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Hi From Europe...


Veles

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Hi to all from Slovakia, a small country in the heart of Europe... with 5,5M habitants but only 200 LDS members: a very frontier of the church. In my town (100.000 hab.) we don't have a ward, there are only 10 members. Sometimes I visit the nearest ward for the SM, and once a month we have missionaries... this is not enough for me, I'm so frustrated. I like to read church literature and lds forums, just to improve my knowledge of the doctrine and church history.

I'm a recent convert, married but the DW is not a believer at all and educated my 10 old son to the catholic faith. Hope I'll have possibility to visit SLC in the future...

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Hi Veles! Nice to meet you.

It can be hard as a new convert. My mother converted when she was a teenager, but her parents would not permit her to get baptized. She had to wait until she turned 18 before she could get baptized, but she did attend church before then. They even called her to play the piano before she was officially a member!

It's nice that today we have the Internet, and we can communicate with people of similar interests all around the globe.

Welcome to this site. I hope you'll be able to learn what you need and find some friendly fellowship. :)

Peace,

DH

Edited by DH
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Do you meet with the other members once a week or do you only get together when the missionaries come? It must be so hard not to have a large community to support you in your faith, especially being the only convert in your home,

How did you learn of the Church?

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Hi Veles! Nice to meet you.

It can be hard as a new convert. My mother converted when she was a teenager, but her parents would not permit her to get baptized. She had to wait until she turned 18 before she could get baptized, but she did attend church before then. They even called her to play the piano before she was officially a member!

It's nice that today we have the Internet, and we can communicate with people of similar interests all around the globe.

Welcome to this site. I hope you'll be able to learn what you need and find some friendly fellowship. :)

...

Thanks! At the moment I can interact with members only through internet, but with the limitation of the language... this is sad because the sense of community is the best quality of the Church. Hope I'll have possibility to travel to SLC for a period, in the future, just to see a real mormon community ;)

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What is your native language?

Have you used the chat with the missionaries option at mormon.org? I believe they offer a range of nonEnglish options.

I agree that the community of Saints is a huge benefit. We are currently living in a small town south of Brigham Young University and I know our life wouldn't be half as good as it is right now anywhere else due to my family have two out of three members with significant health issues. While we have had absolutely great nonmember friends and neighbours when we lived elsewhere, people just keep an eye out to help us here and are very understanding of our quirks or differences.

Edited by calmoriah
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Do you meet with the other members once a week or do you only get together when the missionaries come? It must be so hard not to have a large community to support you in your faith, especially being the only convert in your home,

How did you learn of the Church?

The missionaries visit members individually, but we can have a Sacrament meeting only once a month in a rented place. In the rest of the month, if possible, I travel to the nearest organized ward (ca. 30 members+missionaries) for the SM, 100 km from my town.

I learned about the Church by internet... I was interested about different religions and beliefs and casually read a paper about the concept of the Deification in the LDS theology, and found that I believed the same. Also the concept of Zion resonated in me, and started to search internet sites and books on amazon or at the lds online store. When called missionaries, I already know the fundamentals of the gospel.

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The missionaries visit members individually, but we can have a Sacrament meeting only once a month in a rented place. In the rest of the month, if possible, I travel to the nearest organized ward (ca. 30 members+missionaries) for the SM, 100 km from my town.

I learned about the Church by internet... I was interested about different religions and beliefs and casually read a paper about the concept of the Deification in the LDS theology, and found that I believed the same. Also the concept of Zion resonated in me, and started to search internet sites and books on amazon or at the lds online store. When called missionaries, I already know the fundamentals of the gospel.

Wow, pretty impressive.
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By the way, Veles, I love your avatar picture! 'Festina lente' is a very appropriate motto for a hare in a snail's shell! :lol:

Yes, pretty pic. The motto is also appropriate for me, because I'm particularly hungry of books, and knowledge... and this is a good thing, but also I've to remember that real knowledge need time and patience.

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Your english is good. Would you be able to fluently read if we suggested some books. For instance, the classic Jesus the Christ, while somewhat outdated in current biblical scholarship is magnificent. If you want to understand the Atonement, Believing Christ by Stephen Robinson is good, the middle chapters of In Quiet Desperation are the best practical application of the atonement I know of. There's a book called What do Mormons believe by Rex E. Lee that gives a good overview. (And you can always study the Institute Manuals and the other church published manuals online.

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Hello Veles...

Reading your posts, I'm impressed with your handling of the English language.

I want to welcome you to this board... I know you will enjoy it... but just a good natured warning: Sometimes the discussions can be lively, but our board rules and the moderators keep things from getting out of hand as we are to show respect to posters even when we differ in views. We have all types of posters from faithful LDS to non-members to members of other faiths to agnostics to atheists, etc etc. You will soon figure out who is who... be careful of websites that "sound" Mormon but in fact are anti-LDS... You will be among LDS on lds.org for usre, and here of course. There's a couple of others... I believe LDS.net... maybe someone here can give you some others.

