19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his ^acoming?

The context of the chapter includes the labor of love, of shepherding, of ministering to others, of missionary and evangelistic labors.

There’s a prize to be had for those labors, but not a prize of this world.  It is the very presence of the Savior with us.  And nothing compares with that.  Nothing ever can. Nothing ever will.

Working to share His light and to be in His presence is a divine work, and a sure prize worth striving for, worth our lives and every expenditure of effort. It’s a mountain-top experience.

We have to keep the fire burning, the flame of the gospel lit in our lives.  The More Good Foundation torch is a reminder of this for each of us.

And yet, sharing the gospel is natural if we are filled with it to overflowing.  It has to spill over… Are you?  Are you gaga over what the Lord is doing in your life–His tender mercies? What can you do today to share your light, which is in Him, the Savior of the World? How about posting your thoughts about His guidance on your Facebook page or something you read that moved you in The Book of Mormon, that might help someone you know, in an e-card or text message.  Is there someone with whom you ‘hang out’ who is need of hope or promises, strength to overcome?  If you know someone, can you refer them to the Church’s sites or ours? Can you talk to them about your joy in the gospel?  I challenge you today to make a new effort, one, and to share those with us.

Sometimes we think we need  to know more or be more before we can be effective as Mormon member missionaries, followers of Jesus Christ. But we know enough, as Elder Ballard indicated, our testimonies are what we need, and those we can share.

What will you do in the next twelve hours to this end?  Please share your experiences with us.

“But this I say, brethren, the time is short … for the form of this world is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7:29, 31).

Eleesha of MormonInsider.com

Well, welcome Eleesha, to your newly adopted website, MormonInsider.com. Eleesha is currently living in the Washington DC area, working by day and schooling at Georgetown by night. She has recently contacted The More Good Foundation, and has adopted an unofficial LDS website through our Site-Adopt initiative, which enables members to post about their lives authentically, so that “the best missionary tracts ever” (to quote the late and beloved Mormon prophet, President Hinckley)–the lives of faithful saints–reach the broadest audience.

For more information on ways to engage the Mormon discussion online, volunteer your design or translation skils, upload talks, or otherwise particpate, please contact us or respond to this post.

To adopt an unofficial LDS website, please visit siteadopt dot org, Adoption Application.

Sister Wrigley, who has treated many individuals with depression, shares her thoughts and testimony about how healing is possible through faith and study, through directly accessing the promises of the Lord through His atonement. A beautiful rendering of a sacred set of truths.

“Finding Online”: Columbia Convert Shares Mormon Testimony

Fabiola Sikes, manager of the More Good Foundation Spanish websites and ning community, under Giuseppe Martinengo’s direction, recently shared the story of this new Mormon convert in Colombia!

In his initial comment on one of our More Good Foundation sites, laiglesiamormona.com, our new friend told us that he thought that the missionaries were “med students” because of the way they dress.  He wanted to know if the doors to our chapels were open to everybody.  I invited him to attend and I gave this golden referral to the MTC:  The missionaries taught him and now he´s a changed man. I´m very happy to share it with you. (Fabiola)

His testimony in Spanish follows this English translation:

My Mormon testimony.  I started by wondering who the Mormons were and what duties they have.  I wanted to have contact with them. I visited the site laiglesiamormona.com for the first time and contacted Mrs. Fabiola.  She sent the missionaries to the Esmeralda area.  They in turn sent the ones that go to a meeting house in Barranquilla where I live.  They visited me until I decided to join the Church.  I felt such peace and joy.  They don´t smoke or drink or use drugs and don’t drink caffeine.  I saw how they rejoiced with one another and are united in their families.  I used to be like Joseph Smith; I was confused and didn’t know which religion was true.  I didn’t think about it twice; I´m attending the Church each Sunday and attending a class.  In fact, as a coincidence, my name is Joseph just like the prophet.  For me this is a great honor.  I testify that the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price and the prophet Joseph Smith are true.  In fact, I got baptized on February 15th at 5 pm. and on February 28 I turned 28 years old.  I want to travel to other cities in Colombia first and then go to other countries to share my testimony and teach other brothers and families the change I had and how this religion changed my life and my soul forever.

