Around the web this week for stories of interest to future missionaries, missionary moms, returned missionaries, member missionaries, and missionaries of every sort and variety.
- Larry Richman “10 Suggestions for Sharing the Gospel”– Are you looking for some new ideas to help you get started on your personal missionary work? Try these out. “10. Reach out to those who are returning. Home teachers and visiting teachers have a great opportunity to be missionaries to less-active members, who in turn know others who may be receptive to the gospel.”
- Sarah Petersen “Mormon Channel, Al Fox Carraway extend social media challenge about prayer” – YouTube star Al Fox Carraway has teamed up with Mormon Channel to begin a new social media campaign. Take a picture with a poster that begins “I pray when . . .” fill in the blank with your own personal experience. This is a great and simple way to share your faith.
- Jimmy Smith “Traveling to and Entering the MTC“– This might be the most helpful advice for near-future missionaries that you’ll read all week. “Several hundred new missionaries arrive there each Wednesday. In recent years, they have changed the procedure for dropping of missionaries.”
- JaAnna Nelson “From Quito Ecuador”– Last week we heard the sad news that non-native missionaries would be leaving Venezuela. But these Sisters and Elders are proving to be a great blessing elsewhere. ” We are very impressed with these new missionaries. They will be a great help to our mission. They reported that it had become very difficult in Venezuela the last few weeks to even have food to eat. Several of them came in need of some clothing.”
- Looking for another great example of sharing through serving? Here are a few great examples of missionaries and member missionaries sharing their testimonies through service. Joe Chukindi “Group donates wheelchairs to physically challenged persons in Anambra”– “A group Latter Day Saint Charity International has donated mobility aid materials to persons living with disability in Anambra State. . . . He explained that the wheelchairs have features that would make the beneficiaries easily fitted and convenient, adding that they were designed to be used even in difficult terrains.” Akuila Kama “17 year old donates 300 rugby boots”– And not all Latter-day Saint service is foreign. A young man from Fiji collected sports equipment from high school students while in Hawaii to donate to locate high schools. “17 year old Dayson Damuni originally from Mokani , Bau in Tailevu started a project one year ago as he aims to attain the boy Scouts of America award which is given out by the Latter Day Saints church to someone for a service project.”
Or how about the Mormon Helping Hands working to restore the natural beauty of Waimea beach Mo Street Productions “Waimea beach clean up”
- LDSblogs.com “52 Weeks of Service Ideas for Kids” – Are you so inspired that you want to find opportunities for you and your family to serve your communities? Check out these amazing ideas. “These are designed for children to do but you can certainly revise it and choose one for yourself! One more suggestion we have is to be thinking about General Conference. A really special idea for service is for your children to make a special treat to take to a homebound, elderly or shut in person to enjoy as they watch General Conference on TV. The ideas are endless! Have fun with this!”
- LDS Church Growth “New Stakes in Arizona, Brazil and Utah; New Districts in Cote d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone”– The Church continues to grow all around the world. “The new district becomes the Church’s first district in southeastern Cote d’Ivoire. There are now five stakes and two districts in Cote d’Ivoire”
- Megan Miller “LDS Mission Call Opening”– [Video] Lots of people take videos of opening up their call, but this beautiful scene might just make you tear up a bit.
- Brian McMilan “Women Mormon Missionaries Grow in Number” – How is this increase in women serving missions affecting local wards and branches? “She will be just the second woman to become a missionary from the Bunnell-based congregation since the late 1970s.”
- Nicholas Kristof “Go West Young People! And East!”– Some occasionally accuse the Church of being insular, but nothing could be further from the truth, and returned missionaries are a big reason why. “Vast numbers of young Mormons–increasingly women as well as men–spend a couple of years abroad as missionaries and return jabbering in Thai or Portuguese and bearing a wealth of international experience.”
- Church News “10th International Art Competition”– Do you find you share your testimony in ways other than words? What about paint or clay? Consider submitting to the Art Competition at the Church History Museum. This years theme is “Tell me the stories of Jesus”