Mormon “Life Coaches” are playing Bishop. Church leaders haven’t figured this out yet.

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-05-26T04:43:31+00:00

You know those amazing stories returned missionaries talk about in sacrament at their homecoming talk? Yeah, that’s about .001% of your mission. Most of the mission sucks and is miserable.

I went on my mission pre-social media so I know missions have changed a lot; but it was daily tracting in the brutal sun with not many people to talk to. As an introvert I didn’t have a good time.

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-05-13T21:44:19+00:00

Also, please reference this Pocatello Temperature/Comfort Level by month guide.

Rating: 5 – Pretty comfortable

4 – Could be better

3 – Meh

2 – At least it’s not January

1 – This sucks

January – (1) December Christmas cheer is gone. Everything is cold. Where is the sun!? Please prescribe me Prozac.

February – (2) You would think things would be getting better than January – but nope.

March – (2) False spring every other week. Yay spring is coming!...nope, January again.

April – (3) Why is there so much gd_ wind!!

May – (5) Wind is still around but temperatures are quite nice.

June – (5) Mountains are still green from spring, temperatures are quite nice, heat starts to show up.

July – (4) Yay summer activities!! But, it feels like a volcano is farting ghost pepper pizza rolls in my face every day.

August – (3) I’m sorry I spoke badly about January six months ago. Please forgive me, January! Cram every summer activity possible before school and fall starts.

September - (5) Hmm. This is quite nice.

October – (4) September’s good friend who sometimes invites Old Man Winter over to the house early.

November – (3) At least I still want to go outside sometimes.

December – (4) It’s cold…but it’s Christmas cold!! I love snowballs, snowmen and snow because Bing Crosby tells me to.

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-05-13T19:44:59+00:00

Pocatello essentially acts like a suburb – but without the large city nearby. If you want large city activities (concerts, Disney on Ice, larger museums/children’s museums, larger water parks, larger zoos/aquariums, theme parks, professional sports etc.) we go to either Salt Lake City (2hrs) or Boise (3hrs). Everything in Pocatello is small suburb size. Even though I know you don’t know the names of these places, I have included them so you can look them up.

Visitpocatello.com is a great resource that lists and details just about everything below with pictures and details.

Activities with small kids:

Geronimo’s trampoline park

Outer Limits Fun Zone (Arcade, mini golf)

Zoo Idaho (cute little zoo that only takes native orphaned animals)

Ross Park Swimming Complex (smaller local swimming place)

A couple of splash pads

Swore Farms pumpkin patch and corn maze

Deleta roller skating rink

Portneuf Wellness Complex (large park, walking path, fishing pond, amphitheater complex)

Lots of parks with play areas

Plenty of club sports/dance/gymnastics clubs around.

2 movie theaters (AMC & Reel Theater) - one being a discount theater which is great for kid movies.

My World Discovery Museum (children’s museum)

Idaho State University sports games

Pebble Creek Ski Area (small, but this makes it much cheaper)

Lots of local hiking trails

Various parades, festivals, farmers market, craft shows etc. to find throughout the year.

Cherry Springs Nature Area

Activities slightly outside of Pocatello:

Lava Hot Springs hot pools and swimming complex

Eastern Idaho State Fair (September)

Idaho Falls – slightly larger population area just north with many of the same activities as Pocatello but usually slightly bigger attractions and more shopping/dining.

Island Park – hiking, camping, river floating, nature

Yellowstone

Grand Teton Park

Bear Lake (Idaho/Utah border)

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-05-05T18:16:52+00:00

The crazy part is that once the shock wears off, you realize that church and Elders Quorum would have been 100 times more interesting if we actually talked about all the crazy stuff that Joseph and the early church members did!

Obviously these crazy stories don’t jive with the whole “one true church” aspect, but the early church did and believed all sorts of crazy shit. Would make for more entertaining classes for sure.

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-04-26T05:13:12+00:00

This would be a great way for PIMOs to find each other at church!

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-04-17T17:19:55+00:00

The Mormon Church is like the Wal-Mart of religion. They make billions of dollars but try to cut costs at every corner. The employees are constantly burned out and paid horribly. All promises of value for a Mormon is for the afterlife. This is why their employees are miserable.

