I know that I have a few mormon friends who are worried about making friends with non-LDS people because they are afraid that they will have nothing in common with them. I find that to be not true in my own experience. However, when you branch out, and become friends with someone who is not mormon, you will most likely find yourself answering questions about your faith. That is simply because we are different, and we stand out. Hopefully, for the right reasons. The truth is, that as Elder Holland said recently, we can never check our religion at the … Continue reading →

Not often do I hunt quotes down from people that have given a great talk in Sacrament meeting, but this past week, I really wanted a copy of a quote I heard by Spencer W. Kimball read in such a talk. I thanked the speaker in my ward for peaking my interest in the lives of Book of Mormon characters by her great talk on Teancum in the Book of Mormon. But, it was the following quote that I wanted to re-read and think about: “Now, we find many people critical when a righteous person is killed, a young father … Continue reading →

When we think of the word revelation, we often think of visions or voices. But, we believe revelation is a lot more simple. While it CAN be a vision, or a very powerful experience, it can often be a simple feeling or thought in our minds. As members of the church, we believe that there is continuing revelation from God through a modern day Prophet. Today, the prophet is President Thomas S. Monson. He speaks twice a year to the church as a whole during what we call, General Conference. It is televised here in Utah, and broadcast by satellite … Continue reading →

In the past, Mormons have been known to have big families. I think the trend now isn’t so much 10-12 kids, but maybe more like 2-7. But regardless of how many kids you have, if you are Mormon, then you understand why families are so important. Everyone loves their families. Well, most people do. We know that they are the people that we feel most comfortable around. They are the ones that we enjoy spending time with, and I think as you get older, you really learn to appreciate your family from your childhood even more. But, once we start … Continue reading →

In most churches, baptism or christening is a part of the religion. Some religions do it when you are just a baby with a sprinkling of water, others believe in full immersion in water. We also believe in baptism, and here is a little bit about what we believe. First, we believe it is important for several reasons. First, Christ was baptized. Yet, we know He was perfect, and without sin. So, why was He baptized? We believe it was a vital part of God’s plan, and that without baptism, you cannot return and live with God again. We believe … Continue reading →

Many times, it is unfairly stated that Mormons do not believe in the Bible. How wrong that is! We do believe in the Bible. We use the King James Version of the Bible because we believe it is the version that is translated most accurately. We believe it was written by prophets of God and we believe in both the Old and New Testaments. We use them regularly in our church services, and we are encouraged to read the Bible regularly. We also believe that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. We do not look at the … Continue reading →

I’m finding that writing these articles like I’m talking to a friend is a little challenging. But, I hope that those who are taking the time to find out what I believe will enjoy them, and learn something. We are often accused of worshiping Joseph Smith. Who is he? What is it about him that we so highly regard? Well, we believe that Joseph Smith was a man, just like you and me, who was called of God to be a Prophet. One key aspect of our church that we believe that other churches do not is that there was … Continue reading →

I’ve thought a lot about how to write this series of articles. I guess the idea came to me when I was writing another article, A Mormon for President? and debated about whether or not to post it on facebook. Many of my friends on facebook are friends from high school and other times in my life. I often share my blogs there that I have written. I wonder how many of those friends that aren’t Mormon wonder about what I truly believe. Maybe they were afraid to ask. Maybe they just assumed what had already been told to them … Continue reading →

In the January issue of the Liahona, there was a great article by Elder Dallin H. Oaks that you can share with your non-mormon friends. It is titled, “Fundamental to Our Faith“. He begins the article by showing some startling statistics about what Americans think of Mormons as published in the recent book, How Americans View Mormonism, by Gary C. Lawrence. He says, “Three-quarters of those surveyed associated our Church with high moral standards, but about half thought we were secretive and mysterious and had “weird beliefs.” Did you know that only 14 percent could say that our main claim … Continue reading →