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Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints
3000 Dale Blvd.
Dale City, VA

by Megan Rogers

For my encounter, I visited a Mormon Church service. I went to the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints in Dale City. The worship center is located at 3000 Dale Blvd. in Dale City.

At this particular worshiping center, there are three different services. You attend these services according to where you live which is called your ward. There are the Woodbridge, Quantico, and Dale City Wards at this particular church. All of the services are held at different times. I attended the Dale City Ward service even though I actually live in the Quantico Ward. Church began at 11:15, but we had to get there early so that we could get a seat because my friend said that it could get full.

When we first arrived at the church, we went to the sacrament room. This area of the church looked like a regular church with rows of benches and aisles. This portion of the church day was supposed to be just over an hour long, but was extended so that we could hear people bear their testimony. I think that sacrament is comparable to service at my church. We read passages, said prayers, and sang songs. I have heard a CD with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and their songs are beautiful, but I thought that the songs that we sang during church were very monotone. Instead of getting up to receive communion, trays with torn up pieces of sandwich bread and small cups of water are passed around to all members of the church. At my church, you must be in the second grade and have gone through you first communion ceremony in order to receive The Body of Christ. In this church small children are allowed to take sacrament. After receiving the bread, it was time for some people to bear their testimony. This is when LDS members stand in front of the church and say why they feel their church is true. People go up and tell funny or sad stories of when they have felt god or the truth of their church. After they do this, say close by saying "I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen". Some people go up there and talk forever and some just say a few words.

After sacrament, I attended a Sunday school type class. Every age group has a Sunday school class starting from age three to adult. During this class, we played a Jeopardy type game that was related to the Mormon scriptures. After the game, I was able to ask some questions about the church.

Some of the information that I learned was very interesting. Instead of having priests, cardinals, and the pope they have bishops, presidents and apostles. The president I think is comparable to the Catholic churches pope. The apostles are under the president. When the president dies, the senior apostle becomes the president. Currently Gordon B. Hinckley is the president and has been since 1995. Every ward has a leader called a bishop. All of the church work is volunteer so nobody is paid for his or her duties. One Sunday in April and one in October they hold a day called "General Conference." This is a weekend where you do not need to attend church, but you watch the president talk on TV. LDS members are required to pay out 10% of their income to tithing which is related to the Old Testament. With this money, they have purchased radio stations, food and funded missions. LDS members believe that there will be a second coming. They save food and they have purchased radio stations so that they will have some form of communication because they think the coming will be preceded with disaster and radio waves are hard to destroy. LDS members celebrate Pioneer Day July 24, which is the day that Brigham Young arrived in the west. Also, in my church members are usually baptized when they are infants but in the LDS church you are not given a chance to be baptized until you are eight years old which is the time of first communion in my church. This is so that the child has a choice to except the church or not. I compare this to confirmation in the catholic religion, which is just like a reconfirmation of your baptismal agreement to reject Satan.

After class, sex and age group split us into groups. For girls there is Young Women (12-17) and Relief Society (18 and older). For men there is priesthood (12 and older). Everyone else from the age of 3 to 11 goes to primary. There is nursery for children three and under but this is only offered for the Sunday school class and Relief Society and Priesthood time because they want to encourage family being together during sacrament.

LDS members are big into family. They try to have a family home evening once a week where all that you do is spend time with your family members. In addition, they encourage genealogy research and own one of the largest genealogy research libraries located in Utah, which is free to the public.

My day in the LDS church was a good learning experience and it was interesting to spend time with a different religion. Some things I found were very similar to the teachings and practices of my faith.

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