July 24, 1997 Dear LDS Friends Worldwide members, With LDS Church members struggling to live the gospel all over the world, a need for communication and support has never been needed more. We walk the footsteps in faith as we have been commended to do. The web site LDS Friends Worldwide went on-line in 1995 with the inspiring goal of implementing technology to bless the lives of many. Thousands of members and friends of the church have enthusiastically responded with personal entries, and in countless emails we are informed of the satisfaction you have received in finding friends and a sense of community! Our service is now facing its biggest challenge. On July 23 LDS Friends Worldwide was informed by its server provider that its outstanding debt of $1,658.29 (U.S. dollars) must be paid in its entirety by August 1; it was also informed that after that date no partial payments would be accepted. Our voluntary service is now in dispute; there is no more we can now give after our bills and groceries. Therefore with great earnestness we appeal to every member of LDS Friends Worldwide, and also to your friends and associates, that each give at least $2 for the security of this service. We give an accounting for the past 20 months of performance. As of 1 December 1995, when LDS Friends Worldwide became public, the site has received over 2,000,000 hits, over 12,000 people from around the world have published personal entries, dozens of individuals have become engaged and married as a result of this service, and many more have found friends. LDS Friends Worldwide has decided on a number of enterprises through your blessing, to be carried out the next few weeks. We are resolved to: 1) Construct a database that will allow you to EDIT your listing anytime with your own personal password, and also allows you to SEARCH for other members by keywords and location. Our webmaster is currently learning how to do this. 2) Create a monthly magazine to give everyone a voice through articles from around the world. 3) Provide capabilities to create a web page as your personal entry, including audio and video clips of yourself. 4) If you would like to sponsor LDS Friends Worldwide by buying advertising space, go to http://www.ldsfriends.com/sponsors This last month our site has been visited by an average of 8,000 users and 37,800 hits per week. 5) Develop an expanding mall of primarily LDS businesses with online credit card services to provide instant purchases of those hard-to-find books and music (also in Spanish). 6) A Thank-you page will be made to all who contribute, at http://www.ldsfriends.com/sponsors LDS Friends Worldwide is left with only 8 days left before shutdown! We urge everyone to write a check or money order for at least $2 (any currency)! Your check or money order must be written out to "Downtown Web Productions". (LDS Friends Worldwide is operated by Downtown Web Productions, which has leased a server for LDS Friends Worldwide.) Mail contributions to: LDS Friends Worldwide c/o Downtown Web Productions 670 East 800 North Provo, UT 84606 U.S.A. For those in the continental U.S., please send by the 28th (no later!) For those around the world, you must send now or by special mail delivery. Daily reports of our progress will be shown on the web site. We repeat, send your contributions now or there will no service! The free service we have provided since 1995 has painstakingly weakened our capacity to maintain the site! The community of friends may terminate forever, but with your assistance we can become an important agency into the next century! No one can foresee what good it will do! We thank you for your support and enthusiasm about our web site. If you think a friend would be interested in receiving this letter, then please feel free to forward this letter. Thank you, Roger L. Brown Webmaster webmaster@ldsfriends.com 801-371-6358 Christian B. Adams Site Designer cadams@ldsfriends.com 801-356-3739 LDS Friends Worldwide http://www.ldsfriends.com/