Mormon Culture

Our world is full of different cultures!  These cultures dictate what people eat, how they dress, how they act, and what is and is not acceptable.  As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have the marvelous opportunity to take part in the "Mormon Culture".   It is a great culture, and is accented even more by being a student on the BYU-Idaho campus.  Let me just give you a taste of what this culture entails by two experiences that I had this week.

First, I just returned from my morning classes, and was making lunch before I had to head to my afternoon class, when I heard a tap on the front door and then the creak of it opening.  I walked out into the living room, and saw a girl standing inside of our apartment.  I expected her to say something, but she just kind of stood there.  So, I broke the silence and said, “Can I help you?”  She looked around cautiously and then replied, “Is Amber here?”  I replied that she was not, and that I didn’t even know an Amber.  The girl stepped further in and tentatively continued, “Oh, well last semester, I always came here in between my classes to sleep on the couch.  Amber always let me.”  She paused, and then continued, “Would you mind if I slept on your couch?” -- Let me pause here, and just give you a brief illustration of the current situation that I found myself in: 1) A random girl has just entered my apartment without being invited.   2) She has now already shut the door and is standing within inches of our couch, and  3) although her question allows me to respond ‘no’, her actions are clearly demonstrating that she fully intends to sleep on our couch…Naturally, I do the only sensible thing a person can do in such a situation, I agree to let her sleep on the couch.  As she happily situates herself on the couch, I figure that it would probably be good to at least know her name.  I ask her politely to tell me her name, and she replies, “Oh, you know!”  I stared at her for a while, not quite believing if she was being serious or joking around with me, and replied, “No…I don’t know.”  She laughed, and repeated, “no, it’s ‘oh-you-nah’! hahaha  Random people entering your apartment to sleep on your couch...yep! only at BYU-Idaho!!  

Second, since it is the beginning of the semester, our professors like to go around and have everyone introduce themselves.  It was a classic display of Mormon culture when one professor began his class by saying, “alright,  let's go around and introduce everyone.  If you’re married, please tell us, so that we can take you off the dating list!” hahaha   I love Mormon college culture!

This week, I went to the temple for the first time in the 'States' after my mission.  I had heard that there was a new movie, but I had never seen it.  Wow!!!  So neat!  If you haven't been to the temple yet to see the new movie, GO!!  You will learn a lot!

While studying the book of Moses this week, I came across some interesting analogies.  In the first chapter, Moses has an encounter with the Lord.  During this interaction with the Lord, three interesting things take place.  1) The Lord tells Moses that he is a son of God  2) The Lord commands Moses to only worship Him  3) Moses cannot remain in his natural state while in the presence of the Lord.  After this encounter with the Lord, Satan appears to Moses.  Pay attention to the difference between these two visits: 1) Satan tells Moses that he is a son of man  2) Satan tells Moses to worship him  3) Moses can remain in his natural state while viewing Satan.  It is interesting to note that while the Lord raises Moses to a higher level and encourages and inspires him to live up to his divine potential, Satan demeans Moses and attempts to diminish or even destroy his divine potential.  As we navigate our way through this world, we need to be ever watchful for those things that demean and destroy our divine potential.  As Moses was able to recognize these harmful influences by the glory or lack of glory that he felt, we too have the powerful gift of the Spirit to help us to recognize and avoid the temptations and tactics of the Devil.  I know that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father.  We each have divine potential!  If we strive to strengthen our testimonies, stand in holy places, and listen to the spirit, we will be protected and blessed in our journey of life!!