An article in the Daily Herald talks about the tweets (posts on Twitter) that were “coming fast and furious” during the recent LDS general conference.
“Even as thousands of members stuffed the LDS conference center in Salt Lake City and hundreds of thousands more watched the conference broadcast, other members were pushing the event to the forefront of social media. The search term “#ldsconf” remained among the most popular on Twitter over the weekend. Tweets flooded in, for example, when Monson spoke of the need for service.”
“They ranged from the need for the warm fuzzy jar to jabs at government. But drawing the most attention on Sunday was Elder Jeffery R. Holland, who used the majority of his time to give a direct and emotional testimony about the veracity of the church’s Book of Mormon…. The talk was followed by thousands of tweets about how powerful it was. ‘If you do anything else, watch Holland,” wrote one person.’
“But even as the church’s members streamed, tweeted, IM’d, listened and watched conference on every piece of media at their disposal, Elder Russell M. Nelson said the best kind of communication doesn’t come with a cost.
“‘Even more amazing that modern technology is our opportunity to access information directly from heaven, without hardware, software or monthly service fees,’ he said.”
The Daily Herald’s article used a nice way of closing, but it may leave us with a false impression about using the Internet to spread the Gospel. Prayer is a great form of communication with God, but in spite of the fact that missionaries usually prepare themselves for their service through fervent prayer and fasting, and that prayer may open doors, missionaries still need to communicate directly with the people, if they want to make an effect. Angelic visitations as a consequence of prayers, such in the case of Alma praying for his son Alma the Younger, usually only come after the missionaries, or the parents, have done all they could to communicate with the people they were trying to reach. So, we still need to communicate with people!
I also really liked Elder Nelson’s talk. I think it is essential that we keep a balance between communicating with people and communicating with the Lord. The things we learn through revelation from God are critical in sustaining our own spirituality and thereby enabling us to share the gospel with others. Whether that be via Twitter, a blog, or just a neighborly conversation, we have a lot to share once we have acquired it for ourselves.