Cool Thing (Thought): Free Things on Birthdays

Something about "free" always taste better. Add a birthday and you have a pretty ideal situation. Every year I look forward to my free blizzard, free burger, free cake, sundae, meal, etc. If I ever owned a restaurant, I would totally give something tasty and free on birthdays.

If anything, it will be a consolation prize for getting old :D

Cool Thought: I suggest you all get converted!

Before I start this post, I thought it would be helpful for all of you (or just you Dr. Wiley, the one person reading this blog, haha) to understand what perspective I'm coming from as I write about the conversion process. Here is the question(s):

Post an essay describing your understanding of the conversion process and the role of people other than the individual being converted in the conversion process. Specifically answer the question, what is the proper role of a missionary?

What do we mean by conversion? To many, conversion could refer to the process by which someone becomes a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This process generally includes taking missionary lessons, reading, praying, coming to know the truth of the message of the restoration, developing faith in Christ, actually getting baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.

While in some ways conversion is an "event" (usually in reference to a Baptismal date, the date an individual formally becomes a member of the LDS Church) actual "conversion" is more a process.

The Gospel Library on LDS.org defines conversion as "a change in behavior, but it goes beyond behavior; it is a change in our very nature. It is such a significant change that the Lord and His prophets refer to it as a rebirth, a change of heart, and a baptism of fire. The Lord said:

'Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters;

'And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God' (Mosiah 27:25–26)"

True the Faith, a publication by the LDS Church continues on that idea of conversion:

Conversion comes as a result of righteous efforts to follow the Savior. These efforts include exercising faith in Jesus Christ, repenting of sin, being baptized, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end in faith.

Although conversion is miraculous and life changing, it is a quiet miracle. Angelic visitations and other spectacular occurrences do not bring conversion. Even Alma, who saw an angel, became converted only after he "fasted and prayed many days" for a witness of the truth (Alma 5:46). And Paul, who saw the resurrected Savior, taught that "no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost" (1 Corinthians 12:3).

The Book of Mormon provides descriptions of people who are converted to the Lord:

They desire to do good. King Benjamin's people declared, "The Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually" (Mosiah 5:2). Alma spoke of people who "could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence" (Alma 13:12).

They do not rebel against the Lord. Mormon told of a group of Lamanites who had been wicked and bloodthirsty but who were "converted unto the Lord" (Alma 23:6). These people changed their name to the Anti-Nephi-Lehies and "became a righteous people; they did lay down the weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more, neither against any of their brethren" (Alma 23:7).

They share the gospel. Enos, Alma the Elder, Alma the Younger, the sons of Mosiah, Amulek, and Zeezrom dedicated themselves to preaching the gospel after they became converted to the Lord (see Enos 1:26; Mosiah 18:1; 27:32-37; Alma 10:1–12; 15:12).

They are filled with love. After the resurrected Savior visited the people in the Americas, "the people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites and Lamanites, and there were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly one with another. . . .

"And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.

"And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.

"There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God" (4 Nephi 1:2, 15–17).

In a very real sense, being converted to the Gospel of Christ means progressing towards the measure and stature of the fullness of Christ, becoming like Him in attribute, motive, and method. Hence conversion is an event in the sense our commitment to "convert" to the cause of Christ formally happens at Baptism but is a process because we continue grace for grace until we obtain a fullness in Christ. While one can't obtain conversion on their merits alone, such conversion is enabled through the power of the Atonement of Christ facilitated by the companionship of the Spirit, conversion does require our willingness to turn from error towards truth, to keep covenants, and use our agency in accordance to God's righteousness. Most importantly, conversion requires a confirmation by the Spirit to an individual that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the World and that Joseph Smith was called as His prophet in these last days.

Because the formal process of conversion or the "event" (meeting with the missionaries and such) is pretty well understood, I'd like to comment on how members can help others along the "process" of conversion and obtain that crucial Spiritual confirmation.

