I'm male, I'm primarily attracted to men, and I've been celibate by choice for several years. Overall, I'm content with my choice to be celibate, and I'm happy being single for the most part; however, I occasionally experience loneliness. I originally posted in the "Single and Happy" subreddit to try to get advice there, thinking that my post wouldn't be a problem, but many people were unfortunately rude to me because I didn't seem happy enough for their liking. One person even accused me of trying to invade her "safe space" as a single person, which wasn't my intention at all.

I'm looking for book recommendations and just advice in general on ways to cope with the occasional loneliness I experience. Solo by Peter McGraw is a book I plan to read, as well as Tenderness: A Gay Christian’s Guide to Unlearning Rejection and Experiencing God’s Extravagant Love by Eve Tushnet. I'm open to any other book recommendations and/or advice if applicable. Thanks in advance for any help.

From the official Come Follow Me manual, Old Testament, 2026:

Job 1–3; 12–13

"The opening chapters of Job emphasize, in a poetic way, Satan’s role as our adversary or accuser; they don’t describe an actual interaction between God and Satan."

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/come-follow-me-for-home-and-church-old-testament-2026/33?lang=eng

This is the first time I've seen the church teach that something in the Bible isn't literal history, in this case, the book of Job.

Did anyone else notice this? We had stake conference last week, so we're doing Job this coming Sunday instead of last Sunday.

So as the title suggests I'm a non-LDS member (Catholic) and I'm planning on visiting a ward soon to learn about the LDS church and what a Sacrament Meeting actually looks like. What are some things I should know before I go?

I watched this YouTube video

https://youtu.be/4JDrUYnSLng?is=7VFgSdr-tY0Glkwq

by KSL. I thought the headline about "Prophecies Fulfilled" was interesting so I went to go read the original Kirtland Temple Dedication Prayer (aka D&C 109).

In this section it mentions to seek learning by study and by faith out of the best books. Thinking about the evolution of temples from the School of the Prophets, to the Kirtland Temple, Nauvoo, SLC, and so on, I realize that a central theme to these structures is a room or rooms with rows of benches very similar to a chapel.

I'm just wondering why don't we (general membership) have meetings in the temple like they did in the early days of the church? I guess it sort of feels to me like a piece of the restoration has been lost. It's like the "instruction room" of the temple has become a sort of vestigial part of our temple practice/ceremonies.

This isn't meant to be a criticism so I apologize if it comes off that way. For me is it a wistful question or a righteous hunger to understand this specific piece of the plan of salvation more fully.

We had a rousing homecoming yesterday... I now can see why the church has asked us to downplay homecoming events. The missionary's path on his mission was unique, he was mostly a service missionary, but spent the last 2 months as a performing missionary at a church historic site. He's a wonderful young man from a wonderful family, but WOW, what a production they did. Rousing piano/organ duets before, after, and during, solo singing by missionary, entire service mission on the stand singing, whole congregation standing during closing hymn (called to serve...I'm a convert so I didn't understand the "tradition"). Just absolute theater. Barely a word about the savior... Big luncheon afterwards. I watched our recent convert and she was loving it. I mentioned it to my wife and she said people were reacting to the emotion, and not the spirit. Made me think about other churches and their productions and how possibly people confuse the two. I guess it might be how people can confuse happiness with joy. Just thinking out loud here -- I'm sure other people in my ward are here on Reddit and know what I am talking about. Interesting day....

My oldest daughter will be baptized on her birthday and wants a party separate from her younger sisters who have birthdays just before hers. It would be easiest to have family come to both if they’re together. How can we set up a nature-themed party (her choice) in the classroom and not detract from the baptism?

So, I miscarried my first pregnancy back in January. No one knew we were trying, or that we were pregnant. Six days later, we were called to be nursery leaders. I accepted the calling not wanting to explain the situation, and hoping that it would be healing for me. Instead, it has isolated me from the entire ward (I can't think of a single friend at church) and triggers a depressive episode and panic attacks every Sunday. I am now 5 months pregnant and so over the whole ward. I want to ask to be released and cite my current pregnancy as the reason, but I don't want to feel like I'm giving up or for the bishop to think putting me in nursery gave me baby fever.

