Called to serve - as a CYBER Missionary!
I sometimes think the admonition "if you have the DESIRE you are called to the work" is quite important.
I was tracted out and converted to the LDS Church when I was in my early twenties, but already married. So, although two of my sons served honorable missions, I did not personally qualify until a few years ago when I had retired. My wife and I put our papers in to serve as senior missionaries. When she read the call to me and I heard that we were to serve in the China Hong Kong Mission, it literally knocked me off my feet, I'd been learning Spanish. :-) But we loved our 18 months in tiny Macau, China.
A year or so after our mission I was again making noises to my wife that it was about time to serve again. There were valid delays but I was still anxious to put on the badge again.
Until a few weeks ago when all that changed!
About that time I became aware of three talks Elder Ballard gave, in each of which he asked LDS members to join in religious discussions on the INTERNET!
Well, I've posted the story of how that hit me elsewhere but suffice it to say that although I haven't been officially called as an LDS Cyber Missionary, that's what I've been doing. I no longer have the desire to leave my home to serve, though of course if an unsolicited official call came I would respond.
I've been writing on several boards. On one of the large discussion boards (Hannity) I started a thread called "
Ask a Mormon". In less than six weeks that thread has attracted
more than 3,000 posts, and 37,000 views!
There's a whole lot of online interest in the "Mormons", and a whole lot of misinformation to correct. It is possible I think for any active Latter-day Saint with a strong testimony to unofficially serve as a missionary right now, without even leaving their home!
I've written about my experiences on the LDS Cyber Missionary Board. Anyone who is interested in the possibility of being an unofficial LDS Cyber Missionary is invited, when there's a lull on this board, to meet others with similar interests, and discuss the idea on the LDS Cyber Missionaries board. You can also copy, edit, and post in your own screen name a whole bunch of great responses to common questions asked online about the "Mormons".
http://www.lds1.org
.