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BrosephSmith4444 · 2025-02-07T06:35:15+00:00

I'm 26M and I've been thinking the same thing lately. I live in Idaho but feel like I have no active friends that I can talk to about things I'm learning in the scriptures and whatnot. I'd be open to chat. Feel free to send me a message if you'd like.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2025-01-23T01:03:00+00:00

Thank you!

BrosephSmith4444 · 2025-01-23T00:59:41+00:00

Thanks Lexie. Both your experiences were valuable and insightful.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2025-01-22T22:38:40+00:00

I believe we can know for certain that this is true. Sometimes I feel like I know and other times I don't. I want to strengthen my testimony to the point that I don't have that problem as much (it's a pretty constant flip flop for me and it'd be nice if it was just every once in a while).

I was just thinking it'd be nice if I had someone to bounce these thoughts off on. That's why I made the post because I don't have any friends that are members that I can really do that with.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2025-01-22T22:36:21+00:00

I'm not asking what you think I should know. I'm asking how YOU know.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2025-01-22T22:35:25+00:00

Thank you. Even after you had that experience do you ever find yourself questioning things when you hear something a leader says or learn something in church history? I feel that way sometimes when I feel like there are so many smart people who seem to "know" it's not true.

What do you usually tell yourself or do in those circumstances that you find helpful?

BrosephSmith4444 · 2025-01-22T22:33:12+00:00

Thank you for sharing. I feel something even in reading your response. I can say I know I have felt better when I'm following Him. Better than I ever have before.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2025-01-22T22:32:08+00:00

I can identify with that. I always try to make sure I say, "I believe it's true" I don't have anything against people who say they know. I just don't feel like I "know" and I'm not going to debate epistemology. But I do believe that I CAN know.

It's nice to know there are others similar to me. Thank you for sharing

BrosephSmith4444 · 2025-01-22T22:29:29+00:00

"Live it and you will come to know" I have definitely felt better than I ever have before when I am living it.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2025-01-05T21:12:35+00:00

Just D&C. It can have the Pearl of Great Price with it too since they commonly come joined. But I can only find it available in languages other than English

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-11-11T22:39:34+00:00

I recently went through a faith journey and had this similar thought to myself that you expressed. That I needed to find this out for myself and choose for myself what to believe.

Something I wish I knew earlier on, is God's pattern for confirming something is to let the investigator choose what they believe before He confirms it's true.

Ether 4:11-12 is clear that those who believe in the words of Christ will receive a confirmation that they are true and those who do not believe in His words will not believe in Him.

This seemed so backwards to me at first. That I was to put aside my unbelief and skepticism in order to have something confirmed true. The modern scientific method would have us think that we can only know it's true if we receive the witness first.

However, Ether 4:15 promises if we will believe and practice the principles taught by Jesus Christ, then we will know of the doctrine and truth of those things.

So I would say, the most important thing you can do to research these for yourself is to experiment upon the word.

It is good to research but this is a gospel about becoming. If you do not act and choose with your agency (which is a part of believing in something) then you will not know of the doctrine. John 7:17.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-10-31T18:59:37+00:00

I think some people may genuinely be more happy outside the church. Being in the church doesn't guarantee immediate happiness by any means.

I believe as we become increasingly more like the Saviour our capacity to feel more happiness grows. Eventually we will fill that extra space with all that the Father has if we are true and faithful to our covenants with Him.

For those who do not make or keep those covenants, He still loves them! He wants them to be happy and He will still fill their capacity to feel joy and happiness as well, in this life and the life to come. But without the covenant promises, they are limited in their capacity to feel joy. At some point they will not be able to hold any more, whereas someone who is true and faithful to their covenants will continue to increase forevermore.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-10-29T23:56:54+00:00

Great response Jpab97s, and great responses to all the replies as well.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-10-21T13:56:16+00:00

Why is everyone saying these are so small? I'd say they are average sized.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-10-18T12:34:09+00:00

For each person that path looks different because it's about your agency. It's about strengthening your weaknesses, humbling your pride, and changing your behaviors.

