1 word.
5 letters.
6 chances.
That is WORDLE, the popular five-letter word puzzle that has taken the world by storm.
Josh Wardle created Wordle (playing it on a variant of his last name) for his girlfriend, and then shared it with friends and family over the summer of 2021. In October of the same year, he launched it to the public. By November 1, Wordle had 90 players, but now boasts user numbers in the millions. Its popularity caught the attention of The New York Times, who purchased it in early 2022. It also caught the attention of a few Latter-day Saints trying to create interest and infuse energy in the Come, Follow Me curriculum.
Matthew Barnum, a BYU alum and currently working at Amazon, was searching for ways to engage his Sunday School class of pre-teens in his Washington ward. Familiar with Wordle, and looking for alternatives to playing “hangman” on the chalkboard yet one more week, a Wordle puzzle was written on the board using a word from that week’s lesson. The youth loved it. Then he considered how he might share and scale the game.
Viola!
Comefollowmedle.com was launched and Matthew now offers a daily word puzzle connected to the weekly Come, Follow Me chapters.
Want to play? Simply start the game below.
I met Matthew because I had a similar idea (but don’t possess the programming background). I’m an admin for Latter-day Saint Life Hacker, a blog that provides education and information for Latter-day Saints about things happening where popular culture and the culture of the church intersect. I also create and share educational hacks and interesting tidbits for studying the Come, Follow Me curriculum on my blog and also my Facebook group that has multiple thousands of followers.
Using a free site that allows me to create Wordle functionality, I create a daily puzzle for fans and followers on my blog and Facebook group.
So far, tens of thousands of people have played the game (which is flanked by other Come, Follow Me curriculum hacks and helps).
These are great tools to not only get more people interested in studying the Come, Follow Me curriculum, they are also great missionary tools. This year’s curriculum surrounds the Old Testament in the Bible, which is accepted as holy writ by Christians and studied worldwide. So share these fun tools with your friends and family, regardless of whether they share your same faith and beliefs or not!
