Mormons in Munich

Does anyone know any Mormons (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) in Munich?

Hi,

I understand the need to find people of your own faith, but I think trying to find a Morman in Munich might be like trying to find a Catholic in Salt Lake. I mean no disrespect whatsoever, but the Morman Religion is truly American.

It's more wide-spread than you think, Titoslack. Someone in my class left school when they were 16 to go join their 'church' in Manchester (UK).

I'm sorry, I just seems so American to be Morman.

Found this in one easy Google search:

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Hofbrunnstr. 85
81477 Munich
Germany
Tel: 089-79 77 92

Don't know if it's accurate, but worth giving them a call I would imagine.

It would be ironic to have a lot of Mormons here, in the land where beer is considered a food. Considering Utah and their 3.2% beer laws

think there are some other mormons posting on TT, in fact
but i'll leave it up to them whether they want to out themselves or not

@Titoslack:

Nah...you can find them anywhere, and I've seen missionaries any number of times on the U-Bahn. Course, being an extremely lapsed Mormon myself, I do tend to spot 'em...mostly so I can work on my fading into the general crowd abilities...

It is an integral part of the Mormon experience to undertake a mission, you know...and they're not all missions w/in the US, and not everyone blows the fellows off. Sometimes, they even make converts.

Every summer I see many a pair of the bicycle peddling, white shirt and black tie wearing dudes in my neighborhood.

There are two wards in Munich, one near Theresienweise (funnily enough) and one in Solln. English speakers are at both.

I'll PM you the name of a good friend of mine who can help you out - though I can't get ahold of her until later on today...

Thank you all for your responses. I know that there are at least two chapels and three congregations that meet in the Munich area. The phone numbers associated with the addresses are for the chapels themselves, and it is often difficult to actually get a hold of anyone. And, as yet, I don't speak German, so I just thought I would throw it out there and see if anyone knew anybody. Thanks!

They are often in the pedestrian zone between Odeonsplatz and Marienplatz giving out their information. I have been approached there twice on different occasions.

Correction - there are four wards. (but only two buildings) the international one is in Solln (south of "town")

PM on its way now.

I used to live near the Solln church, back in the day.
AFAIK, the missionaries (?) they send over from the USA aren't allowed to speak English after a few weeks of being here.

That sending missionaries to other christian countries I could never work that out.

I've spoken English to them ... But it has given Utah the edge on business - they can pull up someone who can speak just about any given language with a basic degree of competency if needed.

I think the Mormons' missionary system is very interesting.
Not that I agree with the beliefs of the LDS church but I think it would do a lot more young people from the American Mid West to get sent overseas for a year or so. Might enable the USA to get more in tune with a lot of the rest of the world.

And some of them are quite cute.

DDBug, I never though of the advantages it has for Utah, language skills wise, thanks for the info.

my first love was, alas, mormon, hence we did not have sex then, but we did things probably not suitable for a young mormon. . he did his mission in miami and is greatful today of his spanish proficiency. everytime i see the elder boys i smile a silent smile. almost went to brigham young to be with him. ah, so young, so in love. he didn't drink alcohol, but cola.

incidentelly, he remained a virgin 'til he was 24 or so, but as he put it, even as an undergrad at BYU, sex was the best entertainment around!

Think there is a church close to the OEZ

That's a Jehova's Witness building. (I am guessing that is the one you are referring to).

My mistake, so it is.

Have been waiting for this thread to devolve into Mormon bashing. Personally, I find them no less kooky than any other religion on the planet.

Conveniently enough, I have been reading this book about Mormon "fundamentalists." These folks are seriously screwy and it's my understanding the mainstream Mormon church has completely distanced itself from these ass clowns. Really interesting stuff and I highly recommend it for summertime reading.

I don't see any need for Mormon bashing.

There is also a Christian Scientist church on Clemensstrasse in Schwabing, for those who might be interested.

Strange that I notice all these churches, since I don't actively practice any religion myself...

Great book Kit, there are a number of mormon fundamentalist colonies close to my home town in Alberta. I'm not sure how much is accurate reporting and how much is sensationalist crap, but I sure haven't been able to think the same way since.

