Active – Our church has a notable emphasis on being “active” members of the church, because we believe we need to keep practicing Christ’s teachings & following his commandments throughout our lives; and if we aren’t going to church or the other activities / responsibilities in the Gospel, it becomes very easy for us to make more and more compromises and lose many of the good habits and values we had when more actively participating.
Unfortunately, a side effect of this emphasis is that active church members are often nervous of connecting with members who are less active or not active at all. They are afraid that bringing up religion will either strike a nerve, or that chatting with them about why they’re not active or what they’re doing in replacement of church participation will weaken the active member’s own testimony in their beliefs. This weariness makes less active members more discouraged of returning, and the loop continues.
However, I think a lot of church members are getting better at avoiding this dark feedback loop these last few decades.
One last note – it’s common to use the terms “less active”, “inactive”, and “non-member” to describe people, but its lightly encouraged to instead use terms like “non-participating”, “not of our faith”, or “of other faiths” in order to show more respect and validity to the beliefs of others.
Area – If the mission was a country, zones were providences, and districts were cities, then areas would be towns / neighborhoods which comprise a city. Each area is covered by a missionary companionship of 2-3 missionaries. The missionaries work together with the wards / stakes in their area to find, learn about, connect with, and teach those not of our faith / inactive members. If the missionaries find an interested person who doesn’t live in the geographical boundaries of their area, then they have to “refer” that person to be taught by the missionaries who cover the area that person lives in.
Atonement – We believe God needs to be perfectly just and perfectly merciful, so for us to progress we either need to be perfectly obedient to God (which in this explanation is referring to Heavenly Father), or we have to be obedient to someone who “took the hit” for our disobedience. We believe that Jesus Christ “took the hit” for literally every disobedient act, pain, imperfection, and affliction every person on earth has experienced.
We don’t know the details of how it was done or what it might have entailed, but we believe it was done for everyone and that it hurt an incomprehensible amount. The best way I can envision it is imagining he had to “live and experience” the life of every person that has existed, along with experiencing the guilt and regret we would feel for realizing the consequences of our disobedient actions against God and others.
We believe the Atonement was even performed for those who may never choose to follow God or want to go to heaven, in order to be a poetically fail-proof action. However, like I mentioned earlier, in order for the Atonement to “take the hit” for you or me, we need to follow what Jesus Christ wants us to do, which is basically everything God wants us to do but with the additional “umbrella commandment” of Repentance, which basically says “if you mess up in any way, dust yourself off, apologize to God (and others as applicable), and try to do better next time”.
Baptism –
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – The full and official name of the church I am a part of and served a mission for. We know that the full name is a mouthful, so there are multiple shortcuts that can be used: When talking from member to member, we may shorten it to “The Church of Jesus Christ” or “Christ’s Church”, or if we are talking to a general audience or to those not of our faith, we will usually say the full name once and then refer to it as “The Church” or “Our Church”
Other good names:
- The Restored Church of Jesus Christ (not to be confused with “Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ” / RLDS)
- Christ’s Restored Church
- The Latter-Day Saint Church
Okay names:
- The LDS Church
Okay if innocently said, but derogatory if intentionally said:
- The Mormon Church
- The Mormons
The reason why “Mormons” is not considered an okay label is because it completely ignores our identity as Christians / people who believe in Jesus Christ, and replaces it with the name of a person who has nothing to do with our doctrine or worship. Mormon is a great guy, don’t get me wrong! But he was one of many ancient prophets we believe in who testified of Christ, and he happened to be the one who compiled together the ancient records we now call the Book Of Mormon. Only a small part of the Book of Mormon actually involves him.
You may sometimes hear a church member refer to themselves / the church as “Mormon”, because it’s only been in the last decade when church leaders started feeling prompted to heavily emphasize using the correct name of the church; so some longer-time members still have lingering habits using the label society is more familiar using for the church and its members.
Companionship – Proselyting missionaries in our church are assigned to do 99% of things in proximity to another missionary (of the same gender) assigned to be their companion. When they stop being assigned to one companion, they get assigned to another. Companionships live in the same apartment and go everywhere together; basically like having a roommate / spouse, but on steroids.
Clearing up some likely questions about this – No, they do not go to the bathroom together nor sleep in the same bed, nor are allowed to have romantic interests in one another (nor other missionaries). Missionaries don’t have to always be in sight and sound of their companion, but they are instructed to be in sight and sound of any missionary as much as reasonably possible.
There are many benefits and difficulties of having a constant companion assigned to be with you and you with them, but overall I’m grateful for that setup.
Congregation – A congregation is a general Christian term used to describe a group of people that all meet together at the same chapel. Our church uses the term “ward” to describe a congregation, though Ward also refers to those not actively participating in church who are assigned to the ward.
Covid-19 – The pandemic had a significant impact on my mission during the first year or so. The virus itself was a valid thing for the world to be concerned about and take action against. But it felt like half of the pandemic was a pandemic of looming fear, which caused overreaction in various ways on national and individual levels. I feel there were a lot of good and bad side effects that came out of the pandemic, I hope I can utilize more of those good things and leave behind more of those bad things.
District – If the mission was a country, and zones were providences of that country, then districts would be comparable to counties / cities. Each district has 1-2 district leaders who check in with and give guidance to the missionaries within their district.
Enduring To The End – we believe that God’s goal for us is to become like him, not just to dwell with him (in heaven). If we only get baptized but never do the things involved in the commitment we make with God at baptism (which includes following God’s commandments, repenting, and actively participating in his church to be renewed), then
Facebook – Facebook is the only social media missionaries in the UOM were allowed to have access to during the time I was serving. It was helpful for finding and connecting with people who otherwise wouldn’t have come across missionaries in-person; but it also was a huge distraction / temptation for many missionaries including myself.
