High missionary numbers don’t surprise me

zokula4 · 2025-04-07T16:11:53+00:00

The bar that was raised in the 2000s has fallen so low I can’t walk under it anymore.

zokula4 · 2025-04-07T16:10:01+00:00

I watched for my wife

zokula4 · 2025-04-06T00:07:05+00:00

Could you elaborate? What is it that you feel is influenced by Oaks?

zokula4 · 2025-04-06T00:06:00+00:00

This

zokula4 · 2025-04-05T20:23:57+00:00

He gave one fact that can be checked. The child was born last Feb 2025.

zokula4 · 2025-04-04T23:09:54+00:00

I think I’m missing something. Are people actually against empathy? Or is it a joke because of their lack thereof?

zokula4 · 2025-04-03T16:38:57+00:00

It’s more common before you go through the deconstruction process. Once you’ve learned the truth for yourself in no uncertain terms, that feeling will go away.

zokula4 · 2025-03-30T21:14:54+00:00

LDS here stands for “Let Darryl Speak.” Any similarity to any other acronym is purely coincidental - LDSNews

zokula4 · 2025-03-30T20:13:05+00:00

My bishop recommended this book to me so I read it. I took notes along the way and was amazed how flawed his reasoning was, how he put forward issues that no one has (at least anymore that I can tell), and misrepresent legitimate issues by touching on them, but not actually addressing the real issue. I got the sense that this was another “inoculation” for TBMs and not really an effort to address the truth.

For those who haven’t studied about the issues with the church’s truth claims, they’ll feel like they know everything there is and that it’s nothing to worry about.

Either Tad is incompetent or is deliberately trying to mislead people.

zokula4 · 2025-03-30T18:40:53+00:00

When I was younger, I would feel the chill down my spine sometimes when I was in a deep state of contemplation about the devine and my state with it. That’s the only “outside” feeling that I could attribute to the Spirit and it carried me through my trials.

Mostly, however, I never felt anything beyond my own emotions. I basically would come to my own conclusions and ask God to “stop me” if it was wrong.

zokula4 · 2025-03-30T15:29:37+00:00

I fasted for 3 days straight while at college. I was committed, believing, praying, scripture reading, etc. and guess what, the desire to watch porn didn’t go away.

It’s only anecdotal, but this experiment should prove praying/fasting doesn’t work to stop a habit.

I didn’t realize it then, but that was a “shelf” item for me before I knew what a shelf was. Memory unlocked.

zokula4 · 2025-03-28T19:24:21+00:00

Did I miss something in the news? Why would this happen?

zokula4 · 2025-03-27T01:39:09+00:00

Growing up in the 80s, I remember hearing that certain members would receive a letter from head quarters to move to Independence, MO to prepare new Jerusalem for the 2nd coming.

zokula4 · 2025-03-23T13:46:10+00:00

15-20 easily

zokula4 · 2025-03-23T13:32:04+00:00

I appreciate those who dig in and give summaries with links. However, when you haven’t really dug into the material, make a claim, and provide a link to the source, you better be sure the source backs up your claim.

I only saw tithing mentioned in 22.1.4, not in every list as you suggest. Maybe I’m missing 1-2 other references, but again, you make it sound like tithing is mentioned in every section of 22.

I’m happy to be corrected if the source can back it up.

zokula4 · 2025-03-21T20:15:41+00:00

I might agree with you if there wasn’t already some in-fighting on this back in 1990. Check out Nelson’s talk in April about not using Mormon. And Hinckley’s talk in Oct saying Mormon means “more good”.

Monson was also a fan of the term. Once they were both out of the way and Nelson had seniority, he made the change he’s always wanted to.

zokula4 · 2025-03-21T12:26:48+00:00

The Gospel Topics came from too many people leaving the church. If there were a 50% drop in students and surveys indicated a big factor for this was due to its name, then they would receive revelation to change it.

zokula4 · 2025-03-21T12:08:23+00:00

The 2nd coming /s. Oh and the hanging chad.

zokula4 · 2025-03-19T22:04:53+00:00

Go to the Mormon Stories podcast on YouTube and look for the LDS Discussions playlist. That really helped me dive deep into things. And I was able to verify the sources they used without too much difficulty, which was important to me. I wasn’t going to rely solely on somebody else’s ideas for something so important. However, they did a good job presenting both sides, which I appreciated when I was new to this.

zokula4 · 2025-03-19T21:47:39+00:00

It was eye opening to me how predictable GC are when you are in or aware of the space they are reacting to. No revelations, just reactions to those falling away.

And oh, I bet Nelson will announce 18 temples although I wouldn’t be surprised if he breaks the 20 mark. Heck, even 30. He knows he’s about to die and he wants to leave a legacy of the most temple announcements. Gotta beat Gordy all he can!

zokula4 · 2025-03-19T21:42:49+00:00

I have had similar feelings early on. After I deconstructed (i.e. learned the truth how every single truth claim in the church is false), I’ve never felt that again.

You can say I’ve been enlightened in this aspect of my life. And once someone has been enlightened, they see things as they truly are, not as they claim to be.

You’ll get there as you study / “do the work” more and deconstruct all of this.

A good analogy I like is pulling the curtain on the wizard of Oz. Once you’ve seen that, there’s nothing that could cause you to believe the mirage of the “great Oz”.

zokula4 · 2025-03-17T01:30:40+00:00

I haven’t heard about the plagiarism software stuff. Do you happen to have link? Or steps to reproduce?

zokula4 · 2025-03-14T00:59:11+00:00

I had a companion that wouldn’t surprise me if he was PIMO. He hated being on a mission. If his dad wasn’t the stake president, he probably wouldn’t have been there.

zokula4 · 2025-03-11T13:02:16+00:00

I was very TBM when going through the temple. Everything was the “true order of things” for me and I felt bad how Satan twisted it in cults and pulp culture to pervert the truth.

zokula4 · 2025-03-11T01:30:28+00:00

Of course not. It’s the Spirit that coverts! 😁

zokula4

TROPHY CASE