This is the first-of-its-kind event, and Voices for Virtue hoped to draw a large teenage audience. Voices for Virtue is a non-profit organization which is not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It uses social networking to reach out to teenagers and young adults to help them learn more about and support them in living virtuous lives.

This was a wonderful opportunity for teens, as well as adults, to ask any personal questions they had about gospel principles and standards.

The session will not be broadcast, and no rights were issued to record it. However, if you would like to know more about Elaine Dalton or Voices for Virtue, please refer to the links below:

Talks and Speeches Given by Elaine Dalton

Interview with Elaine Dalton

Voices for Virtue

Entitled “Mormons in America: Certain in Their Beliefs, Uncertain of Their Place in Society,” the survey was conducted between Oct. 25 and Nov. 16, 2011 among a national sample of 1,019 respondents who identified themselves as Mormons. The results validate a number of long-held stereotypes (most American Mormons are white, well-educated, politically conservative and religiously observant) while providing a few interesting surprises (care for the poor and needy is high on the list of LDS priorities, while drinking coffee and watching R-rated movies aren’t as taboo among the rank and file as you might think).

“While this survey comes amid a contentious election campaign, it is not solely or even chiefly about politics,” said Luis Lugo, Pew Research Center director, in the published survey’s preface. “Rather, we hope that it will contribute to a broader public understanding of Mormons and Mormonism at a time of great interest in both.”

For example, in one very interesting section of the new survey, respondents were asked several questions about what is essential to being a good Mormon. According to the survey, 80 percent said “believing Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ” is essential to being a good Mormon, 73 percent said “working to help the poor,” 51 percent said “regular Family Home Evenings,” 49 percent said “not drinking coffee and tea” and 32 percent said “not watching R-rated movies.

“To be honest, I found the strong sentiment that ‘working to help the poor’ is essential to being a good Mormon refreshing and a little surprising,” said David Campbell, an LDS Church member who is an associate professor at the University of Notre Dame and who consulted with the Pew Research Center on the new survey. “As a Mormon, I would hope it would be that way, but I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s good to see the church’s genuine compassion for the poor and needy reflected in these numbers.”

People outside the church may or may not be aware of the LDS propensity for compassionate service and other . According to the survey, 62 percent of Mormons think that Americans are generally uninformed about Mormonism, and 68 percent feel that they are not viewed as part of mainstream American society. But they remain optimistic, with 63 percent expressing the belief that Mormonism will eventually become part of mainstream society and 56 percent saying that the American people are ready for a Mormon president.

In fact, optimism is one of the themes to emerge from the survey relative to Latter-day Saints. Some 87 percent say they are satisfied with the way things are going in their own life, and 92 percent say their respective communities are excellent (52 percent) or good (40 percent) places to live (this is especially true among Mormons in Utah, of whom 71 percent say their communities are excellent).

But evidently, optimism only goes so far with Mormons.

“I think it is interesting that the respondents are overwhelmingly positive about their communities. They love their communities and everything’s fine there,” said Marie Cornwall, professor of sociology at Brigham Young University and another advisor to the Pew Research Center on this study. “But when you ask them about the way things are going in the country today, they are overwhelmingly (75 percent) dissatisfied. You would think that their satisfaction with their personal lives would factor into their feelings about how things are going in the country, but there seems to be a total disconnect there.”

It should be noted that the Mormon view of how things are going in the country today closely resembles the view of the American public as a whole, among whom 78 percent said they were dissatisfied in an October 2011 Pew Research Center survey.

Generally speaking, the new survey looks at Mormons and their perspectives in four key areas: politics and ideology, religious beliefs and practices, cultural and moral issues and family life.

Politically, there are few surprises. Most Mormons (66 percent) describe themselves as politically conservative, and 74 percent of Mormon voters identify with or lean toward the Republican Party. Philosophically, 75 percent of respondents said they prefer a smaller government providing fewer services to a bigger government providing more services.

Among a number of politicians currently in the spotlight, Mitt Romney is a favorite, being viewed favorably by 86 percent of all Mormons and 94 percent of Mormon Republicans. Even among Mormon Democrats, 62 percent rate Romney favorably.

The other Mormon running for president, Jon Huntsman, is viewed favorably by 50 percent of Mormon voters, while President Barack Obama is viewed favorably by 25 percent — slightly ahead of the rating Mormons bestowed upon another one of their own: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (22 percent).

