Sorry for the delay in post. This is much longer to tabulate than I had hoped. This post is long enough that I’ll leave it with just the numbers and a few comments, inviting you to comment on any question that seems of interest. There will be a third post in the next few days telling her took this survey in 1947, and why.

The parenthetical numbers following the 2017 results give the highest and lowest rankings for that question.

Old Testament
1947- 7
2017 – 5.8 (2-10)

New Testament
1947 – 9
2017 – 8.3 (5-10)

Book of Mormon
1947 – 9
2017 – 9.9 (8-10)

Ezra Taft Benson would be pleased.

Doctrine and Covenants
1947 – 8
2017 – 6.9 (2-10)

Pearl of Great Price
1947 – 7
2017 – 1.4 (2-10)

These are generally the highest numbers of the survey, and I don’t think anyone would be surprised to see the Book of Mormon, especially, ranked so highly. Are you surprised by anything here? maybe how far the Pearl of Great Price has slipped in the ranking? any concerns about anything else?

Marriage Counseling
1947 – 4.5
2017 – 3.2 (0-7)

I suspect this question reflects the far higher involvement in branch and district leadership by missionaries in earlier generations than today. I’m a little surprised to see the ranking still so high, especially that 7. What do you think it means?

Social Recreation Leadership
1947 – 5.5
2017 – 3.7 (0-7)

This is the first of many questions that relate to the greater role in member recreation played by the MIA back in the day. Missionaries very often used to need to teach branch members the full program of the MIA; there’s no equivalent now, is there?

Archaeology
1947 – 4.8
2017 – 3 (0-7)

A definite relic of the days when a huge part of missionary work was “proving” the Book of Mormon by the use of archaeological discoveries from Central and South America. While many of us still think such archaeological evidence is compelling and worthy of study, using it as a proselyting tool has evidently declined. Your thoughts?

How to Study
1947 – 7
2017 – 8.3 (3-10)

Does the rise mean anything? (I know this survey is not rigorous, but it’s the best we have this morning). Are Keepa readers more inclined to study than earlier missionaries? or has Preach My Gospel had this effect?

Preaching and Public Speaking
1947 – 7
2017 – 8.3 (3-10)

Lesson Preparation and Presentation
1947 – 7
2017 – 9.6 (8-10)

How to Teach
1947 – 7
2017 – 9.4 (7-10)

These all seem to me like very useful things for missionaries to be able to do well, and they drew some steadily high numbers.

L.D.S. Church History
1947 – 7
2017 – 8.6 (6-10)

Christian Church History
1947 – 7
2017 – 7.3 (2-10)

It’s interesting to think of these two questions as a pair. Do missionaries teach anything to do with Church history today (I’ve been out of it for so many years; I don’t know)? Or does this reflect the interest of Keepa readers, or perhaps the impression that missionaries should be prepared for what might be thrown at them by those with an internet connection? Something else?

Debating
1947 – 2.6
2017 – 3.5 (0-9)

I’m kind of surprised to see this one go up – I would have predicted that an emphasis on not debating, not Bible-bashing, in more recent decades would have driven this down.

Comparative Christian Religions
1947 – 6.5
2017 – 6.2 (1-10)

More 10s than 1s. I suspect most of this think of this as general helpful background, to help missionaries understand the people they’re among and especially to help them avoid stupid things (disrespect of shrines, erroneous statements of what some other church teaches) than useful for teaching or debating.

Cooking
1947 – 4.8
2017 – 6.7 (3-10)

I wonder why this number wasn’t higher in 1947?

Personal Hygiene
1947 – 6.5
2017 – 9.1 (6-10)

Lots of 10s. Lots and lots of 10s. Apparently cleanliness really is next to godliness – only the Book of Mormon ranks higher for importance to missionaries.

Practice Missionary Work
1947 – 7
2017 – 6.9 (4-10)

Unchanged! What practice missionary work did you have? I went out with sister missionaries a couple of times, but that was the only specific experience I had (lots of previous experience in teaching and study and so on, of course).

Photography
1947 – 2
2017 – 1.9 (0-6)

This is the one that makes me laugh. There must have been a reason for including it on the survey back then, but I don’t know what it was. Interesting to see how that number hasn’t changed.

Priesthood and Church Government
1947 – 7
2017 – 6.6 (3-10)

Is the drop in numbers significant enough to reflect the lesser involvement of missionaries in the running of branches and districts today? Or something else?

