Breaking the Wall

I never imagined there are so many Russian speakers in Utah, although with it being the center of LDS church it makes perfect sense due to the mission activity. My husband is from Donetsk and I would never think there could be LDS movement there, but times certainly have changed since I visited one and only time in 1990. Not getting into religious aspect, I think it would be a very positive thing for Russia and its neighbours if more people were practicing LDS code if for no other reason than improvement in the drinking department. I wonder how popular is LDS in the CIS countries - do you have any data, Sasha?

Maria:

According to

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/contact-us/russia

there are 19,543 LDS members in Russia. That would the total number of members on record. Activity rate is probably about 20-30%, although I am guessing from Church average. Some people get baptized, then fall away later, some might come back.

In the Ukraine, according to

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/contact-us/ukraine

there are 10,394 LDS members.

Belarus does not currently allow proselyting, so we do not have a presence there other than service missionaries. I believe it is the same in the Middle Asian countries.

We have 153 members in Georgia and 2,650 members in Armenia. The missionary work is much livelier in Armenia - my neighbor had served a mission there. He is a rare case - fluent in English and in Armenian, but not in Russian.

There are 927 members in Estonia, 966 in Latvia, and 833 in Lithuania. Our neighbor across the street is an ethnic Russian from Lithuania who converted to the LDS faith several years ago in Vilnus.

I believe if we could convert 20% of Russia this would help close the gap between Russian men and women in the marathon due to the improvements in the alcohol department you have mentioned and in the tobacco department as well. Having a sense of purpose should not be forgotten either. I predict we would see 40 sub-2:10 men from Russia.

Now, how do we convert 20% of Russia? We need to set a good example. Maria, when are you going to meet with the missionaries?

Thanks Sasha, this is very interesting. These are small numbers, compared to overall size of population in Russia and Ukraine, but it's probably growing. As for me, I am not conversion material, and it holds for any religion. I have tried, so I'm not talking without experience. I would classify myself as agnostic. While I respect and admire many values LDS Church (and some other world religions) teaches I also have fundamental differences with it. Some of the ideas are not acceptable to me. I did think several times in my life that it would be much easier had I had the faith in God, but the truth is that I don't. And I learned that it cannot be forced if you don't feel it in your heart.

Maria - telling me that somebody cannot have faith in God is even worse than telling me somebody lacks the natural ability to qualify for Boston. I would at least be willing to admit that if you have only one leg, qualifying for Boston would be difficult. But I know that all of us are children of God, even those who do not believe in Him, that He loves us, that He wants us to return to his presence, that we cannot return without having developed a measure of faith, and that he is just. The very reason He sent us here is to develop faith. Therefore, there is no way in the world He would leave somebody without some measure of a gift of faith. It may be dormant, it may take work to develop, but if there is enough humility and a sincere desire, He will grant the gift.

So, as you may already understand, your statement offered me an interesting challenge, which, if you do not mind, I will try to tackle.

Question number one - while you may not believe in God as defined by Christianity, will you agree that we do have an intelligent creator of some kind?

Sasha, if we continue this discussion, we risk breaking the number of comments in one day record! To answer your question, - no I do not necessarily agree that we (or Universe as a wider entity including us) have an intelligent creator. It is possible, but it's also possible that we evolved by natural selection alone without any divine intervention, for example through DNA mutations over millions of generations. Our current scientific explorations are not at the stage where this mystery can be explained and proven, and so it remains a mystery, a very puzzling one indeed. But I don't see any convincing evidence that would make me accept that we do have an intelligent creator. So I am undecided.

OK, good start. Follow-up question - do you consider it necessary to have scientific proof for you to accept something as true? Or in other words, does science have the monopoly on truth?