NextElement

"Mormon Culture" was one of the things that originally brought me to learn more about the Church. My best friends are all Mormon, and I've yet to meet guys as pure and devoted to God as them (which is something rare for 18 year old guys). The thing I probably like most about the Church is the social nature of it.... To me, Christ would want his Church to be very active together and supportive of each other. I'm sure the early Church was that way, and the restored Church echoes that!

So a marriage is considered valid even if it is done outside of the Church?

At my lesson yesterday they said that they love my town because it's the first place they've been where people are actually approaching them and asking them for LDS materials (keep in mind, I live in a Conservative mainly Protestant area).

I'll give you the view of God from my Catholic background (and it's a very hard view to overcome, btw): God is the unmoved mover who created the entire universe and everything in it. He always was and always will be, and is omniscient in every way. Now if you're wondering about the Trinity, I can give you a simple explanation: God is a being, made up of three persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Like I said, they are different persons, but of the same substance (consubstantial). No one can say for certain why God did what he did, but we assume he created humans to have something to share his love with that knew right from wrong (created in his image: Free will love, a sense of good and evil).

Had my meeting/lesson with the missionaries today, and all I can say is wow! It was awesome. I'll be attending church next Sunday, and another lesson next week as well!

I think you were actually better off not drinking it. Coke and other soda might seem refreshing, but the caffeine actually dehydrates you further.... Dumb move by the coach lol!

This is the last of the "tough questions" that have been bugging me about the Church, so I figured I'd ask it here before my meetings with the missionaries Wednesday: Can you explain the LDS position on the Fall of Adam and Eve? I was brought up to believe that they were in paradise in the garden, and God told them they could stay as long as they didn't eat the fruit. Eve was tempted by the devil to eat it, and Adam followed, which led to the invention of sin and all of the problems we have as humans today. However, from my research, it seems like Mormons view Adam and Eve eating the fruit as a good thing. How could it be good to knowingly obey Heavenly Father's order, and invent sin? I will admit that all I know of is topic is from the Catholic Answers Forum, which has a notoriously anti-LDS spin.

UPDATE: I've got my first lesson with the missionaries on Wednesday!

Thank you both for your replies! Very informative. I want to make it known that I'm not here to troll or argue, I really am interested in learning more about the Church. I'm actually going back this Sunday! But these are tough questions in the back of my mind that I had to ask before taking any more steps.

Well first, I disagree with the idea that one will = one God. To me, looking from the outside in, it appears you have multiple Gods, and that they also have Gods. If two people on Earth have the same wills that doesn't mean they are the same people. Also, it's hard for me to understand how Heavenly Father's-Fathers would've had the same wills..... That would imply that we then lose our free will when our mortal bodies die. Heavenly Father would've developed some different ideas than his Heavenly Father while he was on Kolob, since he had free will. That would mean once he got his own planet, he would institute those ideas, because he maintains his free will right? So therefore they could have slightly different to radically different wills.

But wouldn't that make them not God from a philosophical standpoint? By definition, God is a being that was not created, he has always been. God also would be outside of our physical universe, by definition. If Heavenly Father was created, that would make him just a more intelligent being, not a God. Or if you are saying that Heavenly Father's Heavenly Father created him, where does that chain end?

Why not worship her? If she is married to Heavenly Father, then isn't she of the same same substance as him and worthy of worship? Maybe I'm looking at it from a Catholic standpoint. In Catholicism, we believe that God the Father is the unmoved mover that began the creation of the universe and is outside of our universe. He always was and always will be, and therefore wasn't once a man or anything like that. That's probably the hardest part for me of accepting LDS teachings: your definition of what a God is is so radically different from mine.

I guess I'll be direct about this question: Do Mormons believe in a Heavenly Mother, who is Heavenly Father's wife? I've heard that it is frowned upon to worship heavenly mother, and that there have been several issues within the LDS about the topic (like the BYU women's studies professor, who encouraged worship of Heavenly Mother). How can you justify worshipping one but not the other? And if Heavenly Father really came to Earth and conceived Jesus with Mary, wasn't he "cheating" on Heavenly Mother? This is a subject that's been bothering me since I found it..... Looking forward to answers!

They actually just started their mission about two weeks ago, so I may have been one of the first to actually approach them!

SGMan, I too am thinking about converting. What made you take that final step?