Extras : Glossary of Terms (S - Z)
Saint
- A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
sealing
- A temple ordinance in which family members are joined spiritually such that their bonds will exist and be recognized eternally, after death; performed between husbands and wives, or between parents and their children. Without the ordinance, family bonds are not guaranteed to continue in the afterlife.
seminary
- The Mormon Church’s religious educational system for secondary school students, with locations adjacent to many high schools.
senior companion
- The higher ranking member of a companionship.
senior couple
- Older missionaries, usually of retirement age, who serve missions with their spouses for a period of six, twelve, or eighteen months.
sent home
- Dishonorably discharged from mission service.
sister
- A female missionary; the term of address applied thereto.
son
- An elder one trained.
split-off; splits
- A temporary period spent working with a missionary other than one’s regularly assigned companion.
sticks
- The volumes of scripture a missionary carries, so called because Mormons believe the Book of Mormon to be the “stick of Joseph” mentioned in Ezekiel 37:16-19, and the Bible to be the “stick of Judah.”
Telestial Kingdom
- Lowest of the three levels of the Mormon afterlife, reserved for unrepentant sinners; said nonetheless to be so beautiful that any person seeing it would commit suicide to get there.
temple marriage
- A marriage solemnized and sealed in a Mormon temple; the common term for such a wedding ceremony.
temple recommend
- The laminated card signed by one’s bishop and stake president that confirms the bearer’s worthiness to participate in such temple ordinances as the endowment.
Terrestrial Kingdom
- Second highest of the three levels of the Mormon afterlife, reserved for good people who nonetheless fail to accept the true gospel.
testimony
- One’s strong personal belief in the Mormon gospel as a whole or in specific portions thereof; the spoken or written expression of that testimony.
three-leg; threesome
- A companionship comprising three missionaries.
tracting
- The act of proselytizing door-to-door, sometimes distributing pamphlets, or tracts.
trainer
- One’s first companion as a greenie.
transfer
- Assignment to a new proselytizing area and, usually, to a new companion.
transfer missionary
- A missionary reassigned from a different mission.
transfers
- The occasion every four to six weeks when missionary assignments are shuffled to accommodate promotions, releases, and new arrivals.
trunky
- Sitting on one’s packed trunk; homesick.
wait
- To refrain from dating or serious romantic entanglement while one’s significant other serves a mission.
White Bible
- The missionary handbook, containing rules and behavioral guidelines.
whites
- Proselytizing clothes.
without purse or scrip
- Devoid of money or supplies, relying on the grace of God for survival; said of Jesus’s disciples as they ventured forth to proselytize, and of the earliest Mormon missionaries.
Word of Wisdom, the
- A revelation to Joseph Smith on the topic of health, interpreted by the modern church as forbidding the use of coffee, tea, alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs.
Word of Wisdom problem
- A recurrent use of forbidden substances that precludes an investigator from baptism, or a member from temple attendance.
Zion
- To Mormons, the gathering place of the Saints; a term often applied to Utah itself.
zone
- An administrative unit of a mission, usually consisting of four to six districts.
zone leader; z.l.
- The missionary who supervises a zone.
