by Ken Jarvis, with Leisa Parsons – Area Media Specialists
Many of us, and possibly for good reason, have mixed feelings about social media. However, since the COVID 19 virus has kept us isolated in our homes this same social media allows us the opportunity to gather and socialize, learn, conduct business and participate in councils with our leaders.
“Since the COVID 19 pandemic hit it has turned ministering on its ear,” said Peter Pixton, Bishop of the Encino Park Ward. “When it hit, I had 12 missionaries out in the field. Seven of them were brought home. For those who were brought home there was no opportunity to speak in Sacrament meeting, there was no youth fireside or any of those things.”
He explained, “What we’ve done, instead, is to have a question and answer session with our youth and returned missionaries using technology. They showed pictures from their mission and talked a bit about different experiences they had. That has been a fun and a rich experience for all.”
The North Stake’s San Pedro Ward had a fireside to hear reports from their newly returned missionaries, Austin Zimmerman who served in the Dominican Republic and Elder Lyle and Sister Maime Jackson who were serving a Humanitarian mission in Malaysia. Sister Jackson told of a tradition from their branch in Borneo. She said, after people shook hands, they would immediately put their hand over their heart. “It was their love coming to you and you putting it in your heart.” But they had to leave all that behind.
For missionaries about to return home, the church has a program, similar to the Self-Reliance program, called “My Plan.” They would start working on that while still in the mission field in preparation for returning home. “Many of these missionaries came home rather abruptly,” Bishop Pixton said, “And they didn’t have a chance to start ‘My Plan’. So, we recently started that with the missionaries in our ward who had to abruptly end their missions. We go through the material together and make commitments together.”
One of Bishop Pixton’s returned missionaries who was too close to the end of his mission to be able to return is Elder Parker Allen who also served in the Dominican Republic. “Being able to communicate and do Zoom meetings with Bishop Pixton and other missionaries and youth has had a positive impact on me.” He continued, “I think that most people in a time of crisis immediately like to think ‘why is this happening to me?’ Being able to talk with other missionaries and participate in these meetings helps us all to see that we’re not alone going through this tough time.”
He concluded, “I think it also helps us to be able to grow stronger as a group as we each share our individual perspectives and experiences.”
President Daniel Packard, First Counselor in the Hill Country Stake Presidency holds a weekly Book of Mormon study group for returned missionaries via WebEx. This type of meeting is easy to arrange and allows returned missionaries to continue to learn and be challenged by a Church leader and gospel scholar.
We all know that US based missionaries have had to drastically alter their schedules spending most of their time in their apartments. Bishop Pixton said that the missionaries assigned to his ward have good success with less active members. “These less active members will take a phone call and are even willing to have a video lesson.”
“I’ve been doing all my bishop youth interviews via technology,” Bishop Pixton continued. “At first, I thought this could be a little strange but actually it’s been great. I use technology like Zoom or Video Chat so that I can see them and they can see me. I think for them this is totally natural.”
He said there are even some advantages to this type of interview. “I have some youth who are hard to get to interviews. They don’t come to activities and when they come on Sunday they don’t stay for the whole meeting. But on a video call they show up. So, this way I’m not dependent on mom and dad bringing them to the building and dropping them off.”
He said he learned a lesson from that. “It taught me that ministering can happen via technology. I’m sorta old school, I go to somebody’s house and sit with them.”
When asked if now he would use technology to conduct a visit or interview even if he could do it in person he said, “Yes, I’ve become much more comfortable with this medium.”
The Fredericksburg Branch is located deep in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. But what makes it beautiful makes it difficult under the best of conditions to get people together. Branch President, Chris Weirich said, “We have a lot of members who live out in the country with limited internet and a good handful of members who don’t use (and some that don’t want) the technology. I believe our communication via phone has greatly improved. I feel our ministering has improved in the sense of just making sure everyone is doing good.”
He went on to add that branch presidency, council and missionary meetings are regularly conducted using electronic media. “Our young women use it to stay in contact each week and our missionaries are using it for our recent converts and missionary meetings.”
The Castle Hills Ward, Texas North Stake, decided to go on a virtual scavenger hunt. Participants were to take pictures or videos of each “find” which would then be posted on their ward’s Facebook page. With fifty items, members were kept busy and had fun.
Sister Kaylen Olson, Hill Country Stake, Bulverde Ward Relief Society President, said that Zoom and WebEx meetings allow her to continue to meet with the sisters in her ward. Two examples are an evening with a sister giving a presentation on the Restoration. Another night a sister demonstrated how to make facemasks.
“We’ve had positive feedback and the Sisters seemed to enjoy the connection,” said Sister Olson. “On Thursday May 7th, our Bishop will teach a Mother’s Day lesson for us via Zoom.”
Some wards have shared virtual musical numbers. “I’m not particularly musical myself, but I love when others share their talents,” said Melissa Nuttall, Relief Society President in the San Antonio North Stake’s Deerfield ward. With the increasing feeling of being isolated and not seeing each other every week, she felt that sharing a musical number “…Would brighten each other’s day.” Several of the ward members responded to the invitation.
In the Castle Hills Ward, members enjoyed a virtual Primary musical number. Parents videoed their children singing “Gethsemane” and then the segments were edited together for a seamless performance.
In the Hill Country Stake a seminary class is made up of youth from four wards. The class now meets weekly via Zoom. Presley Hakes, a student, has a very positive outlook on the Zoom classes. She said, “I like to do online seminary because it gives us a different way to feel the spirit.”
I attended that class on a day when it had four guest instructors, the Elders and Sister Missionaries. There was active participation during the class. After the class ended, I stayed on and listened to the kids make use of the Zoom connection to just talk. Many of them expressed how much they missed seeing and being with their Seminary brothers and sisters.
Could the fact that our youth miss personal contact be a positive outcome of this pandemic?