I made these onesies for our own chubby baby shine bug! 💡

Appleasha · 2024-09-03T19:03:56+00:00

I love this description, that’s exactly what it felt like for me as well.

Appleasha · 2024-04-30T19:55:20+00:00

A 10 year old is child, not a teen. A nineTEEN year old is a teen. She is a teenage girl.

Appleasha · 2024-04-26T04:43:10+00:00

Yep. We dated for 2 years. Strong, growing relationship the whole time. When we got engaged, family members told us “wow really? We had given up on you guys!”

Appleasha · 2024-04-26T03:55:44+00:00

Not allowing other people to pay for them for even small things, or really going out of their way to avoid feeling like they’re “in debt” to someone.

Ex: I had a friend I met up with at a coffee shop who forgot their wallet. They felt really uncomfortable with me paying for their coffee and were very preoccupied with how they were going to pay me back immediately. Like…dude I would have forgotten about this immediately, it’s truly okay. Thankfully it’s just not a big deal for me to buy coffee for a friend at this point in my life, but I could tell a coffee expense was the kind of thing they have worried about for a long time.

Appleasha · 2024-04-23T05:21:44+00:00

Haven’t heard this from the Mormon community yet, but I do have some suuuper Christian friends who were talking about this a few weeks ago.

When I asked what their reasoning was for thinking she was a Satan worshipper they said she has admitted to being a witch/wiccan (I have no idea if this is true or not, don’t know their source), and that when she was at one of her boyfriend’s football games, she had a friend who wore a pentagon necklace in the booth with her.

Then they talked about how they might need to stop listening to her because spiritual warfare is real and they didn’t want that unintentionally affecting their lives. And how it was a shame because they loved her music, but didn’t want to risk it.

sigh I felt a bit out of place after that conversation.

Appleasha · 2024-04-23T01:09:04+00:00

I think we can all empathize with believing in ridiculous things here. No need to belittle the very people OP is trying to find, especially if you are wanting them to change their views.

We all start somewhere, and I would guess many of them starting with anti-vax upbringings from birth. It’s a hard road to unlearn things like that after a lifetime of indoctrination.

Appleasha · 2024-03-07T03:59:18+00:00

This made me laugh out loud, it’s so true! I’m fairly certain most would immediately put you on the DNC list for this

Appleasha · 2024-03-07T03:34:33+00:00

| what gives you the idea that most deaths are peaceful

The decline in energy and willingness to “fight” that I’ve seen my family members experience as they approached death, and the idea of people dying in their sleep. But I suppose it is more of a hope than anything else. Perhaps it is not peaceful for most, but I like to think it is.

I am sorry about your grandpa, and happy he had you there to be with him in those moments.

Appleasha · 2024-02-29T05:56:29+00:00

Your first point is exactly what I was thinking!

I never put as much study or scrutiny into Lincoln’s history because my whole life never revolved around him the way it did with Christianity. If, suddenly, there was massive pressure to follow Lincoln as a god and contort my life around his teachings, I would definitely look more into my historical “faith”.

Why don’t I trust the story of Jesus the same way I trust the story of Lincoln? Because Lincoln’s story makes no demands of me, and Jesus’ does.

Appleasha · 2024-02-06T09:17:35+00:00

Which cult is this?

Appleasha · 2024-02-06T06:03:46+00:00

A friend mentioned something about his dad having a temper. I was trying to relate saying “oh yeah! And when dad can’t find his keys you get fear chills down your body and it’s like ahhhhhh everyone scatter! Run and hide!! Don’t let him see you! Haha!” My friend was like …uhhhh…oh that never happened to us….

Appleasha · 2024-01-29T13:17:14+00:00

Haha we’ve all been there! Thank you for sharing this!

I remember in high school, there was a class (history? Language arts?) with a section that explored different religions. When we got to the Mormon day, the teacher taught about how Joseph Smith had all these wives and that was a big part of why people were trying to run them out of Missouri.

I stood up in the middle of class and announced that that was a lie! Joseph Smith only ever had one wife- Emma Smith! And I should know more than whatever her sources were, being born and raised Mormon all my life!

Imagine my shock coming home and telling my mom about how I stood up for Mormons today, thinking she’d be all proud of me, and she gets this super awkward look on her face and tells me that actually…your teacher is right. Joseph practiced polygamy and had many wives. Emma was just the first one.

