Hi, I'm Mary.

I'm an engineering major. I love Diet Coke. I'm a Mormon.

About Me

I am a junior in chemical engineering and plan on going to medical school to be a pediatric anaesthesiologist. Currently, I am serving a mission in Idaho. I am from Tennessee. I absolutely love the south and think there is nothing better than football and fried food. I love the humidity and the heat. I love going to movies. I love reading just about anything. My favorite TV show is Bones. I absolutely love Diet Coke.

Why I am a Mormon

I did grow up in the church, but I had to gain my own testimony of whether or not I should continue in this church. While I was in high school, I saw my older sister struggling with her testimony and making some choices that do not coincide with following Christ. I saw how it brought her down and how miserable it made her and still makes her. Misery loves company and she would want the rest of her siblings to make the same choices, but I knew that I did not want to be unhappy like her. The only way to happiness is through the gospel of Jesus Christ restored back on the earth today through the prophet Joseph Smith and led today by President Thomas S. Monson. I might now always be perfect at following, but that's the beauty of the Atonement that through Christ, we can change.

Personal Stories

Why do Mormons go on missions?

We go on missions because the message of Christ's church being restored on the earth through the prophet Joseph Smith is the most important one anyone will ever hear. Men serve missions because it is a responsibility to those who hold the priesthood. Women can if they want to serve a mission. I served a mission because I felt a prompting from the Holy Ghost that I needed to and so I started preparing to serve one. I never planned on it. Frankly, I told everyone growing up that I would never serve a mission, but after some family trials my sophomore year of college, I felt the need to serve.

Why/How do you share the gospel with your friends?

I wish I had done a better job with sharing the gospel before I served a mission. I never really gave sharing the gospel with my friends a second thought. However, now I realize how many people think that they can just let their light shine through their example and that their friends will ask questions. I relate that to if you hear your friends talking about going to a movie and which one at what time, you will not invite yourself, but you will stand around and hope that they invite you. It's the same with the gospel. They may hear you talking about it, but won't know to ask more unless you invite them.

How I live my faith

I live my faith by trying to do the best that I can by following Jesus Christ and what he asks of us. I am definitely not perfect at it, but thank goodness for the Atonement Christ made for us, so that we could have our burdens lifted from us.

Why don’t women hold the priesthood in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? How do Mormon women lead in the Church?

Mary. answered...

I am not going to lie, I used to struggle with this question. All of my extended family either don't attend church anymore or not members of this faith. They think this church puts women down, but it is so the opposite. Men and women have different responsibilities. Women are to care and nurture their children, and men get to serve in a differenct capacity by administering the priesthood. The priesthood is a service that men get to perform for others. They cannot administer the priesthood on themselves, just for others. Men cannot administer the priesthood without Christ-like attributes such as faith, hope, charity, and love. Women get to have these attributes through motherhood and men get to have these attributes through serving through the priesthood.
Leeny answered...

This is a question I had to really consider before joining the Church. My mother is a non-denominational chaplain, and both my sisters are pastors. Female leadership in church settings is very important to my family.

It is to me as well. I think many people become offended when they learn that only men hold the priesthood because they misunderstand it. The priesthood is a tool given to men in order that they might serve others more. It does not in any way give them power or dominion over women. Those people who suppose the priesthood is a way to control others are deeply mistaken.

My husband is a priesthood holder, this means I am too. I have claim on my husband's priesthood power. Even more than he does. If I am sick, discouraged, or in need of help I can call upon my husband to give me a blessing through the priesthood that he holds. I then recieve many blessings because of my husband's worthiness to work in behalf of Christ. My husband is never able to give himself a blessing though. If he is sick or discouraged he must call on other priesthood holders to administer to him. My husband holds the priesthood so that he can bless me and our child - never himself.

The priesthood is the power of Christ on the earth. It allows those who hold it to serve their families in the same way Christ served the Church. Did Christ do any deed for himself during his earthly ministry? No. Christ spent all his energy serving the people. This is what the priesthood does for my husband. It infuses him with Christ's compassion and ability to love, and then my husband is able to use that celestial love in our family.

Why don't women also recieve this special gift then? The simple answer is women don't need it. As women we are innately endowed with compassion, selflessness, and love. Think about the way a mother loves her child. I believe there is nothing more pure and similar to Christ's love for us, than a mother's love for her children. Women naturally have the ability to love as Christ does.

In an ideal situation, which is what God always intended for us, there are two partners in marriage. There is the husband and father, a priesthood leader who can be called upon to administer blessings and serve in Christ's name. And there is also the wife and mother, who is blessed with the ability to love as Christ loves and sacrifice for her family. These are two seperate and divinely appointed roles. Each complementing the other. Both make a complete home.

Women do not hold the priesthood because they do not need it. Women have other God-given powers that raise them up to the task they are called to. A man is appointed to serve his wife and children - it is the power of the priesthood that enables him to do this.

I am grateful to have a husband who is worhty to use the priesthood in my behalf. It has blessed me many times and I know that it is a special gift from God - not only to my husband, but to me as well.

Does The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints endorse political parties?

Emrol answered...

Members of the Church are encouraged to be actively involved in their communities. This involvement may even include political activity. The Church is made up members who hold differing political views, positions and opinions. While the Church will support any measure or position that will allow for the free practice of our religion, and the strengthening and supporting of families in general, it does not endorse any specific person involved in political activity, platform, or party.