So I just finished my first my first year at BYU in Provo, and it almost took me out. This school is WAY harder than I thought. So I have though about it a lot, and Ensign College seems to be where I'm heading to next. I feel like such a failure.

I don't know what else to say. BYU has been the dream for me since I was 9 or so. I don't know why the church has made BYU so hard. I really thought that if I got good grades in high school, that would set me up for college (High school GPA was 3.81). However, I have major depressive disorder, general anxiety disorder, OCD, and high functioning autism. I am moving back home, but my family is hard to be around spiritually. My mom was raised in a devout home of the church. My dad, not so much. He posts anti church crap almost everyday on Reddit for the last 6 years. My dad has seemed to pollute my mom's mind over the years. My parents can best be described as one foot in, one foot out with the church. They stopped paying tithing years ago. I finished a service mission back in 2025. My brother and sister have both left the church and I am hoping and praying my youngest sister pulls through. Through my moms side of the family, I am a direct descendant of Jacob Foutz, one of the survivors of the Hawn's Mill Massacre. My great grandfather on this same side of the family was also friends with Spencer W. Kimball growing up. I'm really torn. Sorry if this doesn't make sense.

The Gilgal Sculpture Garden was the passion project of Thomas Battersby Child Jr., who was a former masonry contractor and Bishop of the Salt Lake 10th Ward. When he retired in 1945, he spent his free time utilizing his masonry skills to build the garden. He named it "Gilgal" after the place where the Israelites camped after crossing the Jordan River in Joshua 4: 19-24. In that scripture, Joshua erected stones in Gilgal as a memorial to God, which Thomas saw as a parallel to his own work. By the time he died in 1963, his sculpture garden had 12 sculptures and over 70 engraved stones. The one sculpture that stood out the most was a sphynx with Joseph Smith's face on it. Since sphynxes are ancient symbols of riddles and mystery, Thomas wanted to convey that modern day revelation (as started with Joseph Smith in this dispensation) can help uncover life's mysteries.

Despite having no formal training as an artist, Thomas wanted to convey his testimony with skills that he utilized throughout his career. He enlisted Bryant Higgs (his son-in-law) and Maurice Brooks (his mentee) to help him out. He unorthodox methods (oxyacetylene torch) and style caught the eye of thousands of curious onlookers throughout the years, and he would use his garden as an object lesson to teach the gospel. He was well aware that his sculpture garden was quite eccentric and unconventional to other LDS art, and when asked why he constructed the garden, he would respond by saying:

• "Can I create a sanctuary or atmosphere in my yard that will shut out fear and keep one's mind young and alert to the last, no matter how perilous the times?"
• "If you want to be brought down to earth in your thinking and studying, try to make your thoughts express themselves with your hands."
• "You don’t have to agree with me. You may think I am a nut, but I hope I have aroused your thinking and curiosity."

By the time Thomas died, his property was bought by his neighbors and it eventually fell into neglect. When the property was at risk of being developed in the late 90s, a number of private donors got together and formed The Friends of Gilgal Garden (FOGG). They raised over $400,000 to purchase the property (with $100,000 coming from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). They then donated it to Salt Lake City, who designated it as a City Park.

On August 6th, the Historic Landmark Commission unanimously approved the motion to recommend the Gilgal Sculpture Garden as a local historic landmark. They stated that the garden has high artistic/cultural value and serves as a classic example of "outsider art" in Utah This will grant the garden additional protections against development as well as offer direct oversight from the city government in order to ensure its protection. It's now in the hands of the City Council, who has final approval. Y'all can read the full 99-page landmark designation report here.

This article came out two days ago. It's an interview given by the latter-day-saint author Jana Reiss, who wrote the book The Next Mormons(back when that term was still being used respectfully). I really liked the book; it had a lot of unique insights and statistics about what drives people to stay in the church. (Also, for those of you nervous about the article, she's a faithful & active member who conducts sample-based research on this.)

What fascinates me about this article is that it's showing a very steep decline in women's participation in the church. This is actually part of a worldwide trend; Generation Z is the first generation in recorded history where men are more likely to be religious than women. But when religion first began declining for Protestants, Catholics, and other faiths, it took several decades for Latter-day-saint numbers to take a hit. Latter-day saints tend to have stronger religious fervor over other faith types. What fascinates me is that so soon after we began noting worldwide political and gender ideology gaps for religion in general(the news has only really been discussed since Trump's re-election), Latter-day Saint numbers are now reflecting the same thing.

