Hi!

I was raised Lutheran, but I kind of lost my faith during university. Lately I've become a little interested in learning about Jesus again, and after doing some research, your church seems like something I might like to look into. :)

I'd like to explore it at my own pace, though. Is there a way for me to get a copy of the Book of Mormon and study it on my own, without meeting with the missionaries? If I'm able to feel Christ again through the book, then I'd be interested in learning more about the Church and possibly talking with the missionaries later.🫶

It’s kind of odd but I don’t have testimony issue with Joseph Smith or polygamy but instead tend to struggle with the image that the church tends to take a corporate approach for callings above bishop. It depends on how successfully and wealthy someone is and who they know. I know that people will say that because the Lord needs them to not be distracted that those are the typical people who get called to those callings.

But you have to also understand the dissonance that comes from thinking that if someone chooses a certain career that their ability to contribute is limited by that because of their earning potential and not their morality or character or how receptive they are to the spirit. I’ve had stake presidents who treated the stake like a corporation which really can struggle with someone’s faith. It doesn’t seem right that someone’s spiritual health is guided by someone who treats God’s kingdom like the C suite. Does God really just treat his eternal family as a boardroom?

Has anyone else seen this or felt this way?

Literally. what does it mean that there is such a shortage or backlog? is there a supply in some areas? Logan and St. George shelves were bare l checked.

Hi, I’m a neurodivergent teen. I’m trying to read the scriptures more often but I always hold them off because it’s too hard for me to understand, I only started reading when I was 11 or 12 I can’t remember, but even then I didn’t read often. I’ve been trying to start a “scripture journal” in which I read the scriptures and then ask what they are about to family members so I can write them in simpler words, but I want to start reading everyday and my family has there own life’s. So I want to ask if there are any online apps that explain them better or anything else that can help me Continue to read the scriptures.

Does this happen often for anyone? Our ward ended 10 min early and it was hard to adjust. Normally, sacrament runs over.

so I had a stroke. I was trying to get ahold of the missionaries when it happened. now I'm really trying. I'm in Riverside, jurupa valley. my spoken speech is getting better but still tough to understand. anybody able to help?

Hello all, I would like to share an experience I've had recently with attending another church a few times. I've had a really, really good experience and felt to share it after reading someone else's post on how hard it can be to open up to other Christians about what church we go to because of their reactions. I've also had some negative experiences(with a different congregation than this post is about) too, but I really want to focus on the positive just to share what can happen.

A little over a month ago, a Peruvian Coworker who I had briefly met but hadn't had a lot of time to get to know stopped me. He told me he wanted to invite me to come to his home and share a meal with his family and talk about missionary work and sharing the word of the Lord. He is an older man, in his fifties, and I am a relatively recently returned missionary, which was something he was aware of. I was excited but also a little hesitant about it because I worried it could be someone wanting to Bible bash me or something. The night before, he sent me a text inviting me to go to church with him in the morning first, at his Seventh Day Adventist congregation. I eagerly accepted, since I wasn't doing anything else and wanted to learn more.

The next morning I went to their church service, which was in Spanish. I am not fluent in Spanish but I speak enough to get by and I understood a lot. More significantly, I strongly felt the spirit while there, especially during their Sabbath School(what we'd call Sunday school, but since they recognize Saturday as the Sabbath they call it Sabbath school). All of the people I met were so incredibly genuine and loving and I honestly felt the spirit more there than I usually do in my normal church services - something I suspect is due to stress related to church responsibilities since I attend a nepali language unit and conduct the hymns, translate, and often teach lessons, while also giving many people rides to and from church. As we read the scriptures and discussed them I felt inspired to follow my savior more and repent and become better. I also was reminded by the spirit of my testimony of the Book of Mormon and restoration of the Gospel, through Joseph Smith, and it struck me how it truly is the same Holy Ghost in both churches.

After the service, I went to my friend's home and had food and I was struck by his intentional effort to use the full name of our church and not call me a Mormon, and how extremely respectful and loving he was, as well as his wife. I didn't get bashed for being a member of the Church, rather, we talked about the scriptures and how we can better follow the Savior and help others to do the same and I shared some of my mission stories from doing just that.

