Why are Latter day Saint missionaries so nice????

There is a saying in psychology that if EXPECTATIONS ARE HIGH..... and our perception of reality is LOW...the difference can be ANGER!!!!

Latter day Saints are so used to being looked down on that when somebody will at the least have a sensible conversation with them they are very, exceedingly happy and surprised....and L.D.S. missionaries, both Elders and Sisters, went to work and saved ten thousand dollars before they began their two years of missionary work.

Since 2018 I have been mentored by twelve or fourteen Latter day Saint Elders and Sisters and I had one conversation in common with all of them..... .I brought up the topic in the book and movie "Heaven is for Real" where Westlyian Pastor Todd Burpo talks about how his son little Colton Burpo at four, five, six, seven and eight years of age convinced him and his wife that their son, at merely three years and ten months of age had a genuine near death experience and met Jesus in a higher invisible dimension of space and time!

I WAS SO PLEASED TO NOTICE THAT ALL LATTER DAY SAINTS MISSIONARIES had nothing but positive things to say about Westlyian Pastor Todd Burpo and about his son. Latter day Saints, like myself, tend to take the near death experience account of little Colton Burpo very, very, very seriously!!!!!!

Because Latter day Saint Elders and Sisters refuse to criticize and complain and nit pick at some problem or flaw in Pastor Todd Burpo or his son Colton or his wife JESUS HAS BLESSED THEM WITH A SPECIAL SHALOM AND PEACE OF MIND......because it is shocking to me how many evangelical Christians can come so close to risking that they might be blaspheming against the Holy Spirit to accuse Latter day Saints of NOT HAVING BEEN GIVEN THE HOLY SPIRIT due to a possible error in doctrine, (because frankly back in 1990 I prayed and asked Jesus to show me my errors and sins so that I would not lead other astray, as I felt I had been partly led astray on the topic of Soul Sleep), and since then Jesus has shown me error after error after error after error in every topic and idea that I had formed an opinion on......... We all have some errors in our doctrines... but that will not stop the Holy Spirit from beginning to take over in our lives as long as we will sincerely ask for and genuinely want to be changed and transformed by the cleansing fire of the Holy Spirit!!!!!


..... "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek,and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seekethfindeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fishgive him a serpent?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenlyFather give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (Luke 11:9-13)

 

A second obvious reason as to why Latter day Saint missionaries tend to be so friendly and nice is that they truly believe that you and I have hope of repenting and going up to a higher level even after we die!!!!

So I believe that the higher level of HOPE for our souls in the afterlife ....
inspires Latter day Saint Elders and Sisters with what they need to a much happier and positive outlook on their place in this world and their long, (very, very long), term plans to be guided by Messiah Yeshua - Jesus in reaching out to all nations of the world.

Latter Day Saints, The Mormons, my analysis so far!

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Are Latter Days Saints, Mormons, Christians?

1. *
   Yes
   14 vote(s)
   58.3%
2. 
   No
   9 vote(s)
   37.5%
3. 
   Perhaps.... .I will research this further.
   1 vote(s)
   4.2%

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I personally do HOPE that Prophet Joseph Smith was correct in what he was shown about souls being able to progress in the afterlife!!!!!!

 

Some Korean missionaries baptized me in my shower once. Now, admittedly I wanted to get in the pants of one of them...

 

I cannot deny that the Latter day Saint Sisters who mentored me through zoom were impressive indeed!

Latter day Saint Sisters and Elders are some of the most positive and enthusiastic people that I have ever met in my life. I would suggest to every young single guy that his being mentored by two L.D.S. Sisters could well change his life........ partly due to the fact that those L.D.S. Sisters will pray for him regularly over the coming weeks, months, years and decades.

My wife is a gifted Pentecostal who has similar spiritual gifts to what I perceive that Latter day Saints have and I do so hope that Pentecostals and other Christians can begin to just be nicer to Latter day Saints.... they deserve far more basic respect than they tend to get.

I believe that DIVISION AND FEAR are being used by Satan to keep The Bride of Messiah in a terribly fallen state in comparison to what Jesus really wants for His followers and disciples at this time!


http://64.71.77.248/fq-protestant/tfq-en.html

 

I would call myself a fundamental Christian and I have have no problem with Mormans and think they are nice. They share many values with Bible believing Christians....which tells me to not to judge.
Also the same with JW which certainly get a lot of flack.

I know the main issue is the concept of the Trinity...which is an important concept to get right. But I don't know enough about those doctrines to judge and will leave it up to God.

 

WOW!!!!!!

I LOVE how you are approaching this topic!!!!!!

