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Finding and Sharing the Gospel Online
October 2, 2009 by Giuseppe Martinengo 2 Comments | Filed in Internet & Media, Mormon Missionaries
This is the introduction of a very good article on the last Ensign, October 2009, about sharing our beliefs online by Michelle Stocking of the Church Magazines (link to the full article).
After years of harboring bitterness and anger, Derick Fitch of Indiana felt as though he had hit a dead end. He decided he had enough and wanted to change. That decision led him to do something he had never done before: search for God.
So Derick did what he typically did when he wanted to find information: he went to the Internet. Not only would that give him quick, easy access to information, it would also allow him to conduct his search privately, without making any commitments. Derick decided to begin his Internet search by looking for information on “the Mormon Church” because of a television commercial he remembered from his teenage years.
“My search led me to an LDS-related site that had exactly what I was looking for—a message board where I could confidentially post questions about the Church,” Derick says. He took a deep breath and registered with the site.
Using the site’s message board, Derick received answers to his questions from Latter-day Saints and learned that he could read the Book of Mormon online by clicking on a link at www.mormon.org. “The words in 1 Nephi penetrated the cold, hard shell around my heart,” he says. “I started to think about my life and my relationship with God.”
Soon Derick obtained a printed copy of the Book of Mormon from the local missionaries and agreed to attend church services. Less than four months after Derick had decided to search online for information about religion, he was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I am so thankful that I was able to start reading the Book of Mormon online,” he says. “I am thankful that I was able to find LDS Web sites, ask questions about the Church, and receive wonderful answers.”
For Derick and many others who have questions about the Church, the natural place to turn is the Internet. There, Derick received answers to his questions from everyday Latter-day Saints—and those answers touched his heart.
It is interesting how one thing led to another, but the Internet was a very important step in Derick’s research and conversion process. The message board he found was not an official website of the church, however, but a members’ initiative. It is an important thing for members to share their beliefs online and not be shy, to take the initiative and not to wait for some formal calling coming from the church.
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[...] Finding and Sharing the Gospel Online [...]
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