If I was to take the finally step on becoming Mormon which is baptisim. where would I go, to a temple (Ireland doesn’t have one as far as my knowledge is) or is there a baptismal room in the church? Would I have to go to England because that is the closest temple to me. I would really appreciate any help you can give me as I m kinda doing this on my own at the moment because I so far out in Sligo I dont think there are many Mormon missionaries out here and I cant for the love of God find the church! Thanks again.
5 Responses to “If I was to take the finally step on becoming Mormon which i…”
Diego Castro
2008-11-30 07:17:08
Hi Erica. Fortunately, Mormons are not usually baptized in temples. In many Mormon churches there is a baptismal room, just as you describe, but baptism can take place in any body of water, as long as there is enough water for full immersion. For example, I believe your city, Sligo, is next to the ocean. If a baptismal font is not available in your city, you could be baptized there.
If you do decide to be baptized, you'll have quite a story to tell! It's not often that people want to learn about the church but can't find the missionaries. Usually, it's the missionaries that can't find people who want to learn about the church! :)
As you're trying to learn more about Mormonism, you might be interested in the following Internet resources:
I assume you already have the Old and New Testament, which are important scriptures in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "Mormon" Church). You can read some of our other scriptures online. I recommend reading some of the Book of Mormon, as it is probably new to you. Alma 32 and 3 Nephi 11 are some of my favorite chapters in that book.
Hope these links help. Please don't hesitate to send more questions if you have them. Best of luck to you.
Diego Castro
2008-11-30 07:21:55
For those who are interested, I also sent this email to Erica. Hopefully it can help others as well:
Hey Erica,
Let me give you all the information you need to contact the church. Here goes:
To see where the nearest Mormon chapel is to your house: http://maps.lds.org
I think you're right that the church is small in your area, but there are Mormons there. I searched the church database, and surprisingly there is no address listed for the Mormon congregation in Sligo, though such a congregation does exist. Mormons in your city may not have a chapel yet, but may be meeting in someone's house. I've lived in areas where the church was not well established before; for me, at least, it was exciting to be part of building up the church in areas like these.
The database did have what might be a partial address: Ard Mhuire\\. The congregation, wherever it meets, meets at 11:00 am on Sundays. The president of the branch is President Lewis. He can be reached at 353 74-974-4975 and could probably tell you where they meet.
The address of the Ireland Dublin Mission, to which Siglo belongs: The Willows, Finglas Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11, Ireland. (As of 2006) If you write to the "mission president," he might be able to send representatives of the church to meet you.
To request a visit from missionaries by telephone: 1-888-537-7700 (This is a U.S. number. I don't know if it would work from Ireland).
By the way, my sister was a Mormon missionary in Ireland. I'm going to CC her on this email.
Don't hesitate to let me know if you have any further questions or need any further information.
Diego Castro
2008-12-01 01:34:24
Here's another message I sent to Erica. I think this might count as a miracle!
Hey Erica,
I think I may have the information you're looking for! There are over 60,000 Mormon missionaries in the world, and it just so happens that my sister served in Sligo. It was her last and favorite area. She calls it "her baby." I truly think this must be more than a coincidence; it's miraculous.
When she lived in Sligo 1 1/2 years ago, there were 22 members in the local congregation. At that time, they met in a house at 2 The Mews, Mail Coach Road. There were four Mormon missionaries serving in Sligo at that time: two sister missionaries, and one elderly couple.
The elderly couple has probably returned home since then. It may be that the congregation meets at the same address, but they might have also found a new location. You can call the mission president, though, and get the current address. His number is 01-830-6899, the same number in the Book of Mormon you found in the library. By the way, I talked to my sister, and she thinks she might have been the one that left that Book of Mormon in the library for you to find! It seems God's really looking out for you! :)
Just so you know, there is a Mormon congregation of about 35 to 50 people in Mullingar, and another in Gallway. There are many larger Mormon congregations in Dublin, where the church is well established.
