Door to Door Proselyting - 05 January 2026

Here is a short TikTok, sent to me by a friend, critical of the LDS Church missionary practice of door-to-door proselyting.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOXE7j_j4At/?igsh=MWp3czdvMGUxdG1mMA==

Tracting door to door is a proselyting method used by LDS missionaries to build interest in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. An indirect benefit of tracting is that, with experience, it enables its practitioners to effectively engage with people, while building oodles of self-confidence over time. Nick Shirley was an LDS missionary who, no doubt, benefited from his mission experience of interacting with the public when he recently outed the alleged Somali fraudsters in Minneapolis. In his biography, my dad reports traveling with a former missionary friend from home in Provo, UT to his mission field in Dayton, OH, in the mid 1930's where, for a summer there, they sold dresses door to door. Dad reports having done very well financially at this dress sales effort and having had lots of dates! NuSkin, doTerra, LuLaRoe, Young Living and Younique are all successful multi-level marketing businesses founded by former Mormon missionaries, where direct, person to person solicitation is required.

I was a Mormon missionary in France from mid-1965 to 1968. I "tracted out" most of the Fourteenth Arrondissement of Paris when I was there. The accompanying Tik Tok video has a degree of truth... many people don't want to be bothered by someone knocking on their door "selling" their version of God. However, some Parisians were happy to receive our visit and, though I didn't have many convert baptisms to my credit, I had many fascinating conversations with Parisians. Once a stark-naked woman opened her door to us shocked missionaries. Engaging with people in this fashion, particularly in a foreign language, built self-confidence in relating to others. It is perfectly understandable to me how former, resourceful, former Mormon missionaries would be good at building sales-oriented businesses.

Without doubt, the above TikTok does raise the question about the advisability of door-to-door tracting. And, while many individual missionaries are honed by regular contact with people to be effective communicators, the practice leaves a bad taste in the mouth of many who are forced to answer their door for something in which they have little interest.

I haven't paid a lot of attention in recent years about programs the Mormons used to proselyte. But, given the recency of the above TikTok, I assume the practice of door-to-door tracting still goes on. The LDS mission system is robust, with 70 thousand young missionaries participating at any given time. Those young missionaries acquire many skills along with strength of character and ongoing commitment to the Church during their mission experience. Still, there is no doubt door to door tracting leaves a bad taste in the mouth of many and may be one of the reasons that Christian churches, broadly writ, are wont to exclude the LDS from the Christian Club.

It's a conundrum. Plusses and minuses. Comments welcome.