Meme courtesy of LDS Media Talk
I was able to rekindle some of the deep passion I feel for missionary work last week. I believe that God wants all of His children to at least have the chance to hear the gospel. The internet makes that a lot easier, but we can also do things in our day-to-day lives to simply let people know we are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to share how and why the Savior and His gospel help us in our lives.
There are multiple videos about member missionary work at the website Hastening the Work.
I know people who take pass-along cards everywhere they go. Even adding QR codes to them for fun.
Or who share copies of the Book of Mormon as they go to the store or the laundrymat.
I already shared a story about 32 Mormon mommy bloggers doing something really quite simple — they each wrote a one-page testimony of the Book of Mormon and compiled those testimonies into a “packet.” And then they invited people who knew them to ask for a packet, no strings attached. Hundreds of people responded. A family could do something like this on a smaller scale with the people they know.
More and more people are using blogs as a way to share their testimony. The Spirit can guide about that, about whether to share in this way and what to share. One of my favorite stories from the power of a blog to change a life is captured in this video by my friend Michelle. A woman in Hungary read her blog. Michelle’s son invited Noémi to request a Book of Mormon through Mormon.org. And, as they say, the rest is history!
Family blogs can be a way to share testimony as well. For example, LeAnn at Living Waters often writes for her family, but her testimony is also there in ways that can reach others. We never know who might need what we have to share!
Facebook and Twitter and Instagram can be other ways to share. You don’t have to have a lot of followers. Sometimes the best connections are one-on-one. But there are those who do have lots of followers — and you could connect with them to share something, too!
There are lots of creative ways to use videos, too. Kathryn at Well-behaved Mormon Woman shares an example of Mormon missionaries using ukuleles to help them share the gospel to their Chinese-speaking brothers and sisters.
Many others are using YouTube to share their talents to share the gospel. Or using blogs. Or sharing talents in real-life ways. The Spirit can guide you about how to consecrate your talents to help others!
An example of another friend using and sharing her talents online is Sue Anderson. She shares a wide variety of poetry on her LDS poetry site. She’s been generous about letting me share poems here…and we’ll be sharing some of them later this week/month.
Family history work is something people get excited about. If you are a family history buff, consider inviting someone to come do family history with you sometime! Or invite them to do some Family Search Indexing. “The availability of a single record is often the key that allows someone to discover an ancestor—or an entire branch of a family tree. Every record you index is important because it helps document someone’s life, and everyone deserves a legacy.” It’s an exciting project for anyone to help with, even youth!
Addiction recovery is something many people may need help with. Do you or someone you know have a story to share? Or if you know someone struggling with an addiction, you could invite them to hear personal stories of those who have found recovery from addiction, and you could invite them to an LDS Addiction Recovery program meeting, or to attend other 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous (or other programs for those in addiction), or Al-Anon, Nar-Anon, S-Anon (or other programs for loved ones).
Clayton Christensen shares ideas about how to fold our faith into everyday conversation, how to invite without putting pressure on others as we share, about inviting others to serve with us so they can feel the joy of service, about ways to invite people to learn more…and more. See the Everyday Missionaries YouTube channel.
Read others’ experiences with trying to be everyday missionaries.
