justamere10

Everyone: In your opinion, should unofficial "LDS Cyber Missionaries" be organized into groups with volunteer leaders, sort of like physical world Missions and missionaries are organized? If so, what kind of structure do you think would best facilitate efficiency and effectiveness in teaching the truth about LDS beliefs all over cyberspace? Or, do you think it would be best left up to the initiative of individual Latter-day Saints to roam the Web and drop posts about our beliefs wherever they think they are appropriate, relying on the individual guidance of the Holy Spirit? How about unofficial LDS Cyber Missionaries initiating and mutually agreeing to work in pairs similar to the physical world missionaries? Or.... Please elaborate, thanks.

Your points and concerns are all valid, I and many others are just pioneering in this new medium. Input from every seasoned online LDS word warrior and teacher of righteousness is valuable and could potentially help shape the way this work Elder Ballard refers to becomes better organized (if need be), and more efficient and effective. We have such enormous resources by way of volunteers in the Church that there is no valid reason why anti-Mormon websites and misinformation about our beliefs should any longer prevail on the Web. Please suggest words to constitute the disclaimer that you think unofficial LDS Cyber Missionaries should present in their online communications, and technically how it can be consistently put on the monitors of everyone reading individual messages.

Got it, thanks. That hope is very encouraging I'm sure for those who are already anxiously engaged and pioneering. I think in time there could be so many Saints effectively and efficiently teaching the truth online that there would be a huge impact in the physical world as well. Yes, I feel that the Spirit is confirming that to me as an individual. These are great times in which to live...

Do you have that on good authority? :-)

Yes, it's very attractive. My thinking is that if Latter-day Saints have one of those lapel pins close to their monitor it might further encourage them to at least tithe a portion of their online time to missionary work. And it might be a reminder to LDS teens to stay worthy online and prepare for an offiicial mission, or even to engage in cyber missionary work themselves. In my mind, being able to describe what you spend so much time on the internet doing (or at least a portion of it) as something like "LDS Cyber Missionary" work is helpful if it's true. The pins could be good gifts for any LDS who spends a lot of time on the net, and it promotes the furthering of Elder Ballard's unofficial 'call' for informed active members to engage in cyber missionary work. The pins are available as a promotional item from the corporate sponsor of Mormon Sites which is hosting the "Ask a Mormon. LDS Cyber Missionary" discussion board: SunSpring Internet Services

Hopefully you don't seriously think that everyone writing on this board needs to publish a disclaimer that they are not writing as an official representative of the Church. You seem to have missed the following sentence from the opening post of this thread: "Well, I've posted the story of how that hit me elsewhere but suffice it to say that although I haven't been officially called as an LDS Cyber Missionary, that's what I've been doing." And perhaps you missed the question mark in the thread title. But maybe I should take your comments as a compliment and thank you. I suppose if one's messages resemble those of the Brethren, one is not straying too far from the direction they, under the Lord's direction, are leading the Church in our time. I note however your apparent opposition to the term "LDS Cyber Missionary" but it's not clear to me why. That seems to me to be an appropriate way to describe Latter-day Saints teaching Gospel truths in cyberspace. Especially when President McKay admonished EVERY member to be a missionary. So which of those three words would you rule out? Thanks for posting in this thread, feedback either positive or negative is always instructive, and sometimes helpful. By the way, I am NOT an offiicial representative of the LDS Church at this time. :-) I am just an ordinary individual member taking the initiative to do things online that I consider to be potentially efficient and effective towards helping clear up the mountain of misunderstandings about LDS religious beliefs and practices. Along the way I'll do what I can to encourage others to also follow the Holy Spirit, tithe a portion of their internet time to missionary work, and shine their own unique light in the darkness of cyberspace. I understand that I am just one of hopefully tens of thousands of Saints who are, each in their own way, teaching Gospel truths on the Internet. If anyone cares to use the words "LDS Cyber Missionary" to describe to others what they are doing on the Internet, then I will conclude that I have contributed something positive to what is emerging from Elder Ballard's recent requests for help. Enjoy the day.

I should probably just "leave em" but I'm not comfortable with what appears to be somewhat condescending criticism coming from you, maybe that wasn't your intention. I'm not saying that he did not say them, but I did not see those words you quoted as from Elder Ballard in the link you provided. It might be helpful if you pointed to that sentence more clearly where you say he said the words that you presented within quotation marks. But whether Elder Ballard actually spoke those words or not, I agree that nobody except the General Authorities speak for the Church. I think that is a given that every active member understands. I always post on my websites dealing with the Church, including the Mormon Sites Discussion Board, a notice to the effect that it is not an official LDS website. Personally I do not think that today is a time for "caution" as you seem to urge. I think it is a time for every Latter-day Saint who spends quite a bit of time on the Internet to boldly and respectfully declare the truth about our religious beliefs and practices at every opportunity. In my mind there is nothing unclear about what Elder Ballard is asking us to do on the Internet, sometimes known as "cyberspace".

