The lobby of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, buzzes with activity as youth groups, families, genealogists, and others eagerly trace their relationships to famous people on large flat screens, find pictures of ancestors, take pictures of their current family groups, record oral histories, or log onto a computer in the lobby to search for even more information. Young missionaries scurry about, answering questions and directing visitors to additional resources. Young visitors likely take such digital activity for granted, but these advances in technology have developed rapidly in recent years--and, as prophets and apostles have confirmed, for a divine purpose.
While working at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, during the summer of 2006, I learned of a “live chat” feature that was soon to be introduced on what was then www.mormon.org. This feature was a means through which an individual with internet access, anywhere in the world, could communicate instantly with a missionary at the MTC, ask specific questions about the gospel, and receive personalized answers to their questions in a matter of seconds. Though excited about the new development, I—and probably most of the missionaries and staff that I worked with—didn’t recognize that this was perhaps in at least partial fulfillment of a prophetic statement made by President Spencer W. Kimball over thirty years earlier, long before widespread use of the internet—or even thoughts of such—had permeated society. In a Regional Representatives Seminar in 1974, he said, “We shall use the inventions the Lord has given us to awaken interest and acquaint people of the world with the truths, to ease their prejudices and give them a general knowledge. We shall need to answer specific questions, and perhaps that can be done by two-way radio and TV perfected to a point beyond our present imagination.”[2] “Live chat” is but one way in which the Church has utilized new technologies. The recent global COVID-19 pandemic created opportunities for using technology on an unprecedented scale, from missionaries worldwide teaching via video chat, to church leaders holding worship services virtually, to Temple recommend interviews taking place over platforms such as Zoom, Facebook live, and YouTube, to local leaders holding devotionals, firesides, leadership training, and activities online.
Many prophets and apostles have spoken of the rapid increase in the rate of development of new technologies in the last few hundred years. They have attributed this surge in technological development to the hand of the Lord for the purpose of moving forward the work of the Church in gathering and preparing a people to receive the Savior at His coming. This technological revolution is a unique feature of this “dispensation of the fulness of times” in which all things shall be revealed, and “nothing shall be withheld” (D&C 121:28-32). Similar to the ways in which the Lord reveals spiritual truths, He also reveals secular truths to truth-seeking inquirers. Many of those who have been participants in this quest have acknowledged a power mightier than their own in the formulation of new technologies. Many developments in recent years, particularly in the areas of transportation, electronic communications and information technology, have led to an increased ability to fulfill the mission of the Church to help each of God’s children receive salvation and exaltation. This is implemented through the fourfold mission of the Church: to preach the gospel, to perfect the saints, to redeem the dead, and to care for the poor and needy. While technology has been revealed to further these purposes, prophets have warned against the misuse of such technology for evil purposes.
Advances in Technology: “Miracle After Wondrous Miracle”
Since the days of the industrial revolution, rapid technological advances have enabled people to complete tasks much more quickly and efficiently. Beginning early in the nineteenth century, around the time of the restoration of the gospel, the rate of development of new technologies has accelerated. In 1935, Glynn Bennion of the Church Historian’s Office praised the preceding 40 years as “‘the most wonderful in the history of mankind,’ because of the great technological advances of that era.”[3] Now, more than 80 years later, there have been advances which, most likely, neither he nor others of his day would have dreamed possible. Remarkably, as Rodney Brown has shown elsewhere in this book, the rates of technological advancement and increases in agricultural productivity have mirrored the rate of growth of the Church.
Even a cursory glance at the number of United States patents issued from 1790 to the present day illustrates this trend. The number of “utility” patents (patents for new inventions) issued in any given year is a useful indicator of the approximate number of new technologies that have been developed that year. During the first decade of recorded patents from 1790 to to 1800 (i.e., 1790-1799 inclusive, as shown in the graph), there were between 3 and 51 patents granted per year. By the decade following the restoration of the gospel, from 1830 to 1840, the numbers awarded yearly ranged from 404 to 752, over ten times the amount just 40 years earlier. Between 1870 and 1880, the number of patents jumped again, this time ranging between 11,616 and 14,172 per year, a number about twenty times the amount of the previous sample.
Notes:
1. Figures shown vertically above the bars represent the total number of ‘utility’ (invention) patents issued in each decade per one million population. In making the calculations, population figures were rounded to the nearest hundred thousand.
2. Numbers of patents per million population were rounded to the nearest decimal. Source: US Patent Office “U.S. Patent Activity, CY 1790 to Present.” https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/h_counts.htm
3. Population figures used in calculations are taken from the US decennial census for each indicated time period. For example, the population figure used for the 1790-1799 decade was taken from the 1790 census. Sources: United States Census Bureau via Wikipedia, “Demography of the United States,” and www.u-s-history.com/pages/h986.html, “U.S. Population, Land Area and Density, 1790-2000.” Note that US Census numbers do not include American indigenous peoples before 1860.
4. Calculations were done as in the following example. In 1790, the population of the United States was 3.9 million (rounded to the nearest decimal place). The total number of patents issued during the 1790-1799 decade was 268. The number of patents per million population was obtained as follows: 268 divided by 3.9 equals 17.6 patents per million population.
5. The calculation for 2010-2019 includes the actual patent figures for the period 2010-2015, a six-year period (1,574,194 patents) plus a projected estimate of the number of patents issued for the years 2016-2019 (66,122.7 patents). This estimate is based on the average number of patents issued each year during the 2010-2015 period.
The decade forty years later between 1910 and 1920, in which 32,855 to 43,892 patents were granted each year, indicated a threefold increase. Forty years later, by the 1950s, the numbers of patents was on average only slightly higher: 30,432 to 52,408 annually. However, the decade of the 1990s saw the range again triple, ranging from 90,365 to 157,494. The number of patents for the year 2010 was 219,614, while the number of patents in 1830, the year that the Church was restored, was 544.[4]
The large increase in the number of US patents, of course, needs to be considered in relation to population growth. The number of new inventions patented yearly increased by 40,370 percent from the time of the restoration of the Church until 2010. In comparison the US population increased from about 12.9 million in 1830[5] to about 308.8 million in 2010,[6] an increase of about 2,400 percent. Thus, the percentage increase in the number of patents outstripped population growth by a phenomenal increase of about 1700 percent. In other words, the number of patents per person was approximately 17 times greater in 2010 than it was in 1830. Not only has the number of new inventions increased, but the rate of increase has been exponential, as new inventions have built upon the ideas and technology of previous inventions. [7]
As the graph of US patents issued by decade per million population shows, however, the rate of increase per decade has not been uniform. Following the vertiginous rise in the rate of patents issued per million through to 1889, the number of patents issued per million more or less stabilized with some ups and downs through to 1919, and then dipped, reflecting the economic dislocation of the Great Depression in the 1930s and the disruption of the Second World War. Remarkably, the decades from 1950 through 1989 represented another relative plateau, but the rate of increase of patents issued per million took a steep incline from 1989 onward, perhaps reflecting the dynamics of the electronic revolution.
While it is not the purpose of this chapter to detail even all the major inventions over the course of the past two centuries, a brief look at some major developments will help to illustrate the rapid advances. The industrial revolution, which began in Great Britain in approximately 1765, produced the steam engine and the mechanization of textile factories. By 1830, the steam-powered railroads were followed with some delay by steam-powered ships. Electrical power came about in the 1880s, which led to the electrification of cities and electric tramways. The internal combustion engine led to the automobile by the turn of the twentieth century and the airplane shortly thereafter, culminating in a transportation system which now includes ships, railroads, automobiles, and jet airplanes. Advancements in communications have included, in succession, the telegraph, telephone, radio, television, satellite data transmission, computers, the internet, and smartphones. Additionally, typewriters, teletype devices, phonographs, motion pictures, CDs and DVDs and other devices have all changed people’s lives profoundly.[8] Many technologies have changed so quickly that younger generations are unfamiliar with the technology commonly used by their parents or grandparents. For example, on a tour of a historic farmhouse in Murray, Utah, in about 2004, a child noticed an old typewriter in the corner and asked, “Where’s the monitor?”