Mi testimonio mormón es quienes eran los mormones cuales son sus deberes ,y tener contacto con ellos la primera vez entre a la pagina , de www.laiglesiamormona y me contacte con la Sra. Fabiola ella a su vez me contacto con unos Élderes del barrio de la esmeralda y luego ellos me contactaron con otros que ivan a una iglesia de la avenida murillo un barrio de barranquilla pues yo vivo en murillo estos estan en la ciudad de Barranquilla colombia,yo vivo en Barranquilla es una ciudad ubicada en colombia  por lo siguiente ellos me visitaban hasta que yo decidi ir a la iglesia , senti una paz y un gozo no fuman no toman licor, no usan drogas y no toman cafeina entoce vi que ellos se regosijaban y son unidos como una familia , yo era anteriormente como jose smith estaba confundido no sabia a que religión era la verdadera  yo no pense ni una ni dos veces estoy asistiendo a la iglesia todos los domingos y asistiendo a clase de echo que hay una casualida mi primer nombre es Jose aligual que el profeta y para mi es un gran honor pues yo testifico que el libro mormon ,doctrina y convenio, la perla del gran precio y el profeta jose smith son verdadero y doy fe lo atestiguo y que la IGLESIA DE JESUCRISTO DE LOS SANTOS DE LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS es la iglesia verdadera de hecho me bautise el 13 de febrero de 2010 a las 5 de la tarde y el 28 de febrero de 2010 cumpli 28 años quiero viajar primero en toda las ciudades de mi pais colombia y luego irme a otros paises para enseñar mi testimonio y enseñar a otros hermanos y familiares de otras personas el cambio que yo tube y que esta religión me cambio mi vida y mi alma por el resto de mi vida.

For more information on how you can become engaged in the online work as “lay members” of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), please contact us at email@moregood.com, or respond to this post.

While TV and radio provide one-way coverage of the news to millions of people, the Internet offers a chance to respond to, noodle with, evaluate nuances of, and therefore, shape the content of TV or radio.  As indicated in the Pew Study:

The rise of the internet as a news platform has been an integral part of these changes. This report discusses two significant technological trends that have influences news consumption behavior: First, the advent of social media like social networking sites and blogs has helped the news become a social experience in fresh ways for consumers. People use their social networks and social networking technology to filter, assess, and react to news. Second, the ascent of mobile connectivity via smart phones has turned news gathering and news awareness into an anytime, anywhere affair for a segment of avid news watchers.

There’s now a much more participatory consumer of the media–and that is us.  We collaborate, we create and co-create conversations about ourselves, our faith, our nation, our politics, that can influence one, or thousands. The addition of the mobile phone and technologies have made the online news platform even that much more ‘handy.’

As the Pew reviewers stated aptly,  “In this new multi-platform media environment, people’s relationship to news is becoming portable, personalized, and participatory.”  Stats so indicating follow:

• Portable: 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.
• Personalized: 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.
• Participatory: 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. (Stats from Pew Study)

It’s also interesting that the majority of online news consumers have a preferred few (2-5) websites that they regularly visit for updates. 21% visit only one news site for the same.

Helping Mormons Engage

So what can Mormons do who want to influence the public perceptions, conversations, and media-talk news about us online?

• Bookmark your local and national online news media outlets.  Search Religion Content, and comment on those articles about us in positive ways.
• Send us links to stories of the news in your area, or stories you find online about Mormons serving worldwide or any newsworthy event,  so we can respond, and respond yourself to misinformation, and affirm positive sites. Share links with your friends.
• Let us know when you or someone you know makes the news–new mission call, Mormon concert pianist performs in China, etc. or of something you think noteworthy enough to put on our sites as content. All content is news about us in another sense.
• Check the LDS Newsroom and The Deseret News for the Church’s position on key news issues before responding to articles on sensitive issues, and link to their content.
• Get the feed to this blog so we can keep you updated on ways to contribute to the conversation.
• Join the MGF Facebook Group for additional updates as well.
• Create your own news blog, or adopt-a-site from The More Good Foundation, where you can comment on the news.
• Place links to positive news stories on Facebook and tweet about them.

To learn more about More Good Foundation, please visit our homepage at www.moregoodfoundation.org.

In an annual “Mormonism 101″ venue at Harvard, Elder Dallin Oaks, living apostle, spoke to a diverse audience of attending students and faculty about the unduly diminished willingness of higher-ed institutions to provide religious instruction or to teach any type of morality. In his words,

With but few exceptions, colleges and universities have become value-free places where attitudes toward religion are neutral at best. Some faculty and administrators are powerful contributors to the forces that are driving religion to the margins of American society. Students and other religious people who believe in the living reality of God and moral absolutes are being marginalized.