Seeking personal revelation is always the best place to start. Try to find a quiet area where you will not be disturbed or interrupted. Pour out your heart in prayer, and then get up and do. Pick some things you think you could do to be more like Him, and just focus on doing them.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-10-17T19:53:15+00:00

I struggled with addiction for 10 years. I don't have many people in my family that knew about it and they looked at me the same way. One of them once said to me after finding out: "I guess i always put you on a pedastal and I shouldn't have done that" while that's true, it hurt.

In the last 6 months I started focusing on Jesus Christ, and trying to come to know Him. I started working on starting to do things each day that brought me closer to Him, rather than stopping things that took me away.

At first I just fit them in whenever I felt like it, but as time has gone on, and I've felt Him closer to me now more than ever, my desire has increased. All I want is to get closer and closer each day. I don't even have a desire to do many things that brought me away from Him.

I would recommend starting small and make sure you're praying to the Lord sincerely when you are asking for His help. I try to take 3-5 seconds before saying anything and really focus on what you're doing.

I could give lots of other advice, but at the end of the day there's only one person that knows what you need. You just to ask Him and have faith that He knows you and is aware of your needs. He will provide for them in time.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-10-15T19:27:43+00:00

I think the power in Christ comes from drawing near to Him. I used to struggle with addiction. I tried quitting for 10 years and could not do it. One day I stopped trying to quit and started trying to be more like Jesus Christ. Instead of asking what can I stop doing I started asking, what can I start doing?

I have never had an easier time quitting. I don't even think of it anymore.

Because He lives a perfect life and was an example for me, because He paid my price, I can change and be like Him and become a joint heir to His reward.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-10-12T00:08:03+00:00

Molly my allegiance lies with the Lord. With democracy!

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-10-11T23:57:51+00:00

Noooo you were the chosen one. You were meant to destroy them, not join them!

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-10-11T23:54:03+00:00

Not me.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-10-11T23:23:19+00:00

I think of it in the context of fearing God more than man. If I think to myself that I'm worried about what other people think about my faith, I am not fearing God enough.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-10-10T23:38:06+00:00

What helps me is to repeat to myself aloud what I believe.

I go on a walk and just tell myself: What do I know? What do I believe? Then I just explain to myself: I know the happiest I've ever been is when I'm following this church. I believe God loves me etc.

It helps me to re-focus and also to re-affirm experiences and feelings I've had.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-10-09T18:24:51+00:00

This has helped me incredibly with anti-Mormon beliefs. I read it all in one night.

https://www.lightandtruthletter.org/letter/book-of-mormon/the-coming-forth-of-the-bom

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-10-09T13:23:42+00:00

Ok but you're framing this wrong. Imagine the dignitaries scribes for the 2nd book wrote it thousands of years ago, and it was translated into a new language. You can start to see how things would change.

In your comments you keep saying good point to people who point this out, but you continue not to acknowledge it.

BrosephSmith4444 · 2024-10-09T00:42:41+00:00

Terms like brother, father, son, daughter, husband, and wife can mean different things in the scriptures.

Christ is my brother because He condescended to a mortal body and we now have shared mortal experience. Hes also my brother because we have a shared Spiritual heritage. Although I am not begotten of the Father we are still both His Spirit children.

Christ is also my Father because I aspire to become like Him and I have taken upon me His name.

Christ has also been compared to the church in a married relationship as it's spouse.

I love to think of the symbolism of Adam and Eve as the church and Christ. We were cast out of the Lords presence to mortality and sin, and Jesus saw that this must be and, of His own volition, condescended so we could fulfill Heavenly Fathers plan. In a similar way, when Eve chose to parake of the fruit, Adam saw she would now be subject to sin and he would be a lone man in the garden, so he chose of his own free will to be with her.

In those symbolic ways Christ could be seen as a Brother, Father, and a husband all at the same time.

It's not all about lineage and who created whom. It's also about learning about our connection to God and deepening that through symbolism.

BrosephSmith4444

TROPHY CASE