The Missionary’s Hand Book
1947 – 7
2017 – 7.8 (5-10)

Lots of 10s. Lots of obedient missionaries, if we’re agreeing on the handbook as being what we in my day (eons ago) referred to as the Little White Bible, which I recall as mostly regularly missionary behavior. I don’t know what publication they were referring to in 1947,though, and how closely it matches today’s handbook.

The Handbook of the Restoration (Tracts and Pamphlets of the Church)
1947 – 7
2017 – 8.3 (2-10)

The 2 was an outlier; there were many 10s. Did you actually use tracts as a missionary? Are the 10s responding more to the idea that a missionary should be thoroughly familiar with the typical contents of tracts (i.e., the story of the Restoration), or to the need to study the actual tracts? or something else?

Philosophy
1947 – 4.5
2017 – 3.8 (0-7)

Psychology
1947 – 4.5
2017 – 3.9 (0-6)

I wonder what philosophers and psychologists might think about the dismissal of their fields as useful for missionary work?

The Conduct and Function of Auxiliary Organizations in the Mission field
1947 – 5.5
2017 – 135.5 (2-10)

Since missionaries are seldom called on to organize and direct auxiliaries, or to teach local members how to run them, this is understandably of lesser importance today. It looks like even in 1947, though, missionaries didn’t find it all that useful. I suspect it would have ranked higher earlier in the century, before stakes were organized much beyond the Mormon Corridor.

Genealogy and Temple Work
1947 – 5.5
2017 – 5.9 (3-10)

This is a question where a little more elaboration might have helped narrow the gap between those who ranked it up and those who ranked it down. We’d probably all agree that today’s missionaries need to be able to speak correctly and appropriately about temples and their importance, and probably that they don’t need to be doing genealogy. Seventy years ago, though, missionaries would have been the chief source for teaching new members how to find their genealogy and fill out forms to submit for temple work, even if they had never done a bit of genealogy before their missions. At that date, there were a few books, not many and not particularly good ones, on how to do that. But since that is no longer necessary, this may be another question that needs to be reworded to be sure we know what we’re responding to.

Preparation of Radio Addresses and Programs
1947 – 4.8
2017 – 2.3 (0-6)

In 1947, radio addresses and dramas were still a significant way of introducing the public to the Church, and some mission presidents pleaded with Salt Lake to send them missionaries who could write or sing or otherwise assemble attractive radio programs. Today, of course, technology and communication has changed. If the question had referred to blog posts or podcasts or even representing the Church well on Facebook, would you have ranked this one higher?

An Overview of the Entire Field of Mission Literature
1947 – 6
2017 – 3.8 (1-9)

Mission literature (tracts and pamphlets) certainly assumes a lesser importance today than in generations past. Do today’s missionaries refer investigators to materials to read beyond the scriptures?

Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People”
1947 – 4.5
2017 – 2 (0-6)

This is certainly a relic of its generation, isn’t it? I’m guessing that those who ranked it highly are responding to the idea of being able to meet people and get along with your companions as a useful tool, and not that this specific book is itself so important – and, similarly, that the very many people who ranked it as 1, or of such unimportance that it didn’t merit any response at all, are dismissing the idea of requiring a particular title for study, and not rejecting the skill of getting along with people, no?

How to Meet the Public
1947 – 6.5
2017 – 7.1 (1-10)

Here’s another one with responses ranging from highest lowest. How do we explain that? Meeting the public is hard for us introverts, and street contacting was one of the hardest things I had to do – would instruction in meeting the public have helped? How does your ability to greet members when you are transferred to a new location, or your ability to introduce yourself to civic and school officials, or reporters, or other important contacts, affect your success as a missionary?

Salesmanship
1947 – 5
2017 – 4.5 (1-9)

I was looking forward to the result of this one! We have learned to be wary of the manipulation of advertising – speaking of “salesmanship” reeks of manipulation to many. On the other hand, understanding which points of the gospel are attractive and knowing how to present them in an appealing way is salesmanship, too, and not necessarily manipulation. I’ve seen mission documents from the 1950s speaking very favorably of “salesmanship” as simply knowing how best to present a principle of the gospel. What do you think? Did you rank this high or low depending on your understanding of the word as good or bad? Or are there other factors in play?

Mission Regulations
1947 – 7
2017 – 7 (4-10)

Okay, okay, President, we’ll read and follow the regulations today as much as missionaries ever did in the past.

Foreign Language for Missionaries Going to Foreign Countries
1947 – 7.7
2017 – 8.5 (7-10)

Unsurprisingly (to me), there were a good many responses of “10” – it would be difficult to be an effective missionary if you couldn’t communicate with the people around you. I wonder if those who ranked it somewhat lower might have had in mind that having your mission language when you begin is helpful, but that you can also pick it up in time so it isn’t absolutely essential to have it on Day One. Other ideas?