Interestingly, Latter-day Saints seem to be somewhat divided on the issue of immigration. They are fairly evenly split on whether immigrants strengthen the U.S. because of their hard work and talents (45 percent) or burden the U.S. by taking American jobs, housing and health care (41 percent).

Campbell, who is an expert in the field of religion, politics and civic engagement, said he wasn’t surprised by that result.

“Although Mormons are caricatured as being really right wing, on the issue of immigration they are not,” he said. “The church itself has been quite a voice of moderation on this issue, and that has resulted in Mormons being more positive toward immigrants than other conservative religious groups tend to be.”

Campbell suggests that the LDS Church’s missionary program has something to do with that, with Latter-day Saints tending to develop a broader worldview as a result of their missionary service around the world. In any event, he said, “this result really does cut against the stereotype.”

In terms of religious beliefs and practices, the survey makes it clear that Mormons are highly religious — again, not a big surprise. Eighty-two percent say that religion is very important in their lives, and 77 percent say they believe wholeheartedly in all of the church’s teachings. Fully 83 percent say they pray every day, 79 percent say they donate 10 percent of their earnings to the church in tithing and 77 percent say they attend church at least once a week. According to Pew, “Mormons exhibit higher levels of religious commitment than many other religious groups, including white evangelical Protestants.”

Looking at basic, core religious beliefs, 98 percent say they believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 94 percent believe the president of the LDS Church is a prophet of God, 95 percent believe that families can be bound together eternally in temple ceremonies, 94 percent believe that God the Father and Jesus Christ are separate, physical beings and 91 percent believe that the Book of Mormon was written by ancient prophets.

Clearly, Mormons are believers.

But are they Christian? Ninety-seven percent of Mormons think so. And when asked to volunteer the one word that best describes Mormons, the most common responses were “Christian” and “Christ-centered.” By way of contrast, a November Pew Research Center survey found that nearly half (49 percent) of non-Mormon U.S. adults say that Mormonism is NOT Christian or that they are unsure whether or not it is Christian. In that same survey, when respondents were asked for one word that best describes the LDS Church, the most commonly offered response was “cult.”

Culturally, Mormon conservatism extends to a wide variety of moral issues. Polygamy (86 percent), sex between unmarried adults (79 percent), abortion (74 percent) and drinking alcohol (54 percent) are viewed as morally wrong. Divorce, on the other hand, is largely considered “not a moral issue” by respondents (46 percent).

Similarly, 65 percent of respondents said that homosexuality should be discouraged by society, compared with 58 percent of the general public who say homosexuality should be accepted by society.

“Mormons like to use the phrase, ‘Be in the world but not of the world,’” Campbell noted. “They are active and involved in their communities, but they have these beliefs and practices that set them apart a little bit, and sometimes that creates conflict or tension. [Homosexuality] is one of those issues where, rightly or wrongly, Mormons just have a different position than most of the rest of America.”

The survey also illustrates how important family life is to most members of the LDS Church. Among life’s priorities, being a good parent (81 percent) and having a successful marriage (73 percent) place higher than career concerns, having free time or even living a religious life. Some 67 percent of Mormon adults are married (compared with 52 percent of the general public), and 85 percent of them are married to another Mormon.

“As the Church and its members are increasingly the focus of media attention, we’re eager to participate in conversations that help the public get to know us better,” said LDS Church spokesman Michael Purdy. “Even though the recent Pew study did not survey any of the Church’s eight million members who live outside the U.S., it highlights some important aspects regarding who we are and what we believe.

“For example,” Purdy continued, “the study found that Church members subscribe to traditional Christian beliefs, have high moral standards, are overwhelmingly satisfied with their lives and communities, are active in serving others and have a profound dedication to family. These results reflect the Church’s message that a deep commitment to the teachings of Jesus Christ brings lasting happiness.”

Speaking for the Pew Research Center, Lugo said the idea for the survey was born last summer, “around the time that a Newsweek cover story and a New York Times article declared that the United States was experiencing a ‘Mormon moment.’”

“That got us thinking,” Lugo said in the survey’s preface.

