Need advice on Mormon Missionary's

[rich123456]

Zerinus

I would spend a bit of time here
www.utahmission.com

I was raised Mormon as a child. As an adult I have become Catholic. The difference to me is like a Child who wants to dress up like a doctor and pretend to be a doctor. Then one finds the real doctor, Christ and knows the difference between make up and the real thing. The you have a choice. Do I follow Jesus or do I continue to pretend that all is alright?

God Bless

 

[AgnosTheist]

Any ideas people?

Pretend to have become an agnostic and tell them:

“If God wants me to change the way I live, I want to hear it from him. Not from you”

Trust me, that works everytime!

And when they counter by saying “We we delivering the message of God”. Tell them “So does the muslim missionaries. And the protestants.”

 

[melmac]

Do you mean the love and concern that the poster is now getting from some posters on this forum? Is this love-bombing? Is this forum a cult too? Are you also not trying to keep the poster away from thoughts about remaining in contact with the missionaries?

I don’t think that mormons are experts in searching out lonely people unless of course the original poster had a sign on him or her saying: I am Lonely, talk to me.

These would be great questions to ask the young men who are missionaries: Are you love bombing me? Are you experts in searching out lonely people? The poster can also ask them the weird things about their doctrine or speak to someone who may know more. Of course, these young men are only 19 to 21 years respectfully.

I asked for advice, This forum is obviously not a “cult”.
I’ve asked the mormons about inconsistancy’s in their religion, the same response is that “I need to read the BoM and Pray about it.”
PS I stopped wearing that sign ages ago

 

[melmac]

She is being lured by the culture, not the truth of the BoM. She already stated that she doesn’t believe what they are telling her and is stuck, not knowing how to get out of where she is at. Too shy to tell the missionaries to buzz off. This is not censorship or cult behavior.]

Hi RebeccaJ, I think i just realized i was asking permission to continue to believe what I believe but take the offered friendship. I guess i know it won’t work like that. I was reading about Joseph Smith’s attempt to lure already married women. It was sickening. I know i keep getting told he was human and flawed. But he made a career out of it.He did’nt err once and try to make amends but continued to approach women at night when their husbands were away. If it was sanctioned by God why so clandestine? I find it hard to believe he is held up to be almost a saint. At a meeting i attended the women praised Joseph Smith and how wonderful he was. Do they know what he did and condone it or just look the other way? Hes compared to Jesus and that floors me.

 

[melmac]

Thankyou NewSeeker for sharing a little of your history with me. I do think that many people who havn’t experienced both communities wouldn’t understand how appealing the sense of community the LDS present.
I am also glad you have found the Catholic Faith. Or it found you.

 

[Annie_B]

Yes; my suggestion is to read the Book of Mormon, and pray to the Lord to reveal the truth of it to you. Once the Spirit reveals the truth of it to you, everything will fall into place, and you won’t need to come here and ask these questions.

zerinus

Good advice
Annie

 

[melmac]

Hi again melmac,

You wouldn’t know it from my posts here, but I am shy too. I found the best way to get to know people is to volunteer for one of the many ministries at the parish. There are lots of things you can do that don’t take much time but bring you into fellowship with lots of wonderful people whose friendship (noun) will be genuine.

You can be a greeter or an usher, or sing in the choir (there’s safety in numbers ), or drive one afternoon a week to bring food and clothing to poor families or a hundred other things that range from high- to very low-profile.

Talk to your priest. He can probably suggest something that would be right for you.

