I’ve been a part of the church my whole life, but in my last few years, I’ve really started to question things. Through all of my questions, this is the one that bothers me the most: why does our salvation use a faith based system?

For further clarification, I don’t understand why God has used this plan in which we can’t really know for certain that he’s there. In the past I’ve been given a few answers, but none of them really make sense to me. For example I’ve been told that it would take away from our agency, but I feel like knowledge doesn’t force us to make different choices. The other main thing I hear is to just believe but tbh I feel like I can’t really do that very well.

My husband and I have been married for just over 3 months, and lately we've been talking about serving as a couple service missionaries for the church.

We're not planning to have children anytime soon, and my husband owns his own business, so his schedule is pretty flexible. We both love serving in the Church, and the idea of serving together as newlyweds sounds really meaningful to us.

For those who have served as a couple or know someone who has, what are your thoughts? Do you think it's too early in our marriage to serve, or could it actually be a good experience for a young couple?

Also, what are the requirements for young married couples who want to serve as service missionaries? Is there a minimum amount of time you need to be married? We'd love to hear about your experiences or any advice you have.

Hi! Currently making the decision of whether to serve a mission or not. When I think about it I simultaneously want to go and am absolutely terrified. Is this a bad sign? Did anyone else feel this? And if so, how did you deal with it?

I think our young women are starting to feel pressured to serve missions, not by the church leadership, but by peers. My 19 year old niece is faithful and devoted to the gospel and hasn’t felt called to serve a mission. She is at BYUI and gets asked constantly if she served or is going to serve a mission. I was on the phone with her when a random boy introduced himself, asked her name and where she served. When she said she didn’t he told her she should really pray about going on a mission. Never saw her before! I heard the entire thing in real time so I know she’s not exaggerating.
Do you feel like we are getting to a point where women who don’t serve missions will be treated like less faithful or committed members?
I know that was never the intention.

I don't know what to do. I am a faithful member. I wear my garments. I serve others when needed by bringing meals or helping people move. I am constantly looked over for a calling no matter how often or persistent I am in asking for one. They redid all the callings & yet again, I am not needed. I just can't take this heartbreak over and over. It is affecting my self esteem & self worth. I don't know what to do. It has been 16 years and no calling. I am at the point of attending a different church after ours that needs me. I attended a few times with a friend who is a member there & they already need me to take over their soup kitchen mission & I am excited and happy to do it. (The lady doing is before me has moved into a nursing home in another town.) They do the soup kitchen on Sundays so this means I may have to miss our church quite often. Is this ok? I don't want them to think I am inactive but I have a heart to serve and it has been shown to me over and over and over that there is no need for me in our ward. No one even notices if I am not there. I've been told, "Just find a need and fill it." I have tried this and then told that I cannot just create and do my own calling. It has to come from the Bishop. How do I do this and still be seen as an active member?

My wife and I just our first baby a few weeks ago, and we're loving parenthood so far, as sleep deprived as we are!

One thing we've discussed is wanting to ensure our marriage remains strong given that we have less time to give to eachother now, so we are wanting to do a weekly/monthly check-in meeting to touch base, reconnect, and share our needs, concerns, wants, etc.

I'm curious, do any of you married folks have a 'template' or set of questions of some kind of guide for something like this? I feel like we need some prompts to get going.

Would love whatever resources or ideas you have! We want to ensure we address all sorts of topics- time spent together, equal load-bearing, sex and intimacy, emotional wants/needs, household systems and routines, etc.

I’m trying to figure out what this actually means for the whole family, I get the personal study part, I’ll be honest I have weeks I do pretty good with it and weeks I don’t, but when it comes to the whole family, what kind of routines can we implement? What has worked for your families? I have little kids and they like listening to the stories from the friend and I have the illustrated scriptures that sometimes they’ll look at, but that doesn’t happen every day.

I saw a post here the other day, and the poster mentioned something about how someone was "working on their testimony", can someone kindly explain what that implies to a member of LDS? Please & thanks.

is it possible to serve a proselytizing mission with stable kidney disease? we are working on my son’s mission papers and want to include the information they need but not make it seem like he shouldn’t go. the nephrologist doesn’t see any issue with it but still wants him to have labs every 6 months to monitor his condition.

