Official web sites of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

February 26, 2008

The Church is doing a remarkable job at getting things online. The online missionary recommendation forms are a great example of this. Young men and women are already computer savvy and can go online and fill out the form. Then the Bishop and Stake President enter some other information and it’s done. Within a few days a call letter is sent. I waited 8 weeks for my mission call. The last couple of missionaries that have gone out from our ward have waited about 10-12 days. Amazing! The other sites the Church have also provide great information, both for members and leaders, and even non-members.

• http://lds.org/ - official Church web site… of course you know about this
• http://scriptures.lds.org/ - the standard works available online
• http://lds.org/mss/ - the online missionary application form
• http://tech.lds.org/ - the Church has an official “tech” web site. There are postings from various Church employees
• http://tech.lds.org/forum/ - the best part of the tech web site is the forum. You can post questions or answer other people’s questions about MLS, new Family Search, and more. From the forums I’ve learned about upcoming changes to MLS, learned about how to do certain things, and learned about upcoming test programs the Church is running (new mission tools online, new Family Search, Internet access in clerk’s office, etc)
• http://col.ldschurch.org/ - the online directory of leaders. The Church used to publish a book with all of the worldwide leaders, and then they started to send around a CD. They still send the CD, but the online version is always up-to-date (Bishops de Yong, Ayers, and Olsen already show up). You can search by name or part of a name for either the unit or the person.
• http://new.familysearch.org/ - official web site of the new Family Search. The roll-out of this has been delayed, but it looks like it will go along way in stopping duplication in our temple work. Since it is online, the information is always current, and members will be able to connect more easily.
• http://priesthood.familysearch.org - this web site is for Family History Consultants and Priesthood leaders. I registered here and that is what got me access a couple of months ago to the new Family Search beta. I’m not sure if that is still true today.
• http://ldscatalog.com/ - this is the distribution centre web site. Each unit can login as a unit and see things that the normal member wouldn’t see. If you don’t have a username and password for your unit you can call them and they will mail one to you
• http://ldsces.org/ - the Church Education System web site. From here you can download various manuals and bookmarks
• http://mormon.org/ - the proselyting web site of the Church
• http://josephsmith.net/ - a Church web site all about Joseph Smith
• http://gordonbhinckley.org/ - a Church web site all about President Hinckley
• http://thomassmonson.org/ - a Church web site all about President Monson
• http://scriptures.byu.edu/ - this isn’t technically a Church site, but it’s BYU so it counts. On this site you can look up a scripture, and then find all of the General Conference talks that have used that scripture. It is a great resource for preparing talks and finding a good quote.

Posted in Mormon Church on the Web