Hi, I'm Michael

I'm a Mormon.

About Me

Hi, I'm Mike. I'm a husband, father of five, Marketing major with a MBA working in the Financial Services industry. I love to read biographies and I love the History Channel. My hobbies are my children and people.

Why I am a Mormon

I was born into the Church and enjoyed all of the children and youth activities. You might say, my anchor was set in my early years of childhood and have always tried to adhere to the Church principles from an early age. When I turned 19, I chose to serve a mission and was called to serve in southern Spain. I found out that people throughout the world have one major objective in common - they want to be happy. I immediately fell in love with the people of Spain and still cherish the experiences I gathered there. In my life today, I have found extreme happiness, contentment and peace by adhering to the principles of the Gospel. It doesn't mean life will be without trials, but it has instilled in me the faith to reach beyond the point I can see. When I have have exercised faith and patience, my faith has increased to give me strength to overcome life's challenges.

How I live my faith

The beautiful aspect of the Church is that everyone has the chance to contribute and help one another. There are always chances to serve, to share the burdens of one another and to grow as we learn from the strengths of one another.

Why was a Restoration of the Gospel needed? Haven’t we always had the Bible?

Joshua answered...

The Restoration is needed because of the Apostasy. The apostasy is a time foretold of by the prophet in the Bible Amos. In Amos 8:11-12

" Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it."

Amos tells us that there will be a time when the gospel, or "the word of the Lord" will be lost. That time came when Jesus Christ and the Apostles were killed. Even though we still had the bible, there were no prophets or apostles to keep the gospel pure and true. Man was left with their own interpretation of the Bible. As we all know, there are thousands of christian churches all based on the bible, BUT all teach different doctrines. When Christ was on the earth He did not set up thousands of different churches so that there was something different for everyone. He had one church. His church. The prophet Peter tells us that there will be a restitution or a restoration of the gospel, in Acts 3:21

" Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."

In short, the gospel was lost during the Apostasy and the Restoration brought it back. So, now we have the same gospel that Christ set up when he was on the earth. :)
Todd answered...

Well, the Bible hasn't always existed, at least not in it's present form. The Old Testament is a collection of writing from ancient prophets and the New Testament is a collection of Christ's followers and apostles. Think about this, for thousands of years, God revealed truth about the purpose of life and direction of how we should live. Why, then did it stop?

After the Ascension of Christ into heaven, his Apostles carried on: teaching, building the church, acting under the authority of Christ. Not long into the growth of this newly founded church, others felt they knew better than these men (both in and out of the new Christian faith). Many leaders rejected the teaching of Paul and the other apostles (or at least distorted their meaning and intent) and taught things they found to be pleasing to their followers. This rejection/dstortion is called the Great Apostasy. It led to the death of the apostles and the withdrawal of God's authority on the earth. As a result, the Christian world claimed the Canon was closed and that we had all that needed to said from God.

The Restoration literally was the return of God's authority on the earth. We believe that God speaks to man and that the Canon is not closed, nor will it ever be. Revelation is the key to our salvation, because it is the only way we can truly come to know of the redeeming power of our Savior. That is why we needed the Restoration.

What are some things that tell to you there is a God?

Scott answered...

Everything in nature tells me that there is a God. The universe is so ordered, so perfectly in harmony. If you really study our wonderful little planet, you'll learn that it is so amazingly unique to be able to sustain life, that there is just no way the earth and its inhabitants were merely created by chance.
The most important reason I know there is a God, though, is because I have felt his presence in my life. Through prayer, I have built a relationship with him, and as such, I love him and know that he loves me.