Jul

1

Tonight I found a very interesting page on the Internet. In fact, it was a page about me and this blog that was created by someone who is of Italian descent.

It is titled “Testimony of an Italian Mormon Convert”

He made this comment:

I really enjoy these immigrant stories where someone comes from somewhere else and makes something of himself/herself and what they will pass on to their offspring and the magic of the whole process. Reminds of my great-grandparents who left Italy with their kids on a ship and started a new life in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. I am grateful for them because had they not done what they did, well, I simply wouldn’t be here or possibly even exist. The implication of that for me and my family would be astronomical.

I hope my kids realize it. In fact, this is a good opportunity to share a few pictures of my first son, Luca, who is serving a Mormon Mission in the Boston Massachusetts Mission. He has been in the Mission field for a little more than 6 months and from his letters we realize how much he has already improved his life.

We can feel from his letters that he is happy as never before. Since he went to the Missionary Training Center we noticed a change for better.

To join the Mormon Church in Italy, many years ago, was an important step not only in my life, but in the lives of my future kids (not yet born at that time). For this reason I always told my sons that it is their responsibility to go and find many other people like me, and baptize them, so that they will someway repay for the blessings they received in their lives, thanks to what two missionaries did many years ago in Italy.

This is him, when he received the mission call…

opening_mormon_mission_call

He is discovering where he will go…

discovering_which_mormon_mission

Opening the booklet…

mormon_mission_booklet

The Mission call….

mormon_mission_call

The Mission call was saying that he would leave on February 6… but this is not what happened… infact, he left before that? Why, it is all his daddy’s fault!

Jun

16

I have found a relatively new and interesting blog, LDS Media Talk whose authors are Larry Richman (LDS.org Product Manager), Joel Dehlin (LDS Church CIO), David Nielson (Managing Director, Audiovisual Dept, LDS Church), and David Frischknecht (Managing Director, Curriculum Dept, LDS Church).

The purpose of the blog is to “share ideas with LDS parents and youth who are interested in learning how to use technology to strengthen families and build The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes referred to as the “Mormons,” the “Mormon Church,” or “Mormonism” ).

The blog is not an official official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the information and opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors, but I am happy to see that the use of technology at Church headquarters is gaining momentum.

May

18

Yesterday and today I have been attending our Stake Conference, Geneva Heights Stake in Orem, Utah. It has been a very inspiring Conference and I could mention many interesting topics.

For example, our stake president, President Thomas, talked about the positive influence of a friend of his who is blogging about his life and faith and that is touching the life of others by doing it, in spite of, or perhaps especially because of his difficult health condition.

The stake president also talked about missionary work and finding people for the missionaries to teach. There was no direct mention to online missionary work in that talk, but I believe that it will become always more evident to all that one of the best way to find people over time will be the Internet. Even shy people will not have excuses for not doing it!

However, there is another topic that I would like to comment about. In the Conference a story was told about a young woman who was inviting a friend to mutual (young women activities in the Mormon Church) and this friend was loving it. This friend’s mother, member of another faith, became concerned of this situation and scheduled a biblical study for her daughter in the same night. There is no problem about a mother of another faith being concerned and enrolling her daughter in a biblical study. What made me sad, but not surprised unfortunately, was the last part of the story. Some time later these two girls met again and the young woman from another faith told the young Mormon girl something like, “you Mormons are not even Christians”…

The young Mormon girl realized soon that the reason because her friend was saying that was because we believe in a different concept of Trinity. To all who accept and understand the Bible it should be clear that the concept of the Trinity as taught by many Christian denomination is not biblical and at best is confusing. (for a great explanation of Mormon beliefs about Trinity see The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent) But this is not the point here. Let everybody believe what they want and respect it.

My question is: “What do they mean and imply when they say that we are not even Christian?” or ” Are these statement something that help create friendship and foster mutual understanding or is a way to propagate confusion, division, and bias?”.

This is a time of equal rights and all around in our society people talk about avoiding discrimination and so on. However, when some good religious people teach their kids that Mormon are not even Christians, what do they exactly mean?

In fact, what does define a Christian? Is the specific belief in a certain “Trinity” or the principle of loving our neighbors, for example? I am afraid that when some people stress the fact that Mormons are not Christians, they are in fact conveying - willingly or unwillingly - the message that Mormons do not love their neighbors, and that they are bad people, that they are pagans, or any other disparaging thing people can think of. In our culture, unfortunately, to say that someone is not “even Christian” is a way to dismiss a person or a beliefs and not to engage in a serious discussion.

I obviously do not know who does it for ignorance and who does it on purpose, to create division and foster misunderstanding and confusion, but in a time in which we, as a society, try to focus on what we have in common, even with other religions, that clearly define themselves as not Christian, to insist and stress that Mormon are not Christians is clearly a sign of bigotry or ignorance that should have been left in the 19th century. We, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - the Mormons - should peacefully, but firmly, work to eliminate these vestiges of previous eras.

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