We've decided not to be "Mormons" any more...

Well, it only took one Sunday for us outside of Utah for us to decide that we don't want to be "Mormons" anymore. Yep. You read that correctly. We've decided we're going to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Okay, okay.... I know. That was mean.

Let me clarify. No, no we are not changing religions. But we did learn a lesson in the importance of using the full name of the Church as we've been asked by apostles including Boyd K. Packer in a 2011 General Conference talk:

SKIP TO GREEN IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ THE QUOTE FROM ELDER PACKER'S TALK:

Obedient to revelation, we call ourselves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rather than the Mormon Church. It is one thing for others to refer to the Church as the Mormon Church or to us as Mormons; it is quite another for us to do so.

The First Presidency stated:

“The use of the revealed name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (D&C 115:4), is increasingly important in our responsibility to proclaim the name of the Savior throughout all the world. Accordingly, we ask that when we refer to the Church we use its full name wherever possible."

“When referring to Church members, we suggest ‘members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.’ As a shortened reference, ‘Latter-day Saints’ is preferred.”"

THE STORY STARTS HERE

So here's what happened that provoked this blog post:

Saturday (May 24) we took a drive with Brock's boss, Nora. She showed us all the 3M buildings as well as downtown Dekalb and Sycamore. She helping us find things to do and get somewhat settled/welcomed and the topic of religion came up. We told her we were "LDS" or "Mormons"which (to me) she seemed to politely nod and tried to discretely hide the fact she didn't understand what we just said.

We then went to lunch where we met up with another "3M'er" and Nora's husband. While at lunch her husband (Mike Vanploeg otherwise known as Ploegger... pronounced like plug) saw a friend (Mark Aug) walk by and he stopped by the table to say hi and chat. Well guess what? Mark was a member!! When Nora asked Mark what religion he was he said, "I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" and she looked at Brock and said, "Is that the same as you?".

Well, it was at that moment that my heart kind of sank and I thought, "there should have been no doubt in her mind that we were members of the same religion". I feel like I learned a valuable lesson, which is:

Always use the full name of the Church. Do what the apostles ask, because they receive direction from the Lord and the Lord knows all things. 

It's been a good Sunday. I'm guessing a lot of you (well, OK at least the ones of you that know) are wondering how my Sunday School lesson went today. I taught nine 12-15 year old's today. Haha. I already love those kids. We'll leave that for a separate blog post so this one doesn't get too much longer. Let's just say it was energetic, yet perfect.

Life is good. The Lord is in control and thank goodness for faith, prayer and family relationships.

XOXOXO

Thanks for reading!