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Here are a few more good LDS websites we haven’t mentioned previously:

1. WardSocial.com and Came2Pass.com — These two sites allow you to submit and vote on stories related to the Church. Like their predecessor Sustaind.org, these sites operate like Digg.com. In addition to finding interesting LDS stories on these three sites, prudence suggets we should also branch out of our communities to participate on broader, non-Mormon sites like Digg.com, where we can also submit and vote on stories about our religion. (The creator of Came2pass.com is an avid Digg user.)

2. IfYeArePrepared.org — Here you’ll find a variety of options for subscribing to Church content. For example, you can subscribe by email or RSS to the Home Teaching message, which will be delivered each month. You can also subscribe to the Visiting Teaching message, the Priesthood/Relief Society lessons, and current Ensign articles. Their recent redesign looks awesome.

3. SpicyWardWeb — This isn’t a website, but a tool you can install. It’s a bit techie but really cool. After logging into your ward website on LDS.org, this Greasemonkey script will alter your ward membership directory so the addresses link to Google Maps. You can click on the address of anyone in your ward to view their location on the map. To use this you’ll need Firefox and the Greasemonkey add-on. The developer says more interesting scripts for LDS.org are coming.

Whenever we Mormons build something cool — like these sites above — I believe we should constantly ask ourselves how we can include people of others faiths. Even sites intended for Church members can at least include a paragraph or link that gives context and background to non-Mormons. This inclusionary attitude will help us make friends and avoid cliquishness.

I recently met Whitney Johnson who serves in Church Public Affairs in Boston. She’s created a website called Know Your Neighbor which advocates kindness, service, neighborliness, and an “inclusionary” attitude as important elements of member missionary work. As the Prophet Joseph said, “friendship is one of the grand principles of Mormonism.” A friendly and kind disposition must be a part of who we are. It’s better to be a friend who doesn’t proselyte than a proselytizer who isn’t a friend.

Dr. Richard Bushman wrote about being “dedicated to blessing others”:

I wrote to Elder Holland about a rough patch ahead as animosity to religion keeps growing. I am coming to envision a new persona for the Church as humble followers of Jesus Christ. Instead of speaking triumphantly of the Gospel sweeping the earth, could we think of ourselves instead as the leaven in the lump, standing for righteousnesss and serving others? I wish we had a long record of kindness and friendship to fall back on, with less stress on proselyting. Then when the storms break around us, we would have friends to turn to. Our covenant with God is to bless the people of the earth. That should be our motto. Establishing Zion does not mean sweeping vast masses of people on to our membership records but creating a people of God dedicated to blessing others. Joseph and his early followers came forth with lots of triumphalist rhetoric, but I think we need a new voice, one of humility, friendship, and service. (via)

President Hinckley has repeatedly advocated friendship and kindness:

The true gospel of Jesus Christ never led to bigotry. It never led to self-righteousness. It never led to arrogance. The true gospel of Jesus Christ leads to brotherhood, to friendship, to appreciation of others, to respect and kindness and love.

There are other great quotes on Whitney’s website and blog. You can also download a PDF called “The Spirit of Ammon” which explains how Ammon’s service to King Lamoni set the stage for his gospel conversion.

We’ve previously mentioned ways to share the gospel on the Internet. Is it also possible to simply be a good neighbor on the Internet?

• The anonymous nature of the Internet often leads to “cyber-bullying,” extreme rudeness, and visceral attacks. (Blogging can be a lightning rod!) When we see such behavior, we can remain polite and collected, and we can be respectful even when we disagree. We can make encouraging comments to those who are attacked and improve the tone of the dialog.
• We don’t have to mention our “particular brand of faith” when writing about gospel truths. Pick a topic like honesty, chastity, or family and explain why it’s important to you.
• We can blog about our religion without being pushy. For example, mention that you learned Portuguese because you lived in Brazil for two years. Let the text “two years” be a link to something that explains why you were there. Those who are interested can follow the link.

