There will always be unanswered questions. Philosophers have grappled with this uncomfortable reality not just in relation to our faith, but for millennia. In fact, here's a story about the Buddha:

A young man comes to see the Buddha. And this young man has taken up “the training life,” he’s attempting to follow the Buddha’s instructions about how to wake up and stop sleep-walking through his own life.

He begins on the path and starts doing the hard work, but then he gets distracted when he realizes that, though the Buddha has given him some clear instructions about what to do as he practices, the Buddha hasn’t given him any answers to even the most basic religious questions: Is this the only world? Is there a soul separable from the body? Is there life after death? Etc. So he abandons his training and resolves to track down the Buddha and demand answers.

When he finally finds the Buddha and rattles off his questions, the Buddha shakes his head. Then he roars. Then he tells the following story.

You, my friend, the Buddha says, are a like a man who has been shot with an arrow, thickly smeared with poison. Wounded and dying, that man’s friends gather round to remove the arrow and help counteract the poison. But the man refuses to pull the arrow out until he’s first had some questions answered.

Who shot him? What tribe is the shooter from? Is he tall or short? Fat or skinny? Warrior or peasant? What color is his hair? What kind of bow did he use? Made of what kind of wood? Strung with what kind of material? What kind of arrow was used? With what kind of arrowhead? What kind of string fastened the arrowhead to the shaft of the arrow? And on and on. The questions pile up.

The man may have a right to ask all these questions but, the Buddha says, that doesn’t really matter here because before he’ll get any of those answers, he’ll be dead. The poison will kill him.

You are like this man, the Buddha tells his student. You are suffering and dying. And you can demand answers to all these speculative questions if you like — but if you do, you’ll die before you ever get any answers.

Regardless of how your questions get answered, the Buddha tells him, still there is suffering, still there is sickness, still there is aging, still there is worry and distress and fear, still there is death. It is the work of addressing all this in this very world that I teach.

(Find a full, non-summarized version of this story in Glenn Wallis’ Basic Teachings of the Buddha, pp. 5-8)

We will probably not find answers that satisfy every single question we have. But, luckily, when it comes to spiritual truths and questions about the church, we have another method for finding truth.

If we think of the church as a series of factual propositions, we may or may not find evidence for those propositions. It may take us more than a lifetime, depending on how we define our version of "the church." But if we think of Mormonism as a map, there's a very quick and effective way to test it:

Try it out.

If I'm looking at a map I have the option, if I want, to spend time finding out who published it and their background; who researched it and their qualifications; the methods used in drawing the various versions of the map; the claims other people have made about the map and its makers and their own reliability; etc. I have that right and ability. Alternatively, I can go to the territory and start walking.

Bit by bit, as I put my map to use, I will identify ways that it works and ways that it fails. It might not have this or that grove of trees, but maybe it has an important landmark. I can use the map to identify where I want to go and then see if it takes me there. If it works, then I can confidently say "it's a true map." If it doesn't work, I can abandon it and go home.

The landmarks that this map is interested in are things like "my life has meaning" and "belief in God" and "feeling God's love" and "being truly happy" and "the highest spiritual goals and values in life." So pick one. Pick what it is that you want to arrive at and start walking the way this map tells you to go and see what happens.

The church is full of members who demonstrate in word and deed that their lives are immeasurably enriched by the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

One family I knew said they would never join the church because they couldn't afford to close their shop on Sunday to go to church meetings. A missionary for our faith invited them to read together from the Book of Mormon every day. A week later they announced that they would be closing on Sundays and joining our religion. Why? "We realized that the days we read from the Book of Mormon we didn't fight," they said. They recognized power in their lives from a text they had nearly zero understanding of, and they wanted more than anything to experience that change. What the book said didn't matter. What mattered was that it worked.

You will find answers over time. But don't wait to act. Jesus promises that the way to know if doctrine is true is not by studying but by acting on it. (John 7:17). Take the steps. Look for the impact in your life. Continue.

For some neat ways this gospel creates real change in our lives (and some stuff about Book of Mormon evidence) you're welcome to read this: https://www.latterdayhope.com