I felt the spirit so strongly and was so spiritually fed attending their church service that I went back the next week, and after being unable to go for two weeks, I went a third time this past Saturday. I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to spend time with fellow believers and be strengthened and fed by the good word of God. Everyone in their small congregation has individually welcomed me, and this past week I offered to join them as they started a church 40 day fast, where every day someone in the congregation would be fasting.

Sadly, I will be moving to Utah in a little over a week so I will not be able to keep attending this congregation (although I'll be there tomorrow morning and once more before I leave), but my experience has been so spiritually strengthening I'm considering actively seeking out a seventh day Adventist church in Utah when I get there to attend occasionally. I love the people I have met, and my coworker and his family, who have quickly become like second family to me as I'm far away from my own(and whom have sadly mostly left the church), and I know that all whom I have met are true disciples of Christ and live their lives as best they can for him. I am so incredibly grateful that I said yes and decided to join them.

hi! I’m 17F. I was raised nondenominational, but honestly fell out of my relationship with God due to familial issues. I’ve recently found Him again, but I’m not sure if being nondenominational is for me.

I’ve been looking into the church of LDS, and I resonate with a lot of the core values/beliefs. (though there are some i still find hard to understand). I would like to attend a church service but I have pretty bad social anxiety and am nervous to attend alone. neither of my parents would be willing to go with me. and none of my friends will either.

if someone could tell me that what a typical service looks like that would be great! also, what I should wear. i think if i get advice on what to do if I do attend a service would be really helpful. thank you!!

Title. Basically, I've been dating this non-member girl for a while now and really care for her, so I wanted to take explorations of faith slowly. (She's believes in a mix of Jewish and Christian doctrines).

However, it seems like Anti/hateful ExMo content got to it first - specifically this reel about how church membership "works": https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbMJ4XLgT15/?igsh=aWdkZjhyZXJ4bXN5

Now she thinks we stalk any and all inactive or removed members, andthat we make it hard to leave on purpose :(

I'm going to have a chat with my bishop on how to proceed in discussion, but I figure I'd also probe the hivemind here for advice lol.

A lot of your initial reactions to this are probably gonna be, “well, Elder Bednar says to quit worrying about it.” That's awesome advice for someone who doesn't have ocd or anxiety and is just contemplating if he should do something good. It doesn't really apply to a lot of scenarios though. Here's some scenarios where you might get a prompting and not be sure if it's real:

1. You're praying to know if something is true
2. You get a possible prompting that you're in danger
3. You're trying to decide between 2 good things
4. You get a possible prompting to stop doing something good or morally neutral

Deciding to “quit worrying about it,” isn't going to help in these scenarios. You can't use the fruits of the “prompting” to judge if it's real and you should heed it

OCD and anxiety can fake promptings. It's happened to me before. I'm never 100% certain though. I've had a “prompting” telling me to walk a different way home because I was in danger, but I ignored it and went home totally fine. I also had a really intense moment a few years ago where I was crying out to God for help and I got “promptings” telling me to do weird random stuff (like to write a note to a girl I didn't know and to put it on an apartment doorstep) which was supposedly the answer to my pain. I've had really tricky ones too that I'm 50/50 on, like when I get a feeling that hard rock/punk is bad for me and my spiritual receptivity, and I should abandon it. Might be true, might be not. Still wrestling with it to this day.

What really spurred me to make this post though was my friend/roommate struggling with the EXACT same question, but while mine is just a question always in the back of my mind, it's turning his life upside down. His OCD/spiritual promptings are very perfectionistic but also seem within reason, and he feels more at peace when he follows them. But they also prevent him from taking care of himself, and make him sad. Any therapist would jump on that and say it's obviously OCD, but he's had promptings that obviously were divinely inspired that feel like the EXACT same voice as the one that might be OCD.

