Liza Morong, a student in Boston, joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often inadvertently called the Mormon Church, in an unusual way. On her profile on mormon.org, Liza explains how she lives her faith:
Boston is filled with individuals from all walks of life and I strive every day to find ways to help others. I serve in my ward as a Ward Missionary. This calling is so rewarding to me, as it gives me so many opportunities to share the amazing Gospel with others. Everyday I pray for missionary opportunities and strive to live the example the gospel provides…I know that by living my faith with courage and charity in my heart, I can be an example to others.
Liza joined The Church of Jesus Christ when she went to see the controversial and inaccurate Broadway musical, “The Book of Mormon.”
Deseret News reports,
With her interest piqued, Morong, who was raised Congregationalist, found herself on the official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon.org, simply to continue her amusement with this seemingly bizarre faith. When she found a link for a live chat with missionaries, Morong felt like she had hit the jackpot. But what she found wasn’t what she expected.
It was when she started chatting with Elder Trevor Boardman, a missionary in the referral center at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, that everything changed. [1]
Morong explains her conversion on her mormon.org profile:
I began talking to a certain pair of online missionaries. They asked me if I was interested in learning more. As it turns out, I was. They sent me a copy of the Book of Mormon and promised me that if I prayed, and pondered to know if the Book was true, that I would receive answers. That night I read Moroni:10 3-5 and prayed before going to bed. Soon the answers from The Lord started to flood into my life. Two months after this happened on the 31st of December, I was baptized by the missionary that initially taught me on mormon.org
The I’m a Mormon Campaign was launched in July 2012 after the Church conducted research and found that many families in the world were similar to Mormons but didn’t have an understanding of who “Mormons” really were.
Deseret News summarized this in a 2012 article:
In 2008, the missionary department and Bonneville Communications led a massive research study that resulted in the global “I’m a Mormon” campaign, which they hoped would reverse the course of stereotypical perceptions. [2]
And now, the campaign is extending to the U.K. The “I’m a Mormon” campaign includes professional videos produced by The Church of individual members, their lives and their stories. The church members featured in these videos are from all around the world, including many in the United Kingdom. And now, the U.K. will get to see those individual stories front and center.
Public Radio International reports on the campaign in London:
At Charing Cross train station, one of London’s busiest, a huge billboard is covered in pictures of friendly, smiling faces with the heading “I’m a Mormon.”
It’s part of a drive by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to give the British public a chance to get to know its followers better.
’The idea behind it is essentially to correct misinformation about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. There are a lot of myths out there and stereotypes,’ said Malcolm Adcock, a spokesman for the Mormon Church in Britain. [3]
PRI went on to report that though the U.K. is becoming increasingly secular, many different religious beliefs are present in the various countries included. PRI says that there are about 200,000 Mormons in Britain, which is roughly half a percent of the population.
PRI said,
Adcock says the recent success of the “Book of the Mormon” musical has led to increased interest in the church here.
“What the ‘I’m a Mormon’ campaign does is it gives people an opportunity to engage at whatever level they’d like to engage,” Adcock said. “We’ve set up a new website, mormon.org.uk, which goes hand in hand with the ‘I’m a Mormon’ campaign. And we want to introduce people to real Mormons, to regular members of the church.’
And that is the point of the “I’m a Mormon” campaign. To let people approach the Church and it’s individual members at their own pace, and to get the correct information about The Church of Jesus Christ and what it teaches.
Livi Whitaker is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - a "Mormon" woman in Idaho. She has worked in various professional Communications based positions in New York, Italy and Idaho since her first day at the United Nations on Jan 2nd, 2007. Livi now devotes her full attention to free lance writing. An avid writer since childhood, Livi has kept a journal as long as she can remember - yet some of the most fulfilling writing she has done is for the More Good Foundation, sharing her beliefs online.