Individual conversion starts with a desire to know the Truth. Truth in this sense is things as they really are, really were, or really will be. In a sense being converted involves "converting" from error or part truths to truth or a fuller truth. As Latter-Day Saints believe that the ultimate source of truth is God. Because we believe that we are the offspring of God, that He is our Father, we also believe (like with any loving father) we can go to God in prayer for guidance. When seeking to know the truth of something important, we eventually pray to God in Christ's name and ask with a sincere heart, having faith in Christ that we will receive an answer, really intending to follow any answer given.

God will communicate truth to us as answers to our prayers through our feelings, thoughts, or some other way by the power of the Holy Ghost. For most people these answers come as peace to the mind or heart, enlightenment, or a warm feeling in ones' heart, that something specific is true. When we have such feelings we know that God is teaching us that something is, in fact true.

During the process of conversion, we eventually seek to know the truth through prayer about the existence of God, the mission of Jesus at the Christ, and the divine calling of the Prophet Joseph Smith. As we come to learn the truth of these important concepts through the influence of the power of the Holy Ghost, we have begun the process of gaining a testimony or a conviction of truth of these important concepts mentioned above. As our conviction grows stronger, we gain a desire to follow God's commandments in this life and eventually be baptized.

People beginning the formal process of investigating the Church, while preparing for baptism, have the responsibility of seeking this conviction personally and individually, though the process of obtaining the witness of the Spirit of the truthfulness of these important concepts can be helped by the full-time missionaries and other baptized members.

So how can missionaries and members help?

As a worthy baptized member of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, found in the institution of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, individuals receive, by the laying on of hands, the Gift of the Holy Ghost. In keeping with the baptismal covenant, members are promised as a "gift" the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost is essential to the conversion process, because it is the only way in which someone can know for themselves the truthfulness of the existence of God, the divine role of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, and the calling of Joseph Smith as God's Prophet. While conversion is an intimate personal process, missionaries and members that have the gift of the Holy Ghost assist potential converts by participating in the teaching of truth in which the Spirit becomes present, witnessing to potential converts the truthfulness of a particular truth.

Members and missionaries alike are to seek to live and teach as to invite the Spirit into discussion so that potential converts gain a testimony of a truth the same way the said members or missionaries did--by the Holy Ghost. While teaching (in the sense of sharing truths), testifying (declaring what one knows to be true by the Spirit), and setting a good example is important in assisting converts gain their own personal conviction, the Spirit matters most! Missionaries and members should do their best to live a moral life by the teachings of Christ in which they more fully have the constant companion of the Holy Ghost (or are more fully converted) to help others come unto Christ.

In fact, it is not possible for individuals to assist in the work of Salvation, through Christ, among the children of men save they shall posses the companionship of the Spirit, the Unspeakable Gift. Man does not convert men, but the Spirit of God, nor does man speak the words of Life but such is said by the Unspeakable gift.

Cool Thought: Social Network Sites and Sharing the Gospel

SNSs or social network sites (or social network services) are all the rage these days. I’ll be honest, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t check my Facebook. Checking Facebook for me has become like checking my email—or even more, like checking my phone. In many ways Facebook, in college life, has become like having a phone number—you just assume everyone has one. In fact, if someone didn’t have a Facebook it would likely give your run-of-the-mill, indie rock love’n, staying up late, Slurpee drinking college student pause—even a smirk on their face with the inevitable, “Really? You don’t have Facebook?”

With all the different types of social media, what exactly is a social network site? Danah M. Boyd in here article, Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship, she defines SNSs as:

“We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.

It seems that not every social media makes the cut as a social network site. Boyd also makes the clarification that SNSs are not social “networking” sites, but social “network” sites because while networking--which implies connecting with strangers--sometimes happens on SNSs, that isn’t the primary function of these sites.

So what is the primary function of these sites? What exactly is “done” on Facebook? Facebook seems to be used for a variety of things, mostly for connecting with people one knows and people that share similar interests. Connecting can really mean anything from email correspondence, to “wall” posts, to sharing pictures or videos, or even playing games together. As one who’s spent hours on Facebook, I can say that it’s functionality and appeal for many college-aged twenty-something’s lies somewhere between “hanging out” online and virtual stalking. Oh come on, we know you Facebook stalk. There are two kinds of people in Facebook world, those who Facebook stalk and those who lie about it.

