Come Follow Me Youth Curriculum - using the Gospel Library App

If you have a mobile device, I hope you already use this wonderful resource.

It's available for Android, IOS, and other devices.

It took a little getting used to, and I had to kind of force myself to use it for scripture study at first, but once I got going I loved the convenience and portability.

Here's how I use the Gospel Library App:

• Gospel studying in the car (while my husband is driving!) and on other travels
• Note-taking, highlighting, and linking scriptures and all other included church content
• Creating 'study notebooks' to collect resources for particular topics or as notes for church talks and lessons
• Listening to General Conference while walking or driving
• Sharing videos

My favorite things:

• Easy access to church materials all the time - I have the app on my iPhone and iPad
• Linking content from scriptures, manuals, magazines and so many other publications
• Adding extensive personal notes to my scriptures
• Easy video downloading
• Audio options available for most resources
• My notes and links are available on all my devices and on lds.org (if I sign in to my lds account)

Come Follow Me

The entire youth curriculum is available in the Gospel Library App. You can access unit resources, read the lessons, make notes, easily open the linked scriptures and other resources, and view videos right on your device. The best thing for me - you can download the videos with just one click and have them available to show in the classroom. You can also stream the videos - but be careful because it's sometimes difficult to link to church meetinghouse internet and, if you can, sometimes it's so slow that videos won't stream well.

If you don't have the app, you can search 'Gospel Library' in your device's app store or find links to all lds.org mobile apps here.

I haven't been able to find a lds.org tutorial but here are a few resources that will introduce you to the Gospel Library App.

Upgrade announcement from Church News and Events

Review by Productivity Pad

Share how you use Gospel Library by leaving a comment - and let us know if you've found helpful resources on how to use it.

Mobile version

There is a new mobile version of this blog - check it out on your iPad or smartphone.

When you use the regular URL ( http://blessingyw.blogspot.com/ ) on a mobile device, a less data-hungry mobile version should automatically appear or be offered as an option.

Let me know if it works!

RSS Feeds and Podcasts

Did you know that finding this blog and reading it is the old fashioned way to use the internet?

When you do that, you are "pulling" content by working to find it.

Instead, most youth live in a "push" internet environment.

They sign up or indicate what kind of content they want and then it's delivered or "pushed" to them. Facebook is an example. Friends, photos, "liked" pages, are all pushed onto their wall. The new Youth iPhone app pushes the latest youth content to phones.  This is a good thing!

The LDS Church has embraced "push" technology. To learn more, read this post from LDS Media Talk (an excellent blog I follow): RSS Feeds from the LDS Church. You will learn all the ways you can have Church content pushed to you. The post includes a list of podcasts, but here are two that weren't included. They are particularly useful for youth and their leaders:

• Mormon Messages Video Podcast
• Mormon Messages for Youth Video Podcast

These podcasts are the simplest way to get good youth videos onto your computer, iPad, iPhone, iPod so that you can share them.

And guess what?

You can have content from this blog "pushed" to you.  Read about RSS feeds from the blog post I shared and then sign up for the RSS feed from Blessing Young Women (scroll down a little ways on the right sidebar).



Or you can "like" the Blessing Young Women facebook page and updates will appear on your wall.

LDS Youth App is available!

This is exciting news for those of you with iPhones, iPods, or iPads!

Youth.lds.org content is now available through a new iPhone app - and It's free.

To download it, click here or go to your iTunes store (download iTunes if you don't have it) search "LDS youth" and click on the blue "Youth" icon.

More information about the youth website.

If you have no idea what an app is - that's OK - just to be sure to tell your young women about this.



You can read more at Church News and Events and on LDS Media Talk.

Mormon Channels

The LDS Church has "Mormon Channel" - its official media channel. It also has a Mormon Channel on YouTube.  They are different and this might be a little confusing. I'll try to sort them out for you.

Mormon Channel (radio.lds.org) is the Church's official media channel, also known as Mormon Radio.  It hosts audio content. Programming is delivered via the internet. You can read more about it here. You can listen live, or to a wide variety of archived programs. There's even a Youth Voices channel (with one broadcast so far). Mormon Channel also offers a number of podcasts - so you can subscribe and have episodes downloaded automatically.



Mormon Channel on YouTube, also known as the Mormon Messages Channel is an official Church YouTube channel. It hosts video content (some of it available in up to 12 different languages).



Somehow I stumbled on this site - also known as Mormon Channel (mormonchannel.org). It seems to be a portal, linking to the other channels.



In addition,  there's a Mormon Messages for Youth channel on YouTube - hosting many of the videos I share on this blog.


There's plenty of youth friendly media available on these sites.

Do some exploring - and share what you find.


I hope this helped!

Brand New Youth Website

A new youth website was launched today! It's wonderful!

You can navigate to it from the new lds.org homepage ("Menu" - "Family" - "Youth") or use the address: lds.org/youth

Here are some features:

• Easily downloadable video (maybe I didn't need to write that last post)
• Music - it says "Free Music Downloads" but that doesn't appear to be functional. However you can stream and even shuffle songs. 
• Questions and Answers
• and lots more

Be sure to explore the site - and share it with your youthful friends. (There's a "Share" button for sharing via email, twitter, facebook, or delicious - right hand column, halfway down.)

And let me know what you think.

Mormon Messages for Youth Videos

The LDS Church has a growing collection of videos for youth. They are available on the LDS Youth website, but sometimes it's challenging to find just the one you want.

Now there's an easier way. Recently the church created a Mormon Messages for Youth YouTube channel. There's also Mormon Channel with videos for all ages. These channels provides a simple way to view and share these wonderful videos.

These videos could enhance a Sunday class, youth activity, fireside, or family home evening.

How can you show a video at church? 

In church buildings with good Wi-Fi it's possible to stream content from the internet so you should be able to show these videos on a laptop, iPad, or even a smart phone. If Wi-Fi isn't available, the best solution is to download the videos in a location with Wi-Fi and then show them on a laptop or other device. It's possible to connect in ipad or smart phone to a TV for viewing - I'll do a post on that in the future.

How do you download a video?

It's possible, but not easy (or entirely legal) to download videos from YouTube. But there are better ways to get these videos.

Youth Website

One way is through the new youth website. There is a video link in the right sidebar - most of the videos are downloadable.

Podcasts

Another way is through podcasts - my favorite because it's automatic. The church created a Mormon Messages for Youth podcast. When you subscribe to the podcast, the videos automatically download onto your computer. Then you can easily show them on a laptop, iPad, or smartphone.  

There are numerous audio and video LDS podcasts, including general conferences and CES firesides. If you don't know how to use podcasts, it's worthwhile to learn. The easiest way, in my opinion, is to download and subscribe through iTunes. It's a free, user-friendly program.

Here's some help:

What is iTunes?

How to download and install iTunes

How to use podcasts

Once you have iTunes installed on your computer, click on the Mormon Messages for Youth podcast link and you'll have the option to view it in iTunes and subscribe.

I hope this works for you!

If you need help, ask any teenager.

I'm happy to respond to specific questions left as comments.