Missionary Chat: Gods & Planets

I’m kind of enjoying chatting with the missionaries online.  Since it’s on my own terms, it’s kind of nice.  Here’s my discussion from this week:

Joey: Hello.

Sean: Hello!

Bob (me): Hi. I have a question for the two of you.

Sean: Ok.

Bob: Do you, personally, believe that, after you die, you will become gods and get to create your own planets?

Joey: We believe that we have the potential to inherit all that God hath. We don’t know what that will look like literally.  There is a great article on the subject if you would be interested in reading in more detail.  (posted link to recent article)

Bob: I read the article. I know what it says.  I want to know what Joey and Sean (you two) personally believe.

Joey: I believe that just as a seed grows up to be a strong tree just like the tree it fell from, we have the potential to grow up to be just like our Father in whose image we were created.

Bob: Nice metaphor, Joey.  Can I take that to mean that you believe you can become a god?

Joey: I believe I have divine potential to become like God. I don’t believe that I will replace God, nor do I believe that I know of all the powers I will have as far as creating worlds and such. I do believe, however, that I will be able to have children with my wife in heaven as an eternal divine being.

Bob: Excellent.  And Sean, what do you believe?

Sean: I’m not exactly sure what will happen in the next life, but I do know that God has told us we will become like Him. As far as what exactly this entails, I don’t know. It is His purpose, God’s purpose, to help us come back to Him. We are His children in the most real sense.  As His children, I don’t see how anything separates us in the essence of what we can become. Just as a child follows the example of their father on this earth.

Bob: Great! Thank you both.

Sean: No problem. Anything else we can help you with?

Bob: If you’re okay with it, can I clarify one point in what you wrote, Sean?  You wrote, “Just as a child follows the example of their father on this earth.” What about women?

Sean: Sure. I just said it like that because God is our Father in Heaven.  We’re following God. Him. The roles of men and women in heaven will be different, yes, but we will be together, one in purpose. Marriage is meant to be a binding union, where man and wife become one.

Bob: So, men will become something “like” God. What will women become?

Sean: The same.

Bob: Goddesses? Mothers in Heaven?

Sean: Yeah, pretty much.  Like I said, we don’t know exactly, but it’s safe to say yes to that.

Bob: Okay. Great. Thank you.

Sean: You’re welcome!

So, LDS, Inc. is downplaying the famous couplet, but the missionaries still believe it.  And they’re sexist.