You have came to very similar conclusions to what I have arrived at during my sixty two years.... ( I began to read the Bible fifty years ago). My old church The Worldwide Church of God did great to get me out of Atheism but........ when we got into the idea that we were not only the best church but..... practically the only true church...... we got ourselves into big trouble due to our PRIDE....... and I came to the place where I am genuinely FEARFUL that I might blaspheme against the Holy Spirit to say that a Christian in another denomination to me does NOT have the Holy Spirit!!!!

.... "And the scribes that came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and, By the prince of the demons casteth he out the demons.
And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan?

And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

And if a house be divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

And if Satan hath risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end.

But no one can enter into the house of the strong man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.

Verily I say unto you, All their sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and their blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme:

but whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin:

because they said, He hath an unclean spirit." (Mark 3: 22 to 30)


Latter day Saints are so nice mostly because they have received a lot of the Holy Spirit because they prayed and asked for the Holy Spirit and to whatever degree they may or may not have an error or two or three in doctrines will NOT stop Jesus from giving them more and more of the Holy Spirit as they sincerely ask for the Holy Spirit.

Latter day Saint Sisters and Elders also know that they would be wasting their time during their two years as missionaries if they WERE NOT GUIDED AND LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT..... so they tend to pray and ask for the Holy Spirit with extra humility and boldness.


"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3)

 

They are usually young people who are going to receive benefits like tuition payments in exchange for their service.
Generally, people are nice, especially when they are young and influenced by their family and community to be nice.

 

"A film devoid of conflict is boring!" (R. W., told to me about twelve years ago).

Perhaps it is wrong of me to think of things this way but I do believe that the Ancient of Days the Father and the Ancient of Days the Holy Spirit and Messiah Yeshua - Jesus are producing eight billion reality film projects..... and our sins and flaws are actually rather useful parts of the whole formula.

I now know that I was way, way, way, way off on the doctrine of Soul Sleep from 1972 to 1990... .but my error on this topic is now something of an asset because by admitting to my error.....
I can get people thinking about this topic in a way that is actually beneficial for all of us.

The 1943 near death experience of Dr. George Ritchie was the one that helped to get me straightened out on this subject.

https://near-death.com/george-ritchie-nde/

Back in 1990 as I read much of this in "Life After Life" by Dr. Raymond Moody I was shocked.....
but immediately certain scriptures came to my memory. I had been taught the Soul Sleep doctrine by Evangelist Garner Ted Armstrong since 1972 which at that time did help me to come up out of Atheism..... but... by 1990 it was time for me to be corrected on this error as well.


.... "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth such an one caught up to the third heaven.

And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth

How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." ( 2 Corinthians 12: 2-4).

If the Apostle Paul could not rule out the possibility of some sort of "out of the body experience" then how could I rule out what Dr. George Ritchie reported?????

... "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison." (Matthew 5:25)

When Christians from all denominations and Latter day Saints can agree with each other on some basic and simple near death experience accounts......
such as the very simple case of little Colton Burpo..... then the love of God in our hearts will increase and the terrible divisions within Christianity will begin to be healed.....
the the Holy Spirit will be poured out more and more and more and more.





"Heaven Is For Real" Interview with Todd and Colton Burpo
2,247,867 views
Jun 22, 2015

 

We are all human..... we are all flawed...... I am glad that they are going to receive some benefits for their efforts because knocking on doors five days per week for two years would tend to scare any of us so I am glad that they do receive some rewards for their major league efforts on our behalf.

The fear of knocking on doors for two years tends to scare Latter day Saint Elders and Sisters into praying a lot..... and I do believe that their prayers for the people who they mentor and teach are heard in heaven and are answered.

 

For the record... I personally cannot easily imagine myself becoming a full fledged Latter day Saint even though I admire L.D.S. missionaries A LOT!

I really like what Prophet Joseph Smith taught about the State of the Dead, (and I do hope that he was correct) ..... but he wrote in the language of the 1800's which tends to leave me somewhat confused....and I prefer to invest my time in writings that are more simple and more easy to understand. For example..... I tend to spend more time on the near death experience account of former Atheist Howard Storm... than on The Book of Mormon........
partly because what Howard Storm was shown is extremely useful to me on these discussion forums due to the fact that Howard Storm's near death experience took place in 1985 and the way that he words his experience is crystal clear to me.

What Howard Storm was shown about the State of the Dead though sure does remind me of what Prophet Joseph Smith taught on that topic.

Dr. Billy Graham correct that Love of G-d more wide than many Christians think.

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Can people be saved without accepting Jesus as Savior?