My own graduate experience certainly bears this out, and I’ve also, perhaps like many of you, felt pained that with so many universities drenched in the dogmas of secularism, it’s the seeking students, and as Elder Oaks said, “society” who suffer from the drought. In this vein, the Lord’s apostle remarked, The academy can pretend to neutrality on questions of right and wrong, but society cannot survive on such neutrality.”

The Mormon apostle, Dallin H. Oaks, spoke of three basic tenets of the Mormon faith–including the nature of God, the purpose of mortality, and the three-fold sources of truth. He spoke of pre-mortality and the need for a Savior, Mormons‘ belief in a supreme “Lawgiver,” our Father in Heaven, and addressed the belief in moral absolutes as well as the doctrine of personal revelation.

Prior to elucidating this tenets, Elder Oaks  addressed common misperceptions about Mormons, from surprising to stunning, that include the fact that only “14% of those familiar with Mormons can actually state their main claim, i.e., that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been restored to the earth.  Many think we are secretive, not knowing what we hold sacred and why.

Following the apostle’s remarks (Church Newsroom) on the three above-mentioned tenets and his witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Elder Oaks responded to questions.

One point that was emphasized in the article is that just because the Internet allows us the opportunity to fail, to sin, or to destroy our lives, doesn’t mean we now have an excuse to do so.  I like the imagery used to present this concept: “I’m not afraid of climbing the mountain, just because there are drops along the way. I know that just because I can fall, doesn’t give me the excuse to jump.”

It is valuable to note the number of ways you can share the gospel through Facebook. By becoming a “Fan” of all of the Church’s Facebook pages, you have access to many uplifting stories and videos that you can then share on your Facebook page. This allows you to reach out to your friends and family who can benefit from such messages. Another way you can share Gospel related items through Facebook is adding The LDS App, which allows you to share your testimony, gospel images, your mission experience, and the temple you were married in.

To receive updates from the Church’s official pages, visit the page in Facebook and click the button that says “Become a Fan.” The messages that are posted on this page will then come through your news feed.

Official Church Facebook Pages

• LDS Church
• Mormon Messages
• Mormon Channel
• Ensign Magazine
• New Era Magazine
• Friend Magazine
• Liahona Magazine
• Family History Library

The fight for religious freedom offline will patently affect our ability to advance the gospel cause online.

On Tuesday, February 23rd, in an inter-faith devotional at Brigham Young Unversity (a Mormon university based in Provo, Utah), Cardinal Francis George, who serves as the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, addressed the BYU student body, faculty, and guest in the Marriott Center.

Speaking of the growing affinity and partnerships with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) on matters related to the wholeness and moral health of society, Your Emminence also acknowledged a pressing need to strap together as allies in the work to preserve our religious freedoms.

Of those freedoms, Cardinal George acclaimed:

“Religious freedom cannot be reduced to freedom of worship or even freedom of private conscience,” he said. “Religious freedom means that religious groups as well as religious individuals have a right to exercise their influence in the public square.”

Keith Johnson, Deseret News

Cardinal George, who was the first Chicago native to be appointed Archbishop of Chicago in 1997 and later appointed Cardinal Priest by the Vatican in 1998, shared personal experiences he has had with encounters with the Church. One of the stories he shared was when he was able to conduct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during one of its tour stops in Chicago in 2007. As he stood in front of the choir, its members sang the words of the folk song “This Land Is Your Land.”

Keith Johnson, Deseret News

Elder M. Russell Ballard (left) and Elder Quentin L. Cook, both members of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, were in attendance, as was President Cecil Samuelson, University President.

Unequivocally, Cardinal George affirmed family, indicating,

Society is based not on individuals, but on families.”…On mothers and fathers with duties and obligations to their children. On children who learn to be human in the school of love, which is family.

He enumerated specifically three threats to the moral fabric of family and society–namely, abortion, sexual orientation, and health care.

He made a call to persevere in the recall of our freedoms, and a statement to “never give up.”

Keith Johnson, Deseret News

Keith Johnson, Deseret News

In a spirit of optimism the Cardinal suggested:

If we stay together and go forward together, the good sense, the common sense, and the generosity of I think the majority of people … will in the end bear much fruit,” he said. “When government fails to protect the conscience of it’s citizens, it falls to religious bodies, especially those formed by the gospel of Jesus Christ to become the defenders of human freedom.

