Visit from Mormon missionaries - any experiences?

[BodyUnknown]

I have recently been away for a hen weekend with a group of around 15 women, one of whom was Mormon. She fascinated me, and I found myself dying to know more about why she chooses to live her life the way she does. I devoured her stories about her missionary work in Utah, and as soon as I got home from the hen do, with a raging hangover, I went to bed with my laptop and logged on to mormon.org. There is a facility there to chat with a missionary (which this girl recommended that I do if I were curious about the church).

I read the website for a while before plucking up the courage to speak to someone, and when I did, I was there for over an hour asking questions which this missionary patiently answered. I came away from the conversation with a really really good feeling - I can't describe it better than that - and I haven't been able to stop thinking about everything I've read and learned and everything the missionary said. I'd told him I sometimes felt silly praying, like I was doing it wrong, and that I always felt self-conscious and that God would think me a fraud. He said, 'if I tell you how we pray, it might make you feel less silly?' and he did, and last night I prayed for the first time in years.

I lay in bed for hours last night, I couldn't sleep, I felt so excited.

Sorry this is so long...

Anyway, of course I have heard all the stories about the Mormon church, and have always thought of it as some kind of strange cult, with living prophets, miracles, tithing, baptisms for the dead and all kinds of things that I've never understood and never tried to. But the things I've read feel right to me now, I feel inspired to live my life in a better way - I literally cannot take my mind off this.

So, on mormon.org you can request that missionaries visit you and deliver the Bible and Book of Mormon. I decided to do that, and yesterday evening I had an email from missionaries wanting to confirm the visit.

I wrote back to say it was me who made the request and that I would like a visit (I suppose they get a lot of timewasters). And now I'm feeling a bit nervous - and wondering, have any of you any experience of the Mormon church? Have you spoken with missionaries, have you attended a service? Have you read any of their literature?

I'll add that I am a drinking, sometimes smoking, generally non-religious person (went to church years ago then decided God wasn't really there for me) and if you'd asked me a week ago if I'd consider reading the Book of Mormon I would have laughed my head off.

OK - so take the opportunity to try a local Christian church tomorrow then?
Any evangelical churches near you that you could go to?

Hi Bodyunknown. I am a 37 year old married mother of 5 children. I converted to mormonism 7 years ago after investigating the church for over a year.

I can only give you one piece of advice.

Read all you can, the positive and the negative and find out all you can about the religion, the beliefs, the anti mormon, apologist mormons etc

and then listen to your heart and follow the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Go with how you feel when the missionaries teach you, how you feel when in the Company of members, when at church events.

Take one commandment at a time and put it in to practice, see if it makes your life better and if it does hold on to it.

Watch how your relationships with your family and friends change. If they change for the better then you know it is not a cult.

(that was more than one piece of advice wasnt it?)

I consider myself a Christian. I follow the teaching of the old testament and the new testament and Jesus Christ is at the Centre of my Faith. We believe he is the head of our Church. All our teaching are based around him and every time we pray we do so through him.

You will meet ex mormons who have very strong negative feelings towards the church, who feel they have been duped, for this reason do as much research as you can before you consider getting baptised as at least then you will be doing it with your eyes open. Ask the Missionaires all and as many questions as you can, do the same of members.

If you want to talk about anything or find out any more information or if you want to hear of my conversion story I am happy to share.

BTW I am an Irish Mormon.

Ps my 18 year old ds is preparing to go on a mission and he is just an ordinary boy.

PPS I just re read your post, I was drinking, smoking, occassional drug taking would have laughed in your face if you tried to tell me there was a God type of person before I met the missionaries.

My aunt and uncle are a great advert for this church; uncle was a gambling addict causing huge debts, aunt was drinking, mentally unwell, had many miscarriages, ended up in psych hospital. Both very depressed, they split up. Aunt alone in bedsit - missionaries call. They got the marriage back, sorted out the money, bought another house, got a great supportive social life and adopted my cousin all as a result of the LDS church. They cared for my aunt brilliantly when she was widowed and have been a great thing in their lives. I wouldn't want it, it's too conservative, but I wouldn't knock it.

Mousymouse, I thought only Mormons holding temple recommends can go to temple. Unless I misunderstood your post?

Sariah, I saw you on another thread and wondered if you would mind me PMing you about your story! You sound fairly similar to me, although I have always felt that there was a God. I really have been reading information from all sources; from the church itself, the scripture, the anti-Mormon sites, the 'apologist' sites, the 'thinking of leaving but not sure' sites... I do want to be as fully appraised as I can be before making a commitment, of the positives and the negatives. I agree with your advice, and my friend suggested the same thing, that putting the commandments into practice and assessing the consequences is a good start.