Latter-day prophets and apostles have commented on this expansion of technological knowledge. In the early twentieth century, for example, Elder Joseph Fielding Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles eloquently addressed this subject on more than one occasion. In a 1917 address he stated, “We are living in the dispensation of the fulness of times, when the Lord is . . . preparing the earth for the great millennial reign; and, it is necessary now that all these discoveries, these wonderful inventions and conveniences should be made known to the children of men.”[9] Emphasizing the timing of such technological advances, he stated that these modern inventions “were not intended for Abraham’s day, and they would not be known and utilized today if the Lord had not revealed them to men.”[10] Lest modern mankind become arrogant at the many developments that have occurred in its day, Elder Smith noted in 1926, “I do not believe for one moment that these discoveries have come by chance, or that they have come because of superior intelligence possessed by men today over those who lived in ages that are past. They have come and are coming because the time is ripe, because the Lord has willed it, and because he has poured out his Spirit on all flesh.”[11] Specifically, the discoveries and inventions of recent years, he explained, “belong to the dispensation of the fulness of times”[12] and “it is not because of greater intelligence, but because, no doubt, of the greater accumulation of knowledge together with the inspiration that comes from the Lord as he grants it unto men, that we receive the benefit of these latter-day blessings.”[13]
In 1966, President David O. McKay spoke of the “discoveries and inventions of this age” as “unequaled by any previous period in the world’s history.”[14] Thirty-five years later, President Gordon B. Hinckley, after noting “the plodding course of mankind, from the time of our first parents,” said, “There has been more of scientific discovery during these years [the fulness of times] than during all of the previous history of mankind. Transportation, communication, medicine, public hygiene, the unlocking of the atom, the miracle of the computer, with all of its ramifications, have blossomed forth, particularly in our own era. During my own lifetime, I have witnessed miracle after wondrous miracle come to pass.”[15]
New Technologies Come from God: “One Source”
Latter-day prophets and apostles have affirmed the divine role in revealing technological and scientific knowledge in the current age and have compared the revelation of secular knowledge to that of spiritual knowledge.[16] President Brigham Young was quite adamant on this point. On one occasion he said, “The construction of the electric telegraph and the method of using it enabling people to send messages from one end of the earth to the other is just as much a revelation from God as any ever given.”[17] On another occasion he said, “there is no ingenious mind that has ever invented anything beneficial to the human family but what he obtained it from that One Source.”[18] On yet another occasion he said that from heaven “we received the knowledge to construct the labor-saving machinery for which the present age is remarkable. . . . From [God] has every astronomer, artist and mechanician that ever lived on the earth obtained his knowledge.”[19]
In the twentieth century President Howard W. Hunter explained, “The knowledge explosion of which the world is so proud is not of man’s creation. It is his discovery of portions of the unlimited knowledge and information which is part of God’s knowledge.”[20] Elder Dallin H. Oaks, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, likewise said, “I echo Brigham Young, who declared: ‘Every discovery in science and art, that is really true and useful to mankind, has been given by direct revelation from God.’”[21] A few years later, in January 2003, at the first of a series of worldwide leadership training sessions broadcast via satellite, President Gordon B. Hinckley observed, “The Lord has made possible the technology by which this training is going forward.”[22] Leaders around the world, though thousands of miles from Church headquarters in Salt Lake City, could figuratively sit at the feet of the prophets and be trained through the satellite broadcast.
Divine Influences in the Discovery Process: “Though They Know It Not”
Though the inspiration for new technologies and inventions comes from the Lord, at times the inventors and scientists are unaware of His influence. Many may even deny any influence or assistance other than their own powers. Brigham Young reminded the saints that “All true wisdom that mankind have they have received from God, whether they know it or not….There is only one source from whence men obtain wisdom, and that is God, the fountain of all wisdom; and though men may claim to make their discoveries by their own wisdom, by meditation and reflection, they are indebted to our Father in heaven for all.”[23] Elder Joseph Fielding Smith likewise taught: “The inspiration of the Lord has gone out and takes hold of the minds of men, though they know it not, and they are directed by the Lord. In this manner he brings them into his service that his purposes and his righteousness, in due time, may be supreme on the earth.”[24] There is little room for equivocation in such statements. Interestingly, the most common way through which scientists and inventors report developing new ideas is in “moments” or “flashes” of insight. According to a study by Platt and Baker, who, however, did not separate dreams from insights, as many as “83% of scientists acknowledged having received help from sudden insights and alogical thinking—what they termed ‘hunches.’”[25] Those with “eyes to see” appear to recognize the hand of God (3 Nephi 12:8) in their discoveries; others may not discern His influence, but attribute them to their own ingenuity.
Though many scientists are unaware of or deny the hand of God in their developments, others—of a variety of faiths—readily acknowledge it. An eminent scientist and philosopher, Dr. “Fritz” Schaefer, Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry and the director of the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry at the University of Georgia, said, “The significance and joy in my science comes in the occasional moments of discovering something new and saying to myself, ‘So that's how God did it!’ My goal is to understand a little corner of God's plan.”[26]
Philo T. Farnsworth, Church member and inventor of the television, was another who recognized a higher power. Shortly before he passed away, he was interviewed at his home. During that interview, he stated, “I am a deeply religious man, I know that God exists. I know that I have never invented anything. I have been a medium by which these things were given to the culture as fast as culture could earn them. I give the credit to God.”[27] On at least one occasion, Farnsworth had the opportunity to converse with President David O. McKay. President McKay later reported: “[Farnsworth] testified . . . that he knows that he was directed by a higher source in gaining his scientific knowledge,” and then described Farnsworth as one of the “many scientists today, honorable, honest men, who are giving their all to help their fellow beings testify that there is a God.” [28]
There are indeed many ways in which the Lord’s hand can be manifest in the discovery process. At times its influence is seen in the gentle nudges that prod a scientist or inventor in the right direction. At other times it is manifest in a startling revelation that comes seemingly from nowhere. Albert Einstein described this type when he said: “When I think and reflect how my discoveries originated and took form, a hundred times you run, as it were, with your head against the wall (meaning a hundred failures) in order to lay your hands upon and define and fit into a system what, from a merely indefinable premonition, you sense in vain. And then suddenly, perhaps like a stroke of lightning, the salient thought will come to you and the indescribably laborious task of building up and expanding the system can begin.”[29] He also stated: “I believe in intuition and inspiration. . .. At times I feel certain I am right while not knowing the reason.”[30]
Knowledge may also come by dreams. Friedrich August Kekulé, organic chemist famous for his work with the molecular structure of carbon compounds, especially benzene, received a miraculous answer while dreaming. He had been trying to determine the nature of the structure, but without progress, as his “thoughts were elsewhere.” He wrote, “I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. . .. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time I spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis.”[31] The result of his dream was a breakthrough in understanding of the circular nature of the benzene compound. In another less-famous account, he detailed a similar experience. He recorded, “I fell into a reverie, and lo, the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. . .. I saw how the larger ones formed a chain, dragging the smaller ones after them but only at the ends of the chain. . . . The cry of the conductor: ‘Clapham Road,’ awakened me from my dreaming; but I spent a part of the night in putting on paper at least sketches of these dream forms. This was the origin of the ‘Structural Theory.’”[32]
Charles H. Townes, another scientist who recognized God’s hand in the discovery process, was one of the recipients of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in discovering principles of the laser.[33] He described his experience with a power outside himself: “As a religious person, I strongly sense the presence and actions of a creative being far beyond myself and yet always personal and close by."[34] In an interview at his job as a Berkeley professor at age 89, Townes responded to the query, “You've described your inspiration for the maser as a moment of revelation, more spiritual than what we think of as inspiration. Do you believe that God takes such an active interest in humankind?” Townes replied that the maser “was a new idea, a sudden visualization . . . so it’s somewhat parallel to what we normally call revelation in religion. Whether the inspiration for the maser and the laser was God’s gift to me is something one can argue about. The real question should be, where do brand-new human ideas come from anyway? To what extent does God help us? I think he’s been helping me all along.”[35]
While other scientists may not recognize the hand of God in their discoveries, that does not negate the reality of his help. President Ezra Taft Benson stated that “there are ‘hidden treasures’ of knowledge— truths beyond the reach of reason alone (see D&C 89:19) . . .. There is an unseen source of power and truth. Eminent scientists recognize this glorious fact.”[36] Schaefer, Farnsworth, Einstein, Kekulé and Townes are undoubtedly among that category of scientists that President Benson had in mind.
Revelation of Spiritual and Secular Truth: “The Same Mind and the Same Method”
In his acknowledgement of the help of God in his work, Townes also mentioned a parallel between the discovery of spiritual and secular truth. Not only does all truth – spiritual and secular – come from God, but the way in which He reveals it in both instances is similar. In his book Making Waves, Townes explains:
Another common idea about the difference between science and religion is based on their methods of discovery. Religion’s discoveries often come by great revelations. Scientific knowledge, in the popular mind, comes by logical deduction, or by the accumulation of data which is analyzed by established methods in order to draw generalizations called laws. But such a description of scientific discovery is a travesty on the real thing. Most of the important scientific discoveries come about very differently and are much more closely akin to revelation. The term itself is generally not used for scientific discovery, since we are in the habit of reserving revelation for the religious realm. In scientific circles one speaks of intuition, accidental discovery, or says simply that ‘he had a wonderful idea.’[37]
Fear of criticism may prevent some scientists and inventors from acknowledging the hand of God and instead simply calling the inspiration “a wonderful idea.” Or, as mentioned previously, at times inventors simply may not recognize divine assistance.