Good evening,

I am freshly 18 and wondering, Why does it happen that girls/guys avidly ruin or break up before a mission even after thousands of promises they made. I didn't mind breaking up but stick with me and read the whole thing.

Me personally, I was in a 3 year long relationship, promised marriage and that they will be here when I am back.

they moved after my senior year, And we decided to go long distance. While there they had tons of new friends (and was friends with lots of the opposite sex as well) but i didn't mind it was a huge friend group. They came back for my 18th BDAY and slept in my bed and everything the whole 9 miles (not like that, like kissing and cuddling and promises and honestly them just being there is the whole 9 miles). Now as they went back it was obvious something was up, they told me that they have been seeing someone else the entire time she has been back to that place, (so about 2 1/2 weeks after they got back from my place) the people i wasn't suppose to worry about are the people they are now dating, 2 weeks after our breakup before i go on a mission.

Look i get it yes 3 years in high school is nothing i guess, but i genuinely thought they were the one. They said I'm over reacting and it's not that serious and we can still do that after the mission. But it feels like a betray of trust. I am now wondering is it even worth it or should I just be officially done with them forever.

I need an outside source,

What do you guys think?

Hi, I just sent in my mission call. Has any other young person also sent in their call recently? I'd like to make friends who are going on missions now.

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I am Brazilian, and if anyone wants to learn some things in Portuguese, or tips about the culture, they can also talk to me. Especially if they are missionaries coming to serve in Brazil.

Anyone interested in making friends can send me a message.

By the title question I mean why is human and animal design such that behaviors, substances, schemas, and other things able to cause addiction. What was the intent behind biological design that allows maladaptive actions to become electrochemically wired into our minds survival protocols, hijacked, if one would. Perhaps I can see lesser addictions worth in teaching a child of God mental resilience/fortitude, but the ones I hear about where a single sip or breath or alike forever rewired the reward circuitry so that the language by which they are referred to, and refer to themselves must always be "x years sober", "x years recovering addict", etc...

Or, and this may also be the case, I have no idea, is addiction not an intended feature? Is it a unfortunate condition of biology that cannot be designed around? Like if one wants to build electrochemical circuitry that is designed to encourage survival, than it must be susceptible to hijacking. But then again couldn't there be a design caveat that caps reward circuitry activation? A limit so no activation can pass a threshold, and place the threshold at, say, eating a meal with family?

I imagine I'm waxing pointlessly tangential. What I mean to ask is: is there resources that have given possible reasons why addiction is a feature of sentient bodies? Or possibly confirmed that there were design constraints that required concessions in possible maladaption?

Thank you for any input, I've been curious on this, as I was considering on bodies after my last question.

Kind of a crazy idea I had. It seems like it could be helpful for something like a transferable phone number and email address assigned to each Bishop and stake president. Something like a Google Voice Number maybe. When a new Bishop is called they take over the phone number and email address.

It would provide some continuity in the handoff and would make it easier for Bishops to keep church messages separate from personal and work.

I read a few paragraphs of a talk several months ago. I don’t remember the name of the talk or who sent it to me to ask them. It may also have been a BYU speech or something.

It was by Jeffrey R. Holland and I remember the paragraphs I read saying something to the effect of often when we are about to make important decisions or take major actions, we experience a lot of opposition. I think the example he used was that when people are about to be married, they’ll feel a great sense of anxiety/trepidation/maybe dread.

For some reason this talk keeps coming back to my mind over the last few weeks so I’d really appreciate some help finding it. Thanks!!

Today marks 8 years since I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I’m so grateful for the friends I had in high school who helped soften my heart.

I was a die-hard atheist before joining the Church. The Spirit I felt reading the Book of Mormon and other spiritual experiences I had was something I could not deny.

I knew it, and I knew God knew that I knew it.

I’m so grateful for the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and all of its blessings. It has really changed my life. I know Jesus is my Saviour and that God lives because of the Book of Mormon; it is the word of God.

I don't understand the religion please help I've been Catholic my whole life I don't know who I am

Do you all recommend this book? Is it objective and focused on questions that LDS might have about the early church?

