Today was a great day at church, and the thought came to me to share it. Perhaps someone someday will find this and be interested to know what a Mormon service is like, or maybe I'm just writing so that I can remember it someday, but here it goes:
We actually made it a few minutes early for once! We sat a few pews from the back row, and because of the school holiday there weren't many people there. We opened by singing all three verses of 'Come, Rejoice' (click here to read and hear the hymn) which is a somewhat uncommon hymn. After an opening prayer from someone in the congregation (our Bishop has a tradition of asking whoever is there when he walks in to pray - it's a wonder anyone comes early!) were some short announcements - all priesthood holders in the stake (local area) are invited to a special priesthood meeting next week at 7 a.m. and this Friday is a stake couples/relationship seminar given by a prominent local couples counselor- "Everything else you can read in the program." We then prepared for the Sacrament (communion) by singing 'O Lord of Hosts' (click here to heard and hear the hymn), another uncommon hymn, and the Sacrament was blessed and passed by the Aaronic Priesthood.
Now it was time for the speakers - this week, three young women in their early 20's. The first was a sister from our ward who just returned this week from her 18 month mission service in Des Moines, Iowa. Her talk was beautiful as she told stories of living by faith on her mission. She emphasized the importance of praying that God will mold our hearts so that our desires will be His desires, and to live having faith that following Him we will have the greatest chance at happiness and influencing others. One quote I particularly liked from her was "We have to go through the 'I don't know why I'm doing this' phase before we see the miracle!" Listening to hear talk, I felt a confirming witness in my heart of the same thing - sometimes I wonder why I'm being a mom, teaching my kids, etc when it is so hard and seems nothing good is coming from it, but I was reminded how right it felt when I made that decision, and have faith that someday I'll see the good.
The next speaker was a new missionary, here for only 10 days, a young girl from South Carolina. She spoke about her conversion to the church only two years ago. She was raised Baptist and as a teenager felt unsatisfied in her mother's church, so she began attending a Christian church with a friend and was baptized there. Only a few months later she once again felt unfulfilled and gave up on religion for a time. In college she was paired with a Mormon roommate, who for months invited her to church and activities until one time she was bored and decided to come. She met new friends she liked and continued to go to church and activities with her friend. She went for almost 6 months before realizing how fulfilled and happy she felt, and decided it was something that she would like to pursue. Some things that touched me were her discussion of faith and whether it is a verb or a noun - "faith is something you seek" and "desire is an action of faith".
We then had a family from the congregation sing a song, called "The Miracle". I had never heard it before, but it was very powerful. The whole family was crying to the point that they almost had to stop singing, and I'm sure there were few dry eyes in the audience. It spoke of the miracles of Jesus, and how his biggest miracle is "the miracle that rescued me". You can see it sung in another Mormon service on this YouTube video or see the official video from the writer.
Our final speaker was a more seasoned missionary, scheduled to go home to Hawaii just after Christmas. She got up and said that she had not originally planned to speak about living by faith, but that after coming to church realized what she had written was not what she should talk about. She then began to also tell stories of living by faith, especially in those that she has seen on her mission. She spoke of a man who converted to the church and attended for two years, but could not get baptized because his wife said "You are Catholic, stop pretending to be Mormon." She eventually said that if he wanted to be baptized he would have to leave, so he did. He moved from the Philippines to Utah, intending to start a new life as a Mormon. His parents sent him an email saying they disowned him. His wife sent him divorce papers. Finally his brother came here and took him to visit Catholic priests to convince him not to become a Mormon, and all the priests said that they were too busy to speak with him - even after he'd explained the situation. That's a lot of odds against him, and while it is heartbreaking that he had to leave his family to do so, I admire this man's courage in doing whatever it took to do what he felt God wanted him to do.
We then closed by singing 'Let us all Press On' (read and listen here) which is a more commonly used hymn, then had a closing prayer offered by some other poor soul who had arrived early and been caught by the Bishop.
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