Author Archive
Awkward Spiritual Silence
Posted by Christopher in Uncategorized on August 5th, 2010
A couple of weeks ago we had the sister missionaries over for dinner. They we’re very personable and we easily talked about the heat of Arizona (where one of them was from) and how the roommates of the other were able to get her back to church by asking her every week for months. Before leaving they shared a message and we all knew what was coming next. The message was great and helped us to feel the spirit, but I was still uneasy in anticipation of their imminent request.
“Do you know of anyone that would let us talk to them about Jesus Christ and His Church?” one of the sisters asked. We endured the silence as long as any family can. We had the normal response of, “I can think of a couple of people, but they’re not ready yet.” And I’ll admit I was thinking the same thing, only I think I’m the one that wasn’t ready yet. It’s hard to suggest your boss or coworkers and I realized that I’m not making lots of new friends these days. So I was stumped, and bummed that I didn’t have anyone for them to teach.
This is only the most recent time this has happened to me. It happened a little over two years ago and sparked the second goal of missionaryeffort.org. I realized that I do have strengths that can push missionary work along. They weren’t as personal as referring Sally Ann who lives two houses up the street, but I knew that I could be great in finding people that were ready, even searching, for the truth. So we started the second undertaking of missionary effort, search advertising. And since then we have found about 15 people a day for the past two years that are willing to go to mormon.org for an answer to their questions. Some have asked about Christ’s apostles and have been surprised to find out that He has living apostles that lead His church today. Others have searched “I want to be happy” and have found the source of real lasting happiness. And most recently people have actually been clicking on links that ask if they want to “Become a Mormon.”
The field is whiter than what I had thought in the awkward silence of our missionary’s request for names. We can’t forget to find the Sally Anns that live up the street and I ask for your help to find the Sally Anns that live a few streets over.
Note: Two years ago today, we sent our first Google searcher to mormon.org. Since then we have sent 5,400 people there to learn more about our church.
Quick Update: Search Campaign
Posted by Christopher in Links on May 28th, 2010
I spent a little time last month optimizing our search campaign. Our cost per click (or cost per contact) was so great that I didn’t want to risk raising it, but we were able to actually lower it! Now your donations will go even further to contact more people that are literally searching for the truth.
Month to date we have sent 411 new investigators to mormon.org.
The “Member” Part of Missionary Work
Posted by Christopher in Magazines on March 7th, 2010
In an article entitled Bring Souls Unto Me Elder Tom Perry Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote, “Missionaries will continue to do the best they can, but wouldn’t it be better if you and I stepped up to do a job that is rightfully ours?”
So, what part of missionary work is ours? He said we know “personally those who are lost and need to be rescued” and then he explains our specific duties as members of the restored church of Jesus Christ.
Let me offer a simple way for you to start your missionary work. Get the addresses of the people you would like to help and send them a subscription to one of the church magazines. We’ll even pick up the cost of the subscription; just give us their address here.
They may not read it the first time or maybe not the first few times it arrives, but they will when they’re ready. This way you don’t have to try and figure out when they’re ready, they’ll decide. (The Holy Ghost will help as much as he can to persuade them to read, but he can’t persuade them to read something they don’t have.) (And having it come every month is a nice reminder too.)
Do it now or help us afford all of the subscriptions that people are requesting by donating.
The Book of Mormon – One Email at a Time
Posted by Christopher in Ideas on December 12th, 2009
It’s not uncommon to be challenged to read the Book of Mormon in a year. It’s also not all that uncommon for this goal to go the way of most New Year’s resolutions. This year you have some help.
DailyLit sends books in bite-sized intallments right to your email inbox. And guess what amazing book of scripture they offer for free? Yep, the Book of Mormon. Below are some simple steps to get started and how to use this as a missionary tool.
1. Ditch your excuses. (I came up with about 10 before I decided to try it) Check out this preview of the third email you’ll recieve; maybe that will help you realize how readable each email is.
2. Follow this link and you should see a form that looks like the one on the right.
3. Click where it says “on weekdays” and change it to daily. (That way you’ll finish in on year.)
4. Put in the time of day you would like to receive the emails.
5. Fill in your e-mail address.
6. Check the “I agree to the terms” box.
7. Click the green Read Me button.
8. Check your email you should have an email called DailyLit Validation.
9. Open it and click on the link. (It should look like the one above)
You should now start receiving emails once a day with sections of the Book of Mormon!
Now we’ll use this as a missionary tool. As soon as you click the link in your email you’ll see a congratlations page that will have this line in it: You can tell your friends about this book and suggest they read with you. Click on the red lettering and send an email to someone you think should read the Book of Mormon.
You can also give a subscription (the daily emails) to someone else by clicking on the Gift this Book tab and following the instructions.