1. *
   Yes
   4 vote(s)
   57.1%
2. 
   No
   3 vote(s)
   42.9%
3. 
   I hope so
   0 vote(s)
   0.0%

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My apologies for wording the poll badly.....
I should have been more specific and I should have asked in the poll about our perhaps having an opportunity after our deaths to accept Jesus as the Messiah once our confusion and misconceptions are revealed to us????

This quotation from "My Descent Into Death" by near death experiencer Howard Storm could be very, extremely useful to the staff and student body at Brigham Young University in Israel!!!!


https://near-death.com/howard-storm-nde/

What Howard Storm was shown about the earth around the year 2185 sure reminds me of predictions in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and in the Minor Prophets!

 

Saved from what?

 

Following in the way of SELFISHNESS or exaggerated Self Love like former Covering Cherub Halel (who became Lucifer), did.....
leads to pretty serious consequences both in this life as well as in the afterlife......
in a way I believe that the Fire of God's Holy Spirit burns up the impurity and selfishness and sin out of our hearts and minds and we become genuinely transformed.

The messed up former humans that former Atheist Howard Storm met during the first part of his near death experience... .are examples of how twisted our hearts and minds can become over time.....

https://near-death.com/howard-storm-nde/

What former Atheist Howard Storm saw could remind us of the results of the Stanley Milgram Ph. D. research.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

There seems to be places in the afterlife populated by beings who are in a similar mentality to the people who zapped the "learner subject" with what they thought was potentially lethal levels of electrical shock.

 

After the two hour and ten minute mark in this video is the story about a Southwest Airlines pilot who gave near death experiencer Dr. Kevin Zadai two hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of flight training..... years before he had his brush with death.

The Holy Spirit told this Latter day Saint pilot to give this extremely valuable flight training to a young Pentecostal pastor.

Jesus wanted Dr. Kevin Zadai to know that he knew that he knew that many Latter day Saints do hear clearly from the Holy Spirit.



How To Operate In A Yoke Breaking Anointing - Dr. Kevin Zadai

 

I attended the following church service with my wife and daughter which will give you an idea of why I don't want the conflict that would come along with my being
baptized L.D.S........ I feel that I must attempt to work mostly with Evangelical Christians because I have family connections with them.....
I believe that as Latter day Saints and Evangelical Christians find more and more and more ways to cooperate with each other.....
a powerful principle will be set in motion... I believe that Pastor Torrey Harper has a genuine prophetic gift and I believe that
Latter day Saint journalists and video journalists could keep and eye on how the Holy Spirit works through him wherever he goes.....

If you skip the first twenty minutes you will go right into the worship and the amazing message... that I do believe was from the Holy Spirit....




Catch The Fire Toronto — Live (11:15 AM)


I am looking for a Latter day Saint or Evangelical Christian author who might find the following idea rather interesting......
....."I was born in 1959 and I became an Atheist in Grade three largely because I had been turned off by hellfire and brimstone preaching. In 1972 and 1973 I got in a church that taught the Soul Sleep Theory and I became something of a Christian Scribe / Pharisee and I got into coming close to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit when I fell for the idea that my church had something of a monopoly on the Holy Spirit.
By 1990 I went into a philosophical / theological crisis when I began to read near death experience accounts and found out that the Soul Sleep theory that I had been taught was OBVIOUSLY WRONG!!! I began to pray in a special way and I even quoted Isaiah chapter forty five and I stuck my right hand up in the air and I asked...... actually even challenged Messiah Yeshua - Jesus to take me by the right hand as he had done with Gentile King Cyrus..... for thise past thirty two years Jesus has shown me error after error after error after error in my thinking and in my approach to life.... and to my relationship with Jesus.
I want to find a Christian author and donate a plan to bring a billion Christians to a whole new level of fire and love for one another.... my having experienced being close to Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit..... actually set me up for a special mission in life... but like ancient King Cyrus.. I must donate what I have learned........ I merely need to find an on fire Christian writer who can put what I have learned in a book????" (posted to the group Bestseller On Fire)....

I believe that the off the scale weird and strange events of the past three years have set up Christians in all denominations to know that we know that we must begin to
work together more and more and more......
or we will hang separately......
because the full fledged Mark of the Beast when it is introduced.... will be far beyond what happened in these past three years......

The full fledged mark of the beast will involve cloning and the alteration of our DNA... just as happened before the Flood of the Time of Noah.....
this is one of the best lectures that I have ever heard on what really happened during the centuries before The Flood.....




"Exposing the Nephilim" - Kevin Zadai
849,391 views
Streamed live on Oct 1, 2020

The ancient Book of Jasher summarizes what happened then....

https://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/apo/jasher/4.htm

(Luke 17: 26 to 30) :
And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.


