Elder Bednar habla con masfe.org

it's a privilege to be here 10 years ago you gave a talk called sweep the Earth as with the flood and you basically invited the members of the church to use the inspired tools of social media to share the gospel online and personally speaking and I'm sure these uh people here today can say the same that inspired a lot of us to put ourselves online and really try and be a part of the work frankly though it's a challenge it's hard and we we've talked about it personally I've talked to many members of the church and it's easier said than done to uh use these tools and and to put yourself out in those vulnerable situations and so we're excited to have you here and we we wanted to get a follow-up interview 10 years later let us know how are we doing what has changed what can we do better well if I use numbers we need to keep in mind that their estimates they sound more precise than they really are but 10 years ago there probably were about two billion people you using social media today that's more than doubled some people would say it's more than five billion people we've made remarkable progress uh if you consider for example president Nelson his Easter and Christmas messages have gone to hundreds of millions of people so that's the good news the bad news is that the audience is now two at least two and a half times bigger so even though we've made a lot of progress we're not keeping Pace with the evolution of social media uh the nature of the content is different uh a lot of textual material initial now uh textual material takes a distant second to short form video so it's not only the substance and the content but the mode of delivery has changed a great deal as well for me personally I think the greatest uh thing is the inspiration that attended so many people in the church prior to co imagine where we would have been in the work of proclaiming the gospel if we had not started working with soal social media and digital content uh it was a a miracle how well things went during Co but we had to have a few years of practice to get ready so I think we've made remarkable progress but this field moves so fast that we have to learn to run even faster than we're running Elder um you're talking about remarkable progress and we have seen that can you share with us some of the good things that you have seen um online that have been going well I think we we tend to emphasize what the leaders of the church are doing and so we talk about the young women president and how many people are following her and so forth all of that is Magnificent the members of the first presidency in the 12 what I love the most is ordinary unknown members of the church with with very unprofessional very authentic short simple messages of a bazillion different kinds so a flood doesn't come uh well depending on the rainfall it could could come quickly but it's made up of a lot of little drops of rain that aggregate very quickly I think that's the right metaphor for what we're talking about it's those little drops of Reign from unknown people and to the degree that that gains momentum and continues to increase then that helps us to keep Pace we love as members um to see the brethen and general authorities be out there and do that um and we wanted to know a little bit more about that experience for you to be influencers in a way or like to share the gospel in simple ways well I'll give one example exle I had one segment that was a day in the life of Elder Bednar and what absolutely made me giggle was that as a bazillion people online said what do you have in the bag at the end at the end I was walking out of the Church administration building just carrying a plastic bag I have no I don't remember what was in it and even if I remembered I wouldn't tell anybody but they were what do he have in the bag was he going to the store for his wife did he already he have eggs in there what wasn't that's what I mean about just normal and natural the thing that's enjoyable about doing those is that it Parts the curtain a little bit for people to see the normaly of much of what we do obviously we cannot record what takes place in our Council meetings and other things but to just see the flow of the day I think people were surprised to see what was done in one day I had another segment which was following us on a weekend people said my goodness and that really wasn't that busy of a weekend so it's fun to help people just see behind the curtain a little bit it's not a secret it's not mysterious it's really quite normal and it's fun to be able to part the curtain I wouldn't prescribe what people ought to do uh I think as we focus on the work of proclaiming the Gospel we emphasize just being normal and natural in regular conversations at work uh simply describing what you did over the weekend which included going to church and perhaps teaching a Sunday school class that's very unusual to most of our friends who are not members of the church so to describe the most ordinary things that we think everybody knows about in many instances hardly anyone knows about so I would just invite people to be prayerful consider the normal natural flow of your life and what can you do about your life about your family about your children that highlights the gospel but it's not a a an iny yourface overt uh come have the missionaries come to your home just live the gospel let some of that be in your social media posts and it will create a curiosity we live a distinctive lifestyle and if we just have natural elements of that lifestyle some folks are going to find that pretty interesting if an individual or a family would consider just their normal natural routine what's something that they would be interested in posting and just sharing it doesn't have to be a gospel message we are the gospel message I I think it could help people to understand that what we do is much more important than what we may write or say so some of the very normal things that we do it may be that someone would simply highlight one aspect of a family home evening and it might be that a young child six seven years of age would be giving a lesson now we all think that's normal that's abnormal in a home to have a child taking the lead in providing some instruction well a few segments about that a little commentary about here's what we focused on we were talking about prayer because in our home we believe prayer is important and then have the little kid what was it like for you to give this lesson people would just be blown away to think that a six seven year-old kid could give a lesson so it's just so normal natural small increments line upon line that's how you get started you gain a little experience you see what works what doesn't work that's what we do there are things that we said let's try this well that didn't work very well so but you learned something about what your next episode will be you'll never be acknowledged accepted or recognized by everyone it really doesn't matter what you do someone will find fault be critical and the question is are you and I grounded enough to be able to receive that incoming flak and say well this person clearly didn't appreciate this post but if you if what you did was true it was you it wasn't generated by AI uh it's you then I I don't see how you let that stuff bother you uh