r/latterdaysaints

where should I start learning Mormonism? I've seen people recommend certain books to start with, but as someone who knows nothing about Christianity or Jesus except his name, where should I start learning Mormonism?

Thanks in advance!

I was asked to be a part of the yw stake presidency in January and along the way up to now I was in a car accident and cannot pay to fix my car at the moment, so I can’t drive to meetings, other places that I’m needed, also, all the places that I would be needing to drive are 40 + minutes away and I am poor haha, I can’t keep up with the gas money and money to fix my car. I am also in the process of trying to move out of my parents house and in with my sister so I’m not really home much at all. I just think I am very unreliable and not the person I need to be for them, which was the opposite when I first was asked if I wanted this calling but life happens unfortunately. Should I be going straight to the stake president to ask for a meeting? Or should I be going through my bishop and he gets in contact with the stake president? I’m a little unsure of how this goes. Any advice would be much appreciated! Thank you!

Singing songs about America.

Most of the testimonies are about patriotism rather than the gospel. We’ve had 2 so far about their experience as veterans, seeing that the rest of the world is lame.

Today someone shared their testimony that the gospel couldn’t have been restored in any other country, because the saints would have been killed.. as if the saints didn’t flee the United States because they were getting killed there.

Am I alone in this?

Edit: Post got locked. Thanks for expressing your various opinions, even that one guy that told me I should leave the country if I don’t love our military (very peacemaker-y of you - lol your comment history is somehow exactly what I expected it to be). I didn’t mean to offend anyone. I am grateful for the degree of religious freedom that is allowed in the US, and hope to see that degree increase here and elsewhere.

I'm out of town visiting family, I used to be our Ward's tech specialist and ran the stream for our Ward and got texted today saying that YouTube was blocked and they couldn't run the stream.

Apparently it was a problem for multiple people in the building this Sunday, including for the Sunday School lesson etc- does anyone know if this is a church-wide thing or if this is a local problem I need to follow up on? I haven't seen any news or announcements about it, and it would be a pretty significant change, so I wouldn't expect it to show up without an announcement.

Hi! Back here again needing advice.

About a month ago I (22F) was going to church regularly, paying tithing, and reading scripture everyday. The only thing I was lacking was ministering. I've always been bad at being the first to reach out, but I was working on it in therapy.

And then I was in an accident. It's been over 8 weeks since I've gone to church. I was in physical pain (slipped disc and damaged nerves) and had a hard time doing anything, so attending church wasn't my priority at the time.

Then things got worse. Both of my cars died. I got one fixed, but only enough to get to work and back, not enough to take the 40 minute drive to church.

And then my family blew up. My aunt's fiancee broke it off with her last minute. I've been taking care of her since (they live next door).

A few weeks ago someone from church reached out to me about my absence and lack of participation. Meanwhile, my entire life structure feels like it's crumbling.

Next week I'll have a vehicle and will be able to go to church again. On one hand, I still believe in the Lord and want to go back. I miss socializing and the charity I used to do. On the other hand, it's been a really long time. I don't want to be judged for disappearing for a while. I don't want anyone I know in person to know I've been struggling, especially because I know others are suffering far worse than me and are still making it to church every week.

I feel like a lazy member who hasn't done enough. I have a calling, but I've never really done anything with it and no one has given me much direction when it comes to what I'm supposed to be doing (young women's secretary).

It all feels like a mess now and a part of me wants to put in the towel and join an "easier" church. There's another part of me that knows I'm a better person when I'm active in this church specifically. It all feels like a mess.

Advice from members and non members appreciated.

TLDR: I put church on the back burner while dealing with a lot of life stuff that happened all at once. It's been over 8 weeks since I've done anything church related. Do I go back? If so, how do I deal with the judgement from others.

I have been trying one out for the last few weeks and it just kinda sucks. Mostly just how it seems impossible to break into the cliques that everyone forms. Seems like high school again where I am the black sheep and everyone has their own groups they just stick to. I don't know, seems kind of pointless going to it anymore when the goal of meeting new people is just kinda impossible.

I have no doubts that the Church is true.

Part of my family and I joined the Church over 20 years ago, and I've been active ever since.

It has been a good and meaningful part of my life, and I'm grateful for it.

Over the years, I served a full-time mission, and earned my education. I've had just about every kind of calling, and to be honest, I've become somewhat burned out. Those of you for whom Sundays often felt like a full workday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. will probably understand what I mean.

One thing that never happened for me was finding my person. Part of the reason was that there were very few Church members in my country, and we all lived in different cities, so dating usually meant long-distance relationships. After my mission I went on plenty of dates with women in the Church. Sometimes I liked them, sometimes they liked me, but nothing ever developed into a lasting relationship.

