9 Things People Get Wrong about Mormons

by Kelsey Berteaux 18 Nov 2014

            “What are you doing? You can’t use a calculator!”

            My hands froze on the keypad, and I looked to my fellow seventh-grader who had made the statement. We were in math class working on a homework assignment, and I hadn’t realized calculators were prohibited. It looked like all my classmates were tapping away on their electronic math aids. So I asked back, “Why?”

            “Aren't you Mormon? You can’t use calculators.”

            And that’s when I realized: my classmate thought being Mormon was the same as being Amish.

            After assuring him that I had arrived at school that morning in a car and that I had plans to use a computer later, I got back to my assignment, calculator in hand.

            But that wasn’t the last time I’d hear something strange one of my classmates, coworkers, or even close friends who had an odd idea about what it meant to be Mormon. Here are eight more times I or one of my LDS friends have heard something about our beliefs from others who clearly didn’t quite get what it means to be a Latter-day Saint:

     2. “But you don’t celebrate Christmas.”

            The birthday of Christ is definitely something Latter-day Saints do celebrate (since we are Christians). We also observe Thanksgiving. And New Year’s. And other state and national holidays. In a recent survey, we even found that 95% of us celebrate Halloween.

            When someone first accused me of this in junior high, it took me a few days to realize where he probably got that idea from: in addition to being not Amish, Mormons are also not Jehovah’s Witnesses. And we do celebrate holidays, with cake, decorations, presents, and everything. 

      3. “So, you dig up dead people and baptize them?”

            No. I corrected the high school senior who asked me this and explained that “baptisms for the dead” aren’t a literal baptism of a deceased person’s body. This ordinance is done in name and by proxy in LDS temples. And we’re not forcing the deceased person to be baptized—it’s up to that person’s spirit whether or not they accept the baptism on the other side of the veil. But the moral of the story? Mormons aren’t grave robbers, either.  

      4. “Are you going to marry your cousin?”

            Also no. I think the person who asked me this question thought intra-family marriage was a Mormon practice from a mixed-up misunderstanding of a few things: the Church’s history with polygamy, our tendency to have large families, and a dash of how members are counseled to date other members.

            Today, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints don’t have multiple wives, and unless there’s a situation a la Star Wars going down, Latter-day Saints don’t date members of their own families, either. (Just like everybody else.)

      5. “That must mean you like Jell-O and casseroles.”

            Actually, I can assure everyone, including the sweet girl who said this to me my sophomore year in college, that my culinary inclinations (like most peoples’) are not based on where I go to Church on Sundays.

            What I can say is that Mormons do tend to have large families, and large families tend to have inexpensive food like casseroles more frequently. But even though I was one of five kids in my home growing up, we almost never ate Jell-O or casseroles. Or Jell-O casseroles. None of that. In fact, based on LDS Living Facebook comments, I’d say that a fair portion of my fellow Latter-day Saints both in and out of Utah would agree with me that the Mormons and Jell-O connection is rather tenuous.

      6. “How’s Donny Osmond doing?”

            If someone asked me this, I'd have no idea how to answer this question. I get that Donny Osmond is a famous LDS singer, but any random Latter-day Saint probably isn’t a close enough friend of a celebrity to know how they’re doing, whether that celebrity is Mormon or not. We might have seen his latest show, or recently downloaded his app, but the highest hope most of us can aspire to is finding our three degrees of Donny Osmond.

      7. “Mormons don’t dance.”

            This funny clip from Cheers has probably planted this question in a few people’s minds: 

            But as Norm notes, Mormons are (still) not Amish. And we can dance (and send flowers, too!). We even organize large dances for youth and young single adults that are often held inside our church buildings.

            Now, I’m not saying we all dance well, and we are given the guideline to avoid “positions or moves that are suggestive of sexual or violent behavior,” but there’s certainly no rule entirely prohibiting us from busting a move on the dance floor.

      8. “All Mormons are Republican.”