History of the Mission to Which the Missionary is Going
1947 – 4.8
2017 – 4.9 (1-10)

This, I think, refers to the history of the nation where one serves, not mission history in the sense of memorizing a list of past mission presidents. Does the MTC still provide culture lessons? What effort did you make to learn something about the history or culture of the place where you served? I can imagine that knowing recent history could be more important in some missions than others – knowing of the tensions between China and Taiwan might be essential to avoid unpleasant incidents, as might the recent political history of some Central and South American nations, to understand local people’s reactions to American missionaries. Maybe.

L.D.S. Doctrine Gained by a Broad General Reading of Church Works
1947 – 7
2017 – 6.6 (1-10)

L.D.S. Doctrine Gained by a Text-by-Text Scriptural Examination of Each Principle
1947 – 7.5
2017 – 6.9 (2-10)

I’m a little surprised by these rankings – such a wide range, from utter unimportance to absolutely essential. I should look more closely at the responses to see whether those who voted low on one consistently voted high to the other, reflecting a different approach to gospel study. That is, are there people who prefer a broad general gospel education to a detailed study of principles by topic, or vice versa? Are there people who think both are essential? – I really cannot conceive of any respondent thinking that neither method of gospel study is useful!

(By the way, I can match up such answers by looking at the time responses were recorded – if anyone is concerned, I have absolutely no way of matching a response to any given reader.)

Articles of Faith by Talmage
1947 – 8
2017 – 4.1 (1-8)

Is the question where the ranking has changed the most? There’s such a vastly different ranking on this one that it begs for discussion. I suspect that the primary reason it was so highly prized by missionaries in 1947 is that it was not only authoritative, but also one of the few systematized explanations of Mormon doctrine, especially the sorts of basic doctrine that would be taught to investigators and preached by elders in routine talks before members. When you didn’t have formal discussions, as most of us from the 1960s to the early 2000s knew them, this book would have been a handy source of ideas and principles and explanations from which to build a lesson for investigators. Other ideas?

Mission, District, and Branch Organization and Administration
1947 – 6
2017 – 5.7 (1-9)

Ordinances and Ceremonies
1947 – 7
2017 – 7.2 (4-10)

Seems about right – both organization and ordinances seem to belong in any missionary’s understanding. I might have predicted higher numbers, but wonder if this reflects a difference in understanding about whether the question refers to pre-mission preparation, or something you could pick up as a missionary.

Church Legal Procedure
1947 – 5.5
2017 – 3.8 (0 – 8)

Few if any missionaries today participate in anything like a church court today, probably; in 1947, though, courts with missionary participation (either because the elders were the equivalent of acting stake presidents in many missions, or because erring missionaries answered to a council of missionaries, not local members), this sort of knowledge might have been somewhat more relevant.

How to Write News Articles for Newspapers
1947 – 4.5
2017 – 2.4 (0 – 5)

This was an important way of reaching the public in earlier generations — when missionaries could present a draft of an article for a reporter to edit, rather than asking that reporter to write something about the Church, there was a much higher chance of publication. And of course one newspaper article could reach hundreds more people than one missionary could reach in the same time.

How to Conduct Cottage Meetings
1947 – 7.4
2017 – 4.2 (1-8)

The difference in ranking here may be due to unfamiliarity with what “cottage meeting” meant in 1947: A meeting in someone’s home generally only counted as a “cottage meeting” if the hosts, usually members, invited non-members in to listen to the missionaries. Such a meeting did include the singing of a hymn, as well as opening and closing with prayer, so it did look like a church meeting in miniature. Today we’d probably just call that a discussion, albeit a little more formal than most discussions. But it was a primary proselyting method in earlier generations.

How to Play the Piano (or some other musical instrument)
1947 – 5.5
2017 – 5.2 (1-8)

How to Conduct Music
1947 – 6
2017 – 7.7 (1-10) (I’m counting the “53” left in one survey as 5.3 – if you think that the skill to conduct music is that important, well, I want you to move to my ward.)

