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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