Keith Johnson, Deseret News

For the Deseret News article on the Cardinal’s Address to Mormons, please click here.

As a resource to this and other BYU and LDS university students and leaders, the More Good Foundation, founded by Dave Neeleman, Ken Woolley, and Jim Engebretson, reaches out to empower members to share their faith online–to have the tools and the know-how to be effective in engaging in the global conversation about who we are as Mormons. If you are new here, please visit our Facebook Group page as well as our homepage and browse our discussion pages/notes for ways to get involved, as well as our sites, respectively.

President Wheelright & Jonathan Johnson

BYU Hawaii, with 80% of its student population hailing from other countries, is filled with students eager to participate in inter-displinary work teams–where those in IT, language studies, business, international development–can come together to meet the ever-growing needs of their homelands in receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Students so engaged in putting their resources and abilities to work in this manner, can begin immediately to advance the gospel at home, without waiting to complete their degree and returning to their place of origin to make a real difference.

Thanks to President Wheelright, David Lucero, Gabriele, all of the faculty and students, escorts, performers at the Polynesian cultural center and new Friends of the Foundation who have been cultivated as a result of this experience.  We look forward to implementing and helping members execute their desire to share their stories and faith online in accessible ways.

“And the sound will go forth from Zion!”

A Deseret News’ writer summarized some of the current concerns regarding growing secularism–or as Elder Maxwell referred to it–”irreligion”:

Secularism seen as obstacle for LDS

An attorney for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints predicts secularism will be one of the most significant obstacles facing the LDS Church over the coming decade.

William F. Atkin, associate general counsel for the LDS Church, made the prognostication Saturday during an address at the 2010 J. Reuben Clark Law Society Conference on the University of Utah campus.

“When governments become neutral towards religion, we see less and less protection of religion and religious activities,” he said. “Secularism in the world is neutral at best towards religions and hostile at worst. We’re seeing more and more that it is hostile, not just neutral, towards religion.”

In the United States, secularism could result in changing how the tax code treats nonprofit religious organizations.

“We think there’s going to be a tightening now of what kind of entities get tax-exempt status,” Atkin said. “Maybe churches are no longer going to be viewed as such a positive influence in society — therefore (maybe) they’re not going to be granted tax-exempt status.”

Abroad, secularism is manifesting itself in a wave of anti-discrimination measures in Europe that could, for example, prevent the LDS Church from requiring its employees to adhere to a basic level of personal worthiness and moral conduct.

“We’re seeing more and more, particularly in Western Europe, the countries who are very secular are pushing anti-discrimination and not permitting any religious exclusions,” he said.

——

To adopt a website to share your appreciation of religious freedom and/or your beliefs in the gospel of Jesus Christ, please visit siteadopt.org.

Your voice will make a difference.

Technology is not merely a toy; it’s a tool for the spread of the gospel to all nations.  What’s on your blog that will help friends of other faiths find the truths that will help heal their lives and ultimately the nations from which they belong?

For ways to get involved, please join the More Good Foundation Facebook Group.

More Good Foundation Facebook Page

Friends of the Foundation, Mormons Everywhere~

Please join us on our More Good Foundation Facebook Page as we share ways to display God’s goodness to the world through your lives and insights, as faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We’re inviting all around the world to share your photos and talks, your write-ups of activities, with us, that we can post this positive content in appropriate ways online (and anonymously or by first name to protect your privacy),  on websites that deal with the theme of the respective materials you send.

See the discussion topics for ways you can become simply and effectively involved in the global conversation about who we are as members.  Remember, silence is often misconstrued as consent, and it’s up to us to share our talks in Sunday meetings, our learning, our journaling online (non-private sorts of entries) with a larger audience than our own community of believers.

It’s easy to speak to ourselves about what we do, who we are, and the amazing miracles we witness in the kingdom daily.  But it’s time to  expand our reach and our way of thinking about messaging, about those who need to receive the messages, and engage ourselves in a natural conversation with friends of other faiths, as we tell our stories, share the activities we participate in on a daily basis, the threads of our hobbies, our talents, our connections, and God’s Hand in those, with the world.  It’s time to take literally the challenge to find thousands who are ready for the truth. It’s time to be a voice online.

