A Hamilton, New Zealand woman serving an 18 months mission with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in London is using self-composed music and blog posts to clarify misconceptions about her faith and touch hearts.
Jenna Walmsley, from Temple View, Hamilton, is using social media as part of her missionary service to teach others about her faith.
“Using social media has been a great way of sharing my beliefs,” she says. “I am able to post quotes, images and videos to share with people things that are most important to me about my faith. This is a non-threatening way of letting people know of the truths I have come to know and which bring me joy in my life.”
To get started, she says she looked up the many Church resources online, and became familiar with them. She then set up a simple blog and thought of what she could do “to make it unique.”
Sister Walmsley, as she is known as a Latter-day Saint missionary, writes Christian music which she shares on her blog. She posts about how each song relates to the gospel of Jesus Christ so she can “hopefully uplift others through music and words and bring people closer to Christ.”
“I include scriptures and quotes from prophets and apostles as well as images.”
Sister Walmsley has received many comments and questions about her music and blog posts.
“My blog as well as many of the missionaries I know have had a great response,” she says. “There have been a few times where they have been able to hear of stories of how people found answers to personal concerns and questions through missionaries’ blogs. However a lot of the reactions go unseen.”
One person she communicated with online criticized Sister Walmsley and her beliefs. “I sent him a link to my blog and he read some of my posts and listened to my music,” she says. “He then wrote to me saying it was obvious I am truly trying to follow Jesus Christ and that I have a good heart. It was wonderful to see how his heart softened.”
Latter-day Saint missionaries using social media is still a new approach and not all missionaries are involved at this stage.