In Saturday's Salt Lake Tribune, an insightful and troubling article appeared: "Mission metamorphosis." With the subtitle "Today, LDS gospel is not only proclaimed to every tongue and people, but also by them," this article should be read by all of those concerned with the growth of Mormonism worldwide. Here is the introduction:

The LDS Church announced this week that it had called its 1 millionth full-time missionary, but declined to name the candidate who gave the church its symbolic success.

Too bad.

It would have been nice to know if the new face of Mormon missionaries was a Scandinavian-looking Utahn, a dark-skinned Brazilian or an ebony-hued African. After all, the number of Americans among the church's nearly 54,000 missionaries is slowly declining. Today, about a third come from other nations.

While many Utahns are still being sent to far away lands, more and more missionaries serve in their own countries, seeking converts in their language and culture. Instead of heading to Provo to be trained in the art of proselytizing as generations before them did, many now go directly to one of 16 training centers in places like Johannesburg, San Paulo or London.