Just as Townes points out that the reception of his new idea was “somewhat parallel to what we normally call revelation in religion matters,” modern-day apostles and prophets have affirmed the similarity in the discovery of both secular and spiritual truth. President Howard W. Hunter taught that “scientific research is an endeavor to ascertain truth,” and that “the same principles which are applied to that pursuit are used in the quest to establish the truth of religion as well.”[38] President James E. Faust, formerly of the First Presidency, confirmed that “searching and inquiring are a means of coming to a knowledge of all truth, whether that truth be spiritual, scientific, or moral.”[39] As discussed, some of the most common methods of discovering truth in both spiritual and secular matters are through flashes of insight, the gradual and indiscernible accumulation of knowledge such that there is no specific moment of revelation, and overt “revelations,” such as dreams. There are also seemingly “chance” discoveries by prepared minds.[40]
Just as in spiritual things individuals are counseled to study the issue out in their minds (D&C 9:8), so it is with secular matters. Revelation doesn’t negate the responsibility of the inventors putting in long hours of research and preparation. It simply means that their efforts are then supplemented with divine revelation, without which they could not be successful in inventing anything useful to mankind. Elder Dallin H. Oaks explained the interplay between work and revelation: “I believe that many of the great discoveries and achievements in science and the arts have resulted from a God-given revelation. Seekers who have paid the price in perspiration have been magnified by inspiration.”[41]
In connection to the “flashes of insight,” Joseph Smith taught, “A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas.”[42] A similar feeling was expressed by Henry Ford, who explained, “Thoughts seem to come—and I believe do come—to the one attuned to receive them. Sometimes the ‘reception,’ as the radio people say, is good, sometimes faulty. We seem to receive and transmit more than we create.”[43] Noted Latter-day Saint scientist Henry Eyring added, “Of necessity I use the same mind and the same method of proving and testing to come to my scientific convictions that I use in coming to my religious faith.”[44]
Regardless of the specific way in which the truth comes, “The saving thought which comes to the scientist in arriving at new conceptions,” said President Harold B. Lee, is “to the same end. Without the Lord and his inspiration you can do nothing.”[45] To refer again to Townes’ words, Townes concurred: “it is clear that the great scientific discoveries, the real leaps, do not usually come from the so-called ‘scientific method,’ but rather more as did Kekulé’s—with perhaps less picturesque imagery, but by revelations which are just as real.”[46]
The True Purpose of Technological Advancement: “Others May Use Them”
Advances in technology can bless the lives of many in a variety of ways. Businesses can administer worldwide operations more easily, sports enthusiasts enjoy watching sporting events hundreds or thousands of miles away such as the Olympics or the World Cup, families are able to keep in touch with one another over long distances through phone, email, social media such as Skype or Facetime, and other internet communication. However, President Kimball pointed out the true purpose of such technological advances. He said, “I believe that the telephone and telegraph and other such conveniences were permitted by the Lord to be developed for the express purpose of building the kingdom. Others may use them for business, professional or other purposes, but basically they are to build the kingdom. I believe that the television and radio have been released to general knowledge by the Lord for the special purpose of building His kingdom.”[47]
From the days of Brigham Young and before, prophets have spoken upon this theme. President Young said that the increase in technological knowledge “has been given with a view to prepare the way for the ultimate triumph of truth, and the redemption of the earth from the power of sin and Satan.”[48] Even developments such as advances in medicine can help build the kingdom. President James E. Faust taught, “I hasten to add that scientific knowledge, the marvels of communication, and the wonders of modern medicine have come from the Lord to enhance His work throughout the world.” [49]
Transportation: “Unto Every Nation”
One major area of technological advancement is transportation. Methods of transportation, relatively unchanged for thousands of years, have improved rapidly in the last two centuries and have allowed travel to faraway places with much less effort and greater safety than ever before. For example, in August of 1852, President Brigham Young called Hosea Stout, James Lewis and Chapman Duncan to go on a mission to China. They sailed from San Francisco on March 9, 1853, arriving in Hong Kong on April 28, fifty days later.[50] About 111 years after that, one of the contributing authors to this book flew out of Salt Lake City for his mission to Hong Kong at about 8:00 a.m. on a Monday morning in mid-August, 1964, arriving at Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, the following day, after changing planes in San Francisco and refueling stops in Honolulu and Tokyo.[51] The comparison is dramatic. Developments such as railroads, ocean-going steamships, automobiles, and airplanes have been of incalculable benefit in missionary work, the early gathering of the saints, administering the Church and building up the Stakes of Zion throughout the world.[52] In 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, Utah. The railroad allowed Church leaders to more easily visit missions in the eastern United States, as well as take care of other Church business. It also shortened the time required for immigrants to come from Europe and cross the plains to three weeks or less with the use of both the railroad and steamships.[53] The arrival of automobiles in Utah also allowed Church leaders easier access to populations of saints some distance from Salt Lake City. In 1917, a successful automobile caravan of nine General Authorities, including President Joseph F. Smith, traveled from Salt Lake City to St. George and back.[54] For several decades, the brethren were able to visit much of the Church population through automobile travel, because most of the members lived in the intermountain west, in the “Mormon corridor” between southern Alberta and northern Mexico.
However, eventually, the majority of Church members lived not only outside the corridor, but outside of the United States altogether. As late as 1950, 92 percent of the Church’s 1,111,314 members were living in the United States, mostly in Utah and a handful of nearby western states, including California, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.[55] By 1996, the geographical balance of the Church’s worldwide membership had shifted considerably. On February 28 of that year, slightly more than half of the membership were living outside the United States: 4.720 million members outside, 4.719 million within the United States.[56] As of 2015, only 41.8 percent the Church’s 15,634,199 worldwide members were located within the United States.[57]
This rapid increase in membership after World War II, and the accompanying, significant shift in the global distribution of members demanded much more travel to watch over the Church and conduct its affairs. Fortunately, jet airplanes, succeeding earlier prop or turbo-prop models, had become commercially accessible in the early 1950s, and Church leaders were able to fly nearly anywhere in the world to visit almost any branch or stake of the Church within a day. After traveling by airplane to dedicate a temple in New Zealand in April 1958, President David O. McKay returned via Los Angeles, where he commented to Elder Henry D. Taylor and others, “Brethren, next Thursday when the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve meet, I am going to recommend that a stake be organized in New Zealand.” He pointed out, “With these fast planes it will be possible for the General Authorities to travel swiftly to any part of the world, to visit stakes as they are organized.”[58] Such has been the case in the ensuing years. At times, the image of a general authority on a television screen is not sufficient – he must be there in person, to instruct and edify local leaders and church members and to make administrative changes. In a 2018 Church News article, Elder Quentin L. Cook “explained that over a four-year period, through priesthood leadership conferences, every single stake and ward in the Church has a member of the Twelve coming and meeting with its leaders — and training them on prophetic priorities.”[59]
Such innovations would be partially wasted, however, if only used to minister to those already of our faith. Technological developments in transportation have greatly benefited missionary work by facilitating the travel of missionaries to preach the gospel “unto every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (D&C 133:37). Missionaries, who now routinely travel by air to their field of labor, rather than on land and on sea as in previous generations, are able to spend more time in their assigned fields of labor, and less time traveling there. Others are able to travel to Provo, Utah, to attend the Missionary Training Center. For instance, many Russian missionaries called to serve in their native country have been able to travel to Utah for a typical MTC experience (all in Russian). Their slightly expanded MTC experience could include a visit to a local ward, in order to see a full-size ward functioning, or a visit to Temple Square. Similarly, other missionaries are able to travel quickly to one of the fifteen Missionary Training Centers located at various places elsewhere in the world, in order to receive basic instruction in missionary work and specialized instruction for their mission language, and then travel to their missions.[60] Additionally, members who live in areas where the Church is relatively new are able to travel by a variety of means to other areas in order to gather with large numbers of saints for conferences or training, or to attend the temple. The improvements in travel are truly remarkable.
Communication and Data Transmission: “For the Building up of His Kingdom”
In 2002, when the rebuilt Nauvoo Temple dedication was only a few days away, many members of the Church around the world were anxiously anticipating viewing the closed-circuit broadcast in their chapels. However, in Russia at 5:40 p.m. on June 26, 2002, after a host of other hurdles had been crossed through months of waiting, one final government office still needed to approve the distribution of the Church’s six new satellite receivers throughout Russia. With only 15 minutes to spare before the office closed (after which it would have been too late to distribute and install the receivers), Russian government officials approved the distribution. The receiver boxes were immediately taken to planes to be flown to their respective destinations. Overnight, they were installed. Saints in Yekaterinburg had driven 26 hours each way in rented buses in order to attend the dedication broadcast in Saratov, Russia. Others throughout Russia had also traveled in order to be able to attend.[61] That the last-minute granting of permission was appreciated by the Russian saints would be an understatement. Satellite transmissions of key temple dedications is only one way in which communication technology is being used to help perfect the saints and administer the needs of a worldwide church. Advances in both communication and transportation technology have helped with this purpose of the church for over a century, and also helped overcome the feeling of isolation often felt by members of the Church in remote parts of the world.
Some of the earliest innovations in the ability to communicate came in the second half of the nineteenth century.[62] In 1867, at the urging of Brigham Young, and only six years after the first transcontinental telegraph line was completed, a 500-mile telegraph line connected Salt Lake City and many of the saints scattered in settlements throughout Utah territory. In his dedicatory message, President Young declared, “In my heart I dedicate the line which is now completed . . . to the Lord God of Israel . . . for the building up of His Kingdom.”[63] The telegraph enabled messages to be exchanged much more quickly, leading to a greater sense of security and unity among those scattered far from Church headquarters. Though not used extensively by the Church, the phonograph nonetheless played an important role in Church history when, in 1897, Church President Wilford Woodruff recorded for posterity his testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and his (Joseph’s) conferral of all priesthood keys upon on the twelve apostles prior to his death.[64] The telephone was brought to Utah in 1879 and provided enhanced communication between Salt Lake City and distant settlements, in addition to live voice contact with other regions of the country and eventually the world.[65]
The first half of the twentieth century brought advances in mass communication unprecedented in the history of the world. In 1920, the first public radio broadcast took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Only two years later, the Deseret News established its own radio station, KZN, and President Heber J. Grant dedicated the broadcast facilities on May 6 and spoke in the first radio broadcast in Utah.[66] Within a few years, General Conference was being broadcast by radio to over 50,000 people—significantly more than the 6,000 that could fit in the tabernacle on Temple Square. By 1929, the Tabernacle Choir had begun its now famous weekly broadcasts, which have become a favorite of many in a variety of religious faiths.[67] Along with the growth, there were occasional “technical difficulties” in the early days as well. One humorous incident occurred when a technician inadvertently flipped a switch that caused the play-by-play description of the World Series game to be broadcast not only to its intended radio listeners, but also through the public-address system at the tabernacle, where a session of conference was taking place. President Grant’s talk was interrupted for over five minutes as presiding Bishop Sylvester Q. Cannon ran across the street to fix the mistake.[68]
Within a generation, those tuning in to conference were able not only to listen, but also to watch, as conference was broadcast first by closed-circuit television within Temple Square in 1948, and then in a general broadcast the following year.[69] Members who may never have had the chance to see the prophet were now able to watch his countenance and facial expressions as he taught them in General Conference.