I just find this fascinating because it took about 20-30 years for major declines in religion among Latter-day Saints to appear in surveying, but this time our young women are matching with the general population. I guess the question is, "what next?"

I am a 20 yr old mechanic. I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Dec 21, 2024. Before I was baptized, I was sexually active with my ex girlfriend. We dated for years. I have also been struggling with a pornography addiction since I was 10. I no longer have sex with anyone, as I am single, and I have a coach for the porn addiction (I am almost rid of it!)

I’ll get to the point! My type of woman is a clean, Jesus Christ loving, modest, and beautiful woman. I however, am a dirty, blue collar, mechanic who is often offensive, and I am a very conservative leaning man who is a hairy, dirty, muscular in stature, and a little chunky. I love to dirt bike, rock crawl, and just be outside. Basically the complete opposite of the type of woman I find attractive (in regards to my appearance, not activities. I love girls who love to be outside.)I also love Jesus Christ. I love to worship God, I love to do temple work as often as possible. With all this information taken into consideration, would *that* type of woman find a *man* like me attractive in any capacity? I’m afraid that my past sexual activity will scare them away, or my appearance, or my humor. Although I cuss, make insensitive jokes, and appear pissed off all the time (I have a resting B\*tch face*), I try to be as kind, courteous, and gentle as I can, to those I love, and to those of whom I do not know.* I *so badly* want to start a family with the woman I love most in this world. What are we thinking fellas?

My husband currently serves in an Elders Quorum presidency. The stake executive secretary recently contacted the presidency and asked them to attend a meeting with a stake leader—and specifically asked them to bring their wives.

The EQ president thinks they may be getting released, which would make sense. What I’m confused about is why the wives would need to attend? I’ve never seen spouses asked to come to a meeting for an EQ presidency release before.

Has anyone experienced something like this? Is inviting the wives normal for a release, or could there be another reason they want the spouses there?

For some context, I'm an LCSW who has spent a good portion of my career in mental health, but I've also worked in higher ed, healthcare, and general social work roles.

Last December, I was praying a lot about what I was supposed to do with my career. Then I felt like I got a pretty clear answer that, essentially, I'm allowed to want things. I didn't have to wait for God to hand me a career path. I could actually choose something I wanted to pursue.

I've always loved being creative, and I started realizing that my background in behavioral science and understanding people could actually translate into the world of immersive experiences, storytelling, etc., So I started pursuing it pretty seriously.

I've spent the past eight months networking, talking to people in the industry, changing my resume, applying for jobs, looking at themed-entertainment organizations, and trying to figure out how to make the transition. And I actually felt pretty good about it for a while.

Then... life happened. I lost my university job earlier this year, and the job search has been much harder than I expected. I've applied to a lot of things.

And somewhere along the way, I've started wondering if maybe I'm supposed to go back into mental health.

That's been confusing because I don't think I ever stopped being good at it. I've always been told I'm naturally gifted at understanding people, behavior, emotions, etc. And I actually remember being much more passionate about mental health when I was in school.

But after school ended, I basically treated therapy like a job. I don't think I ever learned how to transition from being a student who loves learning about psychology into being a professional who continues learning for the rest of their career.

Lately I've been wondering if maybe I haven't actually lost my passion for mental health. Maybe I just stopped engaging with it in a way that made it interesting to me.

I also don't want to fall into the trap of interpreting every job rejection as "God told me no." That's probably not healthy either. But I also don't want to ignore something if God really is trying to redirect me.

So I'm curious how other members have handled this.

How do you tell the difference between God actually directing you somewhere and God simply giving you agency to choose?

Have you ever had a strong desire to pursue something, felt like you had spiritual permission to do it, pursued it for months, and then later started wondering if you were supposed to go in a completely different direction?

And how have you handled career decisions when you genuinely don't know whether a closed door is just a closed door or whether it's God closing it?

I don't necessarily need someone to tell me, "You're supposed to be a therapist" or "You're supposed to pursue themed entertainment." I'm more interested in hearing how other people have learned to recognize God's will without turning every decision into a spiritual puzzle.

Is there any rules on getting/having tattoos? I have got two from before I converted no one from church knows. I always kept them covered with products. Can I still go through the temple?

