Mexican, undocumented. . .Mormon?

Fronteras ^ | April 23, 2013 | Jack Rodolic

[greyfoxx39]

Since 2000, the number of Spanish-speaking members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the United States has doubled. Many of those Latino Mormons lack legal documentation, which poses a problem for the church.

Young Mormons are called to serve missions — two years on the road, trying to convert strangers to the faith. So what happens when Mormons without papers come of legal age, and set off on their missions?

Isaac’s story sheds some light on this quiet demographic. Isaac is his middle name. When his father, Rafael, was 17 years old in Mexico City, he got a job building a Mormon church. The local bishop took an interest in him, and they became fast friends.

“My dad decided to read the Book of Mormon and be baptized,” Isaac said.

Rafael was not alone: If the Mormon Church continues to grow at current rates, it will be majority Latin American by 2015.

Nine years later after Rafael converted, when Isaac was 18 months old, his family moved from Mexico to the U.S. When Isaac was 5, his father died in a car crash. Isaac immediately felt responsible for his mother and little sister.

“Do you see that little star?” Isaac asked his 2-year-old sister a few nights after the accident. “That’s dad. He’s watching over us right now. So don’t worry. I’m here to help you out.”

And he did. As a teenager, Isaac would slip $20 bills into his mother’s purse, money he earned mowing lawns. And when Isaac was 18, he was getting excited to set out on his Mormon mission. But then, his mother told him something completely unexpected.

“She told me, ‘I don’t know how to put this in words to you. You’re not a U.S. citizen. You are an illegal immigrant from Mexico,'" he said.

The Pew Research Center estimates there are more than 100,000 undocumented immigrants of working age in Utah, where Isaac lives. While those immigrants are filling the ranks of many churches, they are putting the Mormon church in a particularly tricky spot.

Tony Yapias is a Peruvian immigrant, a Mormon and a longtime community organizer in Salt Lake City. He says he has known hundreds of missionaries who lacked papers. The issue became critical, he says, in 2009, when immigration agents in an Ohio airport arrested a Latino missionary. “That had a profound impact in the church,” Yapias said. “It became a concern for parents, a concern for missionaries.”

The Mormon church declined to comment on this story, but it has clearly taken steps along the way to protect itself and its missionaries. In 2005, it backed an amendment by a Utah Senator to a federal law giving churches immunity for having undocumented immigrants do volunteer service, including serving missions. Over the years, the church has developed an evolving "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy on its undocumented missionaries.

“When the immigration issue started heating up, at some point the church knew they were undocumented, and they knew they could no longer send them outside the country on missions," Yapais said.

So by the time Isaac went on his mission, the church was encouraging these missionaries to accept assignments in the U.S., off airplanes, within a long drive from home.

On his mission in Denver, the problems Isaac faced were less legal and more spiritual.

“I remember being rejected constantly,” he said. “It was nonstop. We’d knock on the door and they’d insult us.”

But he found an open door at the home of Guadeloupe Paredes, a Mexican Mormon immigrant who had been inactive in the church for 24 years. She let Isaac speak with her daughters, who decided to be baptized. Paredes says one day, Isaac pulled out a picture of his father. “When I saw it,” she said, “I recognized Rafael. And I said 'I know this person.'” In fact, she knew him very well back in Mexico. It turns out Paredes’ father was the Mormon bishop in Mexico City who built the church alongside Isaac’s father and baptized him.

Paredes told Isaac stories about his father. Meeting her opened up a window into his father’s life, and his faith.

“When we let fear take over us, we lose faith, and when we lose faith, we don’t have a future,” Isaac said.

Two years later, Isaac is now applying for the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. If approved, he can go to college without fear of deportation.

/div

[Elsie]

I doubt it; as D13 is a Saint compared to her!

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Saundra,

“That is not an unusual greeting for Mormon Missionaries. It happens all over the world. Rock-throwing, spewing evil hate-filled language - and that’s from many so-called “Christians”.”

Even worse than all of that is CHRIST who also condemned false religions, like mormonism, in even WORSE language!!

Matthew 7:15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Matthew 15:8-9 “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”
Matthew 24:4-5, 24, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”

See Also...

