Today, while we were making crafts to donate to the Latin women club, I had the opportunity to be surrounded by six women who were asking me a lot of questions about the Church when they found out I was a Mormon. I was very surprised finding out the ignorance that still exists out there about Mormons.
One person asked me about Polygamy and I have to say, I don't know what it is with Polygamy but that subject always comes up. People want to know about those Mormon Polygamists!
I told them: I am not a Polygamist. None of my Mormon friends are Polygamist and actually I don't know anyone who practices Polygamy or that they wished they should be practicing Polygamy.
Faithful Mormons have not entered into Polygamous marriages since the 1890's. Sure there was a time of about forty years when Mormons received a revelation to practices Polygamy as a way of survival but that practice ended when it was revealed it was no longer necessary and it needed to stop! Today not one soul who considers himself or herself a good member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practice Polygamy. The people who still do belong to a different faith that broke off from the Church more than a century ago.
Another person asked: Is it true that if you are a barren woman who can't have children, you are not allowed to be a member? I answered: Wow, that is the first time I heard that statement about Mormons. We believe that the family is central to God's Plan. We believe that a family exists for more than just to provide food, clothes and shelter. We believe that God established the family to help us bring us happiness, to help us learn correct principles in a loving environment, and to prepare us for eternal life with God.
We believe we can be married to our spouses for eternity and we also believe that our family can be joined together forever. In other words, our family relationships as parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives will continue hereafter. We believe that each person has a mortal spirit and that the spirit together with the immortal body makes our living soul. Death is the separation of the spirit from the mortal body. When people die, even though their body is buried, their spirit continues to live on. Members of our family who have passed on are there to greet us to take us to what we call the Spirit world.
By the time I finished explain all that, I could tell that it completely went over their heads and probably was too much information. I told them that all I know is from studying about the life of Christ from the time I was there years old and that in order to really learned about him, a normal person should probably dedicate about 2,000 hours of their time and that wouldn't even be enough because there is so much to know. However, it gets simplified because a lot of Christ's teachings are explained very well in the Book of Mormon. Another testament of Jesus Christ. When you read the Book you'll understand what I am talking about. People have the right to believe in the Book or not. I am one who believes it's true.
As a Mormon, I don't secretly live in a compound and ride carriages on horses. I am not part of some cult or an antisocial. That is what it's shown on movies. I am a regular person following the teaching of Christ just like you follow your own beliefs. Be free to ask me anything you would like to know about me, because I am in many ways a lot like you. Trying to be a better person each day.
Con amor,
Vero
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