You are assigned to labor in the Facebook mission

[Moliere]

I found this missionary opportunity interesting.

This opportunity is ideal for young adults, who are honorably excused from serving a full-time proselyting mission, and will allow them to bless the lives of others.

[Omaha 680]

I found this missionary opportunity interesting.

That's worse than Pocatello.

[Eddie]

I have a niece on a mission. A portion of her time she is assigned to be on facebook.

My how times have changed...

[Sullyute]

Some of the duties...

c) Join in the conversation by participating in online discussions and forums

So who on CUF is currently serving a mission?

[DU Ute]

Some of the duties...



So who on CUF is currently serving a mission?

Rambam

[edward777]

Anything involving the mall?

[Donuthole]

I wonder how many young men will wander into webcam chat rooms to, um, spread the gospel. Webcam entertainers need the gospel, after all, and you can't hold to the rod unless you know it's there!

[Moliere]

Anything involving the mall?

Not yet, but there are plenty of opportunities for petroleum engineers within the energy arm of the church

[Uncle Ted]

Hook Of Mormon: Inside The Church's Online-Only Missionary Army

Until three years ago, Aubert L’Espérance had no idea who Mormons were or what they believed. All he knew was that he liked messing with them.


To be fair, L’Espérance, then 15, was clueless about most religions. The preppy-chic Québécois had never been to church, grew up agnostic verging on atheist and assumed “Mormon” was just another name for the Amish when he first stumbled on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints online. He’d been browsing his favorite timewaster -- the Art of Trolling, a website less holy, more holy shit. And there, between funny snapshots of misspelled signs, he discovered a new religion and an addictive pastime: pranking the missionaries manning the official “Chat with a Mormon” homepage.


Hoping to attract converts, the church invites people to come online and message anonymously with missionaries who can answer “whatever questions you may have about any Christian topic.” L’Espérance, like thousands of other Internet trolls, abused it spectacularly, logging on with a fake persona and bombarding the Mormons for hours with nonsense questions.


But then, L’Espérance’s hoaxing gave way to something that surprised even him: a genuine curiosity in a group he says he’d assumed was “just some sort of tribe” living in “really remote parts of the universe.” Less than a year after first fooling around with Mormon missionaries, L’Espérance was baptized. Ryan Tucker, a missionary who helped convert him in the church’s chatroom, hailed it as a journey “from troll to testimony.”

[…]

“The principles missionaries have always been taught actually just work better online,” says Gideon Burton, a professor at Brigham Young University who has advised the church on its Internet missionary work. “It’s going to be a lot more efficient.”


For Mormons, this about-face on social media was nearly as radical as ending the ban on beer. Until the June announcement, the Internet had been off-limits to missionaries to shield them from “worldly entertainment,” like the Times and Twitter, that could distract them from their religious calling. The missionaries, who can serve from age 18, could go online just once a week, and then only to blog about their faith or email their family. Phone calls home were permitted just twice a year.
[…]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_5024251.html

The ban on beer has been lifted? Cool.

[…]
Even within a church legendary for adding converts with machine-like efficiency, the Internet-only mission has been an outlier. Whereas traditional Mormon missionaries convert, on average, six people during their 18- to 20-month service, the online apostles in Provo have averaged around 30 converts per missionary per year, says Burton. And these people stick around. Ninety-five percent of the Internet converts have kept active, a retention rate more than triple the norm.


“It’s unheard of,” says Burton. “[The Referral Center Mission] was equal to the highest-baptizing missions that are out there.”


Damning influences be damned: Church leaders realized these so-called “Facebook missionaries” were getting results too impressive to ignore.
[…]
"Your fingers have been trained to text and tweet to accelerate and advance the work of the Lord -- not just to communicate quickly with your friends,” David A. Bednar, a member of the church's second-highest governing body, said in 2011. “The skills and aptitude evident among many young people today are a preparation to contribute to the work of salvation.”

[Uncle Ted]

Cool, Apostles on twitter...

https://twitter.com/M_RBallard

[SoonerCoug]

I would love to have some missionaries on cougarstadium. I think this would be a great environment for them.

[TripletDaddy]

Would have been a cooler twitter account if it were called "The REAL M Russell Ballard"

i noticed he he is following the LDS Church, Mormon.org, and LDS news. I'm wondering what the point of that would be since he would know about anything prior to any of those sources tweeting it out.

[Vic Vega]

I would love to have some missionaries on cougarstadium. I think this would be a great environment for them.

Do you think they would pile on when I am being an ass to Sooner, or would they chastise me because they would want to turn him back to team Mormon?

I hope they don't join. I already ignore enough Mormon guilt trips as it is.

[SoonerCoug]

Do you think they would pile on when I am being an ass to Sooner, or would they chastise me because they would want to turn him back to team Mormon?

I hope they don't join. I already ignore enough Mormon guilt trips as it is.

I am totally on team Mormon.

Your perception of me is like thinking a journalist is anti-American for criticizing the president. Free speech and open criticism is 100% pro-Mormon. Silencing dissent is the worst kind of anti-Mormonism.

[SoonerCoug]

Has anyone covered the Church issuing formal hashtag recommendations?

http://t.co/P0iYjfhnVV