tesuji

Come to think of it, I suppose I would share your proclivity for fear if I were to enter a lot of churches.  Like you, I always wish to be respectful of other belief systems.
I attended a funeral for the mother of one of my friends once at his church (he is Catholic), and I thought I would have holes burned clear through me with all the stares I received.  I just knew they were thinking I was personally responsibility for what happened to Yeshua (Jesus).  Ok, this is a bit overly dramatic perhaps, but it is how I felt nevertheless.  During visits to other churches, I felt warmly welcomed.  Perhaps it just depends on a person's faith and upbringing.

This whole beards and Mormons thing is a peeve of mine, so I have to post.
What is possibly wrong with a beard? And how much does it matter either way?
Jesus had a beard in every painting (no photos  ) I've ever seen of him. Brigham Young had a beard, as well as many prophets.
BYU still prohibits beards, as far as I know. Nonsense.
My strong feeling for this comes from when I was a BYU student. I'd been there many years. One day I saw a young man, I think he even had a U of U t-shirt on, in the library. He had grubby jeans and a beard. I immediately thought, "Sinner!" And then I stopped myself in horror. I had been so conditioned by the clean-cut BYU dress code that I had immediately judged someone by their mere appearance. I'm still horrified by this.
End of rant

How utterly mind-blowing.  I am a part of LDS prophesy and I wasn't even aware.
Will there be food?  (Sorry, I am NOT trying to make light of this conversation.  Sarcasm is just an integral - to my mother's dismay - part of my make-up.)

I would be interested in having a discussion about what is the actual official church doctrine about this. Are Mormons descended from Israel, literally? There is also the concept of adoption into the chosen lineage of Israel, which I believe is supposed to happen at baptism.
I'd look this up but contrary to apperances I'm supposed to be working at home at the moment.
And, to Aish and any other Jewish visitors, I realize our doctrine about all this might be odd to you...

It sounds as if you argue to defend your beliefs, your faith, to correct misunderstandings,  and your lifestyle.  Admirable.
We like to argue because we like to argue.  Charming?  No?  Ok, perhaps not.
Anyway, I wanted to formally say shalom in your own introductory thread.  Consider yourself shalomed. 

Honestly, I find that most of the time you can defend the church just fine by simply explaining what the church and gospel are. There is so much misinformation, misunderstanding and (unfortunately) sometimes intentional distortion out there about the church.
At the very least, the truth will be out there. If I can explain it and come across as a reasonable, open-minded, caring person (rather than whatever people mistakenly might think Mormons are) then I feel successful. People will then at least have correct information, and can decide for themselves what to think about it.

This is interesting. I have often thought, what is the difference between being LDS and being a hypocrite? Jesus said be ye perfect (Greek, "completed"). We have these high, ideal standards that we are going to fall short of.
I think the difference is humility. If you remember you are nothing compared to God, but are still his child and he loves you anyway, and you are sincerely trying and daily repenting, I think you are good. If you forget these things, you risk hypocrisy.

In case it wasn't clear, I was trying to make a joke about the "minor" thing. We believe Jesus was the Son of God and his mission the most important thing that's happened in human history.
I respect that the Jews see it differently, though. #11 of our official articles of faith:
 

This week in my scripture study, I was focusing on the topic of pride. As any good Book of Mormon reader, I instantly jumped to the pride cycle. In addition, I read Elder Ezra Taft Benson's talk "Beware of Pride" (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/04/beware-of-pride?lang=eng). Studying this topic is hard because it requires a lot of self evaluation and a lot of humility to really see what is the truth. I found it interesting that Elder Benson said, "In the scriptures, there is no such thing as righteous pride- it is always considered a sin". It made me ponder about the different areas in our lives that we have pride- in our talents, in our family, in our alma maters, in our education, in our country. They seem like righteous pride, doesn't it? He goes on to discuss that the real root of pride isn't selfishness or haughtiness, but rather enmity (in hated opposition to something). I started thinking that really, when we are being prideful, it is because we are trying to compare ourselves or our lives to someone else's. For example, if you are too prideful in your country, it is because you think your country is better than every other country. It's an interesting take on pride that I hadn't thought of before. The deepest kind of pride comes from our opposition (enmity) with God's will. I want to end my blog post with this powerful paragraph by Elder Benson: " Our enmity toward God takes on many labels, such as rebellion, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, unrepentant, puffed up, easily offended, and sign seekers. The proud wish God would agree with them. They aren’t interested in changing their opinions to agree with God’s". 
Here are some questions that are worth discussion: 
Do you think all kind of competitiveness or opposition results in a type of pride?
Do you think that pride is different for every person?
What oppositions in your life had led to pride?

I just want to say that the responses to this introduction have been very heartwarming to me.  I've always felt a connection to those of the Jewish faith but have not understood why.  I love learning anything about the people, the culture and the religion of those that follow Judaism.  

Welcome.  I've enjoyed your posts.  