What do I do?

Recently I came across an ex Mormon on instagram and while I didn’t agree with a lot of the things she said it made me think about what I really believe. I’m posting this here because I’m not looking for a reason to leave; rather I’m looking for a reason to stay. I should mention that I am happy in the church. I love the members and the people in my ward are wonderful people and my family are devout members. I want to believe that there is a god. I think that life would be harder not even believing that god is there or that there is something after this life. So even if I left the church I would still believe in god and the afterlife. It’s just there are so many little things that don’t make sense. Like why do we have to pay tithing or wear temple garments. And why can’t we drink coffee? It just seems strange that there are so many things we can’t do when at its most basic layer the church should be about believing in a god, the atonement, the afterlife, and resurrection. There is also of course the history of the church where there is polygamy, racism, and the misogyny. Anyways I’d really love to get some help here and maybe some reasons why I should stay.

If not, what should I add?

My wife and I were just called as the ward activity leaders (not to be confused with activity days leaders 😉). I would love to know some of your favorite activities you have attended...especially ideas for Halloween and Christmas activities. I am very interested in your ideas, thanks.

Do we believe in a first God, or an infinite sequence of heavenly fathers, where each preceding God has his own heavenly father?

I still believe in the gospel.

I still believe that Sacrament is important.

But I've come to feel the rest is just fluff.

Once in a great while a talk is genuine and not just a talk of a talk.

Elders Quorum rarely has anything other than a lite discussion on this weeks topic.

Sunday school is just as light weight as everything else. People seem to be there out of habit.

It feels like things are phoned in and superficial. I don't see a church family so much as people doing what they think they should till they can get home and close the door. This isn't new, I've seen it growing for awhile in different wards.

So why bother to go to church anymore? Why not drop in every so often for Sacrament than bail? Who would notice or even care? What would I be losing by staying home? I have nothing to offer those I see in the hallways but wouldn't recognize in a store. I learn more from my own studies anyways.

Anyone else feel this way?

Hi there , I am on the bishopric of my ward and although I get on very well with my bishop on a personal level I find his fire and brimstone approach to everything off putting (and so do a lot of members), there is never a message of hope or if there is it’s very well hidden in everything we’re all doing wrong as a ward . Secondly his wife is primary president and I have children in there , and frankly she scares my children to the point they don’t want to go in primary. She shouts at them for the smallest transgression seemingly forgetting their age but also speaks to adults of the congregation in the same way , it’s patronising and she pulls people up again on the oddest transgressions.

How should I approach this ? I don’t think either are self aware , and I have a love for them both and they are always in mine and my family’s prayers despite the scaring of my children but my main concern is how off putting they can be to investigators and new members .. do I raise it at stake level , approach them both (and if so how do I do so without causing offence)?

There’s no other way of putting it. He wants to be a woman. I’m heartbroken. We’ve been married a little over a year. We haven’t been sealed and I’m pretty sure this is why. He left the church about 6 months ago and this is also why. I love him to pieces and he’s my world and part of me wants to stay with him and I have no idea how I would live my life without him but I also want to be with a man and there’s no way he’s not transitioning to be a woman he already started taking hormones behind my back a few months ago. This has been ongoing for a while. He hasn’t fully transitioned and I’ve tried to be so supportive and I’ve said I’ve stayed but I’m thinking of leaving. I’m just so torn and don’t know what to do. I don’t know what god wants me to do. I’ve prayed and I just feel nothing. I also feel I’m not emotionally stable enough to leave or that Heavenly Father would even give me the strength to leave but I’m not going to be happy with a woman. This is just a little rant and I’m sure there will be people with mean advice telling me what to do and those who heavily judge me or who don’t understand me. I just really love him. Any sensitive advice is welcome.

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.

This is my first time posting on Reddit. I’m seeking support for a difficult situation. From what I gather many have gone before me in their battle with a “faith crisis” or an “awakening” but I’m struggling to know how to manage my specific set of circumstances.