Mark 13:21-22
Luke 11:52
Matthew 16:6-12
Matthew 23:15

[Tammy8]

I do believe that. I know a lady that didn’t find out until recently that her parents were here illegally for over 40 years. Her parents lied to the children about getting citizenship and many other things like where her father worked and that the house they thought was owned by the parents was actually rented. Now that the parents are elderly and the children are helping them with finances it has all come out. Strange thing is her parents could have became citizens under the last amnesty, they did qualify but for some odd reason didn’t do it.

When you set out to do something illegal you don’t necessarily tell even your own children the truth. The one thing most people don’t understand is once people come here illegally, lies and more illegal acts pretty much have to follow.

[District13]

“The hypocrisy in your statement makes me vomit.”

” . . . I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”

We had a perfectly lovely Sacrament service this morning. Walked around Temple Square yesterday - oh, how beautiful - tulips, jonquils, and the most glorious array of colorful flowers one has ever seen. Saw lovely families loving each other. There is no other place on earth so glorious as far as I am concerned.

God bless you.

[District13]

There are many great LDS Missionaries FROM Mexico who come here to serve, help, love and spread the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It would be sad if angry hate-filled people were rude to them here in America. Again, Jesus Christ is Lord, Savior, Redeemer, and soon-coming King. Amen.

[District13]

“Have a Nice Eternity.”

Thanks, I plan to. My hope is in Him, my Savior Jesus Christ, my Advocate with the Father.

“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us . . . Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.”

Does your heart not burn within you? Mine does. Wishing you the very best.

[District13]

I wish you would quote from LDS Scriptures rather than plow through other writings that are not accepted as Scripture by my Church. Of course, your quotes fit your agenda. How sad.

[greyfoxx39]

There are many great LDS Missionaries FROM Mexico who come here

Do any of them bother to come here legally? With visas, etc? That would be a real change.

The "good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ" has nothing to do with Joseph Smith's lies....there was no need of any "restoration".

[District13]

“Are you really Saundra?”

She was banned/zotted.

[svcw]

Just under a different name I see.

[ejonesie22]

Elsie is quoting your “prophets”. Are you disavowing the words of the very oracles of the father?.

[ejonesie22]

Reincarnation is not unusual on FR especially among LDS hacks...

[District13]

“Are you disavowing the words of the very oracles of the father?.”

Prophets are/were men. There was only One who ever lived on this earth who was perfect - Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

My point is that the anti-MormonISM folk on this site continue to dredge up so-called quotes and comments which are not accepted as LDS Scripture. It is underhanded, tricky, and sneaky.

[Elsie]

I wish you would quote from LDS Scriptures rather than plow through other writings that are not accepted as Scripture by my Church.

I sure you would!

Especially when QUOTES from your chosen religions LEADERS show such animosity and rancor.

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Ok; here is some of your 'scripture':

The Doctrine and Covenants

Section 132

Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Nauvoo, Illinois, recorded 12 July 1843, relating to the new and everlasting covenant, including the eternity of the marriage covenant, and also the plurality of wives (see History of the Church, 5:501–7). Although the revelation was recorded in 1843, it is evident from the historical records that the doctrines and principles involved in this revelation had been known by the Prophet since 1831.

.

.

.

58–66, Laws governing the plurality of wives are set forth.

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58 Now, as touching the law of the ^apriesthood, there are many things pertaining thereunto.

59 Verily, if a man be called of my Father, as was ^aAaron, by mine own voice, and by the voice of him that ^bsent me, and I have endowed him with the ^ckeys of the power of this priesthood, if he do anything in my name, and according to my law and by my word, he will not commit ^dsin, and I will justify him.

60 Let no one, therefore, set on my servant Joseph; for I will justify him; for he shall do the sacrifice which I require at his hands for his transgressions, saith the Lord your God.

61 And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood—if any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse ^aanother, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then is he justified; he cannot commit adultery for they are given unto him; for he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to no one else.

