If you're new here, read more about the More Good Foundation. We help members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon church) share their beliefs on the Internet. Learn more about what Mormons believe or talk with Mormons at LDS.net.

We’ve just launched a new version of MormonTestimonies.org and we’ve changed our assumption of what a “testimony” is. Instead of sharing your “one” testimony, MormonTestimonies.org now encourages you to share multiple “testimonies.” You might share your testimony of the Savior, or of tithing, or of the Book of Mormon.

You might also share applications of Gospel teachings. In fact, Elder Ballard recently spoke about “taking part in everyday conversations in an unforced way, where your values and your religious beliefs will arise naturally.” He listed several questions you might answer online:

• How do your beliefs lift and shape your life for the better?
• How does the gospel help you as a parent engage with your teens?
• How do your values encourage you to participate in civic affairs?
• How has your experience as a home or visiting teacher enlarged your compassion or care for the sick and needy?
• How has your Church life helped you to avoid such things as pornography and immorality?
• How have family councils or home evenings helped you resolve differences of opinion with members of your family?
• How has your experience in speaking in church helped you address large public groups?
• Where did you learn to respect and not to criticize other faiths?

Source: Elder Ballard’s speech given at BYU Management Society

We’ve preloaded these and other questions into MormonTestimonies.org. Each time you visit the site (or refresh your browser) a new question will be loaded. Feel free to answer these questions, or write something else entirely. If you think of other questions we might ask, please leave them in the comments below.

(If you had a user account on the old MormonTestimonies.org site, please contact us to get a new username and password.)

Tags: elder ballard, m russell ballard, Mormon, testimony

Saturday Elder Ballard spoke at a meeting of the BYU Management Society in Washington, D.C., and again encouraged members to share their beliefs on the Internet. Counting his previous speeches at BYU-Hawaii and BYU-Idaho, this is the third time he’s spoken on the topic.

Here are excerpts:

Many want answers, and the places they are most likely to seek those answers are either on the Internet or from their Mormon acquaintances.

I probably don’t need to tell you that there is much questionable information and even outright falsehoods about the Church on the Internet and in the media-much bad mixed with the good.

Gradually, accurate and positive information is rising to the top of lists generated by various search engines. Those seeking information are more likely to encounter accurate information today than at any time since the Internet began, even though we still have a long way to go.

So let me pose a question. What are you prepared to do about it? If you are a member of the Church, what is your responsibility during this period of unusual attention and debate? Interest has continued at a high level and probably will for some time. If a national conversation is going on about the Church, are you going to be an active participant or a silent observer?

…Church leaders can’t do it all, especially at the grass-roots, community level. While we do speak authoritatively for the Church, we look to our responsible and faithful members to engage personally with blogs, to write thoughtful, online letters to news organizations, and to act in other ways to correct the record with their own opinions.

However, I emphasize that it is not always about correcting misinformation. Sometimes it is about getting solid information and ideas out there in the first place. Share your experiences - those from your own life - that show how your values and your faith intersect. It doesn’t matter whether that’s face to face with another person, or whether you do it by participating from your own blog or contributing to someone else’s blog. The most important thing is that you let people know that you are a Latter-day Saint, and that your behavior and attitude always reflect the high standards of the Church and what is expected as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, you will be speaking as an individual member and not as an official representative of the Church.

I am talking about taking part in everyday conversations in an unforced way, where your values and your religious beliefs will arise naturally….

Read the full text: Elder M. Russell Ballard’s speech given at Brigham Young University Management Society

Tags: beliefs, m russell ballard, Mormon, online, sharing, testimony