Encouraged to blog for missionary purposes

It has been confirmed to me that blogging can be a good thing! I mean, I thoroughly enjoy reading about other people's lives, but as I have expressed before I don't feel absolutely comfortable with posting my personal life completely online for the whole world to potentially see, even though I realize that most likely, only those who already know me are going to be coming to visit. However, recently, Elder Ballard, an apostle for the church, encouraged us (the internet savvy) to use these forums as a place to talk about the church. What a novel idea! I mean, who can count the numberless sites full of misinformation and anti-church propaganda that people probably stumble upon and read everyday. I loved this quote in his most recent General Conference address.

"I would hope that those who know very little about the Church would seek to learn more about us. I would hope they would get to know our members rather than judging us by the misinformation given by those who do not know and in some cases by those who would deliberately mislead or defame."

As I have been following the current presidential election campaigns, I of course have been very keen to hear what people say about Mitt Romney and his religion. I am not surprised to hear the bad, but I have been shocked at how many people have such bogus information about the church and how they cling to it as doctrine without the slightest ounce of open mindedness to other possible truths.

Thus, as you may have noticed, I have added a little sidebar containing links to church websites, including the Kiev, Ukraine mission website, which is where I served my mission.

Here is my awsome companion Sis. Oyuerden from Mongolia talking to a local vendor in Kiev about the Book of Mormon. The next is me and my companion, Sis. Cook, with a wonderful member of the church, Anna at her chastnie dom (meaning she had her own free standing house and yard, which was rare in Kiev).



Now, this does not mean that my blog is becoming completely church oriented. I still have lots of other things to post about. I just wanted to let you all know why I have attached the church related links and to maybe encourage others out there to start a dialog on their own blogs about the church. Because, I know that many of you out there are much better at this than I am.