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Just wanted to mention that I went to church finally. A good friend of mine that’s the ward mission leader gave me a ride to and back from church. I work with him anyway since I have a calling as a ward missionary. I’m friends with his son who’s only a year or two younger than me. He’s a bishop now, too. Haha. Time goes back fast. Anyway, it went okay. A ward member’s second wife gave a decent talk how they went when his first wife was dying with cancer. Family history and temple work had to deal with the topic also. The second talk was kind of boring. A member of the stake presidency gave a talk on the Come Follow Me scripture study program. Part of the reason it was kind of boring was because of the fact that too many leaders of the church feel that it was a prophet is really trying to act as much than they can never be wrong. Well, I’ve been praying about the patience to deal with it and it’s getting somewhat easier. Fortunately, the one thing I did like about his talk was that in the talk he would often use the word guidance, advice, and recommendations. That made it little easier.
Gospel doctrine went okay. The woman teacher, the wife of my ward’s former bishop, does try to get people to think out of the box a little bit.
Overall, church went well. I was a little worried about coming back. But I think I’ll be all right. A lot of the things that bothered me about the church when my faith in it first shifted don’t seem to bother me now. Unfortunately, I don’t know what to make of how the church deals with sexual abuse, but then the issue is being covered by another discussion on this site. I pray that God will help the leadership straighten this issue out in this life. Just a minor complaint about my ward, though. I wish our didn’t have to start at 9 am. I hate getting early for church. Haha.
Nibbler, thank you for sharing the post. I had no idea about the worldwide discussion. I’ve scanned it briefly. In my understanding, since the church is a missionary church, more often than not, the church leaders, particularly the General Authorities, have stressed for young men to serve missions so strongly, a bit excessively, if you ask me. For young men, the other reason I believe has to do with males holding the priesthood. There’s debate within the church about females holding the priesthood, but they’re much more restricted with how they exercise it than the men are. How the young men and the wards deal with not serving missions, I believe, has to do with how the young men and wards interpret serving or not serving missions. Leadership roulette, obviously.
For instance, I didn’t serve at 19. I just wasn’t ready and had no desire to go. It wasn’t until I was going through a spiritual conversion that I decided to go when I was 20. Anyway, I talked to two adult friends that liked a lot about whether to go or not. I asked one of my adult friends who had a son a year or two younger than me if I had to go or not. He, being a convert from his 20s, was more stern with the missions and told me I had to go because I couldn’t live in the celestial kingdom if I didn’t. However, he wasn’t able to serve because he got married to his wife in his 20s. Now, with my other friend. My other adult friend was a little younger than him, but served a faithful mission. He was more lenient with serving. I asked him about that decision and told him what my other had told me. He said that I still had the choice to serve or not and that missions can help prepare you for the celestial kingdom.
I’m grateful that I did serve my mission and was able to, even with OCD, an anxiety disorder, and being Autistic (now they call that Autistic Spectrum Disorder), but some people with those conditions aren’t able to serve. But then many people can’t serve for a lot of reasons.
I’ve seen young men from my ward and I have a friend who hasn’t served, and, as far as can see, they aren’t dealing with guilt at this moment in time and my ward and my friend’s ward seem to respect his decision.
That’s my understanding of serving full-time missions. And, of course, when leadership in the church changes again, we’ll probably see some leaders that won’t emphasize it so much or push young men into serving so much.
Hey, welcome back. Different perspectives are welcome. And, like you, my perspectives have changed so much over the years. That’s a good point, DarkJedi. I know we’re all guilty of doing things wrong because we don’t know to do. Even the ancient prophets did lots of things wrong even if it they weren’t the same things that the modern ones in the church are guilty of now. Thank you for the comments and advice, everyone. AmyJ, I agree with you that everyone has spiritual gifts that are needed in their own ways. Being patient with members that believe differently than me definitely can help. Even with the leader worship and some of the harmful teachings against the LGBTQ community. But then the church will have to change eventually to how it relates to them. So I pray to God that will get better. Quote:Sustainability through boundaries.
