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Keri, me, and Susan after an inspirational Stake Conference |
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My amazing visiting teacher, Cambria, drove out to see me speak! |
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My name on the program! |
Social Media: This is Sharing the Gospel. This is Hastening the Work.
Talk in Roswell Stake Conference, Saturday February 22, 2014, 6:30pm
Sharing the Gospel doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t always have to be some grand
gesture or huge step out of your comfort zone.
It can be as easy as tweaking something you are already doing. This really hit home to me during conference
when we were exhorted to share the gospel and help in the hastening of the work.
The following quote by Elder Nielson was the push I needed to start doing my
part in this critical work, “We each must develop and carry out our own
personal game plan to serve with enthusiasm alongside the full-time
missionaries.”
I like social media.
I’ve spent entirely too much time mastering Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter
so, I thought why not use that seemingly frivolous skill to the Lord’s
advantage as my own personal game plan in spreading His word. Using baby steps,
I first decided to participate in November’s 30 days of gratitude on
Facebook. All this required was one post
daily highlighting something I’m thankful for.
Many of my thanksgiving posts
were specific about the people in my life, and many were dedicated to specific
blessings I’ve received from having the gospel in my life. They weren’t long posts, and they weren’t
extravagant posts. They were simple and
meaningful, really just the basic “I’m thankful for my new calling to serve in
the church. I’m thankful for the temple covenants
and ordinances that make us an eternal family.” This is sharing the
gospel. This is hastening the work.
Immediately after conference, online posters containing
favorite quotes from conference sprung up all over the internet. I pinned a few to a board on Pinterest and I
shared many of them via Twitter and Facebook.
The next time I checked my social media outlets, I saw many “likes”
“shares” “favorites” and “pins” of those very same quotes by both member and
non-member friends alike. I’ll bet some
of those friends have no clue that the people saying those quotes are
latter-day prophets of the Lord. They probably
think the quote is inspirational or looks neat.
No matter the reason, they are taking the gospel message, heeding it,
and helping to spread the Lord’s words to their friends. How easy this was to
just click a button and watch the work of salvation move forward. This
is sharing the gospel. This is hastening
the work.
The beginning of this year, I achieved my life-long goal of
going through the temple to receive my own endowments. This wasn’t without preparation. With my heart full of excitement and
anticipation for this day, I kept my Facebook friends apprised of my progress
up to and through that glorious day.
Many of my friends and family members had questions for me regarding
different aspects of this journey ranging from “What is a temple?” to “What goes on
inside the temple?” and “What did you have to do to go to the temple?” With all these questions, many of them identical
just from different people, I wanted to make sure I answered them appropriately
in a way to help them understand the magnitude of this endeavor and its eternal
repercussions. I desired to give them a
solid and accurate picture of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that led me to this
point. Instead of answering each
question to each individual repeatedly, where I would risk rushed responses, I
decided to start a blog I could direct them toward, which would answer these
and many more questions. Thus began my blog,
therunningmormon.com.
Here I write mostly about my family home evening experiences,
the gospel in my own life, and my interests—mainly running. My blog is meant to be shared to help those
who read it grow their own testimonies and educate them in what a real Mormon
is. Now, writing a blog takes a bit more
time, effort, and planning than updating a Facebook post, but you can include
so much more information in this journal-type setting. Lds.org gives wonderful suggestions on
sharing the gospel online. The best
advice it offers is just to: post about your day-to-day life and your
interests, share experiences at church or family home evening, share inspiring
words, and update often. This is sharing
the gospel. This is hastening the work.
Each one of these outlets offers a no pressure environment,
not only for you to share the gospel, but for readers to learn about the
church. Those who’ve maybe had long-time
questions, but not felt comfortable talking to someone about them, now have a
forum where they can have those questions answered in a fashion best suited to
them. Maybe this will lead them to
talking to missionaries or coming to church in the future. Maybe it won’t. But either way, they will have benefited
from the information they were able to glean from your efforts and hopefully
their testimony of Jesus Christ will have grown.
Notwithstanding, the best action you can take to start
sharing the gospel yourself is simply to pray.
As Elder Ballard said, “The key is that you be inspired of God, that you
ask Him for direction and then go and do as the Spirit prompts you.” It’s okay to come to our Father in Heaven in
prayer to ask Him what He would have us share today, and to ask how He would
have us share that message. Before I
write a post, I pray and ask for His guidance so I will write the words that
will most benefit my readers. As I look
back over past blogs, I notice a distinct difference between posts from my own
mind and posts inspired by the Holy Ghost.
Ask, and He will guide you. Ask,
and He will give you strength.
President Uchtdorf said, “Sharing the good news of the
gospel is easier and the effects more far-reaching than ever before. Perhaps
the Lord’s encouragement to ‘open [your] mouths’ might today include ‘use your
hands’ to blog and text message the gospel to all the world! With the blessings of modern technology, we
can express gratitude and joy about God’s great plan for His children in a way
that can be heard around the world. Sometimes a single phrase of testimony can
set events in motion that affect someone’s life for eternity.”
The current prophet, President Monson said, “Now is the time
for members and missionaries to come together [and] labor in the Lord’s
vineyard to bring souls unto Him. He has prepared the means for us to share the
gospel in a multitude of ways, and He will assist us in our labors if we will
act in faith to fulfill His work”
I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God to
restore His true church upon the earth.
I know the Book of Mormon is the most true book on the earth today. I know Jesus Christ is my Savior and the
Savior of all mankind, that He loves us so much He suffered more than we could
ever comprehend to give every single one of us the chance to reach exaltation
and eternal life with Him. I know that
each of us here today can hasten the Lord’s work in our daily lives. He will guide us and give us the strength to
keep this commandment and all of His commandments. All we have to do is ask in prayer and listen
to the whisperings of the spirit. They
will come in the exact time and place they are needed. “For it shall be given
you in the very hour, yea in the very moment, what ye shall say.” (D&C 10:6)
I say
these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
This is one of my favorite topics. Too bad I'm out-of-state and missed your talk...but glad I could read it. As a YouTuber, and fellow blogger and twitter user (sorry, haven't really gotten into Pintrest) I think it's awesome and inspired that the church recognizes and is embracing the opportunities provided by social media. From creating and sharing your own mormon.org profile to live-tweeting general conference, it's as fun as it is sprititually fulfilling to use the internet for good (as Mormon YouTube Al Fox says).
ReplyDeleteI agree completely! I forgot to talk about Mormon.org. You're right, it's a wonderful tool to share your testimony and answer some common questions about Mormons using your own words and experiences.
DeleteWow Rachel, what an awesome message. I'm so happy for the tremendous spiritual blessings you've received in your life. I'm sure your mom and dad are so proud.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I sure hope they are :)
DeleteI'm definitely more of a "like" and "share" type of Gospel message spreader. While I have a testimony, I'm much more comfortable keeping it myself, yet I know that is "hiding my light under a bushel". I'm taking baby steps to sharing more of what I believe. Most of it just comes down to being to true to myself. To what makes me happy, to what I believe and to what is the true me and not the me someone else wants or expects me to be...I'm still learning how to do that though. So it's baby steps. I'm proud of you for knowing who you are, and being so courageous to share yourself with the world.
ReplyDeleteBaby steps are the way to go! Everything is taught to us "line upon line" and "precept on precept", so I think it's the same process in building up our personal courage in sharing those gospel principles. I also look at it as sharing something we love. For example, military spouse organizations love to share and advertise their events because they love their unit. These are great in building a social structure for dependents. So, why not use that attitude in sharing something we love that delivers eternal blessings? This is the thought that gave me my courage. You are doing great!
Delete