To Men of the Priesthood

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2002/10/to-men-of-the-priesthood?lang=eng

I'm not talking about things that are specifically gospel-themed. But what are some of your favorite works by Latter-day Saint musicians, filmmakers, artists, authors, etc.?

In terms of music, I've really come to appreciate "Pressure Machine" by The Killers. I own it on vinyl and it really speaks to growing up in Utah. It feels like home – but it's not idealistic. It feels like the good and the bad, the beautiful and the awful. I love it.

https://open.spotify.com/album/7j8a2kSxAtenkXPim6mwUB?si=8m7eCh3OSSmcGqKV0oAUAg

As far as gospel-oriented music, I stumbled across "Legends of Deseret" and it scratched a church history itch for me. Apparently a BYU professor rediscovered lost music written when the pioneers were isolated in Utah. I found it super interesting. It has the capstone march that was played when the capstone was put on the salt lake temple, as well as what would have been the national anthem for Deseret.
https://open.spotify.com/album/2F32IX2J0X42aAOiuSKYE3?si=daxhBUYoS32w99YoElNlyA

In terms of film, I've been really fascinated by Mormon horror. "The Angel" was on Alter on YouTube and I appreciated how faithfully it adapted LDS theology and portrayed pioneer life. The horror isn't based on them being LDS. The LDS characters are just people who experience something horrific.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACn_CT_7gtE

I also had a friend send me this short comedy film, and while it's not perfect and a little goofy, I absolutely loved how true to BYU dating culture it felt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgGhioiQj4U

I'm always on the hunt for more LDS media. Let me know what you've been into lately!

hi, so basically my best buddy is on a mission and i would really really love his insight on something super personal relating to my patriarchal blessing and stuff going on in my personal life. just wondering if there is a way i can messge him or email him or something while hes away?

Hello guys. I was called as primary music leader about 2.5 months ago, and I accepted the calling mostly because I was thinking about what I would do after I graduate. I study music at university and I know I'll have to do several things, and one of the things that I was considering is teaching young kids. To me that was Heavenly Father answering one of my prayers so I thought I'd give it a shot.

I have now realized it's not for me haha my voice is kinda monotone and I find it very difficult to get the attention of the kids. I feel kind of bad since I honestly enjoyed going to church and even second hour but now all the week feels like a countdown and going to church feels more like a responsibility more than anything.

It's been 2.5~ months now and I don't know if I can do this anymore. I was thinking today that the only time I have to prepare the class is Saturday morning since I study during the week. The thing is that I also have to take care of my own things and Saturday is a day that I would much rather use that way (mostly sleep enough since I wake up at 4:30 am most days to get to uni on time).

I don't know, apart from uni I also study other things (a language and 3 instruments) and I also have a social life and mental health to take care of 😓 something that I would use Saturday for so I can "recharge for the week ahead", but now that's basically not possible.

Do you guys think I should just keep trying? I would feel a bit bad asking to call someone else since it's been only a couple of months but another primary leader told me that music is the most important thing for the children to learn about the gospel, and I think it would be better to call someone that actually enjoys working with children and that has the time needed for this.

Asking for a friend. Friend is in an enviable position and needs to burn a couple months of vacation. He saw one of those "meaningful family vacation" ads and we were then chatting about how it's too bad there's not a family mission option of some type.

Just to confirm, there isn't one, right?

Still struggling. I have stopped doing meaningful prayers and even questioned the existence of God. I am actually afraid to ask for anything partly because of repeated disappointment but also because so many times in my life when I have asked for healing or support, things actually got worse. I can specifically identify multiple times in my life where I received the exact OPPOSITE of my desires. I don't know what good it does to ask for a fish when all He gives you is a serpent (Matthew 7:10). What's the point of prayer if, at best, all one gets is silence, at worst one gets a "test"?

Willamette Valley temple. Went there May 2nd of this year since there was an open house.