They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat,they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;

But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rainedfire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

 

The mormons, what a scam! I was a mormon for a short time around age 21.

They are all about getting your money. Firstly you have tithing, which means "tenthing". They want their traditional 10% of your income. Then you have the mission fund, the bishop's warehouse, and any number of other programs to support "if you love god". By the time they get done they want 30% of your income.

Woman are important and highly valued as long as they do what they're told.

Why are their missionaries so happy? Why else: Ignorance is bliss. The disciples of Charles Mansion looked happy too.

 

Yeah but they take care of their own. I don’t think it’s as bad as like a cult where you get nothing in return.

 

I have to admit that this is one of the reasons why I don't want to become a full fledged Latter day Saint in spite of all their positive points.....
I've been putting my tithes into more and more online lessons by near death experiencer Dr. Kevin Zadai....and I do not want to be expected to stop doing this and instead send ten percent to
the Latter day Saint church.....

also... I cannot make the statement that I think that the writings of Prophet Joseph Smith are far better than what was shown to Rick Joyner back in 1994 or 1995....... or to near death experiencer and former Atheist Howard Storm......

I like the clarity and simplicity of more modern writings than those of Prophet Joseph Smith......

https://vimeopro.com/vfndc/final-quest-the-call-the-harvest/video/414170858

but... this is an impressive and encouraging writing in my opinion.....

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org...apter-41-the-postmortal-spirit-world?lang=eng

 

BY THE WORD "FRIENDLY" in the following post I mean that I am not a Latter day Saint myself......
but I like all Latter day Saints that I have met so far and I do consider that their teachings on the State of the Dead are closest to
my idea of Eventual Universal Salvation of any large Christian denomination that I know of........
.......
In a way.... I sort of don't even want to join a church......
because membership in a church brings with it high expectations.......

..... and for years now my philosophy is to LOWER EXPECTATIONS...... and then try my best to Exceed those lowered expectations......

.... of any group of people that I am in contact with.......
......
.......
I have a friendly challenge in mind for all of the faculty and students at Brigham Young University in Jerusalem.......
in your auditorium how about hosting a series of lectures by near death experiencers........
that is a part of your Comparative Religion Outreach to all the nations of the world.......
as well as to all of the residents of Jerusalem and all Israel........

Your series of lectures should include near death experiencer Pastor Dean Braxton.......
his message is striking a chord across ninety nine percent of the denominations of Christianity, (with the exception of a few denominations that are stuck on the Soul Sleep doctrine),

I know that I know that Latter day Saint missionaries will love listening to him and I know that they will be able to ask him exceptionally insightful questions that I am positive
that he will enjoy answering to the very best of his ability and recollections.......



DEAN BRAXTON INTERVIEW (Full-length) with Dr Cecil Stewart OBE
21,730 views
Jun 30, 2017

 

From what I have seen and heard, both Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are very friendly to your face, but I am pretty sure they talk smack behind your back.

Menonites and Quakers just want nothing to do with you whatsoever. I think I like that more.

 

Car salesmen are pretty nice, too!

 

My experience is that nice people are drawn to the church, not that it makes them nice.

As for the people who grow up in the church, the happy ones stay and the grouchy cynics leave.

 

I want your money, too, and I'm not a Mormon.

 

Mormons do have a self satisfied, "If you're happy and you know it hands" way about them. It's offputting to urbane cynics who think they know everything.

The Simpsons masterfully captured not only this, but also the unfairness of their critics.

 

Is that some kind of cheap dodge intended to justify their greed and abuse?

Sure sounds like it.

 

I think this is true of a lot of Christians (and people of other faiths .. except white buddhists, who are invariably miserable), and it's so true that urbane cynics have major issues with that kind of day to day joy in existence. For them (the urbane cynic), it feels so far out of their own reach that they need to believe it's not real.

What's fascinating to me, as a life-long observer of both the faithful and the faithless, is those who decry the joy/euphoria of the faithful, just because the 'cause' of it isn't their thing. They sit in their own flat existence, and condemn believers experiencing transcendent joy while singing/praising for example, and miss the point entirely. That being that it's the JOY which matters, not the source of it. If the believer obtains twice the euphoria from music that the non-believer does, it doesn't matter a darn whether gods exist or not. A personal anecdote on this is a reaction to the following video from a couple of urbane cynics I know. They totally trashed the rich enjoyment and joy manifest in this piece of praise, while themselves being incapable of such joy without very strong drugs. These kids could be singing about anything .. the subject doesn't really matter. It's the feeling it produces in them that drives the urbane cynic mad with envy. And I absolutely believe there is envy there. That they know that about themselves makes them even angrier.