I don't know if Mormonism is the second fastest growing religion in the world, but it is true that it is growing very quickly. One non-Mormon sociologist predicts that within a century Mormonism will become the newest world religion since the foundation of Islam. Throughout our history, Mormon conversion rates have been highest in different parts of the world. During the 19th century, there were many Mormon converts in England and Northern Europe. Unfortunately, most of these converts immigrated to the United States, leaving few Mormons in Europe. That's why many American Mormons are very European looking today. During the 20th century, many people in South America converted to Mormonism. There are over a million baptized Mormons in Brazil alone, where my wife is from. Towards the end of the 20th century and in the last decade, conversion rates have been very high in sub-Saharan Africa and the countries of the former Soviet Union.
The reason I give you this history is because, while the Church certainly is growing in Ireland, as my sister can attest, it is still in its infancy in many places because most of the European Mormon converts of the 19th century immigrated to the U.S. I don't want to place any undue pressure on you by any means, but if you were to choose baptism, you could do a lot of good for the branch of the Church in Sligo. My wife and I used to go to a Mormon congregation that had about 350 people. As you can imagine, with so many people, every "calling" (Church responsibility) was already filled. There were not as many opportunities to make a difference in people's lives because 349 other people were already trying to make a difference. We recently were asked to begin attending a smaller branch with about 50 people to help establish the Church. Suddenly, there are many, many opportunities to help others; there are far more needs that are not met. This church service has brought my wife and I a lot of joy. For this reason, we prefer small congregations to large ones.
The email I gave you before is not correct. My sister's real email address is *************@*****.***, and I'm CCing her on this message. I'm sure she'd love to communicate with you and to share memories of Ireland! I suggest that you keep trying to contact the mission president at 01-830-6899. If 2 The Mews, Mail Coach Road is near your house, you might try visiting that address some Sunday around 11:00, in case your local congregation is still meeting there.
Best of luck to you, Erica! I'm excited for you. :)
Tom
2008-12-15 01:18:01
Hi Erica, I'm not sure about the date of this post, but I'll answer it in the hope that if its an old post it may help someone in the future. The church is growing in Ireland and there have been chaples built around the country. However, for members of the church in rural areas it may be too far to travel to the nearest chaple so members would normaly form what is called a branch and they would meet each Sunday in a deignated meeting house. I think you may have gone wrong when you searched for [the mormom church] as the official name of the church is [the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]. This is the name that most people in ireland would know us by and is the name that you will find in the phone book etc. You will also find us on the net at http://www.lds.org. The phone number for the church in Ireland is 01 8306899, if you ring this number it will connect you to the mission office and they will be able to tell you where your nearest chaple is located and help you with any other questions that you may have. Hope this helped Erica, take care.
Anonymous
2009-04-22 21:10:15
Hi there is now a church in Sligo!! There is also one in Galway and Cork and Limrick!! All of them have baptismal fonts.
If you do decide to be baptized, you'll have quite a story to tell! It's not often that people want to learn about the church but can't find the missionaries. Usually, it's the missionaries that can't find people who want to learn about the church! :)
As you're trying to learn more about Mormonism, you might be interested in the following Internet resources:
- Twice a year, the church holds a worldwide General Conference. You can listen to the sermons taught at the last General Conference online.
- You can also read the latest Chruch magazines for free online.
- I assume you already have the Old and New Testament, which are important scriptures in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "Mormon" Church). You can read some of our other scriptures online. I recommend reading some of the Book of Mormon, as it is probably new to you. Alma 32 and 3 Nephi 11 are some of my favorite chapters in that book.
Hope these links help. Please don't hesitate to send more questions if you have them. Best of luck to you.Hey Erica,
Let me give you all the information you need to contact the church. Here goes:
To request a visit from Mormon missionaries: http://www.mormon.org/question/talk/0,8554,796-1,00.html
To see where the nearest Mormon chapel is to your house: http://maps.lds.org
I think you're right that the church is small in your area, but there are Mormons there. I searched the church database, and surprisingly there is no address listed for the Mormon congregation in Sligo, though such a congregation does exist. Mormons in your city may not have a chapel yet, but may be meeting in someone's house. I've lived in areas where the church was not well established before; for me, at least, it was exciting to be part of building up the church in areas like these.
