Mormons Essay, Research Paper

Mormons

The church that I visited was the Church of Jesus Christ and the Later Day Saints in Santa Ana, CA. When I first got there I walked around the church and read some articles that I found on the walls. One article read that this church was the second largest Mormon Church in the world. It took me a while to find where the service was and I noticed that there were several rooms that said Cultural Service room or something like that. Then I also noticed that almost everyone that was there was Hispanic. Which was completely different from what I had expected. Where the service took place was different from any other church that I had been to. There were no windows, no stained glass, no pictures, and nothing that would really make you think you are in a church. There was about a three-foot high wall at the front of the church, where the pulpit was. There were eight rows of pews and then chairs behind the pews. The age was mainly middle age and the economic pattern looked to be lower middle class. When I first went in, I sat down, and then I realized that it was a service in Spanish, but there were some Caucasian men in the back wearing suits, and appeared to be the same people I see riding their bikes, that come to my house.

At the beginning of the sermon there was a man at the pulpit and was talking about something, but I couldn t understand him because he was speaking Spanish. He was holding up a bronze basket looking thing. After he was done speaking a woman came up and sang in Spanish, but there was no music and no one else sang but her. After she was done singing, another man who I think was the main pastor came up and spoke for about a half hour. After he was done, another man came up and gave a prayer and then everyone left. One thing that was interesting that I have never seen in any other church before, was there were seats that people could sit in behind the pulpit where the speakers were standing. Usually in all the churches behind the pastors are candles and usually a crucifix. Another thing that I also noticed was that everyone had two Bibles, but then I realized, one was the Holy Bible and the other was the Book of Mormon.

For the following questions, I asked a woman by the name of Gretchen and received the following answers. For the first question, if you have a deity, give the name? She answered, Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. For the second question, in your religion, how are you supposed to act toward other? She answered, We don’t discriminate against other churches and we accept all people. We re supposed to be charitable and do service for others whenever moved upon to do so. We should be kind to all people. The third question, what are humans and how did they come to be? She answered, We believe in Adam and Eve and that god put them here, we are beings with a body and a spirit that has the potential of being godly. The forth question, How do people get in trouble in your religion? She answered, Well if you don’t obey the word of wisdom, you can get into trouble. If you break the 10 commandments, if you don’t obey the law of chastity, but anything really that would get you to stray from the right path can get you into trouble because God knows all of your sins. The fifth question, how do they get out of trouble, she answered, To get out of trouble, you have to repent. We have to go to the lord and ask for forgiveness, ask the person (if someone else is involved) and ask them for forgiveness and never do it again. If we do it again, then we haven’t truly repented. The sixth question, what happens to you when you die according to your religion, she gave the answer, We believe that you are reunited with your families after you die and that there are 3 levels of glory after death, they are celestial, terrestrial, and telestial. The seventh question, do you believe in heaven, life on earth, and hell? She answered, Yeah, celestial is the highest, and telestial is the lowest. We have outer darkness which is pretty much hell. The last question, Do you believe in matter only, Spirit only, or both Spirit and matter? She answered, Well we have Spiritual bodies and physical bodies so I guess spirit and matter.