The LDS Church in our life

What is the LDS Church?

We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the LDS Church. Popularly, it is known as the Mormon Church, after one of our prophts.

Beliefs

There are a few great sites out there that explain the doctrines we believe. The two best are www.lds.org and www.mormon.org.

I thought Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder and prophet of the LDS Church, put it well when he said:

• We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
• We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
• We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
• We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
• We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

Temples

The LDS Church owns and operates thousands of local church houses across the globe, called "chapels," where members meet weekly for Sunday services. All people are welcome in our churches.

In addition, there are well over 100 "temples" across the globe, which are larger places of worship. We believe that these are Houses of the Lord, or sacred places where those members of the LDS church who are worthy may enter and make additional promises ("covenants") with the Lord.