Education Week: A Rich Digital Treasure Box

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A screenshot of the Gospel Library on a phone. Members can access a large database of the standard works through a simple app.

Did you know that you can reserve a church room online? Or that you might be able to pay tithing from a computer?

Speaking to a capacity crowd, Fernando Camilo, Manager of Awareness and Social Media for the Priesthood Department, gave an Education Week audience walk-through of the major digital products designed by the LDS Church. To the hundreds in attendance, it was a crash course in improving gospel service, being efficient and enhancing scripture study.

While many are familiar with the basic features of LDS.org, there are new developments meant to make things easier for members to use. For example, donations can be made online in Utah and other select locations, and will soon be available in all of the United States. Camilo focused on a wide variety of features throughout the presentation:

When leaders create events on the LDS calendar online, they are able to schedule rooms in their meetinghouse. However, this feature only works if the building scheduler actively uses the online calendar feature; otherwise, it could lead to double scheduling of facilities.

Camilo recommended that every member who uses the Gospel Library app to take notes should sync their notes across devices using the cloud. Doing so protects personal insights and revelation in case of a phone crashing or other disaster. As Camillo said, “they sync to the cloud…. the angels guard your notes.”

Maria Louisa “Malu” Alfaro of Mesa, AZ, was excited to share everything she learned with the members back home. “When I was watching Brother Camilos presentation, it was like ‘how is it that we don’t … have these resources? So I’m going to make sure that [they] also know about these skills, to acquire these skills.”

Alfaro, a native of Mexico, believes that these resources can help make the church more accessible for a variety of people. “It will be good idea for our stake centers to be teaching this class as well, because it can help all the stake members.”

These improvements represent the beginning of changes coming to church digital resources. Camilo gave a preview of impending changes to Leader and Clerk Resources, where every member can access training for their calling, applicable sections from church policies, access custom reports and more.

Following his class, Camilo remarked that while there are no other major changes coming down the pipeline, smaller improvements will continually be made. For example, soon members will be able to select scriptures they would like to memorize in the Gospel Library app, and then use the existing Scripture Mastery app to do so, linking the two apps together. 

Camilo focused on the fact that every technological innovation that is useful for mankind has been given by direct revelation from God. Therefore, members should seek to use all of the church’s digital tools to their fullest.

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