Mormon Dictionary

Anywhere you go in the world, if you attend a sacrament meeting of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints it will follow the same format. Sacrament meetings are held on Sundays and is where they renew the promises they made at baptism. The dress at a sacrament meeting is formal to show respect. Men usually wear a suit and tie and women usually wear a nice dress, or a blouse and skirt. If you have ever seen the way LDS missionaries dress, model your attire after them and you will fit right in. When you get to the meetinghouse, the sacrament meeting is held in the chapel. You can sit anywhere you would like as long as it is not on the stand behind the pulpit.

Everyone from the littlest baby to the elderly participates in sacrament meeting so don’t be surprised if you hear some crying and a lot of movement during the meeting. A member of the bishopric will start the meeting by welcoming everyone and then giving announcements. This is followed by an opening hymn. Most of the time members stay seated while singing. It will be announced or the music director will let everyone know if they should stand. Following the opening hymn a prayer is given, during which members stay seated, bow their heads, close their eyes, and fold their arms. During the meeting the only time those in the congregation say anything out loud is when they say amen. This occurs after prayers and talks.

After the prayer, ward business is conducted. This is where new callings are given, babies are blessed, and confirmation occur. When a person is given a new calling the members are asked to sustain them. This is something that visitors need not participate in. After ward business, the sacrament hymn is sung. This hymn is to help members get into the proper mood for partaking the sacrament. After the hymn a blessing is given on the sacrament and then it is passed to the members. Visitors may also take the sacrament. This is the most sacred and important part of the meeting, so while the sacrament is being passed is not a good time to get up, or leave the meeting for any reason.

Following the sacrament, talks are given. This part of the meeting is usually the longest part. Members of the congregation are asked to speak about certain topics and each persons talk can be anywhere from five minutes to twenty minutes. Occasionally there will be a rest hymn between talks. When the talks are done, a closing hymn will be sung, followed by a prayer. When the prayer is done the meeting is over and people begin leaving the chapel.

Although members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that Christ’s birth actually occurred on April 6, they celebrate Christmas on December 25, with the rest of the Christian world.

Many LDS families celebrate the traditional Christmas with a tree, lights, gifts, and Santa Claus. While Church leaders to not condemn any of these traditions, they urge Church members to remember that Christmas is one of the most spiritually significant days in history, along with Easter it is a celebration of God’s greatest gift to mankind; His son Jesus Christ and the Atonement and Resurrection that he performed.

The two major LDS Bookstores are Deseret Books and Seagull Books and Tape. Most of the stores are found throughout the western United States, including Utah, Idaho, Arizona, California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington. This is because these areas tend to have a higher population of LDS people.

There are a few independently owned LDS bookstores in other areas of the U.S., but many of them are struggling because of the discount prices that are offered through larger bookstores, and because of online shopping. Many of the independently owned LDS bookstores have closed.

Most LDS bookstores carry LDS scriptures, books written about the Church mostly by Church members, fiction books with stories geared toward the LDS faith, pictures, paintings, LDS themed games, idea books for LDS oriented activities such as Family Home Evening and Mutual, cookbooks, jewelry like CTR rings, music, and stickers.

Although LDS bookstores specialize in books focusing on the religion that is not all they stock. Many of them also provide uplifting and inspirational books, pictures and other items that are not necessarily just for Latter-day Saints.

The Latter-day Saint faith has a vocabulary all its own. Here a few of the most common LDS terms will be explained.

CTR-This stands for Choose The Right, and is often seen on rings that members wear as reminders.

BYD-This term stands for Bishop Youth Discussion. This is usually a Sunday evening meeting that youth 12 to 18 are asked to attend. At the meeting the Bishop gives a lesson on a specific topic, then the youth are able to ask him questions at the end.

Home Teachers-The men in the ward are paired up and asked to visit usually three to four families each month. They are supposed to talk with the families, and give a lesson. Home teachers are supposed to provide extra support for those families, be aware of their needs and help in any way they can.

MTC-The shortened name of the Mission Training Center. The most well known missionary training center is in Provo, Utah, but there are numerous centers all over the world. Formally called missionaries go to the centers for training and instruction. Missionaries going places where they will be speaking a different language stay longer to learn the language.

Mutual-Weekly activities for the teenage members of the Church. These are put together on a ward or congregation level.

Preemie-This term is used to describe a young man who has not yet gone on a mission. The term is most commonly heard on LDS university campuses.

RM-RM stands for Returned Missionary. This is a person that has been called formally to a mission for the Church, served for the expected amount of time and returned home.

Sacrament Meeting-Weekly worship meeting held on Sundays, where the sacrament, which is similar to communion, is given to the members. The meeting begins with a song and prayer, followed by the giving of the sacrament. After the sacrament, spiritual instruction is given, most commonly by members of the congregation, who have been asked to talk on a specific topic, by a member of the bishopric.