As Paul spoke from Mars Hill in the 1st century, where he had the greatest audience of his secular day, and in a society not unlike ours today, we likewise can take note, and in parallel fashion, go where the people are to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ through small and simple means on the Internet–the gathering place of the 21st Century. This is my witness and my encouragement to each of us…

We invite you to share this page with all you know, and to join in the conversation there and on the Internet. If you need further help or would like to receive a presentation for greater understanding about ways members can participate, please feel free to contact us.

Karen

Elder Ballard referenced candidly comments circulating the Net during the former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, as indicative of the need for individuals to rise to the challenge of defending and clarifying LDS beliefs in an understandable fashion for those not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons):

You remember Mr. (Mike) Huckabee (who was also vying to be the Republican candidate for president), who among other things said that Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil were brothers?” Ballard asked students. “Remember that? It went all over the media.

“Well they are!” Ballard exclaimed to a laughing student body.

“But they (the media and many of other faiths) don’t understand that, because they don’t have the (LDS gospel) restoration. They don’t understand the spiritual relationship that … we are all sons and daughters of God, and that Lucifer was one of those and (that) he chose to use his agency in an unrighteous way.”

Mormon apostle, Elder Melvin J. Ballard, also specifically alluded to the oft-asked question posed by reporters:  “Why aren’t Mormons Christian?”  or “Are Mormons Christians?” He said evangelicals have criticized that church for not being a Christian faith because the Church does not consider the 4th century Nicene Creed as valid, religious doctrine; it sees it as a construct of man. Rather, members believe in a modern restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ as Christ taught it. In sharing his approach in responding to those who make such inquiries,  Elder Ballard, remarked:

(We) explain to (reporters) who our Heavenly Father is, who the Lord Jesus Christ is and who the Holy Ghost is, as revealed to us through the restoration of the gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith,” said Ballard. “It always bothered (reporters) when we would say that we just don’t believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was praying to himself when he often prayed to his Heavenly Father for guidance.”

Another frequently-addressed and surfacing issue in media circles and on and off-line is in regard to the myth that we are a “secretive” people or have secretive nature as an organization, to which Elder Ballard, in his frank and genuine apostolic manner, added:

We have almost 19,000 chapels scattered around the world, 53,000 full-time missionaries that are trying to drag people into the 19,000 chapels. We don’t understand why you would say we are a secret society,” Ballard said as he related his response to BYU-Idaho students.

The apostle commented that much of this stigma revolves around the sacredness of our temples and the fact that the Lord has placed restrictions on who may enter His holy house. In his words,

The world has no concept of what a temple is … they see our temples and think our temples are like a cathedral (and because) they can’t go into that cathedral … therefore we are a secret society….

We take great joy in explaining to them the purpose of the temple. The temple is not a meetinghouse — the temple is a house dedicated to the Lord where his children come to make sacred covenants…

Additionally, the Mormon apostle, Elder Ballard, spoke about the prevalent ignorance and darkness among many in the world of our brothers and sisters, reminding students “how tremendous a thing it is to be a member of the church and to have a knowledge of who we are and where we came from.” He added:

We understand the covenants and the commandments we need to enter into so we can go back to the presence of our Heavenly Father,” Ballard said. “We understand that as members of the church. But out there even among those that are writing in religious columns — they don’t get it.”

Elder Ballard gently suggested that members, collectively speaking, may need to learn to learn “to be more aggressive. I think we have to learn to be a little more effective in our ability to share what we know to be true with the world.” (emph. added).

Referring to correspondence and questions regarding Prop 8 and our belief in heterosexual marriage– from those within and without the Church–Elder Ballard remarked:

[Adam and Eve] had a charge to multiply and replenish the earth … That is a marvelous and glorious experience to bring up children, to have and raise a family and that is done between a husband and a wife who are married.Marriage is a vital, important doctrine of the church, and we can’t do anything about it but stand in favor of it.

While encouraging the Mormon membership to treat the topic with love and civility, he made firmly the point that the  Church cannot succumb to abandoning the “great and marvelous principle of marriage between a man and a woman.”

Elder Ballard encouraged students to fortify their faith and keep their testimonies alive and strong, and to forgo a complacent and “all-is-well-in-Zion” mentality.

By clicking on share, on the widget below, you can find the appropriate icon for you, copy the embed code, and add it to your site.

An amazing team of volunteers have gathered to tend to the ever-pressing, dire needs of thousands of Haitians, including medical teams dispatched by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Mormons”), and planes full of supplies sent in tandem with the Islamic Relief USA and other charitable organizations.