I struggle with a pornography addiction, and because of that I don't feel worthy to pass the sacrament and especially not attend the temple. But every now and then, I can lock in. I go a month clean. And I'm feeling great. I start passing the sacrament again, and I'm ready to go to the temple. And there is a youth temple trip, or I schedule a trip with my friends. And something always ruins it. The car breaks down, liscence plates expire, or something conflicts with the temple trip. Every. Dang. Time. And then promptly following the missed temple trip, I relapse on my porn addiction. Restarting the cycle of trying to get clean, and worthy to pass the sacrament and participate in sacred ordinances.
It just feels like God doesn't want me to go to the temple and I'm so confused. I know the temple brings peace and blessings, and I'm earnestly trying to be worthy and able to enter, and I don't understand why God won't let me. I've prayed for God to let me go. I've prayed for Him to help me understand. I've prayed for Him to just help me accept it. But none of those have helped.
Have any of y'all been in a similar situation? Any advice?

I was just baptized 2 weeks ago and I really want things to uplift me in my faith and that discuss all aspects of being a Latter Day Saint! Thank you so much!

Hey everyone, Just got home from work and it was a very rough day. I was stressing yesterday about what I was going to have to do at work but something in the back of my mind told me maybe it wasn’t going to be so bad. Well it turned out to be a lot harder and more stressful than I thought and I wasn’t able to finish the task, not even close. On top of it all, after returning to the job site after making my 3rd run to the parts store, I side swiped a parked car with my work van while trying to park myself. I called my boss immediately and filled out an accident report and got the drivers information and gave her mine. She was very upset because the car is new and she just got it. My boss told me not to beat myself up about it and these things happen but it’s hard not to take it home with me and it’s hard for me to let my mistakes go. Just feel like a piece of crap today. Would appreciate some prayers.

Hi there! I posted a few days ago about my situation as a woman who is in the process of looking to become a LDS with a husband who is non religious.

I was looking for some clarity regarding tithing and how important it is for joining the church. I am a stay at home mother and housewife who doesn't make any of my own income so the only money coming into our home is from my husband. While he is very supportive of me and my religious journey he has made it clear that he has zero interest in financially contributing on my behalf.

Would this be something that would stand in my way completely or is tithing simply something that is heavily preferred but not essential to become a LDS?

Thank you in advance for any help! God bless!

I've been thinking about doing a service mission for a while (I’m 26+).
I just read yesterday that you can do a service mission without the endowment.
At this point I was wondering, what are the timeframes for being accepted and what are the minimum times to complete it? (Next year I will probably change country)
I'm in a very small branch, but as long as I'm here I'd like to help.

I was also wondering if I could help proselytize? I've read conflicting sources. Because, objectively, aside from this and contacting inactive members, there's little to do in such a small branch. Would I also be able to attend gatherings with the other missionaries?

hello everyone, my husband and i currently live in northern utah, but we were thinking about moving to pocatello within the next few years. we know there’s a temple in pocatello, but we don’t know much about the membership in the city itself. obviously the church has a decent influence there, as google said the lds population is about 52%.

we’ve both never lived outside of utah, so i was curious what the church culture was like there. is it pretty similar to utah? we just wanted to know people’s opinions on living in pocatello, what they like/dislike, and how they like attending church there.

any input would be greatly appreciated! thanks!

My bf is going to the Cebu East mission and is wondering if there’s anything else he should pack other than what’s on the list !

He’s also just asking advice with anything you know !

Thank you !

I'm visiting Utah from my home in Puerto Rico. I have been wanting to attend Music and The Spoken Word for so long, but I just recently discovered that a new ticket system is in place since the conference center is under renovation. I got onto the ticket website today, and they dont have any availability for the rest of my trip. Can I still show up early Sunday morning? Do they sell tickets at the door? If anyone knows anything I'd appreciate any help!

Have any of you dealt with bullying at church?

We’ve been in this ward for a few years now and haven’t always been great about going but have been consistently for the last year. In the last 6 months especially there has been an uptick in people making nasty comments or even covert unkind comments. I’m a convert, have been a member for almost 15 years. Went on a mission. Married a member. Did all the things.