At Liahona.net you’ll find a large collection of hymns, Primary songs, Gospel music, and holiday songs. You can download songs or play them directly on the site. I was able to find tons of good music, both vocal and instrumental, and the site is entirely free for non-commercial use. Stock up your iPod for Sunday listening, or use one of the tunes as an intro to your podcast.

Free LDS music at Liahona.net

Second Life is a virtual world where you can connect with thousands of people. You create an “avatar” to represent yourself, then walk (or fly!) around the virtual world, exploring, learning, and meeting people. USA Today has an article on the basics of Second Life. Part of what makes Second Life so important is simply that so many people are involved — currently 4.6 million. You can buy and sell land and other objects, and trade Linden dollars (the “pretend” money) for U.S. dollars. Today alone over $1.5 million U.S. dollars were transacted in Second Life!

Dell, IBM, Adidas, and Nissan have opened offices in Second Life, Reuters has opened a news bureau, and Sweden has opened an embassy. Several political candidates are campaigning there. Jeff Barr, an Amazon.com employee, has given presentations in Second Life (check out his pictures.)

For members of the Church, Second Life may be among the next frontiers for sharing the Gospel. At any time, thousands of people — each avatar representing a real person — roam the worlds of Second Life. Church members with disabilities could serve proselytizing missions in Second Life, and we can all be member missionaries.

Here is a report from Jeremiah on Mormon activity in Second Life:

We know of about 50 people who are LDS, but there are probably many more. We are trying to provide a place for members of the Church to gather. A handful of us have gotten together and created groups for various LDS interests. We’ve got group leaders from Seattle, SLC, Orem, Provo, Washington DC, England, and Denmark right now.

We bought our own island. We are moving the LDS visitors center, School of the Prophets, Family History Center, and Chapel all to that island, as well as our personal residences. We even have a foundation flat for a temple like Nauvoo before it was rebuilt and there has been some discussion about building one, either exterior only or possibly an open house style design.

We are hoping to increase participation from members of the church. We are hoping to have others become involved as well, by either adding their names to the groups, contributing content, showing up, etc. Second Life allows streaming media so we could play General Conference archives. We are hoping that the island will become well known and that many people who go Second Life to explore will be able to easily find it and learn about the Gospel.

To try it out, visit SecondLife.com. Why not make a friend and see if you can discuss the Church with someone?

(Our Second Life avatar is named “Moregood Martinek”. Maybe we’ll see you there.)

The More Good Foundation has just put up a Mormon Testimonies Wiki where members of the Mormon Church can post their testimonies. This is such an exciting way to share the important part of the Church; while we can write informative and positive articles, nothing compares to the spirit that comes through true testimonies. These testimonies will be available for view by anyone and can be searched by region or by the number of generations a person has been in the Church.

I encourage anyone and everyone to go to mormontestimonies.org and post a testimony. What better answer is there to the question “what do Mormons really believe?” than a collection of writings of actual Mormons telling what they actually believe? The wiki is a safe place (no criticism allowed) where members can share their strength and faith.

Clay Gorton is “Gramps”, a former mission president and temple worker who answers questions on a variety of topics at www.askgramps.org. Thanks to Mikel and Clay’s hard work, Ask Gramps content is now available by podcast. Point your pod catcher at the standard feed or subscribe in iTunes. If you don’t have an iPod or other MP3 player, you can listen from your computer. See the list of articles with audio.

Clay is a great example of sharing the Gospel on the Internet. While he doesn’t speak officially for the Church, his deep knowledge and experience provide helpful insight to hundreds of people. Interestingly, he publishes only a portion of the questions he answers, often responding privately on especially sensitive concerns and often suggesting that people speak with their local ecclesiastical leaders.

Clay turns 84 today. Anyone who would excuse himself from getting involved in the Internet, blogging, podcasting, etc. certainly can’t use age as an excuse. Great work, Clay.

Jacob at AllAboutMormons.com recently added several new features to his site for engaging the online Mormon community:

• Questions and Answers — Mormons or persons of other faiths may submit questions and Jacob will do his best to respond. This is similar to AskGramps.org.
• Testimonies — Read testimonies from Church members on why they believe. Submit your own testimony. (Look to Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen for a good example of explaining why you believe.) There are already more than a dozen.
• News — Read and submit news stories about the Church, similar to LDSNewsWatch.com
• Site Directory — Find and submit links to good web sites about the Church, similar to MormonCentral.com.

