This should be one of the easiest posts I’ve ever written, and instead it’s proving to be one of the hardest. How do you put into words something that means so much to you? It’s the one thing in my life, well and family but that is included in it, that means more to me than anything else. It is who I am. My days and life are all centered around this one thing and it has made me not only into who I am but it also directs who I will become. In fact, this has been such a great blessing in my life that you may have read the story of how it preserved not only my life but our unborn baby through a miracle. Here let me explain why I want you to meet this Mormon and my pretty raw, and out there feelings about things. And if I don’t answer your questions, leave them below and I’ll make a new post and answer anything. Or email if you’d prefer to be anonymous.
Why was I hesitant about mentioning my religion? Because unlike other differences, religion seems to be the one thing people don’t have to be kind and respectful about. I believe they should, and hope you all will.
I’ve always known who I am. Yes, the older I get the more secure I get with my differences or whatever, but since I was a little girl I had this strong feeling in me, one I can hardly explain. It’s almost like how you know what your name is, I just knew I was a daughter of God, that I was loved by Him and that I was born for a purpose. With the new movie, Meet the Mormons coming out I felt like I should share what I know because I realized something, maybe people just don’t understand us, and they think they can’t ask questions or we will try to convert them or that we are secretive. Neither is true, so I hope these answers help you understand us.
Why are you called Mormons?
Many of you may have read my post a few years ago about being LDS, yes, we call ourselves LDS, not Mormon. Mormon is an ancient prophet who compiled ancient records into the Book of Mormon so people call us that but we belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and call ourselves, LDS, Latter Day Saints.
Why are you always trying to convert everyone with all those missionaries?
This one always makes me smile a little because I can see where you are coming from. THIS is a fantastic, to the point talk from one of our apostles (see the next question) about just that. We aren’t trying to convert the world, we have found great happiness in knowing that we truly are sons and daughters of a loving God who knows us by name, personally. The gospel brings us peace, joy, and hope. We know who we are, why we are here and where we are going. If I gave you the most delicious cookie would you want your sweet family to enjoy it as well? That is 100% how we feel. I love my friends so much that I want them to have the opportunity to taste that sweetness that I enjoy every day and that has greatly blessed my life. If they aren’t interested I honestly don’t mind. I’m just sharing something that means so much to me, no pressure involved.
Who leads your church?
We believe that God loves us always and is still just as much involved now as he was during bible times. That being said, we believe in modern day prophets, apostles, and modern revelation. Why would God abandon us when we need him most? The world is in turmoil and he is still very much there. We have a prophet, Thomas S. Monson who is an incredible man. Our church is established as it was in bible times, and our local leaders are called Bishops. You have actually met ours without knowing it in THIS incredibly tender, and emotional post. None of our leaders are paid, we are all volunteer and guess what, it’s not perfect but it runs incredibly well. We are separated into small wards where all of the members are given callings that change often and allow us all to be active participants, serving each other and the Lord. It’s an amazing opportunity.
What’s up with the temple?
I think this video shares it better than I could. Temples are actually in the bible, it’s not a new thing. We pattern ourselves after Christ’s church in those times which involves restoring the blessings of the temple. It’s not secret, we just hold it very sacred to us. Any are invited to enter the temple that are clean, worthy and believe. There are also temples opening all over the world and if you are not a member of the church you can walk through the entire thing during an open house. We are married there because we believe that marriage can last through the eternities. We believe families can be together forever as it is God’s plan. The temple has always been a house of the Lord, 1 Kings 6:1, 37. Learn about where in the bible it talks about ordinances done in the temple: Malachi 4:5-6, 1 Corinthians 15:29; 1 Peter 4:6
Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
This is one of the most asked questions so let me help you out, we belong to The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter Day Saints. Jesus Christ is the center of everything. He truly lived on this Earth. He was sent by our Heavenly Father to live a perfect life, bring others to the knowledge of the gospel and then he was willing to be a sacrifice for each of us. It was the ultimate sacrifice. One that in the future when we stand before the judgement seat of God, if we have been repentant, followed the commandments, did our best and worked hard, Jesus Christ will allow mercy to be extended in our behalf so that we can live with him and our Heavenly Father forever. I know he lives, and I know he loves each of us and is always by our side.