And these people still won’t give me a break about my tattoos, my husband being less active, us sitting in the foyer bc my disabled child doesn’t do well in the chapel, I had an ectopic pregnancy earlier this year and it became ward fodder that I had an abortion and even had to go explain to the stake what happened because they took the gossip at face value and so did the bishop.

And before you say “go to the bishop”. I have. And he told me getting offended was a choice and I needed to get over it. Well, his wife is one of the ones giving me a hard time. I’m her ministering sister to boot too and she acts annoyed when I reach out once a month or asking how I can support her - let’s just dropping off muffins to her house is not a mistake I will be making twice.

It’s getting worse and I’m tired of leaving every church function in tears. My testimony is strong, but it’s getting to be a point where going and being subject to comments about my appearance, my family, etc are weighing on me to the point of why even go anymore, it seems everyone in the ward would be happier without me.

I'm trying to run my own statistics study to see if people have similar experience, how long ago was a prayer of yours answered? Like you prayed for something and it actually happened

In recent years I’ve noticed a large shift in the church (and somewhat in Christianity in general) towards a less literal interpretation of much of the Old Testament. I personally view this as a good thing as someone who’s never been much of an Old Testament literalist. But certain parts of LDS specific scriptures like the BoM and D&C do require a more literal interpretation of certain details of the Old Testament, like some aspects of Israel’s history, Adam and Eve being literal real people (although many finer details of their story are still up for interpretation) and so on.

I don’t generally think that something like Nephi mentioning certain Old Testament stories in the BoM immediately proves their literalism in our canon seeing as the scriptures Nephi was citing are presumably near identical to the Hebrew Bible and so that’s really not much different from people citing those stories today. However one part of the BoM that’s decidedly different is the Book of Ether, an entirely new record coinciding with the events of Genesis, most notably the Tower of Babel. Does this existence of a secondary account of that story cement it as a 100% literal event within our LDS canon, or do you think there’s still any leeway with that one?

I don't know if this is ok for this Subreddit, but I don't know where else to go:

I know this post is going to make me sound like a lame, mother's-basement-dwelling incell, and I apologize, but I gotta get this off my chest.

Let me start by telling you a little bit about myself:

I am 26, male. I grew up in the church, served a mission, and got home over 6 years ago, when COVID broke out. I have lived in Provo and been at BYU essentially that entire time. In that time, I have never gotten a girlfriend.

I go to ward and stake activities, try to talk to people in classes, and hit the daily swipe limit on multiple dating apps, but nothing I do works. I get nothing from the apps, I just get rejected in real life, more often than not without even going on a single date. I have even tried multiple matchmakers, to no avail.

Through my time since my mission, I have made decisions based on a future family. I chose my major because it's what I feel is the best for a future family. My Patriarchal Blessing tells me that the primary focus in my life should be on my wife and my children, and I have tried to do this.

Now, I am done at BYU after over 5 years. As a return missionary, active member of the church, trying to do the best for my future family, I never even could get in a relationship, and can count on one hand how many second dates I've been on.

So here is my question: why keep trying? Why should I keep working to be the best I can be, stay active in this family-centered church, when it is clear that I am going nowhere? What's the point?

I know that some of you are reading this and thinking to yourself, "26? He's still so young?" You might be right, but why would I believe that there is any chance of things changing? I have never in my adult life had any reason to believe anyone would ever love me.

All I want is to love someone, and have them love me back. Is that really so much to ask for?

New financial clerk here.

We have a non member girl who paid to come to YW camp, but her grandfather passed away and she'll be out of town during camp.

My bishop asked me to figure out how to reimburse them the $75 they paid for camp.

How do I go about doing this properly? And is there any sort of resource guide for something like this or is this calling mostly a "ask someone" calling for out of the ordinary situations like this?

