December 4, 2008 | 1 Comment
Since I became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) I have been involved with missionary work. My involvement has always been a natural consequence of the happiness that came to my life because of the work of Mormon missionaries, who found me and taught me, many years ago in Italy.
I remember spending many hours with the missionaries in Italy, talking to people, including my friends and relatives, about what I had found and the happiness that it had brought to me. However, as it often happens, most of them were not interested in what we had to say.
When I moved to Brazil, I had many wonderful experiences working again with missionaries and serving in several positions in the Mormon Church, most of them related to missionary work. During my last three years in Brazil I had the privilege of serving as a counselor to two wonderful mission presidents, and my vision and experiences in that area really grew exponentially.
To move to Utah a few years ago was an interesting change. Now I live in an area where most of the people are members of the Church, or they heard about it several times. I realized that opportunities of doing missionary work are still available, but they come in a different form, and I need to confess that I felt almost “inactive” in missionary work for a few years, even because my time was consumed by school, work, and family to a level that I was not used to in the past. All of this was complicated by the fact that I had to learn a new language and how to live in a new environment.
Three years ago I joined the More Good Foundation, and I enjoy being involved again with missionary work, even if it is a new kind of missionary work, a “virtual” one.
When More Good Foundation started, we were seen with a little suspicion even from many members of the Church who had not yet made the connection between the Internet and missionary work. In fact, we can say that when we started, the information available on the Internet about the Mormon Church was clearly dominated by its critics, because members (with a few exceptions) had not been involved in it.
It was a great day for the missionary work in the Church when, a little less than a year ago, Elder Ballard gave his first speech about online missionary work at the graduation ceremony at BYU-Hawaii.
And it was even better when Elder Ballard repeated a similar message at BYU Idaho.
One of the suggestions of Elder Ballard in his talks was about creating and regularly writing in a personal blog, like this one. Since I speak a few languages, I created gmormon.com (in English), GiuseppeMartinengo.org (in Italian), Gmormon.org (in Portuguese) and gmormon.net (in Spanish).
It takes time to write for these blogs, and it is harder in some languages (e.g. Spanish). At times I have the impression that they are not as useful as I would like them to be. However, this week something happened on my Italian blog that really convinced me that it is worthwhile to keep going.
I wrote a post about the critics of the Mormon Church and someone posted a comment. The comment led to my response, and then another comment, until I decided to write an email to this person. After a few more exchanges I realized that she was interested and ready to listen to the missionaries. I am not sure what will happen, but it is difficult to describe the joy I felt for having been the instrument to connect a precious daughter of heavenly father to the missionaries. Some of the email she wrote were really inspiring, and confirmed to me that there are special people that the Lord prepare to listen and accept the gospel. They recognize the truth when they hear it, and they are separated from the truth only because they do not know where to find it. It is our responsibility to help them find it.
The great thing about the Internet is that it helps to find people who are really interested, or better, people who are really interested can find information about the Church even if they are shy, or leave hundreds of miles from the closest church or missionary. Sincere seekers of the truth can learn on the Internet about the gospel and talk to the missionaries only when they feel ready.
I have no doubts that the Internet is going to help hundred of thousand or even millions of people to find the truth and help the missionaries to spend more time teaching, instead than finding people to teach.
In short, to have our personal blog and to learn how to make it a little more effective is a worthwhile effort. We need to use our skills to foster the work of the Lord. We need to lenghten our stride, the time has come.
July 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
When I was a very young kid TV programs were already stealing a lot of people’s time. However, at that time, in Italy at least, we only had a few channels to choose from and not all of them were really interesting.
By the time I was a teenager, however, multiple channels started to appear and TV “consumption” started growing a lot among people. I was blessed by a mother who taught me how to avoid wasting time with TV. Because of that, I had time to read and think (yes, think, something that is hard to do when we watch stupid TV programs where in the background there are people laughing to make sure you think it is a actually funny).
I think that I became a member of the LDS or Mormon Church because I was not watching TV, but I was reading a lot and thinking, and experimenting. Because of that I was not so influenced by the common culture and fads, and I grew up with a freer spirit.
I always tell my children to avoid wasting their time with TV or video games or useless videos on youtube.
However, the Internet can be used positively, and differently from the TV, can allow participation and sharing, and not only passive “absorption” or “consumption”.
This is the point made by a recent blog on LDS Media Talk. They ask: do we have time to blog (and share our beliefs online)? Yes we have.
The proof? Here you go (quoting from LDS Media Talk):
Clay Shirky estimates that 100 million hours have collectively gone into Wikipedia. He compares that to 200 billion hours of watching TV each year in the U.S. alone–the equivalent of 2,000 Wikipedia projects a year. We spend 100 million hours in the USA every weekend watching just the advertisements–that would permit the creation of an entire Wikipedia in just one weekend if we just skipped the ads!