A Stock of Faith-Promoting Stories
1947 – 5.5
2017 – 2.9 (1-7)

I am a little surprised to see so many 1’s in the 2017 tabulation, and wonder if we have different ideas of “faith promoting stories.” If we mean “faith promoting rumors,” then I’m right there with you – there’s no need to repeat them, and good reason not to. But if we mean a knowledge of events that illustrate some gospel principle, and can be known and told in accurate, unsensational detail – some of the stories of Latter-day Saints in history, for example – wouldn’t it be good to have them in your mental notebook, to use in talks or to help a member or investigator understand how other people have addressed the problems they too are facing? I’m especially interested in comments from you that explain your understanding of “faith promoting stories” and why you answered as you did.

World Religions
1947 – 5.3
2017 – 5.9 (2-10)

Biographies of L.D.S. Leaders
1947 – 4.8
2017 – 3.8 (1-7)

1947 was still very much in there era when history meant “Great [White] Men” so I’m not surprised this number has declined. Even with our great respect for Church leaders, I’m a little surprised this hasn’t declined even more.

Vocabulary and Pronunciation Study
1947 – 5.5
2017 – 6.1 (3-10)

This question seems to me to be in the same general class as personal hygiene – missionaries need to be able to present themselves well in order to represent the Church well … but even poorly educated young people have made excellent missionaries, with other factors making up for what they lack here.

News of the Day
1947 – 4.8
2017 – 4.4 (0-10)

This was another of the few questions that got responses from least to greatest, representing a vast difference of opinion among respondents. I can understand that : entertainment/political/social events of the secular world might be considered of no importance whatsoever when you’re commanded to devote your heart, might, mind and strength to the Lord’s service – who would have anything left for “news of the day” in that case? On the other hand, not knowing anything of what was going on in the world could make a missionary appear ignorant and not worth listening to in the eyes of those to whom missionaries might like to talk. For what it’s worth, the first artificial heart was in the news while I was a missionary, and being informed of Barney Clark’s progress and eventual death was useful in several conversations, especially in enabling us to distinguish our Church from the Jehovah’s Witnesses, by our knowing that both the patient and a prominent member of the heart team were LDS. I knew about this “news of the day” only because my mother stuffed news clippings into the envelopes with her letters.

The Inter-relationship of Science and Religion
1947 – 6
2017 – 5.1 (1-8)

I wonder if the numbers on this one might go up in the future. It would seem to reflect the (inaccurate, in my view) gulf between science and religion in the public’s perception.

Geography
1947 – 3
2017 – 3.9 (1-7)

I’m really not sure what they were asking here, unless they intended it in the same general way as learning the history of a mission area.

Dramatics
1947 – 3
2017 – 1.8 (0-4)

Another question that reflects the broad range of MIA activities and their importance to people’s lives in an earlier generation.

Emerson’s Essays
1947 – 2.5
2017 – 1.4 (0-4)

This was more surprising to me than any other question. Never would have considered it. I can only guess that in 1947, and perhaps in the years before it, these essays on character and the good life had been made somewhat, but not astoundingly, popular by someone in the Mission Home. Alternate theories?

Primary Leadership for Lady Missionaries
1947 – 7.3
2017 – 2.5 (0-7)

Primary Leadership for Elders
1947 – 5.8
2017 – 2.8 (0-7)

I am not at all surprised by the decline. 1947 was an era when missionaries organized home primaries in neighborhoods, distinct from the branch primary, and involved as many non-member children as possible as a proselyting tool. Knowing how to do that effectively was useful then, not so needed now. However, I’m surprised that the number thinking this is useful for elders is higher by even a little bit than those thinking this is useful for sisters. Please elaborate.

Scout Leadership for Elders
1947 – 6
2017 – 2.4 (0-7)

Relief Society for Lady Missionaries
1947 – 7
2017 – 4.6 (1-10)

Relief Society for Elders
1947 – 5
2017- 3.5 (1-9)

Church Welfare
1947 – 7.3
2017 – 5 (1-8)

Mutual Improvement Association
1947 – 7.3
2017 – 3.5 (1-8)

Sunday School
1947 – 7.5
2017 – 4.2 (1-8)

Every one of these falls into the by-now familiar category of missionaries in the past needing to organize and conduct the auxiliaries in parts of missions where the Church had just been established. It seems fully understandable that today’s respondents rank each of them much lower than those of 1947.

Sports
1947 – 4.5
2017 – 2.5 (0-6)

As with other questions reflecting changes in the vastly larger recreation of the 1947 MIA to that of anything we do today, the sharp decline seems right. I’d like to hear from readers who ranked this 5 or 6, though – how do you see such experience useful for missionaries?

Other (Use other side of page if necessary to list further suggestions and explanations)

1947 (None available to me)
2017 –
Testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a desire to serve
Stress-relief techniques, dealing with companions