Miracles continue to occur.  Mormon return missionary from Haiti, who served as White House presidential representative in many countries, coordinated a divinely inspired effort to charter planes full of returned missionaries and medically proficient volunteers to go to Port au Prince and assist in the relief efforts. Nine meetinghouses, largely unimpeded by the quake, were set up as shelters, and operations were moving forward there, as hundreds of pounds of supplies–from purifiers, to hygiene kits, from food and water to medical supplies–were ushered into the country from Miami, Chicago, and elsewhere through Church distribution channels and those of cooperating agencies.

The miracle that the Proctors of Meridian Magazine share of bringing back a plane full of orphans, Brother Studdert’s vision, came to pass in another display of God’s intervention as hearts and minds united in prayer to help some of these emotionally-flailing, tender, wanting children to board a plane with their adoptive parent or parents and head home.  See the orphan story here.

If you are a native French speaker and would like to assist at this end in the long-term solution to the problems that Haiti is facing, please contact us at email@moregoodfoundation.  There are many opportunities to share your faith online in French and Creole and to create websites that can bring the Haitian people the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints–to offer spiritual salvation as we work now to offer temporal help and emotional and spiritual relief.

From video clips of youth speaking from around the globe about their faith in Christ, testimony of the restored gospel, to inspiring messages of the First Presidency and other Mormon leaders, to the contents of a Mormon youth guide written for the benefit and Strength of Youth,  this site is a welcome venue for leaders and young adults 12-18 alike.

Last night, my two teenage girls and I previewed the site together, listened to Elder Uchtdorf’s message regarding our need to create, as children of God, and we captured some of the testimonies of young people from various countries affirming their faith in Jesus Christ and their knowledge of His restored gospel, as taught in its fulness in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Additionally, there are handy links to the Church Newsroom and other Mormon resources on the site, as well as information on Scouting, and testimonials of youth committed to righteous living in  a Brand New Year, 2010. A Brand New Year also includes streamed music for download, and explanations of a leader resource–the Brand New Year DVD that will be distributed to leaders of youth for use in strengthening youth everywhere.

Link to this site, take time to share it with your family and to talk about the contents and teachings it offers, and ways to apply those in your circumstances.  Here’s one of the messages from a Mormon leader, a modern apostle of the Lord’s Church on earth today:

Overcoming Challenges

By Elder Robert D. Hales

Our challenges, including those we create by our own decisions, are part of our test in mortality. Let me assure you that your situation is not beyond the reach of our Savior. Through Him, every struggle can be for our experience and our good (see D&C 122:7). Each temptation we overcome is to strengthen us, not destroy us. The Lord will never allow us to suffer beyond what we can endure (see 1 Corinthians 10:13).

(Visit Youth.lds.org.)

摩爾門經​ 耶穌基督​的​另​一​部​約書​ 教義和聖約​ 無價珍珠​ 經文​指南​

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Mormon“) is now offering the scriptures in Korean and Chinese online.  Korean scriptures were recently added in October, and Chinese (traditional) has been made available in December.  These online resources include translations of three books of modern revelation–the will of God for you and me in our day. This wonderful compendium of revelations were given through the Prophet, Joseph Smith, who was called of God as an instrument for restoring the gospel of Jesus Christ in its fulness to the earth. If you are wondering why you are here, where the truth really lies, if God is real, if Jesus is the Son of God, or what you should do with your life, we invite you to read these scriptures or those in your native language (other language texts are available as well.) These scriptures are called, The Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price.

We, at More Good Foundation, a lay membership organization serving you, also have many sites to assist you, in an unofficial capacity, to learn more about the Church and its members, and to talk with members in real time. For more information, visit www.moregoodfoundation.org, click on Our Sites. An unofficial copy of The Book of Mormon in Russian is also available on bookmormon.ru, an MGF site.

Write us with your comments or questions, or ways you may be helped by these sites. We’d love to hear from you.

Mormon.org is a website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the main stop online for those seeking information about the gospel, the Plan of Salvation, and the doctrines of the Church.  Visitors to Mormon.org have nearly tripled over the past year to 650,000 per month, thanks to promotional efforts and a growing public interest in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.To better serve a rapidly growing audience, a newly updated version of Mormon.org launched recently with a freshened look and enhanced video sharing capabilities. The site provides a media-rich experience for its viewers and helps friends of other faiths get a sense for who Church members are and what they believe.