Why are we here?
We believe that we all lived in heaven together. A great plan was presented that would allow us to become like our Heavenly Father, who we wanted so much to be like. But it would take hard work, growth and leaving his presence for a short time. Those of us that chose to follow that plan were sent here to Earth to experience mortality. We are here not just to go through experiences that would help us to grow closer and our faith increase but to have experiences that would teach us about opposition- pain, happiness, sadness, depression, loss, sickness, service, brotherly love etc. We are here in order to progress and one day have proven worthy of living in God’s presence. We believe that he has promised us all that he has, if we will but turn to him and be like him. I know that we are not alone. This life is the pits at times, but we are here for a purpose. We can feel a joy, light and peace right now, even during the hardest of trials when we know that we are sons and daughters of a true king, our God. We have divine potential and not only should we live up to that but we should see it in others too. In fact, if we realized just what everyone’s potential was we would be filled with love and compassion for one another. We are not a perfect people, all organizations have those who make mistakes or are less converted, but we are striving together to be better and do more. We believe that the family is central to God’s plan. That we are meant to be with one another. You can read the proclamation to the world if you would like to learn more.
I’m a food blogger, a wife, a mother, an active reader, a tender heart, a woman and I’m a Mormon. I’m happy to answer your questions, or if you want to read more I can always send you a packet of why your favorite bloggers are mormon and a free copy of the Book of Mormon.
We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints otherwise known as “The Mormons”. We are excited to team up with over 65+ of us strong… to extend an invitation to see a film. A film entitled “Meet The Mormons”. This film is designed and produced to uplift and inspire you through six stories of those of our faith who have followed promptings to follow Christ more fully in their lives. It’s an opportunity to get to know us, and see those whose lives have been changed by following Christ in their lives. All proceeds from the film will be donated to The American Red Cross. So not only will you be uplifted and inspired, your money will be going to an amazing charity!!
The light of the gospel of Jesus Christ offers a joy and hope that only following him can provide. We hope as you click through and read our stories and testimonies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, you will feel uplifted and encouraged. We love connecting with our readers, that is why many of us do what we do! Please be kind and considerate in your comments. It takes great bravery for us to open our hearts and our mouths to share with you such a tender and personal part of who we are. We share because this is something that we love and has changed our lives for the better. We aren’t looking to convert, we are merely sharing something we love because it’s who we are.
Adrienne | Free Time Frolics , Camille | Chicken Scratch n’ Sniff , Natalie & Rebekah | House of Sprinkles , Kathleen| Fearlessly Creative Moms
Emily | The Benson Street , Staci | The Potter’s Place, Alyssa | Alyssa.Marie , Kristen | Capturing Joy , Aly | Entirely Eventful Day
Katie | Clarks Condensed, Larissa | Just Another Day In Paradise , Camille | My Mommy Style , Candice | She’s Crafty
Anita | Live Like You Are Rich, Landee | Landee Lu , Tara & Devin | Salt & Pepper Moms , Mallory & Savannah | Classy Clutter Kelli & Kristi| Lolly Jane
McKenzie | Girl Loves Glam , Pam & Lisa | Over The Big Moon , Melanie | Forty Eighteen , Sky | Capital B Adell | Baked in Arizona
Andie | Maybe I Will , Shatzi | Love and Laundry , Robyn | Create it Go , Rachel | R & R Workshop
Tiffany | Feel Great In 8 , Katelyn | What Up Fagens? , Ginger | Ginger Snap Crafts , Stephanie | Crafting In The Rain
