. I prefer to talk to a Mormon and find out what they believe and why.
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You are assuming they would tell you the truth. Mormons have this teaching/practice of ‘lying for the Lord’, in other words misleading, misdirecting, obfuscating and outright lying about their doctrines (and even their definitions - they have different definitions for basic terms like scripture, saved, grace, God, savior, atonement). One of the reasons I ended up not serving my LDS mission is I was told specifically NOT to discuss and even lie about certain teachings and doctrines (such as mother in heaven, god was once a man and a sinner, Jesus was married and a polygamist. I couldn’t figure out why, if we had the truth, did we need to lie. The response from my professor was shocking “If we told the truth, no one would join”.
You really want to know what they believe? Ask an ex-mormon.
Some reliable (and well sourced) sites are
MormonOutreach.org
Utlm.org (excellent on history/doctrine)
TRUTHSHALLSETUFREE.COM
exmormon.org
TILM.org
I like using Official MORMON writings!
THEY tell the story quite well.
You know that something is amiss though; when site that are ‘not affiliated with the COJSOLDS’ get all in a tizzy, trying to tell folks that what is WRITTEN is not what was MEANT.