“The jewel of the new site is the “Videos” channel, which will deliver viewers a library of videos that can be watched online, embedded into blogs, or shared through e-mail or social networks,” Wilson said. “A cutting-edge feature of the ‘share’ and ‘embed’ functionality is the option for the viewer to crop a video clip to a specific section and then share or embed just that piece.”

The new site also profiles individual Mormons’ personal experiences with the faith. The experiences shared in the videos are real and unscripted.  Mormons who appear in the videos are from all over the world, representing the international reach of the Church. The majority of Church members reside outside the United States, and congregations are found in over 160 countries.

Prior to this latest release of Mormon.org, the Church implemented a chat function on the site so those interested in learning more about the Church could instantly chat with a missionary who could answer their questions, 24 hours a day. Missionaries have been conducting over 40,000 online chat sessions per month. In response to the remarkable success of the online chat, that feature has been given a much more prominent place on the new Mormon.org Web site.

Another important feature called “Worship With Us” provides a meetinghouse locator that lists the locations of thousands of Latter-day Saint chapels around world where everyone is invited to worship. Individuals interested in attending a service in their area will likely find a chapel on the site.

Mormon prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, of  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often referenced by other faiths as the “Mormon Church“),  announced an extension to its 3-decade mission statement which has included preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, perfecting and strengthening the members, and redeeming the dead through temple service. The statement, which is incorporated into the Church’s Handbook of Instructions will now include a fourth longstanding Church emphasis: caring for the poor and the needy. Serving has always been an integral part of each of these aspects of the Church mission, but will be enumerated to stand on its own accord as a pillar on which the gospel and membership activity rests (See Deseret News, LDS to boost emphasis on helping needy; Salt Lake Temple not closing.)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (oft inadvertently called the “Mormon Church”) is and has always been a serving organization, with members covenanted through baptism to strive continually to follow the example of the Lord who always went about “doing good.” Central to the Mormon faith and LDS religion is the tenet that “caring for the widow and the fatherless” and quietly hearing the silent pleas of those in desperate plights or needy circumstances around us, is paramount to a lived religion and consistently Christian life.

As American religion historian Jan Shipps noted, “it’s not that Mormons haven’t already been caring for the poor and needy with its humanitarian program…” However, rather than “moving it up to be one of our priorities,” it may be even more accurate to say that it simply affirms to others what has been embedded and held as integral in Mormons’ devotion to Christ, service to Him and understanding of the implications of His atonement for all.

LDS Reach Out to Poor and Needy in the World

Merry-go-Round in Ghana

Ghana teachers & BYU techies creatively build power-generating merry-go-round to serve Essam village

In addition to Church-initiated projects, individual members are creative in their efforts to meet world needs and reach out to the poor and the needy. The motto of Brigham Young University, a Church-sponsored school, is to “enter to learn and go forth to serve.” Taken literally, thousands of students have been involved in global improvements. The photo above depicts an electricity-generating merry-go-round, created by BYU technology students and professor Charles Harrell in tandem with teachers in Essam village, Ghana. Harrell, BYU Professor from the Ira Fulton School of Technology remarks:

These villages and schools don’t have electricity. As children push the merry-go-round, it [generates] electricity that [lights] the school rooms.

The first project was completed in 2008. Markham, a retired engineer supporting the project who served in Ghana as a Mormon missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints observed:

In the rural villages the kids almost have no toys. I seldom saw the kids playing with anything other than a car tire or something else that could be used as a wheel.

Wheelchairs

In terms of the global humanitarian outreach of the Church, it is overwhelming in its scope and generosity. One of hundreds of Church initiatives worldwide includes providing wheelchairs for those 100 million people who may not have access to one or cannot afford to purchase one. “For them, going to school or getting a job may be impossible dreams.”

To help, the Church partners with community organizations serving the disabled. The local partner assesses clients, prescribes a device, and follows up with therapy and support. The Church donates wheelchairs, crutches, walkers, cushions, and other assistive devices – sometimes purchased from local workshops. When requested, teams of therapists give additional technical training to the partner.

