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28
Mormon Online Missions
August 28, 2009 by Giuseppe Martinengo Leave a Comment | Filed in Internet & Media,Mormon Missionaries
This is not my idea, and it is not a reality yet, and it may never become a reality. However, for those who have some knowledge of a Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints it may seem like a possible complement, even if may never become a complete alternative. After all, as Elder Bednar recently remembered us, we are on this earth to experience life with a body, and we cannot substitute certain experiences with a complete virtual life.
On the other hand, however, if we really want to preach the gospel to every creature on earth, we need to find a fast track, Mormon missionaries are “only” 52,000 right now and with the current reduction in birth rate facing Utah 9and other areas of the world), I do not think we will see that number grow too much in the next years. And how many hours do missionaries spend (or waste) walking or driving from place to place, getting discouraged, to reach a few people who are interested in the Gospel?
Obviously, being tired and discouraged is part of mortal experience, so there is some good to it. If the purpose is to strenghten their character, it may be good, but if the purpose is to reach every creature under the sun, then we need to find better avenues.
Naturally, if we as member of the Church learn to use the Internet as suggested by Elder Ballard we will see a great improvement in positive and successfull member-missionary work, and more true seekers found by members and missionaries.
But why we cannot include, as part of this faster reaching out to the world, online missions to our current structure, organized more or less like a normal mission, with mission presidents and so on? I am sure there is a lot involved that I am not considering right now, to create something that works, and at the same time follows Church’s principles. But still, with Skype and all the rest, a lot more could be done to save trips and costs, by having at least a few online missions, staffed with missionaries that perhaps could not afford the cost, or the intensity of a “normal” mission.
As President Kimbal taught us many and many years ago,
When we’ve used the satellite and related discoveries to their greatest potential…then and not until then shall we approach the insistence of our Lord and Master to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
I think that online missions may become a reality in the future. As with everything in the Church, they will become a reality if this is what the Lord wants, and He will do it through his authorized servants, the prophets.
However, we are entitled to our opinions and to the prompting of the Spirit of God, and I think that in the future we may see something like online missions, or we may see more online activities in normal missions. We will see.