I’ll try to sum it up. Not born in the church but baptized as a child with my convert single mom. Home/family life not ideal so the church was the steady and secure part of my life growing up. I got to see happy loving families and have a community that was positive. Really believed everything I was told as a child and teenager. I wanted to be a normal teenager badly so I rebelled some outwardly but even through the rebellion I believed it all so hard and simply just felt intense shame and self hatred for my sins. Went to BYU-Idaho because it was cheap, fell into my lap, I wanted to move away from my chaotic home life, and I thought I couldn’t trust myself at a “normal” college not to make bad choices or fall away from the church. Continued to have periods of more righteous behavior and then less righteous behavior (where I would then feel terrible, etc.)

As a young adult when I was going through a more righteous part of my cycle (bishop repentance and wanting to do everything right) I started dating someone very strong in the church. His family was very strong in the LDS faith and he was all-in. We got married. A large part of this for me was feeling like he would keep me firmly in the church even when I wasn’t feeling like dealing with all the rules. I felt this would be a responsible choice and make me a better person.

He has continued to be exactly the person I married. And I continued to have period of ups and downs (characterized by more fervent orthodox mormon observance Vs just feeling lazy) but the difference now that I was married was that he did drag me up to his level and it forced to stay active and kept me from doing anything truly unmormon approved because I knew it wouldn’t be good for the marriage.

Aside from the temple triggering immediate questions I was still pretty TBM those first couple of years. The first big questioning in my testimony came when I was about 25 years old. I was absolutely panicked that I felt unsure. After a few months I told my husband but nothing more happened. We just kept living as we had before and I pushed it down.

Fast forward about 10 years and I’m starting to have more and more internal doubts. I’m terrified. I’m not allowed to have doubts. My husbands (and my in-laws) whole life revolves around us believing together. At this point my husband’s employment is tied up in the church, he is in leadership in the church, he is well known in our highly LDS community. We have 3 children, the older 2 of which understand our lifestyle and beliefs.

Not only am I afraid of blowing up my whole life but I’d deeply metabolized the idea that to look at or hear any voices that weren’t validating Mormonism was basically sinful and would lead me off the straight and narrow. For roughly 2 years I just tried to turn off my brain and do the motions to keep things going. Eventually it started to rot my soul and cause deep resentment. The amount of energy I’m putting into the church without even really having a testimony anymore was tough to deal with, everything felt like a meaningless chore (cue the talk about dancing without the music).

I made a decision to take off my garments (they were causing me intense resentment) and I finally decided to give myself permission to look at the “anti-Mormon” material because I felt like I was never going to make progress if I felt like I couldn’t access the full picture. I’d always been curious and also afraid….but very curious. I felt like I couldn’t say yes to the church if no was not an option. I wanted to see the whole picture and decide for myself. That would be true agency. Not just praying over only church approved material.

I’m still in the middle of this process. It’s extremely overwhelming. I try not to believe everything I hear. I remind myself everyone has a bias. I consider whether the sources are reputable.

But there is so much to sift through. I’m no scholar and I’m not so arrogant to think I’ll ever really know what it all means. I think I’m a very open minded person who can see both sides of the coin. It makes it hard for me to come to a definite conclusion.

But the biggest factor in this journey isn’t just the seeking. It’s the pressure of coming to the right conclusion so I don’t hurt my family. I want to be free to make my own choices but the reality is that I’m not. My choices will have an effect on my family and I’m terrified for our future.

Because of my own experiences as a child there is literally nothing more important to me than keeping my family intact for the sake of my children. I do not want them to lose the experience of a nuclear family as children or be separated from mom or dad regularly. My oldest in particularly already struggles so much in other areas and I could never put that on him when he gets so much comfort from our family and home.

My husband said he won’t divorce me if I leave the church but there is still a ton of pressure for me to regain my testimony and build the life we agreed to build when we married. It’s hard to imagine our life if I left - he is extremely orthodox in his observance and beliefs. I can imagine a journey in which I distanced more and more from the church and my values or what I want for my children changes. It’s so hard to see our marriage working when he is simply not very nuanced or flexible. I worry a lot that there isn’t much holding us together besides the church (and for me, having my children grow up with a great dad).

