, if any, impact may take effect in terms of Church growth and prosperity in Mongolia and elsewhere as a direct result of COVID-19. I'm hoping that once those conditions stop impacting normal operations on a global scale, many areas that have been struggling may experience profound and significant growth as a result of the present pandemic.

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  10. @Matt, Just a reminder from my earlier post this morning. I'm guessing there was no need to discuss the "closure" of the Unit here. Since no comment was made.

    "Chris said...
    This weekend, Saturday, June 20th, the Irkutsk Russia District (2065819), which was last organized March 13, 2016, has been closed on Classic Maps site.

    https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=52.483216,104.058377&z=9&m=google.hybrid&layers=stakecenter&q=Irkutsk%20Branch&find=ward:433330

    It was reported on www.fullerconsideration.com/units.php

    June 22, 2020 at 8:04 AM"

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  11. Both remaining Branches, the Irkutsk Russia and Ulan-Ude Russia, would most likely be presided by the Russia Novosibirsk Mission Presidency instead. And on the Classic Maps site both are presided by the same "Acting Branch Leader Lamb".

    Irkutsk Branch (433330) + Ulan-Ude Branch (375888). The 3rd Branch "Irkutsk Russia District Branch" was also closed this weekend.

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  12. Rendering released for the Mendoza Argentina Temple.

    https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/rendering-released-mendoza-argentina-temple

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  13. I noticed that Rick's temple website's google-based maps now have a scale at the bottom! Perhaps this will aid in your temple predictions?

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  14. click on the scale to toggle between kilometers and miles

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  15. Orem Temple rendering and groundbreaking announcement

    https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/groundbreaking-date-announced-orem-utah-temple?fbclid=IwAR347kG9mdVx92I7ofBkNlWzpkrhgQ5SC-jmiC3kOXgbWNAf0WvZCBRAcJo

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