Now you can follow the words of LDS leaders through Twitter. Elder M. Russell Ballard now has an official Twitter account and he tweeted the following message after his Church Education System fireside on Sunday: “Thank you to all who tuned in to the devotional. It was a joy to be with you, both those in San Diego and throughout the world #CESDevo.”
Elder Ballard is the first LDS Apostle to tweet, but I expect that others will begin tweeting soon.
You can follow Elder Ballard at @BallardMRussell (twitter.com/BallardMRussell). The account has nearly 6,000 followers.
The First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Presidency of the Seventy, Presiding Bishopric, and the General Officers of the Church have pages on Facebook and Google+, and now have accounts on Twitter. There are Twitter handles reserved for all 15 of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve, but until each account becomes active, the handles may possibly change.
Social media is a great way for the top leadership of the Church to share the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
“In addition to the official Facebook and Google+ pages for Church leaders that the Church has maintained on their behalf for some time now, these senior leaders have begun using Twitter to share their words, thoughts and teachings,” said Jessica Moody, Church spokeswoman. “Elder Ballard’s tweet is the first to be shared, but other Church leaders will be also be using Twitter in the near future.
“This is another step Church leaders are taking to use social media to share the gospel and communicate with the world.”
Update: May 6th: Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (@HollandJeffreyR) also sent his first tweet tonight: “Being with missionaries is the greatest. Tonight it was the MTC in Provo, with all international MTCs listening in.” And he included a picture at the MTC.
Update June 6, 2014: Elder David A Bednar (@BednarDavidA) has also tweeted.
It’s Elder Ballard who got me to blog and jump in online when I had the strongest aversion to giving up any privacy.
I’m not one of the really popular blogs or anything close, but 600,000+ pageviews later with one or two posts getting 5000+ page views per month – I adore that apostle. I cannot fathom any other circumstance where an obscure Mormon Mommy blogger in a small town corner of the world could communicate some of the most dearest, favorite mysteries and majesties of the Kingdom with that many other people from all over the world. I can hardly grasp what has happened!
What a visionary man when he commissioned all of us during that BYU-Hawaii commencment speech – to be good enough to represent the Church and its values and beliefs publicly. Who could have ever foreseen it?
Well, he did.
I love what he did for my life and the hundreds of interactions I’ve had because of his inspiration!
I wish I could tell him that too.
Thanks for the tip about the tweet too – how exciting!
Wow! It’s hard to fathom through these means that millions more people will be reached around the world, those with whom the Gospel can be proclaimed! How insightful of our Church leaders to “just do it!”