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Are There Any Mormon Elders Or Other Leaders Online?


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I am doing an interview for college and I was wondering if anyone would care to be interviewed. I have about five questions to ask.

I'm an elder. (Most active LDS men are.) I also serve in a local leadership position, but that's not unusual; most active LDS adults have some responsibilities of some sort.

If that answers the need, I'll be happy to help out.

Regards,

Pahoran

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I will just list the questions then so that either of you or anyone else can answer them.

1. Who or what is the deity of the Mormon faith?

2. What is the after-life called? How does one go there?

3. What are some of the religious rituals Mormons participate in?

4. What happens to those who do not subscribe to the Mormon faith? Where do they go when they die?

5. What are you leaders called? Are there other titles besides "Elder"?

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Hey Georgey Porgey, are these real questions, or are you baiting? They are so... underdeveloped. Which college do you go to?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (not the Mormon faith, the Mormon church, the Mormon religion, etc.) is a Christian church, and as such has many of the same beliefs as those members of other denominations.

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Folks, assume this is a legitimate inquiry from a student. Basic questions are consistent with a classroom assignment.

Please use the usual caution about giving real names and information on line.

Georgey - can you interview someone even if they don't use their real name?

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Folks, assume this is a legitimate inquiry from a student. Basic questions are consistent with a classroom assignment.

Please use the usual caution about giving real names and information on line.

Georgey - can you interview someone even if they don't use their real name?

Yes I can interview someone without them giving there real name. These are the questions I was provided with by my teacher. I go to a community college in Alabama.

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Well, I am not an elder, just a church member (and a holder of the Aaronic Priesthood), but, I hope you won't mind if I give a shot at these questions. These are the sort of questions that would prove good to answer.

1) The diety of our faith is God... that is... Heavenly Father, his son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. They are all divine, and make up what we like to call 'the Godhead'. This is similar to other Christians, in the sense that we believe in three personages. The difference is, that we believe they all have individual souls; that is, they are three different people working as one, becoming the God that we know and love. We worship Heavenly Father in the name of the son, Jesus Christ, and receive witness through the Holy Spirit of Promise.

2) Our ideas about the afterlife is another area where we differ from traditional Christianity. Actually, if I am going to explain the afterlife, I should probably explain our ideas on the process of life... starting with the premortal existence. Here is a diagram which I will be referencing you too while I describe our beliefs:

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Okay... so we believe... that everything starts in the premortal existance. In the premortal existance, we lived with God, our Father (and Jesus's Father), in happiness, as spirits in his kingdom. However... God the Father had one thing we didn't - a body. We decided that we wanted a body too. And so, we asked Father how we would get a body, and Father layed out a grand plan of a life on Earth, which would allow us to obtain a body, so we could be just like him.

Part of the plan, as it happens, required a savior of the world. Two volunteered. One, we already know; that was Jesus Christ. The other, was Lucifer. Lucifer however, wished to change Father's plan, and to take away Father's glory, whereas Christ simply wanted to obey the plan of the Father. When Father said no, Lucifer led away a third of Heavenly Father's children, and they, along with Lucifer, were cast out of heaven into Outer Darkness.

So the plans proceeded forth, and here, we arrive on Earth, and we recieve a body. In addition, we fufill the second purpose of coming to Earth by continuing to live on for many years. We go through life, suffering trials of all sorts, preparing us for the next life, which is essential for our future. Satan tempts us, of course, trying to cause us to sin, because if we sin, and we do not repent, we cannot reside with Heavenly Father again. Thus, he wishes to destroy our happiness; he wishes for us to be as miserable as he is; cast out of the presence of God, with a pain of conscience which is the pain that makes hell, hell.

Now, the time comes, eventually, for us to die. However, when we die, we are not resurrected immediately. Instead, we go to a place, for a time, called 'The Spirit World'. The Spirit World is divided into two parts, paradise and prison. Paradise is for those who have accepted Christ, and had the saving ordinances performed on them. Prison, is, well, where everyone else goes.

Now, of course, the thought then comes, 'what about all those people who never had a chance to meet Christ, or never had the opportunity to make their full decision?' And there is an answer; people can move from spirit prison to spirit paradise. Those, who have not had the opportunity in this life, are given the opportunity to learn of Christ in the spirit world, and upon receiving the ordinances which are performed on them in proxy on the Earth, may transfer over to Spirit Paradise until the time of judgment.

Eventually, comes the time, when all the proxy work is done, the millennium having been long past; and that is the time of the judgment. In the judgement, you are judged for your works on Earth and (I think) in Spirit Paradise/Prison. From there, depending on your faith and works, you are assigned to one of three kingdoms of glory.

The lowest kingdome of glory is the telestial kingdom. It is still a marvelous place to be. Brigham Young said something along the lines of that 'if you knew how glorious the telestial glory was, you would die right now simply to get there'. Essentially, even though it is the lowest glory, designated for those who have sinned quite a bit, and rejected Christ, it is not a bad place to be.

The second glory, the midway glory, is the terrestrial kingdom. Now, this, is quite a marvelous place to be. You are in the presence of Jesus Christ. This is for those who accepted Jesus Christ, but wouldn't do all he would ask them too (if I remember correctly). Many many people will be here, and they will be decently good people.

The highest kingdom of glory is the celestial kingdom. The celestial kingdom is the place where God the Father resides. You will be in the presence of both Jesus Christ and God the Father. This is the place where the best of people go; those who are willing to sacrifice themselves for others and follow the Lord. In addition, those who were the very best, who followed Christ till the end, will be able to become exalted beings; that is, they will become like Heavenly Father themselves.

