Popular Post smac97 Posted November 18, 2016 Popular Post Posted November 18, 2016 Today my oldest son received his mission call. It has been an interesting experience because, due to health issues, he will be serving as a Church Service Missionary, so he had a large role in selecting where he was going to serve. He will be working in the Provo MTC in the "Referral Center", described in this article: Quote The internet’s role as a medium of communication is helping with the spreading and teaching of the gospel to investigators. Through the Provo MTC Referral Center Mission, elders are called to serve for the Church as online missionaries. These missionaries specialize in teaching the gospel through online mediums such as Facebook, blogs, Skype and the chat mechanism on mormon.org. The Church started this mission as a pilot program in May of 2008 when a couple of missionaries were assigned to stay longer in the MTC to take chats and phone calls to find people who were interested in learning more about the gospel. Those missionaries then taught the investigators through the lessons in Preach My Gospel and prepared them for baptism. Due to the success of teaching investigators through the internet, this pilot program became an official mission of the Church in November 2009. The mission is currently comprised of 11 full-time missionaries who have either been directly called or transferred to this mission because of health reasons. These elders are stationed on the chat on mormon.org from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., but the chat is open 24/7. ... These missionaries take an average of 2,000 to 3,000 chats a day and do an average of 80 to 90 lessons a week. This year alone, the Referral Center mission has helped to facilitate 194 baptisms. Since becoming an official mission in November 2009, they have seen 264 baptisms. In a survey given to recent converts of the Referral Center mission, about 60 percent said they preferred having online discussions during the conversion process. Having served as a missionary in Africa before being sent to the Referral Center mission, Elder Howden finds that “Having taught people face-to-face and then online, it’s a different medium, but investigators are still very capable of learning in the same way. Talking over the phone or chat allows investigators to still feel the spirit and it is just as strong as in person. It definitely gives options to those who learn differently.” I am very happy for my son, who is eager to get going. I am also grateful the Church is making Church Service Missionary opportunities available to young men and women who may not otherwise have been able to serve (or who would have had significant difficulty completing a proselytizing mission) due to social/emotional or physical/mental health issues. Anyway, my son is very excited. We will be opening up his call this evening as a family. And we are going shopping for his suits and sundries tomorrow. And he will be giving a talk in Church (the "farewell-talk-that-shall-not-be-called-a-farewell-talk"). And he will also be going through the temple for himself, likely the Provo City Center Temple. My son would also like to serve a proselytizing mission if possible, so we are going to re-evaluate in about six months and see how he is doing. I am proud of him. And in separate news, my wife, a nascent-but-still-unpublished author, submitted some childrens' books she has been working on to a publisher for consideration. She has been working on these books for quite a while now. She has also previously met personally with the publisher, who invited her to submit these books. We'll see what happens. Both my son and my wife are working hard to improve themselves, and to contribute to society. I love them both. I am proud of them for working hard, for stepping outside of their comfort zones, and for taking risks. Over lunch today I shared the following poem with my wife, which she really enjoyed: "To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach for another is to risk involvement. To expose your feelings is to risk exposing your true self. To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk dying. To believe is to risk despair. To try is to risk failure. But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, has nothing, is nothing. They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live. Chained by their attitudes they are slaves; they have forfeited their freedom. Only a person who risks is free." --Author Unknown So all in all, a very good day for the Macdonald Clan! Thanks, -Smac 12
Scott Lloyd Posted November 18, 2016 Posted November 18, 2016 Hearty congratulations and best wishes to your son, your wife and you!
Boanerges Posted November 18, 2016 Posted November 18, 2016 Congrats. I have been happy for my sons who have served because they are happy.
Jeanne Posted November 18, 2016 Posted November 18, 2016 Sounds wonderful for your son!! Life is full of highs and lows..this is your high..enjoy, love and experience the present. A gift for your holidays!!!
HappyJackWagon Posted November 18, 2016 Posted November 18, 2016 Congratulations. That sounds like a very interesting missionary assignment.
