Mormon Social Media

    Hey Y'all, First thank you for looking at this blog post, welcome to it. Here's my thought for the day,

Mormon Social Media. 

*NOTE* this is a long post so it's split up into three parts if y'all want to just focus on one and not read the whole thing

1. Mormon's Online (in general)
2. I'm a Mormon's
3. Bible Videos

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    MORMON'S ONLINE: So to start this one I simply ask y'all to watch this video, First because it's hilarious, and also because I think it sums us what the Church is trying to do online.

   I'm guessing that this is just a mock "I'm a Mormon" that the Church put up, but I laughed my head off at it. "You are the curious Yak." And I think it just shows what the Church is trying to do with their campaign on the internet. Flooding the internet with positive messages instead of all the negative one's online. I mean think about it, members of the Church spend hours and hours online (just like the rest of the world) and  most of the time just doing nothing (especially like the rest of the world). So why not give them something positive to do online, instead of looking up pictures of funny cats all day." 

    I'd say they succeeded at doing that, they've helped us make being a Latter-Day Saint online easy and well pretty fun and well cool. We've got Mormon.org, LDS.org, Biblevideos.org, Mormonchannel.org, Mormontopics.org, all these different websites that the Church has put up that are great ways to share being LDS with out being pushy, and to help strengthen our own testimonies and families.

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    I'M A MORMON: K next video for y'all so here's this little nugget of fun for ya. . .

    If you know anything about me you know exactly why I shared this video. Personally I LOVE music, and especially Indie music, so Neon Tree's is pretty high up on my favorite bands list. Then one day Elder Nelson and I discover that I the drummer for Neon Tree's put up a I'm a Mormon video! Needless to say we watched it a lot. We loved it! The fact that someone who others would look at at think wow look at their job, look at their fame, would put something up and have most of it talk about her family and how much she loves them and about her personal relationship with God I think is incredible!

    So I'm a Mormon's, I love them. Showing people that us as Momron's (or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) are normal people! It blows my mind how many people here in the South, and really all over, think we are super weird people! Well okay I will admit we're weird, but not in the way everyone thinks. I would love to just clear things up here and now. NO: we don't have 50 wives! haha everyone loves that rumor! Oh and can everyone just tell a friend today that if we have little black name tags, it means we're not Jehovah's Witnesses, no disrespect to Jehovah's Witnesses. So Mormon's are normal people! Doctors, Authors, my mom's a Teacher, my brother is a soon to be Dentist, my Bishop is the Athletic Director of Weber State University. If you don't know what university that is ask my other brother, the sports fanatic, who was the Rookie of the Year for the NBA in 2013, he came from WSU. and speaking of Basketball, has anyone ever heard of Jabari Parker?? Yeah he's LDS too. I'm a Mormon's, I hope, are helping people realize that Mormon's are normal people who have normal every day crises, and they can over come them through our Savior.

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     BIBLE VIDEOS: Alright the best for last, has anyone seen the Bible Videos?? Not the TV series The Bible, which I hear is pretty awesome though, but the videos the Church has put up. Well here's my favorite, please enjoy appropriately. 

 

 

     

    Can you get better then this??? This is in my opinion the greatest thing since sliced bread or the Book of Mormon. Seriously though I could watch these all day, for so many reasons. One that this is the best portrayal of the Savior I've seen. Two I love that they follow the text of the Holy Bible (KJV) perfectly. Three they are artistically amazing. Four k I'll stop at 3 other wise I'll be here all day.
    This though is my favorite thing that the Church has done online. Putting up well made, intriguing, videos of the Bible stories. With so much bad no good stuff on the internet now, why not share some happy uplifting stuff that is also amazing!?

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    CLOSING THOUGHTS on all this stuff. I love that the Church is reaching out online, putting things that people like on the internet, and making them fun, cool, and spiritual. So my challenge you all y'all who read this today is to go onto one of these three websites; https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/?lang=eng  www.mormon.org or http://www.mormonchannel.org/ then find a video you like, huh that must be hard, finding a funny or interesting video online, wow I'm giving you hard homework. Then just send it in a message to someone. Family, friend, acquaintance, search a random name on facebook and message them it. Just see how they like it. Oh then message me on facebook and tell me how it went, I'm just Elder Jess Allen Firmage on facebook, go ahead and find me then message me about it! I'd also love to get feed back from you on there if you want to message me.

