This week has been a decently busy one. At least, we've had a full schedule every day. That doesn't always happen, but it's nice (and tiring) when it does!
We went to Firenze this week, A.K.A. Florence. Cool huh? See attached pictures. I've always wanted to hang around Florence for a day. We didn't really have a day, more like a few hours of "free time." So we stopped by the Duomo (see picture). It was pretty neat. It has a very different architectural style than most things I've seen in Italy, at least on the outside. On the inside of the huge dome, there's a big fresco of Dante's Inferno, at least that's what they told me (see other picture). One of my goals is to read that book in Italian when I get back. Things are always better in their original language! I would've have really like to see the David statue as well, but Italy has this weird custom that says that all museums are closed on Monday... Excuse me?
Anyway, the real reason we went to Firenze was not to hang out, even though that was cool too. We had a conference down there. Elder Fingerle did a mission tour. He's an Area Seventy from Germany. He's also the Director of Religious Education for the Europe Area if I remember right. He did several conferences in which he talked about using social media in our proselyting efforts. Before starting, he pointed out the elephant in the room: We're not allowed to use social media! We don't have iPads yet like some missionaries. That'll be the day, but until then, we are without. He still said that we can further our proselyting efforts with social media without even touching an iPad/computer. He talked about ways to invite members to use social media to reach out to not just some people, but ALL people. He brought up examples such as mormon.org, Mormon messages, FamilySearch (Facebook for the dead as he called it), sharing uplifting messages on social media sites, and so forth. It really opened my mind to the potentials that these sorts of tools can have. These instruments we have in our lives can be powerful tools for good if used correctly. That's the way God would like us to use them for sure. With social media, we can now reach out to many more people who before were beyond our sphere of influence. Now, our sphere of influence is the whole world!
We decided to try out this social media initiative. This week we visited several families in the ward. We talked about the practical applications we can make of the Gospel in our lives. Then we watched this video that the Church released on Easter: https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng. Take 2:45 to watch it. It's great. Then our invite to them was to share this video on Facebook with someone they thought might need it. One mother said "I'll also make an event page inviting OTHER people to share it too." Nice work. My invite to them is the same to you. Watch the video and think of someone that YOU know that could benefit from a greater faith in Jesus Christ. Obviously, the ultimate goal is not the video, but the opening of hearts and doors to the light of the Gospel. We try to open hearts and doors using all honorable means available to us. Today, these honorable means include social media.
I look forward to implementing this approach more in our proselyting efforts!
The mission's great. I love you all! Happy week. Love, Anziano Simcox
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