Monday, October 28, 2013

WEEK 78- online proselytizing



Bolfing was a ton of fun! It was a blast! We dig a hole, then throw bowling balls at it!


Well, the big story of this week has been online proselyting!!! Last Saturday, President got back from a Mission President's Seminar. It was pretty great, he and sister Riggs totally made a getaway! They were gone for 4 days and nobody in the mission knew! He told Elder Cluff and I, then took off! Not even the office couples knew! But he got back Saturday night, and sent us a REALLY long text with a bunch of info and a request to meet the next day. So, we met and since then we've been preparing to go online as a mission! Elder Cluff and I got on facebook last week, our mission leadership just got on this week, and the rest of the mission will follow in another week and a half or so.

So, amid the multiple exchanges we had this week, we had to prepare a TON for the training we had on Friday. Throughout the week, we set up our accounts, helped President set his up, held a conference call with the mission leadership, taught President how to use facebook, and prepared to teach online proselyting principles to the leadership! We had a powerpoint that we used, but President also wanted us to get really familiar with facebooks security settings so we could demonstrate for everyone how to adjust settings.It was crazy!!! But so much fun! Today we had a meeting with everyone who works in the office, but we didn't stay for too long because we had to go load up the car because 5 of our missionaries got their visas! One of them, Elder Reid, was my roommate last transfer, so I was sad to see him go. that's pretty much the balance of our week! Pretty straightforward, huh!

Well, to fill this out a little more, I just thought I'd share with you all a little about what our online proselyting is like.

So, immediately after we got news we were going online, President Riggs asked me to go online to start familiarizing myself with facebooks security. Security and safety are the number one priority with all of this because of the risks that the internet can pose. President has been instructed by the bretheren that missionaries only have one strike with this. If they use facebook to socialize or for anything inappropriate, their privileges are taken for the rest of their mission.

Once our foundation of security has been laid, we then create an account and link it to mormon.org. I initially was going to use my old facebook account, but after realizing that that would mean going through ALL of my pictures one at a time, I decided I could be more productive in my time... haha I created a new page.

Once everything is linked, we begin proselyting! Sister Borland, one of the sisters serving with me in the Braddock Ward talked to someone in Hong Kong about the gospel on day 1!!! it was schaWEET!! It's incredible seeing the possibilities that can come from this. We can use this to keep better touch with those we teach, we can use it to teach people anywhere in the world, and we can use it to coordinate with local ward leaders, and then some!!! That's just the beginning!

For finding people, I've created a card that I carry on me. I glue it to the back of mormon.org cards. We were instructed to put our page on mormon.org cards, so I thought i'd make it easier for people! I added QR codes so people could access my page easier. I'll include a copy.

We're also brainstorming many other ideas of how to use the internet to spread the gospel. Friday we had a meeting where we trained the mission leadership and one other companionship on online proselyting. The extra companionship is because they're both computer Whizs. Literally, one of them won a national collegiate IT competition as a junior in high school. We're counting on their creativity!

Also, starting in early December, our mission is getting ipads and iphones! It's crazy seeing the way the work is progressing. It's been really neat, too, seeing how the Lord has prepared me to be here at this time. I grew up with a father who works on computers, so I know them pretty well. Now, as the mission transitions to the point where everything is going onto computers, the Lord has placed me in a position here in the office where I can help implement all these new things and help them run smoothly and efficiently.

Well, that's about it for today! Halloween is this week, which means we get to watch movies! It'll be pretty exciting. P-Day today is going to be pretty chill. We'll probably just go play sports with the zone. It'll be fun though!

Love you all! Until next week!

-Elder Hodgson

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