Twenty countries with highest percentage of Internet users:
Average percentage of Internet users: 88.8%
Average Church growth rate 1999-2012: -0.6%

Twenty countries with lowest percentage of Internet users:
Average percentage of Internet users: 4.3%
Average Church growth rate 1999-2012: 10.1%
___________________________________________

growth rates of number of Church units (wards and branches):

United States:
Annual growth rate 1987-1999: 2.2%
Annual growth rate 1999-2012: 1.5%
Annual growth rate 2010-2012: 0.5%

Canada:
Annual growth rate 1987-1999: 1.7%
Annual growth rate 1999-2012: 0.3%
Annual growth rate 2010-2012: -0.8%

Central America/Caribbean:
Annual growth rate 1987-1999: 5.7%
Annual growth rate 1999-2012: 0.8%
Annual growth rate 2010-2012: -0.3%

South America:
Annual growth rate 1987-1999: 8.1%
Annual growth rate 1999-2012: -0.4%
Annual growth rate 2010-2012: 0.1%

Europe:
Annual growth rate 1987-1999: 3.2%
Annual growth rate 1999-2012: -0.9%
Annual growth rate 2010-2012: -0.9%

Asia:
Annual growth rate 1987-1999: 4.7%
Annual growth rate 1999-2012: 0.6%
Annual growth rate 2010-2012: 0.9%

Africa:
Annual growth rate 1987-1999: 9.5%
Annual growth rate 1999-2012: 6.3%
Annual growth rate 2010-2012: 9.4%

Oceania:
Annual growth rate 1987-1999: 3.2%
Annual growth rate 1999-2012: 0.9%
Annual growth rate 2010-2012: 0.5%

World:
Annual growth rate 1987-1999: 4.0%
Annual growth rate 1999-2012: 0.9%
Annual growth rate 2010-2012: 0.6%

Source: http://cumorah.com/

Negative?

Europe:
Annual growth rate 1987-1999: 3.2%
Annual growth rate 1999-2012: -0.9%
Annual growth rate 2010-2012: -0.9%

Yeah theyre fast LOSING people..

Heres a tidbit about the time the Mormins “fled” from Nauvoo after Joey Smith’s death

Vancouver’s Island, near the mouth of the river Columbia, is to be the final destination of the Mormon people. The removal determined upon by the sect will take place in the spring. A circular inviting their brethren in all parts of the United States to join them was issued.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook’s Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 87, 30 May 1846, Page 3

A Mormon “Progress.”—

It is said that the waggons that are to convey the Mormons to California will number five thousand, and will form a line twenty-five miles long In the front there will be a press and types, from which will be issued every morning a paper, to be sent back to inform the rearguard what is going on in the van

Wellington Independent, Volume II, Issue 98, 19 September 1846, Page 3 (A New Zealand newspaper)

The Mormon Temple at Nauvoo has been sold to the Catholic Church for the sum of 75,000 dollars.

Wellington Independent, Volume III, Issue 235, 12 January 1848, Page 3 (NZ newspaper)

The descendants of the Mormon settlement in California will in time occupy the whole land as surely as those of the Pilgrim Fathers exclusively possess New England.
(New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 172, 22 January 1848, Page 2)

CALIFORNIA. [From the Polynesian.]

‘The Mormons have laid claim to a large portion of the territory, and demand a per centage of the ore taken therefrom. An express has been sent to the Salt Lake settlement where about 10,000 Mormons are located. There is a rumour that equally tich mines have been discovered in that region, and that the Mormons encamped there are engaged in mining operations. If this be not true the whole Mormon force will probably muster and come to the Sacramento for the purpose of digging gold. .....

The following account of a trip to the mines and; information respecting the quantities of gold taken, we copy from a letter dated on the ground of operations June 13th .....

Should I relate to you all that I have been told in regard to the mines, since I arrived, (but a few hours), I am fearful you would think the savor fishy. As near as I can ascertain there are about one thousand white men engaged in gold digging thus far. The term white men” is used in contradistinction to Mormon.” These last named fanatics, with the sly Brannan at their head, are quite numerous, having laid claim to a large proportion of the gold region, demanding 30 per cent of the ore from all persons digging thereon. This fact will undoubtedly lead to trouble perhaps bloodshed. Those of the white men” who have last arrived from the sea coast, have stated their determination not to pay any per cent age, and swear that whatever has already been paid, shall be choked” out of Brannan. This disinterested man, when last at San Francisco, arranged all his affairs, and passed receipts with every one with whom he had business, stating with a very lengthened phiz, that perhaps he should not survive to return, as the miners had threatened to shoot him, but that duty urged him onward.
(New Zealand Spectator and Cook’s Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 351, 13 December 1848, Page 3)