His point is that people have the time, but they waste it watching TV. How you use your time is a choice: good, better, or best.
So, we have the time, but we, member of the Church, waste a lot of time in passive entertainment or watching the wrong kind of things on the Internet.
So, since you feel attracted by the Internet, why you do not use it for a good purpose? I have a personal opinion that since it is almost impossible in our modern society to avoid using the Internet, if we use it for a good cause we can not only do good, but also better protect us from the temptation of using it for the wrong purpose.
In any case, these are the videos from Clay Shirky. I know that it is a little passive to watch them, but it is for a good cause….
July 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Elder Ballard suggested that members of the Church of Jesus Christ (Mormon Church) should write a blog and express their feelings about being a member of the Church to invite others to share of the blessing of the Gospel.
But what is a Blog?
Blog is short for “web log.†A blog is a Web site, maintained by an individual or organization, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other media such as graphics and video. You can start a blog about anything that interests you. For example, blog.giuseppemartinengo.com is my blog in English, and giuseppemartinengo.org is my blog in Italian, while giuseppemartinengo.net is my blog in Portuguese.
There are many other great blogs on the internet about the Mormon Church (or LDS Church), such as LDSblogs.com, mormanity.org, blog.moregoodfoundation.org and so on. You can create a blog that is open to anyone to read, or you can restrict who can read your blog.
Why should you start a blog?
You should start a blog to share your ideas, beliefs, and insights. You don’t have to be an expert on a topic to blog. Blogging is also a great way to share your own personal testimony and to teach people about the Church by telling them what it’s like on the inside. It’s also a lot of fun. When speaking to students at BYU-Hawaii, Elder Ballard said, “Most of you already know that if you have access to the Internet you can start a blog in minutes and begin sharing what you know to be true.â€
Is blogging difficult?
It can be as easy or hard as you want to make it. Setting up a blog is very easy. Writing regular blog posts is the tough part. It you really want a high-quality blog, you need to be committed to post often to keep people reading. If you decide to begin a blog about the gospel, schedule regular times each week.
Where do I begin?
You can sign up for a free blog at LDS.net or on blogging sites like WordPress.com and Blogger.com. If you’re interested in starting a blog using your own domain name (your own Web address), you can get one at those sites, or contact the More Good Foundation for help.
Below is a short video in plain English about blogs. I really like this simple video and I used it for the first time last January when I was teaching a marriage preparation class at BYU, a few weeks after Elder Ballard gave his now “famous” talk at BYU-Hawaii.
June 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I have found some interesting statistics about what nonmembers of the Mormon Church think of the Church at LDS Media Talk:
According to a recent Pew study of 1,461 American nonmembers of the Mormon Church:
I am sure that these statistics are a lot worse in most of the other countries around the world.
Someone commented to that blog post by saying,
it seems to me that we may never change some people’s minds, because frankly, they don’t like us, and will believe any negative ideas they hear.
It is a good point, many people will never change their minds. But is this what we are really trying to do?
I really think that the Internet will be key in letting millions of people know about the LDS or Mormon Church. Missionaries waste too much time trying to find people. However, we are not trying to change some people’s minds, we are trying to find those who will listen to the voice of the Lord, those who
are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it (D&C 123:12). They will change their own minds.
When I met the missionaries (see my conversion story) they did not have to change my mind. I changed it. I only needed to know that there was the true Church of Jesus Christ on the earth. A willing heart and the Spirit did the rest.
January 31, 2007 | 1 Comment
Na revista Época recentemente foi publicada uma reportagem sobre a Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias (Igreja Mormon).
(Para ler a reportagem completa: O Credo dos Convertidos -Mormons)
É claro que gostarÃamos que certas coisas fossem escritas de outra maneira, mas esta reportagem pelo menos esclarece certos pontos da doutrina e praticas da Igreja Mormon.
Estas boas reportagens contribuem para que a sociedade esteja mais preparada para a mensagem do evangelho. Similarmente nos podemos preparar a sociedade brasileira ou portuguesa usando a internet de maneira mais eficaz, como por exemplo criando blogs onde podemos escrever sobre nossos testemunhos e o que pensamos de varios assuntos relacionados com a Igreja. Com o passar do tempo sempre mais pessoas irão usar a internet para achar informações sobre a Igreja, especialmente depois de ter falado com os missionarios.
Criar um blog e’ muito facil e nao custa nada. Para mais informações podem visitar esta pagina:
Foundação para o Melhor-Escrever um mormon blog