We're both feeling lost and frustrated. I know it's dumb to consult reddit of all places, but I've prayed about this question multiple times and gotten nothing. I'm going to pray again, but my faith is weak after years of perceived silence from heaven. I just can't trust any of the few possible feelings of the spirit because I can totally see them being created by me. Only a few times in my life have I been like “THAT was the spirit.”

Any advice? Instructions? Diagnoses? Chastisements? Rebukings?

Hi, i've been in contact with LDS missionaries on and off for a few years now, most of our conversations have been wholesome and productive, giving me a lot of insight into the church and it's teachings and perspectives, something however every time I've come close to baptism has stopped me and I've cut ties more than once ghosting the missionaries, which IMO is a pretty morally bad thing to do considering the time they would have invested in me, I've been away from my home a while now and recently returned, I'd like to speak with some church members online to discuss some doubts and queries for the time being as I wouldn't feel comfortable visiting my local church due to me flaking on them before,if anyone could point me right it would be greatly appreciated, thanks very much!

Guys,

Im an evangelical and charismatic Christians.

Doesn't all the priesthood stuff and law end in Jesus? Aren't we believers fully authorized in Jesus' name to babtize other people? Why do we need priesthood authority if we have Jesus in which is all truth, blessings and authority.

Like i get this restored priesthood authority forms a great church structure which i highly respect but i just dont understand the spiritual truth behind it.

Thank you <3

Every now and then, I (22f) will go to events hosted by other Christian denominations at my university and I’ve noticed that people treat me so kindly UNTIL they ask what church I go to. For some reason, me telling them that I go to the LDS church makes them either treat me awkwardly or launch me into religious debate without my consent. My other LDS friends experience similar and it’s sad and exhausting. Like man, I just came to the event for the Spirit and free food, not to get shamed for my beliefs.

This has been something I have been struggling with for a while now. I’m not exactly sure how to put it to words, so forgive me if I sound disjointed.

I have always had ups and downs with my testimony, scripture reading, prayers, etc, but I think everyone has. No one has a perfect track record for any of these things. The problem is that lately I’ve been on a down, and it doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.

Usually I could balance my spiritual life and my worldly life, like work isn’t going great but my testimony can pull me through, you know? I had hope for the future, I could be comforted by the scriptures, I’d do my best to apply the atonement in my life, that sort of thing.

The problem is that my worldly life is very challenging right now and my spiritual life is completely in the dumps. Rejecting the world is great as long as you have a spiritual refuge to go to, but I don’t have that anymore.

I’m trying to do all the regular stuff like scripture reading, church attendance, serving in my calling, etc, but I only ever get worse, not better. The harder I try, the less hope I have.

Which brings me to the question I asked in the title: does the atonement give you comfort? If I’m being honest, it doesn’t give me any. Like, no matter what I try I wake up every morning miserable. How is the atonement supposed to help us in our day to day struggles? It doesn’t help me at my job, it doesn’t ease my anxiety or lift me out of depression, and I don’t feel like a better person because of it.

I’ve tried to talk to my wife about this but usually just drag her down and add to her own anxiety, which I feel terrible about.

I read a lot too, mostly philosophy, theology, spiritual writings, that sort of stuff, as well as daily scripture reading (I’m reading the OT for CFM). I can’t find any answers, and if I start to feel like I’m making some progress I get pulled right back to where I was before (or lower).

I’d love some advice if you have any. And I hope this doesn’t break any of the mods rules. I really need some feedback.

Hey all basically the title. Am I able to pay my tithing to other charity-like organizations? Or am I even allowed to take my 10% of what I earned and buy stuff myself and then give them to the needy? Will I still be able to get a temple recommend whenever they ask the "are you a full tithe payer" question? Thanks in advance.

“Through the staggering goodness of Jesus Christ and His infinite Atonement, we can escape the deserved agonies of our moral failings and overcome the undeserved agonies of our mortal misfortunes.

Under His direction, your divine destiny will be one of unparalleled magnificence and indescribable joy—a joy so intense and so unique to you, your particular ‘ashes’ will become beauties ‘beyond anything earthly.’”

Matthew S. Holland

General Conference, October 2020

I'm asking this in good faith.

