There has been a lot of buzz on the bloggernacle speculating about the subject of the big meeting yesterday. I was in one of the lucky wards that only had Sacrament meeting so we could watch the meeting about missionary work. Paul at Rational Faiths incorrectly predicted that missionaries would be issued iPads, while John F at By Common Consent hoped that missionaries would be required to do more service work with the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, or other similar organizations. (Some had predicted the Church would ask for more donations to support the larger number of missionaries, but that didn’t happen either.) EmJen at BCC live-blogged the event, which was nice because I didn’t have to take notes and read her notes to my wife!
Except for asking members to become Facebook friends with the missionaries in their area, and asking people to promote more missionary work on social network sites, it wasn’t the “meeting of the century” that some bloggers had predicted. Overall, it seemed like they wanted to reinforce more missionary work, and noted there are more than 70,000 missionaries and 173 new mission presidents, but I don’t know that there was anything earth-shaking with the meeting. (This “new vision” seems pretty recycled to me.) I was surprised there were so many recorded sessions of apostles. We don’t hear much about Packer and Monson’s health, but it appears they are becoming much more physically limited. What were your thoughts?
Wheat & Tares 
We get the broadcast next week. So I did think the plethora of google invitations to attend yesterday, and asking me to respond whether I was going to be attending or not to be rather out of place, not to mention a tad irritating. But when it was announced in our meetings yesterday, it was said that it was going to be about how members, wards and missionaries can work together on missionary work. So I find the speculation puzzling. And it doesn’t sound especially new, just adapted for the online age.
I did watch part of it. My impression is pretty simple. We have all these missionaries now so let’s step it up both the accelerate missionary and make sure they are busy.
I thought the part about the buildings was interesting since ours are shut up during the day and only used on some nights and Sundays.
In some ways they are taking a bit of a risk unleashing 18 years olds in the church buildings with computers.
I know we’ve already gotten more pressureto keep the missionaries busy inclduing finding service opportunities.
So, what happened here after the fire? They moved them out into another town. I don’t get that.
If prospecting and lead follow up is going to be Internet biased is there any need to leave home to do it? Can’t it be done from anywhere in the world and then passed on to locals to follow up?
I am hoping this means that for a change we can get decent internet in the ward building. Also, while they are there, maybe they should clean it for us. Anyone with me?
Yes and Yes!
Hey is Paul from rationalfaiths.com! I still don’t think I was wrong. This was from the Salt Lake Tribune: “Speaking earlier in the day to the new mission presidents, Mormon leaders said that “missionary use of the Internet and digital devices such as iPads will begin in phases and only in designated missions for the rest of this year,” according to an LDS news release. “The church anticipates these tools will be available to missionaries throughout the world sometime next year.”
So yes iPads.
(Yawn). Better ESPN tracking during the week. More weekday basketball in the cultural hall for the elders (and sisters–I have a niece who regularly rejected elders’ lay-ups while on her mission).
Paul, that’s interesting, but it wasn’t for general consumption.
MH, what was there about Paul’s comment that wasn’t for general consumption? He quoted the SL Tribune which was quoting an LDS news release. That’s about as public as one can get.
Devices were mentioned yesterday in then general meeting….
Mary, did you hear any mention on iPads in the meeting? I didn’t. There was no mention of iPads in the general meeting. Paul said it was mentioned in the meeting for mission presidents earlier in the day. The fact it was in the SL Tribune is nice to know, but Paul said it would be in the big meeting. It wasn’t.
Going digital and devices were mentioned in the meeting. I really doubt they would say “iPads for everyone”.
I agree with Paul. They talked about the missionaries using the computers at the ward buildings, and encouraged every member, including children (ACK!!) to get on Facebook. That’s digital and devices in my world.
Where I was right:
“Well turns out, according to our sources the big announcement on Sunday is this: The mission program is going digital. Which involves a whole mess of iPads. I don’t know if this will be just for North America or if it will be worldwide.”
Where I was wrong:
“Either way, it seems that missionaries will soon be carrying iPads instead of flip charts, etc.”
Throw me some type of bone here brother!!
I’ve been a little surprised at how vitriolic some of the reactions to the meeting have been. Not here, but just around the bloggernacle and the Facebook. Some people seem genuinely upset that it wasn’t more revolutionary, I guess (and the folks predicting big changes must have been going to a different church than I have all these years!) Missionaries using the internet might be a big deal or it might not be, but I don’t get the bitterness. Personally, I fell asleep halfway through, but I blame that on allergy meds 😛
I wonder why it needed to initially be broadcast live rather than rebroadcast at various times to be watched at the convenience of the different stakes and districts. The need for some congregations to end their regular meetings early gave an added sense of urgency to the whole thing, which perhaps gave rise to some of the speculation that something bigger might have been introduced. Instead, I could copy and paste a few quotes from Conference talks and would arrive at basically the same substance as the broadcast.
However, while I did notice some disappointment about the content of the broadcast, the most frequent complaint I heard was that it didn’t need to be two hours long to get the point across.
Well, according to internet posts: Elder Nelson has been quoted by a brother in the Missionary Department at a Southern Virginia University devotional as saying that this meeting will be the meeting of the century. So given the hyped run up I’m not surprised people feel pretty let down.