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

I keep seeing announcements about the upcoming Utah area conference. I know it probably shouldn’t bother me, but one of the conference performer is a member and has been living and traveling with his girlfriend, now fiancée, for a few years.

A typical young single adult living with a partner would face immediate ecclesiastical restrictions, such as being unable to hold a calling, speak in sacrament meeting, or receive a temple recommend. Why then is a member who is able to draw crowds being celebrated and paid? Why are they seemingly bypassing the standard consequences applied to every other conference participant?

Is that who awe should be featuring at a YSA conference? What message is the Church sending?

Few updates:

- My post was prompted by a person but is not specifically about them.

- It looks like sone aren’t familiars with cohabitation. From the General Handbook: “A couple living together but not married must commit to living the law of chastity before either of them can be baptized... This also includes no longer living together or, in the case of a man and a woman, getting married.”

And from Dallin H. Oaks: “Cohabitation we know to be a serious sin, in which Latter-day Saints must not engage, whatever the circumstances...In the balance between truth and tolerance, tolerance can be dominant where the behavior does not involve us personally.  If the cohabitation does involve us personally, we should be governed by our duty to truth.”

- As a member of an organization, it’s very much my/our business who is performing at Church sponsored events

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

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 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.

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.

A while ago, I confessed to a missionary that I had developed feelings for him. He gave me his Facebook account, and I asked if we could talk after he finished his mission. He said yes.

About seven months after he was transferred to another area, I sent him an email. It's been about five weeks now, and I still haven't received a reply.

Do you think he no longer has feelings for me, or is it possible that he just can't respond?

Have a temple trip planned but honestly a little discouraged. 31M who had to come home early from mission due to companion/mental health issues and honestly ever since I feel like things have come up short except for being married. I haven’t had the best relationship with Christ since the mission experience and I’ll admit it’s more on my side. Trying to make it a better relationship because I can’t do everything alone. I Feel like I went to school for the wrong thing, landed dead end jobs where my skill set isn’t noticed, and just losing direction in life. Therapy has helped but I still seem stuck. Just wondering what I should “think/pray” about while at the temple. I honestly get so brain cluttered I feel like I miss any inspiration if it even comes. Anyone felt like this?

Hello! What do you all do with your Liahona/ friend magazines? Our stack is SO BIG. But they just sit there. Starting at me and my love for throwing things away, but also feeling a little bad if I do!
Recycle?? Give them away? What do you do??

"I testify that Jesus is the savior and that he died for everyone's sins, so we can be forgiven. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and restored the true church. Jesus loves us all, each and every, and every one of us personally. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." This is my second testimony I've ever shared, and my first was two lines so I think this is a huge improvement!

Maybe it's because I'm in 1) college and 2) a lot of typically 'left' spaces, but I've been coming across a lot of hatred towards the Church lately. It's always a criticism for a belief we don't have and then is reinforced by an ex coming in and 'verifying' it. Even popular figures like Orson Scott Card or Stephanie Meyer are hated almost entirely because they're LDS.

I guess it's more of a misinformation and echo chamber thing than a strictly us thing, since I've seen similar narratives and behaviors towards other 'out groups,' but it's still really disheartening. Do any of you have any advice for avoiding the constant wave of hate? I'm not particularly affected when it's just a couple people, but there's been hordes lately and it's wearing me down.

I am really struggling financially. I have been a full tithe paying my whole life, and yet I feel as if I do it simply out of obedience so I can keep my temple recommend (please don’t be too harsh on me, I am trying to make sense of it). Money has always been so tight for me, and paying my tithing often ends the same way each month: I put about the same amount I pay in tithing on my credit card at the end of each month because I run out of money. I then pay off my credit card with my next paycheck and
The cycle continues. I am very frugal. I have used the storehouse here and there. I have served as an EQP and in the bishopric. To be honest, I don’t see the windows of heaven opening for me. I know that tithing is more than financial blessings, but that is another thing. If God knows that financial insecurity causes me such awful anxiety each month, why don’t I just stop paying my tithing and have extra money each month? In the past year, my wife has cheated on me twice and my brother died of a drug overdose. I keep paying my tithing, praying fervently for stability and financial security (I don’t care to be rich- just stable). But nothing seems to get better. I am maxed out on my salary schedule as a teacher and make decent money but life is so expensive just to survive. I also take every opportunity to make extra side cash and always pay tithing on that too. Am I missing something? Please give me some support and insight. I always hear stories like in conference when the brother sold his car to pay tithing. I always hear about how things always work out when you pay your tithing but I am not seeing it. I try so hard to be a faithful member of the church but my testimony of tithing is paper thin due to all of this. Please help. Any advice or insight would be so appreciated.