Thank Y'all for reading, now please go out and have a nice day alright? Thanks.

Shaking hands with an Apostle

   Have you Ever wondered what it would be like to meet Peter, James, or John? Or any of Christ's original Apostles? What would it be like to be able to ask Peter what it was like seeing the nets burst from fishes, or ask John what it was like having The Savior of the world ask you to care for his mother? I imagine their faith would be something so powerful you could see it in them, and feel it when you're near them. Now I have never met  Philip or Bartholomew, but this last week I did get to shake hands with someone of the same caliber of faith, the same seniority of apostleship, and with the love so radiant it was so easy to see how he is an Apostle of the Lord, anointed, called, and ordained.

   Elder Nelson and I are driving down the street one day and we get a call from good old Elder Standing. We pull of to the side of the road and answer it and he tells us that in 24 hours we need to be in Knightdale North Carolina. That we needed to pack clothes for 2 days, all our emergency cash, and anything else we needed. Needless to say Elder Nelson and I start freaking out trying to figure out what was going on. Elder Nelson thought that there was a hurricane about to hit. We asked Elder Standing what was happening and after some persuasion he told us that Elder Neal L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was going to come speak to the entire mission. Now we are really going ballistic. I thought the Second Coming was about to hit and we were all headed off towards Zion! We got back to our apartment and started packing getting our selves all excited when Elder Standing and his companion came by and told us they were kidding about the cash and packing for two days, but that we did need to pack for the night because we were going to go spend the night at the Zone Leaders, our cool as Ice Zone Leaders, and we were going to car pool up with them to hear Elder Anderson. So no Rapture which I was very disappointed at, but we were still going to hear an Apostle of the Lord Speak.

Elder Neal L. Anderson

    So in 24 hours all of the 230+ missionaries in North Carolina were together in one place, when we finally got all together it was such an interesting feeling, having every single ordained and set apart representative of Jesus Christ for our mission together in one place, and every single one of them knew how important this meeting was and how incredible the man we were about to see was. I wrote down in my journal some of my thoughts before Elder Anderson got to the meeting house.

    "There is a tangible tention of excitement in the air moments before an Apostle of the Lord is about to walk in. Not only is almost every missionary in North Carolina at one place in one time, but all are here to listen to a speaker of the calabler of Peter or Luke, to give instruction on, what we know not. . . I am sitting close enough to see the color of his eyes"

Elder Paul B. Pieper

Elder Hugo E. Martinez

    Once he came in a whole new breath came into everyone in the chapel, Elder Anderson walked in with a big smile on his face and started waving to everyone. And who should follow him? but Elder Martinez, Elder Peiper, and Elder Parker, all of the 70. He then directed everyone that we were going to go through and get to shake all their hands. I was probably one of the first 2 dozen who got to go up and shake their hands. It was so crazy getting to shake his hand. You could just feel unconditional love from him, to me a goofy, simple, little missionary from Kaysville Utah. I wrote a bit more after shaking his hand.

    "In the history of my life this will go down as one of the most magnificent days in the history of my mortal experience. It make the 2nd time in my life I've shook the hand of an Apostle of God. One of His chosen, anointed, and called disciples. A man who has been in the presence of the Prophet and counsels with him daily. Shockingly he has very normal sized hands. but a love radiated from his very soul through his fingers and his eyes. . . Everything from his outward appearance suggests an average man, average height, average weight, a suit, blue tie, gray hair. But the feeling in the room is indescribable."

    I know that the feeling I was feeling was the one of the most powerful experiences I've had with the Holy Ghost. It was almost a physical presence in that room. And listening to him speak was incredible. I had a head ache for 2 days after because of how strong the spirit was, and because I don't think I've ever tried to focus so hard onto what a man was saying for 2 hours. It was definitely an experience I'll never forget. I know he is an Apostle called of God, and his single desire is the happiness of all of God's Children.