When I was in the Baltimore stake, they broke up several wards and opened small branches in rented buildings around town. They announced in conference that it was to "seed" new wards. Trust them, they told us--they knew what they were doing. It was one of the only times I saw quite a few people "object" when asked for sustaining votes.

Anyway, short story is that it was a fail, of course. Anyone ever see something similar? (NOTE: Joseph Smith's casting of his seed is not applicable.)

Something similar was done in my former stake. They split up a ward that was deemed to be too big, then seeded both new wardlets with families from one of the "real" wards. There were three seed families in my ward, all of them extremely kind, good hardworking people. True saints. By the time I resigned, one family had rebelled and would only attend their original ward, one family moved to another stake to get away from the mess, and the third family had gone inactive (I have no idea if they resigned).

Total fail. And the church lost three wonderful families over it.

It appears they tried doing this in the stake where I grew up in on Long Island, NY. It was after I moved away, so I'm not for sure. It just looks that way. Epic Fail.

When I talk to people I know back there, the impression is that it is struggling. When I was there in the 70s and 80s, it was kicking butt. Times sure have changed.

Yes, thibodaux, la ward tried this in an area we call "down the bayou" the town we got sent to was actually called Galliano. It was a small house and they actually put sunday school in a closet. The problem the idiotic "leaders" didn't forsee is that anywhere "down the bayou" is that it is predominantly American Indian. Very hard working, proud, organized, christian and dont take no shit American indians. Epic fail.