            While the LDS Church will occasionally make official statements about politics based on moral issues, it does not endorse one political party over another. Rather, it encourages members to be informed and politically active, and notes that “principles compatible with the gospel may be found in various political parties and candidates.”

            Yes, there may be more of us Mormons on one side of the spectrum, but that doesn't mean we’re all Republicans.

      9. “How does it feel to be an oppressed Mormon woman?”

            Let me just hand the mic to renowned LDS author and CEO of Deseret Book, Sheri Dew, on this one:     

            If you're not inclined to watch, here's a quick summary:

            Dew says that it seems easy to draw the conclusion that because women are not ordained to the priesthood that somehow we've been given less. But here are just a few things women in the Church get:

            We pray in public meetings. We speak. We expound scripture. We teach the doctrine. We lead organizations for all the women and young women and children of the Church. We teach the gospel on missions. In the temple, women participate in ordinances of a priesthood character. 

            Women receive revelation, gain testimonies, and stand in equality with men before the Lord in matters pertaining to godliness and holiness. We have the gift and power of the Holy Ghost. We receive an endowment of knowledge and power. We have spiritual gifts, including charity, spiritual intuition, and moral courage. We receive all the blessings of the atonement. 

            Women are at the very center of the plan of salvation; every person comes to earth through the courage and strength of a woman. 

            We get everything. 

            She concludes, "Does it sound like the Church is holding me back?"

            And that’s just scratching the surface. Check out more about LDS women and the priesthood. 

            There are lots of rumors about "the Mormons" floating around on the internet and in peoples' heads.        When in doubt, ask a Mormon--or ask the missionaries. They can help you!

Importance of Scripture Study

B      Basic

I       Instructions

B      Before

L      Leaving

E      Earth

The Book of Mormon Project - Explanation

Come & See: The Church of Jesus Christ Always Will Be a Missionary Church



Elder David A Bednar

"The Church of Jesus Christ always has been and always will be a missionary church. The individual members of the Savior’s Church have accepted the solemn obligation to assist in fulfilling the divine commission given by the Lord to His Apostles, as recorded in the New Testament: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:19–20).

"Latter-day Saints take seriously this responsibility to teach all people in all nations about the Lord Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. We believe the same Church founded by the Savior anciently has been reestablished on the earth by Him in the latter days. The doctrine, principles, priesthood authority, ordinances, and covenants of His gospel are found today in His Church."

"But our eagerness to declare this message is not merely the result of a sense of spiritual duty. Rather, our desire to share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with you is a reflection of how important these truths are to us." 

"The invitations we extend to you to learn about and test our message grow out of the positive effects the gospel of Jesus Christ has had in our lives. Sometimes we may be awkward or abrupt or even relentless in our attempts. Our simple desire is to share with you the truths that are of greatest worth to us."

25 Ways to Pray

http://lds.net/blog/faith/25-ways-pray/#.VFUf1md0xaQ

            One of the greatest blessings we enjoy as children of a loving God is the opportunity to connect to Him through personal prayer. We Mormons follow a basic pattern in our prayers — we address Heavenly Father with reverence, give thanks, petition God with our needs and desires (using ‘thee, thou, thy, and thine’), and close in the name of Jesus Christ.

What do Most People Pray For?

     A recent survey performed by LifeWay Research and reported by Religion News Service shows that Americans pray about the following:

       Family or friends — 82%

       Their own problems or difficulties — 74%

       Thanks for recent blessings — 54%

       Their own sins — 42%

       People in natural disasters — 38%

       Appreciating God’s greatness — 37%

       Future prosperity — 36%

       People of other faiths or no faith — 20%

       Government leaders — 12%

       Celebrities or people in the public eye — 5%

       None of these — 2%

            Mormons probably pray about all of these things, but would probably add our missionaries, members of the armed forces, our church leaders, and increasingly, would Jesus please come soon.

How Many Kinds of Prayer are There?

            We might need reminding that there are many kinds of prayers, and we might want to choose one form when it is specific to our circumstance. This might help us to focus our minds, hearts, and our faith to a single purpose when we pray. Here are 25 kinds of prayer you might want to try.