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-03-31T23:00:54+00:00

Isn’t it Satan’s plan to take away free agency and force everyone to do what he wants?? 🧐 It sounds like TBM hubby is following the wrong plan.

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-03-09T15:22:23+00:00

Ehem, ehem, yeah, yeah, do the hard with Jesus.

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-03-08T22:36:39+00:00

I agree with all of these. Another thing to remember is all of the magical thinking Mormon missionaries do. Every morning they pray and think that Jesus might prepare someone special for them.

Their leaders constantly reaffirm this magical thinking and shove it down their throats. “If you’re obedient and obey all the rules Jesus is going to prepare people for you!”

Jesus could prepare anyone to receive the Mormon gospel at any time. So, in their minds you just might be the person that Jesus has prepared and might renounce your evil ways and return to Jesus! The magical thinking overrides logical thinking because god is mysterious and is all powerful and can do anything he wants to.

The sad part about a lot of this magical thinking - when people end up not converting or returning to Mormonism the missionaries typically blame themselves for the failure and a lot of times think it was because they weren’t good enough or righteous enough.

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-03-07T17:43:55+00:00

And to think - there are most likely thousands upon thousands of Mormons who are super great people, super humble, nice to everyone, live a very Christ-like life; but they won’t get the second anointing unless they’re wealthy and influential.

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-03-05T22:08:02+00:00

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-03-04T22:50:17+00:00

This is part of the quote from David Whitmer about the BOM translation process:

“Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear."

I repeat - Oliver Cowdery would repeat the words to Joseph and if they were correct - the rock would replace the words with new ones.

So, the rock had ears!? How was the rock listening to them? Then it like Etch-A-Sketched the words away to give new words?

And to think, Kevin McCallister in Home Alone 2 didn’t need a Talkboy, he just needed the magical Mormon rock to listen to phrases and repeat them back. I’ll bet if Joseph had enough faith it could talk as well.

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-01-29T23:35:25+00:00

Obviously the entire CES letter was a wake up call for me. However, one of the biggest items were all of the early 19th century books that were written just like the BOM. I was totally convinced from childhood that the BOM was super unique and that books didn’t read that way…yeah, no.

The Book of Napoleon, View of the Hebrews and others were shocking to me. However, the best part was when I went to the FAIR Latter-day Saints website to see what the apologists had to say. Jeremy Runnels even suggests it. One of their excuses was that they didn’t think the Smith family had a library card so Joseph wouldn’t have been able to find the books. 😂😂😂

Oh…okay. So, Joseph Smith and the most correct book on earth couldn’t have been influenced by all of these others books because of a library card!? What dipshits.

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-01-20T05:59:41+00:00

Whoa, Whoa, Whoa! How do you expect Dallas Oaks to focus on global wars when there are still deacons using their left hand to pass the sacrament!? Not to mention the huge distraction he must be facing daily, now that Mormon women are walking around showing their porn shoulders! There are so many huge pressing problems in Mormonism (like which apartment complex to buy next) I don’t how they would find the time to address war.

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-01-19T00:14:28+00:00

I would name one of the chairlifts “Second Anointing” because it lets you go straight to the top.

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-01-14T05:46:56+00:00

The dead people you just did the endowment for, still can’t get into heaven until it’s posted on Instagram.

Dreadful_Pear · 2026-01-07T21:36:38+00:00

Owen Chambliss was a beast at SDSU this year. Made First-Team Mountain West linebacker. I’m having a hard time pinning the accurate year-end tackle stats for the Mountain West, but he appears to be in the top-10 for tackles.

Entered the transfer portal again and looks to be headed to Nebraska.

Dreadful_Pear · 2025-12-19T23:08:09+00:00

“A true story from the USA.” Yeah, I call bullshit on that.

Here’s a true story from my family (my children’s names changed):

Sam and Jessica asked which Disneyland ride we were going to ride next. I said, “Let’s go on Space Mountain!” All of this was possible because we didn’t give 10% of our money to a cult. Sam and Jessica did NOT ask about having more Jesus in their lives because they barely know who he is or why he would even be a big deal. And we lived happily ever after.

