Nov 11 2009

Confession: Example 1

Poor Wayfaring Man

Like every other Mormon missionary, my mission started with a stay in the Missionary Training Center (the “MTC”). I will probably have more to say about this topic in the future, but for my purposes today, I will just say that the MTC fills the same role as boot camp does for the military–it is meant to break down the new recruits and re-mold them into homogeneous parts of a mighty army. In the MTC, part of that process involves convincing the new recruits that they are sinners, and in need of repentance and reconciliation with God in order to avoid being a complete failures as missionaries.

As a new missionary, I was in the (common?) position of having never really leveled with my local bishop back home about grave sins like masturbation and/or looking at pornography. Continue reading


Oct 26 2009

On Covenanting with the Lord

Poor Wayfaring Man

The “Covenanting with the Lord” program, discussed in the previous post, is interesting to me because it puts to the test the promises of the Lord found in LDS scripture, and the beliefs of the mainstream LDS Church regarding those promises. It is anchored in the concept of testimony, relying on a person’s ability to discern the promptings of the Holy Ghost to come up with solutions to a given problem. Once a solution is found, especially if it requires divine intervention, it is presented to the Lord for ratification (and miracles).

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Oct 25 2009

My Testimonies: Example 3

Poor Wayfaring Man

I have had experiences with testimony. Lots of them. Here is Example 3:

When I had been proselyting as a missionary for just about three months, my Mission President (the volunteer LDS clergy supervising the activities of the entire mission) assigned me to work in a new city with a partner (i.e., a “companion”) who was in the final month of his two-year term of missionary service. The Mission President met with me to tell me I was chosen for the assignment because this missionary needed a faithful, enthusiastic companion to try a new method of proselyting that had the potential to usher in a surge of baptisms in the mission. It was called “Covenanting with the Lord”.

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Oct 18 2009

Leaving the Fold is a Big Deal

Poor Wayfaring Man

It is a big deal for a member of the LDS Church to walk away. It’s not like simply changing pastors or switching to a more convenient worship service. The LDS Church is not just a place Mormons go on Sundays. It is the central mechanism by which they regulate, plan, and live their lives. On top of being the place where Mormons go for religious instruction, the Church is also the main source of a Mormon’s social connections; the means by which Mormons perform community service; and even a place where Mormons who are struggling financially can obtain food and monetary assistance.

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