1. Prayer of gratitude. The perfect time to acknowledge God’s greatness and loving kindness. It’s always a wonderful experience to just give thanks and not ask for anything.

2. Prayer for forgiveness. For this, preparation is needed.  We must first acknowledge our distance from God and wish to be reconciled with Him. This is a first step in the repentance process and begins with the realization that our thoughts and actions have offended God.

3. Prayer over sacrifice. Ever pray over your tithing and fast offerings, or that quilt you made for humanitarian aid? Notify God that you are making an offering, and you wish it to go to building up the kingdom, helping the poor, or rescuing the afflicted. Send it on its way with a prayer in your heart and try to imagine the people who might benefit from your offering.

4.  Prayer upon rising. Does the prayer with which you great the day differ from the prayer that ends it? Perhaps it should. Productivity, safety, guidance, and the company of the Holy Spirit are all needed as you begin your day. Also thanks for a night’s sleep (whenever you happen to get one) and the realization that you’ve awakened in good shape.

5. Prayer upon retiring. What a great time to review the day and repent of the harsh word, the hasty judgment, the unkind thought. This is when I go child by child and pray for my children.

6. Acknowledgement of God’s children around you. Once before a meal in a bustling restaurant, my friend uttered a quiet but audible prayer on the food and asked God to bless everyone at that restaurant with the needs and righteous desires of their hearts. Suddenly, my mind and heart awakened to the people around me. Total strangers I had ignored before. It was a miraculous transition and a blessed one. Next time you are at Disneyland…

7. Prayer before a meal. If any Mormon prayer has become formulaic, it’s this one. A great family home evening exercise would be to dissect this prayer and see what you’re really after. I am always grateful to have food available when I want it, a blessing unknown to many of God’s children on the earth.

8. Prayer after a meal. Gotcha. Mormons don’t do this, but Jews do, and think of the value of thanking God for a meal well-enjoyed after it’s done.

9. Prayer of invocation. An invocation is the act or process of petitioning for help or support; a prayer of entreaty (as at the beginning of a service of worship). So, an invocation would be the opening prayer in any church meeting, but could it also be the prayer just as you are leaving for a trip or starting school?

10. Prayer of benediction. Surprisingly, a benediction is also an invocation. We invoke blessings from God at the closing of a church meeting or other event. Usually the benediction is the closing prayer, the short blessing with which public worship is concluded, but could it also be the prayer of thanks after a successful trip or semester at school?

11. Psalm. Most of us are not songwriters, but most of us are singers. God has said, “For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads” (D&C 25:12). Notice the Lord said nothing about how well we sing. Sing the hymns as if you had written the words yourself, and they become prayers very easily.

12. Communal prayer. Many prayers performed by Mormons are for the congregation, too, as with opening prayers in sacrament meeting or Relief Society, but this specifically refers to the Church and to God’s kingdom rolling forth in preparation for the Second Coming of Christ. Most prayers in ancient Israel were communal in that they were prayers for all Israel, and not just for the individual. These prayers can be lifted for missionary work, for humanitarian relief, for our church leaders, for the sincere-hearted of the world to be prepared to receive the gospel.

13. Prayer in the temple. For all those whose names have been submitted due to trials or illness, these have a special, profound power not just because of where the prayer takes place, but because of the worthiness of the supplicants.

14. Prayer for healing. Often accompanied by fasting and with family and friends participating, these prayers are lifted in emergencies where a loved one is sick or injured. Where the priesthood power is not present, the prayer of faith can bring forth its own miracles.

15. Prayer of remembrance. In Old Testament times, the yizkor, or prayer for the dead, was thought to aid in their salvation. We utter prayers of remembrance on holidays set apart to remember all our dead, or those who died in battle. We can pray for ancestors to accept the gospel in the spirit world. We can pray for those whose names we take to the temple. Another form of a prayer of remembrance is to recount our spiritual experiences that are the anchors of our faith.

16. Sacramental prayer. This is perhaps the only prayer in Mormonism that is pre-written and read verbatim. In fact, it must be perfectly recited, because it is an ordinance with saving power.

