I think it’s been successful in that we’ve got a lot of young single adults using the Internet as a tool instead of just as a toy. – Robert Walz, first counselor in the Provo Young Single Adult 18th Stake presidency
Several LDS missionaries in Jacksonville, Florida, and hundreds of young single adults in Provo are encouraging members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the world to use selfies for a spiritual purpose this week.
Through a Facebook event titled "Discover the Book," the group is inviting Latter-day Saints to share their testimonies of the Book of Mormon on social media. On Friday, Jan. 30, 19,000 Facebook users have agreed to post a picture of themselves holding a copy of the Book of Mormon, along with a simple description of how they discovered the book. They will also share a link to a video that explains what the Book of Mormon is and include the hashtag #DiscoverTheBook in their posts.
The event creator, Jenessa Hutchins of Alamo, California, hopes it will not only increase interest in the Book of Mormon but also help LDS Church members feel comfortable sharing the gospel online.
"People can be given something like an event where you are told very simply and straightforward, 'OK, take a picture, bear testimony of this, share it on your wall,’ ” Hutchins said. "And then it makes the members more comfortable, and in the future — without being told — they will naturally post something else of that kind."
Hutchins, a student at Brigham Young University, has participated in such an event before. While she was serving an LDS mission in Jacksonville, Florida, Hutchins and her companion came up with the idea for "Discover the Book" after they were asked to increase the missionaries' presence online.
The Florida Jacksonville Mission first hosted a "Discover the Book" event on Facebook in June 2013, hoping church members in their area would participate.
"Our real purpose was to develop the work right here where we live," said President Paul W. Craig of the Florida Jacksonville Mission. "So by encouraging members to use these 'Discover the Book' events and others that we’ve sponsored, it’s given us lots of opportunities to teach their friends, their neighbors, their family members right here in our mission."
Ten thousand Facebook users committed to participate in the June event, and official LDS Church Facebook pages, such as Mormon.org, even took notice.
"There were so many people who responded on that 'Discover the Book,' " President Craig said. "I know that very first weekend we sponsored the event we became a top 10 trending Facebook event in the entire world."
After returning from her LDS mission in December 2014, Hutchins was called to serve as a social media missionary in her ward, which is part of the Provo Young Single Adult 18th Stake. This assignment allows her to share the social media knowledge she gained on her mission.
Robert Walz, a communications professor at Brigham Young University and first counselor in the Provo Young Single Adult 18th Stake presidency, explained that after working with the online missionaries at the nearby Missionary Training Center, the stake presidency decided to call ward missionaries to work on social media.
"Our whole intent is to find people that are interested to talk about the church and tell them from a member’s perspective why we belong, and then if they’re interested in learning more and taking the discussions, then we pass them over to the full-time online missionaries," Walz said.
Over the past year, the program has grown and now includes eight stakes in the area. Walz said the 18th Stake has called more than 100 social media missionaries.
"I think it’s been successful in that we’ve got a lot of young single adults using the Internet as a tool instead of just as a toy," Walz said. "Rather than going online and talking about how you had a ham sandwich and you’re going to a movie, you can just talk about what you’re doing in your life. If you had family home evening, talk about what you did for family home evening. If your nephew got baptized, talk about your nephew’s baptism. You just live your life very noticeably in your online contacts, and that makes a big difference because people see that and they become interested."
To promote the "Discover the Book" event that will take place Friday, the Florida Jacksonville Mission collaborated with Hutchins and other young single adults who are serving in their wards as social media missionaries.
For Hutchins, the opportunity to continue online missionary work after returning from her full-time mission has been a blessing.
"It’s the biggest answer to prayer for me that I have missionary work to continue doing after my mission," Hutchins said. "God knew that this is something that I loved and wasn’t done with, so he provided a way for me to keep doing it."
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