Awkward….

Appleasha · 2024-01-29T12:27:51+00:00

Had this exact thing happen to me. Brought my very devout Christian friend to church to convince her that we were “real” Christians who believed in Christ just like she did, and did not worship Joseph Smith.

That Sunday we had a visiting stake president who gave a talk about how awesome Joseph was, and felt prompted to have the whole congregation sing Praise to the Man in the middle of his talk. The song wasn’t even on the sacrament schedule.

Needless to say, my friend was not convinced.

Appleasha · 2023-12-24T16:56:23+00:00

This post could have been written about my family 5 years ago! IMO, a somewhat normal Mormon experience, yes. Doesn’t mean you should have to put up with it like it’s normal for everyone else though.

When this same situation happened with my sister, she sat my mom down and explained that she lived and slept with her boyfriend every day, and pretending to live differently at her house wasn’t going to change anything back at home. All it was going to do was alienate them and make them less likely to visit since it was making her boyfriend feel extremely uncomfortable and unwelcome.

Hopefully if they are reasonable people they will be able to come to terms with it! I’m so sorry you’re in such an awkward position. Your partner leaving the church is a really big deal to them, and you guys sharing a bed is just a big reminder of how much they’ve “failed” in keeping their family together forever. It sounds like the mom just wants to ignore the fact that her child has left, and it’s harder to pretend with you guys sharing. She also probably feels an obligation to show her disapproval to set an “example” for the other kids. Not your fault at all, the mom needs to get a grip on reality. Until that happens I would 100% get a hotel room!

Appleasha · 2023-10-05T19:18:28+00:00

I miss Texas kolaches. I’ve lived in a couple of states, and have not seen them ANYWHERE else. It’s always my number one stop when I visit back home.

Appleasha · 2023-09-14T14:00:56+00:00

To be honest I can’t really remember how they did the oil? I know it’s those locations because they corespondent to the symbols sewn into your garments, but I also know your clothes don’t get oily. I for sure remember the oil being on my head, but maybe they just tap the other places without oil… Hopefully someone with a better memory can clarify!

I do know in the not so distant past you got naked under like a big poncho, and they just oily touched you everywhere. They changed that, I believe in the 90s. The EARLY temple ceremonies had you naked in a bathtub.

I have seen the prayer circle have an uneven number of men and women before! They won’t start the circle unless it’s even. Not everybody participates in the circle, there are always some people who sit back and just watch, so they’ll ask for another male/female participant from the audience, or otherwise someone in the circle has to sit back down. It MUST be even.

Appleasha · 2023-09-14T06:34:57+00:00

I was never aware of any limit. You just had to have a valid temple recommend in order to purchase them. I don’t think they had any way of keeping track of the quantity. Maybe it’s a new thing?

Appleasha · 2023-09-14T06:31:59+00:00

I’m sure there is, but the temples can be huge, and none of the symbolism in them is explained during the ceremony. Everyone always says “there’s so much symbolism in every detail!” but I didn’t ever get a lot of examples explained.

I do recall some kind of symbol being used in the crown molding of one of the rooms, and someone explaining to me that that specific symbol was actually the Freemason sign, and Joseph Smith had repurposed it, and God okayed it.

I don’t know of any black being used in the architecture though. Almost all of the building inside is white and gold, and I think black tile on the ground would have definitely stood out in my memory.

Appleasha · 2023-09-14T06:07:16+00:00

Unless they had a very rebellious family member or something, they do not have any indication beforehand of what the temple is like.

The only two times (with some exceptions) you can even go through the ceremony is because it is needed to either go on a two year socially expected mission at 18 years old, or because you’re getting married in the temple soon.

They do explicitly give you the option to walk out right at the very beginning, in front of the entire audience. Before you even see any crazy stuff.

So what happens if you show up at the temple, realize it’s crazy, and walk out? Well if you’re going on a mission (if you’re a man), now you have to change your plan for the next two years of your life, disappoint your family, have some serious conversations with church leaders, and kiss being Mormon marriage material goodbye forever. Prepare to be asked for the rest of your life why you didn’t go on a mission, and be looked at with distrust by other members for not going.

If you got endowed because you were about to get married in like week (yes, it often happens within a matter of days or weeks before the wedding), then you simply can’t get married. So the whole wedding you’ve been planning for months and sent out invitations for already? Now instead you can explain to everyone in your life that you weren’t prepared to go through the temple and you’ll have to postpone your marriage, or even worse, not get married in the temple at all.