17. Covenantal prayer. We make covenants at baptism and in the temple, but we also make covenants personally and privately in prayers lifted to our Father in Heaven. We might be reminded of the experience of Lucy Mack Smith, who, ill and near death, covenanted with God that if He would save her life, she would seek Him with all her strength. She recovered, and kept that covenant.

18. Prayer for help in service. This is the prayer of Visiting and Home Teachers as they seek to be perceptive to the needs of the families they teach; also of the Relief Society, Primary, and other auxiliary presidencies as they seek guidance in the service they render. Some members of the Church claim that these prayers are the ones that illicit the most inspiring answers, the most spiritual experiences.

19. Prayer for guidance in making decisions. Should I choose this college, marry this person, move to this city, join the military, serve a mission? The Lord promises guidance for these life-changing decisions, and the answers we receive are often so revelatory, that they become spiritual anchors for us all the rest of our lives.

20. Political prayer. If the study mentioned above is correct, not many of us are praying for our governmental leaders. Or for good people to choose to volunteer to lead. Or for moral goodness to triumph in the public square.

21. Preparedness prayer. Do you have enough water in your emergency storage? Have you asked Heavenly Father that question? A Mormon father in Haiti was inspired to fix his back gate. Then Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake. Had he not done so, he and his wife would not have escaped their back yard in time to avoid a crumbling stone wall whose collapse could have killed them. What specific preparations do we need for our own, personal circumstances?

22. Prayer of helpless desperation. The old adage is that there are no atheists in foxholes, because all are praying for their very lives. This is when you are at the end of your rope and only God can save you. For many, this is their very first experience with personal prayer.

23. Prayer of surrender of will. Often, this prayer follows #22 (the prayer of helpless desperation) after it has been answered, and #1 (the prayer of gratitude). In it, we confess the fallibility of our own will, and surrender it to God. Really the only thing of value we have to give Him, the gift of our will into His care can be the real beginning of our lives ….

24. Prayer of release.  From this life to the next. It is our final benediction upon everything that is temporal and temporary. It is at that moment that we begin to see what is really important.

25. Prayer for those left behind. Do we realize that mortals on earth are not the only ones praying? Millions and millions who have gone before and have already passed to the other side are praying for us, and for God’s will to be done; for evil to be finally defeated, and the Plan of Salvation to achieve its end. Have you ever contemplated that while you are praying fervently for one thing, your ancestors and heaven’s angels are praying that you won’t go that direction, so that something better will come to pass? Prayer and getting answers to prayer might be more complicated than we thought!

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission - Capitol String Quartet

The Will of God

10 Love & Dating Lessons

(Based on Elder Holland’s BYU Devotional “How Do I Love Thee?”)

1. Dating should not be separated from discipleship.

Believe that your faith has everything to do with your romance, because it does. You separate dating from discipleship at your peril. Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, is the only lamp by which you can successfully see the path of love and happiness.

Too often, we allow ourselves to take a different approach to dating than we do the rest of our lives. We allow emotions, lusts, and other things to silence the Spirit, and we believe we have a certain right to be dishonest, or even sometimes mean. While dating is certainly a minefield to navigate, and it’s not always easy to do so without hurting feelings, we should do our very best to maintain integrity and Christ-like love for others in all our dating endeavors.

 

2. Love comes from God, so you’ll need to seek Him to find it.

“Wherefore, . . . pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons [and daughters] of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; . . . that we may be purified even as he is pure.”  – Moroni 7:47–48

If your love doesn’t bring you closer to God, it’s not love. If it doesn’t yield the fruits of the spirit – peace, joy, charity, and all those other good things, it’s not love. I believe love is the greatest gift God has given us, and we can’t possess it without Him. Not the kind that lasts, anyway.

 

3. Love is a verb – an action word – and isn’t just a rush of feelings.

It doesn’t come without effort and it doesn’t come without patience, but, like salvation itself, in the end it is a gift, given by God to the “true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ.” The solutions to life’s problems are always gospel solutions.