Video is a great way to share good Church-related content on the Web. Many people think that videos, in order to be effective, need to be very polished or take a lot of time. In browsing through some of the online video services, I’ve run across some good amateur examples of using video to help spread the word.

The following are a few videos that are concerned with temples. These are just a few; there are actually a good number of these on the Web.

• Tour of Las Vegas Temple grounds. Someone shot some videos as they walked around the Las Vegas Temple grounds. The natural audio accentuates the peace and quiet of the area. (4:06)
• Spain Madrid Temple. Basic slideshow made from still images, with music. The video has a title and prologue in Spanish. (1:40)
• Los Angeles Temple Travels. A couple visits the Los Angeles Temple. Great slide-show shots and music express the feelings they experienced as they visited. (2:48)

Another good topic for sharing good information about the Church (and one that is often related to temples) is the subject of temple marriages. These two videos were shared by couples who were happy about their temple marriages. (They do a good job of pointing out that temple marriages are not weird, strange, or totally secret. These are normal, average couples getting married in a way that they choose.)

• A Temple Marriage. Video shot after a temple marriage at the Salt Lake Temple. Shows happy family and friends, celebrating the marriage. No voice; just two popular songs played in the background of the video. (6:52)
• Courtship and Marriage at the San Diego Temple. This is a couple’s wedding video, shot at the San Diego Temple. Nice video with incidental music background. (2:59)

Some people are directly trying to share information about missionaries, mission life, and the fruits of missionary work. I thought the following were very good examples of this genre of shared video:

• Temple Square Mission. A documentary clip about missionaries on Temple Square. (1:47)
• Provo MTC. Documentary clip about what goes on in the MTC as missionaries prepare to serve. (2:31)
• BJ’s Conversion Story. A recent convert tells why he decided to join the Church and the happiness he has found in the Church. (3:14)
• Mike’s Conversion Story. Another recent convert tells why he decided to join the Church. (12:15)
• Finding Lost Sheep. Nice video montage (with background song) that shows pictures of LDS converts and missionaries. (4:32)

One thing I was surprised about is that there aren’t more videos online about visiting Church history sites. There are many such sites around the world (and especially in North America), and it would seem a natural for sharing information about the Church. I did find one short (0:36) video clip about the Sacred Grove.

How can you encourage such videos? Link to them from your blog or Web site. You can even embed them, if you desire. (Most of the above videos have embedding code available at the video’s site.) It could be even better if you were to share some of your own videos. Just upload them to places like YouTube or Google Video, and then they can be shared around the world.

Drop us a line (or leave a comment) sharing how you’ve used video to help put good LDS-oriented content on the Web.

-Allen

Announced at the LDS Tech Talks last night, the Church has just launched a new site for anyone interested in technology: LDS Tech. The site will allow Church members to communicate with technology employees at Church headquarters and each other, to discuss technology problems and solutions the Church faces. The site includes a discussion forum, the first forum ever on an official Church site.

Link: LDS Tech

Many blogs around the Bloggernacle are powered by WordPress. For example, LDS News Watch, LDS Web Guy, LDS CIO, and Ask Gramps (and this blog!) all run on WordPress software.

WordPress can be customized through a variety of “plugins”. Here are three WordPress plugins that might be helpful to Mormon bloggers:

• LDS Linker — When you type a scripture reference like Moroni 10:3-5, LDS Linker automatically links to the appropriate verse at scriptures.lds.org.
• LDSlinks — Powered by LDSsearch.com, LDSlinks automatically adds related links to any blog post. For example, if you indicate that your blog post is about Gordon B. Hinckley, LDSlinks will automatically add links to other pages about President Hinckley.
• WWSGD — I blogged previously about the importance of giving context and background to visitors to your site. This plugin, by yours truly, lets new visitors to your blog see a customized message, perfect for explaining which Church you belong to and what your basic beliefs are before you expound on the mysteries of the Kingdom.