I understand your point and I'm not trying to put you down at all. Your comments are primarily about missionary work in the physical world, mine are about missionary work in the virtual world. So far at least, as far as I know, there are no official callings to do virtual missionary work other than the responsibility each member has with or without the badge, and Elder Ballard's encouragement. Personally, I think our role as unofficial LDS Cyber Missionaries is to prepare and encourage people to be taught by the Spirit on the official LDS websites such as Mormon.org. Once we have moved people to those websites, I think we have done our 'job' pretty well. One good way to do that is to start an "Ask a Mormon" thread on appropriate non-LDS discussion boards. One such thread that I started about six weeks ago drew 3500 posts and about 40,000 views! That, in my opinion is effective missionary work...

I think most active Latter-day Saints appreciate the full-time missionaries and acknowledge their official call and setting apart. Many of us who are often online also see the great opportunities for missionary work in this new medium and are heeding Elder Ballard's recent requests that we join in religious discussions where there are non-members participating. The purpose of doing what we do is to help correct the many misunderstandings that are all over the internet about our beliefs. By doing that we are teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Which is, of course, MISSIONARY work. Missionary work is the responsibility of EVERY active Latter-day Saint, officially called and set apart or not. .

I'm sure you understand 'Lost Sheep Syndrome' but please don't take my musings too personally, though it was your situation that weighed heavily on my mind as I took an early morning walk on my mountain today. I pondered what I could say to you and decided that it's not likely that anything anyone says in this medium would result in an about face for you, your mind seems firmly fixed on traveling another path. Hopefully you have thought it through carefully and that where you are headed is where you want to be when you get there. I tried to place myself in similar shoes to those you are wearing, and to guess what I would do if they were the shoes I put on this morning before I went to walk. I know that things were very different for everyone back in the early 1800's, so it's hard to make a valid judgment on the things people did and said in those days. But a few years after I was converted to the LDS faith, I read the entire set of the Documentary History of the Church. That was a long time ago, but I remember my impressions clearly. I remember a whole lot of "Wows!" and excited announcements to my wife. I remember discovering that Joseph Smith was not the man I had imagined in my mind from what I'd learned in Sunday School and Priesthood lessons. And I remember being GLAD! Joseph Smith truly was a man after my own heart, even though I knew he was God's chosen Prophet of the prophesied Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. Knowing that he was so human somehow brought me closer to the other prophets, and to a better understanding of why so often the words "fear" and "trembling" appear in close proximity in the scriptures. Learning what I did about Joseph Smith being human was comforting in a way, hope enabling because I so often find that I too am "so human" and erring. In a dream I found myself sitting in a waiting room with two other men. We were waiting for an interview in an office with a closed door, each of us head bowed in contemplation. My thinking was that maybe this was my judgment day. I knew that I was imperfect, but I hoped that COMPARED TO the other men in the room, I hadn't done too badly. I love the Book of Mormon. There may be faults in it, but if there are they are "the faults of men", men perhaps like me, "so human", maybe I'm not so bad after all. I try to place myself in shoes that walk backwards from where I want to be right now, but as I approach I find only fear and trembling. I have not the courage to put them on. Not just yet anyway, I'll muse some more... I love my wife. I love my children and my grandchildren. (My favorite word used to be "dad" but now it's "grandpa".) I don't want exaltation to rule over people, I want exaltation for the eternal increase part of it! I want to be a FATHER to even more of my own children. I want to be a husband who is capable of ALL his responsibilities, a perfect companion, a perfect lover. I want to go HOME and live forever with my Heavenly Father. I want to once again be in His presence talking with Him face to face, as I know I did before I came to this sometimes dark world of forgetting, confusion, trial, and seemingly endless endless testing. It's hard, it's real hard, but I want to PASS my Second Estate! I am AFRAID to put on those backwards facing shoes. "But behold, and fear and tremble before God, for ye ought to tremble; for the Lord redeemeth none such that rebel against him and die in their sins; yea, even all those that have perished in their sins ever since the world began, that have wilfully rebelled against God, that have known the commandments of God, and would not keep them; these are they that have no part in the first resurrection." Mosiah 15:26 Mosiah 15 "Wherefore, verily I say, let the wicked take heed, and let the rebellious fear and tremble; and let the unbelieving hold their lips, for the day of wrath shall come upon them as a whirlwind, and all flesh shall KNOW that I am God." D&C 63:6 Doctrine and Covenants 63 If I did have the courage to put on those backwards facing shoes where would I go? I'm a religious man, what other church could I go to? In a meeting inside a temple on the other side of the world I was with a group of senior missionaries, some of us bearing our testimonies. I don't remember the context, but I remember saying: "Where else would I go? This Church has the Words of Eternal Life." I can't put on those backwards facing shoes because I know it would hurt my Savior, maybe cause to fall from Him another drop of that precious redeeming blood He shed for me, even me, me "so human". I can't put on those backwards facing shoes because my wife's righteous and another man would surely walk away with my Sweetheart, and my precious children, forever. Where would I go then to find happiness with my pretty backwards facing shoes? Regardless of all the arm of flesh learning in the world, the contradictions, the faults, the doubts, the "help thou mine unbeliefs", I just CANNOT put on those shoes...

