Our Thoughts

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A couple of years ago I read the memoir Sundays in America by Suzanne Strempek Shea, a Massachusetts novelist. The author’s project was to attend a different religious service every weekend and write about her initial impressions.

I felt that it was unfair to judge a faith tradition based on a single snapshot, when so much of religious life happens during the other days of the week. That said, what Shea concluded about Mormonism was spot on: the only thing non-Mormons needed to fear about Mormonism was that Mormons would bore the world’s population to death.

Sometimes it takes an outsider to make us realize the truth about ourselves. This author nailed the fact that our sacrament meetings are beyond dull; they are stultifying. She certainly had no desire to return. And really, who could blame her?

Read more at Why Are Mormon Church Meetings So Dull? – Flunking Sainthood.

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But I think there are simple things we can do to learn more hymns together. I suppose this post is a plea to choristers and Ward Music Chairs everywhere to consciously teach the “unfamiliar” hymns in their wards. This is how I do it when I get to be in charge in my ward:

Read more at A Modest Proposal: Making More Hymns “Familiar”

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I served as a full time missionary for the LDS church in the Nevada Las Vegas Mission (there was only one mission in Nevada at the time).  Lots of fond memories there.  Blistering heat that would leave your footprints in the asphalt, desert rainstorms / flash floods, really interesting people from all over the world.  There was also the “work”.

I remember the first time I was a trainer.  We were instructed by our mission president to take our new missionary tracting as soon as we got them back to the apartment.  Didn’t even give them time to unpack.  I think I handled the first dozen or so door approaches before my “greenie” got the courage to try one.  On his very first try, a man came to the door wearing nothing but boxer shorts with a handgun tucked in the front.  The man suggested we leave.   We did.  What a great way to start a mission.

I experienced two mission presidents while there.  Both of them had different approaches to proselyting, but one thing remained the same.  We were to spend as little time as possible with existing members of the church.  We were even told that if there wasn’t an investigator at church, that we were to be sure to attend one of our wards and take the sacrament, but then we should leave and be out in the community proselyting, even attending other churches.  We did this quite a bit.  While in Nevada, I attended Catholic Mass, Jehovah’s Witness meetings, and a variety of other Christian denomination meetings.  While not  always resulting in formal teaching opportunities, attending these other churches generated a lot of gospel discussions.

When we were with members, we would tract or take them street contacting.  We never visited with the less active unless it was a part-member family situation that had a potential convert.  Our dinner appointments with members were to be wrapped up in under an hour unless a non-member was present.  The total focus was on bringing souls to Christ through the ordinances of baptism and confirmation.  And you can’t do that when you spend all your time with the “already baptized”.

Fast forward to today.

The mission in the area where I live has been given a mandate that every companionship needs to teach 20 missionary discussions a week.  I guess that’s a good thing.  I remember similar goals when I was a full time missionary.  However, here, where I live, the focus seems to be on teaching these discussions to member families, not non-members.  The missionaries in our ward pass around two calendars.  One is the dinner calendar, and the other is a calendar for you to have them over to teach you a discussion.

To me, that’s just bizarre.  I just don’t understand the logic in “Preaching to the choir”.  I mean, pretty much all active, attending LDS families are probably already converted.  There is almost zero chance that anyone they are teaching is a candidate for baptism and confirmation.

I’ve heard the argument that this will help inspire members to invite non-members over to take part in these discussions.  Frankly, I don’t buy it.  In the last couple years that they’ve been trying this, we have had ZERO convert baptisms in our ward as a result.

Is this the future of missionary work in the church?  To spend all that money, time, effort, and resources to become an over-glorified home teaching program?

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We sang “America the Beautiful” for our closing hymn in Sacrament today. I always feel weird singing it since it seems to be an unofficial anthem of the United States. Granted, there really aren’t many non-patriotic hymns in the hymnal for Canadians to sing in honour of Canada Day. I guess it’s better than singing “Oh, Say Can You See”.

But did we have to stand to sing today?

I had to check the map when I got home to make sure I was still in Canada.

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In advance of next year’s study of the New Testament in Sunday School Gospel Doctrine classes, the Church has published a smaller paperback edition of the New Testament. This more portable, convenient size (404 pages, rather than 2000+ pages of current LDS edition of the KJV of the Bible) is just over ¼” thick. It is the standard size (5¼” × 7¼”) and has standard size print and all the footnotes, but without the Topical Guide, Bible Dictionary, Joseph Smith Translation, Bible maps, and photographs.

Read more at New Testament in Smaller Book

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Brother Friberg was born to Scandinavian parents settled in Arizona. In 1921, his family joined the Church, and Brother Freiberg was baptized at eight, the following year. As a young man, Friberg attented the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, where he honed his natural gift for illustration and art. He first made a name for himself creating more than 300 paintings of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for a calender company. He is the only American to be made an honorary member of the RCMP.

Read more at Arnold Friberg (December 21, 1913 – July 1, 2010)

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Dear Ask Mormon Girl:

I am sure I will never find a Mormon guy who will make me happy, to marry in the temple. I am 20 years old, I’m not out of time, but I have a lot of problems with church and marriage in general. I was told all my life to accept it as the truth with no questioning, and that if you do everything “right” then you’ll be happy no matter what. I found that my parents never really were happy and when my dad came out of the closet, and my parents divorced, it proved me right, that doing what’s “right” doesn’t make you “happy.” I feel pressure to date only guys who are Mormons even though a Mormon guy wouldn’t understand me very well. I don’t have a very good “testimony” of the church, but honestly I would still like to get married in the temple, to an upstanding guy. I’m just not sure how to get there without denying my true feelings about men who think they’re “over” their wives, who expect their wives to fit the homemaker mold, and my feelings that marriage can’t work even, and especially, when founded on the teachings of the Mormon church.

Read the response at Mormon Matters

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A few nights ago, we were reading the Book of Mormon as a family and discussing Alma the Younger. My husband said something about Alma the Younger being the son of Alma who believed the words of Abinadi. One of my sons asked, “Well, who was his mom? What was her name?” And I (with just a tinge of bitterness) answered, “We don’t know. She was a woman”.

Feminist Mormon Housewives » Women in the Book of Mormon

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Yesterday, our ward sang Jesus, Once of Humble Birth for our Sacrament Hymn.

Generally, I really try to pay attention to pay attention to the words we sing, so I can get something personal out of the hymn. I often fail at it though. Yesterday, I succeeded.

I really like the contrast used throughout the hymn (e.g. humility vs glorification), but there were a couple of instances that impressed me for some reason.

For example,

Once rejected by his own—Now their king he shall become.

Isn’t it ironic that the very people who rejected Jesus as their King will one day be his subjects?

Another line:

Once forsaken, left alone

This line really struck me. His apostles abandoned him; his father forsook him. Perhaps this one struck me as it did because of parallels to my own experience.

Finally, the last two lines of the hymn:

Once all things he meekly bore—
But he now will bear no more

What a fitting end to this hymn. The hymn is all about Jesus’s triumph over mortality, over grief, pain, blood, tears, crucifixion, and rejection. These last two lines enapsulate that entire idea.

And the hymn gives us hope that one day we too will triumph all.

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