Since 2001, the Church has distributed more than 300,000 wheelchairs in 101 countries. In 2008, the Church distributed more than 50,000 wheelchairs in 46 countries, from Armenia to Vietnam, Cambodia to Jamaica, Sri Lanka to Krgyzstan, Mexico to Malaysia. (Reaching Out to Poor and Needy: LDS Humanitarian Website)

From providing access to clean water in over 4500 communities worldwide, to shipping dolls to children in Afghanistan as part of an inter-faith cooperative effort to reach out to the poor and needy,  to young single adults packing hygiene kits and women sewing quilts for the cold, there is always some outreach of some kind going on in the homes, lives, neighborhoods, wards (meetinghouses), stakes (meetinghouses covering extended geographical area), areas, and directed by the Church at large.

In Close~As Mormon Mission Statement Is Expanded

This inspired addition to the Mormons’ three-fold mission–mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints– to include caring for the poor and the needy stands to remind us all of our connectivity, our Christian commitments, and our need to listen for the spiritual cues of those among us, whose wounds may not be visible, whose hearts or minds or homes need binding up, and whose hands may need some lifting.  A timely change at this Christmas season, 2009, that I shall always remember.

The Mormon Messages channel on YouTube was launched in April, 2008. Since its launch, its influence has grown to reach millions. The dozens of videos currently available on Mormon Messages have been viewed a total of 7.5 million times.

During the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, the Church posted a Mormon Messages video showing random people on the streets of New York City sharing a variety of responses to one simple question: “What are you thankful for?” The video become so popular so quickly that it was featured twice on the front page of YouTube.  After two weeks, nearly 300,000 had viewed the video.

Thousands of positive comments have come from viewers of Mormon Messages videos.  The videos have been viewed by people in over 190 countries. 

“The comments we’ve received in response to the channel have been overwhelmingly positive,” said Dallas Petersen, the project manager for Mormon Messages. “Viewers are continually asking for more of these videos.”

A new video for the Mormon Messages channel is produced about every two weeks. They’re featured on the home page of lds.org, the Church’s official Web site, and on the official Mormon Messages Facebook page. Some of the traffic to the videos comes as a result of Church members posting them on their personal Facebook pages or on Twitter. The short length and uplifting messages of the videos make them ideal for sharing on the Internet.

To date, 38 videos have been produced and many have been translated into Spanish. Topics include Jesus Christ, hope, fatherhood, creativity and perseverance. While some videos are meant to coincide with a specific event or season, others are more timeless.

Some videos, such as one featuring Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s address about Jesus Christ that was posted during the Easter 2009 weekend, are particularly timely and relevant. Elder Holland’s message was viewed hundreds of thousands of times in a matter of days and became the top viral video on the Internet during the Easter weekend.

LDS Newsroom, December 3, 2009.

On Thursday, November 12th, an editorial appearing in the Deseret News emphasizes the balancing of “competing interests” in the City Council’s ordinance advocating equal housing and employment for gay members of the Salt Lake City community. Commending the action of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and the city, the editorial reads:

Mayor Ralph Becker and his colleagues on the City Council were rightly concerned about the problem of discrimination. Recognizing that discrimination against gays was bound up in a host of contentious issues, the city carefully drafted an ordinance that addressed the problem but balanced competing interests. In short, the parties involved didn’t have to choose between virtue and victory. They got both.

Further, the editorial alluded to the church’s earlier statement titled, “The Divine Institution of Marriage,” in which it was noted that the church “does not object to rights regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the family or the constitutional rights of churches and their adherents to administer and practice their religion free from government interference.” This ordinance is said to be consistent with the foregoing affirmation.

Paramount to the discussion is the fact that the church is immovable on one point: as the editiorial noted, it “remains unequivocally committed to defending the bedrock foundation of marriage between a man and a woman.”

Our hope is that the world and the GLTB community will know of our respect for them, and our desire to count them equal as individuals, while yet maintaining our stance regarding marriage and the institution thereof.

“The church supports this ordinance because it is fair and reasonable and does not do violence to the institution of marriage,” said Michael Otterson, managing director of the LDS Church’s public affairs office. View full story – Mormon Church supports Gay Rights.

The statement is not new. This has been the Church’s position and it is consistent with prior statements regarding gay rights and marriage, which can also be found in the Church’s August 2008 statement, “The Divine Institution of Marriage.”

“I represent a church that believes in human dignity, in treating others with respect even when we disagree — in fact, especially when we disagree,” said Otterson. “Our language will always be respectful and acknowledge those who differ, but (we) will also be clear on matters that we feel are of great consequence to our society.”