Thank you very much, Roy. With everyone you said, that would probably work for me. It’s just difficult at times in the work with so many members and leaders that are so fully in that equate, or seem to, equate everything with the Lord. Drives me nuts, but then even members that are completely in can’t do everything all the time. I have some friends in the ward and I get along well with pretty much all of them, so I’ll just have to be honest with my boundaries when I need to.
Minyan Man, I glad you posted this because I’m planning on going back to church myself. I was inactive the entire time the COVID was in full swing, but I have a calling as a ward missionary that seems attention. Luckily, I’m good friends with my ward mission leader who’s a very kind, laid-back man. Since my ward is in a small town in northern Illinois, it tends to be generally laid back as well. I would like to get more active in church, since after praying about it a few times, I feel the Lord keeps telling to eventually go back. I love to take the sacrament, even if sometimes I don’t always like feel blessing or passing it. For some reason it’s hard for me to feel the Spirit as strongly as when I just take it. I seem to have an easier time talking to God when I’m sitting still during the sacrament than when I’m moving around and doing other things. I don’t know why that it. The talks can be hit or miss, just like they can be for me in stake conference or General Conference. Since I’m ward missionary and become a more nuanced member of the years, it’s more challenging for me to share the gospel with others in ways that are more authentic to me. And my other issue is that I don’t how I’m going to be able team from certain teach from certain sections of the Preach My Gospel Manual when called upon by the full-time missionaries when I’ll come across certain doctrinal or historical statements that I don’t agree with. So, my friend, I wish I can tell you a lot. The only thing I could say it maybe supplement your spirituality in the church in some ways. Try to find other things that can also bring you joy. That’s good advice for me too. I hope and pray you’ll somehow work it out. I was kind of curious how those went. Definitely Uchtdorf’s, maybe Rasband’s, not so much Cook’s, though. I’m really sorry Brian did pass away. He seemed like a really nice man through interviews. I don’t think this site staylds.com would exist if it wasn’t for him. Thank you, Old-Timer. I appreciate the suggestions. The first suggestion I think is going to work out best. I’m feeling that it’s best for me to listen to the LDS podcasts that are nuanced more often than the ones from Bill Reel and John Dehlin. I’m not trying to bash them. I’ve talked with Bill before when he was a member of his church, so I know he is a really nice man. Too many of his current videos are much more church negative than his earlier more nuanced faithful LDS videos, even though at times I have or have had similar feelings. Radio Free Mormon at least tries to balance it out by a showing more of a giving-the-benifit-of-the-doubt approach. Also John Dehlin at least interviews tons of people, even if, more than often than not, are ex-members of the church. With the COVID going on, it’s been so easy to just hibernate in my apartment too often. Although watching Bill and John’s videos or listening to their podcasts have been helpful in the past, it’s become too overwhelming, so I’m going to change the podcasts I listen to. Even listening to the fundamentalist Mormon podcasts where they believe in the more evangelical gifts that seemed to more present in the early days has become too overwhelming for me too, so I definitely have to be careful what I listen to or watch. nibbler wrote:
That’s one of the challenges of journals. I’d have to go back and read them, but I can almost guarantee that my mission journals no longer reflect my core beliefs. If someone read them they wouldn’t have an accurate picture of me (which could be said even if I felt a journal did reflect the real me).If I were diligent in keeping journals over a lifetime a reader could maybe see an evolution of core beliefs but if I’m not diligent in keeping a journal my whole life or if later journals get lost the more refined me gets lost in the more dated me.
Then I start second guessing myself, why am I so worried about what other people will think of me?
If the journal is more for me than others… I’ve failed at that one as well by never going back to read what I’ve wrote.
I can relate to that, nibbler, especially regarding my mission journal. I’ve skimmed through it in the past and have been shocked how much my faith in the core beliefs of the church has changed so much.
To be honest, I used to write almost every night in a journal. Not that often now, though. At times, it’s also helped me deal with issues with the church. I guess writing out my feelings has sometimes helped. Thanks, everyone, for the advice. I’ll just have to pray about it a little more and see what I feel inspired to do. Thank you, Minyan Man, for the link. It looks like for many people it would be helpful in their lives to have.