we're not trying to these people we're just showing aspects of our lives and if they don't like it there's nothing I can do about it I don't control it so my option is to not let it bother me too much I think that works for everybody alner um one of the things that we notice is that um your uh general authorities leaders are being more open about mental health um and you're also being more open and inviting to use social media but uh I feel like right now one of the challenges that a lot of people have is that it's hard to find a balance of taking care of our mental health our spiritual and mental health but also posting and following you know um social media or um how do you have any advice on how to maybe find that balance uh social media can condition us to adopt patterns in our lives that are contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that has a whole array of ramifications so uh we all know that institutions do research to find out how long someone sticks on a post and it has to endure more than 1.7 seconds or whatever ever the number is that doesn't work very well with line upon line precept upon precept here a little there a little and wait upon the Lord so people become conditioned nope I've made a I don't like this nope I'm not sticking with this nope I'm gonna go over here and they're moving so quickly from thing to thing to thing they make conclusion judgments so rapid no I don't want this Nei had to go to Jerusalem three times to obtain the plates of brass Drew Lots tried it didn't work gold and silver riches tried it didn't work both of those I would suggest were necessary learning experiences for Nephi so the third time time he could go not knowing beforehand the things that he should do I wonder how many opportunities we miss because we only endure for n10 of a second and make an immediate judgment I listen to members of the church who say well I prayed and God didn't give me an answer my experience is you typically don't get one answer and you certainly don't get it quickly you get lots of little answers over time I think in the church when we talk about well I received an answer an answer no I received a series of answers over time but the world of social media almost negates that so I think this is where I'm saying you asked about mental health I think it's our overall intellectual and emotional and mental health uh we have to be wary and not be seduced by the patterns that social media can introduce into our lives how how can we be um peacemakers in social media I think sometimes it's it's hard for a lot of people to defend their their faith their beliefs but also be respectful uh and a peacemaker it's like a like a fine line sure I don't know that we have to defend it I think we have the responsibility to Proclaim what we know but as we've said a little bit already proclaiming is not in your face and there's something wrong with you if you don't accept it as soon as I tell you uh we learn about the gospel in increments small increments over time if you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints if you are living the gospel there will be people who do not agree with what you believe and what you do and some of them will have a disposition to want to attack uh you become a peacemaker when you don't respond in kind now not necessarily on social media if it's an interpersonal interaction can you help me understand what what's irritating you what's upsetting you what is it that you are concerned about uh I think many times we have the the propensity to respond but we don't know what we're we don't know what we're responding to can you help me understand where you're coming from with this it seems like you're kind of attacking is this intended to be an attack the fact that you're trying to clarify and understand where they're coming from is the first step in peacemaking because if there's an attack and a Counterattack it escalates and so you and I have the control in many situations not every situation but in many situations how we respond is the first step in deescalate and trying to make it more calm and peaceful will you say that will apply also as um way to keep Gathering Israel through social media like keep sharing our faith um and inviting others more so more so now than ever I think uh the light that will be associated with the messages that come from authentic Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ will become ever more attractive in a world where people will use these tools to enhance the darkness the light will shine ever brighter for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ it's who we are I've already said it it's not Sunday only it's all day everywhere all times all places all things now how we do it can't be the same in every setting and it's not just an overt act it's what we are striving to become and that becomes evident to anybody who sees us one of the most valueable things we have in our lives is our families how do we maybe find a balance in our families and our relationships and social media CU I feel like there's some um we need to teach that and share it with our fames we we do stuff with social media um maybe what are some of the points that we need to take into account um when using social media either uh consuming or creating um and keeping our relationships strong maybe uh number one if we're talking about family you go back to the same question of who's the audience is this intended for other family members so for example sister bedar and I have a number of grandchildren we might do social media things just among our own family that's a very different offer very different audience than me doing something from my office that goes to the entire world so I think we need to be thoughtful and try to anticipate the consequences of what we're doing about our family saying about our family if it's going to extend beyond just our immediate family uh so I think it goes back to something we've already identified who's the audience that has a lot to say about what would be said and how it's communicated and when it's distributed my invitation would be don't make this harder than it is uh don't complicate it if you don't know what to do there are plenty of sources where you can get some basic information about how do I think about doing this and how do I get started and then do it uh it's not hard it's not complicated it's a remarkable learning process uh I am surprised I have some experience with this I'm surprised to see how people react to various things we talked about that at the very beginning you know what's in the shopping bag uh and that's a a delightful process to try something learn from it learn how to do it better and then continue to do it so it's not hard keep it simple don't be afraid to give it a go there are great sources to get some help if you're just getting started and uh this is not going away this is the way the world works now um I've said to missionaries in the field you know we began in 20134 introducing digital devices for missionaries to use and a part of what I said to them is this is not just about doing your missionary work now you need to learn how to use these tools for righteousness now so that that will be your pattern throughout your entire life this is how the world communicates and you need to learn how to do it for righteousness