Digital Latter-day Saints update

BYU 61st ward is going to sponsor our digital missionary fireside! The event is this Sunday November 21 from 7:00 pm - 9:00pm.

We recently skyped with LDS missionaries Elder Spencer and Elder Ahlstrom at the Referral Center Mission in Provo, Utah. We learned about their teaching techniques and how they use the internet to teach people about the gospel of Jesus Christ and His restored church on earth. 




We decided to get involved and help the missionaries out. Our original idea was to invite people to a meeting we would host and show them examples of the LDS presence on the internet. There are some amazing websites and resources that the church is creating that a lot of members still do not know about it.

That original idea has morphed into something larger. Instead of hosting it ourselves we spoke with the BYU 61st student ward. We contacted the missionary committee chairperson and the fireside chairperson to see if they would be interested in hosting/advertising the meeting to the ward. They had a fireside scheduled but it had just fallen through so they were ecstatic at the idea of a 'ready-made' fireside falling into their lap. They were willing to advertise and even provide refreshments the night of the event.

Someone in the ward even offered to perform a musical number, and another volunteered to share her experience making a mormon.org profile. So very quickly, we went from doing everything for this fireside to managing and organizing the efforts of others and leveraging our connections.

Here is the outline.
(7:00-7:10) Welcome, introduction, song, opening prayer.

(7:10 - 7:30) Missionaries skype in and discuss teaching experiences on the internet and invite the audience to be more involved in missionary work online.

(7:30-7:35) Musical Number

(7:35-7:40) Personal experience and testimony of mormon.org profile and personal experience of missionary work online

(7:40 - 7:55) Slide show of different LDS sponsored and supported websites; new.familysearch.com, new.lds.org, mormon.org, lds philanthropies, etc.

Recommit audience to get involved with sharing the gospel.

(7:55-8:00) closing song, closing prayer, refreshments!

So, come! Bring your friends and learn more about how to be an influence for good on the internet.