April 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Today I have received a request from a person who lives on the other side of the United States. His message was:
“Thank you for your son, who visited me today in Concord. I would like to view a video of testimony.”
I checked on the map and in fact Concord is close to Billerica, where my son Luca is now serving as a Mormon missionary since last month.
It becomes every day clearer to me that the Internet will facilitate missionary work and that in spite of all the evil that it is used for, its real purpose is to promote the work of the Lord. We just need to fill it with light and do not let darkness take full control of it.
January 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment
We have been recently challenged as members of the Mormon Church by Elder Ballard to raise our voices and tell honestly what we really believe.
With all the falsehoods and misconceptions about the Church found online, Elder Ballard urged the graduates to use their knowledge and testimony of the gospel to influence seekers of truth. “Today I want to encourage you to reach out to others in the world to help change the perception and even the hearts of millions of our Heavenly Father’s children by correcting misunderstandings by sharing with them the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.” (LDS Newsroom)
The following video is a few years old, and shows former Apostle, Elder Bruce R. McConkie, talking about the same problem while denouncing the unfair attacks of those who oppose the Mormon Church. We know that their opposition will not prevail, but we need to do our part, explaining our true beliefs, in humility but not in shyness. We cannot let other people define what we do believe.
January 14, 2009 | 1 Comment
This is an interesting video where Rachel Esplin, a 20-year old Harvard junior, speaks on a panel of faith about her Mormon beliefs, upbringing, and faith in Jesus Christ and the restoration of the gospel. She does a great job of presenting what she believes and with honesty explains her feelings about the Mormon Church. In her answers she covers several important beliefs of Mormons.
December 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
These are a few conversion stories of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). It is interesting to observe how the Lord touches different people in different ways because their lives and experiences are unique, and only the Lord really knows how to open their minds. However, the end point is still the same for all of them. They learn and embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness. Many of these people were already Christians, but they had questions or doubts that were not answered in their churches and they were looking for something more. When they finally enter in contact with the Mormon church through friends, family, missionaries, or even through anti-mormon literature, they recognize what they were looking for and find answers to their questions.
Karen Merkley (a convert form the US) – two parts
Francesco Lepore (a convert from Italy)
Valerie Finnegan (a convert from Scotland)
Jean Capenda (a convert from Congo)
December 10, 2008 | 1 Comment
Members of the Mormon Church should remember the great talk by President Ezra Taft Benson about flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon. I was reading that talk again today and I remembered the great movie that the Church produced, The Book of Mormon, How rare a possession, where it is narrated the story of Parley P. Pratt, and especially of Vincenzo di Francesca, that amazing Italian who found an almost burned copy of the Book of Mormon in the US in the beginning of the 20th century and was influenced by it long before discovering the Church who published it.
While reading the talk I wondered if someone had already posted that video on youtube and yes… I found it. Here is the entire movie, it is a little old but it is still great and inspiring. It has been split in 5 parts and it is not HD, but it still touch me to watch the story of this Italian convert.
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.
October 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I have written before about my conversion story and how I became a member of the Mormon Church.