62 And if he have ^aten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore is he justified.

63 But if one or either of the ten virgins, after she is espoused, shall be with another man, she has committed adultery, and shall be destroyed; for they are given unto him to ^amultiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfil the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my Father continued, that he may be ^bglorified.

64 And again, verily, verily, I say unto you, if any man have a wife, who holds the keys of this power, and he teaches unto her the law of my priesthood, as pertaining to these things, then shall she believe and administer unto him, or she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord your God; for I will destroy her; for I will magnify my name upon all those who receive and abide in my law.

65 Therefore, it shall be lawful in me, if she receive not this law, for him to receive all things whatsoever I, the Lord his God, will give unto him, because she did not believe and administer unto him according to my word; and she then becomes the transgressor; and he is exempt from the law of Sarah, who administered unto Abraham according to the law when I commanded Abraham to take ^aHagar to wife.

66 And now, as pertaining to this law, verily, verily, I say unto you, I will reveal more unto you, hereafter; therefore, let this suffice for the present. Behold, I am Alpha and Omega. Amen.

[Elsie]

Thanks, I plan to. My hope is in Him, my Savior Jesus Christ, my Advocate with the Father.

If this is SO; how can you IGNORE what #52 has shown?

Are you disavowing your past Living Prophets words?

Does

As I have frequently told them, no man in this dispensation will enter the courts of heaven, without the approbation of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jun.

 

No; but the Lord Jehovah has decreed it. 

 

Brigham Young,

mean NOTHING to you?

[Elsie]

She was banned/zotted.

Do you know WHY?

[Elsie]

So many imperfect men that has run Mormonism; and yet you youngsters like the Kool-Aid®.

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Prophets are/were men. There was only One who ever lived on this earth who was perfect - Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

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In conclusion let us summarize this grand key, these “Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet”, for our salvation depends on them.

1. The prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything.
2. The living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works.
3. The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet.
4. The prophet will never lead the church astray.
5. The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time.
6. The prophet does not have to say “Thus Saith the Lord,” to give us scripture.
7. The prophet tells us what we need to know, not always what we want to know.
8. The prophet is not limited by men’s reasoning.
9. The prophet can receive revelation on any matter, temporal or spiritual.
10. The prophet may advise on civic matters.
11. The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich.
12. The prophet will not necessarily be popular with the world or the worldly.
13. The prophet and his counselors make up the First Presidency—the highest quorum in the Church.
14. The prophet and the presidency—the living prophet and the First Presidency—follow them and be blessed—reject them and suffer.

I testify that these fourteen fundamentals in following the living prophet are true. If we want to know how well we stand with the Lord then let us ask ourselves how well we stand with His mortal captain—how close do our lives harmonize with the Lord’s anointed—the living Prophet—President of the Church, and with the Quorum of the First Presidency.

Ezra Taft Benson

(Address given Tuesday, February 26, 1980 at Brigham Young University)     http://www.lds.org/liahona/1981/06/fourteen-fundamentals-in-following-the-prophet?lang=eng

[Elsie]

It is underhanded, tricky, and sneaky.

Oh?

I hate when stuff like that happens.

But; it DOES give those, whose chosen religious organization's teachings are EXPOSED, a chance to post what they've been taught as the 'truth' in rebuttal.

[Elsie]

It is underhanded, tricky, and sneaky.

 

 

Professor Robert Millet        teaching at the Mission Prep Club in 2004  http://newsnet.byu.edu/video/18773/  <-- Complete and uneditted

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Timeline...    Subject...

 

0:59           "Anti-Mormons..."

1:16           "ATTACK the faith you have..."

2:02           "We really aren't obligated to answer everyone's questions..."

3:57           "You already know MORE about God and Christ and the plan of salvation than any who would ATTACK you."

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"You already know MORE about God and Christ and the plan of salvation than any who would ATTACK you."

Here is a chance for YOU to show your tremendous knowledge instead of complaining about perceived unfairness.

[Elsie]

...continue to dredge up so-called quotes...

So called?

Are you asserting they are UNTRUE?

You wouldn't be the first MORMON to claim such; only to find out they were misinformed by their chosen religious organization, when they did the small amount of work needed to actually verify the accuracy of the quotes.