True love blooms when we care more about another person than we care about ourselves.

It’s for this reason that I don’t believe in “love at first sight”, or getting engaged after three weeks. Love requires time. It involves regularly and constantly putting someone else’s wellbeing before your own, and being willing to make sacrifices for the happiness of another person. It’s very different from infatuation, which typically involves a rush of feelings and a twitterpated obsession with someone.

 

4. Love shouldn’t make you selfish.

There are many qualities you will want to look for in a friend or a serious date—to say nothing of a spouse and eternal companion—but surely among the very first and most basic of those qualities will be those of care and sensitivity toward others, a minimum of self-centeredness that allows compassion and courtesy to be evident.

We sometimes become so infatuated with the other person that we start to neglect other important responsibilities, such as service and friendship. Love should make you want to be better, and shouldn’t cause you to spend all of your time watching movies on the couch with someone. You’re not much use to Heavenly Father while you’re doing that.

 

5. Love that which is not fleeting.

I suppose no one is as handsome or as beautiful as he or she wishes, or as brilliant in school or as witty in speech or as wealthy as we would like, but in a world of varied talents and fortunes that we can’t always command, I think that makes even more attractive the qualities we can command—such qualities as thoughtfulness, patience, a kind word, and true delight in the accomplishment of another. These cost us nothing, and they can mean everything to the one who receives them.

This is one of my favorite quotes in the world, and I invite you to read it as often as you need to – whenever you feel “not enough”.

 

6. Finding true love requires us to take leaps of faith and be vulnerable.

No serious courtship or engagement or marriage is worth the name if we do not fully invest all that we have in it and in so doing trust ourselves totally to the one we love. You cannot succeed in love if you keep one foot out on the bank for safety’s sake.

We need to stop being scared to commit “just in case” there’s something better out there. If someone doesn’t feel right for you, that’s totally fine. Don’t date them. But if they have the qualities you’re looking for, and you make each other happy, and they love God, move forward! Don’t be paralyzed by fear.

 

7. Don’t be self-absorbed.

In all that Christ was, He was not ever envious or inflated, never consumed with His own needs. He did not once, not ever, seek His own advantage at the expense of someone else. He delighted in the happiness of others, the happiness He could bring them. He was forever kind.

Dating isn’t about finding someone who ticks every box on your list. It’s about finding someone who you are truly compatible with, and can progress with forever. Remember that you’ll need to be worthy for your spouse – it’s not a one-way street.

 

8. Be with someone who makes you happy, not someone who makes you anxious.

In a dating and courtship relationship, I would not have you spend five minutes with someone who belittles you, who is constantly critical of you, who is cruel at your expense and may even call it humor. Life is tough enough without having the person who is supposed to love you leading the assault on your self-esteem, your sense of dignity, your confidence, and your joy. In this person’s care you deserve to feel physically safe and emotionally secure.

I can’t even count the number of times I’ve watched people continue dating someone who’s wrong for them because they’re infatuated, and they’re just too scared to end it and be alone. I’ve been guilty of it myself. God isn’t the author of confusion or fear. Keep that in mind when dating.

 

9. Don’t fault-find or be quick to take offense.

Temper tantrums are not cute even in children; they are despicable in adults, especially adults who are supposed to love each other. We are too easily provoked; we are too inclined to think that our partner meant to hurt us—meant to do us evil, so to speak; and in defensive or jealous response we too often rejoice when we seethem make a mistake and find them in a fault. Let’s show some discipline on this one. Act a little more maturely. Bite your tongue if you have to. “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city” (Proverbs 16:32).

Don’t spend your dating relationships looking for “red flags”, and reasons that someone isn’t good enough for you. Recognize that you both have weaknesses. We often make dating one big game of who can hide their weaknesses long enough for someone to love them. That’s not what it’s about. Love isn’t about being blind to someone’s flaws, it’s about seeing them and loving them anyway.

Think the best of each other, especially of those you say you love. Assume the good and doubt the bad.

