Hi, I'm Lisa Marie

I'm a Mormon and love it!

About Me

I'm a wife, but not a mother yet. I'm a favorite aunt to 18 nieces and nephews. I'm a daughter and a sister. I'm a singer, piano player, Harry Potter fan, softball player, college graduate, lover of flowers, bug phobic, manager, clean freak, center of attention, loyal friend, runner, hiker, shoeaholic, blogger, comedian, photoshop junky, and I'm a Mormon!

I'm a brand new military wife. My husband and I just moved to our new station. I have never lived away from my family, but I remember going to church the for the first time in our new branch,
a branch is a group that meets together every Sunday to learn about the Gospel and renew our covenants with Heavenly Father, and thinking, "This feels like home." Going to church is the same everywhere in the world because the Spirit is the same everywhere in the world. I love how the Gospel makes me feel like I'm home.

Why I am a Mormon

This is a pretty simple question, but when I stopped to think about it a million things went through my head. For example, I'm Mormon because I know I will be eternally happy for making sacred covenants with my Heavenly Father and Savior while on this earth or I'm Mormon because I've felt the Spirit bear testimony to me of the truthfulness of the things taught in church or I'm Mormon simply because that is what I was taught to be since the day I was born. While all of those reasons are very true and have contributed to my membership, I can remember the day I really decided for myself why I wanted to be Mormon. I was 14 years old and I was feeling bad about myself, like every teenage girl does, but something powerful happen at a particularly low point in my life. I felt my Heavenly Father's and my Savior's love for me. This wasn't just some soft, warm feeling. It was unlike anything else I have ever tasted in my soul. It was light. It was happiness. It was glory. It was pure truth. I knew from that moment on why I was a Mormon. I'm a Mormon because I'm a literally a daughter of loving, magnificent Heavenly Father, who knows me personally. I'm a Mormon because I have chosen with my whole heart and mind to serve my Heavenly Father and Savior because I want to show Them how much I love Them back.

Personal Stories

Can you think of a specific challenge in your family that Gospel Principles helped overcome?

When I was 17 yrs old my oldest brother, John, passed away. He was only 27 yrs old and left behind a wife and young son. Through this challenge my family could not have overcome the pain and sadness they way we did without the knowledge of Gospel Principles.

If you have ever had anyone close to you pass away, you know the pain that strikes in every part of your being, it hurts. It hurts for a long time and even though we learn to still be happy again and move on, no matter how much time passes there's that pain still. I learned when my brother passed that it was okay to let myself hurt, it was okay to be sad. I didn't need to be so strong all of the time. Sometimes there are challenges that happen in life that we have to rely on others or we break. And I had to rely on the Lord.

About nine months before my brother passed, I was praying to my Heavenly Father to know what scripture I should use that year to be sort of a theme in my life. A couple days later when I was reading my scriptures I came across Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding." This scripture struck me with such force that I knew this was suppose to be my theme scripture for that year. So for the next nine months I tried to do exactly that, trust in the Lord. In every experience I went through in those nine months those words would echo in my mind.

About a week after John had passed away those words in Proverbs echoed in my mind and I realized why the Lord wanted me to practice trusting in Him. When my brother passed away, I could have asked my Heavenly Father, "Why? Why did this have to happen to us?" But that question never crossed my mind because for nine months I had been preparing myself to Trust in the Lord. Instead I was ready to bring comfort to other family members around me that needed it. I felt the peace that comes from the knowledge that family is eternal and I knew that I hadn't seen John for the last time. Although the pain is still there and always will be, I know that we will be with John again after this life.

Through this challenge the Gospel Principles brought hope in a time of great need. It's true, the Gospel, it is true.

How I live my faith

I live my faith by asking Heavenly Father what He would have me do. I pray every morning and night and throughout the day to help align my will with God's will. When I was 20 years old I was given a calling in church to be over compassionate service. This taught me a lot about what it means to live what I know to be true. When Jesus Christ was on this earth, He lived a life of service, He never forgot about the one sheep that had lost it's way. I tried to remember His example as I served as the head of compassionate service. I learned to listen to what my Heavenly Father wanted me to do day by day. I know that little acts of kindness and service have the greatest impact on someone who is feeling lost. That is how I live my faith, I serve.

Why are only some Mormons allowed into temples? Is there something secret going on in Mormon Temples? What goes on in Mormon Temples?

Lisa Marie answered...

I'm going to use an analogy to to illustrate this first questions a little bit better. Let's talk about college. When you are preparing to apply for college you have to meet certain criteria before being accepted. You have to have good grades, be a well rounded person, be around 18 yrs old or older, and tested well on the ACT or SAT. It's the same principal for our temples. A person must meet certain criteria before entering. They must live a clean life, pay tithing 10% of their income, be a certain age or older, and have kept other important covenants like baptism and partaking the sacrament each week.

As for the second question, there is a big difference between the words "secret" and "sacred". There is nothing secret happening in our temples, anyone who has met the criteria to enter the temple is welcome to come.

My husband and I were married in the temple, we made sacred covenants to each other for all eternity. What we do in the temple is make and keep sacred covenants. Despite the rumors and speculation about Mormon temples, I can promise you that nothing happens within those walls that does not reflect the way we live our lives everyday.
Don answered...

Recently I taught a Sunday School lesson about the Apostle Paul who was cast into jail because of being falsely accused of taking non-jews into the holy parts of the ancient temple. The penalty for doing so was death. It caused me to think of the sacredness of the temple, and that people throughout history have gone through a preparation process in order to approach God through temple worship.

In our time, both members of the church and non-members who have not prepared are turned away from the sacred parts of the temple not because of secrets, but rather due to the sacred nature of the temple and the preparation required to go there. Anyone can go to the temple, given they prepare themselves and demonstrate that preparation in a visit with those responsible for qualifying persons for entrance to the temple.

I love the peace that comes from being in the temple, having prepared myself to approach the Lord in His house. I feel His Spirit there. I am grateful that others who are there have prepared themselves in the same way.

Anyone who wants to know more about the nature of the temples can ask any missionary what it takes to qualify to go there. My personal experience and witness is that it is worth qualifying oneself and experiencing the beauty and peace that is constantly there.

Do you really believe there is a prophet like Moses alive today?

Michael answered...

Sure I do. People have been deceived into believing that there are no prophets throughout biblical history. The first thing the adversary does when there is a prophet on the earth is to try to convince you that there are no such things or that the time has passed.

Think about it...when Noah preached to the people and prophesied that the flood was coming, they laughed at him. Even amongst the Jews, they disregarded and/or imprisoned Isaiah and Jeremiah because they prophesied that Israel would be carried away captive into Babylon.

I believe that the thing that one must overcome in order to believe that there are prophets alive today is get over the mindset that tells you that prophets have to be splitting the Red Sea or calling down fire from heaven in order to be considered as such. For every great miracle wrought by a biblical prophet there are many more who simply preached about the coming Messiah. Think of the prophets like Joel, Amos, Hosea and Habbakuk. These were prophets sent by God, but they were "boring" because they weren't performing miracles or commanding armies. The people disregarded their counsels at their spiritual peril.

Let us not repeat their error by not believing that prophets can't exist today. Let's instead get on our knees and receive our own personal revelation about the ones here amongst us.