Over the years, numerous polls have gauged public attitudes toward Mormons, who make up about 2 percent of all U.S. adults. But what do Mormons think about their place in American life? With the rising prominence of members of the LDS Church in politics, popular culture and the media, do Mormons feel more secure and accepted in American society? What do they think about other religions? What do they believe, how do they practice their faith and what do they see as essential to being a good Mormon and to leading a good life?

An advisory panel was recruited to help the Pew Forum staff create the survey. The panel featured a number of Latter-day Saints who have professional experience in Mormon studies and research, including Campbell, Cornwall, Matthew Bowman of Hampden-Sydney College, Terryl Givens of the University of Richmond and Allison Pond of the Deseret News.

“We helped them to formulate the questions, and to frame them in the kind of language that Mormons use,” Campbell said.

After a period of testing, the survey was conducted among respondents who identified themselves as Mormons (it also included qualifying questions that made it clear that respondents were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as opposed to other churches whose members may refer to themselves as Mormons).

Pew Study on Mormons in America

“Since Mormons represent about 2 percent of the population, you’d have to call 98 people before you’d get a Mormon, and that would be very expensive,” said Cornwall, who is also editor of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. “But they had a fancy way of finding Mormons, including going back to Mormons they had found in the course of doing previous surveys, so they were able to get their sample in a cost-effective way.”

Care was also taken to make sure the survey included those who had land lines as well as those who have only cell phones — a growing area of concern among those who conduct public opinion research today.

Among other interesting findings of the Pew Forum’s survey of Mormons:

• 71 percent of respondents reside in the American West, including 53 percent who live in the Mountain states and 34 percent who live in Utah;

• 88 percent are white, 7 percent Hispanic, 1 percent black and 4 percent other racial and ethnic backgrounds;

• 50 percent say that evangelical Christians are generally unfriendly to Mormons;

• 54 percent say that the way their religion is portrayed on television and in movies hurts society’s image of Mormons;

• 57 percent of Mormons said that most or all of their close friends are other Mormons (this number was significantly higher in Utah, where the number climbed to 73 percent);

• 65 percent of respondents say they hold a current temple recommend;

• 27 percent say they believe in yoga not just as exercise but as a spiritual practice;

• 11 percent say they believe in reincarnation;

• 74 percent were raised in the LDS Church;

• 59 percent of converts cite the church’s beliefs as the main reason they joined the church;

• 59 percent of converts joined the church between the ages of 18 and 35;

• 27 percent have served a full-time mission, including 43 percent of men and 11 percent of women;

• 82 percent say they have a supply of food in storage, and 58 percent keep at least a three-month supply.

The margin of error for the survey is =/- 4.5 percentage points.

“I think this survey is a really good summary of the hyper-committed Mormon community that shows up at church every week,” Cornwall said. “I’m not sure it captures Mormons on the margins very well, but that’s OK — hopefully we can do that the next time. Meanwhile, this is a pretty good picture — and an interesting picture — of Mormons.

By Joseph Walker, Deseret News

Additional Resources:

Full original source Deseret News article: Pew Study on Mormons in America.

Learn more about the results of this survey of Mormons in America.

See infographic from the Deseret News article.

Pew Mormon Study Highlights Christianity.

How Do I Find Christ?

Mormon missionaries are usually 19-21 years old. By treating them as stupid and incompetent, it leaves the idea that young adults aren’t mature enough to do anything important, to be smart, or to make a contribution in the world.

Mormon missionaries know the Gospel of Jesus Christ very well.

In the musical, two young missionaries are sent to Uganda, in Africa, to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, they learn their training is no help when they face the poverty and hardships there. One of them doesn’t even really know anything about his religion, so he just makes up things, using Star Wars and Lord of the Rings mythology as if it were the Book of Mormon teachings.

Now, here’s where they show they don’t know how to do their homework. Mormons probably have the best youth education program around. Studies show Mormon teens can intelligently discuss their religion better than kids from any other religion. If you’ve ever gone to church with a Mormon friend, you can probably guess why that is. Not only do they attend a basic worship service aimed mostly at adults, so it isn’t watered down into feel-good religious teachings, but they also speak in those meetings. Anyone twelve and older can be asked to give a sermon, which Mormons call talks. You see, Mormons are a lay church. That means everyone is a volunteer. Since the bishop (like a lay pastor) has a family and a regular non-church job, he doesn’t give a sermon every week. Instead, two adults give talks, and the teenagers also speak once a year or more. If there are enough teens, there are teen speakers every week. If not, they are assigned periodically throughout the year.

