Last updated on September 15th, 2024 at 11:39 pm
September 8, 2024
Here is the best thing I heard (What?), saw (Eye.), and read (Read.) this week, as well as the best idea (💡) I developed.
What?
Y Religion Podcast Episode 111: Missionary Work in the Digital Age – Scott L. Howell – September 2024
- “I will tell you that the app that I emphasize the most in my classes is the Book of Mormon app. We know in Preach My Gospel Chapter 5, the two most important tools, and whether it’s with technology or not, is the Book of Mormon and the Spirit. This new Book of Mormon app is absolutely amazing.
“Yet members of the Church say: ‘Well, I have the Gospel Library app. Why would I need the Book of Mormon app?’ And I was happy to see that the Church just came out with another article this past month with 15 features of the Book of Mormon app. … The Gospel Library takes up so much space – it actually takes up about 20 times more space on your phone.
“The Book of Mormon app has so many features, including a QR code to share. The last, oh, probably 10 Book of Mormons I’ve shared have all been using the Book of Mormon app. Where I said: ‘Would you be interested in reading more about this Book of Scripture that is so important to me and has helped bless my life so much?’ And you have your phone there. And I go to the Book of Mormon app, click Share. And their QR code comes. And they have the Book of Mormon on their phone in 10 seconds. And then it’s part of that app.
“And it’s one of those blessings that have come to us in our day and time, and especially for the young missionaries, is the Book of Mormon videos. And as we know, this year, the last of the videos will be filmed. I mean, when I was a young missionary and even a mission leader, I dreamed of the day we’d have all of these Book of Mormon stories. The whole Book of Mormon. And I’m so disappointed that most of my students and many of our missionaries haven’t seen the Book of Mormon videos, or if they have, it’s one or two.
“And so, I really encourage them to become very familiar with the Book of Mormon app. The Book of Mormon app also has other features, like how to find our local meeting house, how to contact missionaries, how to chat, and just the power of having that app on their phone and having the Spirit maybe bring it up even when they didn’t intend. That’s so much more powerful in today’s world than having a hard copy of the Book of Mormon. And so I’m so grateful that we have that wonderful tool.”
Eye.
iansimkins (Instagram) – More than 50% of Jesus’ miracles were interruptions:
- “More than half of the miracles of Jesus we read about in the Bible happened while He was going somewhere else or doing something else. They ‘interfered’ with the plan for the day. But He stopped anyway. …
“I think the pace of Jesus might be as important as the preaching and practices of Jesus. …
“I wonder how often we miss what God is doing because we hold too tightly to our own plans and agendas.
“For a lot of us, we have room for God in our hearts but not our calendars. Be open to the interruptions. Efficiency is good but it’s a terrible god.”
Read.
“Pure Love: The True Sign of Every True Disciple of Jesus Christ“, Elder Massimo De Feo, April 2018 General Conference:
- “When I was a young father, our little son, who was five, came home from school one day and asked his mother, ‘What kind of work does Daddy do?’ He then explained that his new classmates started debating about their fathers’ jobs. One said that his father was the chief of the city police, while another proudly declared that his father was the chief of a big company.
“So when asked about his father, my son simply said, ‘My father works in an office on a computer.’ Then, noticing that his answer did not impress his new little friends much, he added, ‘And by the way, my father is the chief of the universe.’
“I guess that was the end of the conversation.
“I told my wife, ‘It’s time to teach him some more details of the plan of salvation and who is really in charge.'”
💡
The adversary does not want us to use social media for sharing the gospel. Social media companies are incentivized to use algorithms to keep us on their platforms by feeding us more and more sensationalized information. We need to utilize social media to share the gospel, and push back on social media companies’ use of addictive algorithms. This thought was inspired by these two resources:
- “Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again” by Johann Hari
- Y Religion Podcast Episode 111: Missionary Work in the Digital Age – Scott L. Howell – September 2024