Into Thin Air is another I quite enjoyed by Jon Krakauer.

There's another Jehovahs Witnesses building in Landsberger Strasse right next door to one of the bars offering entertainment to lonely gentlemen. Always raises a smile when I get the train back into Munich.

@Silva...since I started the book (still not finished)...I've noticed a number of articles in the news about these guys:

-In one instance, large groups of young fundamentalist Mormon boys/men were excommunicated by the church, supposedly so the older men would have greater access to the limited resources of available young women. The kids ended up on the street after their friends and family shunned them.

-Recently I saw on Yahoo news that Utah, I think, was after the "prophet" of one of these groups on charges of child endangerment (forcing underage girls into marriage/sex with older members), welfare fraud, and a bunch of other crap.

It's enough to make baby Jesus cry...

Well, I guess that not all persons in a Christian country are Christians - that's one reason. There is also some trickiness to what exactly a Christian is. There is plenty of proselytizing between the various sub-groups of Christianity. The religion itself is far from Monolithic.

Most of the splits revolve around:
- the nature of the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) - This is the basic disagreement between the Roman and Orthodox Churches (the filioque clause of the Nicene Creed)
- The concept of an intermediator between God and Man outside of the Trinity (i.e. The Pope as intermediator is one of the splits between Protestants and Roman Catholics)
- The Virginity of Mary (i.e. whether Mary was also the result of a Virgin birth) and her role as Coredemptrix with Jesus - Also a doctrinal split between Protestants and Roman Catholics
- The Canon - What books are and are not included in the Christian Canon (The Roman Catholic Bible contains more books than the Protestant. The Mormons have the Book of Mormon as an additional Gospel, etc.)
- There are a few (like Jehovah's witnesses) that probably are not "Christian" within the normal parameters of the definition as they do not recognize the divinity of Christ. This in the same sense that Muslims accept Jesus as a prophet of God, but not as himself divine and are not Christians. Jews, of course, are not Christians for the same reason.

At any rate, Christian is a sort of misleading term. There is more doctrinal disagreement within the body of the Christian religion than in most other major religions. It is actually a very fractured community with a hugely varied set of beliefs.

That whole long-winded thing was mostly to point out why the different Christian sects try to convert each other back and forth. They basically all view themselves as the True Christianity and worry that the other Christians will go to hell if they do not accept their version of Christian doctrine and dogma.

@Iceberg Slim

Not to mention the much maligned "New-age" people who believe that ALL of God's creation is Divine, not just Jesus. Alfter all, how could the perfect being create anything less than perfect.

To answer the original question, just last friday I went to the Family History Center at an LDS center next to the "Wiesn" (U4/5 Theresienwiese) at Rueckenstr. 2.

I'm sure you can get more info there.

Has it? I'm assuming nobody thinks it has...there is a big difference between those splinter groups and the mainstream church, the latter of which seems to produce many people w/ extremely strong senses of morality. Then again, there's the fact that there are lots of those splinter groups, and lots that are really bloody kooky.

Oddly, as someone who is probably still counted as a member (but couldn't be much further from actually being one in spirit), I feel almost entirely unqualified to say anything rational about them. I just know what I experienced. Which wasn't traumatic--or at least no more traumatic than I suffered at the hands of the Southern Baptists, in their turn--but it would probably be a stretch to say it was unrelentingly positive, as well.

Such is religion, I 'spect.

And the bigger brands of Christianity are just "sects" that got lucky of course.
or have been lucky so far.

Rückertstraße. Can also take the U3/U6 to Goetheplatz. 'bout the same distance.

(i pass by that building whenever i go to the munich office)

I guess the best place to find a Mormon church is next to the nearest casino as they will need someone to finance and run the place, just like Las Vegas. Oh sorry, must be mistaken as gambling is forbidden by the Mormons, surely they would'nt have anything to do such an evil practice and would be disenfranchised for getting involved!

Oh dear, I must be in a bad, just back from holiday, mood.