The Apostle Paul taught that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17, emphasis added). If faith indeed is to increase in the world and grow and swell in the hearts of the members, then constant exposure to the word of God is essential. One important way in which this has been accomplished is through expanded coverage of the proceedings of General Conference, which has become more and more accessible to the saints and to the world, as proceedings became available, in addition to print formats, first by direct voice transmission, televised images, video recordings, satellite transmission, and now through the internet and the LDS Gospel Library app. In the 1950s, General Conference was transmitted to stake centers by audio transmission; by the 1960s, video recordings of General Conference became available.[70] In 1981, President Gordon B. Hinckley announced the installation of hundreds of satellite receiving dishes across the United States. He noted, “Communication is the sinew that binds the Church as one great family. Between those facilities which are now available and those which are on the horizon, we shall be able to converse one with another according to the needs and circumstances of the time.”[71] Twenty-five years later, he noted that there were 6,066 satellite-receiving sites owned by the Church in 83 countries.[72] In addition to broadcasting General Conference, satellites also broadcast other special events such as temple dedications and worldwide leadership training meetings. Developed in the 1980s, the internet, to which access became widespread in the late 1990s, marks an additional step forward.[73] Now families all over the world can watch a live visual and audio steam of General Conference on the internet. The gospel is truly going “unto every nation.”
A few years after the first television broadcast, early computers were making their way into Church administration. In the 1950s, the Church began using computers to centralize its accounting procedures. In 1962, the Advance Planning Department was created for “all systems development and data processing functions.” The department had such a heavy workload that it required three shifts working a combined 24 hours a day, six days a week to keep up. Computers have continued to progress since then, and in 1980, the Church’s own Information Systems Department (ISD) was created, “to handle its internal technological and computer activity.”[74] In his article on technology and the Church, James Allen noted, “The importance of the computer to the modern Church is seen in at least two ways: the speed and efficiency with which it would handle data, and the effect it had on traditional concepts and practices.”[75] For instance, by 1991, membership records were being computerized, and could be sent and received much more quickly – not to mention accurately – than previously.[76] By 2015, members of the Church in the United States could choose to pay tithing and other donations online.[77]
In addition to satellite broadcast training meetings, prerecorded video presentations are available in many languages to train local leaders. For instance, one Filipino ward’s Primary leaders were shown a video produced by the Audiovisual Department of the Church about how to conduct a reverent Primary. Their Bishop, Raymond Ruiz, wrote of the results of the training: “The following Sunday after we showed the Primary training video, I came out of my office to observe the Primary children. I saw that they were reverently lining up to enter their room one by one. I also saw that the leaders were standing by the door to greet the children as they entered. I realized that the Primary leaders were actually doing what was shown in the video.”[78] Church information and training videos have been produced on a variety of other topics to help members in their Church callings and in their personal lives. For example, a wealth of video segments are available on lds.org for those wishing to learn to become more self-reliant, find better employment, or start their own business. A more sacred training occurs in temples as members are instructed through digital video presentations as part of the endowment ceremony. Following the announcement of ministering replacing home and visiting teaching in the April 2018 General Conference, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland noted at the beginning of his talk that, “immediately upon the conclusion of this session of conference,” information about the change would be distributed by “sending a letter from the First Presidency to every member of the Church for whom we have an email address” and “materials are being posted immediately on ministering.lds.org.”[79] Those materials eventually included video presentations.
Other uses of video include informative and entertaining films such as “The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd” and “Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration.” Many are now available on digital video disc (DVD) and on the internet in multiple languages.[80] These historical movies portray for a digital age true events in a way calculated to help readers see truth both with their spiritual eyes as well as with their natural eyes.[81] As President Kimball said, “I believe that the television and radio have been released to general knowledge by the Lord for the special purpose of building His kingdom, to produce programs which will build the testimonies of the Church members and take messages to numerous people.”[82] This prophecy is being fulfilled, although not everyone is initially receptive.
Using Technology to Proclaim the Gospel: “Mighty Towers”
Although Mary R. Jurgaitis’s interest in the Church and its teachings were piqued through technology, her early memories of that interest weren’t exactly positive. She wrote that she and her husband “were married on Saturday, June 25, 1966. Well, at 7:30 a.m. on June 26, [I was] rudely awakened on a Sunday morning with a radio between us on the pillow. My husband of one day explained to me that he had listened to [Music and the Spoken Word] for years and planned to continue to do so.” Although at first incensed by the interruption of her Sunday morning rest, the program – and her husband’s interest in it – caused the couple to eventually visit Temple Square in Salt Lake City and the Hill Cumorah in New York. They requested missionaries and were ultimately baptized.[83] Mary Jurgaitis is but one example of the millions of people influenced by technology’s use in spreading the gospel.
In his seminal 1974 address to Regional Representatives mentioned earlier, President Kimball referred to the ways in which people of the world would be able to be reached through technology unavailable in previous dispensations. He said,
I am confident that the only way we can reach most of these millions of our Father’s children is through the spoken word over the airwaves, since so many are illiterate. . .. Our Father in heaven has now provided us mighty towers— radio and television towers with possibilities beyond comprehension—to help fulfill the words of the Lord that “the sound must go forth from this place unto all the world.” Even though there are millions of people throughout the world who cannot read or write, there is a chance to reach them through radio and television.[84]
The ways in which the gospel message is spreading are magnified by the appropriate use of technology. Interestingly, the way in which it is spread requires perhaps the same amount of creativity required in preaching the gospel face to face. Arch L. Madsen, former president of Bonneville International, discussed the use of radio in spreading the gospel:
If we are going to talk with someone, we must first get his attention; to get his attention, we may have to inform or entertain him. We could broadcast the Book of Mormon and the Bible for twenty-four hours a day…. But listeners would not be there for long. But if we can program for mass audiences, then bit by bit we can make vital information palatable. The greatest challenge we have in the world today is to take the communications media and put them to the best use.[85]
A combination of highly successful radio and television messages called the “Homefront” series aired beginning in 1972. In 1993, Elder L. Aldin Porter, of the Presidency of the Seventy, and executive director of the Missionary Department, said “Over the years, Homefront spots have been a tremendous vehicle for reaching millions of people with ideas for building loving and caring families.” In addition, he said, “These public service announcements have helped people recognize the name of the Church and associate it with gospel principles that can help families and individuals.”[86] Many listeners today can identify with one of the Church’s taglines: “Family – isn’t it about . . . time?” In addition to the uses already mentioned for radio and television, complimentary videos, such as “Joy to the World” and “Finding Faith in Christ,” have been produced intended for distribution by Church members and missionaries to friends of other faiths.
The internet has also become a powerful force for spreading the restored gospel. The Church’s first website, www.lds.org, was launched without fanfare in 1996, and then publicly re-launched in 2000.[87] Further redesigns have occurred in subsequent years. The website is currently designed for members and contains full online texts of the Standard Works (including footnotes, and many other resources), current lesson manuals, Church magazines since 1971, General Conference addresses, videos, a 2018 narrative history of the Church, and much more. In its first few months, the site received 1600 hits a day. Since then, the number has exponentially increased.
To meet the demand for basic information presented in a way that it was easy to understand for members of other faiths, in 2001, the Church launched www.mormon.org, designed primarily for those who wish to learn more about the Church’s beliefs and history. Content on mormon.org has been translated into many languages. Church leaders recognized and responded to the need of a rising generation accustomed to researching on the internet before or instead of calling, visiting, or purchasing items, whether it be a car, a vacation package, a computer, or even a book. Thus, the Church’s presence on the internet has provided a convenient location for countless non-members to learn accurate information about the Church, request copies of the Book of Mormon or Church videos, find a local meetinghouse, or even request missionary visits. Also included on this site is the “live chat” feature mentioned at the beginning of this chapter.
In addition to more formal and official church representation on the Internet, members are encouraged to utilize social networks, blogs, video-sharing sites, and other methods to spread the news of the gospel. In a 2007 commencement address at Brigham Young University – Hawaii, Elder M. Russell Ballard encouraged members to “join the conversation by participating on the Internet to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Restoration.” He further noted, “You can start a blog in minutes and begin sharing what you know to be true. You can download videos from Church and other appropriate sites . . . and send them to your friends. You can write to media sites on the Internet that report on the Church and voice your views as to the accuracy of the reports…. It is also important that you and the people to whom you testify understand that you do not speak for the Church as a whole. You speak as one member—but you testify of the truths you have come to know.”[88] He pointed out that “we cannot stand on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what the Church teaches.”[89] A major redesign in 2010 of www.mormon.org features individual members’ testimonies and experiences, with headlines such as “I’m a man of science. I’m a man of faith. I’m a family man. I’m a Mormon.” or “I’m a wife, mother, lover of nature, and officer in the U.S. army. I’m a Mormon” or “I built my own leg, I make the impossible, possible... and I'm a Mormon.”[90]
The largest social network is currently Facebook, with over 2 billion active users around the world.[91] Members with Facebook profiles can use the status feature to bear brief testimonies and link to content on the Church’s websites, such as conference talks, quotes, videos, and more. Users can also “like” Church-related pages on Facebook, such as the pages for the Ensign, Church History Library, General Conference, and individual church leaders, and then share with their friends the uplifting content posted on these pages. Other prominent social networking sites, such as YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, present opportunities for members of the Church to share more about their beliefs and to educate others about the gospel.[92] For example, Church members can post YouTube videos sharing their beliefs (including through song and dance) and can also direct friends and family to Church-related videos, including many produced by the Church such as Mormon Messages.
