Missionary Work Goes High Tech

Sep 2010 Issue

By Lu Ann Brobst Staheli
From the time the LDS church was first established, the thought of serving a mission meant that young men and women must be called in the prime of health, ready to walk from door to door as part of the tracting necessary to find those who might be prepared to listen to the message of the gospel. Only those in the best of health could manage to keep up with the physical requirements the service demanded. Anyone who could not keep up would be left behind, unable to offer full time missionary service to spread the word of the Lord.

Although regular proselytizing missions may still have those same physical attributes today, not all missionary work has the same requirements. Enter today’s missionary force where grandmas and grandpas, those with physical handicaps, financial or time restraints, or other possible limitations can still serve in service missions, sometimes from the comfort of their own homes.

Service missions have been around now for quite some time, but with the availability of home computers, social networking, and video file sharing technology-savvy members can fill service missions at home on their own computers, yet reach those who have an interest in the gospel who are living as far away as the opposite side of the world in a matter of seconds.

One couple I know has the calling to spread the gospel message through the use of the social media network on Facebook. With several thousand “friends” reading and sharing their regular messages, gospel principles can be given to an untold number of people in an environment they are already comfortable with as part of their daily lives.

But the call as a service missionary is not required for all of us to use the Internet to share the gospel with our family and extended circle of friends. Perhaps you’ve received a message from Mormon.org via YouTube. These beautifully produced video segments teach a gospel principle in a way that touches the hearts of all. Spreading these messages is where “every member a missionary” can really play a huge role in spreading the gospel.

The videos can be shared via email, social networks or blogs at such a high rate of speed they are known as ‘viral.’ Unlike the spread of disease, going viral in the modern technological word is a good thing because it means that thousands—and sometimes millions—of viewers are watching your message. If you are old enough you might remember the Family
Spot commercials the church used to run on television. These videos are like those, but the potential for exposure with over a million ‘hits’ in a short period of time is as though those TV segments have gone on steroids!

Since Elder M. Russell Ballard first talked about “the world of cyberspace, cell phones that capture video, video and music downloads, social networks, text messaging and blogs, handhelds and podcasts” in a 2007 commencement address, blogging has also become a great way to spread the gospel message to those who might not hear of it otherwise.
It seems everyone today either has a blog—sometimes several—, subscribes to a blog, or follows an aggregate (a ring of related blogs chained together). Some are targeted directly toward those who are already members of the Church, such as
MormonMommyBlogs.blogspot.com, Mormon-blogs.com, and LDSblogs.org.
Other individual blogs are posted by individual members of the church who want the opportunity to share their religion as part of their everyday chatter with friends.

The great thing is that all of this technology is working. Investigators and converts are coming to the church because of the messages that are being shared. Although this new use for media won’t ever replace the good a face-to-face mission can do, it does allow the church to reach the masses in a way that results in more contacts to be made, helping the full time missionaries to locate those who are already prepared and interested in hearing about the gospel. And those are the people the traditional missionary will then teach.

But the best thing of all is that this high technology really allows us all to fulfill our duty and the three-fold mission of the church: “to proclaim the gospel, perfect the Saints, and redeem the dead.” In the words of our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, “It is in doing—not just dreaming—that lives are blessed, others are guided, and souls are saved.”

So get busy and DO, using your knowledge and friendships to share the word of God with the world, even if it’s only one friend at a time.

If you have any of the computer interests or skill mentioned in this article, or you’d like to know more about a service mission, check out the church website at www.lds.org for more information.