 

10. Trust God, be believing, and try not to freak out.

Bear up and be strong. Be hopeful and believing. Some things in life we have little or no control over. These have to be endured. Some disappointments have to be lived with in love and in marriage.

Dating kind of sucks, and we all know it. So do your best to stay close to the Lord, who doesn’t want you to be unhappy. He will help you. He will lift you up and guide you.

Which Way Do You Face?

Lowering the Lord's standards to the level of society's inappropriate behavior is apostasy!

-Elder Lynn G Robbins

Isaiah: An Ancient Prophet Foresees Our Day

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.  --Isaiah 5:20-24

Absolute Truth Exists!

04-05 October 2014 General Conference

Looking for peace? Looking for answers?

Go to www.lds.org and click on General Conference!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Muffin-Top Chocolate Chip Cookies

These come out fluffy like muffin tops. (Makes ~30 cookies) www.yumsugar.com (Recommended by Katie Sierer)

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground clove
Pinch of ground ginger
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, room temperature
15 ounce can of pure pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 cups chocolate chips (depending on your need for chocolate--can cut up bars of dark and milk chocolate)

Directions: Preheat oven to 375^oF. Sift together (or whisk in small bowl) flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and ginger and set aside. Beat butter, brown sugar and sugar together in large mixer bowl. Add pumpkin and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Add egg and beat well until fully combined. Gradually--in 3 batches--beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop rounded spoonfuls onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 10-15 minutes until edges start to brown. Remove from oven and let sit on baking sheet for 2 more minutes. Move cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

"The Book of Mormon" Another Testament of Jesus Christ"

Plan of Salvation in Motion (With Sound)

#MeetMyGrandma

Third Time's the Charm!

Stake President Peter Bowden, right, set us apart
on Monday, 15 September, along
with High Councilor David Wright
who is responsible for Ward Mission Leaders & missionaries.
This 2014 "call" joins our 2005 & 2011 "calls"

Pray for Wisdom & Discernment

Be an Example

Your Potential, Your Privileges

I'm a Mormon, Former Journalist, and Dedicated Mother

Kindness is Greatness

I Pray When... #didyouthinktopray

Character of God

Joseph Smith’s “Lectures on Faith: Lecture #3:12-19 “From the foregoing testimonies, we learn the following things respecting the character of God. First, that he was God before the world was created, and the same God that he was, after it was created. Secondly, that he is merciful, and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in goodness, and that he was so from everlasting, and will be to everlasting. Thirdly, that he changes not, neither is there variableness with him; but that he is the same from everlasting to everlasting, being the same yesterday today and forever; and that his course is one eternal round, without variation. Fourthly, that he is a God of truth and cannot lie. Fifthly, that he is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that fears God and works righteousness is accepted of him. Sixthly, that he is love.

 

An acquaintance with these attributes in the divine character, is essentially necessary, in order that the faith of any rational being can center in him for life and salvation. For if he did not, in the first instance, believe him to be God, that is, the creator and upholder of all things, he could not center his faith in him for life and salvation, for fear there should be a greater than he, who would thwart all his plans, and he, like the gods of the heathen, would be unable to fulfill his promises; but seeing he is God over all, from everlasting to everlasting, the creator and upholder of all things, no such fear can exist in the minds of those who put their trust in him, so that in this respect their faith can be without wavering.”

Without the Atonement

There is one other great and eternal truth about prayer that cannot be emphasized too strongly. It is that if there had been no atonement of Christ; if the Son of God, in whose name we pray, had not ransomed man from the fall; if he had not put the great plan of redemption into operation by the shedding of his blood—except for these things, prayer in his name or any name, offered to the Father or any other person or thing, would be of no avail. Prayer is efficacious because of the atonement. As we have repeatedly pointed out in other connections, if there had been no atonement, the Father’s plan would have been frustrated and all his purposes, including the reason for creation itself, would have become void.

Bruce R McConkie, "Promised Messiah"

Thoughts on 'looking beyond the mark'....