So what constitutes Facebook stalking? Well I’ll leave that up to your best judgment, but to me it seems if you’re going through someone’s profile you’re not friends with, you’re probably doing something that would require a ski mask and flash light in the real world. Which brings me to my next thought; there is an immense amount of personal info on social network sites. At this very moment, I’m pulling up my Facebook and looking at someone I know from school, whom I’m about to add as friend. Without being their friend though, I can see this persons birth date, where they go to school, their relationship status, their email, their msn screen name, their phone number, and yes, even their address! Along with my friend request, I’m also including the recommendation to change some privacy settings.

There have been a lot of privacy issues with Facebook and the like. Some incidents have even made it into the news. The fact-of-the-matter is that people put a lot of personal info on the web and give a lot of people they don’t know access to it. Teens especially have a tendency to bare their soul on SNSs according to Boyd. So how much personal stuff is okay? Obviously pretty much anything one puts on Facebook is going to be personal to some extent. I think there are better personal tid-bits to share than others.

It seems like a month doesn’t go by where I don’t get a couple of Facebook group invitations for groups like “Ashley and John are getting hitched,” or “Join the (insert charity or awareness group here).” I think this is personal info worth sharing. One interesting profile identification category is religion. Every SNSs has it. When I first got back from Canada in 2005 MySpace was the “cool” SNS among my friends. When I got to BYU a few months later, everyone had Facebook so I naturally upgraded. In both cases, Christian-LDS was my religious designation. Since I'm sharing what my religion is, why not use these sites to help share the Gospel?

In a lot of ways I’m sharing the Gospel by just declaring what my religion is. I have hundreds of friends, some of whom I’ve found didn’t realize I was LDS until they saw my Facebook or MySpace, which discovery led to a discussion about the Church. I’ve had numerous friends share spiritual thoughts, idea, or even just updates of Facebook. These posts are seen by everyone who is their friend on Facebook. In Ad speak that could translate into a large reach and high frequency of Gospel messages amongst your friends and that’s a good thing. Some people like Tim Malone, as mentioned in his article Sharing the Gospel Using Facebook, are at a loss as to how to share the Gospel on Facebook or are looking for some ideas of how to share the Gospel. Some people don’t really see why sharing the Gospel online is a good thing. Feel free to share some ideas in the comment section for Tim, for now I’ll share some reasons addressing the latter concern--why share the Gospel online.

Here are some reasons why I think sharing the Gospel online is a positive thing:

1. Sharing the Gospel in any way is always a positive thing.


2. Many people like ability to formally write what they believe rather than speak it.


3. Many people (in Utah) say they don’t know anyone who isn’t Mormon to share the Gospel with. On Facebook for example, we connect with people who we’ve lost contact with and for many reasons wouldn’t connect with in the real world. This could be decade’s worth of friends. If we are looking for nonmember friends to share the gospel with, it seems to me Facebook is a great place to start.


4. Unlike a spoken testimony or statement of belief, a written declaration can be returned to and read again if desired. Think of Facebook as the golden plates of the 21st Century.

So why not share the Gospel online? I can see why some would feel a little uncomfortable sharing the Gospel online, in that they feel they might be casting their pearls before swine or so to speak. In these cases the swine is not necessarily the people they are sharing their testimonies with, but rather swine equates to the situation, setting, or medium. The reality is that most people feel uncomfortable sharing the Gospel in any setting. I would argue that in a lot of ways, sharing the Gospel online is probably one of the most comfortable ways to teach truth.

Think about it, sharing the Gospel online is a pretty good gig--you get to plan what you write, you can reference sources, and you can even share it in a non-intrusive way. As Elder M. Russell Ballard talked about in his article, Using New Media to Support the Work of the Church, I have “joined the conversation” in a variety of online settings and have found it to be a really positive experience. I don’t think you have to type out “I’d like to bare my testimony, I know the Church is true…” but simply be the light of the virtual world, an effectual city on a hill that can’t be hid and is always broadcasted. I think when the time comes; you’ll know when you should share the Gospel online with friends, just as you would know to share the Gospel on an airplane with a stranger, over lunch with a buddy, or even with that family member who wants to know more about your mission. The real challenge, in the virtual and real world alike, is having the courage when that time comes to open your mouth--or maybe, just maybe, open your laptop.