Giving a talk means the teens have to study the assigned topic in order to write their own talk. In addition, they are often asked to teach their youth classes, which requires a lot of study and preparation.

Then there are the classes. Every Sunday, teens attend the basic worship service, a Sunday School class that focuses on the scriptures in a four year rotation (two years are spent on the Bible, one on the Book of Mormon, and one on Church History and the Doctrine and Covenants) and one Young Men or Young Women class. This last class is often more focused on practical application of Christian living.

Every weekday morning during the school year, Mormon teens study the gospel in an academic-style religion class, usually held very early in the morning before school. In addition, they have a weeknight activity where they put gospel principles into actual practice. For instance, if they learned about service on Sunday, they might do a service project on Wednesday. If they learned to dress modestly on Sunday, Wednesday might be devoted to learning how to sew modest skirts. Then there are weekend activities, youth conferences, and spiritual camps.

If that isn’t enough, each family teaches the gospel on Monday nights to their own families, with family members taking turns doing the teaching. They have a daily scripture study as a family and regular prayers.

Once they finish high school they attend the academic-style seminary, where they study the gospel in great depth most days. These are often held on or near college campuses.

Before leaving on a mission, a young man or woman must be interviewed and shown to know his religion and to be living it. He attends training before he goes.

Does it seem likely to you a Mormon nineteen-year-old is going to get to Africa not knowing the difference between the Book of Mormon or Bible and Star Wars? Just a few minutes of homework would have told the creators of the show that they were on the wrong track. Very few religions put their children, teens, and young adults through such rigorous training. Not only do they have to have read their scriptures all the way through multiple times, but they spend more time studying and practicing their religion than do most people.

Mormons trust their young adults with the very important work of teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even a three-year-old can be asked to give a talk to other children and by the time they are in college, they are considered mature and responsible enough to do the most important work there is–testifying of Jesus to the world. The creators of the musical seem to think young adults are only silly kids who can’t do important work properly, can’t know what they believe, and can’t be trusted to share Christ’s gospel. Othewise, they wouldn’t have portrayed them as people who know nothing. Whether you’re Mormon or not, if you’re a teenager or young adult, you should be offended by this attitude.

The musical gets a whole lot more wrong than just the missionaries or even the Mormons. Next article we’ll talk about how they get Christianity wrong in general.

My new life as a Mormon had me very busy. I’d always been a shy kid, more comfortable in a corner with a book than out in the middle of the action, but being a Mormon got me out of my corner. Not that I didn’t still read a lot or enjoy my time alone, but I found myself with a lot of new friends and a lot of new things to do.

As you’ve been reading this series of articles on how to find out what church to join, you might have wondered what your life would be like. There would probably be a lot of changes, both to your schedule and to your lifestyle, but how much depends on how you were living before you became a Mormon. My schedule changed, but my beliefs were already a lot like those of the Mormons, so a lot of that sort of thing didn’t change.

Let’s start with the schedule. Mormon teens are really, really busy. You’ve read about some of the things they do already, but let’s review them. First, you would be going to church on Sunday. Mormons take church attendance really seriously, believing it is a commandment to keep the Sabbath Day holy and to attend church. It’s important to study the gospel, take the sacrament (communion) and to be around others who share your beliefs. Church is three hours on Sunday. It includes a basic worship service and then two classes. For teens, these classes are Sunday School and Mutual. Sunday School classes have both boys and girls in them and if there are enough teens, they divide by age. Here, they study one book of scripture a year—Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants/Church History. After four years, they start over.

The second class is called Mutual. The class for girls is known as Young Women’s and the class for boys is called Young Men’s. These are also divided by age if there are enough teens. In this class, teens learn how to apply the gospel to their everyday lives. After all, you’re not just a Mormon on Sundays. You’re expected to live the way God asks you to every day, but it can be tricky sometimes to figure out how to make it all work out in everyday life.

The rest of the Sabbath Day would be spent doing spiritual things. You might read your scriptures, work on the church’s youth awards (more on that later), visit your grandparents, write in your journal, or scrapbook your favorite pictures so you can remember your teen years. Whatever you choose to do will help bring you closer to God. You won’t shop, go to parties, or do other lightweight things. You’ll have all week to do those.