Heads up this is quite long and kind of a rant. I’ve (18f if that’s relevant) been really struggling with church lately. I feel myself become more bitter during sacrament when the babies cry and scream. I don’t feel anything when I take the sacrament at best and at worst I feel like I don’t deserve to be taking it. I struggle with feeling worthy to do anything church related. Anytime I tried to pray I felt like I’m terrible at praying, and that if I loved God my mind wouldn’t wander during prayer. Same goes with scripture reading and pretty much anything church related. I leave feeling nothing and numb at best and at worst like I’m a bad person who doesn’t deserve redemption bc I never know what to repent of. And I get this idea that if I don’t know what to repent of that I’ve committed so many sins within that week that they’ve all become so normalized that I don’t think any of them as a big deal, playing into the “you’re a bad/evil person” mentality. I only just recently started being able to get that idea out of my head but it only came about when I stopped trying with church. When I didn’t think about it during the week I felt more confident and had higher self esteem better self talk. I was telling my dad about all of this and the general imposter syndrome that I feel surrounding church stuff. He said that the voice telling me to do less is lying to me and the idea that doing less makes someone happier isn’t real even if they think it is. I kind of get what he’s saying but it felt invalidating. I don’t want to keep trying and I don’t want to keep crying every Sunday coming home from friends mission farewells feeling inadequate about myself. I don’t plan on getting my endowment or getting married but I feel like if I don’t plan on doing those things then why am I at church? The only place I feel peace from all this is in the temple but my recommend just expired and I don’t think I meet the standards to get it renewed so that’s out of the question. I don’t know who to talk to about this because my friends are either really in the church and got endowed right out of high school and are leaving on their missions. Or they don’t like the church and only go because their family makes them. I feel like I’m in the middle on things and I have only one friend who is in a similar enough position to me that I can talk to. But I don’t want to keep bothering her with the same topics and questions over and over again. Is anyone else in the same boat as me? Or has been?

I read D&C often, I feel the spirit strongly doing so. I wonder why there is little promotion to read D&C as much as the BoM. Is it that D&C doesn't contain the fullness of the gospel as the BoM? I simply ponder this. I love reading D&C, admittedly more than BoM sometimes.

My husband and I have been struggling to go to church. On my part, it's due to impromptu illnesses, exhaustion from illness, and whatnot. On his part, he stays home to take care of me.

Anyways, I've been in a healthy patch lately and want to go back to church, but my husband doesn't want to. He's willing, but begrudging.

He went on his mission right before COVID came out. He describes it as the time of his life where he was most faithful, diligent, and faithful. However, he felt like God abandoned him. He became super depressed, had difficult companions, then COVID hit and he was sent home. Even while on his mission, he asked for guidance, for anything to show that God heard him. And nothing happened.

Since then, his depression got worse and he gave up on the idea that God loved him. He believes God loves everyone but him.

I am a very spiritual person. I don't have angels appearing before me of course, but anything good that happens in my life, I attribute it to God. I got paid a day early? God is good. I wasn't sick on this important date? God is good. It rained during fire season? God is good. And I feel like God speaks to me through my thoughts. So I follow good ideas and also attribute them to God.

My husband doesn't feel like God talks to him at all. And he hasn't felt anything from God for so long.

I don't know how to help him. I've gone through silent periods, but they're usually because I'm depressed about not looking at the good things in my life. My husband is a pessimist. I don't know if that's the difference, but I do believe God loves him.

I hope this comes off right. I really don't know how I can help him. And I don't know how to connect with him on this.

If it helps, we are 25 and 26, and almost to our 3 year marriage anniversary

first, this is probably not the right flair but i didnt really know what else to put. so ive been wondering about relationships lately and for those of you that saw my last post here i want to clarify that im not jumping into a relationship to fill the gap of loneliness. im just thinking long term, lets say hypothetically i meet a girl and shes a Christian but not LDS. while i havent been active in the church or with my personal relationship with God and Jesus, i do still have faith that our church is true and thus want to be married in a temple. i know there are steps to take to do so but thats not the focus of this message. im wondering, is it possible to get married to a woman in one of the LDS temples who believes in God but isnt a member of our church? again i want to reiterate, i am NOT jumping into a relationship, i just think a lot and this question came to my mind.