Chelsey | Cee Me Be , Amber | Crazy Little Projects , Kallie | Smitten By, Elyse, Kristen, Lauren, Steph, Kendra & Camille | Six Sisters Stuff Annette
Amberly | Life With Amberly & Joe , Taralyn | Keep Moving Forward With Me , Jessica | What Does The Cox Say? , Lisa | Mabey She Made It , Kiki | Kiki & Company
Kierste | Simply Kierste , Tayler | The Morrell Tale, Jennifer | My Daylights , Cambria | Live To Be Inspired, Danielle | Today’s The Best Day
Amber | Dessert Now Dinner Later, Natalie | The Creative Mom, Bobbie | A Vision To Remember , Becky | Babes In Hairland
Lisa | Pebbles & Pigtails , Mandy | Sugar Bee Crafts , Krista | Reclaim, Renew, Remodel , Wendy | Musings, Miracles, and Mayhem
Nat & Holly | My Sister’s Suitcase, Britni| Play.Party.Pin , Montserrat | Cranial Hiccups , Heidi | A Lively Hope , Ashley & Meegan | Flats to Flip Flops
Alexis | We Like to Learn As We Go, Amy | The English Geek , Mariel | Or So She Says Carrian | Oh Sweet Basil
Kirtley | The Gist of It | Aubrey | Dreaming of Someday, Natalie| The Messanos, Angela | Handmade In The Heartland
Resources
Mormon.org A place to learn and even chat live to ask questions
I’m a Mormon-Videos on regular people and celebrities that are LDS.
Inspirational SHORT videos that our family loves regardless of beliefs
Emily
I truly, truly love this. Your wonderful spirit shines through. So blessed to call you my friend. xoxo
Sweet Basil
thanks, friend! Love you for supporting us!
McKenzie @ Girl Loves Glam
I love this! I love that you went into such detail of the questions. What an awesome post! Thanks for sharing your testimony.
Sweet Basil
Thanks girl!
capturing joy with kristen duke
So beautiful, my friend.
Sweet Basil
xoxo
Tammy Betrus
I love your blog and the recipes, I am a follower of Jesus Christ and I would like to know, sincerely, where it says in the Bible the following thing you said: “We believe that we all lived in heaven together. A great plan was presented that would allow us to become like our Heavenly Father, who we wanted so much to be like. But it would take hard work, growth and leaving his presence for a short time. Those of us that chose to follow that plan were sent here to Earth to experience mortality.” I cannot find anywhere that says we lived in Heaven before, together, and came here, I must go by the Bible. Please share……
Sweet Basil
Hi Tammy! Thanks for the sweet words. This blog is so much fun for our family, and our neighbors actually! The poor things are always getting gobs of our leftovers from recipe testing. haha! I love your question and hope that I can answer it in the best way possible. Please know that you’re welcome to email me if commenting back and forth gets to be too much or if you’d like further clarification. So, let’s dive in!
The following are scriptures from the Bible that we believe discuss the existence of a premortal life (in other words life before we came to earth to live), and that we all lived with our Heavenly Father before this world. One thing to watch for is that we believe that because God created us he is our loving father. Not just a great God who controls the universe. While you read through the scriptures watch for how the scriptures testify of that.
The first truth is that we all have a spirit. We lived as spirit sons and daughters of Heavenly Father before this world as it says in the following scriptures:
Numbers 6:22 — “the God of the spirits of all flesh”
Hebrews 12:9 — “shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?”
While we lived with our Heavenly Father, we felt of His love and we loved Him. This is something that I have personally come to know more and more throughout my life. Not only did our Heavenly Father create and love us, but we love him as well. We desired to be like him and live with him forever. Again, another great scripture that if you are looking you feel why just one little word expresses just that. He created a plan for us to come to earth, receive a body for our spirit, and ultimately have the chance to live with him again and become more like Him.
Job 38:4-7 (Excerpts)– “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons (and we believe this means daughters as well) of God shouted for joy?”