When all these technologies are combined, the results are truly astonishing. For instance, an individual can see a public service announcement on TV in the afternoon, call the Church’s toll-free number listed on the screen to request a free DVD about Christ that evening, and speak with a missionary who will enter the caller’s address and phone number into a computer program. The name, address and other information can then be sent to mission homes around the world. Mission offices can then call or email missionaries assigned to the individual’s area, and those missionaries can easily drive, bike or take public transportation to the individual’s home to deliver the requested item within 24 hours of the request. Thanks to improved printing techniques, the missionaries can also offer the individual a free copy of the Book of Mormon.
Meanwhile, the individual can be referred to the Church’s website www.mormon.org for further information. If the individual has questions before or after the missionaries arrive, he or she can chat online with a missionary, who will be able to assist him or her in answering gospel questions. In addition, the individual can read numerous profiles of a variety of Mormons throughout the world. He or she can even search for a Mormon who is the same age, ethnicity, gender, or had the same previous religious affiliation. When the local mission office runs out of supplies, more can be quickly shipped via a postal system or private carrier with trucks and planes. In order to improve the reliability and efficiency of this referral system, representatives from the MTC can travel by plane to various parts of the world in order to study the results of such referrals. Perhaps more impressively, improvements in technology help not only those who are living, but also millions of people who have never heard the word “automobile,” “telephone,” “airplane,” “computer,” or “Internet.”
On March 8, 2018, the Deseret News website reported that in 2017, missionaries in the Church’s online teaching centers taught more than 140,000 people online, completing 349,000 chats and 91,250 phone calls in the process. In the same year, Mormon.org had more than 21 million unique visitors, many of whom found the website through a simple Google™ search.[93]
In an address to the International Society in 2012, Elder Anthony D. Perkins, then a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, spoke of the important role mobile devices may play in the Church’s future work in Asia. The area consists of twenty-five countries and territories with a combined population of more than 3.5 billion people, about one-half of the world’s total population. As of 2012, Church membership in Asia was only 161,000, or one Latter-day Saint for every 22,000 persons. “Yet almost everyone in Asia owns a mobile device, if not a computer or tablet,” he observed. He suggests that the use of mobile devices may be vital as a means of bringing the Church “out of obscurity” in Asia, especially with regard to distribution of The Book of Mormon.[94]
In recent years, full-time missionaries have begun using digital communication devices, such as tablets and smartphones, in their day-to-day proselyting activities. A pilot program put in place in the fall of 2013 saw 6,500 missionaries in the United States and Japan equipped with iPad minis for both gospel study and teaching the gospel. In July that year, Elder L. Tom Perry announced that missionaries would be able to use social media programs such as Skype and FaceTime for conducting lessons with investigators, and Facebook for communication with both members and investigators. Later, in 2014, based on successful results in the pilot, the program began to expand into Canada and western Europe. At that time, it was expected that by early 2015 more than 32,000 missionaries in more than 160 missions would be using mobile devices.[95] An item posted on the mormonnewsroom.org website, dated October 20, 2017, reported that missionary tablets devices would be replaced with smartphones.[96]
The development of desktop computers, followed by laptops, followed by Wi-Fi networks, followed by hand-held iPad and android tablet computers, as well as cellular phones followed by smartphones has provided a suite of technological hardware and software that cannot be overlooked with regard to moving the work of the Church forward.
Redeeming the Dead: “We Stand Only on the Threshold”
In the late 1950s, a group of Church members in the Los Angeles area began discussing amongst themselves the possibilities that new computer technology offered to the Church. After an initial experiment in sorting names from microfilms of British christening records into family groups at an unprecedented speed, they received permission to make a presentation to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, mature, conservative and cautious, appeared to be falling asleep throughout the presentation. Gary Carlson, a member of the group, related,
I remember I got up to give my presentation and I looked right at President Smith and I tried to talk very slow and distinct right to him. He sat in his chair with his head bowed and eyes closed as though totally sound asleep….
We finished up and several of the Brethren came up and said that was fine and they appreciated the information. I got to President Smith and I said, ‘I hope you can understand what we were trying to say. Is there anything I can answer or any question I can help you with?’ He looked me straight in the eye and he said, ‘Now, Brother Carlson, you may think I was asleep. I’m an old man and my eyes are tired and my body is tired and I have to rest whenever I can.’ I felt smaller and smaller. He said, ‘But I heard what you said. I don’t understand it, but I have the feeling that you young men know what you are talking about and I have confidence in you.’[97]
Within a few years, “the move toward computerization was well under way.”[98]
Computer technology was a great advancement from the typewriter and microfilm that came before it, but in its own day, that previous technology was a great improvement in and of itself. The typewriter clarified untold numbers of records by allowing them to be typed in easily decipherable printed words, as opposed to often difficult-to-read handwriting. Anyone that has spent hours looking for a name or a date, only to discover that because of one misread letter or number, the time has been spent looking in the wrong year or decade or location, can appreciate the impact of legible words and numbers.
In addition to utilizing the typewriter to create easy-to-read records, the Church also sought—and still seeks—to ensure that valuable records worldwide are not lost permanently if destroyed by war, flood, fire, or other natural disasters. In 1938, the Genealogical Society purchased a microfilm camera to begin microfilming records. Millions of images have been filmed since then, all of them eventually stored in the Granite Mountain Vault, itself “a world-famous masterpiece of technology, created in response to the need to provide a suitable storage place for the microfilm.”[99] Copies of microfilm can be sent to local “FamilySearch Centers,” (also called family history centers), of which in 2014, there were over 4,600 located in 134 countries, providing countless people with access to records previously unobtainable.[100] Microfilming has now been replaced by the use of digital cameras, and images are and will be accessible online, but the same goal still governs the work: preserve the records and make them accessible to as many people as possible. Wayne J. Metcalfe, while director of acquisitions for the then Family and Church History Department said simply, “Just the power of the computer enables us to do things you can't do with just microfilm.”[101] For instance, digital cameras are much smaller, and digital images created with cameras can be sent electronically anywhere in the world with internet access instantly. Additionally, images don’t lose quality when copying, as film images do.
The most popular technological invention currently used for family history research and submitting names for temple work is the computer, particularly the internet. Though the Church’s first website, www.lds.org, was released quietly, there was a great deal of publicity for the release of www.familysearch.org, the Church’s FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service. This led to a great deal of interest, and the website received 100 million hits the second day of its operation.[102] The Church is engaged in a massive effort to scan and digitalize the millions of rolls of microfilm in its family history collections to make these documents accessible to people worldwide from their home computers. More than two billion digital images and indexes of records from all over the world, including governmental and church records of births, deaths and marriages, and other records, such as censuses, probate and land records, were available on FamilySearch by 2018, with millions of new records being added weekly.[103] To make records more easily accessible, many of these records are being indexed by volunteers (of many faiths) in a massive program consisting of over thousands of active indexers around the world, working from their home computers. In the first three months of 2014 alone, over 110,000 volunteers indexed over 35.4 million records.[104] As more and more records are digitalized and made available to patrons online from their home computers, family history centers eventually will not be needed to support the circulation of microfilms from Salt Lake City. Plans are under way to repurpose existing family history centers to training facilities for individuals, families, and members of the community.[105]
In addition to making data more readily available through electronic sharing, the Church has also tried for years to prevent the duplication of temple ordinances for individuals.[106] At the opening session of General Conference in October 2005, President Hinckley remarked, “One of the most troublesome aspects of our temple activity is that as we get more and more temples scattered across the earth there is duplication of effort in proxy work. People in various nations simultaneously work on the same family lines and come up with the same names. They do not know that those in other areas are doing the same thing. We, therefore, have been engaged for some time in a very difficult undertaking. To avoid such duplication, the solution lies in complex computer technology. Preliminary indications are that it will work, and if this is so, it will be a truly remarkable thing with worldwide implications.”[107] To help overcome the problem, new.familysearch.org was released, which almost instantaneously resolved that issue. Further updates have continued to come forth.
In recent years, commercial DNA analysis has helped many people, both Church members and non-members, identify and/or locate relatives. For example, the spouse of one of the contributing authors of this book, was able to identify her birth father, who had previously passed away, and locate half-siblings who were able to provide much genealogical information regarding her newly found ancestral line.[108]
The use of technology in redeeming the dead is perhaps best stated by President Howard W. Hunter, when he said, “In recent years we have begun using information technology to hasten the sacred work of providing ordinances for the deceased. The role of technology in this work has been accelerated by the Lord himself, who has had a guiding hand in its development and will continue to do so. However, we stand only on the threshold of what we can do with these tools. I feel that our most enthusiastic projections can capture only a tiny glimpse of how these tools can help us—and of the eternal consequences of these efforts.”[109]
Caring for the Poor and Needy
Lastly, technology also assists saints and other in their efforts to care for the poor and the needy. From the early days of the Church, an important part of the restored gospel has been for members to attend not only to each other’s spiritual but also temporal needs. King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon taught that in order to retain a remission of sins, we must “impart of our substance to the poor” (Mosiah 4:26). Joseph Smith reiterated that it was part of the obligation of the Saints to “impart of their substance . . . to the poor and afflicted among them” (D&C 105:3). Throughout their history, Latter-day Saints have been noted for their mutual support of one another. In 1936, during the Great Depression, a welfare program was instituted, which took into account principles of service and self-reliance in an attempt to care for the poor and needy. This program has expanded into an extensive network of production and distribution facilities.[110] In the last half of the twentieth century, as Church resources became more abundant, the Church has expanded its role in humanitarian aid. Since 1985, when it started keeping track, it has donated more than one billion dollars in cash and material assistance to 167 countries in connection with disaster relief and humanitarian aid.[111] In late 2009, the Church adopted “caring for the poor and needy” as the fourth of its fourfold missions, to give further emphasis to the principle of coming to the aid of those in need, whether within and without the Church.[112]
As with the other missions of the Church, technological advancements have increased members’ abilities and opportunities to care for those in need. Modern transportation and communication, as well as accurate weather forecasting, play a significant role in the administering of humanitarian aid. For major disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and large sections of the Gulf Coast in 2005, trucks loaded with supplies for disaster relief left Salt Lake City before the disaster even happened, enabling Latter-day Saint volunteers to frequently be some of the first providers of assistance. Without the means of modern technology, such relief from hundreds of miles away immediately following disasters would be impossible.