I heard from an Aussie friend of mine (who's since left Germany), that the Mormons have a very effective method of learning German in a very short period of time. He told me that shortly after he came to Germany, he met a mormon who helped him learn German and lent him their teaching materials. He said it only took a couple of months, and I have to say that his German was excellent...He went and met them as a group and thought they were a very helpful bunch. He claimed they never pressured him with the religious stuff either.

After he learnt the language and got more settled, he gradually eased away from them and into a more 'normal' expat lifestyle of hanging out in bars and drinking way too much...

Long ago, there was a supermarket chain in Calif. called Alpha Beta. Since the majority shareholder of the corp was the LDS church, they had a rule against selling hard alcohol (only beer and wine allowed), so they arrainged that whereever they built an Alpha Beta store, there would be a liquer store right next to it, SOOO, when you wanted booze late at night, you simply needed to remember where an Alpha Beta store was.

Again thank you to all of you who have tried to help. There is certainly a lot of information out there about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (nickname: Mormon), accurate and otherwise. I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thanks,
E

I had Amish in my head when I first read this, was thinking how on earth are you going to find Amish on the internet

Like this ?

My friend who's still living in Las Vegas said that a colleague of his, who happens to be mormon, did his first keg stand the other night. My friend of course asked him to repeat himself, arguing,
"but mormons don't drink beer."

the boy chuckled and replied,
"it was a keg of root beer."

I don't want to know how sick he got after a deep throat of root beer

I have seen quite a bit in Regensburg. In fact I have had a conversation with a few of them. I will give them this...they speak better German than most expats here including me LOL.

My old college buddy was Mormon (did his mission in Uruguay) and he had so many girlfriends, it was amazing. He always felt so guilty after doin the deed.

He also went to BYU for a bit and said that many mormons were practicing the anal alternative which technically didn't break the conduct code.

I often asked him to take me to the mormon socials. the girls were always real cute.

I just didn't really get the underwear thing though.

hang on, did i get that right?
they were shagging each other up the bum but still technically remaining virgins?
that's stretching the spirit of the law a bit, innit?

Well some of those lads are cute and now it seems that there's a carte blanch!

Except the ones who were at HBF on Monday, bit too lanky, with greasy hair.

I think they were stretching something else actually Topsy.

Technical Virginity, (technically work safe)

Well. That's one way to get new recruits I guess.

Hilarious link Yeti, too bad they're out of the "Everything Butt" T-shirts

I started this thread in an effort to find people of my own faith in a new place, nothing more. I personally thank all of you who have tried to be helpful.

In particular, I thank Kit for making the differentiation between fundamentalist groups and the Church. You are accurate in your statement that the Church has completely distanced itself from these groups. As with most fundamentalist groups (Islamic would be another timely example), while they may associate themselves with a particular faith, they are not in fact practicing the principles, teachings, or doctrine of that faith.

Thank you to Iceberg Slim for your thoughful post on the differences between many Christian faiths.

Also, I personally thank all of you who have shown tolerance and kindness toward the missionaries. They are, after all, teenagers and young adults trying to do what they believe is right. I was a missionary in Europe myself, and I can tell you that while I would not trade my experience for anyting, it was not easy. I spent day after day talking to strangers, offering them the chance to learn about something that had brought me so much happiness. Rejection was common, rudeness, cruelty, intolerance, yes. But there were also the people who gave me a minute of their time, stopped on the street, let me into their homes, and were kind. I experienced incredible personal growth, learned a new language, gained cultural perspective, and made great friends.

Thank you to all of you who realize that people are people no matter what religion they belong to. People make mistakes. People do stupid things. People feel guilt and pain. People are imperfect. Some people are more devout than others. In my opinion, the beauty of religion lies in the fact that it inspires people to be better, to try harder, and to seek truth.

Now, to King Kamehameha, and anyone else who would make light of, ridicule, and demean another person's religion or sacred beliefs and spread rumors and falsehoods: Stop it. It is not funny. It is not right.

If you are truly interested in the Honor Code of Brigham Young University, you can find it here: BYU Honor Code

E Deseret

P.S. If you are interested in knowing more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its doctrines, beliefs, etc. please visit Mormon.org.

and here endeth this morning's sermon...