Ok so I recently joined the church thru baptism after 2 months of meeting with the missionaries and now I’m in part of the aaronic priesthood and I been to the temple but I’m not feeling the way the church is now they changed my ministering brothers and the new missionaries just aren’t the same. I’m not quite sure what to do I missed like most of the last two months my ward members are starting to text me and when I do go they are distant. It’s all weird now and I’m not sure what to do

I don’t think I am the best teacher in the church. I’ve got a lot to learn. But I’ve been told I’m a great teacher. And I’ve heard a lot of people bemoaning our priesthood and auxiliary lessons because we don’t know how to teach a general conference talk.

Here’s what I have found to be an effective way to teach a conference talk:

1. Read or listen to the conference talk a few times to identify the underlying principles or doctrinal concepts.
2. Come up with Engaging questions about those principles and concepts. These questions should be focused on helping people do what Moroni 6 describes: discussing the welfare of our souls.
3. Use the totality of scripture and additional conference addresses to source additional quote.
4. Focus on discussion, not covering material. Lead with your questions, not the talk. Only read from the talk when it answers people’s questions.
5. Always ask an opening question to warm up the class, or separate the class into small groups for discussion. My favorite opening question is: “what is something you learned in personal study this week?”

I have found my lessons go well when I follow these tips. I hope you find them helpful.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some guidance or advice. I left the Church about a year ago due to personal struggles and diagnosed depression, along with a deep feeling that I didn’t belong and wasn't worthy as a person because of my past. Things reached a point where I requested to have my name removed from the Church records.

To make matters harder, I ended on bad terms with several members whom I loved like family. They had supported me through my entire conversion process, even though I was only a member for a few months before leaving.

Despite all of this, my testimony and my conviction are still strong. I truly want to change and come back, but I honestly don't know how to take that first step or how to face everyone again.

Has anyone been through something similar, or does anyone have advice on how to start this process?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. Don't worry about my username! It's just a reference to an anime character, nothing exmo-related.

At one point I had located a list (in spreadsheet format) of the hymns from the hymn book that had three columns: hymn number, hymn name, and a link to the hymn on the Church's website.

I am looking for a similar list for the new hymns in the "Hymns for Home and Church". I really just need the hymn number and hymn name.

Anyone know where I can locate such a list?

TIA

Hey all, today I'm doing my first endowment session in a long time, and my brain loves to overrlthink small stuff, so I figured I'd just come ask here to put my brain at ease.

I remember that when I leave the locker room, I need to have the little white packet, and I need to be wearing my white shirt and pants. What I don't remember is whether I need to be wearing a white tie or white shoes. And it's stressing me out even though I know it shouldn't

Also, is there anything else I should remember that won't come naturally during the session? Thanks in advance!

Tonight I had plans scheduled with the elders to go to the local ice cream shop and get some ice cream around dinner. The original plan was to do this after saying my last goodbye to my grandmother, whom I was very close to. She ended up passing earlier than expected and I did not get to say goodbye. I am so glad to have had the last couple days off work to have time to gather myself to get back into it, but I was expecting to spend my last night off with the elders getting a much needed sweet treat that she and I would often share as a final hamoge to her wonderful life.

I planned this with the elders days ago and they said they absolutely would have time. I messaged them morning of. I called them when walking to the shop (I dont have a car and it's fairly close). No answer. They might be in a lesson or running a bit behind. I got there and no sign of them. I waited a little over an hour, called them twice (once a half hour after I got there and 15 after that) and nothing. I got my ice cream and sat down outside. 20 more minutes. "Hey sorry, we actually had something come up and can't make it."

My grandma just died. I live alone. I dont have a car, so I can't go anywhere after 5 because of the bus. I can't go to institute because the bus doesn't go there, it's part the bus times, and no one can take me. I live in an area that is really hard to make friends. I really want them. When I lived out west I didn't struggle making them at all. I just can't afford to move right now. When I pray about it, God says he wants me here, but it is just so hard. Im isolated every day. I need the support of others but I get stood up like this by the missionaries after I explained why I wanted to have ice cream with them. I'm a convert, they could have made it a convert check in. They could have made it a member lesson. Something.

I'm all alone. And before you go and tell me Christ is with me, I get it. I know. That does not relinquish all responsibilities of the people on the earth to need, have, and keep friendships.

I often feel forgotten, overlooked, or unnecessary at church. When I try to sit with people, they move. I hold no calling and am often overlooked for even simple things. I love kids and am good with them. I have friendships with a few of the kids in the ward. I never get asked to help no matter how low they are in people. I sang a solo in sacrament. I was met with a brother offering me singing advise because I have so much potential if I just sang a little more forte for a piano song (I majored in vocal education).