Daniel2 Posted November 18, 2016 Posted November 18, 2016 Congrats to your son and your wife, Smac! My mission is the thing I remember with the most fondness and which had a the most lasting impact on my life. I, too, am grateful the church gives young men and women the opportunity to experience life focusing on others' needs during such an impressionable period of human development. And Kudos to your wife for her publishing endeavors! Children's literature is such a rewarding and worthwhile line of literature. Again, another aspect of helping shape the minds of the leaders of our future. Best wishes in all your family's ongoing pursuits. D 1
smac97 Posted November 18, 2016 Author Posted November 18, 2016 27 minutes ago, HappyJackWagon said: Congratulations. That sounds like a very interesting missionary assignment. Thanks! He has already visited the Referral Center several times and taught online lessons (over the phone). He really enjoyed it. I observed that he will probably rack up far, far more time actually teaching the Gospel than many "proselytizing" missionaries will, largely due to A) the efficiencies inherent in online communications (he will be talking to people who have reached out to contact the missionaries, and will be doing so from a distance), and B) the corollary inefficiencies of "proselytizing" missionary work (door-to-door, traveling, meeting with members and encouraging them to assist in missionary efforts, all in an effort to find people to teach). My son has also been called to be the Assistant Ward Mission Leader in our ward (as a Church Service Missionary, he will be living at home), so he anticipates spending many nights out doing missionary work as well. I think he may end up pining to serve as a proselytizing missionary. In a way, I think he wants to have some experience with the frustrations and challenges of "proselytizing" missionary work. Learning to get along with companions. Knocking on doors. Sweating (or freezing) through long days. (Possibly) learning a language. Learning and adapting to different cultural norms. He wants to "earn his stripes," so to speak. I can understand this. Our plan is to evaluate how he is doing in six months, with the possibility of him transferring to "the mission field." Thanks, -Smac 1
smac97 Posted November 18, 2016 Author Posted November 18, 2016 28 minutes ago, Daniel2 said: Congrats to your son and your wife, Smac! My mission is the thing I remember with the most fondness and which had a the most lasting impact on my life. I, too, am grateful the church gives young men and women the opportunity to experience life focusing on others' needs during such an impressionable period of human development. And Kudos to your wife for her publishing endeavors! Children's literature is such a rewarding and worthwhile line of literature. Again, another aspect of helping shape the minds of the leaders of our future. Best wishes in all your family's ongoing pursuits. D Thank you, Daniel!
Marmonboy Posted November 19, 2016 Posted November 19, 2016 While waiting for our visas to go to Brazil, we used to joke about being called to serve in the Language Training Mission, as it was known then--now it's a real thing!!! I wish your son success in his mission--he'll teach a lot more discussions than we ever did!
VideoGameJunkie Posted November 19, 2016 Posted November 19, 2016 How long do church service missions last?
smac97 Posted November 19, 2016 Author Posted November 19, 2016 2 hours ago, VideoGameJunkie said: How long do church service missions last? That is up to the individual and his family and priesthood leaders. My son is aiming for a full two years. Thanks, -Smac
Robert F. Smith Posted November 20, 2016 Posted November 20, 2016 On 11/18/2016 at 1:32 PM, smac97 said: Today my oldest son received his mission call. It has been an interesting experience because, due to health issues, he will be serving as a Church Service Missionary, so he had a large role in selecting where he was going to serve. He will be working in the Provo MTC in the "Referral Center", ......................... ................................................... I had the distinct pleasure of working with and conversing with those special missionaries from the Provo MTC during the years when I worked at the Provo Temple. They came once each week to the temple as veil workers to help us with our shift. I was very impressed with their professionalism, maturity, humility, and spirituality. It is my understanding that they have a higher baptism rate than regular missionaries out in the field -- largely for the reasons you mentioned, as well as because those seeking information from them are self-selecting rather than cold contacts. Naturally they do not actually do the baptisms, but pass their baptism-ready prospects on to local missionaries out there somewhere in the field. However, it isn't only Provo MTC which does this. I understand that there are a variety of sites worldwide which perform the same function online. There are, for example, sister missionaries in SLC who do the same thing. 2
emeliza Posted November 20, 2016 Posted November 20, 2016 Best wishes for your son on his mission and for your wife with her books. 1
The Mean Farmer Posted November 20, 2016 Posted November 20, 2016 As one who served an honorable mission for the church I say THANK YOU to your son. May Gods Grace be with him in his service and may it be the anchor to truth and light that it was for me! 2
Anijen Posted November 21, 2016 Posted November 21, 2016 Congrats, so excited for him too. One of my sons also served a service mission.
Kenngo1969 Posted November 22, 2016 Posted November 22, 2016 Smac, If it's not too much in-real-life info, could you share part of the text of the call? I'm interested in exactly how the "You are hereby called to serve in the [fill-in-mission here] Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of [fill-in-the-blank]" section is worded in comparison to proselyting calls. And again, if it's not too much in-real-life info, what are the ages of the younger members of the MacDonald Clan (i.e., your children)? This is not an indictment of any of my fellow members or of their procreative choices (Heck, I can't even play in the gene pool! ): I mention it solely because I find it humorous. Someone paralleled Jeff Foxworthy's "You Might Be a Redneck If ..." with a series of statements relating to "You might be a Mormon if ..." And one of the latter was, "You might be a Mormon ... if your mother (or mother-in-law) shows up at your wedding pregnant." Congratulations to your son, your wife, and you. I'm reminded of when I was a "handcart pioneer" and traversed part of the route over Rocky Ridge and to Martin's Cove, before acquiescing to being a passenger in one of the carts the rest of the way. I'm not in very good shape now, in some ways, but in some ways, I'm probably in even better shape than I was then. I wonder, could I make the whole journey on foot now? Anyway, the Bishop of my Singles Ward at the time said something I found interesting. Whether we made the whole journey on foot, or pulling a cart, or riding in one, he said, "Your sacrifice is acceptable to the Lord." In some ways, perhaps I would have been better-suited and would have prospered more as a service missionary than as a full-time proselyting missionary. But wherever we serve or how, our sacrifice "is acceptable to the Lord."
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