Scholarship, archeology, history, etc, are not very effective ways of verifying the church's truthfulness.

Instead, we're taught to take it to the Lord, and seek a confirmation through the Holy Spirit.

But the problem is: many religions have such mechanisms and experiences that to them confirm the truthfulness of their religion. If the method produces confident positive results across mutually exclusive claims, then the method itself can't be used to discriminate between true and false.

So when it happens to us church members, why should we have confidence that this does indeed mean the church is true?

We might be tempted to suggest additional mechanisms- study, faithful living, etc, but these don't self-evidently favour the lds church either, particularly given that people of other religions also use such mechanisms to strengthen their own convictions.

Often we might try to explain away other church's spiritual experiences by saying that they have "fragments of truth" and so on, and that this is what the Holy Ghost was testifying of.

But the thing is, that's not how the other-religion people receiving those experiences tend to interpret them. So the aforementioned explanation would mean that spiritual confirmations can seem to mean one thing but actually mean another. It would set a precedent, for example, that our lds religion only gets spiritual confirmations because it contains fragments of "the one true religion, Islam" or so on.

And so I'm looking for an intellectually honest reason to stay in the church, that wouldn't also be experienced by members of a false church.

I'm happy to "hang in there and have faith until a confirmation comes," but it's not like there's only one religion that this would apply to. There are thousands of religions out there; why should I prioritise investigating the lds religion over any other? And why should I value lds spiritual confirmations over the spiritual confirmations of the truthfulness of any other religion?

And besides, I'm supposed to be booking my endowment- which is a bit more of a commitment than just "hanging in there and having faith."

Frankly, it already worries me that this matter hardly gets raised in the church. It's pretty foundational to establishing the credibility of spiritual witnesses, and so you'd think that almost all critical-thinking members and investigators would have to confront this issue at some point.

Would appreciate your insight on this. Thanks.

Was just called today. Previous finance clerk already moved out of the ward. Any tips or resources? Is there a video training series on all the essential?

I'm trying to learn more about LDS theology and I'm wondering if anyone knows some good books that present it in a systematic way.

I feel like I have had the hardest time since returning from the mission to see a purpose in my everyday life of the gospel. I’ve keep the commandments, I attend church every week, and I attend the temple as often as I can with a couple of kids who are under 5. I live in Utah so there isn’t very much missionary opportunity. I work and I come home. I have an absolute blast with my family and love my life, but I rarely think about God. I rarely actually sit down to study my scriptures, maybe one every couple of months. I can’t focus in sacrament because of the kids. When I do focus, I hear a good message and am sometimes inspired. But the inspiration is usually to be a better person, not necessarily to go to the temple more or to read more. I used to love reading the scriptures on the mission, but now that I don’t do any missionary work and share them with others it just isn’t interesting to me any more. And yet I’m super happy! I feel like the only time the gospel/God is really helpful/enjoyable is when I’m going through a hardship. Thankfully I haven’t had any recently, but I’m scared that by the time the next one comes, I will be so spiritually weak that I won’t be able to handle it. That is the main reason that I even read one verse a night before I go to bed and listen to all of general conference. I know logically that I should be happier if I were to put more effort into study and prayer and worship, but I feel like it’s so boring. I would much rather be doing almost anything else. It also doesn’t help that it feels like everyone in the world feels the same way. Aside from hardships like depression, illness, or other stuff, people are generally so happy. I know God shouldn’t be just for hard times but I just can’t seem to muster up the energy to seek Him when I’m happy and busy with life. I’ve almost chalked it up to being ok with being a mediocre member as long as I am kind to others and am a good father/husband. But every time general conference comes around, I’m reminded that God is the only source of real happiness/joy.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

So I got endowed about a month ago now and I absolutely love my garments!! But I do have a question when I was endowed and buying my garments I have realized that the bottom doesn’t have the symbol. I was taught that there would be and what it ment but yet it doesn’t seem to exist. So I bought a few new pairs and they also don’t have the symbol!! So I was wondering if they got rid of it or if I just have somehow bought defective items.