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The California San Jose Mission produced a video to encourage member missionary work. It depicts a teenage girl who shares a Book of Mormon with her classmate. Her testimony, written in the front cover of the book, is first tossed aside, but later the classmate reads the Book of Mormon, prays, and is baptized along with his family.

The second half of the video includes several interviews from Church members explaining how and why they joined the Church.

To me the video brings a peaceful feeling of gratitude for the many blessings of the Restored gospel and also a reminder of the importance of sharing the gospel.

(This video has been removed for copyright concerns.)

Also, if you speak Portuguese, you might like the videos Giuseppe recorded of members of his ward. Several of them shared their beliefs and testimony in a short video. If you live in Utah and would like to do this with your ward, we’d be glad to help personally. If you don’t live in Utah, maybe you can find a video camera, round up a few ward members, and post the videos online yourself. We’d love to know about it.

UPDATE: The music used in this video wasn’t properly licensed from its copyright owner, so we have removed it. You can still see watch video testimonials from members of Giuseppe’s ward.

There are many videos online about the Mormon Church, some good and some not really good. We think that another way of making our voices heard on the Internet is to share our testimony on a short video.

A week or so ago I decided to use an opportunity in my ward at a high priest social to ask some people to give their testimony on video. We had a dinner and then I showed an inspiring video from the San Jose mission about missionary work. After the presentation I asked the high priests if they would like to give their testimony on a video. Several of them accepted the challenge even if they were not expecting that.

We have posted a few of those videos on YouTube. They are in all in Portuguese but even if you don’t understand Portuguese, you can get an idea. We have then included a link to those videos from the site Mormon Testimonies so that people can not only read your testimonies but also hear them.

I would invite all of you to share your testimonies in writing and / or in video and then point your friends to them from Mormon Testimonies and other websites of your choice.

As many of you know, the Church launched a new version of its main website, www.lds.org, just two weeks ago. Then last week the Church launched a new version of its site for News Media, newsroom.lds.org. We’ve produced a short tour of these two sites in the form of a video screencast. The screencast gives an overview of the new sites and highlights some of the new features found on lds.org.

Years ago, several wards I lived in back in Ohio and Indiana used to help the missionaries by writing their testimonies in the front of a Book of Mormon, and then either giving the book to a friend or giving it to the missionaries so that they could give it to an investigator. The idea was that a personal testimony helped a non-member understand that there were real people who held the book to be sacred, and they weren’t afraid to share their conviction with others. Missionaries would report back that the “personal touch” was very helpful in their efforts to spread the gospel.

I don’t know if wards still do these types of missionary projects; I suspect that there are some that do. I’ve also heard of youth groups doing this as a project. Such projects are commendable, as they help both members and non-members to understand the depth of conviction that people have about the gospel.

I was reflecting the other day that with the rise of the Internet, we have a similar opportunity to connect with other people and share the gospel. We have the opportunity to, in effect, become “Internet missionaries.” All it takes is a few moments of time, and a desire to share your testimony with others.

What’s the idea? Why not sit down, in front of a video camera, and record your testimony. It need not be long–in fact, anywhere from ninety seconds to three minutes would be ideal. Then, upload your testimony to one of the video services, such as YouTube, so that others can share your feelings. Just like when people would read your handwritten testimony in the front of a Book of Mormon, they can begin to understand that real people (like you) have strong feelings about the gospel. If you know a language other than English, you could also record your testimony in that language, giving you two videos that will hopefully reach a more diverse group of people.

When you upload the video, you are given a chance to provide a title and keywords for the video. Make sure that you include a title and keywords that are relevant to what you are saying in the video. Perhaps keywords like Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ, Living Prophet, or Mormon Testimony could be relevant. (Just include what you think would be helpful terms to those who are not members of the Church.) The title and keywords help people search for and find your video more easily.

How long would all this take? Not long at all; you could probably do everything in less than an hour. It might take a little longer if you use these “video testimonies” as an idea for a youth project or ward project. What is the benefit? Someone may see your video testimony and you could “plant a seed” that will later produce fruit.

If you decide to upload your testimony, drop me a line (see our contact page) and let me know where it is; I’d love to see it.

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

Glenn Beck is the 3rd most listened-to talk show host in the U.S., has a new TV show on CNN, and is also a Mormon. In the following video he talks about how the friendship and example of Mormon friends helped him decide to convert, what honoring the Sabbath means to him, and how he loves his wife. We need more videos like this.

It would be great to hear from Steve Young, Gladys Knight, and other famous mormons. Donny Osmond has several Gospel presentations.

But you don’t have to be famous to share the Gospel online. If you’d be okay with sharing your thoughts about the Church for a few minutes through video, please contact us.

Via: LDSWebGuy.com

While the Church will publish its own videos on LDS.org, individuals can contribute much to online video about the Church:

• Taylorsville Seminary created a video on Google Video about all the things they’re thankful for.
• YouTube user “Lovethyneighbor”, who is “open minded” and has attended several churches, recorded herself explaining how she feels about Mormons.
• A BYU project called Fit for the Kingdom takes a glimpse at the life of ordinary Mormons. (These videos ought to be on YouTube and Google Video where they’d draw more viewers.)

While online videos range from good to bad, Tyler D has some ideas for videos Mormons could create.

In the last General Conference, Elder Eyring spoke about a deacon’s quorum that recorded their Sunday meeting for a deacon that couldn’t be there.

How can we better share the Gospel through online video and audio?

We’ve written before about several videos that are available on Google Video and YouTube. There are beautiful and inspiring videos from the Church.

Recently I’ve found videos of the “homemade” variety that are similarly good:

The recorded testimony of two Mormon missionaries in 1991.

Taylorsville seminary students say what they’re thankful for (More from Taylorsville seminary)

I’d love to see every seminary and institute program across the world produce a short video like this. It doesn’t take much expertise, but it’s very authentic.

The recent Church video about the Restoration is now available on Google Video.

Also available with subtitles and in Spanish.

The phenomenal video Special Witnesses of Christ is now available at Google Video. You can embed it in your own website or download it to your computer.

It’s also available in English with subtitles, Spanish, Portuguese, and German.