As for me, I'm faithful LDS, widowed, old as the hills, and share my cottage-by-the-sea on the beautiful central Oregon coast with a pushy, 20-lb cat named "Bob." (The proverbial old woman and her cat).

Again, welcome...

from the beach... GG

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Veles,

Love the username! Love most things Slavic, and my Ukrainian relatives are deeply connected to their culture and heritage. My wife especially loves the older Slavic history.

I'm originally from Israel, so am used to miniscule branches too. Welcome.

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Hi to all from Slovakia, a small country in the heart of Europe... with 5,5M habitants but only 200 LDS members: a very frontier of the church. In my town (100.000 hab.) we don't have a ward, there are only 10 members. Sometimes I visit the nearest ward for the SM, and once a month we have missionaries... this is not enough for me, I'm so frustrated. I like to read church literature and lds forums, just to improve my knowledge of the doctrine and church history.

I'm a recent convert, married but the DW is not a believer at all and educated my 10 old son to the catholic faith. Hope I'll have possibility to visit SLC in the future...

Welcome...I used to live in West Germany, when there was a West Germany. I attended a small military Ward of about 30 people, it can be hard. I had to drive all the way to Fulda to go to Church, at that time no Temple. Anyway...welcome from Georgia; U.S.
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My daughter always teases me about my best friends who have I have never met. :)

It seems very strange to actually think I have never met most of those I consider very good friends on this board, it feels so natural talking to them.

I wonder if we will have to be introduced in the next life or we will just somehow 'know' each other when we finally do get a face to face encounter.

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Your english is good. Would you be able to fluently read if we suggested some books. For instance, the classic Jesus the Christ, while somewhat outdated in current biblical scholarship is magnificent. If you want to understand the Atonement, Believing Christ by Stephen Robinson is good, the middle chapters of In Quiet Desperation are the best practical application of the atonement I know of.

Well... Believing Christ was the first LDS book I read (after the BoM), and was a gift from one missionary after the 3rd lesson (this missionary also baptized me). I'm very grateful for this gift, the lecture of this book was a very spiritual journey. Recently I read the 2nd volume of "Exploring Mormon Though" by Black Ostler, and I was amazed when Ostler criticized the Robinson's conception of the Atonement.

I also read Jesus the Christ by Talmage, and was inspired by the faith of this apostle.

There's a book called What do Mormons believe by Rex E. Lee that gives a good overview

Thank you for the hint, not knew this book...

(And you can always study the Institute Manuals and the other church published manuals online.

Oh yes, absolutely, I read a lot of church manuals...

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Hello Veles...

Reading your posts, I'm impressed with your handling of the English language.

I want to welcome you to this board... I know you will enjoy it...

Hi GG, thanks for your warm welcome... well, my written English is not so good, but I hope I can improve it by writing in this forum. I read a lot in English but don't have the need to use the language actively (with the exception of the home teaching with missionaries).

but just a good natured warning: Sometimes the discussions can be lively, but our board rules and the moderators keep things from getting out of hand as we are to show respect to posters even when we differ in views. We have all types of posters from faithful LDS to non-members to members of other faiths to agnostics to atheists, etc etc. You will soon figure out who is who... be careful of websites that "sound" Mormon but in fact are anti-LDS... You will be among LDS on lds.org for usre, and here of course. There's a couple of others... I believe LDS.net... maybe someone here can give you some others.

Yes, I see... but is not a problem, I live in a non Mormon culture and for this reason I'm used to handling this kind of situations.

As for me, I'm faithful LDS, widowed, old as the hills, and share my cottage-by-the-sea on the beautiful central Oregon coast with a pushy, 20-lb cat named "Bob." (The proverbial old woman and her cat).

This sound romantic... a cottage by the sea... don't know nothing about Oregon, if you want sometimes could tell me some info about Oregon and about the church in this region.

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Veles,

Love the username! Love most things Slavic, and my Ukrainian relatives are deeply connected to their culture and heritage. My wife especially loves the older Slavic history.

Hehe... yes, Veles is an ancient Slavic god. The Ukrainian language is close to the Slovak language, also the culture is similar in some aspects.

I'm originally from Israel, so am used to miniscule branches too. Welcome.

Ah, I'm amazed, not knew there were members in Israel... I'm very curious about the situation of the Church in the Holy Land...

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Welcome...I used to live in West Germany, when there was a West Germany. I attended a small military Ward of about 30 people, it can be hard. I had to drive all the way to Fulda to go to Church, at that time no Temple. Anyway...welcome from Georgia; U.S.

Yes, is hard... but in a military ward I guess every member work in the same place during the week, but our members (10 members) are living in different places, we have different ages... is very difficult to build a community, or plan a missionary activity.

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