Talk-In the LDS Church, members teach each other. “Giving a talk” refers to providing a lesson or instruction on a topic during one of the Sunday meetings, most often sacrament meeting.

Visiting Teacher-Women in the ward are paired up and given three to four women in the ward that they are supposed to meet with monthly. Usually they spend time talking, then they give a thought from the visiting teaching message for the month. This system is set up to help the ward be aware of families needs. It is another way for the Church to help take care of its members.

Ward-A group of members in a certain geographical area. This term is similar to a congregation. There are usually between 240 and 600 members in each ward.

On August 1, 2002 LDS Radio became BYU Radio. It is a radio station that provides music, talks and devotionals for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and is an ever-growing station. It is now carried on Dish Network, the Internet, and cable systems throughout the U.S.

BYU Radio content includes BYU devotionals and forums, BYU sporting events, Church Educational System (CES) and Church firesides, General Conference broadcasts, Education Week and women conference addresses, BYU musical performances, Music and the Spoken Word, BYU and CES symposiums and discussions, LDS themed music and other related performances. There is also a separate signal called BYU Radio Instrumental that features LDS hymns and other songs. All of this programming is generally the same as what was broadcast on LDS Radio.

To play BYU Radio from your computer, visit www.byuradio.org and click on Get BYU Radio then scroll down to On the Internet. Click on the hyperlink and you will be brought to BYU Radio streaming you can choose to listen to BYU Radio or BYU Radio Instrumental. It will be live streamed through Windows Media Player. If you do not have Windows Media Player, you will have to download it. This can be done from the Streaming page as well.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides an online version of the Book of Mormon. This version is considered official, and is the accepted text used by the Church. The online Book of Mormon provides all the same information found in the Book of Mormon printed by the Church. This includes, the Title Page, Introduction, Testimony of the Three Witnesses, Testimony of the Eight Witnesses, Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith, A Brief Explanation about the Book of Mormon, and the books of the Book of Mormon from First Nephi through Moroni.

The online Book of Mormon is a part of lds.org, which was created by the Church and launched in 2001. The Ensign reported that bringing the scriptures to the Internet was an important milestone of the Church because it could now reach more people. More than 30,000 people visit the online scriptures each day, and are enjoying the benefits that come from an online text. “The Church placed the scriptures in English with their full range of study aids, including some 250,000 internal links, on the Internet.” The online version is a good resource for people who are doing research or preparing talks, because the text can be searched by keyword, footnotes can be accessed quickly, and topic definitions can be found easily.

In the Mormon Church, conversion means “changing one’s beliefs, heart, and life to accept and conform to the will of God.” It is a “conscious decision to give up one’s former ways and change to become a disciple of Christ.” Conversion to Christ’s Church involves, “repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, the reception of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and continued faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. A natural man will be changed into a new person who is sanctified and pure, born again in Christ Jesus” (LDS Guide to the Scriptures).

Many people mistakenly think that being converted is when a sincere individual decides to be baptized. However, when properly used, conversion means far more than that, for the new convert as well as the long-term member.

In order to be converted, a person must build their lives upon a love of God and always maintain a fixed determination to keep His commandments. True, whole-hearted conversion will transform a person’s life.

Each July, the Mormon Church performs one of the largest outdoor pageants in the United States. The pageant takes place on a large hill in New York where Mormons believe in about A.D. 420 the gold plates were buried and where in 1827 Joseph Smith received the plates. From those gold plates, Joseph Smith was able to translate the Book of Mormon.

The pageant relates the story of the people of the Book of Mormon. It begins with how they were guided to the Americas in about 600 B.C. and culminates with Christ’s visit to the America’s.

The pageant began in 1917 when a group of Mormon missionaries gathered for a conference to celebrate Pioneer Day (the day the Mormon pioneers first entered the Salt Lake Valley). In 1934 the conference was moved to the Hill Cumorah and in 1937 volunteers put on the first pageant. Since its beginning, the pageant has been run entirely by volunteers.

Admission and parking are free, and are enough seats for 9,000 people. The pageant begins at 9:15 at night, but it is suggested you arrive about 45 minutes early.

The Polynesian Cultural Center (also known as the PCC) is located in Laie, Hawaii. It is one of the most visited attractions in Hawaii, welcoming over one million visitors per year.

The Polynesian Cultural Center is unique among the Mormon Church’s sites to visit because it is one of the few that is not a historic site and is one of the few sites that charges an admission fee. There is some information about the history of the Church among the Polynesian people, but most of the Center is dedicated to shows, music, food and entertainment that celebrate the different cultures of Polynesia including Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji, Tahiti, Tonga, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Marquesas, and Rapa Nui (Easter Island).

Most of the PCC staff are students from Brigham Young University-Hawaii, who are from the various islands featured in the PCC. They contribute greatly to the teaching and understanding of their cultures. The Cultural Center is divided into sections (islands) each section representing one of the cultures.

Official site of the Polynesian Cultural Center