God love you,
Paul

Hi PaulD, I like the idea of singing in the choir, i sound like the seagull in The little Mermaid .Mel

 

[PaulDupre]

Yes; my suggestion is to read the Book of Mormon, and pray to the Lord to reveal the truth of it to you. Once the Spirit reveals the truth of it to you, everything will fall into place, and you won’t need to come here and ask these questions.

zerinus

Sure, you can just turn off your brain and coast…

 

[zerinus]

Good advice
Annie

Don’t be fooled. The OP is not interested in the truth. Every once in a while he/she comes along and asks the same question, and I always give him/her the same answer.

zerinus

 

[RC_Matt]

Hi I’ve been recently visited by 2 mormon missionary’s and invited to their church. The people are friendly, very earnest in their beliefs. My dilemma is that i like these people and their friendship but the more i learn about this religion the more farfetched it seems. I feel i don’t have the right to “put down” someone else’s beliefs. The missionarys have an answer to all my questions so much so it leaves my head swimming.

A lot of people do get sucked into Mormonism by the “nice” missionaries, just as a lot of people get sucked into Scientology and the Moonies by the “nice” people in those groups. These dudes aren’t being friendly to you because they want a real friendship with you. Just like insurance salesman, stock brokers, used car dealers and the like, they’re being friendly because they have a (VERY expensive) product to sell and you don’t close deals by being indifferent to your prospects. They are NOT your friends. Furthermore, just like a used car dealer who doesn’t tell you all the faults of a car he’s trying to sell, these guys are NOT going to give you the straight dope on Mormonism. They call this “milk before meat” (their own terminology) and nobody’s going to tell you the real weird stuff until AFTER you have become a Mormon. They try to present Mormonsim as a Christian faith, and it is anything BUT a Christian faith. Prior to going on a mission, they go to a missionary training center where they are taught how to package the product in an attractive manner and how to sell it. What they really want is 10% of your income, your total obedience, and much of your free time for the rest of your life. Once you go to the temple, they’ll even require you to wear their special underwear (called garments) exclusively. And kinda like the Hotel California, you can check-in, but you can never leave (you actually can, but they won’t make it easy).

These guys are just kids, they’re doing what their parents and their church expect them to do. Lots of them would rather be doing just about anything other than selling Joseph Smith door-to-door, and some of them don’t even buy it themselves, but they often have no alternative but to serve the mission. Most of them have been raised in Mormonsim and know nothing else, they don’t have the capacity to stand back and look at the originating history and beliefs objectively. I mean, even without getting into the history and deeper theology, can you buy stuff like: men become gods, the god of our planet was once a man on another planet and currently lives on a plant in the solar system kolob, you can’t get into heaven (the presence of god) unless you know the secret handshakes and passwords, that nobody can get into heaven without Joseph Smith’s permission, etc.? This kind of stuff goes on and on. I don’t know about you, but that stuff alone should be enough to make any half-way intelligent 12 year-old say, “thanks, but no thanks.”

If you’re looking for companionship, get active in your Parish, or get a dog, or take some classes, or something like that. It’s certainly not a reason join the Mormons.

 

[melmac]

Yes; my suggestion is to read the Book of Mormon, and pray to the Lord to reveal the truth of it to you. Once the Spirit reveals the truth of it to you, everything will fall into place, and you won’t need to come here and ask these questions.

zerinus

I’ve done that and you wouldn’t like the answer. I have prayed, no how many times the answer is still the same. The BoM is wrong and the People dillusional. That doesn’t mean their not nice. I geniunely like everyone I’ve met, I almost wish I could believe. But I can’t. Zerinus it just doesn’t make any sense. And what I been raised with does.

 

[PaulDupre]

Hi PaulD, I like the idea of singing in the choir, i sound like the seagull in The little Mermaid .Mel

Trust me, I’ve heard worse.

Paul

 

[RebeccaJ]

Hi RebeccaJ, I think i just realized i was asking permission to continue to believe what I believe but take the offered friendship. I guess i know it won’t work like that. I was reading about Joseph Smith’s attempt to lure already married women. It was sickening. I know i keep getting told he was human and flawed. But he made a career out of it.He did’nt err once and try to make amends but continued to approach women at night when their husbands were away. If it was sanctioned by God why so clandestine? I find it hard to believe he is held up to be almost a saint. At a meeting i attended the women praised Joseph Smith and how wonderful he was. Do they know what he did and condone it or just look the other way? Hes compared to Jesus and that floors me.

