Deseret

On the subject of 'not enough Mormons to control the US Southwest', what about having them abandon their racist doctrines and polygamy? Might that give them more converts? It would definitely help if there was no Mexican-American War and if the California Gold Rush is delayed as much as possible... even if the LDS don't take California, it'll still be beneficial to them to not have such a populous neighbor, even if you just delay it by a few years.
 
On the subject of 'not enough Mormons to control the US Southwest', what about having them abandon their racist doctrines and polygamy? Might that give them more converts? It would definitely help if there was no Mexican-American War and if the California Gold Rush is delayed as much as possible... even if the LDS don't take California, it'll still be beneficial to them to not have such a populous neighbor, even if you just delay it by a few years.

Mormon's "racist" doctrines (that blacks couldn't be Mormon priests but could still join and be members in good standing) were extremely mild, almost abolitionist, by the standards of the time and weren't even really developed at this time period.

Polygamy might be more of an issue, though polygamy wasn't really publicly known or preached until the mid 1850s. Since your PODS are probably going to be around then anyway, that doesn't give you enough time to really enhance the number of converts.

Anyway, I doubt that there was this big pent-up demand to join the Mormons that was only frustrated by polygamy and by Mormons not being radical abolitionists.
 
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