Confused by inaccurate representations, unique practices and common stereotypes surrounding The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — also known as the Mormon Church — some people don’t realize its members are Christians first and foremost.
This is one of the first points Bryan Saxon, active church member and vocal performance senior, made when explaining the key beliefs of the church.
Saxon serves as elders quorum president for the Baton Rouge Young Single Adult ward, or congregation, that includes the LDS Community Center on Dalrymple Drive.
Many student members of the church gather there on Sundays for a three-hour worship service where members take part in the teachings.
Saxon said active members of the church take the day of rest seriously.
“We use the time to meditate and be with our families and to focus on God,” he said. “I try not to do homework on Sundays. It can be inconvenient because I may have something big due on Monday, but I keep Sunday to focus on reading scriptures.”
Saxon said church members are supposed to have Monday nights set aside for family, and on Tuesday nights the community also has a Bible study.
“Since a lot of us are away from our families, we meet as students on Mondays,” he said. “We concentrate on spiritual thought, and we continue to learn in the gospel. We’ll also have an activity like basketball or volleyball.”
Saxon said active members are expected to follow a health code, which discourages smoking and drinking coffee, tea or alcohol in order to avoid addictions. Members are also expected to follow the law of chastity, which prohibits sex of any kind before marriage.
“Some people think our lives are terrible,” he said. “But most of us look at it as freeing us up from a lot of problems. I’ll hang out with friends who drink, and they wake up with hangovers, and I’m fine the next morning.”
As a community, Saxon said members often get together to play games, find service opportunities and host activities like hiking or a monthly dance in the LDS Community Center.
“Some people are surprised by what we can do,” Saxon said. “Some people go to a club to drink or whatever, but I love [to go to clubs] to dance. There’s no commandment against having fun. It just depends on what kind of fun you’re having.”
Kaeli Mallett, ward missionary and accounting sophomore, said one of the biggest stigmas she faces when telling people about her church is polygamy, although polygamy is not practiced in or condoned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Another church practice often seen as unusual is the missionary work active members are expected to fulfill.
When men turn 19 and women turn 21, they can choose to spend two years proselytizing — going out and spreading the word of the church to other communities.
Elder Benjamin Brockbank from Salt Lake City has been in Louisiana for about 15 months as a missionary.
Although it’s not mandatory, Brockbank said he chose to serve a mission after seeing the fulfillment it brought to his father, uncles and cousins.
“I chose to go because this is Jesus Christ’s church,” he said. “I wanted to be able to share that with others.”
Brockbank said he has enjoyed serving the different people and backgrounds contained within the University area.
“A lot of people we talk to, they’re just existing and they don’t have dreams or hope and they’re living by going through the motions,” he said. “But people on a college campus are grabbing life by the horns and seizing the day.”
Brockbank said if people would read the Bible and pray about their faith, they could find happiness and peace in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Our doctrine is truth from God,” Brockbank said. “We invite everyone to experiment upon it and ask the Father in Heaven if it’s true, and if it is, they will receive a witness.”
Saxon said the church is founded on the doctrines and teachings of Christ and is set up today with 12 apostles in the same way it was set up in Jesus’s time.
The church was restored through Joseph Smith, a respected prophet born in 1805 in Sharon, in Vermont.
Saxon said the church believes there is a prophet on the earth today named Thomas Monson, who serves as president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The church teachings rely on the Bible and another book of scripture called The Book of Mormon.
Mallett said The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ.
“It teaches us principles and about the atonement, which I enjoy the most,” Mallett said. “It allows all of us to find great peace in our lives. If we follow the example of Jesus Christ, we can be happy in this life and continue to be happy after we die.”
 
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Contact Morgan Searles at [email protected]