Now for the rest of the week. Mormon teens live pretty normal lives. They wear fashionable clothes, go to school, hang out with friends, enjoy parties…it’s just that they do it with standards. The standards might seem challenging at first but after a while they seem natural and you start to realize your life is much better without the things you can no longer do. It’s the kind of life that lets you feel peaceful and focused on things that really matter. It’s a life that is focused on the future while still being fun today.

Mormon teens go to whatever school they choose. The Mormons don’t have their own schools (except for a few in other countries) until college. This means Mormon kids go to public school or private school or they homeschool. It’s up to their families.

Mormons are big fans of getting a good education, so Mormon kids are taught to work hard at their schooling, however they get it. This will help them get good jobs and a good job gives them more choices in life. They learn that life, even in the teen years, is about setting priorities. When we focus on setting up for a great life later, we might spend a little more time working than other teens, but when they’re struggling with the results of their bad choices, we’ll be enjoying the rewards of our good ones.

So, being focused on good choices, Mormon teens try to avoid unhealthy choices if they’re living their religion. They don’t drink or smoke—not even when they’re adults—and they don’t take illegal drugs. They don’t watch immoral movies or television programs and they don’t listen to music with immoral lyrics. Once they start looking around, they realize that still leaves them with a lot of great choices for entertainment. It can become something of a game to see how many great moral things there are to do in the world and sometimes, when they can’t find what they want, they make their own moral fun. Many teens are surprised to find out that what they thought was corny is really a lot of fun, especially when they’re doing it with friends who know how to have good clean fun.

During the week, Mormon teens attend a weeknight activity just for teenagers. They have fun activities that also help them live the gospel—service projects, fun game nights, activities that teach something through a fun activity…They get a chance to spend time with kids who have their values and practice having fun in a safe way. The boys belong to the Boy Scouts of America and the girls have their own program. While the boys are earning their Scout badges, the girls are also completing goals and earning awards.

They also attend an early morning class (or during school hours in Utah) called seminary. It’s a class held on school days that teach the scriptures in a more in-depth way than a Sunday School class can. Teens find it a good way to start their day because it reminds them of how to live during the school day and it’s also a good way to meet the other Mormon kids in their school.

The important parts of being a Mormon teen though don’t involve the meetings and activities, the weekend dances and parties, or the other fun things Mormons do. It is about knowing for sure that God loves you and is watching over you. It’s being reassured that you are living the life He planned for you and that even though life can be pretty hard, it will all be worth it in the end. A Mormon teen with a testimony doesn’t wrestle with what is right or wrong. She knows, and if she isn’t sure, she knows how to pray and to ask God to guide her. This brings a peacefulness that can make the challenging teen years really special. It brings them the safety of knowing they won’t make terrible mistakes that will affect their entire lives.

Really, the best way to find out what it would be like if you were a Mormon teen is to make friends with a Mormon teen who has a testimony and really tries to live her religion. Watch how she lives and how it impacts her life. Ask her to tell you. Then think about whether you’d like to have what she has.

Mormon teens celebrate the birth of

Yes, Mormons celebrate Christmas. Mormon beliefs include accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior and so they celebrate His birth. They do a lot of spiritual things to celebrate, but most Mormon families also do the fun stuff associated with the more secular celebration. They’re just asked not to let that part become more important than the spiritual parts.

This means if you’re having a Christmas party, you can invite your Mormon friend. Mormons do go to parties—in fact, most of them are pretty big fans of parties, but they do have a few rules about the kinds of parties they will go to, especially if they’re teenagers. Here are the rules so you’ll know how to prepare:

Refreshments:

Mormon teens don’t drink alcohol, use drugs, or smoke. They don’t go to teen parties where people are doing those things, either, especially since it’s illegal, but also because they aren’t comfortable in that environment. If that’s the kind of party you have, don’t invite your Mormon friend because you’ll put her in an awkward position—but you might ask her to show you how to plan a different type of party one day so you can decide if her kind is more fun. You might be surprised.

Mormon teens don’t drink coffee or regular tea. (Herbal teas are okay, as long as there is no real tea in it.) They do drink sodas. Some Mormons choose not to drink sodas with caffeine, so ask your friend if you’re not sure. They can also drink other things, like juice or milk.

