Page 30 - bon-dia-aruba-20200606

A30 FEATURE
Saturday 6 June 2020
Pandemic accelerates Mormon missionaries' transition online

By BRADY McCOMBS and A more online-based ap-
MARIAM FAM proach would be a major
Associated Press shift and could diminish the
BRIGHAM CITY, Utah (AP) appeal for some young
— Wearing dress shirts, ties church members who
and name tags, three mis- crave an enriching cultural
sionaries with The Church experience, said Ryan Cra-
of Jesus Christ of Latter- gun, a sociology professor
day Saints sit around the at the University of Tampa
kitchen table inside a Utah who specializes in religion
apartment planning how and The Church of Jesus
they'll spread their gospel Christ of Latter-day Saints.
that day. The time in the community
Seth Rather, a 19-year- also breaks up the drudg-
old from Wichita, Kansas, ery of being alone with a
reads aloud as he types on fellow missionary, said Cra-
a smartphone: "During this gun, a former church mem-
time, we must put our faith ber who served a mission in
in God to deliver us through Costa Rica.
these unprecedented In this May 27, 2020, photo, from Seth Rather, a missionary with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- "There's this quasi-tourist ex-
times. How has putting your day Saints, looks at his smartphone at his apartment, in Brigham City, Utah. perience of going to these
faith in God helped you in Associated Press cool places, but there is
your life? also the connection you
"That good?" he asks his ing through the streets in family to take the sacra- one of those "little brick get to the people," Cra-
two companions. the Philippines to spread ment for the first time and phones" and largely spoke gun said. "That's probably
"I like it," Andrew Zitting re- the word of their faith be- follow up on an earlier pro- to people face to face. one of the more meaning-
sponds. Guenter Castrillo fore the pandemic hit. posal: forgo coffee, a key "Sometimes we feel like ful things that happens to
nods. Now, they hardly leave a part of the faith's health pioneers," said McCain, them."
With that, the young men ground-level apartment in code, which also bans al- a 19-year-old from Texas. McCain said she sees an
have their Facebook post the small town of Brigham cohol and tobacco. "We're not used to using so- opportunity to use online
for the day. City in northern Utah. The husband and wife had cial media in this way and, tools to reach more peo-
This is what missionary work After sending the Face- different outcomes: She like, I never made videos ple. Still, "we would love to
looks like during the coro- book post recently, they says she found it difficult and posted them online go and be able to teach in
navirus pandemic, which knelt for a prayer and then but would like to work on it. before. ... We're all learn- people's houses." She and
has forced the Utah-based dialed in to a Zoom call with He says he'd given it up. ing, and it's really interest- King went to the home of
faith widely known as the a family. A similar scene On Facebook, McCain and ing and really fun." the family they have been
Mormon church to accel- is playing out worldwide King craft a message in The church began incorpo- teaching to share the sac-
erate its online outreach. as reassigned missionaries Portuguese, the language rating online faith outreach rament, while social dis-
After hastily bringing home navigate new realities. they learned for their origi- when it gave some mission- tancing.
more than 26,000 young In Orlando, Florida, Bella nal assignments in Brazil. aries tablets six years ago. "Finding and teaching peo-
people from overseas mis- McCain and Madison King They also text people ask- It's since made technol- ple online is really effec-
sions aimed at recruiting hold a WhatsApp video ing to set up a call to talk ogy more prevalent, giv- tive," Nielson said, "but we
new members, the church call with a family they have about the church. ing most missionaries smart- also think there's a person-
has begun sending many been teaching church It's a far cry from just months phones even before the al touch, too, of meeting
of them out again in their doctrine. They invite the ago. In Brazil, McCain had pandemic, Nielson said. people" and having them
home countries with a new come to church when
focus on online work that things open up more.
may persist even after the The virus forced church of-
pandemic, officials told The ficials to scramble for flights
Associated Press. to get missionaries home
"The leaders of our church from far-flung countries like
have been asking us: What Ethiopia, Australia and Viet-
are we learning from this nam. But Nielson said the
pandemic that will help us church never wavered in
become better, become keeping the missionary pro-
more efficient," said Brent gram going.
H. Nielson, executive direc- It shows the importance
tor of the church's mission- the church places on shar-
ary department. "We've ing its gospel and giving
learned that finding peo- young people the chance
ple, teaching people on- to fulfill an important rite of
line is much more effective passage.
than trying to meet people About 5,000 missionaries
in person on a bus or on a who were brought home
street corner or somewhere have been sent out again
else. This will change what in the United States. Thou-
we do, I think, forever." sands more are heading
Missionary work has out soon. The church gave
changed drastically for In this May 27, 2020, photo, missionaries with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from them the option to wait a
young people like Rather left to right, Andrew Zitting, Seth Rather, and Guenter Castrillo pray during a Zoom meeting with a year, but the large majority
and Castrillo, who had local family while on a smartphone at their apartment, in Brigham City, Utah. chose to start again now,
spent long days walk- Associated Press Nielson said. q