In addition to delivering aid, church members are able to keep track of each other before, during and after such disasters with the use of technology. For example, when a fire threatened the area covered by the Colorado Springs Colorado North Stake, stake president Kevin Woodward was able to quickly send a text message to all bishops in his stake to check on the status of their members.[113] Sometimes technology is used to locate members and provide relief after a disaster. Following a massive Japanese earthquake in 2011 which triggered a devastating tsunami, an innovative use of technology was the use of the Internet to locate Church members, including two sister missionaries.[114] Relief efforts in Houston, Texas, following Hurricane Harvey in 2017 were coordinated in part online through justserve.org.[115] The JustServe program is a highly-successful vehicle for matching community needs with willing volunteers. Developed by Church members, the JustServe website brings community organizations together with compassionate, service-oriented people of all faiths and cultures.[116] Additionally, video technology enables those present at disaster scenes to show others around the world the pressing needs of those affected, encouraging others to travel to assist personally or to donate for those affected.[117]
Another significant need in administering the Church Welfare Program is the training of local leaders. Fortunately, training is now possible via the internet. In addition, resources for direct member and other access are available in abundance in the “Provident Living” portion of the lds.org website. Links include sites that provide information on topics such as self-reliance, food storage, addiction recovery, and budgeting. Links and information about Deseret Industries, LDS Family Services, and other services are also included. Under “Employment,” the site provides a database of employment opportunities, which enables those seeking employment to pursue specific opportunities; it also provides online training in job-seeking skills.
For those who want to serve but are not sure where to start, the Church’s website suggests many ways to serve in the local community and to provide financial support for humanitarian aid efforts.[118] The Church has also implemented an online orientation program at lds.org for members called to Church-service missions. Using technology to train new service missionaries greatly decreases costs, better prepares the missionaries to meet the needs in the assigned community and enables the service missionaries and any other interested individuals to frequently return to the orientation materials to reinforce their learning and abilities to care for others.
Technology, the Pandemic, and the Work of the Lord
The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 resulted in unprecedented disruption to global society. What had previously been viewed as a vague, faraway threat suddenly impacted on individuals, families, communities, and nations worldwide. Strict public health restrictions were put in place to slow the spread of the new virus. People were required to stay at home, and many businesses were closed, resulting in extensive unemployment. It was a period of great uncertainty.
The pandemic had profound and immediate impact on the Church. Striving to be good global citizens, Church leaders promptly announced policies, in a series of First Presidency letters beginning on 11 March, that would contribute to the safety and well-being of Church members and be in compliance with government regulations. Not only were public gatherings (including all in-person Church meetings) suspended, but significant restrictions were implemented on missionary service, and all temples worldwide were temporarily closed.
More than ever before, the Church relied on technology to carry on the work of the Lord under these unexpected circumstances. General Conferences in April 2020, October 2020, and April 2021 were held virtually, with the public watching and listening through television, the internet, and other electronic media. Transportation technology was employed to return thousands of missionaries to their home nations to continue their service. Newly called missionaries, instead of reporting to Missionary Training Centers, did their MTC training online from home. Missionaries in the field were unable to contact people through tracting and other traditional means, so they developed creative ways to appeal to people through social media and to teach them online.
In wards and stakes, districts and branches throughout the world, local leaders responded to the rapidly evolving circumstances by resorting to available technologies. Without in-person church gatherings, leaders and members employed telephone, text messaging, Facebook, email, Zoom, and other means to stay in touch with one another. Families, including grandparents, children, grandchildren, and extended families, unable to join each other through travel, were able to keep in touch by these same means. Truly the Lord, through advances in modern technology, had provide the means to remedy the limited personal associations which resulted from the pandemic.
In the Kingston Ontario District, an interesting case study, the district presidency sent out a message on 13 March advising members to be diligent in gospel teaching and practice in the home, to partake of the sacrament regularly (as authorized, and as circumstances permitted), and to be creative in holding essential meetings through technology. On 22 March, branches in the district, in order to maintain "continuity and connectivity," began holding weekly devotional meetings on the district’s 800 teleconferencing line. These conference call meetings proved unsatisfactory because of poor quality audio and scheduling difficulties, so branches began to hold weekly devotional meetings on Zoom in the latter part of April, and continued to do so, with various adaptations, throughout the duration of the pandemic lockdown, well into 2021.
The district purchased five new laptop computers and a webcam and distributed them to branches who needed them to hold their weekly Zoom devotionals. The district councilor in charge of media and technology worked with branch and district leaders, helping them sign up for Zoom accounts and providing training. At the district level, he set up a district YouTube channel, where he posted the media training video he had created. The district held a one-hour devotional service (in lieu of district conference) on YouTube in May. District priesthood meeting, priesthood leadership meetings, a district missionary fireside, and district Relief Society women’s day were held virtually on Zoom, with great success, and some of these events were recorded and uploaded to the district YouTube channel. A district councilor presented two firesides on Zoom on the topic of maintaining emotional health during the stress of the pandemic. A North America Northeast Area devotional broadcast was held in November, featuring President Henry B. Eyring and Elder Ulisses Soares, and members were able to access this devotional online from their homes!
Learning to Tame Technology through Taming Ourselves: “A Toy or a Weapon”
With the development of new technology come not only blessings, but also responsibilities, “for of him unto whom much is given much is required” (D&C 82:3). Additionally, just as the Lord can use technologies to advance his purposes, so also can the adversary. “Satan is always quick to exploit the negative power of new inventions, to spoil and degrade, and to neutralize any effect for good,” Elder M. Russell Ballard taught in 2007.[119] Other Apostles have also commented on the dangers inherent in the new technologies. In General Conference of April 2008, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf mentioned the blessings of broadcast technologies, “New technologies such as [satellite broadcasting and the internet] make it possible for the gospel message to be spread throughout the world. The Church Web sites are good examples of how you can use this technology as a wonderful resource of inspiration, help, and learning. They can be a blessing for you priesthood holders, your families, and the Church.” However, he then warned of the dangers of the misuse of technology: “But be cautious. These same technologies can allow evil influences to cross the threshold of your homes.”[120]
How do we exercise caution? Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught that we can be protected by living the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He described what can happen if we are not careful to be obedient to true principles: “Modern science, with its marvel and wonders, has passed technology into the hands of men who now find it difficult to tame that technology because they cannot tame themselves. Absent the absolute values of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and technology becomes a toy or a weapon. It is inevitable that some of those who are insensitive to eternal values will finally tire of their play with the toy of technology and turn it to more invidious purposes.”[121] By extrapolation, as we continue to live the principles of the gospel, technology will not become a weapon in our hands. If we are one day to have power as Heavenly Father does, must we not learn now to control not only the relatively small amounts of power granted by technology, but more importantly, ourselves?
President James E. Faust warned of the blatant use of technology by the adversary: “The miracles of modern technology have brought efficiency into our lives in ways not dreamed of a generation ago, yet with this new technology has come a deluge of new challenges to our morals and our values. Some tend to rely more on technology than on theology. . . . Satan, of course, is aware of this great progress in technology and likewise takes advantage of it for his purposes, which are to destroy and despoil. He delights in the pornography on the Internet and the sleaze in many of our movies and television shows.”[122] Pornography is in fact the biggest hit on the Internet, followed by genealogy! Technology advances and changes – theology remains constant and true from eternity to eternity, and upon it we must rely.
“The Best is Yet to Be”
Despite Satan’s attempts, we know that the Lords purposes will eventually triumph. In the poet’s classic lines, “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.”[123] And such it is with the rise of technology in the world and its use in fulfilling the four purposes of the Church. The technological explosion which we have witnessed and are witnessing is part of this unique latter-day dispensation of the gospel, the dispensation of the fulness of times, in which the Lord has bestowed a vast amount of scientific and technical knowledge for the accomplishment of His purposes. As the prophet Joseph Smith declared 168 years ago, “The Standard of Truth has been erected . . . the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country and sounded in every ear.”[124] God has provided means so that this can be accomplished. At the time of the Tower of Babel, He confounded the languages to prevent the spread of evil (Genesis 11:1-9); now, He has opened the doors of communication to proclaim the message of truth across the entire world. Prophetically, President David O. McKay said in 1935, “In considering how best to build Zion today let us, as wise and able architects do, see clearly first what we are going to build. . . . If we have in mind the physical Zion, then we must . . . improve the means of communication until with radio in our pockets we may communicate with friends and loved ones from any point at any given moment.”[125] People around the world communicate globally with commonplace smartphones in their pockets. These means placed at human disposal have been part of the Lord’s plan to “hasten” his work (D&C: 88:73), not only in preaching the gospel but also in perfecting the saints, in redeeming the dead, and in caring for the poor and needy.