Again, thank-you for your openness Mike, enjoy the weekend. And give your wife a hug. :-)

You are certainly an open person and I really respect that, thank-you so much for sharing what you're experiencing with us, I very much doubt that anyone here wants to put you down in any way. You needn't answer this if it's a sensitive issue for you, I'm just curious if you have spent any amount of time reading or watching anti-Mormon media?

I think AlexanderX was warned several times, persisted in breaking the rules, and was banned. So you're not likely to get a response from him.

Ok, sorry, just concerned about you and your family. All the best, enjoy the day.

I don't wish to offend you but I'm wondering if you could be in a state of depression yourself? My daughter-in-law went for three years in an unacknowledged state of depression caused by chemical balances or unblances in her physical body. When she looks back on it she realizes that she was blaming everyone else for problems she was creating herself. They were very hard times for my son and their children. Medical doctors had the solution all along... You should not be experiencing emptiness and "NOTHING", that's not normal. Have you checked with a physician, counselor, bishop?

Could God be waiting for you to humbly and sincerely kneel before Him and ask again? Could He be waiting for you to read and ponder the scriptures daily? Could He be waiting for you to be considerate of your wife whose heart you have apparently broken? You believed once, why should today be any different? So the testimony of your brothers and sisters to you is not of God, and perhaps His way of answering you then? God often speaks through angels. Angels can be human beings with a message from God for someone else. Are angels speaking to you on this board? Could your wife be an angel for you? Why do you expect God to respond to you YOUR way?

Sad, but the choices are all yours. Nobody is going to talk you into something different when you think that God OWES you a miracle.

Proof of the Book of Mormon is a spiritual one. In the history of the LDS Church God has told millions and millions of people that the book is true. So, He's now going to tell one of His children that He was lying all along? Could those millions of others who bear testimony that the book is true be YOUR witness of its verity? Could that rowboat approaching you as you cling to the roof of a flooded house be God's answer to your prayer asking HIM for help? "For verily I say unto you, blessed is he that keepeth my commandments, whether in life or in death; and he that is FAITHFUL IN TRIBULATION, the reward is greater in the kingdom of heaven." D&C 58:2 Doctrine and Covenants 58 Sometimes it's better to have only faith rather than personal knowledge. "Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have NOT SEEN, AND YET HAVE BELIEVED." John 20:29 John 20 We are told that even the very elect will be DECEIVED in the last days. Anyone who receives a witness that the Book of Mormon is false did NOT receive that experience from God. He is not a God of confusion and He does not tell lies to His children. I knew a non-member who was seriously investigating the Church and took the missionary discussions. She really wanted the spiritual test of the Book of Mormon to apply to her as well. But she told me she could not get a confirmation that the book was true. As she told me that I noticed the smoke curling upwards from a lit cigarette in her hand. Until we are prepared to ACT on revelation from God, it is not likely to come. We must have our minds prepared for OBEDIENCE before God will speak to us, He's not there for our entertainment. She knew that to join the Church she'd have to give up smoking, but she hadn't. So, no witness. We get line upon line, precept on precept. Until we are obedient to a line and determined to do our very best to endure to the end of our lives in that obedience, we get no other line. But the Church is not for everyone, it's a hard discipline. And once you embark on that road, especially once you have made sacred covenants in the temple, it's absolutely essential for your eternal well-being that you ENDURE to the end, regardless of what life may throw your way. For God will NOT be mocked... "Blessed is the man that ENDURETH temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." James 1: 12 James 1 I wish you the very best and hope you will do some serious fasting and praying before you make choices that could throw away your Second Estate, especially after having been so faithful in your First. Perhaps you knew all along that the Book of Mormon is true, as I did. And perhaps not getting a miracle on your personal behalf is your greatest test. But of course all choices are yours, as they are with everyone, a great and terrible gift from God. The consequences of our choices are ours too, some of them eternal. It's a great time to be alive. The thing about sin that I hate the most is that it hurts my Savior, extracts another drop of that precious redeeming blood from His body. Why not try throwing yourself into Cyber Missionary work? You could do some good 'out there' each day for the rest of your life, however long or short it may be, and not be ashamed when you meet your Savior at the end of the day... He lives, I know that. I also know that the Book of Mormon is a true record of some of His people who came to the Americas from Jerusalem, led by a prophet about 600 B.C. I know that book was written and preserved for OUR time. It is a warning that our nation and its people too will be destroyed if we turn to pride, materialism, and godlessness. Now go out and do the right thing. We need all the LDS Cyber Missionaries and Word Warriors we can get. Now is not a time to turn and run and abandon your brothers and sisters who too were preserved to come to this world in the most wicked of times, preserved because we had shown so much strength in our premortal existence, and God knew we'd be needed in these times as the War of Words, the struggle for souls, continues. We can never be tempted beyond our ability to resist, if so we could not be held accountable and judged righteously. The choice is ours, the choice is YOURS. CTR...