So, a further update - my missionaries yesterday got lost, and I was quite sad because by then I had spoken to them on the phone and was really looking forward to meeting them. They were both American, very softly spoken, and I sort of had an idea that I knew what to expect with them. I had made them lunch and everything! Anyway, last time I posted, they were going to reschedule the visit, but later yesterday afternoon I had a call from another missionary, with a broad Manchester accent (totally unexpected!) asking whether he and his companion could come round.

So, since I was all psyched up for it anyway, I said that was fine, and they arrived about an hour later, looking all hot and tired and I really felt for them, trudging across London tubes and buses in the heat. I was fairly uncomfortable, and one of them was practically silent all the way through - he had only been on mission for 2 months and was still quite nervous about going to peoples' houses. The other guy did all the talking, just chat about how I found out about the church, and my initial questions. They were here about an hour and a half, and when they left they gave me a copy of the Book of Mormon and suggested I read the introduction and the witnesses. They asked if they could visit me again in the morning.

One thing and another yesterday evening meant I did no reading whatsoever, but this morning I got the book out, sat at the table and read it from the introduction through to 1 Nephi 7, and made notes as I read. It was two hours gone before I even realised the time and the missionaries were here again!

Today's conversation was absolutely brilliant, I felt much more comfortable and the silent guy spoke voluntarily. They covered so much, but it didn't feel like a lesson, it was more them just answering my many questions. They talked about the temples, about baptism and baptism by proxy, about what happens to us when we die, and generally about how the church operates, what missionaries do... it was amazing.

Katisha, I have tried local churches. But I have never felt at home with them. Perhaps that is because I am in London, and where I am generally the churches are nothing like the High Anglican churches of my upbringing - there is a lot of making a joyful noise and clapping and swaying to the music which isn't really my style! And like I mentioned to another poster, I just don't believe that it is sufficient to stand up and say 'I'm a sinner and Jesus saved me' which seems to be the general message, I feel strongly that there is more to it than that. One scripture I always remember is 'faith without works is dead', and I appreciate the emphasis that the LDS places on that.

I suppose what it comes down to is that what I am learning about this church just strikes my heart as reasonable and right. Whether I will conclude that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet, I can't say, but I am compelled to investigate further.

aliceliddel, that is an uplifting story. I know that the conservative nature of the church puts people off, but I am conservative by nature anyway, despite my past transgressions.

I'm glad that your meeting with the missionaries, especially the second one, went well Bodyunknown.

There are special circumstances when you can go into the temple without holding a temple recommend but you still have to have interviews with the bishop before hand.

I hope you continue to research and can find all your answers through scripture, the missionaries and others.

I couldn't go into the inner temple, but the temple (st louis) is quite a big affair and apart from the inner temle it is accessible for everyone.

Thank you, bellybuttons.

That temple looks enormous, mousymouse. They can look a bit intimidating from the outside!

All I can say is that the Bible is quite clear that the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross cleared the way to God, as he was the scapegoat for human sin, the sacrificial lamb. Accepting this fact makes you a Christian and opens the way to God. You absolutely do not need anyone else adding extra rules and regulations (Joseph Smith among them.)

Of course faith without works is dead, but it is not the works which bring you to God. It is the faith. Obviously people have had to interpret how Christians ought to behave and live in the societies in which they find themselves, and attitudes and behaviours have changed over the centuries, but Jesus says in John 3.16 "I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father but by me." Pretty clear.

You do not need extra prophets with add-ons. It's an attractive idea that you have to work hard to achieve salvation, particularly if you want to leave behind an old lifestyle, but actually fundamentally it's a lot simpler
than that - it has been done for you - the way is open.

Of course how you work that out in your life is not so straightforward, and I would be unhappy with any church/group that wanted to impose a particular culture and set of rules of their own making upon you,

Jesus told people to beware of false prophets and that we would recognise the fact that their false by their actions.

Joseph Smith was a liar, a criminal and a fantasist.

The NT is the last word, there cannot be anything added on to it. The Mormons have done just this. It is a made up religion.

Between 1809 and 1812 a man called Solomon Spaulding wrote a book about the coming of two imaginary civilisations to the American continents. He died before the book was printed, and the manuscripts were left with the printer. He also died and the unpublished book fell into the hands of Sidney Rigdon, a compositor. Rigdon met Joseph Smith and later became a leader in the Mormon church. When the Book of Mormon was published, Spauldings wife and friends in their home town recognised that the story was 'the identical work of Mr Spaulding'. Smith got hold of the adventure story and incorporated it into his own fantasy. And it caught on!