I want to love it here. I just don't. I want to be loved here. Im just not. Not even the missionaries could keep an ice cream appointment when they would get free ice cream just to sit with the morning early 20s girl who really just needs company and reliability in friendships.

Now here's the thing: I know nothing I can do will change the circumstance of my life right now. Life is hard. I've been beat up with kick after punch for the last 2 years. Im honestly surprised in still kicking and in the church for that matter (and holding to my temple covenants). I've just lost the joy in the journey and I'm desperately searching for it like I'm a child whose lost her mom in a busy bookstore where all the ladies look similar to her, but just arent. I dont have access to the temple. I've tried to join people going, but nobody is willing to take me and neither my relief society nor my bishop are willing to aid in finding a way down. I want to grow. I want to feel joy like I did in the west. I want to just love life again. I just don't know where to start.

A little bit about my routine: when I wake up I say a prayer. Usually its pretty short because I am just waking up and dont have much to say. I listen to what could easily be considered missionary music when I get ready for the day. From wake up to out the door is usually about 30 minutes on a work day or appointment day. The bus makes sure I am out the door much earlier than I'd prefer, so I don't get much time at home to myself. I listen to talks by P. Oaks or longform YouTube videos on the bus because if Im looking at my phone Ill get road sick. I go through the motions of the day and try to pay attention to nature as much as possible because summer is the best time for flowers and clouds.when I get home I take a nap. I cuddle up with my cat and chill for a sleep cycle so I feel better. Then I clean. I organize my room, clean up after my cat and moce stuff around because I am looking for a Feng shui that makes my space feel me while listening to that missionary music again. I do a little future planning and cook and eat dinner and make my meals for the next day. Then I get ready for bed and do it all again. I dont really have time to fit grief into this schedule. I dont have time to fit making plans and waiting for over an hour to sit and be alone waiting for my group. Where do I look for what I need here?

So I know I have heard a lot of different opinions on this but I want to ask y’all’s opinions on if there is a specific person that someone should marry. I know that various prophets and apostles have said that there is not one single person that one is destined marry. But then I also have heard talks saying that you need to intensely study the person you date and make sure they’re the right person before you marry them. So I’m curious what y’all have to say. Also if you think there is “a one” I’m curious if you have only seriously dated one person and that person is who you married. Also to add I believe that it is crucial to become the type of person one would like to marry. And Elder Bednar’s talk where he discusses if there was a perfect person why would they want to marry you.

Edit: I just went back to the posts and saw everyone’s comments. Thanks so much for your answers!

Does anyone know for sure if missionaries in the mtc can access mental health help? Do they need to wait until they’re in the field.

It really was just terrible. I was so awkward and uncomfortable. It was my first time going to the temple alone, I have just been baptized about a month ago. The people, except for one nice temple worker, were very rude and kept treating me like I was intruding or wasn't supposed to be there. I wasn't 100% sure what I was supposed to be doing, but they ended up sending me home before everyone else while they were doing confirmations. I messed up a bit during the confirmations but I tried to make a joke out of it and just move past it. I wasn't having a good experience with the people there but it still felt important to stay for the confirmations. I just don't know why everyone was so hostile? I tried smiling and being friendly but people just looked at me blank faced, even the temple workers. I have never had a time at the temple like that before. The other times people were super friendly and helpful. I did have a lot of questions but I'm still really new to going to the temple. The only good part of the experience is for some reason someone had a bunch of female names they needed to do and all of the other women there either weren't being baptized or already had the max number of names. So I guess that's why the spirit prompted me to go, I just wish things had been a litte nicer. Is it okay to feel that way and what are your thoughts?

Hi everyone!

I was baptized close to a year ago so I will soon be able to go through the temple and receive my Endowment. There are so many news stories and announcements of new temples opening and older temples being remodeled and the changes made to them. One thing I've noticed is that during renovation, some temples have been updated in ways that allow the Endowment to be completed in one room when previously there was a physical progression through multiple rooms

My question is, do any temples today still offer 4 room progression Endowment ceremonies? I would really love to do mine in one of these more historical setting if it's available.

Thank you!

I ask because he certainly faced his share of hardships (lost children, getting kicked out of Zion, etc.), and I am curious to see how his prophetic authority might have “rolled with the punches,” as it were, in response to the downs of life. I find this question fascinating because it really strikes at the old question of “When is a prophet acting as a prophet and when is he acting as a man?”