In this next scripture, it teaches that we were meant to “return unto God.” If we are returning, it means we lived with Him before:
Ecclesiastes 12:7 — “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” I love that! Life wasn’t meant to be lived without purpose only to die and never be remembered. We will return to His presence. I often think of that day, will he take me in His arms and say “I know, that was hard at times but I was always there watching over you and am so proud of you and the choices you made.”. I love this quote by one of our prophets, Ezra Taft Benson who has since passed away, “Nothing will surprise us more than when we get to heaven and see the Father and realize how well we know Him and how familiar His face is to us.” Not only did we know Him and He us, but we knew each other. Ezra Taft Benson goes on to say, “God loves us. He’s watching us, he wants us to succeed, and we’ll know someday that he has not left one thing undone for the eternal welfare of each of us. If we only knew it, there are heavenly hosts pulling for us — friends in heaven that we can’t remember now, who yearn for our victory.”
There were many individuals in the scriptures who also were taught that they lived with Heavenly Father before this life, and that God even prepared them to do a specific work for Him in this world–like Jeremiah in this verse:
Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”
We even believe that all of us have a specific role we need to play in God’s great plan according to this verse:
Ephesians 1:4 “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world” This is a scripture that has given me much strength in my life. At times when I’ve felt burdened or even lost as to who I am and what I am to do with my life I have felt a calm, peaceful confirmation from the spirit of God that I too am here for a purpose. We are meant to come and learn and grow but we also are meant to play important roles in each other’s lives. There have been times that I have, without a doubt felt inspired to reach out to another and vice versa and I am sure that it was not chance, but it was an errand from above.
Lastly, there were some that chose not to follow God’s plan and there was a great war in heaven about what was right and what was wrong. This great war is explained in these verses:
Revelation 12:7-9 “7)And there was a war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8) And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9) And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
It is confirmed again that those that didn’t follow God’s plan, followed Satan and kept not “their first estate”–meaning that they did not follow God and chose to follow Satan.
Jude 1:6 “Angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation,”
Now, we truly believe that those who followed Heavenly Father’s plan came to earth to receive a body and to perform the work God would have us do. However, the war in heaven now continues here on earth–and we as brothers and sisters under God are seeking to help each other overcome Satan. As it says in this scripture:
Revelation 12:11 “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.”
We overcame Satan by our faith and testimony of Christ. Today, we overcome Satan in the same way–and as we help others strengthen their faith in Christ, Satan can be overcome in their lives as well.
As we know where we have come from, it gives us greater purpose as to what we need to do in this world that matters most. It also helps us know who we truly are and therefore a sense of identity to become who God knows we can become. Tammy, thank you for giving me the opportunity to study and ponder on this question. It has brought me such peace to study again who we all are. I know with every fiber of my being that we are literal children of God. We are brought here with a grand purpose and one day we can have the privilege of seeing His face and hearing the words “well done thou good and faithful servant.” You have lived before. You will live again. And I know that we will know each other just as we did before because we are a family.
Here’s a link if you’d like to look through more questions and answers 🙂 http://www.mormon.org/beliefs/plan-of-salvation
Alison
Very interesting and informative. I’m just wondering, it seems that you believe parts of the Bible to be true, but not all of it. Who or how do you decide which parts are true and what is not?
Sweet Basil
Hi Alison,
Thank you for taking the time to comment. We believe in ALL of the King James Version of the Bible as far as it is translated correctly. In other words, we don’t have to pick and choose at all because we believe the bible to be true scripture. In fact, I am studying in The Song of Solomon right and about to head into Isaiah. Phew, Isaiah always takes a little more time for me to study as it’s a little harder for me to understand, but I’m getting better with time and prayer. In addition, not in place of, we also believe in the Book of Mormon as another testament of Jesus Christ. We believe that God loves all of his children, not just those who lived in Egypt, Jerusalem etc and that Christ actually visited the people in the America’s and that the book of Mormon is a compilation of the ancient records that bear testimony of Jesus Christ and God the Father. 🙂 And please, if I didn’t explain that well feel free to email me. It’s always a little tricky to put things into writing for me. 🙂
Aly
I love this post. Thanks for sharing. XOXO
Sweet Basil
thanks girl!!