Hi melmac, I have mormon friends and tons of mormon family. We get a long great as long as we don’t discuss religion. And politics.

regarding polygamy…I know mormon women who don’t know about the things you are bringing up. And I know mormon women who defend polygamy.

The strangest ones are those that believe the practice to be very disgusting, while at the same time singing the praises of Smith. I call this the “mormon disconnect”. If you hang around mormons long enough you’ll notice this with more than the subject of polygamy.

 

[Cathy]

I see no problem having Mormon friends. But there is a big danger for your faith if they are your main support group.

As a Catholic who needs moral support (who doesn’t?), I would suggest looking for a group of committed, well-grounded Catholics to meet with on a regular basis. By well-grounded, I mean a group who believe in what the Church teaches in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Depending on where you live, this might include something like the Legion of Mary, the Militia of the Immaculata, Regnum Christi, Opus Dei, a lay group assocoated with a religious order, such as the Carmelites, Dominicans or Franciscans, etc., or just a good Catholic Bible study group made up of your friends and neighbors, preferably with a faithful priest as an advisor. Any of these groups would need discernment on your part, to determine if they are faithful to Church teachings found in the Catechism (vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM)), and if they offer a spirituality compatible with your own needs and gifts.

Over my dozen years in the Church, I’ve associated with several of the above, and have recently begun meeting with a small presidio of the Legion of Mary. I find the spiritual support of my fellow travelers to be a very great blessing. I can’t survive, or at any rate thrive, on weekly Mass alone.

 

[why_me]

Don’t be fooled. The OP is not interested in the truth. Every once in a while he/she comes along and asks the same question, and I always give him/her the same answer.

zerinus

I thought it was a set up. I have seen it before.

Mormon missionaries came to my door. What should I do? Should I read the book of mormon? Should I investigate their church? They are so friendly and loving…

And then suddenly in the responses the same inquistive person becomes just a little antimormon. Now I can’t say that it was like this with the original OP. But it just may seem like it.

 

[why_me]

I asked for advice, This forum is obviously not a “cult”.
I’ve asked the mormons about inconsistancy’s in their religion, the same response is that “I need to read the BoM and Pray about it.”
PS I stopped wearing that sign ages ago

In your OP, you stated that they have answers to your questions. What happened? Why the change?

From your OP:

The missionarys have an answer to all my questions so much so it leaves my head swimming.

You seem to be contradicting yourself.

This post that you wrote seems to contradict your OP.

 

[why_me]

RebeccaJ;3320665:

She is being lured by the culture, not the truth of the BoM. She already stated that she doesn’t believe what they are telling her and is stuck, not knowing how to get out of where she is at. Too shy to tell the missionaries to buzz off. This is not censorship or cult behavior.]

Hi RebeccaJ, I think i just realized i was asking permission to continue to believe what I believe but take the offered friendship. I guess i know it won’t work like that. I was reading about Joseph Smith’s attempt to lure already married women. It was sickening. I know i keep getting told he was human and flawed. But he made a career out of it.He did’nt err once and try to make amends but continued to approach women at night when their husbands were away. If it was sanctioned by God why so clandestine? I find it hard to believe he is held up to be almost a saint. At a meeting i attended the women praised Joseph Smith and how wonderful he was. Do they know what he did and condone it or just look the other way? Hes compared to Jesus and that floors me.

Here is the tesimony of one woman who refused Joseph’s offer of marriage at first:

This aroused every drop of scotch in my veins…I felt at this moment that I was called to place myself up the alter a liveing Sacrafice, perhaps to brook the world in disgrace and incur the displeasure and contempt of my youthful companions; all my dreams of happiness blown to the four winds, this was too much, the thought was unbearable.

She refused JS’s offer of marriage. But then after a sleepless night of prayer, Lucy felt something in her room: My room became filled with a heavenly influence. To me it was in comparison like a brillant sunshine bursting through the darkest cloud…My soul was filled with a calm sweet peace that I never knew. Supreme happiness took possession of my whole being. Quoted from Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Bushman p. 492.