     In the Book of Mormon, Jacob speaks of ancient Judah as having rejected the words of its prophets because individuals living then 'despised the words of plainness' and because they 'sought for things that they could not understand.' (Jacob 4:14)
     Intellectual embroidery seems to have been preferred to the whole clothing of the gospel--the frills to the fabric. In fact, one can even surmise that complexity was preferred over plainness by some because in conceptual complexity there might somehow be escape, or excuse, for noncompliance and for failure. In any event, this incredible blindness which led to the rejection of those truths spoken by prophets and which prevented the recognition of Jesus for who he was, according to Jacob, came 'by looking beyond the mark.' Those who look beyond plainness, beyond the prophets, beyond Christ, and beyond his simple teachings waited in vain then, as they will wait in vain now. For only the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us of things as they really are and as they really will be. There is more realism in the revelations than in reams of secular research, for secularism is congenitally shortsighted. Without revelation and its absolute anchors, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would also follow the fads of the day, as some churches have done; but as Samuel Callan warned, the church that weds itself to the culture of the day will 'be a widow within each succeeding age.' This is but one of the marks of the 'true and living' Church; it is spared the fruits of fadism.
-Neal A Maxwell, 2 Jan 1974

It Takes an Act of Faith - To Receive God's Light

Feel the Love of a Prophet of God!

June 2009 Pres Gordon B Hinckley's Address at BYU-Idaho Dedication

Clayton Christensen on Religion & Democracy

The Road to Damascus

I'm Elaine Bradley and I'm a Mormon

Yep!

Never Underestimate the Cost of Conversion

New Harmony: Never Underestimate the Cost of Conversion
by Jerry Earl Johnston, Deseret News, 11 June 2014

     Flannery O'Connor, the Catholic novelist, said it surprised her how many people of her faith "constantly underestimated the cost of salvation."
     As I've watched people come into the fold of our little Spanish branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brigham City--and watched others leave to return to their former ways--I've decided we life-long members of the LDS Church "constantly underestimate the cost" of conversion.
     We're excited to see people join us, but we seldom appreciate the price that those people had to pay. For many, the price of admission involves friendships, family, security and much more.
     Religious conversions, like the birth of babies, happen so often we can become a bit jaded to the anguish they entail.
     Evangelism runs deep in the American grain. We probably have a thousand churches in our midst, and almost all of them are actively looking for followers.
     Americans themselves, at times, seem to move from faith to faith the way they move from state to state. Choosing a faith can appear to be like choosing a home or joining a club.
     But, as Terryl and Fiona Givens point out in their book, The God Who Weeps, becoming a believer in a religion is not about picking a path. It is about uncovering our true nature.
     The call to faith, they write, "is not some test of a coy god, waiting to see if we 'get it right.' It is the only summons, issued under the only conditions, which can allow us to fully reveal who we are, what we love and what we most devoutly desire."  
     In other words, when the Apostle Paul converted to Christianity, he wasn't "transformed" from a cruel scoundrel to a spokesman for love. What happened was he peeled off the disguise he was wearing and discovered the person he had really been all along. But shedding those trappings must have been harrowing. Sometimes a rebirth can be as wrenching as a natural one.
     When lifelong members of the LDS Church see others find themselves, we rejoice.
     But those of us who've never been through the fire can never really fathom the cost.
     I once asked the late Maya Angelou how much "steel" it took for her to go from being a madam in a brothel to being a woman who prayed for presidents.
     "Oh, steel is much too supple a substance for that," she said.
     We constantly underestimate the cost of conversion.
     Remembering that, of course, doesn't have to tinge our rejoicing with melancholy. But it should make the moment more sobering and profound.
     Switching faiths can be traumatic, filled with tension, tears, fears, and a feeling of great loss over what was left behind. And for those of us who've never had to do it, keeping that in mind can turn what seems commonplace into a unique moment of noble struggle and sacrifice.
     A leap of faith is more than a mere skip across a ditch.
     It is often a jump across the Grand Canyon.
     And those who are willing to make it should be celebrated, not only for the choice they have made but also for the courage and force of will they've shown to do it.

A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation. -Joseph Smith, Jr.

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