The database did have what might be a partial address: Ard Mhuire\\. The congregation, wherever it meets, meets at 11:00 am on Sundays. The president of the branch is President Lewis. He can be reached at 353 74-974-4975 and could probably tell you where they meet.
The address of the Ireland Dublin Mission, to which Siglo belongs: The Willows, Finglas Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11, Ireland. (As of 2006) If you write to the "mission president," he might be able to send representatives of the church to meet you.
To request a visit from missionaries by telephone: 1-888-537-7700 (This is a U.S. number. I don't know if it would work from Ireland).
To chat with a missionary online: http://www.mormon.orgask-a-question/chat-live
By the way, my sister was a Mormon missionary in Ireland. I'm going to CC her on this email.
Don't hesitate to let me know if you have any further questions or need any further information.
Hey Erica,
I think I may have the information you're looking for! There are over 60,000 Mormon missionaries in the world, and it just so happens that my sister served in Sligo. It was her last and favorite area. She calls it "her baby." I truly think this must be more than a coincidence; it's miraculous.
When she lived in Sligo 1 1/2 years ago, there were 22 members in the local congregation. At that time, they met in a house at 2 The Mews, Mail Coach Road. There were four Mormon missionaries serving in Sligo at that time: two sister missionaries, and one elderly couple.
The elderly couple has probably returned home since then. It may be that the congregation meets at the same address, but they might have also found a new location. You can call the mission president, though, and get the current address. His number is 01-830-6899, the same number in the Book of Mormon you found in the library. By the way, I talked to my sister, and she thinks she might have been the one that left that Book of Mormon in the library for you to find! It seems God's really looking out for you! :)
Just so you know, there is a Mormon congregation of about 35 to 50 people in Mullingar, and another in Gallway. There are many larger Mormon congregations in Dublin, where the church is well established.
I don't know if Mormonism is the second fastest growing religion in the world, but it is true that it is growing very quickly. One non-Mormon sociologist predicts that within a century Mormonism will become the newest world religion since the foundation of Islam. Throughout our history, Mormon conversion rates have been highest in different parts of the world. During the 19th century, there were many Mormon converts in England and Northern Europe. Unfortunately, most of these converts immigrated to the United States, leaving few Mormons in Europe. That's why many American Mormons are very European looking today. During the 20th century, many people in South America converted to Mormonism. There are over a million baptized Mormons in Brazil alone, where my wife is from. Towards the end of the 20th century and in the last decade, conversion rates have been very high in sub-Saharan Africa and the countries of the former Soviet Union.
The reason I give you this history is because, while the Church certainly is growing in Ireland, as my sister can attest, it is still in its infancy in many places because most of the European Mormon converts of the 19th century immigrated to the U.S. I don't want to place any undue pressure on you by any means, but if you were to choose baptism, you could do a lot of good for the branch of the Church in Sligo. My wife and I used to go to a Mormon congregation that had about 350 people. As you can imagine, with so many people, every "calling" (Church responsibility) was already filled. There were not as many opportunities to make a difference in people's lives because 349 other people were already trying to make a difference. We recently were asked to begin attending a smaller branch with about 50 people to help establish the Church. Suddenly, there are many, many opportunities to help others; there are far more needs that are not met. This church service has brought my wife and I a lot of joy. For this reason, we prefer small congregations to large ones.
The email I gave you before is not correct. My sister's real email address is *************@*****.***, and I'm CCing her on this message. I'm sure she'd love to communicate with you and to share memories of Ireland! I suggest that you keep trying to contact the mission president at 01-830-6899. If 2 The Mews, Mail Coach Road is near your house, you might try visiting that address some Sunday around 11:00, in case your local congregation is still meeting there.
Best of luck to you, Erica! I'm excited for you. :)