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Sunday, August 3, 2014

Attending a Mormon Sacrament and Fast and Testimony

I went to a LDS sacrament meeting. Some notes:

  1. 3 fairly old sounding hymns are sung, including the one about the "saints." In the hymnal I noticed some of the hymns in the Mormon hymnal include hymns by hymn makers Joseph Smith said were wrong and apostate (like Charles Wesley, a founder of Methodism, younger brother of John Wesley, on hymn 66 of the modern LDS hymnal, a few other hymns are included)
  2. More testimonies are often about how wonderful their fellow Mormons in the ward are, they all say they "know" the Mormon church is true, the prophet is true, the Mormon gospel is true etc, and will give little reasoning.
  3. One testimony by a ex fundamentalist woman admitted all the preconceived notions about Mormonism melted away and all their doctrines she was told when she found out they were nice people. She said she learned about Mormonism is that it should be about what they do and not what they say! Implying their beliefs do not really seem important as long as they are nice. She said her old friends stopped talking to her because of her conversion--ironically Mormons are known for doing the same to their apostates.
  4. Mormon testimonies are very emotional, in fact Kleenex boxes are automatically next to the podium.
  5. Jesus and God are not mentioned much in the testimony, except in passing, and all testimonies finish with "in Jesus Name. Amen."
  6. The Mormons in their testimony do allude to their preexistence in their testimony (the idea they had their soul before conception.)
  7. Mormon "communion" can be lead by teenage boys praying at a table in front of the congregation. They preach and pass around leaven bread cubes in special trays with handles on it. Then line up and return the trays to the front. Then for the cup--they do not use wine since Mormons do not drink alcohol, nor do they use grape juice like Baptists, but rather Mormons use water placed in tiny shot glasses and pass it around like the bread. 
  8. All the males wear a white dress shirt and tie, and maybe a coat.
  9. Women seem to be allowed to wear any color they would like.
  10. I noticed while people were giving their testimonies there was snoring.
  11. Testimonies are encouraged to be short and the Mormon bishop, or whoever is leading it is supposed to go first.
  12. The Mormon congregation was small, but the leader explicitly said most of them were converts.
  13. Mormon church interiors are fairly plain, though similar to a standard Protestant church, except with a large area for the choir in the front of the church behind where the ministers preaches.
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