3) There are several, but the most significant are baptism, endowment, and temple mairrage. I'm pretty sure you know what baptism is, in any case, we baptize by immersion, and not by sprinkling. Endowment, is a temple ritual, where special promises are made to you by the Lord, and you make special promises in return. Essentially, it is a covenant. Temple mairrage, the final, and most important of the rites, is the ability to be married to your spouse for all eternity. That is... there is no more 'until death do you part'... for you will not part after death; you will be together forever. A temple mairrage seals a family, parents, and children, so that way, in the eternities, they will always be together. It is a very nice thing, in my opinion, to know that my loved ones will be with me forever, that it is... perhaps it is one reason I have such zest for the plan of salvation.

There is one more important rite, if you could call it that, that you should perhaps know about; and this is the patriarchal blessing. Essentially, a blessing is given to you which will tell you a bit about what will happen in your future if you choose the right (or consequently wrong) path. These blessings are given by specifically designated people in the church called patriarchs. The patriarchal blessing also tells a few other things related to adoptive lineage, but that is a whole new complex subject to talk about.

4) They are judged the same as everyone else. You do not 'need' to be a part of our faith when you die to receive anything. What matters is that by the judgement, or by the time of your knowledge of the truth of the Church upon the Earth, you have submitted to Christ.

People who are not a part of the faith but still need to learn some things go to spirit prison, learn some stuff, and then go into paradise. I assume from there they then try and help teach others in spirit prison, as most if not all in spirit paradise do.

5) There are ALOT of positions in the church. I could not list them all here. The hierarchy is extensive, and effective. But the structures you should probably be familiar with are stakes, wards, and the first presidency.

The ward is a basic unit, and contains many members, performing different roles in Church. You could consider a ward to be like seperate sports teams for the same school using the same gym. They are both from the same school [religion], and they use the same gym[church building]. But they come at different times to practice [worship]. The ward has a bishop, which is the presiding officer, and two counselors to help him in his duties. There are many other positions in the ward, but those are the ones that glue everything together.

Now, a stake, is very much like a ward... only... it's presiding officer (the stake president) and counselors are gluing the individual wards together; that is, a stake is made up of many wards.

This goes up several levels (I'm not sure how many), and you eventually reach the Quorum of the Seventy, and the Quorum of the Twelve. The Quorum of the Twelve is specifically important; they are designated as prophets, seers, and revelators of God. And you can here them whenever there is a semi-annual General Conference (which happened to have happened last weekend). In the Quorum of the Twelve itself, there is also, a set of three, which preside over the rest; the First Presidency. The main position, is that of President of the Church, or, as we like to call them, 'The Prophet'. Considering he is a modern-day prophet, we take the Prophet and the Apostles (Quorum of the Twelve) very seriously, here in the church. But that's the nice thing about revelation occurring here and now; we aren't left floundering around.

As for other titles... yeah... tons... deacon... teacher... priset... high priest... etc. And then, if you were to look higher up the hierarchy, there is things like Area Presidency, Mission President, etc. The names seem to confuse people sometimes, that they do.

Well, I hope this helped, and if you have any more questions, feel free to drop them in =).

Best Wishes,

TAO

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Great summary TAO -

One thing I would add to #5 is that the Priesthood in the LDS Church is voluntary service and not a paid position.

Within a ward (congragation) there are Deacons, Teachers and Priests who are usually young men with duties like teaching other members and serving the sacrament. These offices comprise the Aaronic Priesthood.

There is also an Elders quorum which has additional responsibilities like blessing the sick, providing for families in need and administering the church. Then there is the High Priests group with similar responsibilities. The Bishop is the local "pastor" and he is called from the membership for a 5 year period. He receives no pay for this service. The Elders and High Priests are both part of the Melchizedek Priesthood.

A young man who serves a full time mission is ordained to be an Elder.

Several Wards together in a geographical area comprise a Stake. the Stake has a Stake President who is a High Priest.

Large areas of the world are presided over by a "Seventy" also referred to as an Elder or General Authority. The quorum (group) of the Seventy report to the Presidency of the Seventy.

Then there is the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. Twelve men called to be special witnesses of Jesus Chrsit to the world.

At the top of the Church hierarchy there is the President and his two counselors. The President of the worldwide Church is considered a Prophet. In fact all members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12 are considered Prophets, Seers and Revelators.

(If you are confused don't worry, it took me a while to get a handle on this when i was a member).

There are other offices that also serve like the Stake Patriarch who gives special blessings of guidance to members. There are also Mission Presidents and Temple Presidents who serve in their respective roles as called.

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Several clarifications

1. Ordination to the priesthood is another ritual for all worthy men. Taking the sacrament weekly is probably the most important ritual of all.

2. We believe that everyone who has ever lived or will ever live on earth came to earth, having been righteous in the pre-existence. Each will have a complete opportunity to accept Jesus as their Savior and accept baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ and have the temple ordinances that allow them to return to live with their Father in Heaven, as was anticipated by the original plan. If they do not receive that opportunity while they are alive, they will have that opportunity after they die. That is why we do ordinances in the temple for our dead ancestors ---- the actual ordinances belong to mortal life and have to be done here. But sometimes we are doing them hoping that our dead ancestors will or have accepted the Gospel after they died.

3. The most fundamental unit of the church is the family. All church organization exists to support the family in teaching and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ fully and joyfully individually and collectively.

3.

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