The speaker also mentioned “living the gospel” several times, and my husband was confused and I had to tell him when they say “live the gospel” it means all the laws and ordinances of Mormonism. To Christians, the simplicity of the gospel is this: That Jesus Christ the Son of God died for our sins, was buried, and was resurrected so that all that believe in him may have eternal life. (1 Cor 15 1-5 and John 3:16)

Saying we should be “living the gospel” doesn’t make much sense to other Christians. “The Gospel” actually means “good news” and giving someone a list of commandments, temple rituals, laws and ordinances they must follow to be “worthy” is not very good news to most…it’s the good news of Christ’s sacrifice to save us! It’s not only good news, but the best news ever given to man.

I’m telling you, get them on the nursery band wagon for at least the babies, you can still teach 3 year olds, who are then at a more appropriate age to actually process the information. My 1 year old twins would not have a CLUE what was going on nor would they learn anything. My mom did the same thing, forcing the little ones to sit there and “learn” to be reverent, but it causes more strife than anything if you understand the developmental stages of babies. (I majored in Early Childhood Development for a year in college, and trust me you are fooling yourself if you think babies can “learn” to be still at age 1) But I did get to make some faces at the little boy in the pew in front of me, which he gladly imitated! That was the highlight of my visit.

On the other hand, I think it can be a good thing for kids to be in there because I’m surprised how early they start picking up on stuff. We have a two-year old boy and we use the time in sacrament meeting to teach him what it’s about and how to be reverent and we can tell that some of it is sinking in. Sometimes he’s an angel, other times he’s quite the opposite, but we see progress being made all the time.

The other challenge is that if someone were running a nursery during sacrament meeting, then they wouldn’t be in the meeting to take the sacrament, which is the primary reason we have church meetings at all.

However, several years ago I visiting a meeting in Provo, Utah, and went to an older church building and they had “crying rooms” in the back. These were rooms with benches just like the rest of the sacrament meeting room, but they were enclosed and had windows and piped in sound. That way parents could go to those rooms, still see and hear the meeting, but since they were in the back in those rooms no one else was seeing or hearing their kids. Seemed pretty handy, but I’ve never seen those in any other church building.

Could you put in a word about the nursery thing? It really was hard to concentrate as you understand. And don’t get me wrong, I love kids and have 1 year old twins, but when you go somewhere to learn something it helps if you can hear it. Don’t you have some kind of pull there? lol

One note, I’ve noticed that since I have small children, the same ones that are making noise during the sacrament meeting, I don’t have time to listen to much of anything because I’m picking up cheerios and toys and trying to keep them from making noise and so I can’t get bored

The point is I don’t see any denomination as being “the one true church,” it’s believers that make up Christ’s church. And when you claim that your establishment is the “one true church” it opens its practices and members up to scrutiny. I believe anyone who has accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior is a member of His true church, no matter what denomination they are found in.

But here’s a question for thought, how would your perspective on what you saw at this meeting change if you knew this was the true church, rather than assuming it’s not true? When we see things through the eyes of belief, we see things differently than when we look at them through eyes of doubt.

Just like you, I don’t approve of some of the things you described, but whereas you might see this as evidence the LDS Church isn’t true, I merely see this as evidence that Church members aren’t perfect.

1. Speaker, a Sister, tells children that no matter how boring church becomes or if there are things they don’t like about church, just “STICK WITH IT” (very emphatically). She repeated this several times, just “stay with the church” and it would pay off. Not believe in Jesus, or strengthen your faith through searching the scriptures, just blindly stick with “the church.” Great emphasis throughout her talk on “the church” or people who have done so much for them who are in “the church.”

2. Next speaker, a Brother and the first speakers husband, says in a talk about revelation: quote “Some Evangelicals say we are not Christian. I wish they would have been here last week to count how many times Jesus’ name was said in our service.” My husband and I then elbowed each other with a giggle and said “THEY KNOW WHY WE ARE HERE!!” but it really wasn’t funny that they think the amount of times they say Jesus’ name makes them Christian. It also goes to show they know what other Christians say about them and they consciously make an effort to say Jesus’ name more in an effort to sound Christian.

3. Same Brother still speaking about Evangelical Christians, “I saw a license plate cover that read ‘United Church of Christ, God is still speaking’ and I thought to myself, well I know that but I didn’t know YOU knew that or thought that” followed by chuckles from himself and others. My husband was pretty offended at the mocking tone the speaker had about Christians and obviously no knowledge of what we really believe.

4. Same Brother mentions several times about being “temple worthy” and how when he picked counselors for one of his callings, he didn’t want to consider a certain brethren because he had “problems at home” and wasn’t “temple worthy.” My husband felt great importance must be placed on people’s own worthiness and righteousness.

5. The bread given at sacrament had leaven in it, and water was served. The whole reason leaven is not suppose to be in the bread is because leaven represents sin. Jesus was sinless, thus the requirement for unleavened bread. To have bread with leaven served to represent Christ’s body is to make a mockery of the sacrament. Also with water being served, the wine or grape juice represents the blood from Christ’s body, and water does not. This is what Jesus used at the Passover meal, and it was astonishing to my husband that they would carelessly serve water and leavened bread like it had no real importance or meaning. Also seeing teenage boys laughing and talking while they were suppose to be holders of a holy Priesthood made it seem even more of a mockery to my husband.

6. There were 2 people who bore their testimony, and the 2 speakers who bore theirs at the end of their talks. Each did say they had a testimony of “the Savior” or that “Jesus was the Savior,” but it was always followed or preceded by their testimony of Thomas Monson being the living prophet or Joseph Smith being a true prophet, and then the church being true of course. There was never any speaking about Jesus alone or testifying of Jesus without mentioning JS or Monson. It reminded my husband of how the Muslims have their statement where they say “we believe in Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.”

As for my experience, it was just how I remembered…no biblical or BOM message just people talking about their own personal experiences and bearing their testimonies. They only read the scriptures during Sunday school, and sacrament meeting is for the emotional appeals from personal testimonies or experiences. It was extremely boring (just as I remembered) because you just sit and sing, no real worship. You stay seated and sing quietly with no real emotion which is strange coming from people who thrive on emotionalism. When it was time for prayer every one assumed position and folded their arms in unity. My husband said “whoa” when he saw this, (not that it isn’t ok to fold your arms for prayer, but EVERYONE did it at the exact same time and bowed heads in unison!) It looks contrived to people who have never been and are used to people praying however they see fit. It was also very hard to concentrate with kids and babies crying, talking, and playing through the whole thing. They really need to keep the nursery open during sacrament services, but seeing that I learned absolutely nothing biblical or otherwise in the meeting it probably doesn’t matter. Next time we will try to stay for Sunday school and see if we get to crack open any scripture in there.

1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.

3. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.

8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.

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.

12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

13. 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.