The Mormon imposture seems to make some progress in Wales. At the half yearly association at Merthyr on New Year’s Day the Latter Day Saints” reported no Conferences 1,001 baptized during the last six months and 550 officers. The Swansea Herald” adds, The thousands of Mormons in Wales appear to have great affection for and confidence in Captain Dean Jones, who intends returning to the Valley of the Salt Lake in California. About 350 saints will emigrate with him. It appears that 300 ships could scarcely carry the hosts who are anxiously desiring to emigrate to, as they say, their future home. The North Devon Journal” states that an Italian from London, has been in Bideford vending medals of the Virgin Mary and the Saints, which have been readily purchased by the Tractarian party in the Established Church, at the price of one guinea each.
(New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 324, 5 July 1849, Page 2)

Hundreds of victims of the Mormon imposture are breaking up their homes in this country, to repair to the “city of the saints’ in California. Lincolnshire has furnished many of these silly people.
(New Zealand Spectator and Cook’s Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 414, 21 July 1849, Page 2)

Mr. Punch yesterday honoured the Home Secretary with an audience. Sir George Grey came to consult Mr. Punch as to the most eligible method of disposing of rogues and thieves. He said he was completely puzzled to know what to do with them. To maintain them at home was out of the question. You could net, consistently with humanity, treat them worse than paupers. Mr. Punch agreed that you could not. On the other hand, it was iniquitous to put the poor on a level with felons.

In this opinion also Mr. Punch coincided. Our colonies objected to the reception of convicts and there was no knowing where to send them. You could not hang them off now-a-days, as you did formerly besides, that plan was found not to answer. What was to be done?

Hereupon Mr. Punch scratched his head but the Minister desiring him not to do that, but to speak out if he had any thing to say, Mr, Punch at once declared that if he were in the place of Government, he should send the rascals to California he meant, of course, those only who were utterly incorrigible. Punch explained to Sir George Grey, that confirmed villains are a sort of human rubbish, which no respectable colony would like to have shot upon its territories.

California, he said, was a sort of Nomans Land, and such rubbish might lawfully be shot there. It might seem strange to send criminals to the gold diggings by way of punishment. But they would be obliged to work like slaves for every morsel of food. Not a bite or sup was to be had for love, and could only be got for a great deal of money. The life would be as hard as that of Norfolk Island, and the company not much better. The gold-seekers lived in hourly fear of each other. The hand of every man was against his neighbour’s throat. Here was starvation, hard labour, and constant terror.

Added to this, there was the pangs of frequent disappointment; for all was not gold that glittered and iron pyrites was often mistaken for the precious metal. Furthermore, there was the chances of being scalped, and the great probability of being destroyed by fever.

Send a convict to California, and he would not be likely ever to return and .trouble you. The Sovereign of Tartarus had not a more wretched place in his dominions, nor even, perhaps, had the Potentate who owns Siberia.

Yes, Punch would certainly transport all desperate offender none others to the Mormon Diggings.

The Home Secretary thought there was ,a great deal in the suggestion of Mr. Punch and would not say that be had no intention, at some period which ,might be more or less distant, of founding thereon a certain proposal, which he might not impossibly submit, to the House of Commons.
(New Zealand Spectator and Cook’s Strait Guardian, Volume v, Issue 417, 1 August 1849, Page 4)

CALIFORNIA.
CURRENCY MEETING IN SAN FRANCISCO.
[From the “Alta California,” April 5.]

The Mormon Gold Coin. We (Alta California) find the exact value of this coin given in the New Orleans Delta, by Mr. Wm. P. Hort, the Assayer of the Mint, in the subjoined letter

New Orleans, 28th Jan., 1850.
Editors of the Delta. In yesterday’s Delta, after describing the devices, &c. on the recently arrived Mormon coins, you observe,”these coins are of pure gold, without alloy.” Permit me to correct you as to the twenty dollar gold piece.

