5 Great Things About the Mormon Church!

"If you could tell me 5 reasons to consider this convert to Mormon, what would they be?"

A great lady I was teaching on Facebook yesterday asked me this question.  It was the best question I've been asked in the last week.  Thrilled to answer, I gave the following items

1. Makes it so your family can be sealed in the temple to be together for ever.
2. You get extra guidance from the Holy Ghost to give you warnings and directions when you're lost.
3. Guidance from Christ through modern prophets to help you make sure you're living so you can have the holy ghost, and also be warned of worldwide problems.
4. Richer understanding of why Christ's sacrifice is so important and how it Adam's fall help us become like our Father in heaven.
5. Having a church family to support and help your own family.

She topped my answers by giving me a good one of her own.

"I love that this religion believes babies are born pure and if they passed before baptism, they would still enter heaven."

If you were asked for five reasons to become a Mormon and be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, what would they be?  What should mine be?  Don't be afraid to comment if you've only got one idea or a question about mine.

Great Blog Badges

This morning after studying in Ezra which was a great example of how important temples should be to us.  The Book of Ezra in the Old Testament accounts how the Jews returned to their homeland to rebuild the temple to the Lord that had previously been destroyed.

And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy, [Ezra 6:16]

In response, I felt like displaying how important the temple is to me and my family in some way on my blog to celebrate a bit.  I admit, going there myself and walking the grounds or serving inside is a better way to show my gratitude for the temple, but I won't be able to go to see the temple at least until Sunday afternoon.  I looked online for a picture of one of my favorite temples and found a great blog with a ton of temple blog badges ready made to put on a blog.  I know it's called "One Cute Blog Blinkies" and that a lot of the badges are just too cutesy for me, but I still found some that were sufficiently manly.  :D
The Washington DC temple has always stood out to me as one of the most beautiful.  I chose it to show on my blog today, and also found a great badge with a quote by President Gordon B Hinckley about books.  See if there's a badge you'd like, especially about the temple.

Christ's Birthday

On Mormon.org chat, I now regularly get asked, "Don't you Mormon's know Jesus probably wasn't even born in December?!"  I'm quite pleased in being able to answer, "Of course we know that, in fact, we know he was born on April 6."

Image: The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles

President Harold B Lee, the 11th modern prophet, said, “This is the annual conference of the Church. April 6, 1973, is a particularly significant date because it commemorates not only the anniversary of the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in this dispensation, but also the anniversary of the birth of the Savior, our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. [Quoted D&C 20:1]” ( CR, Apr. 1973, p. 4.)  Even Mormon scriptures and prophets make it clear that Jesus wasn't born in December.

Source: Sister 72, Flickr

This of course doesn't get in the way of celebrating Christ's birth in what would otherwise be a dreary season.  The darkest months of the year are a time when we certainly need some light.  There is no better way to light up a dreary season, than to remember Jesus Christ, for "Christ shall give thee light." [Eph 5:14]

As President Lee demonstrated, we don't fail to commemorate Christ's actual birthday either.  Who deserves two birthday parties a year more than the Savior of the world?

All About Mormons

This is an awesome series for getting the basics down or some review about what we believe.  I just put it together as a playlist on youtube, so it's easier to watch straight through.  My thanks for AllAboutMormons.com for making these.