I never made a tragedy out of it. I just kept living my life, working, and moving forward.

But then life happened, and now I feel like I'm entering an early midlife crisis.

Lately I've been rethinking my entire life. When I'm at church on Sundays, I still feel the presence of the Holy Ghost, but inside I feel empty. It's like I'm dead inside, yet I keep smiling, fulfilling my calling, and doing everything that's expected of me in what is, frankly, a pretty challenging ward if you know what I mean.

I'm not losing my testimony. I'm just exhausted, and I honestly don't know what to do next.

I’m curious on people’s take on modesty, I’ve recently come back to church and modesty standards seem non existent in some instances. As a youth that would’ve been my dream.. but as I grow I gain new found respect and see the need for modesty (I think..) . Ive been preparing for the temple and slowly changing my closet to only clothes that will fit with my garments. As I do this I notice more women in particular don’t wear their garments at all, and still attend the temple, or at least their social media is filled with bikini pics and outfits that could fit in a club. Particularly Gen Z (my gen). Am I being judgemental in saying that this affects my understanding of keeping covenants, eg. people with callings doing nude photoshoots for work (photography). It’s not wise to gage my decisions on what others are doing but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make it hard. Please share your thoughts and go easy on me, I was very worldly not too long ago, I thought coming back would mean I’m surrounded by people living a higher law. Even saying that feels self righteous I’m probably being stupid, but I’d really like some comfort. I’ve prayed about it and haven’t felt any comfort.

EDIT:

Interesting, so if I’ve got this all right:

Modesty - not just about covering.
The standard- is that we honour the sacredness of our body’s and let the spirit/leaders help guide that.
Garments- are reminders of temple covenants and that’s between us and god and nothing to do with modesty except they should be covered as they are sacred.

EDIT 2: Thankyou all so so much. I appreciate all of you because I have so much to ponder on now. I’ve learnt a little and I’m feeling a lot better, I was being silly indeed. ❤️

Today while we were passing the sacrament I was having really bad anxiety and was feeling kind of guilty about some things. I was even contemplating whether I should even take the sacrament or not.

I just... Sat there thinking about it and eventually the spirit whispered to me that it's okay. I'll get it this week. I went ahead and took it and I just sat there meditating in God's love.

I knew a moment later I had to get up there and share about it. My heart was literally beating out of my chest. My friend Trent who is the first counselor wasn't even finished doing his opening testimony but I knew I had to get up there before my courage failed me.

I walked up there and sat down and listened to Trent finish speaking because my friend Trent is a genuinely amazing speaker.

When I got up the first thing I did was tell everyone how much I loved listening to him speak. He really ain't wonderful. He's a school teacher and no wonder. He's actually amazing.

Then I talked about my feeling while receiving the sacrament. That I sat there and meditated on God's love and for a moment I could just feel it....

I told everyone how were all just humans and we don't even have the capacity to understand how infinite Gods love is, and feeling it just for a fraction of a minute and... It was something else entirely.... Impossible to describe almost.

I got down and sat next to my friend the missionaries that were by me on the pew and they both told me how beautiful what I said was.

A few people came up to me afterward and said how touched they were by what I said.

I got home and I didn't even know what to do with myself for a bit. I kept asking myself what even just happened?

I guess I just need to calm down... It was just... really something...

My sister wrote a letter to a Missionary who served in Albania.

She used some common stationary and didn’t include anything else in the envelope besides the letter itself.

It was returned from the mission home with a list of standards letters are accepted by including:

The letter should not contain money, a gift card or credit card. It could not be written on cardstock…

The letter was returned as it had violated the standards…even though it was unopened.

I have never heard or seen this before. I know families and supporters are generally discouraged to send money but I have never seen any kind of standards whereby physical mail could be rejected.

Has anyone else seen or experienced this? Any idea why?

title explains it, my husband and I loved watching both.

I had heard a rumor when I worked in the temple (3-4 years ago) from other temple workers that brother ordinance workers could check out the women’s ordinance memorization cards to study and sister ordinance workers could check out men’s ordinance memorization cards to study.

Does anyone know if that’s true? Thanks!

What are you guys wearing these days? I’m looking for something that’s comfortable enough to wear through Church but still looks nice with a suit. Any recommendations?

Hello! I’m curious about something—how do missionaries typically handle follow-ups with newcomers who are interested in the faith? Do they usually keep in frequent contact, or do they give people space? I’d love to hear your experiences on whether this is a common strategy or more of a personal style thing.

I (25 F) am trying to return to church, I have two big posts I want to make in this group, I'll post this one first. (Yes I know its pathetic to turn to reddit but I have no LDS friends in UT besides my husband and my family is not LDS and my in laws dont really like me all that much.

