Talk:The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tonga

Page name
I realise this may have been simply translated from a different language wiki, but I've changed the name of the page. There is no "Mormon Church of Tonga". The Mormon Church (LDS Church) is monolithic — it merely branches out to new countries and is established in the country, but it's always established under the standard name The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. No country has it's "own" Mormon Church called the "Mormon Church of XXX". There are congregations and stakes of the church, but no separate national Mormon churches. Anyway, I've changed the name of the article to reflect similar categories and articles, like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Canada and Category:The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Oceania.

It occurred to me that perhaps this article was supposed to be about the pictured building; that building is the Nuku alofa Tonga Temple, which already has an article. Good Ol’factory (talk) 09:47, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Difference between LDS Membership & LDS on Census Statistics
There is a contrast difference among the reported LDS membership as reported from the church and found from the 1996 census survey. For the most part, the difference comes in what the two statistics are measuring. LDS records are ALL Members on Record whether they attend or not. The 1996 Tongan census is all those who voluntarily state wheter they are members of which church. Reasons for the differences include:

1) Dissention among members that have not requested their LDS membership to be removed. The LDS church keeps membership records even when members aren’t attending.  This way, the individual can choose to return to church - many times in the same standing and advancement (Membership, Temple, Priesthood) in which they left. If the individual was excommunicated (which is rare ), requests their membership records removed, or if the records gets lost, then if the individual wants to regain full status, he/she would have to be rebaptized, and advance in the church as if they were a nonmember just joining.

2) There may be some who have moved or died that are still on record.

Also sources of error that could occur through the survey.

1) Some may not want to be labeled as LDS even if they are active members - Even if the survey is only for statistical purposes.

2) The survey in Tonga was either or. Some may be members of multiple of churches, but list only one or none in the survey.

3) any other sources of error that may come from the survey.

Dmm1169 (talk) 22:37, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Growth since 1996
The church does not reveal how many are active or less active, but there has been a much greater increase in stakes and wards compared to population growth since the 1996 census. The growth in number of LDS wards and stakes far surpassed Tonga's population growth. Because there is a minumum attendance, priesthood, etc for a branch to be called a ward, manytimes this becomes a better indicator when comparing the number of active members are in an area.

Dmm1169 (talk) 22:37, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Even With differences, Tonga has World's Highest LDS Concentration
Even with Tonga having a significant number of those not attending, if only % of active members are taken into consideration against the population, It is probable that Tonga still has the highest LDS per capita concentration in the World. The significant difference in membership ration between Tonga & the countries 2nd or 3rd highest membership ratios are great enough to show that Tonga, by ratio its population, has more members than any other country in the world.

Dmm1169 (talk) 22:37, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Original research
Unless you have a reference for the above speculations, it is WP:OR and should not be referenced in the article. Good Ol’factory (talk) 22:53, 8 January 2009 (UTC)