Meet Mormon Missionaries

Online teachings

The importance of beginning with the basics
Chances are if you have heard about Mormons, you have heard that Mormons practice polygamy, or Mormons have strange, secret temple rituals or wear funny underwear.  Maybe your only impression of Mormons is seeing the clean-shaven, well dressed Mormon missionaries or perhaps when you think about Mormons you envision some impossibly perfect family where no one ever drinks, smokes, and swears.  All these stereotypes, like all stereotypes, have some truth hidden within them.  However, misconceptions or misunderstandings about what Mormons believe and practice distorts the deep significance of these beliefs and practices. 

Sometimes, Mormons are accused of “hiding” the truth about what they believe, but this is unfair.  For Mormons, the most important doctrines and practices are the simple everyday ones that affect most of their daily life, while outsiders are only interested in those beliefs they consider to be strange or weird.  Mormons do not hide these beliefs; instead, they recognize that unless someone understands the basic beliefs of Mormonism, these other beliefs about temples or Mormon underwear would seem outright absurd. 

Reading about temples, and eternal marriage, and so on, without understanding Mormon beliefs about Jesus Christ and His atonement or the purpose of life is like building a house starting with the top.  This impossible structure would just crumble every time you tried to place something on it until the whole thing was simply a scattered pile of debris.  This is what critics of Mormonism try to do.  They begin with the top of the building and try to force Mormon beliefs to fit into their own understanding of religion.  Of course, when they do this, the result looks absurd like a crumbling building crammed on to the wrong foundation. 

Whether building a new house or studying the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a person must lay a foundation in order to make sense of the rest.  This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote to the Corinthians:

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able (1 Corinthians 3:1-2).

Babies start off with milk, because they cannot digest meat yet.  A person studying the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ must begin with the basics in order to understand the more advance topics like temples and eternal progression. 

The purpose of the self-guided lessons
The following lessons are designed to give you a guided tour of Mormon beliefs beginning with the most basic and fundamental doctrines of the Restored Gospel.  It is important to start with these basics, even if you feel you already understand them, or if you find them too simple.  In order to fully understand Mormon beliefs and practices, you must begin with the basics. 

If you begin these lessons you are under absolutely no obligation to meet with missionaries or members of the Mormon Church.  However, we encourage you to consider ultimately meeting with the missionaries or attending Mormon worship services since no interactive lesson could replace talking to a person about their beliefs or asking them questions.  We also encourage you to follow them one lesson at a time and to not proceed until you feel you have understood what has been taught.  Links provide external sites that provide extra help understanding a particular topic.  This service is absolutely free.

This material has not been written, reviewed, or endorsed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we assume all responsibility for its content; however it is being written by faithful members of the Mormon Church who have been missionaries in the past and it is a good representation of Church's teaching.

To participate in these lessons, which are conducted over online and via email, please submit a request to us at the following link with “Online Teachings” in the subject line. 

 submit@meetmormonmissionaries.org

Office hours are between 9:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. Mountain Standard Time.  Requests made during off hours and weekends may take until the following work day to be fulfilled.  You are encouraged to spend some time praying and studying the lesson before proceeding to the subsequent one, so requests for more than one lesson per day will generally be delayed.

To see the first lesson:

Lesson 1: There is a God