After that experience with heaven, she was sealed to JS as a plural wife. How to explain it?

 

[why_me]

Here is another testimony of plural marriage by a woman:

In 1839, the Huntington family arrived in Nauvoo, along with daughter, Zina. Within months, Zina’s Mother died from the malaria epidemic which claimed the lives of many of the early Nauvoo settlers. About this same time, Zina met and was courted by Henry B. Jacobs, a handsome and talented musician. Sometime during Henry’s courtship of Zina, Joseph Smith explained to Zina the “principle of plural marriage” and asked her to become one of his wives. Zina remembers the conflict she felt about Joseph’s proposal, and her budding relationship with Henry: “O dear Heaven, grant me wisdom! Help me to know the way. O Lord, my god, let thy will be done and with thine arm around about to guide, shield and direct…” Zina declined Joseph’s proposal and chose to marry Henry. They were married on March 7, 1841.

Zina later wrote, that within months of her marriage to Henry, “[Joseph] sent word to me by my brother, saying, ‘Tell Zina, I put it off and put it off till an angel with a drawn sword stood by me and told me if I did not establish that principle upon the earth I would lose my position and my life’”. Joseph further explained that, “the Lord had made it known to him she was to be his celestial wife.”

Zina chose to obey this commandment and married Joseph on October 27. **She later recalled, “When I heard that God had revealed the law of celestial marriag…I obtained a testimony for myself that God had required that order to be established in this church…**I made a greater sacrifise than to give my life for I never anticipated again to be looked upon as an honerable woman by those I dearly loved…”. Zina continued, “It was something too sacred to be talked about; it was more to me than life or death. I never breathed it for years”.

Zina’s first husband, Henry, was aware of this wedding and they continued to live in the same home. He believed that “whatever the Prophet did was right, without making the wisdom of God’s authorities bend to the reasoning of any man.” Over the next few years, Henry was sent on several missions to Chicago, Western New York and Tennessee. Henry missed his family and wrote home often. One of Henry’s missionary companions, John D. Lee, said, “Jacobs was bragging about his wife and two children, what a true, virtuous, lovely woman she was. He almost worshiped her…”.

Now I have to say that I took this information from a site that is not that friendly to the lds. But I saw no luring in the middle of the night.

I see no sneaking off in the middle of night to lure woman…

 

[valient_Lucy]

Thanx I do feel the religion is flawed, I don’t wish to offend them by saying so. I’ve read so much in these forums that have confirmed my own research and feelings. I guess it comes down to wanting to belong after LDS church many people came up to welcome me I’ve been invited to many things and to be honest at the catholic church in 10 years no-one has ever done that. I go to mass alone stop for coffee after and have never been welcomed or approached by anyone. I promise I’m not hideous just shy.

You don’t have to tell them you think the religion is flawed. Just tell them that you are no longer interested.

 

[Jerusha]

You don’t have to tell them you think the religion is flawed. Just tell them that you are no longer interested.

That is probably the best and safest exit strategy. Then firmly attach yourself to a parish community. Then, settle down and read the BOM that they gave you.

Remember:
It was plaigirized from the Bible, contains references to popular 1829 white culture (disarming the enemy by supplying them with plenty of alcohol, river pirates, blatant racism, religious evangelism and interreligious hostility, etc.), many place-names were derived from New England place-names from 1829. It was plaigirized from Ethan Smith’s “View of the Hebrews”, and was probably also plaigirized from a manuscript by Solomon Spalding, and Native accounts of the Viking invasion. It also bears the marks of authorship by Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon and probably Oliver Cowdrey. You have no need to ask God to bear you witness whether it is true, because it is obviously a concoction that many call blasphemous. Just because there are a few parts that are good does not make the whole thing good. Some parts are downright funny and blatantly juvenile.