The following is its composition:
Gold 892 parts.
Silver 98
Unknown 10
1000

In weight, they fall short, as compared with our double eagle, 85 grains. The value of the twenty dollar Mormon pieces, which I have assayed, is ‘$17.23. some vary from this value may be expected, as it is evident that the gold is used for coinage just as it is found in a state of nature, and wherever gold abounds, there will probably always be seen a considerable range in the title. Respectfully, Wm. P. Hort.
(New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 437, 22 June 1850, Page 3)

Popular Delusions. What will come from the “land of freedom” next? The dispatches have of late been so laden with the truths which are stranger than fiction, that it would be mere rashness to prescribe any limit to the moral or material possibilities of a world so fantastic and extraordinary. The raid into Mexico astonished many people the discovery of the gold regions more; but the latest advices from the western sea-board bring evidence of a devoteeship yet more strange and wild than the worship of Mars or of Mammon. They announce a fact no less than the formation of a new State in the upper part of California, under the name of Deseret, its provisional organization and the prospect of its future incorporation with the Union. It is not, however, the mere fact that a State has thus arisen in a moment, which demands attention we are too familiar with the extraordinary activity of the agents that prod ace such marvels in the New World, to wonder long at an occurrence of the kind. It is the principle on which the new society for Deseret is a new church a new society, as well as a new state— is openly established, that will startle the believers in the march of intellect. Deseret/’ in the slang of the dupes meaning the honey bee,” is a Mormon State!— America is, and has long been, famous as the hiding-place of devotees imbued With all the oddities and eccentricities of the human mind. Rappites, Dunkers and Shakers, Herrnhuters, Zoarites and Icarians may be discovered in various queer nooks and corners of the wilderness. But that any one of these sects would ever become powerful enough to maintain a large military force set up a separate judicial system adopt the forms and attributes of a sovereign state negotiate on an independent basis, and almost dictate its own terms to the general Government is what no man amongst us, we presume, would have dreamt of as possible a dozen years ago. How strangely do facto traverse the courses which a pure reason would assign to events! Here it appears that the most baseless and degrading superstition which has found disciples in modern times it crowned with a worldly success, and promises to become a permanent creed and perhaps an empire among men of Anglo-Saxon race! Smith, the “prophet” who called this sect into existence, was a fellow of the lowest character who wore his vices and profligacies openly “on his sleeve for crows to peck at.” He drank, swore and swindled until covered with infamy the style and sub* stance of his revelation— he ‘did not even affect the common austerities of a religious importer are altogether beneath contempt. And yet, they “take this drunkard for God, and worship this doll fool” the two most enlightened and practical nations in the world supplying the dupes! Nor are. the men who go from amongst us to join the body in “Deseret” of the lowest class: they are generally small farmers, skillful artisans and shopkeepers persons with capital, energy, and character. What a text from which to preach the necessity for a better, more enlarged, and more liberal education of our people!—Atherueum.
(Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 444, 7 September 1850, Page 109)

From Stockton.(California)
“We make the following startling quotations from the Stockton Times......
Anarchy in the Mines. We are in a state of transition, from bad to worse. The miners are up in arms irritated beyond endurance, and there is a universal sentiment of hatred against foreigners. At the Mormon Gulch, resolutions have been passed to drive all Mexicans from the mines; they have received notice to quit in fifteen days, or they will be expelled by force. The law is virtually set aside by the people, and their own regulations substituted as the criminal code of the country. What fills me more with indignation is the” fact that the principal enemies of the Mexicans is the foreign population of the mines.
Daily Southern Cross, Volume VI, Issue 341, 4 October 1850, Page 4
(Daily Southern Cross, Volume VI, Issue 341, 4 October 1850, Page 4) ( New Zealand newspaper)

The Mormons, and Mormon Emigration. During the course of my inquiry into the extent of emigration from the port of Liverpool, I learned that the followers of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, who are known by the names of “Mormons,” “Mormonites,” and “Latter-Day Saints,” had many years ago established an emigrational agency in the town, having ramifications in all parts of England, Wales, and Scotland.

I learned that the number of Mormon emigrants sailing from the port of Liverpool to New Orleans, on their way to Desert and Upper California, during the year 1849, was no less than 2,500 chiefly farmers and mechanics of a superior class, from Wales, Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the southern counties of Scotland; and that since 1840 the total emigration of the sect from Great Britain has been between 13,000 and 14,000.

