Summary of Latter-day Saint Church

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I would like to just summarize what our church is and our true beliefs.  Also, I want to share how we have grown, and what is presently taking place within the church.

            The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the fourth largest Christian dominion in America. Some common nicknames given to us are the Mormons, LDS church, and Latter-day Saints.  The headquarters are in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Some say we are not a Christian religion, but I indeed testify that we are.  Jesus Christ is the center to our faith. 

The church is home to well-known 300 member Tabernacle Choir.  Our current prophet is Thomas S. Monson.  It was founded by Joseph Smith Jr. in 1830.  The church is now present in over 176 countries in the world.  It is one of the fastest growing  Christian faiths in the world.  A new LDS chapel is built every working day.  There are 53,000 full-time missionaries in different parts of the world preaching the gospel to nonmembers and providing service where they are needed. 

We believe in and we use the Holy Bible, both the Old and New Testament.  We also believe in the Book of Mormon, another testament of Christ.  We do not believe in polygamy as some people may think.  We believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. 

The church has a very broad humanitarian effort, which helps those who are financially struggling or who have witnessed a natural disaster. The church presently helps with humanitarian services in aid of earthquakes, tsunami, hurricane etc. and assists in relief efforts as much as possible.  These services are paid for by charitable donations and are run by volunteers.  $104.9 million of aid was given in 2007.  There are 3,974 service missionaries are currently serving in the Church.

Kasey Butcher

 

Financing World Expansion

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I have seen a great building up of the kingdom, particularly in the past decade. From the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ in 1830 until the end of 1997 (about 168 years), there were 54 temples built, two of which were no longer operable. In the following ten years of 1998 until 2008, 76 temples were built unto the Lord all across the globe.

Currently there are 27,827 wards or congregations, which averages about 15,000 meetinghouses either constructed or rented.

The church has four major universities, BYU-Provo, BYU-Hawaii, BYU-Idaho and LDS Business College. All four have been accredited and are growing both in attendance and structural stature.

Sometimes I ask myself, "Where did all this money come from to construct all these buildings?"

Then I pay my tithing.

Members of the LDS Church, including myself, pay a one-tenth tithe of their income to the church. This is considered to be a full tithe (in following to Malachi 3:8-10 & Hebrews 7:20). On average, only about 4% pay a full tithe, but from a worldwide population of 13.1 Million members, that is a significant amount of financial aid.

I personally am so grateful for the Lord's Law of Tithing, not only to play a part in the expansion of the church I know to be established by Christ himself through his living prophets, but to recieve the blessings the Lord gives to those who contribute to His cause. I live better on 90% than I ever could on 100%.

Thomas Scott

Owner

MissionShoe.com

Church Expansion - Joseph Smith Jr. - Temples - Missionary Work

In the year 1820, a boy named Joseph Smith Jr. asked the Lord in prayer which church is true. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized in 1830, just ten years later. The “Teachings of Presidents of the Church” manual states, “With the work of translating and publishing the Book of Mormon now completed, Joseph Smith moved forward to organize the Church. In the revelation now found in section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord revealed to the Prophet ‘the precise day upon which, according to His will and commandment, we should proceed to organize His Church once more here upon the earth.’”

Since then, the expansion of the Church has been in effect. In 1947, the Church reached its million-member mark, two million in 1963, and is approaching 13 million members today. Starting with its first temple in Kirkland, Ohio in 1836, up to today where currently over 130 temples built or being built around the world.

Missionary work has been the biggest blessing to the expansion of the Church. President Spencer W. Kimball once said, “What a thrilling thing it is, my dear brothers and sisters who are fellow members of the kingdom of God, to be entrusted by the Lord to serve as messengers of His word to our brothers and sisters who are not members of the Church. Let us assume for a moment that the roles were reversed—that you were not a member of the Church but that your present nonmember neighbor was a Latter-day Saint. Would you want him or her to share the gospel with you? Would you then rejoice in the new truths you had learned? Would your love and respect increase for your neighbor who had shared these truths with you? Of course, the answer to all of these questions would be: Yes!

“The day for carrying the gospel to ever more places and people is here and now. We must come to think of our obligation to share the message rather than of our own convenience. Calls from the Lord are seldom convenient. The time is here when sacrifice must become an even more important element in the Church. We must increase our devotion so that we can do the work the Lord has for us to do. … The parting words of the Master to His Apostles just before His Ascension were, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

Let us all help with the expansion of the church, whether through missionary work, or by paying our tithing, each of us can help bring God’s plan to action.

Lauren Ensign

Temples

Salt Lake City, Utah

Oakland, California

Navoo, Illinois

Mesa, Arizona

BYU-Idaho Auditorium Blasting

Brigham Young University of Idaho has recently been under continual construction. Numerous structures are being built and remodeled on-campus to acquire more students. This is a video recorded by a BYU-Idaho student when the property was blown up in preparation for the new auditorium which is currently being built.