It really is quite amazing that so many millions are hooked by this fraud. The book is said to have come from people with Jewish roots, yet it is also said to be originally written in Egyptian. It was translated in the 19th Century, yet in King James style (17th Century) English. About 25,000 words are taken directly from the King James Version Bible, including 19 complete chapters! Isaiah 53, the classic prophetic passage about the atonement of Christ is among them.

The language of the Book or Mormon is said to have come from God, yet there are glaring grammatical errors. In fact, there have been nearly 4,000 changes made since the first edition, some of them making the sentence concerned mean exactly the opposite to what Smith wrote down!

The Book of Mormon teaches that Jesus did not ascend up to heaven as recorded in Acts 9, but went over to America to let the people there know what had been going on. Apparently, this was not the first visit of Jesus to the Continent, as He is recorded as having instructed the tribes there even before He was born at Bethlehem and named Jesus!

The Book of Mormon takes its place with the Piltdown Skull as one of the archaelogical frauds of modern times.

If you wish to give your life to a religion, at least try to make it a credible one. This is just ridiculous

Mormonism is little better than Scientology in the credibility stakes.

Not all churches are 'happy clappy' ones. Perhaps you might have to travel to a nearby area to find one that is more Anglican or even try a Catholic Church, but please don't give up on Christianity just because some people have sweet-talked you.

Well, to be fair: every religion is made up - including christianity.

That doesn't make mormonism any less phoney, of course.

Made up, as in totally fabricated.

Christianity is real in that Jesus existed and people who had witnessed His life and encountered Him, wrote about it and about their beliefs and their experiences that led them to believe He was the Son of God.

Joseph Smith couldn't even produce his so called 'golden plates'

Mormonism has totally distorted Christian belief and doctrine and then they call themselves Christian People just don't know enough about this and will be fooled into thinking it's just another branch of Christianity and it's not. The two are completely unrelated.

'PPS I just re read your post, I was drinking, smoking, occassional drug taking would have laughed in your face if you tried to tell me there was a God type of person before I met the missionaries.'

'My aunt and uncle are a great advert for this church; uncle was a gambling addict causing huge debts, aunt was drinking, mentally unwell, had many miscarriages, ended up in psych hospital. Both very depressed, they split up. Aunt alone in bedsit - missionaries call. They got the marriage back, sorted out the money, bought another house, got a great supportive social life and adopted my cousin all as a result of the LDS church. They cared for my aunt brilliantly when she was widowed and have been a great thing in their lives. I wouldn't want it, it's too conservative, but I wouldn't knock it.'

I am not even going to start to write about my experiences here in relation to my past. Everyone has a past, a present and a future. The christian church also welcomes people like the above and like myself into the family, or rather God does, so it is not just the LDS who hold out a lending hand to those in need. Just as there are different establishments of mormons, some you might like,others you might like less so, the same is found in christianity. I don't like every church I go to, I don't get along with every christian I meet, but that is not really what finding out about God is about. If we lean too much on humans instead of God we are going to be sorely disappointed.

i used to be a lds but left years ago wen my friend died and a mother and daughter said well i dint like her anyhow

Notadude, there is too much archaeological evidence to suggest that the whole bible both OT and NT are fabricated I am afraid, Maybe you need to look into the evidence first before making these great claims based on what you have heard.

ilovesprouts I never can understand when someone leaves their faith because of the actions of another member. That mother and daughter we imperfect like the rest of us and what they said was not nice at all but that is something that they need to sort out themselves and I dont understand how that could have any bearing on your relationship with God. Would it not have been easier to just avoid them or talk to someone about how you felt rather than throw your faith away.

I was raised catholic and was taught in a convent. My Dad is athiest but I never had any faith or understood faith until the missionaries taught me. I had tired to give up smoking as had my dh for a number of years. I read a passage in the Book of Mormon and decided I would try to give up smoking by using faith as did my DH and neither of us have had an urge to smoke since then over 7 years ago. I tried this with a number of other things I was struggling with and have not been tempted to do any of these things since.

What on earth are you talking about Allboxedin?

Maybe you should read through the thread Katisha if you don't understand what I am on about.

There is plenty of archaelogical evidence to show that the NT is accurate.

Notadude, there is too much archaeological evidence to suggest that the whole bible both OT and NT are fabricated I am afraid, Maybe you need to look into the evidence first before making these great claims based on what you have heard.

You don't agree being a christian??!

I know hidden thats what I was trying to say

Ah I see what you mean! Sorry - it read as though you were saying the wealth of archaeological evidence did NOT support the Bible.

I would say it is all a load of old hooey and avoid, avoid, avoid. There is far too much mysogny going on. Faith in God should be a personal thing. Any religion that requires you to "conform" to certain things, that goes beyond thinking of others before yourself in your acts and deeds........

thats ok :)