Over 560 years ago, Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type, and with it, transformed the world. Without his invention, Tyndale’s Bible could not have been printed for an ordinary person in England to read. Without it, Joseph Smith could not have caused copies of the Book of Mormon to be printed and shared with others. From Gutenberg’s press to high speed web offset printing, the ability to place the word of God into the hands of followers of Christ has proven most profitable of all endeavors. But, as Elder L. Tom Perry taught, “bricks and mortar and the continued expansion of technology will only bring the messages to us. One challenge remains the same from the time of King Benjamin to the time of President Grant to today—that is, the challenge of each individual and family, through personal and collective study, to internalize the messages of the gospel of our Lord and Savior. Salvation is not in facilities or technology, but in the word. Only in the power of the word will it impact our lives and help us to live closer to our Father in Heaven.”[126] With all the technology, it is still person by person that change takes place—in the hearts of the people as they individually ponder the Lord’s word, reach out in acts of service and kindness towards others, and seek the change that comes through the power of the Atonement. While technology can move messages and people, it cannot in and of itself move hearts. That ability has and always will be through the power of the Spirit of God.
Endnotes
[1] I am indebted to historians Roy A. Prete and Brian Q. Cannon, as well as to LeRoy E. Whitehead, Suzy Bills and Carma T. Prete, for their assistance in the preparation of this article. This chapter draws upon and expands the work done in Sherilyn Farnes and Roy A. Prete, “The Discovery Process: Spiritual and Secular Parallels” in Roy A. Prete et al, eds. Window of Faith: Latter-day Saint Perspectives on World History (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2005), 231–55.
[2] Spencer W. Kimball, “When the World Will Be Converted”, address given to the Regional Representative’ Seminar, Thursday, April 4, 1974. An abridged version of the address is available in the October, 1974, Ensign, available at www.lds.org/ensign/1974/10/when-the-world-will-be-converted?lang=eng. See also The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982), 587, emphasis added.
[3] James B. Allen, “Technology and the Church: A Steady Revolution,” 2007 Church Almanac (Deseret Morning News: Salt Lake City, 2006), 125.
[4] U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, “U.S. Patent Activity: Calendar Years 1790 to the Present,” http://www.uspto.gov/go/taf/h_counts.pdf, (accessed May 27, 2009).
[5] US House of Representatives, Abstract of the Return of the Fifth Census (Washington DC: Green, 1832), 47, on www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1830a-01.pdf , accessed 24 Jan. 2013.
[6] Paul Mackun and Steven Wilson. Population Distribution and Change: 2000 to 2010 (Washington DC: US Department of Commerce, 2011), census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-01.pdf, accessed 24 Jan. 2013.
[7] It is, of course, possible that other factors have contributed to this dramatic rise, such as higher levels of education, better standard of living, greater ease in applying for patents, increased encouragement to patent inventions, and so forth.
[8] Allen, “Technology and the Church,” 127–41.
[9] Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954-1956), 1:147.
[10] Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:145–46; emphasis in original.
[11] Joseph Fielding Smith, in Conference Report, October 1926, 117.
[12] Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:183, emphasis in the original.
[13] Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:145, emphasis added.
[14] “A Divine Plan for Finding Security and Peace of Mind,” Improvement Era, December 1966, 1091–92.
[15] Gordon B. Hinckley, “Living in the Fulness of Times,” Ensign, Nov 2001, 4–5.
[16] For a fuller treatment of this topic, see Sherilyn Farnes and Roy A. Prete, “The Discovery Process : Spiritual and Secular Parallels.”
[17] Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses (Liverpool: Horace S. Eldredge, 1871 [8th exact reprint, Salt Lake City: Stationers’ Hall, 1974]), 13:305.
[18] Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses (Liverpool: Horace S. Eldredge, 1871 [8th exact reprint, 1974]), 13:148.
[19] Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, comp. John A.Widtsoe (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1954), 246.
[20] Howard W. Hunter, The Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, ed. Clyde J. Williams (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997), 174.
[21] Dallin H. Oaks, “Focus and Priorities,” Ensign, May 2001, 83.
[22] Gordon B. Hinckley, Priesthood Leadership Training Broadcast, January 11, 2003.
[23] Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses (Liverpool: Horace S. Eldredge, 1871[8th exact reprint, 1974]), 13:148, emphasis added.
[24] Joseph Fielding Smith, in Conference Report, October 3, 1926, 117, emphasis added.
[25] Cited in R. A. Brown and R. G, Luckcock, “Dreams, Daydreams and Discovery,” Journal of Chemical Education, vol. 55, no. 11 (November 1976): 695.
[26] U.S. News and World Report, Dec. 23, 1991, as quoted on www.ruf.rice.edu/~veritas/schaefer.htm, accessed on August 21, 2008.
[27] Donald G. Godfrey, Philo T. Farnsworth: The Father of Television (University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City, 2001), 181. Though there has been some debate as to whether or not Farnsworth was actually the first to come up with the ideas to invent the television, his comments on inspiration remain pertinent. On the subject of two independent inventors, after affirming that he felt inspiration himself, Farnsworth said, “I have no doubt that God could inspire two scientists at the same time and in different places with similar ideas” (Godfrey, Farnsworth, 181).
[28] Godfrey, Farnsworth, 181.
[29] Cited in Harold B. Lee, “‘Sweet Are the Uses of Adversity,’” Instructor, June 1965, 217.
[30] Alice Calaprice, comp., The Expanded Quotable Einstein (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 287.
[31] O. T. Benfey, Journal of Chemical Education, Vol. 35 (1958), 21, quoted in Roberts, Serendipity, 77.
[32] Ibid.
[33] Sharon Begley, Science Finds God,” Newsweek, July 20, 1998. Accessed online at newsweek.com on July 26, 2008.
[34] Sharon Begley, “Science Finds God.”
[35] Bonnie Azab Powell. UCBerkeleyNews, Web Feature. 17 June 2005. Accessed on July 26, 2008. http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/06/17_townes.shtml.
[36] Ezra Taft Benson, The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1988), 117.
[37] Charles H. Townes, Making Waves. (New York: The American Institute of Physics, 1995) 162–63, emphasis added.
[38] Howard W. Hunter, “To Know God,” Ensign, November 1974, 96.
[39] James E. Faust, “‘The Truth Shall Make You Free,’” Ensign, September 1998, 4.
[40] See Farnes and Prete, “The Discovery Process: Spiritual and Secular Parallels,” 234–44.
[41] Dallin H. Oaks, “Alternate Voices,” Ensign, May 1989, 29, emphasis added.
[42] Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), ed. B.H. Roberts. 7 vols., 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1978), 3:381.
[43] Ralph Waldo Trine, The Power That Wins, (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1928),
[44] Henry Eyring, “My Father’s Formula,” Ensign, October 1978, 29.
[45] Harold B. Lee, Life under Control, Brigham Young University commencement speech, June 4, 1951, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 19.
[46]. Townes, Making Waves. 163.
[47] Spencer W. Kimball, in regional representative seminar, April 3, 1975, typescript, Americana Collection, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 19, emphasis added.
[48] Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, comp. Widstoe, 18.
[49] James E. Faust, “Of Seeds and Soils,” Ensign, Nov. 1999, 48.
[50] The return voyage took sixty-two days, due in part to contrary winds and doldrums. R. Lanier Britsch, From the East: The History of the Latter-day Saints in Asia 1851–1996 (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1998), 33–39.
[51] LeRoy E. Whitehead, personal recollection. The calculation of days in this paragraph does not take into account the effects of crossing time zones and the International Date Line.
[52] For a more detailed treatment, see Erekson, “Preparing the Way,” 419–21.
[53] The completion of the railroad in 1869 is generally considered to have ended the early Latter-day Saint pioneer period, however, converts from Europe and the British Isles continued to immigrate.
[54] Francis Gibbons, Joseph Fielding Smith: Gospel Scholar, Prophet of God (Salt Lake Cty, UT: Deseret Book, 1992), 203–06.
[55] 2013 Church Almanac (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 2013), p. 213; Brandon S. Plewe et al., eds., Mapping Mormonism: An Atlas of Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2012), 156–57.
[56] Plewe et al., Mapping Mormonism, 174.
[57] “Facts and Statistics,” mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-statistics. Data are as of year-end 2015. The United States still has more Latter-day Saint members than any other country, but no longer has a majority of the members.
[58] Henry D. Taylor, in Conference Report, Apr. 1960, 118–19. In 1920, Elder David O. McKay and Elder Hugh J. Cannon were asked by President Heber J. Grant to undertake an international tour of Church missions and schools, with the objective of obtaining firsthand information about the Church and its members around the world. The tour covered 60,000 miles, often by ship, and took a year to complete, but it was an important milestone in the globalization of the Church. In light of this experience, it is no wonder that David O. McKay, as President of the Church, appreciated the comparative speed of air travel. See, for example, “The Life and Ministry of David O. McKay,” Teachings of Presidents of the Church: David O. McKay (2011), xiii–xxix.
[59] Sarah Jane Weaver, “The Apostles' divine mandate to be ministers — not administrators — and how it takes them around the globe,” Church News, Aug. 3, 2018. Accessed online at ldschurchnews.com. Accessed Aug. 22, 2018.
[60] www.mormonnewsroom.org/topic/missionary-training-centers Accessed July 2, 2018.
