Here’s how typical LDS families spend the Sabbath, which is Sunday (in Christian countries, Saturday in Israel, Friday in Egypt).

Saturdays are busy days for most LDS families. The focus for Sunday is on keeping the Sabbath day holy, as we’ve been instructed in the Ten Commandments. For that reason, on Saturday, the family takes some time to clean the house, make basic meal preparations, select and clean clothes for the Sabbath, and do any other preparations that will leave them free to focus on the Savior the next day.

If all goes well—and since members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are mostly like anyone else, things don’t always go well—everyone is up and ready in time for a morning devotional and scripture reading, and a family breakfast before leaving for church.  Church services are held in a meeting house.  Meeting houses have a chapel, classrooms, offices, and a “cultural hall.”

Once there, the family goes together to Sacrament Meeting. Sacrament Meeting is the main church service, and the entire family attends together, even babies and small children. This can make for some noisy meetings, as little ones wiggle or giggle until they’ve learned how to behave, but members of the Church feel Sacrament Meeting should be a family experience. Parents work to teach their children to be reverent during meetings, and take out for a few minutes any child who is struggling to behave.

During this meeting, church business is handled. An opening hymn and prayer will be said. Any member of the Church might be asked to pray to open the meeting. The prayer is given in his or her own words.  Then another song is sung, in preparation for the passing of the Sacrament, sometimes called Communion in other churches. In our church, this consists of bread and water, rather than wine.

A deacon is the first level of priesthood, obtained by worthy young men who are at least twelve years old. In the sacrament service, the deacons will pass the trays of bread and water to the congregation. The priests are sixteen or older. They bless the Sacrament, saying a prayer that is said in exactly the same way each time. While members sit in their seats and wait for the sacrament, they think about the Savior and His sacrifice made for them.

No collection plate is passed. Members of the Church pay their tithing privately by placing it in an envelope and giving it to one of three approved church leaders before or after meetings.

After the passing of the Sacrament, it’s time for the sermon. This often comes as a surprise to visitors. The Church is a lay church, and the pastor, called a bishop, can be any man who holds the priesthood. He has a regular job in the community of his own choosing and serves for around five years at a time in his church calling, without pay, and while continuing to be employed and to care for his family.

The bishop doesn’t speak most weeks, although he or his two counselors (advisors and assistants) do conduct the meeting. Instead, any member of the Church age twelve or older can be asked to speak on a specific topic. Once a year, the younger children present the meeting, sharing what they’ve learned the past year in their classes. Typical topics might be the atonement, faith, the value of scriptures, or the importance of family. Generally, one teenager and two adults speak during the meeting, which then closes with a song and prayer.

After the Sacrament Meeting ends, family members move in different directions. Children who are eighteen months to three years go to a nursery, where they are cared for, but also taught brief lessons, given a snack, helped to play games and sing songs under the loving care of volunteers. Children ages 3-12 go to Primary, an organization just for children. During Sharing Time and Singing Time, they are in a large room called the Primary Room with children of a variety of ages. They learn simple gospel truths based on an annual theme. They have opening exercises here, and the children give the prayers, read a scripture, and give “talks” for their peers. This trains them to do it in the Sacrament meeting when they’re older. Even a three-year-old might give a talk, a miniature sermon, usually with a parent standing beside him or her, helping out.

Then they split into classes based on age and go to smaller rooms with a teacher. You can read the lessons they are taught at LDS.org.

The teenagers go first to Sunday School in mixed-gender classes divided by age, and then to gender specific Young Men’s and Young Women’s classes. In Sunday School, they study a specific book of scripture over the course of a year, alternating between Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants. In the youth classes, they learn how to apply the gospel to their everyday lives.

The adults go first to a combined Sunday School, and then to gender-specific classes. Of course, many adults are working in one of the auxiliaries as teachers or leaders during this time. Since we’re a church with a lay clergy, once again, everyone is a volunteer. Both men and women have extensive opportunities to serve as leaders and teachers in the various programs of the Church.