Music and Dancing:

Mormon teens are careful about the kinds of music they listen to. They can listen to most of the popular music but they try to avoid music with lyrics that send a bad message or music that stirs up the wrong kinds of feelings.

Your Mormon friend probably has a booklet called For the Strength of Youth. This book explains the moral standards Mormon teenagers try to live up to. You can ask your friend for a copy or read it online.

Read For the Strength of Youth.

This booklet will help you figure out what your friend is comfortable with at a party. The booklet talks about music and says:

“Choose carefully the music you listen to. Pay attention to how you feel when you are listening. Don’t listen to music that drives away the Spirit, encourages immorality, glorifies violence, uses foul or offensive language, or promotes Satanism or other evil practices.”

Give some thought to the music you’ll be playing at your party. There are a lot of great songs that meet those standards. Your Mormon friend doesn’t expect you to only play Christian music, but do listen to the words of the songs you are planning to play to see what they’re really saying. Then choose the ones that won’t offend anyone. There are so many choices you won’t have trouble finding moral music that is fun for everyone else. Your friend will probably have some you can borrow, as well.

Mormons are allowed to dance. In fact, most congregations hold regular free dances for their teens and their teenagers’ friends. Before going to them, you have to meet with a church leader for a few minutes and learn the rules. You’ll have to agree to obey them and you’ll get a little card that says you’ve promised to do that. The card lets you into the dances. If you attend a few, you’ll get a pretty good idea of what kind of party Mormons like. Just like everything else, though, there are standards for the dancing your Mormon friend will do. Here’s what For the Strength of Youth says:

“Dancing can be fun and can provide an opportunity to meet new people. However, it too can be misused. When dancing, avoid full body contact with your partner. Do not use positions or moves that are suggestive of sexual behavior. Plan and attend dances where dress, grooming, lighting, lyrics, and music contribute to a wholesome atmosphere where the Spirit of the Lord may be present.”

The secret, then, is to imagine God or Jesus at your dance as a chaperone. If you think your friend would still be willing to be there with God in the room, it’s probably okay. After all, Mormons believe the Holy Ghost is always with them as long as they are where the Holy Spirit is comfortable being. If the Holy Ghost flees, they do, too.

And speaking of chaperones…your Mormon teen will expect a chaperone to be present. It’s likely her parents will call your parents to make sure your parents will be monitoring the party.

It really makes a party easier when responsible adults are watching. How many times have you found yourself in an awkward situation at a party and wished there was an adult to stop it so you wouldn’t have to? When a parent is around, kids are not likely to drink, be destructive, or try to put you in an uncomfortable moral situation. You will be free to have fun without worrying that someone will get carried away and ruin everything.

Mormon teens have high moral standards, so they aren’t going to want to go to a party where most people are kissing. They prefer to keep things light—dance, eat, talk, play games…it’s safer and really, it’s more fun. You get to know a lot more people when you don’t pair off in a dark corner all night. The best way to keep that from happening is to have a plan for the evening. Keep things moving along and when people start wandering off on their own, get them back into the mix by announcing a new game or activity.

If you’ve never had the kind of party we’re talking about here, gather up a few Mormon friends, or other kids with high standards, and ask them to teach you how to do it. The planning is more fun in a group and the party will be more fun, too. Your friends can help you co-host it and watch for problems.

Now for the other parts of Christmas:

It’s perfectly okay to give your Mormon friend a Christmas gift, but don’t spend a lot of money on it. A lot of Mormon teens like simple gifts or even gift certificates—not to a store, but for time with you or a service from you. Be creative. Offer to do a little sewing if she can’t sew and you can. Give a book of coupons for help with algebra or a special outing in which you let her choose the activity,

You could even give her a gift certificate that says you will go to church with her three times. She’d rather have that than anything else, and it won’t cost you a dime. (Mormons don’t pass a collection plate, even.) You wouldn’t have to join or commit to anything but a chance to learn more about her beliefs and an important part of her life you might not know too much about.

So, Christmas is coming and your Mormon friend is celebrating with a  mixture of hymns, uplifting stories, scripture reading…and parties and gifts. Enjoy the season with her.