I've kind of been posting all over the place here lately, so I thought I should introduce myself.   I actually apparently joined the forum a few years back to make a post on some "hobby horse" topic but I didn't return.   I'm a life-long member of the LDS church. I was fortunate to be raised by devout LDS parents and have the whole Primary, Seminary, BYU Provo experience. I served a wonderful and challenging mission in Paraguay.   I've lived mostly outside Utah - Oregon, Virginia, New Hampshire, Colorado. I spent a summer in Stuttgart, Germany during college. After college I taught English in Japan for a year.    I'm in central Utah now. I have to say I much prefer living in the "mission field" - Utah has always felt rather like a foreign country to me. But there are a lot of good people in Utah, and I've been in a few "Celestial" wards here, which is much appreciated.   I am committed to the church and the gospel, which are the greatest blessings I can imagine in this life.    I don't think I've been blessed with the gift of faith, yet. But Hugh Nibley says we should pray for these spiritual gifts, so I keep doing that. Faith is an abstract idea for me, but it helps me to think of it as "trusting in God." The Greek word used in the New Testament is "pistis," which means "faith, belief, trust."   I enjoy learning about things, including the gospel. Since I don't really have a church calling at the moment, I've taken Elder Ballard's suggestion to heart, and often post on the internet to explain and defend the church.    I actually think of the internet as how it might have been like in the War in Heaven. I imagine Heavenly Father presenting his plan, and then He let us all think and discuss it with each other before deciding to support it. (Would Satan's plan have even worked, or was it just a lie to catch people who wanted a risk-free plan?)   I've been married to a great LDS woman for 20 years and have two amazing and trying daughters, ages 10 and 13.   Anyway, I guess I'm happy to answer (most) questions if anyone wants to know more.

Actually the body doesn't need sugar, as in cane sugar.
It's called propaganda, there is some truth mixed mostly with lies. And why, because sugar is a delivery system for other chemicals in foods.
Like tryptophan found in chocolate
Potential side effects of tryptophan include nausea, diarrhea, drowsiness, lightheadedness, headache, dry mouth, blurred vision, sedation, euphoria, and nystagmus (involuntary eye movements). Because tryptophan has not been thoroughly studied in a clinical setting, possible side effects and interactions with other drugs are not well known.

Why not build a temple in another location in Jerusalem? Were previous temples built on the exact same spot?

Or listen to media that challenges their views, since broadcasting is fading out and narrowcasting is in.
Or talk to people who aren't like them, since people are tending to live in like-minded neighborhoods: http://www.amazon.com/Big-Sort-Clustering-Like-Minded-America/dp/0547237723/
Too many people live in echo chambers and only hear their own views repeated back at them

Dear Aish, 
so pleased you are here! In the Book of Mormon, those who follow the law of Moses sometimes make an animal sacrifice. For example in Mosiah, the people have a big meeting and they bring a long a first born lamb to sacrifice. Are animal sacrifices part of Jewish observations of the law of Moses? Perhaps only in certain denominations? Perhaps the practice is archaic? 

I really am NOT a stalker... LOL
Don't read any of the political threads. Fighting about politics does not represent the essence of what Mormons are about  

I was hoping to avoid hubris as well.    That is always a danger.  Not with me, I assure you!  But with some.  I've heard, anyway.

"The Shema" refers (as shown below) to the passage in Deuteronomy.
"Shema" is the first Hebrew word in the passage: "Hear". Many Jews recite it as part of their daily prayers.
Note to Aish: Not all of us have learned these things. I'm trying to plug some holes in our collective education.
Lehi

Well..."minor" is a bit subjective , but yes in essence.  Your faith, as does most all of Christianity, has its roots in Judaism.  Of course, there were no Jews before Abraham.
Your view of Yeshua and who he was is a bit of a hurdle for us.

Absolutely!  Yeshua, of course, was Yehudim, so he would most certainly have been referring to Devarim (Deuteronomy) 6:4-9:
 

Singular, yes.  That is a very LONG debate for which you will get no consensus.  Ask two rabbis a question and you'll get three answers .
We recite it twice daily, except on Yom Kippur when we recite it thrice.  We consider it a mitzvah.

So it's grammatically plural, but you understand it to be singluar, one G-d?
Hey, I just learned about the Shema from that book I mentioned. So you say it every day? Very cool. I googled it - is this what you repeat every day?:
http://www.jewfaq.org/shemaref.htm

Whew!  At least it isn't an important political year. 

Shalom everyone.  A moderator (my apologies for forgetting which) was kind enough to point me in the direction of this subforum.  I have not had the opportunity to read any of the topics here, but I wanted to say hello and to offer my friendship as well as my brain (that didn't sound quite right...) to anyone who wishes to ask me questions or share your own experiences with our culture and faith.
Oh, and I happen to be Jewish.  I suppose that might be apropos to mention.
I greatly look forward to meeting each of you.
A few things I'd like to mention:
1) I am NOT easily offended.  I am kind and respectful, and if you are the same, I would appreciate that.  Ask me anything without fear.
2) I am NOT here to challenge your faith or disparage your beliefs in any way.  I love learning about all faith experiences.
3) I work odd hours, so if you ask me something and it takes me a spell to respond, please do not think I forgot you.  If it takes a REALLY long time for me to reply, I may not have seen what your post.
4) I am in recovery from sarcasm.  This is an ongoing process.  You have been warned. 
 
May HaShem bless you and keep you.