I suspect this may just be a case of lack of religious competition in the area your friends live and work in. I grew up in Utah, so of course few people changed

I suspect this may just be a case of lack of religious competition in the area your friends live and work in. I grew up in Utah, so of course few people changed their religions, but Mormonism is fairly successful at converting people outside Utah. They do so best by establishing communities and inviting others to join their fun activities. Sure, in America most conversions are just to a different denomination of "Christianity", but religious conversion happens all the time. (A Pew study indicated that 44% of Americans have a different religion than the one they were raised with.)