[61] Shaun D. Stahle, “Members in Europe East Area view Nauvoo temple dedication” Church News, July 13, 2002. Accessed online at www.ldschurchnews.com. Accessed May 27, 2009.
[62] Much of the material in the next few pages is drawn from Allen, “Technology and the Church,” previously cited.
[63] Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1958), 229.
[64] Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Steven C. Harper, “’This is My Testimony, Spoken by Myself, into a Talking Machine’: Wilford Woodruff’s 1897 Statement in Stereo,” BYU Studies, 45:2 (2006):112–116. To listen to the actual recording, visit byustudies.byu.edu. Though the website states the sound recording will be online through Dec. 2006, as of May 2009, the recording was still accessible.
[65] Allen, “Technology and the Church,” 132.
[66] Leonard J. Arrington, “Pioneering Communications Technology in Utah,” Pioneer (Spring 1996): 30.
[67] Allen, “Technology and the Church,” 134.
[68] Herbert F. Murray, “A Half Century of Broadcasting in the Church,” Ensign, Aug 1972, 49.
[69] Allen, “Technology and the Church,” 135.
[70] See Erekson, “Preparing the Way,” 413, 417–19.
[71] Gordon B. Hinckley, “Faith: The Essence of True Religion,” Ensign, Nov 1981, 5.
[72] Gordon B. Hinckley, “We Bear Testimony to the World,” Ensign, Nov 2006, 4.
[73] See Erekson, “Preparing the Way,” 419; Allen, 144–46.
[74] Allen, “Technology and the Church,” 142. Later, the name was changed to Information and Communications Systems (ICS).
[75] Allen, “Technology and the Church,” 142.
[76] R. Scott Lloyd, “Year in Review: 1991,” Church News, Dec. 28, 1991. www.ldschurchnews.com, accessed June 13, 2009.
[77] Ryan Morgenegg, “New Church online donation system,” Church News, May 1, 2015. Accessed online at ldschurchnews.com. Accessed Aug. 22, 2018.
[78] “Penetrating Hearts through Sight and Sound,” Ensign, Apr. 2006, 74.
[79] Jeffrey R. Holland, “Be With and Strengthen Them,” gc.lds.org, accessed on Aug. 22, 2018.
[80] “Penetrating Hearts through Sight and Sound,” Ensign, Apr. 2006, 75.
[81] As the Internet has had perhaps an even more profound impact upon proclaiming the gospel and redeeming the dead, it will be discussed more fully later in this paper.
[82] Spencer W. Kimball, in regional representative seminar, April 3, 1975, typescript, Americana Collection, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 19.
[83] Lisa Ann Jackson, “From the Crossroads of the West,” Ensign, Jul 2004, 72.
[84] Kimball, “When the World Will Be Converted,” 10.
[85] Herbert F. Murray, “A Half Century of Broadcasting in the Church,” Ensign, Aug 1972, 50.
[86] “New Homefront Spot Released,” Ensign, Dec. 1993, 70.
[87] Sarah Jane Weaver, “Church enters World Wide Web ‘carefully and methodically.’” Church News, March 1, 1997; R. Scott Lloyd, “Mountain of information of Church’s Internet site,” Church News, Oct. 28, 2000. www.ldschurchnews.com, accessed May 27, 2009.
[88] M. Russell Ballard, “Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet,” Ensign, July 2008, 62.
[89] Ballard, “Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet,” 61.
[90] As of December 2010, 10,000 profiles were lives and an additional 35,000 were in process. See Lyman Kirkland, “Meet the Mormons,” www.newsroom.lds.org, 24 December 2010.
[91] Facebook, “Stats,” https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/, accessed 22 Aug. 2018.
[92] As of the writing of this article, Facebook is still the largest social networking site, though YouTube is close. “Statistics,” www.youtube.com/t/press_statistics, accessed 24 Jan. 2013.
[93] www.deseretnews.com/article/900012443/how-technology-is-changing-mormon-missionary-work-inside-the-temple-square-online-teaching-center.html. Accessed June 28, 2018,
[94] Anthony D. Perkins, “Out of Obscurity: Perspectives from Asia,” in Reid L. Neilson and Wayne D. Crosby, editors, Lengthening Our Stride: Globalization of the Church, Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University (Provo, UT: 2018) 93–113.
[95] www.lds.org/church/news/more-missionaries-will-use-ipads-digital-devices-to-preach-gospel?lang=eng. Posted July 9 2014. Accessed June 28, 2014. Regarding Elder Perry, see universe/byu/edu/2013/09/16/missionary-work-going-viral/ posted September 16, 2013. Accessed June 28, 2018.
[96] www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-missionary-changes-2017. “A Primer on Coming Changes to the Missionary Program.” Accessed June 28, 2018.
[97] Allen, “Technology and the Church,” 149–50.
[98] Allen, “Technology and the Church,” 150.
[99] Allen, “Technology and the Church,” 151.
[100] Allen, “Technology and the Church,” 152. See also “Introduction to LDS Family History Centers,” https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Introduction_to_LDS_Family_History_Centers, accessed 10 Feb. 2014.
[101] John L. Hart, “Microfilm out, digital cameras phasing in,” Church News, Dec. 17, 2005. www.ldschurchnews.com. Accessed May 27, 2009.
[102] “Wide Publicity given to new family history Web site,” Church News, June 5, 1999. www.ldschurchnews.com. Accessed May 27, 2009. The article notes that “It takes 20 hits to display all the information on the FamilySearch home page alone, so the number of hits is less than the number of users, but it is nevertheless a measure of demand.”
[103] “FamilySearch Adds 2 Billionth Image of Genealogy Records,” 23 Apr. 2018, https://media.familysearch.org/familysearch-adds-2-billionth-image-of-genealogy-records/, accessed 22 Aug. 2018.
[104] Family Searching Indexing Statistics, https://familysearch.org/indexing/, accessed 29 March 2014.
[105] Rachel L. Mathews, “The Purpose of Family History Centers Everywhere,” FamilySearch Blog, 4 June 2014, https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/purpose-family-history-centers/; “Future of Family History Center Microfilm,” The Ancestry Insider, 14 March 2017, http://www.ancestryinsider.org/2017/03/future-of-family-history-center.html.
[106] For a fuller treatment of this story, see Allen, “Technology and the Church.”
[107] Gordon B. Hinckley, “Opening Remarks,” Ensign, Nov. 2005, 5–6.
[108] Julia Belluz, Genetic testing brings families together, and sometimes tears them apart, VOX, updated December 18, 2014. www.vox.com/2014/9/9/6107039/23andme-ancestry-dna-testing.
[109] Howard W. Hunter, “We Have a Work to Do,” Ensign, March 1995, 65. For a fascinating discussion of the potential future developments of technologies to assist in family history work, see Dave Moon, “Past Perfected, Future Envisioned” Ancestry 24 (July-August 2006), 56–59.
[110] For a good overview of the Church Welfare Program and Humanitarian Aid, see Neil K. Newell, “Reaching Out to Those in Need,” in Roy A. Prete et al, eds., The Mormons: An Unofficial Illustrated History of The [The name of the Church starts with a capital “The,” so I’m guessing this is a typo.] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (London: Merrell Publishers, 2013), 99–104.
[111] Mormon Church a Significant Partner in Local Disaster Relief/Mormon Voice/a Chron.com blog, April 2012, http://blog.chron.com/mormonvoice/2012/04/mormon-church-a-significant-partner-in-local-disaster-relief/ accessed 2 Feb 2013.
[112] “New LDS emphasis: Care for the needy,” The Salt Lake Tribune, Dec. 9, 2009, http://www.sltrib.com/faith/ci_13965607, accessed 2 Feb. 2013.
[113] “The Black Forest Fire burns acres and destroys homes,” 22 June 2013, http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/63683/The-Black-Forest-Fire-burns-acres-and-destroys-homes.html, accessed 10 Feb. 2014.
[114] “Church Volunteers in Japan Use Internet to Locate Missing People,” 13 April 2011, https://www.lds.org/church/news/church-volunteers-in-japan-use-internet-to-locate-missing-people?lang=eng , accessed 2 Feb. 2013.
[115] “First Presidency offers organized ways to help Hurricane Harvey victims,” Church News, 1 Sept. 2017. Accesssed at ldschurchnews.com. Accessed on Aug. 22, 2018.
[116] Amy Conway Guan, “JustServe,” Ensign, August 2018, 46-51.
[117] See, for example, the video mentioned in and linked to in “’Helping Hands’ inspire hope, gratitude, in storm victims,” 17 Nov. 2012, http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/62973/Helping-Hands-inspire-hope-gratitude-in-storm-victims.html, accessed 10 Feb. 2014.
[118] Interview with Neil K. Newell, public affairs director, LDS Welfare Services and Humanitarian Aid, January 21, 2013.
[119] Ballard, “Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet,” 60.
[120] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “A Matter of a Few Degrees,” Ensign, May 2008, 59.
[121] Neal A. Maxwell, “Eternalism vs. Secularism,” Ensign, Oct 1974, 70.
[122] James E. Faust, “Of Seeds and Soils,” Ensign, Nov 1999, 47–48.
[123] Robert Browning, Rabbi Ben Ezra (1864), stanza 1.
[124] Smith, History of the Church, 4:540.
[125] David O. McKay, “Zion Shall Flourish,” Address delivered at the Leadership Assembly of the Brigham Young University, Jan. 29, 1935, as quoted on http://www.keepapitchinin.org/library/zion-shall-flourish/.
[126] L. Tom Perry, “‘Thou Shalt Give Heed unto All His Words,’” Ensign, May 2000, 25.