Mormon teens were able to explain to her that the purpose of life was to grow spiritually and to be tested, with the eventual ability to return to Heavenly Father if they keep the commandments. Other teens, she felt, were more vague about the purpose of life, which tended to be that they were supposed to be happy and feel good about themselves.

The difference between those things is part of the secret to why Mormon teens did better in the interviews. If the purpose of life is to be happy and have good self-esteem, it creates a very self-centered focus on life. Life turns out to be all about you, which is why some people are calling young people part of the Me generation. Mormon teens are taught it isn’t all about them and it isn’t all about this life. They have an eternal goal that requires hard work, sacrifice, and a focus on other people. Now, it just so happens that when you’re working hard, sacrificing, and focusing on other, you will be happy most of the time and you will have good self-esteem, but those are not the only focus.

Yes, God wanted us to be happy, but not in a worldly way. Happiness in a worldly way might mean you get to spend your teen years playing video games and hanging out at the mall. What Mormons are after is joy. They have a scripture that says that man is that he might have joy. Joy is different than plain old happiness. It is the feeling that comes when we make Jesus Christ the center of our world and let our love for Him determine how we will live.

Mormons believe we are saved by grace. Grace came to us because Jesus took on Himself our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane. That doesn’t mean we don’t have to pay any price for our sins; it just made it possible for us to be forgiven for them if we repent. He also died on the cross for us and then was resurrected. Because He overcame death, we can too. So grace allows us to live forever, to choose to repent of our sins, and to return to live with God if we are worthy. This gift of grace is given to everyone who has ever lived on the earth and there are no requirements and there are no actions required, not even believing in God. It is a free gift.

However, what’s free is pretty much never as amazing as what we can get when we’re willing to work for it. So, although living forever is a free gift, we can upgrade our eternal status by keeping the commandments. You can’t just work your way back into heaven, though. This is a little tricky. The truth is that when we love someone we want to make them happy and we want to be what they want us to be. Because we love God and Jesus Christ, we want to do what They’ve asked us to do and to be what they’ve asked us to be. The more we love Them, the more we want this and the easier obedience becomes. So our actions must come from love for God, not for the mere desire for rewards. If we do all the right things on the outside, but our hearts are wrong, we get nothing for it. If we love God and we’re doing what we’re supposed to do because we love Him, that’s when the rewards come.

God said that everyone who says “Lord, Lord” won’t get into Heaven (Matthew 7:21).To get into Heaven, you have to keep the commandments. This is because believing isn’t enough. Jesus also taught even the devils believe in Jesus. It does no good to believe in Him if you aren’t also willing to obey Him and if you don’t love Him.

All of this is part of a great plan of salvation God taught us and that we agreed to before we were born. Mormon teens know they lived with God before they were born. They were spirits there, but they were themselves. After living there and learning and deciding what kind of person they were going to be God taught them it was time to grow up and leave home for a while—just as you will someday. The place we’d be going was called Earth and we’d be born into families and get bodies. But we’d also be tested  here. We’d have trials and be expected to learn how to resolve them and overcome them.

This means Mormon teens don’t expect life to be always easy and fun. They know God won’t always step in to keep us from experiencing hardships because we wouldn’t  learn anything that way. They do know He is listening when they pray, and they know He will answer their prayers, but He won’t always answer them the way we ask Him to. God is in charge and knows what is best for us. He can see much further into the future than we can. Sometimes what we think we want is all wrong. Still, if He makes us suffer for a while or gives us something different than we asked for, He will be there to comfort and guide us. Mormon teens trust God.

Trusting God gives them hope. They know what He promised them—eternal happiness in His presence and the privilege of being with their families forever. They want this and they believe they are capable of getting it. It might be hard work, but Mormon teens aren’t afraid of hard work. They’ve grown up with it.

Can you see how all of this gives them hope? They are in charge of their eternal futures. That doesn’t mean everything on earth will happen just the way they want it, but if they do God’s will, serving God and serving others, they will get the very best God has to offer. It’s entirely up to them. No other person can keep them out of Heaven. God has told them exactly how to get there and they’ve confirmed it through personal prayer, not the promises of men. They’re in charge because they know God is in charge and will always keep His promises.

God makes covenants with His children. He sets the terms but if we do our part, He always does His part. This brings Mormon teens an extraordinary sense of stability, comfort, and hope for the future. It’s even more than just hope…it’s knowledge that their eternal life can be perfect.