Faith – I think one of my favorite ways to explain faith is that it’s a hybrid of confidence, trust, hope, knowledge, and action. It needs action despite the temptation to only act on the things you can see / are accepted by general society as true; but it also needs knowledge despite the temptation to stay blind and only believe in a pick-and-choose interpretation of what reality has in store for things like what happens after we die. Despite faith being a word more associated with religion, I am pretty sure every person on earth is already exercising faith in many things, including science, sports, careers, economy, family, relationships, politics, education, etc. I think once people realize that, faith becomes a more approachable concept, and exploring beliefs / aspects of beliefs beyond what you’re used to becomes helpful and appealing rather than scary or irrelevant.
Gospel – The generic term “gospel” can mean a few things. Gospel can refer to the religion as a whole, it can refer to all the beliefs of a religion, it can refer to the core teachings of the beliefs but not the more appendage beliefs, or in our church it can refer to only the five parts taught in “The Gospel of Jesus Christ”. Another notable definition of Gospel is the “four gospels” in the New Testament, which refer to the four recorded accounts from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John of Jesus Christ’s ministry.
Also “Gospel” isn’t only a thing that belongs to Jesus Christ; other people can have gospels if they have a set of teachings, principles, or philosophies for major aspects of living. The Buddha’s teachings about existence can be considered the Gospel of the Buddha. If I had a set of principles I taught about how to live a good life, that could be considered the Gospel of Evan Wright.
Lastly, Gospels don’t have to be exclusively followed. One can follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ while also following in-part or in-whole “gospels” of other people or beliefs, especially since gospels from many different sources can have a lot of overlapping / congruent teachings. For example, I follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but I also am heavily inspired by the/a “Gospel” of Steven Covey taught in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People; because the teachings of both of those gospels strengthens my living of the other gospel and I feel both improve me as a person.
Gospel of Jesus Christ – The instructions Jesus Christ gave for how to make his atonement work for us. The principles he wants us to follow is:
- Have faith in him by following his teachings and example, which includes keeping the commandments God wants us to follow.
- Repenting whenever we fail to have faith in Christ or keep God’s commandments.
- Make and keep certain covenants with God including Baptism, the Endowment, and Sealing.
- Receive and follow the guidance of the Holy Ghost as much as possible.
- Keep doing these things throughout your whole life – strengthening them like taking care of a fruit tree for many years.
If we incorporate and follow these principles in our life, he promises we will achieve Salvation and Exaltation, which he says is the best possible way of living.
The Holy Ghost –
Jesus Christ – We believe Jesus Christ is the person who makes it possible for us to eventually have immortal bodies and to live in God’s presence in heaven, which was done through his Atonement and self sacrifice. We also believe he sets an example for us to follow in terms of morals and spiritual habits. We believe that he is an individual who holds the title of God, but also lived and experienced mortal life on earth in preparation for his Atonement at the end of his life on earth. There are many names he, prophets, and people of many cultures have given him, and although we want to honor and reverence Jesus Christ’s central role to our existence, we also believe it’s important to learn / do things that gradually make it easy for him to become friends with us, because he wants us to see him not only as a God, but also as a friend.
Speaking of God, he is one of the three members of the Godhead, and we believe it is appropriate to refer to him as God. However, he still worships and gives praise to Heavenly Father rather than only receiving praise.
Members –
Ministering –
Mission – There are two definitions when using this word: 1) The church’s “mission” areas that are all around the world (ex. “The Utah Ogden Mission”, “The Mission President”, etc.), and 2) The individual experience one has serving a “mission” as a missionary (ex. “My mission was difficult but good”, “I am gonna go on a mission when I am older”, etc.)
Missionary Purpose –
Repentance –
Restored Gospel –
Scriptures –
Spiritual Messages –
Stake –
Temples – These are tall, beautiful buildings that are usually white and often have a golden angel statue with a trumpet on the spire. Despite common belief, they are not really places of worship like church buildings. Instead, they are sacred sites where members of the church perform important ordinances for themselves, and on behalf of deceased individuals. The ordinances that take place in temples are: Baptisms (just for deceased people), Endowments (for both the living and dead), and Sealings (for both the living and the dead). We believe these ordinances are necessary for attaining the best type of life possible in heaven. Another common misunderstanding is that people think the inside of temples is top secret. Truth is, the church does public open-house tours whenever they finish building or renovating a temple, and there are many official and unofficial pictures of the temples’ beautiful interiors. Here is a website where you can explore the hundreds of temples around the world – https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/maps/
Testimony –
Utah Ogden Mission / UOM – This is the name for the mission my church assigned me to serve in for 2 years as a missionary. You can find a map of the UOM on page 002 (note that the border might shift in the future). As I am writing this, there are over 400 missions around the world in most countries. You can view a map of all the church’s missions around the world on this website – https://missioncall.app/worldmap.html
Ward – A ward is basically the term used by our church for congregations. Each ward is lead by a Bishop and two counselors, along with several other leaders that are stewards for the men, women, youth, and children of the ward. Rather than people choosing which ward they are assigned to, everyone (with a few exceptions) is assigned to the ward they are in the geographic boundaries of. Likewise, rather than the bishop and leaders of each ward having drastically different ways of running things, they all are given the same handbooks and instructions to follow, which give instruction for around 90% of stuff, and then the leaders prayerfully do things to adapt the instructions to fit the circumstances of their ward in particular.
Zones – If the mission was a country, then zones would be providences of that country. Each zone has 2-3 zone leaders (who are companions), who oversee their entire zone (mostly through checking on the district leaders in their zone)