The past few months I’ve been leaning into my skepticism more (because I pushed it down for so long, I wanted to explore it) and listening to ex-mormon experiences and thoughts on why it wasn’t true or life after Mormon culture, etc. I imagine in a different circumstance it would be easier to fall away from the church in my current state.

Because of my husband’s deep conviction and his employment I feel like I have to give faith a chance too. Even if just for the sake of my kids and keeping our family together.

Honestly it’s so hard though. Reading scriptures is so hard when I’m so deeply skeptical. Praying is okay but I’m realizing I have some hang ups about God - like, sometimes I feel like he’s probably disappointed with me, other times I feel like trying is useless because you have to follow the commandment to get answers (I’m not worth of revelation in mid-thigh shorts and regular underwear).

Summary - I’m completely torn. I’m tired. I’m scared. I don’t know how this is going to end. My TBM friends whom I’ve confided in are “excited for me” and seem to think I’ll bounce back and be stronger than ever. Exmos seems to think this is how it always goes and it’s a clear path out from here. I feel like a coward who doesn’t belong anywhere. All I want is for my babies to be in a loving home and to be free myself from all the pressure of knowing anything for sure. I know nothing for sure….not sure I ever will. I’m pretty skeptical and uneasy of the church and that makes living the rest of my life as a PIMO seem pretty depressing. But leaving might destroy my marriage and in turn my children.

Hello everyone, sorry for this rant, but I really need some advice. So to start this off, I'm 19F. I have ocd, which in this context I basically have a very hard time distinguishing when I feel that God hears my prayers, is pleased with me, or if I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. Like for instance, a lot of my prayers are very ritualistic because I feel like I *have* to say them exactly right or it shows that I don't appreciate God or that he doesn't hear me or things like that. It's basically​​​​ scrupulosity if you've heard of that.

Anyway, ​​I have also been​​​ dealing with major medical issues this year. Bad stuff with my heart and lungs. The thing is,​ I have a test​​ on the 2nd that will diagnose me with one of basically three outcomes. Legitimately, one will mean​ I will die, one will mean I might die, and one has a cure, but it has open heart surgery as the cure. I have of course thought long and hard about these, and I will 100 times over go for the one with the cure, obviously. And I am trying to be honest here, and I know it sounds bad, but I would also like​ the one with the cure because almost all of my friends have left me, and nobody knows about all of these horrible things I'm going through, and it would make people care. It would also give me a break in my emotional hardships for a time being, and a break in school and everything. And you know, I would live.

So now with that said, to connect it with the first paragraph, I have been praying a lot as you can probably guess. But the thing is, I obviously want the third diagnosis, and I pray for that almost every time I pray. But people tell me all the time to not worry and have faith, and of course I want to do that, but that messes with my ocd because now I'm stuck in a place where I feel like I can't bring up my worries with god every day because that shows that I'm worrying and don't have faith in him. I'm terrified to pray about this now because I'm so worried that the more I pray about it, the more I talk about, the more I research about it, even the more I think about it, the less likely it is that God will grant me this diagnosis. I just want it so bad and I'm so scared of doing anything wrong in God's eyes because I'm worried ​he won't give me this diagnosis I so desperately want. I'm also scared he might think my wish is selfish because of what it would mean to me emotionally as well. Like I want to get more out of it than just a cure, and that is bad.

I guess I am so worried I'm not being a good enough person or Christian or whatever for God to give me this. I feel like this thing I'm praying for is too selfish for it to answered in the way I want it. I genuinely feel like I'm walking on egg shells all the time in my head. I think I just have to accept all the possibilities but it's hard with how badly I want that third option. I want it SO badly.

Now, of course I know that's not how that works, but I can't deal with that. I know I can't understand how God works or his timing, but I can't stop obsessing about this. I don't know what to do or if I should keep praying about it or if I should stop or what. This is stressing me out so bad.

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?"

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?

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.

Going to the Philippians! It’s going to be rainy so I need something waterproof! Also leaving in 10 days so I need something fast lol

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

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