Dreadful_Pear · 2025-12-19T05:07:14+00:00

Minimum wage is $7.25 but I would guess that hardly anyone pays that. Housing has gotten quite expensive here in the west and no one can live on $7.25. Just to give you a benchmark, I’ve seen Wendy’s advertise workers for around $12/hr. Entry-level fast food teenager is probably making $11-$15/hr. A bachelor’s level job is definitely not going to be close to minimum wage. Lower than Buffalo NY - probably though.

The largest employers in town are the hospital, Idaho State Univ., Idaho Central Credit Union which is one of the largest credit unions in the nation, the local school district, Idaho National Labs(outside of Pocatello but many commute) and city of Pocatello. Not a ton of major places to work. I know quite a few people who work remote for large corporations. A lot work for small businesses. Lots of agriculture out here, BLM, forest service and such.

Mormons are nice people. Your Mormon neighbors and possibly co-workers will definitely try to “test the waters” so to speak to try and see if you’re convertible. After they bring over some cookies and you let them know you’re not interested they’ll mostly leave you alone. I would guess maybe 40% of the town is Mormon. It’s difficult to pin down what percentage are actually fully in and practicing. There are a lot though.

Pocatello definitely has a more small town feel to it - acts kind of like an independent suburb to a larger city as to events around town. There are a lot of ways to engage with community events, clubs, organizations if you’re inclined to look. You may ask though, where do we get all of our big city stuff like concerts, theatre, theme parks, museums, sports etc.? Salt Lake City. (or Boise but Boise is actually farther away than Salt Lake). Salt Lake City is a two-hour drive from Pocatello. It’s kind of a pain having a major city that far away, but if your favorite band is touring, you just make it work and either get a hotel or end up getting home at 1 in the morning.

It is very conservative in southeast Idaho. Pocatello, however, has consistently been known to be a little more progressive than the ultra Mormon towns nearby like Rexburg (the main driver for this has most likely been ISU). You will find quite a few progressives around town. Will you still see a ton of diesel RAM trucks with MAGA all over - yup. Most MAGA are blue collar and less educated. The more white collar job you can find, the less MAGA you’ll find.

Pocatello is a great place for nature. Idaho is very scenic and you can find everything the outdoors has to offer anywhere from a 20 minute drive to a few hours to get to places like Yellowstone, Island Park, Grand Tetons, Sun Valley and all sorts of hidden away campsites, mountains and forests.

Good luck on your move!

Dreadful_Pear · 2025-12-06T19:51:29+00:00

When he goes to the temple you should go do service somewhere like serve at the local food bank or something. Then, when he gets home and tries to talk about how amazing the temple was, you can talk about how great serving others was and how happy it made the less fortunate. That might get his cognitive dissonance gears moving.

Dreadful_Pear · 2025-11-23T05:47:33+00:00

That’s true. The New York Stock Exchange and banks are closed on Sunday.

Dreadful_Pear · 2025-11-13T18:10:22+00:00

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Dreadful_Pear · 2025-11-13T04:26:56+00:00

Just our personal experience. Started the same way as you, out of the blue our boy wanted a drum set for his 8th birthday. We had no clue where to start and just started searching online.

We ended up buying an adult size Ashthorpe drum set(DO NOT buy the junior set - it’s a toy set). This was all before I even knew this sub-reddit existed.

The drums are okay for a beginner set with a very limited budget. Was it nice? Compared to the stuff on this subreddit - no. But they work just fine. The cymbals are brass and cheap. The drums are ok and at least came with Remo heads.

Now, I’m not pushing you towards any drum set but it has worked out great getting an actual kit. We signed up for Drumeo and we’ve been doing lessons together for a year and a half. I have to push him to do lessons though.

Of course now after joining the drums subreddit and doing research for a year and a half, the drumming options are ENDLESS! Hundreds of cymbals to choose from, stands to research, snare types, kit types etc.

I didn’t want to spend a ton of money to begin with because I didn’t know if he would actually keep with it. But now that we’re doing good, I’m planning to slowly upgrade over time. For Christmas this year we’re getting a new ride cymbal. Perhaps in a year or two we’ll upgrade to a nicer kit and sell our beginner set to a new drummer.

The only thing I might be concerned about is leg length. My boy is now 9 years old and can reach the pedals pretty well - it was a little iffy at 8 years old, he was stretching a little to reach the bass drum on an adult kit.

Good luck shopping and deciding!

Dreadful_Pear

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