Be Thou an Example of the Believers

This entry is part of my general conference application series.

Be Thou an Example of the Believers, by Russell M. Nelson
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles


Just this morning, before reviewing Elder Nelson's remarks, I shared a status on facebook. Here it is:


Although it's no surprise that "I'm a Mormon," what makes it timely is that in his talk, Elder Nelson encouraged us to do just that! Look at this optimism for technology:

Now in this day of the Internet, there are new and exciting ways you can do missionary work. You can invite friends and neighbors to visit the new mormon.org Web site. If you have blogs and online social networks, you could link your sites to mormon.org.

For those of us that are nervous about vigorously proselytizing among our neighbors and friends, here is an additional way to share the gospel: through blogs and facebook!

We like to feed our local missionaries in our home. Not only does it expose our children to full-time missionaries, but it's fun to get to know them and get tips and advice on how to be better missionaries ourselves. When we fed them this month, they echoed Elder Nelson's charge to create a profile on mormon.org (but we didn't realize they were echoing him). My wife and I did, and we also linked our profile to our blogs (you can see it here; look to the right, underneath my written testimony). Here is another link, just for fun:

In addition to encouraging us to use the new mormon.org, Elder Nelson reminded us to "extend a hand of fellowship to at least one person you did not know before" each Sunday at church. I've been doing this, and it's great fun! I like when others ask to know more about me, and it turns out that I also enjoy asking.

There are two scriptures that were shared in this talk that I would like to repeat here:

Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you (1 Pet 3:15).

Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity (1 Tim 4:12, emphasis added).

I enjoyed the reminder to stand as an example and always be ready to share my belief with others. I don't need to wait for full-time missionaries to find, teach, and baptize others so I can simply get to know them at church. I can share what I believe and who I am with others, every day, in fun and exciting ways!