This is a very interesting picture of the day of my baptism.. I was skinnier and younger, obviously
Elder Forbes, Giuseppe Martinengo, Elder Stout
Now Luca, my son, is in the mission field, looking for people like me, ready to accept the Gospel and the Church. My son had an exchange of emails with one of the two missionaries who taught me the gospel first, and the one who confirmed me a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This is an excerpt from the email that was written by Lynn Forbes (Elder Forbes) about how he remembers those times:
I would be happy to share my recollection of how I met your dad…. It was sometime in December of 1984. I had only been in Italy a little over two months, so was still in the process of really learning Italian. Me and my senior companion (Elder Burton) were doing street contacting in Asti, where we would go to the busy streets and try to talk to people about the gospel, and arrange to visit them in their homes if they would let us. I actually think I remember some of our conversation with your dad on the street that morning. We would typically look for men who would be in the age range where they might be married, so your dad was younger than we might usually stop. I really believe that Heavenly Father knew your dad was ready for the gospel – so, we ended up stopping him anyway. I think I totally messed up what I wanted to say, but, somehow your dad invited us to come to his house with our message. It wasn’t until January that we ended up getting to talk to him. By that time, Elder Stout (I think you’ve met him) was my senior companion. I do remember the day that we finally spoke with your dad, because I wrote about it in my journal. That afternoon, we had been tracting (knocking doors) without much success. At one apartment building, we actually had a couple of interesting things happen to us – first, on one floor, after we knocked and told the person inside who we were, we heard a dog barking as someone who was angry was unlocking the door – we decided to leave that floor and go to another floor. On that floor, a lady got really angry with us and told us we better get out of the building or else. So, we left the building. As we left, that lady dumped a bucket of cleaning water on us from above. We talked about what we should do – and decided we would try to pass by some of our street contacting names. Your dad was the one we decided to see (he was only a name on a sheet of paper, at that time). Anyway, we went by his place (his mother’s home), and he let us in, and we taught him the first discussion. We asked him to read from 3 Nephi (Christ’s visit) and we made an appointment to return in a couple of days. When we came back, he had read all of 3 Nephi, and had started at the first of the Book of Mormon. He said he knew it was true and that he wanted to be baptized. It seems like we returned every day, or every other day for a week or so. He finished the BofM soon. The only problem we ran into was his mom. Because of her, we put off his baptism until February – she was still very angry – you probably know that part of the story from your dad. But, he ended up being baptized. Elder Stout baptized him and I confirmed him. His confirmation is still one of the times of my life that I felt the Spirit the strongest. I don’t think that Elder Stout and I were “special” missionaries. We were just out, doing our best, and Heavenly Father did the rest. That is the key to missionary work, I think – to be out “opening your mouth” and doing your best – it sounds like you’ve learned that. I’m glad you are having a great mission – seeing the gospel change people’s lives – it really is a beautiful thing. You will look back on your mission as a great time in your life – when you had the privilege of devoting all your time to the Lord. There will be times in the future when you will miss that.
July 19, 2008 | 1 Comment
Several months ago I created my first video with the story of when I met the Mormon missionaries and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many people have watched it and I have received some good feedback. I wish my English was better, but I know that my accent did not prevent good people from appreciating it (or detractor from criticizing it anyway…).
Last week I decided to record a similar video that contains the story of a few experiences I had before meeting the Mormon missionaries. Those experiences prepared me over the years to understand and accept the message of the Restoration.
At this point I can’t avoid making fun of myself and comparing it to Star Wars movies. The second trilogy tells the story of what happened before the first trilogy….
Similarly this second video tells what happened before the first video. But I am not Darth Vater…
I have the impression that in this second video my English is better, but natives will better judge if this is true.
Giuseppe Martinengo: before becoming a Mormon
July 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Tonight I found a very interesting page on the Internet. In fact, it was a page about me and this blog that was created by someone who is of Italian descent.
It is titled “Testimony of an Italian Mormon Convert”
He made this comment:
I really enjoy these immigrant stories where someone comes from somewhere else and makes something of himself/herself and what they will pass on to their offspring and the magic of the whole process. Reminds of my great-grandparents who left Italy with their kids on a ship and started a new life in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. I am grateful for them because had they not done what they did, well, I simply wouldn’t be here or possibly even exist. The implication of that for me and my family would be astronomical.
I hope my kids realize it. In fact, this is a good opportunity to share a few pictures of my first son, Luca, who is serving a Mormon Mission in the Boston Massachusetts Mission. He has been in the Mission field for a little more than 6 months and from his letters we realize how much he has already improved his life.
We can feel from his letters that he is happy as never before. Since he went to the Missionary Training Center we noticed a change for better.
To join the Mormon Church in Italy, many years ago, was an important step not only in my life, but in the lives of my future kids (not yet born at that time). For this reason I always told my sons that it is their responsibility to go and find many other people like me, and baptize them, so that they will someway repay for the blessings they received in their lives, thanks to what two missionaries did many years ago in Italy.
This is him, when he received the mission call…
He is discovering where he will go…
Opening the booklet…
The Mission call….
The Mission call was saying that he would leave on February 6… but this is not what happened… infact, he left before that? Why, it is all his daddy’s fault!
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.