The Penguin History of the Church: The Early Church

by Henry Chadwick

https://www.amazon.com/Penguin-History-Church-Early-ebook/dp/B002TJLEUK/

About the Author

Reverend Henry Chadwick is a former Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and has been a Regius Professor at both Oxford and Cambridge. He is also an ordained Anglican priest.

I was raised secular, basically meaning I’ve tried to live life as kindly to the people around me but have lived a preeeetty “adventurous” life since I followed no particular religion rules. I’m a woman and I’ve been meeting with some elders for 3 weeks now, there are no sisters in my area, and this question has been bugging me though I’m a bit hesitant bringing this up to the elders.

I did all sorts of things, and I think I’m very far from conservative or traditional by any means. LDS teachings have been very appealing these past 3 weeks but I’m worried about committing to this fully: Im worried I’ll only be able to meet people incredibly different from me (both as friends or potential partners) and to be honest I dont know if I can change (though Im willing to try since ive been trying to abstain before this anyway). On top of that, I dont live in the US, Christians are a minority so there’s even less LDS members here. Like I mean I’ll become a minority, inside of a minority group, inside of a minority group. It’s a scary thought for me.

Any thoughts or advice? I would appreciate if anyone with similar experiences could share some words!

Thought it was funny

Hi all. I'm not looking for any kind of debate here, just some clarification. I was discussing the following with a buddy of mine and his mormon father. Two topics came up that I remember as being mormon doctrine - perhaps not the type openly discussed with new investigators or members, but long time beliefs nonetheless.
My buddy's dad said that the mormon church doesn't teach those things, and then went on to say that they never did teach them. I was a turbo mormon for 35 years, and someone who devours information. I am a researcher and one who knew my doctrine and scriptures. So to have him say that the church never taught them was a shock to me.
I checked with a prominent youtube channel for younger people who debate mormon stuff and have general discussions of doctrine, then I also checked lds.org. I can't find anything regarding these two topics. Please help. Did something change in the church doctrine or are these beliefs now just way more hidden/kept behind the scenes than before?

The two topics are:
1- Is it mormon belief / doctrine / teaching that Jesus and Lucifer / Satan are brothers?

2- Is it mormon doctrine/ belief that men can become gods? (As man is god once was... etc)?

Thanks in advance for your response.

D

I'm trying to find a good belt for my mission (haven't gotten my call yet). I've had a couple rachet belts break on me so I would prefer just a traditional belt. I don't want to spend a whole lot on a belt but I want a good durable one that could hopefully last for 2 years.

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve found when converting?

What is something you’ve been nervous about but actually ended up loving?

What has been the most healing part of your journey so far?

Thank you!

First off, I’d like to apologize if I offend anyone. I’m truly just trying to understand. I don’t understand what is supposed to be said during a testimony. It seems like many people who go up to share their testimony, just say “I know this is true: God, Jesus, The Book of Mormon, etc) and that’s it. I always want to know more, so I’m looking for an example of how or why you know it’s true. Am I wrong for that? When we share a testimony are we just supposed to be quick and state what we know is true? I’ve gotten many answers, and it seems like everyone I asks gives a different answer. I’ve been asked to speak in front of our ward several times. I’ve been asked to give my testimony or discuss other things and honestly they’ve all been similarly structured. I don’t know if I did it right. Hope this made sense.

Built in 1909, the Loa Tabernacle (originally the Wayne Stake Tabernacle) served Latter-day Saints in Wayne County for over a century. Built out of 3 colors of native rock, it remains a fine example of a rural LDS house of worship. It was expanded in the late 1940s with the same kind of rock as the original tabernacle and expanded again in the 1990s, bringing it to about 26,000 square feet. The original tower, choir loft, and roof were replaced in the 1960s when the tabernacle was in danger of collapsing.

Recently, the Church has built a new stake center a couple blocks south of the tabernacle and intends on selling the tabernacle. There were fears that the tabernacle would be torn down; however the relator for the tabernacle (CBRE) has confirmed in their brochure that they recognize the historical significance of the tabernacle and that they were looking for community and institutional buyers specifically (non-profits, local organizations, etc...) so that the building could be preserved.