The progress and position of this remarkable sect will unfold one of the most curious episodes in the modern history of the world, and certainly the most singular story in the recent annals of fanaticism. Liverpool Correspondence of London Chronicle, July 29. (Daily Southern Cross, Volume V, Issue 357, 29 November 1850, Page 4( (NZ newspaper)

A correspondent of the Morning Chronical has the following:—” The Mormons have, it is said, put aside 3£ tons, or 94,080 ounces of gold, gathered in California, for the purpose of “gathering” the poor saints from England, and other parts of Europe, as well as from the remote districts of the American Union, into the great Salt Lake Valley, At £4 per oz., this would amount to £376,320. It is possible that they may have exaggerated their resources in this respect, but the fact is presented on Mormon authority. I was showed at Liverpool some of the gold coinage of their new state of Deseret. The five dollar pieces are of pure California gold, without alloy, and somewhat smaller, but much heavier, than a sovereign. s The reverse bears the inscription “Holiness to the Lord, surmounting the eye of Jehovah, and a cap somewhat like ii mitre, both very rudely executed. The obverse bears two hands joined, and the words Five Dollars.”
(Wellington Independent, Volume VI, Issue 551, 22 January 1851, Page 3) (NZ newspaper)

FOREIGN NEWS

AMERICA AND CALIFORNIA. We {Sydney Empire, 30th March), have received journals from New York, to the 20th December, and from St. Francisco, to the 30th January. .... California papers bring our intelligence from that country down to the 30th of January. All kind’s of business appeared to be in a prosperous state, except that mining operations were somewhat retarded from want of rain. It was very confidently rumoured that a revolution had ‘broken out among the Mormons, but the only precise intelligence upon this point we have given below, together with several other items of news. Disturbances among the miners, arising out of disputed claims, were becoming more frequent, and had in several instances resulted in murder. ....

The Mormons at San Bernardino.—The subjoined interesting notice of the settlement at San Bernardino will be read with interest “In a conversation with two gentlemen of this city, just returned from the North, we learn the following very interesting particulars relative to the Mormon settlement at San Bernardino. The settlement is composed of 5000 souls, divided into 500 families. Over 100 ploughs are in operation, designed to break up 1800 acres. The Mormons have erected a protection against the Indians, a stockade, which encloses an area of ten acres in extent. The Valley at San Bernardino is represented as well watered by living streams of water, and is as productive as could be desired by the most enthusiastic cultivator. Wood is found in great abundance, and the mountain sides are covered with a luxuriant growth of pine timber. Sawmills are in process of erection, and we confidently anticipate seeing a respectable sized city in this beautiful valley in the course of the next two years. However objectionable to some of our citizens the peculiar tenets of the Mormon religion may be found, yet all must admire the patience and untiring energy exhibited by these people, in the prosecution of the vast undertaking they have essayed. We welcome their appearance among us, and bid them God speed in their efforts to develop the great agricultural resources of our country.”

Later from Oregon.-^Rumoured Revolution Among the Mormons. —The Columbia” arrived at one o’clock to-day from Astoria bringing us nearly three weeks’ later intelligence from Oregon. We give the following rumour, published in the Oregonian, for what it is worth. Revolution—Utah.—We learn by the mail carrier from the Dalls, that news has reached that place from the Great Salt Lake, of a revolution. It is said the Mormons were arming and fortifying themselves, and had published a Declaration of Independence, in which they asserted their full determination to set up a republic for themselves.” The editor of the Weekly Times, published at Portland had conversed with a gentleman who had just arrived from Salt Lake. He says that affairs there present a threatening aspect. The people are nearly in a state of outlawry, and freely declare their hatred of the General Government. At the same time they are preparing to resist all authority from without by fortifying their settlement. The United States ‘Territorial officers have all left.
(Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 70, 8 May 1852, Page 2) (NZ newspaper)

Dead dunking in the 1940s

How our long dead Scot ancestors got to be Mormons
_________________________________________

(From a New Zealand newspaper)

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGE

DISCOVERS MORMONS. By the light of an oil lamp, in the bedroom of a 500-years-old Scottish castle where Mary Queen of Scots and Bothwell spent their honeymoon, a young dark-haired girl is working on one of Britain’s strangest jobs.

She is looking for Mormons.

Through 3500 volumes. of parochial Scottish registers, covering 1100 parishes, she is tracing the ancestors of hundreds of Americans so that they can be baptised into the Mormon faith.

It is a job which, apart from other expenses, costs the Genealogical Society of Utah £1 for every 10 days the girl searches —and she has been, searching for five years.

Miss Katherine Homer, whose mother and sister live at Stourbridge, Worcestershire, was appointed to this task by the Utah Genealogical Society six years ago.

Already she has traced the English and Scots ancestors of more than 1000 American Mormons. When each ancestor is found —many have been dead for- 300 years—the name and details are sent to Utah. And there this dead ancestor is automatically incorporated in the Mormon faith, even though he may have been an Anglican, or a member of the Church of Scotland.

(Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 9, 11 July 1945, Page 6)

This thread just fizzled out 4 years ago...