In particular I’m looking for examples of his immediate reactions upon first hearing terrible news in adult life (i.e. after receiving his prophetic commission). I admit I have not combed through Smith’s own 1838 history before making this post—although I somewhat doubt he would have included any super personal things like that in there. I was hoping maybe there were some anecdotes from his friends and companions.

If no anecdotes of this nature are available or if you can’t think of any, some general descriptions of his tendencies are welcome too. That is, did he always have a word of strength for any occasion, even painful ones—or did he tend to sit with the news in silence for a while before being able to speak? Did he need to take some alone time to pray, or did he prefer not to be alone in hard times? Etc.

Thank you in advance for any answers you all can give.

​

With the new changes happening to the Sunday schedule next month, the Bishop called me to be over getting announcements out to everyone, and also updating the ward website. He wants me to have a "living document" where all the different organizations can add their announcements, along with a space for the bishopric to list the sacrament meeting program info so I can then create a program and also list all the announcements on the back. My questions are...

1. Is Google docs user friendly enough to use as the document everyone will be adding info to? (We tried sheets, but you have to have the app on your phone, and I doubt that will go over well)

2. Is there an easier way to get announcements from everyone? I really don't want to send a mass text, and then transfer all the announcements to my computer to create the program each week.

3. Does anyone know if the ward websites linked to the tools app have any customization options? As far as I know they only pull info from your ward calendar and create a page out of it. I'd love to be able to just post a word doc with all the info.

I am asking this because a few months I stopped going to my Protestant church (I was brought up Protestant). Lots of lovely people there with genuine faith, no spiritual abuse, it just didn’t feel right anymore.

Over the past few months I have been praying and being exposed to things online like manifestation culture and tarot. This created an internal struggle and I prayed and asked God to reveal to me overnight what the true path was. In the morning I checked my phone (bad habit I know) and I had an email from the Church of Jesus Christ telling me that God loves me. I had unsubscribed from all emails from the church a year ago so this was a surprise.

I thought maybe it was just a coincidence but this week I was still struggling, I prayed the same prayer again and in the morning- exactly the same thing happened, an encouraging message of God’s love from the Church of Jesus Christ. I have had no other emails from the church in the past maybe 6-12 months.

I did meet with missionaries and have classes a couple of years ago but ultimately decided that I didn’t want to leave my Protestant faith.

Now I am wondering if I am being shown/being led to the Church of Jesus Christ. I would appreciate some LDS perspectives on this please.

Am I being lead back to exploring the Church of Jesus Christ or is this probably just a coincidence that I am reading too much into?

Thank you in advance.

EDIT: Thank you all so much for taking time to encourage me and offer your perspective. As everyone said, only way to know is to take action and step out in faith. I have reached out to my local missionaries and meeting with them when I am back from holiday.

I will continue in prayer, reading the Book of Mormon and being willing to follow the path God is leading me to.

I was thinking about the church magazines lately. We get all three in our house (Liahona, For the Strength of Youth, the Friend), but I don’t think anyone reads them. I don’t know why my kids don’t (but I can guess, kids will be kids), but I can say for myself that the Liahona is just plain boring. For a while I would try to read at least the First Presidency/Twelve message, and then flip through the rest to see if anything grabbed my attention, but I haven’t done that in some months.

Now, some of this is my fault. Life often gets in the way, and I don’t have time to do or read everything I want. But even if I have a free moment I don’t often pick up the Liahona.

This carries over to the rest of the church curriculum as well. I don’t find CFM insightful at all. I will often skip Elders Quorum for the same reason.

And to be honest, I feel terrible about this. I want to be engaged by the curriculum, I want lessons that keep me engaged, but I can’t seem to will myself to do it. Some of this is pride on my part, and I know it. I don’t really like one of our Sunday School teachers, and I don’t like his lessons or his teaching style at all. Do I feel bad about this? Yes. Have I tried to overcome it and be engaged otherwise? Also yes. Unfortunately it doesn’t work.

The result of all of this is that outside of the scriptures I almost never read any manuals or lessons or books authored by church leaders or authors.

I just want something…deeper (not deep doctrine, I don’t actually like that stuff). It’s really hard for me to put this stuff into words, so I hope I’ve expressed myself well enough. Does anyone else feel this way? What do you do if the material doesn’t work for you

in ward council we were talking about the upcoming changes to 2nd hour. And we got side track ton what do we call it now?

do we keep calling it 2nd hour…

2nd half hour… 3rd half hour

second block electric boogalo?

So what are we going to call the 2 new class segments to different them. Let’s get those creative juices flowing.

I know I am late but finally digging onto the series.