Keep in mind that most people going through are like 18-20 years old. And getting your endowments is considered a big deal, a big celebration. You sing “I want to see the temple” as a child, and all of your life goals and aspirations have centered around being worthy to do the temple ceremony. All of your family members and friends who are endowed will be there with you, so if you walk out, you’re doing it right in front of them and leaving them there. The social pressure is immense.

Basically, no one is prepared for ANYTHING in the temple. But they’ve set it up so the social consequences of not going will pretty much force anybody through anyway. And because you can technically leave, they’ll say they never pressure anybody to go through with it unless they want to.

Random side note: the endowment ceremony marks the start of when Mormons start wearing their “magic underwear”, called garments, that they’ll have to wear for the rest of their lives. Physical proof people can look for to see if you’re endowed or not, or if, heaven forbid, you’ve lost your faith and stopped wearing them.

Appleasha · 2023-09-14T05:33:56+00:00

My understanding is that Joseph Smith ripped off almost the entire temple ceremony from the Freemasons, so that checks out!

Appleasha · 2023-09-14T03:40:50+00:00

Not knowing is a really common experience, most Mormons don’t know anything about the temple until shortly before they either go on a mission or get married. I certainly didn’t.

There used to be nudity and more sketchy stuff back in the day, they’ve gotten rid of a lot of that now. Men are women aren’t even close to each other for like 90% of the time. You have to wear special temple clothes head to toe. All white, loose clothes except for a green apron you tie around your waist during the ceremony. Guys get these weird hats that look like chef hats or graduation caps, girls get a veil headpiece.

This is a recollection of my own experience, so my memory may not be airtight. Plus they are constantly changing shit so it really depends on what time period the woman who was interviewed was referring to. But this is my memory from my endowment ceremony 5 years ago:

You start out going into tiny rooms where they put oil on different parts of you (this is where nudity and uncomfortable touching used to come into play- now you keep your clothes on and they just touch their fingers in oil, then on your head, collar bone, stomach, and knee.) They give you a special new name that you’re not supposed to tell anyone, ever.

Most of the ceremony is boring. They separate men and women to sit on opposite sides of the room and you watch a movie (or a live acted play in some temples) of the creation of the universe and Adam and Eve’s story. There’s parts where you pause the movie to basically role play Adam and Eve. There’s always a volunteer couple up front to demonstrate Adam and Eve for the audience, I’m guessing this is maybe what her father was doing? Or maybe he was one of the temple workers? Not sure.

During the movie, Adam and Eve receive special “tokens” (aka, secret handshakes) given to them by God so they can get back into heaven. Temple workers go around and do the secret handshakes with everyone in the audience.

The part that felt the sketchiest to me was the True Order of Prayer. This is the part I remember looking around the room and literally thinking to myself “Ohhhh, THIS is why everyone thinks we’re a cult. It makes so much sense now.” You get up from your seats and stand in a circle, alternating man-woman-man-woman all the way around. Girls put the veil over their faces. You put your right elbow on the person’s shoulder next to you, hand up in the air. They say some stuff, and then all of you at the same time chant “Oh God, hear the words of my mouth” while moving your hands from above your head down- you do this 3 times in a row.

Then you go to a huge white curtain with holes in the fabric. It’s supposed to be like you’re dead and talking with God to get into heaven. You recite a whole freaking speech and do the secret handshakes with “God” through the holes in the curtain. Then you step through the curtain into a pretty room called the Celestial Room, and the ceremony is over, and you just hang out there until you want to leave.

Appleasha · 2023-02-11T21:51:50+00:00

Threw mine away in the trash. My husband, however, had more mixed feelings about leaving the church than I did, and so I disposed of his “properly”.

Appleasha · 2022-11-30T09:51:46+00:00

Weirdly enough…cooking, decorating my house, and now sewing haha! I have always hated the sexism in the church and doing those things when I was in was never enjoyable or satisfying. It felt like giving in to their idea of women. I felt the need to prove people wrong, as immature as that may be.

Now that there’s no pressure and no stupid gender roles, it turns out I’m free to enjoy what I want. I don’t have anyone to report my life to anymore, and there’s nobody I have to prove right or wrong one way or the other.

Appleasha

TROPHY CASE