Cool Thought: The Wonderful World of the Wiki

I have a unique outlook with collaborative authorship compared to some, in that a couple years ago I actually tried, with some friends of mine, to create a collaborative 'wiki' website. It was a lot of work. We didn't really have access to a lot of the open source web-based programs that many people have today, we programmed everything from scratch. It really was quite the experience. We failed in the long-term scheme of things—we didn't ever complete the site the way we wanted to and eventually the rest of life crowded out our time-suck of a project that was our wiki.

I feel we did succeed in a couple of ways though. We were able to get a somewhat functional version of our wiki operating and contributed, for a time at least, to the online open-source information community. I really believe in what wikis have to offer. Obviously there is a challenge to having content that is can be edited by anyone on the internet, as a place for useful information. I think therein lies the problem with peoples' thinking, when you hear that "anyone can edit" content on a wiki, it paints this idea of "online anarchy" where "anything goes" and "nothing can be trusted." The reality is much different and there are many checks and balances in place to help refine wikis as a reliable source of information.

I suppose I'm referring mostly to Wikipedia and the like sites, in the last few ideas, but they seem to get the most media attention. The reality is that Wikipedia goes through a very similar process of editing as most "reliable" scientific journals, except everything happens on Wikipedia in real-time and instead of a handful of peer-reviews from "experts", there are tens-of-thousands of people reviewing.

Wikipedia and the like serve an important function in our society—free, comprehensive information, presented in an easy-to-understand format—service that can be accessed instantly. It's funny, wikis, Wikipedia and the like; seem to be serving the original functional the internet was intended for. Like the initial resistance of so many to the usability and reliability of the internet, maybe the wiki family and all their kin are just biding their time to find the same acceptance.

Cool Thought: Online Social Media--In the Beginning

I'm trying to remember when I first used social media. Of course, I remember way back in the day using AOL chat and MSN chat rooms, man how things have changed since then. I really got into social media in high school through a site call garageband.com. The site was different back then, but I use to review music and get free music and interact with bands and other fans of music. I think it really was a head of its time.

Previous to the mish I didn't really get involved with anything beyond what I mentioned above. It's amazing how things can change in a short two year span. When I got home Myspace was all the rage; so much so, my local Stake President already had held a fireside warning parents about the potential dangers of said social media (I'm fighting the urge to put a 'haha' at the end of that sentence, I actually audibly chuckled when thinking about that fireside). Chuckles aside, the Stake President had a good point, that while such media could be used as a useful tool, it could also be used for ill. I hopped on the Myspace bandwagon mostly because all my friends had and I wanted to keep in-touch with them. By the time I came to BYU everyone was on Facebook so I transitioned accordingly.

Social media for me has been a place to keep up with friends, get info on new friends, and just a fun place to share info about myself. In reflecting on other opportunities social media presents, namely sharing the Gospel, I have to think there is a lot of opportunity there. I have over the years come across blog posts that misrepresented the Restored Gospel and added loving correction as appropriate. While in some ways its easier to share the Gospel over the internet, its also very difficult.

It's nice to have someones' questions or comments clearly defined on a webpage. Their is no question as to what they wrote. On the other hand, not being in person, its difficult to really understand what their perception and intent is. Many times, the people we walk away from on our missions, those that aren't "hungering and thirsting after righteousness" who "set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion," who "Seek… to counsel the Lord, but [don't] take counsel from his hand," these people seem to have a monopoly on internet discussion boards. Initially, I am prone to avoid such discussions, but the problem is that those that are hungering and thirsting after righteousness also go to those discussion boards and are fed, but not with the bread of life. To that latter group, I have an obligation and an opportunity to raise my "fingers," or so to speak, as a "defender of the faith" and "join the conversation" as Elder Ballard said, and take advantage of a great missionary opportunity.