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

[Albion Wilde]

Just another adorable human interest story to support Obama's Cloward-Piven Permanent Democrat Majority immigration policies. And -- they throw in the Mormon angle because of Obama's latest failed GOP opponent. Give me a break.

I'm in the wrong business -- I should be writing propaganda, because I certainly know it when I see it.

[Albion Wilde]

I personally do not know any church group who would knowingly break the law.

You don't live in the northeast, do you?

[rovenstinez]

For what it’s worth, the Mormons in Mexico and in Central America are largely empty buildings. They really don’t have much to brag about. If they get adherents, people are going for the THINGS that the Mormon church has to offer them, a Marriage in Heaven, or some financial help to get buy. Not many are converting to their book of Joseph Smith

[Slovak and Catholic]

Beware of Mormons. They will try to do anything to attract you to their faith. In my country (Slovakia) they were offering free English courses with native speakers and some weird course about quitting smoking.

However they have managed to get about 150 people of 5, 3 milion of Slovaks so far.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Perhaps you have, without noting it, pinpointed the very problem with churches; the need for endless streams of cash to support social and building programs. To get cash one must FOLLOW current trends-gay marriage-rather than lead or stand against such trends. For if a pastor offends a donor the latter will not give cash. Read the financial statements-if you can trust them-and rejoice at the large overhead and expense ledger.

In this day and age it is probably better to enter into lay groups for prayer and study.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Perhaps you have, without noting it, pinpointed the very problem with churches; the need for endless streams of cash to support social and building programs. To get cash one must FOLLOW current trends-gay marriage-rather than lead or stand against such trends. For if a pastor offends a donor the latter will not give cash. Read the financial statements-if you can trust them-and rejoice at the large overhead and expense ledger.

In this day and age it is probably better to enter into lay groups for prayer and study.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

..... worth reposting for continued discussion

Mormon Missionary Deception Method:

1. Convince you of their sincerity
2. Trick you into expressing faith first in the Book of Mormon by praying and asking for a sign (this takes you off the objective ground of Biblical truth and puts you into subjective ground of feelings)
3. Convince you that the Bible has errors in its translation
4. Trick you into expressing faith in the prophet Joseph Smith
5. Trick you into expressing faith in the Restoration of the “Gospel” (see Galatians Chapter one)
6. Get you all the way into the baptismal font...

..........................................................

7. ONLY THEN... you will learn the true DEVIANT doctrines of
Mormonism. At this point, it is too late! You only have
feelings as a basis of truth! You will believe anything.

..........................................................

Such as the following “truths” taught in mormonism ...

... God used to be a regular man, but became God.
... The Jesus of mormonism was a created spirit being who became one of the FOUR mormon earth gods
... Speaking of gods, there are trillions of mormon gods out there!
... Speaking of gods, you can be a God with your own planet!
... It will take work, lots of works to attain the god-level - not unlike any multi-level marketing scheme.
... Speaking of levels, heaven has three levels.
... Did we mention mormonism believes in a Mother God too? More than one often.
... SHE is eternally pregnant
... SHE pops out spirit children who will some day get a human body on earth
... SHE and the father god have celestial sex continually.
... All the trillions of gods in the mormon pantheon get together regularly over spring break in Kolob Beach to talk
... Did we mention one of the works you have to do is give 10%?
... Did we mention your bishop will audit you?
... Did we mention you will have to complete Masonic Temple rituals that involve strangers touching your private parts?
... Did we mention you will have magic underwear you must always wear?
... Did we mention we believe in eternally polygamy?
... Did we mention that in eternity, all single females will be assigned to a male god?

... and on and on...

Did we mention that swallowing all this may take swallowing
lots of prescription drugs (Utah has the highest usage of
prescription tranquilizers).

Once in, you have to accept it ALL to move up the chain
towards Godhood.

ampu

[greyfoxx39]

And -- they throw in the Mormon angle because of Obama's latest failed GOP opponent.

So, the fact that there are around 100,000 mormon missionaries now going around the world telling Christians that their Christian faith is bogus and the only way to salvation is through arcane rituals in mormon temples and....the mormon church aids and abets illegals in spreading these lies is of no importance?

[svcw]

No, I do not....thank goodness. ;-)

[svcw]

You simple have no idea what you are talking about, and apparently did not read anything I wrote.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

I stand by what I said.

[RWGinger]

I think it is really likely he did not know he was illegal. it is not something they would have discussed and there are never any questions asked when registering for school.

That however does NOT relieve him or his family from what they did. The knowingly broke our laws for nearly 20 years. They all need to go back and apply legally.
NO pathway while still living here.

[svcw]

So you didn’t read what I wrote, ok then.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

“Does anybody believe that this kid had no idea at age 18 that they were illegals?”

---

Well, he IS Mormon. They’re not aware that the whole Kolob space story sounds pretty silly to everybody else, so..

[iopscusa]

Between the lawless confusions on illegal aliens I’m in favor of arresting all who enable this law breaking including the foolish Mormons, Catholics and leftist Christians. Plus why don’t these orgs pay some damn taxes!

[Albion Wilde]

The story may be 100% true. But it is a prime example of the type of tearjerker the left always trots out when trying to use an example of one person’s experience to justify outlawing the cultural expectations of the other 99.9%. And this one just sounds completely made up to me. Especially the bogus claim that Mormonism will become the top dog in Latin precincts.

[Elsie]

You are an illegal immigrant a border invader from Mexico,'" he said.

[Elsie]

 

If you have cable TV, there won’t be much on to watch.

 

 

 

 

If there isn’t much on to watch, you will answer your door whenever someone rings.

 

 

 

 

If you open your door, you will see mormons.

 

 

 

 

If you talk to mormons, they will trick you into “praying about whether something is true”.

 

 

 

 

If you rely on your feelings, you may become a mormon.

 

 

 

 

If you become a mormon, you will have to wear magic underwear!

 

 

 

 

If you wear magic underwear, people will immediately label you as a cultist.

DON’T be a cultist!
Get DirectTV.

[MHGinTN]

One of your funniest ... kudos.

[Tennessee Nana]

If the Mormon Church continues to grow at current rates, it will be majority Latin American by 2015.
_________________________________________________

Oh noez !!!

No longer white and delightsome ???

What to do ??? What to do ???