Anyways, you don't really need context for my story because I think anyone who has spent time on LDS Instagram space will understand what I am talking about (even if you like these kinds of accounts I am mentioning)

I had my faith crisis last fall and’ve been fully out for almost a year now. I’m a convert who gave up a lot to join. I was truly converted. JC was my best friend, read the BOM Daily, Temple Worker, YW Callings, all of it. Then when I moved to UT it all came crumbling down .

There were several things that led to me leaving, but the final straw was actually certain LDS apologists and “unapologetic” accounts on Instagram. It wasn’t big name ex-Mormon creators like John Dehlin or Alyssa Grenfell. I have watched all of that and literally not a single piece of content by them or creators like them had any impact on me. It was the people within my own faith.

One account in particular really picked up traction right at the height of my faith crisis. It started by calling out anti-Mormon stuff (which I actually appreciated at first), but it quickly turned into attacking and bullying other LDS creators and members who weren’t living the gospel exactly like them. Posting people’s reels to their stories so followers could dogpile them, fighting with members in comments, zero nuance or kindness — just “if you’re not living the gospel 100% like me, your beliefs are laughable and there’s no room for you here.”

That was the thing that sent me running. When I joined the church in the Midwest, my parents told me all Mormons were like this. I told them they were out of their mind, NOBODY I had met was like that. But since moving to UT I see it play out in real life and now on social media too. Obviously, if this was just one person, it would not impact me at all, but I’ve seen a few accounts like this one and it’s honestly done more damage in my experience than outside critics. I know Instagram isn’t real life and I could’ve just logged off, but it still hurt coming from inside the Church/ seeing THOUSANDS of members cheer for and encourage this bullying.

I’m trying to come back now. I’ve blocked those accounts, set time limits on IG, and I’m back to reading the scriptures. But I’ve talked to SEVERAL other people who left for similar reasons.

We can defend the faith and speak truth without tearing down our own members and, honestly, even former members. Christ wants us to be united. I don't think there is a single person who feels the spirit reading comments attacking other members. I have friends all across the political spectrum (left, right, in between), and I’ve found good in all of them. I have friends all faith groups and found good in all of them. And I have friends on all parts of the Mormon spectrum, and have found good in all of them. These online culture wars inside the Church are creating unnecessary rifts and pushing people away.

I also dont want to seem like a huge complainer, there are some AMAZING LDS apologists, my favorite is blondeapologist. She is firm in her faith, explains things perfectly, engages with everyone, but does not belittle people. Truly a Christlike Gal! If anyone has other recommendations that would be great, I want to hear uplifting messages online, especially from women and especially as I am trying to come back, but the IG Space has just gotten so mean, and it makes me sad :(

I guess this is all just a plea to be kinder online, especially to each other. We are representing the church and what we post can really impact people. Has anyone else noticed this, and what can we do about it?

Why do missionaries hand out books of Mormon only and not books of Mormon and the Bible?

How is everyone feeling about the fast President Oaks has asked us to do tomorrow? TBH, I’m conflicted about it. My patriotism and testimony have been a little rocky lately, which probably has something to do with it. I think what bothers me most is that we’re supposed to be fasting to be grateful for the constitution, and the freedom of religion it affords us, that sort of thing, but yet we share space with members who actively support politicians who are seemingly trying to undermine those rights. Quite frankly, that bothers me a lot.

Now, I want an actual discussion, so please no “Well, we shouldn’t be judging people” responses. I don’t like the self righteous replies. I really want to hear what everyone thinks.

Hi all. I’m 19, living in England, and have been interested in the teachings of the Church for a while now. However, I have not yet had the courage to attend a sacrament meeting. My father is currently in hospital, and there is a meetinghouse relatively close by; however, I would only be able to attend from 10:45 onwards this week.

I am hoping to overcome my nervousness and am considering attending tomorrow. Would I be permitted to attend only the second hour? I assume this probably defeats the purpose of the 'sacrament'.

I am not keen on disrupting the first hour by being 45 minutes late, yet I believe attending a ward for the second hour at a non-local ward may give me the confidence to simply attend next Sunday.

Any advice is appreciated! :)

New ward clerk here. Shortly after I was called, another new bishopric member was called and wanted to clean out the clerk's office. Unfortunately they threw away all the paper new move-in questionnaires and I can't find any digital versions.

Does anyone have one they'd be willing to share? Digital or paper versions are fine.

Getting basic membership information is good, but I'm actually more interested in the other info such a form could have--what kind of talents are they potentially able to bring: musical, careers, education, past callings, etc.

I searched around for surveys and questionnaires and didn't find anything. I'm just trying to avoid reinventing the wheel.