The missionaries caught up to me when I was in my early twenties and living in Australia fresh from a stint in the Air Force on the other side of the world. That was forty years ago. The first time they came in and taught a discussion with a flannel board and paper cutouts one of them propped a small black book against the wall near the door. I was an avid reader so my eyes kept straying to that book. I was quite disappointed when they left, taking the book with them. The second time they left me a Book of Mormon and I curled up with it for two days if I recall correctly. When I got to the part where it asks you to pray if the book is "not true" I tried and failed. I tried and tried and failed each time. To this day, though I've been a faithful Latter-day Saint for forty years, I have never been able to sincerely pray if the Book of Mormon is true! It has been many years since I tried but each time I would try to sincerely pray if the book was true it was sort of like asking God to let me know if the sun was shining when I was outside at noon on a sunny day with my eyes wide open, and not standing in the shade either. I KNEW the book was true without praying about it. Each time I tried I'd know before I could get into it, time after time. So, no, I was never really told if the book was true, I REMEMBERED it being so. Or so it seemed. The Book of Mormon is true my brothers and sisters. I know that as well as I know I'm sitting at a keyboard and looking at a monitor right now...

Remember when we used to pray for a missionary experience? Most of us I think had in mind maybe introducing one person, or at best a family, to the full-time missionaries. Even at that, my conscience often bothered me about missionary work because other than 18 months served as a senior missionary, I was not very good at introducing people to the missionaries, not, I was not good AT ALL about it! But all that has changed now that Elder Ballard has asked members to participate in online religious discussions. As an unofficial LDS CYBER Missionary my reach is incredible. One "Ask a Mormon" thread I started recently in just six weeks has attracted more than 3,000 posts and 37,000 views! That's a lot of people contacted! My conscience doesn't bother me anymore... On another smaller board my Ask a Mormon thread has attracted more than 2500 views concurrently. If every Latter-day Saint who frequents the Internet a lot would tithe just one tenth of their time for LDS Cyber Missionary work, I think we'd soon pull ahead of the huge amount of misinformation about LDS beliefs that exists online. Come and discuss LDS Cyber Missionary work with others. The eagles are gathering at: http://www.lds1.org .

There are wonderful opportunities right now for LDS couples to serve as unofficial CYBER Missionaries. You can read about it at the Mormon Sites forum: http://www.ldscybermissionaries.org .

There's a lot of information about LDS Cyber Missionary work at the Mormon Sites forum, and a lot of LDS Cyber Missionaries are starting to gather there. One "Ask a Mormon" thread I started, in less than six weeks received more than 3,000 posts and 37,000 views! Come and discuss this great work Elder Ballard has asked us to become anxiously engaged in. http://www.ldscybermissionaries.org .

That's exactly the kind of information that is helpful in organizing the Cyber Missionary focus and effort. I put your links on my 'to do' list.

If the Church ever does start officially calling "Cyber Missionaries" or at least leaders and organizers of unofficial Cyber Missionaries, there won't be any problem finding people who have already by the Spirit found where they fit in best. It seems that "mission fields" are already spontaneously growing out of Elder Ballard's 'call'. Must be a good seed... Maybe a whole lot of us have been kind of 'sleeping' already prepared but waiting to be awakened by the Brethren?? Do you have any comments on that notion?

Count me in. Er, hold the mustard...