After church, families spend their days quietly doing things that will bring them closer to the Savior or serve Him. They might work on their callings (church volunteer jobs), read scriptures, teach the gospel to small children or have a family council meeting. Only necessary tasks are accomplished and members avoid spending money that day. It is meant to be a day of spirituality and quietness.

Their modern history began in the early 1800’s in New England when a fourteen-year-old boy named Joseph Smith was trying to decide, as were so many in his area, which church to join. Many revivals were being held and people were quite excited about the subject of religion. Joseph was interested, and he wanted to make just the right choice. But how did one decide? The sects taught conflicting information, and all claimed to have the truth. One day, while reading the Bible, he read:

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed (James, chapter 1, King James Version of the Bible).

This made complete sense to him. Who knew better than God which church was true? He went to the woods near his home, found a secluded area, and began to pray. In time, God and Jesus appeared to the young boy. This follows the pattern of God revealing Himself to His prophets:

And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Exodus 33:11, King James Version of the Bible).

Joseph later recorded the vision in his own words:

I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (vv. 16–17).

Joseph, as soon as he was able to speak, asked the Savior which church he was to join, and he was instructed not to join any of them, because none taught the complete truth.

In time, when he was a grown man, he would receive further visions that would begin his training, through the tutelage of an angel, to assist in bringing forth the restoration of the gospel as the Savior orignally organized it. He would translate a record of a people who lived on the American continent and who knew of, and received a visit from, the Savior.

To learn more about the history of the Church, we invite you to read “Church History in the Fullness of Times.”

From this small beginning, the Church has continued to grow. It began with six members in a log cabin in 1830. Today, it has over thirteen million members world-wide. The National Council of Churches lists it as the second-fastest growing church in the United States. This is another way we differ from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is believed to have only 10,000 members, largely in the western United States, in closed and isolated communities.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is known for many of its programs. You may have seen clean-cut looking young missionaries going door-to-door or talking to people on the street. Unlike the FLDS, we have a strong tradition of sharing our message of the Savior with those around us. We feel it important to bring his gospel to all of God’s children.

The Church is also known for its emphasis on family, self-reliance, and humanitarian work. As you explore this site, you’ll have opportunities to learn what the restored church is doing today. We’re not in a closed compound—we’re out in the world, all 13 million of us, making a difference.

Purpose of the Site

The Church has a series of thirteen statements of belief known as the Articles of Faith, which were written by Joseph Smith. Included is the following:

11 We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

The purpose of this site is not to disparage the beliefs of another faith, nor is it to enter into the current political or legal debates concerning groups practicing polygamy. Its purpose is entirely to help clarify that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not associated in any way with the polygamist religions, and that indeed, our leadership, our lifestyles, and many of our beliefs are entirely different. Polygamist groups aren’t directed in any way by our church or recognized by them as a legitimate form of “Mormonism.” This site will help you learn who the Mormons of today are and how they live, worship, and believe.

Official Church Policy on Polygamy:

From the official church website, LDS.org:

“The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. At certain times and for His specific purposes, God, through His prophets, has directed the practice of plural marriage (sometimes called polygamy), which means one man having more than one living wife at the same time. In obedience to direction from God, Latter-day Saints followed this practice for about 50 years during the 1800s but officially ceased the practice of such marriages after the Manifesto was issued by President Woodruff in 1890. Since that time, plural marriage has not been approved by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and any member adopting this practice is subject to losing his or her membership in the Church.”
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Watch Gordon B. Hinckley speak on Polygamy

Today’s church members are not polygamists. Any member who decides to begin practicing polygamy loses church membership. You will find members of the Church in nearly every community, living in your neighborhood, teaching in your schools, working in your local businesses, and playing with your children. They are not distinguished by their clothing, which is modest, but modern. They aren’t distinguished by their hair, which they wear any way they like. Their marriages resemble those of others in their community—one spouse, and a firm commitment to family life.  They are happy, trustworthy, fun-loving, educated, involved, normal people.