Recently, Elder Russell M. Ballard spoke to graduating students at Brigham Young University, a school owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Members of this church are often informally known as Mormons. He counseled them in ways to discuss their religion with others, pointing out

that most topics of greatest interest to detractors are not critical elements of the current religion, but are fringe elements or practices no longer carried out. He advised them to keep the discussions focused on the core of the religion, the elements that affect salvation, rather than those that are merely interesting intellectual discussion points.

“When all is said and done, the most important thing about you and your testimony is that you base your beliefs on what Jesus Christ taught, and you try to follow Him by living your life in a way acceptable to our Heavenly Father and to the Lord.

This is your foundation. It was Joseph Smith’s foundation. He said: “The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, he was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.”

(See Elder M. Russell Ballard: Engaging Without Being Defensive.)

Every religion has information or writings that cover a wide spectrum of information. Some of this information is essential to the salvation of the believer, but much of it is not. For instance, we must know who created the world and believe that, but we don’t have to know exactly how long it took. That is merely interesting fodder for debate or curiosity, but has nothing to do with our salvation. It’s interesting to read the genealogy in the Old Testament, but there won’t be a test on it when we stand before the Savior in judgment. Some stories in the Bible are curious and we don’t really understand why a Biblical prophet made the choices he did, but most of the time, we don’t need to know.

What we do need to know is that God is our loving Father in Heaven, and Jesus Christ is His only begotten Son. Jesus died for us and is the only path through which we may return to God someday. We need to learn how to identify truth by communicating directly with God to learn it.

It is these things the Mormons focus on in their daily spiritual life. They work to build a loving relationship with God and Jesus Christ and to understand how They would have us live from day to day. They strive to be good family members and good citizens. They study the Savior’s life and then try to understand how to live that way themselves.

While groups who work to oppose the church often focus on unimportant intellectual games, the Mormons are busy trying to be like Jesus. When talking with a Mormon, it is important to remember they aren’t generally very interested in those fringe topics. Their testimony isn’t based on history or science, but on faith. This faith came about after developing a close and personal relationship with God and then trusting Him to answer their questions in ways they could understand. They worked to know God so well they easily recognize Him when He communicates with them.

There is little purpose in presenting a Mormon who really knows Christ with the teachings of men, which are unreliable and changing. They aren’t interested in using those teachings as a foundation for their eternal salvation. They know the Creator, and it is only His words that matter.