Good luck with your New Year’s resolutions. May you read the Book of Mormon and share it in your missionary effort.
Focus on Magazines
Posted by Christopher in Magazines on September 3rd, 2009
This month we’re going back to our roots – back to focusing on giving stagnant investigators and less-active members 12 more chances to accept the gospel. It’s been a year and a half since we gave out our first church magazine subscription with the hopes that one of the issues would arrive when they were ready to read it. We’ve seen families helped by the regular church messages in their homes and we hope to see more with your help.
If you know of any investigators that have slowed in their progression toward baptism or less-active members that would benefit from a subscription, please fill out the form below (including which magazine(s) they should get) and we’ll set them up with a year-long subscription. Hopefully in the months to come we’ll have success stories to share.
Less-wet Missionary Goals
Posted by Christopher in Magazines on August 2nd, 2009
While serving in Las Margaritas in Puebla Mexico my missionary companion and I were asked to help a member with her less active family. We visited them and they were nice but didn’t want to return to church or learn from us in a reoccurring way. I’m sure my story is not a unique one. I felt there was little I could do for the family and little was done. I wish I had had the foresight to offer them a Liahona. They probably would have accepted this less personal option and they would have had the chance learn more about their church and feel the spirit prompt them to accept it again. I know this assumes they’d actually read it, but I don’t think I’m so far off to think that they would. After all they felt the promptings of the spirit at least once before in their life and acted on it.
This same concept translates to the members in our wards now. They have at one time felt the spirit and acted on it. If the spirit has a way of presenting itself in their home, through home and visiting teaching, phone calls, acts of service, or through church magazines, then they just might act on it. Let’s all experiment on this idea and send a few less active members church magazines. Send their addresses to subscriptions@missionaryeffort.org and we’ll do the rest. If you don’t know who they are or want to expand your list ask your ward mission leaders. They would love to help.
Lead Nurturing
Posted by Christopher in Magazines on June 9th, 2009
This past week I was eating at a pizza place with a friend and we saw the missionaries come in. I told them to come join us after they had ordered. We talked about this missionary effort and they started to suggest names of people that we should send Ensigns to. They were interested in sending magazines to help the people that failed to progress all the way to membership. I’m hopeful that we’ll continue to receive contacts from them.
This principle of working with someone and trying to prepare them for personal interaction (again or for the first time), in marketing, is called lead nurturing. An example of this is a “drip” campaign where a lead will receive an email every two weeks to a month and if they show interest by opening the email, clicking on a link, or any number of predefined actions they’ll be contacted by sales, or they can even have the option to contact sales directly.
That is one of the goals we have with buying subscriptions for investigators. We want to nurture the investigator without utilizing our missionaries valuable time. It’s like the drip campaigns because they get regular contact and the chance to make the next move. Then when they show interest they are much more likely to be baptized.
For Christ’s Sake
Posted by Christopher in Our Motivation on May 4th, 2009
When Nephi gave the small plates to Jacob he told him to write “for Christ’s sake, and for the sake of our people.” Elder Jeffrey Holland in his book, Christ and the New Covenant explains how proclaiming the gospel is for Christ’s sake also. Simply, if we spread the gospel, those who accept it might stop sinning. And that is a gift we can all give Christ, to stop sinning and to teach others to live righteously.
All Links Lead to mormon.org
Posted by Christopher in Links on March 29th, 2009
From the time that momon.org was organized to have consistent calls to action on each of its pages, we have been moving all of our lds.org links to more investigator friendly mormon.org pages. Today our transition is complete with our family related keywords linking here.
The call to action that exists at the bottom of each page gives the user the ability to investigate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by getting a copy of the Book of Mormon, watching videos of regular saints, get free media, and chat with missionaries. It’s great at giving an investigator the ability to learn more.
For Example – Liahona
Posted by Christopher in Magazines on March 15th, 2009
I’m sure every missionary has had a similar experience of investigators progressing, and progressing and then nothing happens. You try your hardest to teach them, to find out what stalled the progression, and usually, just to find them. Eventually your efforts aren’t enough and you have to leave them to make their own decision, which isn’t what you’d wish.
One man, that filled this description, kept coming to mind. He lived in a town where the church only had a branch and no priesthood. My companion and I taught him almost all of the lessons and then he disappeared. He didn’t move; we just couldn’t ever seem to catch him at home.
I wished I could give him another chance to accept. Well, we found 12, monthly ways for him to be exposed to the church. I dug through my missionary address book, found his address, and bought him a subscription to the Liahona. I haven’t heard anything from him yet, but hopefully one of the issues will find him at a time when he is ready to read it and accept.
Dig through your missionary journals, address books, contacts and send us the addresses of those people that have been close to accepting. Maybe their time is in the next 12 months and we can be ready.
