The Gospel Library App helps bring the scriptures, conference addresses, and other gospel works into members’ lives. In this article, a few members share their experiences using Gospel Library. 

On The Road

“My husband and I were stopping for lunch on our way to Las Vegas. We went into a fast food restaurant. Near the end of our meal, I noticed there was a scripture reference on the bottom of my cup inside the edge.  There was another scripture reference on the burger wrapper.  So when we got back on the road, I was curious what scriptures they thought were important to covertly share with the world. I pulled out my iPod and looked at my Gospel Library and read the scriptures out loud. Then we had a little discussion about the scriptures and the restaurant.  It actually helped us get through the heavy, construction backed-up traffic by giving us interesting conversation and putting our mind set on a calmer plane.

“It is nice to be young enough to be able to learn some of the new technology and old enough to appreciate it. It’s amazing how things are changing. I am wowed by what I know, which isn't that much, and look forward to learning and exploring new things.”

— Jennifer Wallace, Salt Lake City, Utah

In the Car

"The Gospel Library App on the iPhone is absolutely wonderful! There are two things I always carry with me: my keys and my phone. Crazy enough, I sometimes leave the house without my wallet, but I always have my phone. Having the Gospel Library App on my phone gives me access to the scriptures and other study materials whether I am waiting in a doctor’s office, taking a break at work, or traveling in the car. 

"It is exciting to me to have this much access to the scriptures wherever I am, even though I am totally blind.  Just to illustrate, my family and I were on our way to visit my parents and siblings for Christmas. The trip takes about six hours by car, and while traveling in the car I was able to use my iPhone with the built-in voice over feature and open the Gospel Library App. I then found the manual I would be teaching out of in the next couple of weeks. I was able to easily review and read the lesson during the trip down. 

"Often, I do my scripture study on a laptop using the LDS.org website and I find it extremely useful and convenient to have the notes and other markings I make on my online account sync with the Gospel Library App on my phone. One of my favorite features is the dictation option while searching the database.  I love how easy it is to tell the phone a phrase and have the Gospel Library App give me several options where that phrase or those words are found. It searches through its entire library and organizes the results in a way that makes it fast and easy for me to find the desired reference. I also enjoy watching, or hearing the church videos, and am excited to share them with my family.

The app offers a great deal of access to the blind, though it is not completely accessible. A few of the features that have not worked for me include activating the links for footnotes, highlighting text, or navigating by headings in the manuals. With that being said, I am excited for the continued improvements to this app and feel blessed to have access to the scriptures all the time."

— Adam Rushforth, Orem, Utah

At Home

“Nearly every morning before I get up to start the day, I read a few chapters of scripture on my smart phone (Android). The phone is right there on the night stand, it's much easier to hold than my large scriptures, I can read without turning the lights on and disturbing my wife, AND I can quickly link to the cross references.

“Having the library on my phone has really helped me start each day in a good way. Without the app, I probably wouldn't be doing this each day.

“I like to use the hard copy scriptures when teaching or speaking, but when studying for teaching I like to use the library because of the hot links from the lesson manual to the references.

“I love the app. In fact, I should volunteer to help work on it.”

— Geoff Barton, Borrego Springs, California

With Kids

“The Gospel Library app makes it much easier for my ten-year-old to find books in the scriptures. She navigates the app almost as if she were born with innate knowledge to use it. My wife prefers to bring Gospel Library to church because she can easily slip it into the diaper bag and can reference scriptures even if she’s holding or nursing our baby."

— Tom Johnson, Lehi, Utah

At Bedtime

“I use the Gospel Library iPhone app to read the scriptures to my kids while I am putting them to bed (as part of my personal study). They love to see the screen and my soft reading voice puts them to bed fairly quickly. On nights where they have a bit more trouble going to sleep, it is all good because I am getting extra scripture reading in and they are hearing even more from the scriptures. This has made bedtime a much more pleasant experience. Sometimes I will combine this with soft music playing from the Mormon Channel as well.”

— Dave Martin, Herriman, Utah

During Personal Study

“I use gospel library to read with my 5- and 2-year old before they go off to bed.

"I used the app for lessons until recently, as the option to copy has gone. This makes creating keynote presentations much more time consuming and cumbersome.

"I love using the app for personal study. It allows me to look quickly at cross references and make notes where needed."

— Wayne Herridge, Portsmouth, England

At Church

“I used to get a little annoyed when I would see people with their phones out at church. I always thought, 'Why don't you just use the manual or scriptures?' Then, I got my phone, and it's really handy if I forget my book or something. And if you're looking at the lesson it's really cool because you can just click on a scripture reference and it's right there.”

— Nancy Fox, Glenns Ferry, Idaho

While Teaching

“I use the app on my iPad to prepare and give my Sunday lessons. I add my notes and comments right into the lesson/talk and highlight the portions that I want to cover. With the sync feature I always have my iPhone as a backup should I forget the iPad or the battery die.

“We also use the app for Duty to God each Sunday. I have a lot more YM that have scriptures they can read and follow along when doing Duty to God, since they all have the app.”

— bsgillis

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If you haven’t tried the Gospel Library app, you can download it by searching for “LDS Gospel Library” in your mobile application’s store. Gospel Library is available for Apple, Android, Palm, BlackBerry, and feature phones. Gospel Library gives you a mobile version of the standard works, general conference addresses, Church magazines, Hymnbook and Children’s Songbook, and other Gospel content right at your fingertips. Recent updates have eased the way for members to use this tool by synchronizing annotations with My Study Notebook, integrating media playback, and adding other content. 

How are you using the Gospel Library app? Feel free to add your experience in the comments below.