Well I have figured out now why I am here. It is to save our mission president from going crazy. He is buried and in some respects overwhelmed by all there is to do. We found out late last week that our mission will become an on-line mission which means that ever missionary will be given a mini Ipad and will use Facebook one hour per day to reach out to people to share the gospel to them. That is exciting and also very scary at the same time.
So Monday morning as our mission president was in the shower, he said, "Heavenly Father, how am I going to be able to do one more thing? He said the answer quickly came to him; give it to Elder Taggart and let him be in charge of all of the on-line activity and work. So on Monday he asked me to take on that responsibility. We met with all of the leadership of the mission, meaning the assistants to the president, the Zone Leaders and the Sister Trainer Leaders. We initially launched this whole new initiative with this leadership core. They were all instructed to either set up a Facebook account, if they didn't have one, or to modify their existing account to be missionary approved.
All of this means that I, and old man, must get to know Facebook inside and out and become the resident expert so that I can help walk young missionaries through the whole process. The Lord knows that there are many in the world who have no idea who the Lord, Jesus Christ is let alone what or who a Mormon is. He also knows that there are millions of people throughout the world who might be interested in learning more but whom would never consider allowing two young men or women into their home to share the message of the gospel with them. But many of those people spend a lot of time on social media and may respond to an on-line invitation to learn in a very non-threatening environment.
I have spent many hours on Facebook this week and have learned a ton. I have answered numerous questions both by phone and also on Facebook in a chat. And this was in only involving 24 missionaries so far. On Monday this next week, we will invite an additional 145 missionaries here to get things set up on Facebook and begin to use that tool one hour per day to find people who are interested in learning more. I can only imagine how crazy my week will be.
Once everyone is set up and ready to go with a Facebook account and have also created a personal profile on Mormon.org, they will each receive an Ipad to use while they are serving their mission. We are only the 9th mission in the world to go live on-line so we have the added responsibility to share what we learn, etc. to make it easier for other missions to go live later on.
It has been exciting this week to see just how many contacts and on-line lessons the 24 missionaries have made. The most exciting for me has been a young man who joined the church just 3 years ago. His mother is not a member. Neither are his father, step-father or brother. This week he has reached out to his mother, his brother and his biological father on Facebook. His mother has agreed to learn about the gospel from him on-line. He had a Facebook conversation with his brother whom he hasn't spoken to for 5 years. He has still not been able to get a response from his father but he is continuing to try. This missionary has been serving now for a year and he told me this week that this week has been the best week of his mission just because he has been able to share something so precious to him with family that he loves.
My job will be to teach, train and monitor their on-line activity to make sure what they are doing is appropriate and that they are safe as they use this on-line tool. After all, they are 18-21 and there is much that is not praiseworthy or uplifting on-line. Of course these new responsibilities are in addition to the other I have had which has kept me busy for about 50 hours per week. But I have always been up to a challenge and this one will stretch this old brain of mine.
Last night we went out to dinner with some dear business friends, Jon & Kim Starke. Jon and I have done business together for many years now and he has become a dear friend. Needless to say, we had a wonderful evening together. They only live about 25 minutes North of us so hopefully we will be able to enjoy their company many times while we are here.
My sister Jill and her husband Dave are in town this week along with their son Tyson and their neighbors and friends, Spence and Shannon Spencer and their two youngest kids. Their sons wanted to take a trip together before they leave on their missions. They are both seniors in high school so neither one of them will leave until at least next summer. But since they chose to come to Chicago, we got to go out to dinner with them tonight. It is really such a small world. The Spencer's used to live in Kent, WA and know many of the people that we know and have loved to associate with for many years. Thanks Dave and Jill for a nice dinner and fun conversation.
We are loving life; loving being together and loving this opportunity to serve and in some small way help to further the Lord's work of bringing souls unto Christ. It is truly a marvelous time to be alive.
May you each have a blessed week. Check us out on Facebook if you are prepared to see lots of posts about missionary work. We love you.
Elder Taggart
Car Czar, Phone expert and now on-line whiz.
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