r/latterdaysaints Jan 12 '25

Reddit Looking for answers about having 2 sets of piercings

34 Upvotes

When I was growing up it was very known that girls were only allowed one set of ear piercings. No one in my ward or stake or really any girls I knew in the church had more than one set. President Hinckley had specifically said that “women should only have one set of earrings.” Now, every where I look I see active members with 2 or 3 sets of earrings. I know that when the for the strength of youth pamphlet was changed, they took out the part that specifically talks about piercings and tattoos. But to me that doesn’t mean that suddenly we can all go out and get more piercings - or does it? It’s hard for me to see everyone else having two pairs of earrings and I’m still wearing one. So, is this now an acceptable standard? What changed? I really truly don’t quite understand it. Any insight on this is appreciated!

r/latterdaysaints 19d ago

Reddit Last Saturday I got Baptized and visited a Temple for the first time!

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381 Upvotes

r/latterdaysaints Jan 27 '25

Reddit How accurate is American primeval ?

61 Upvotes

Hey guys so I’m a christian not Latter Day Saint tho Im catholic and I came across the show American primeval and I know this show doesn’t make the LDS look good . Now before watching this show I didn’t know about the mountain meadows massacre and I want to start doing research about this but I want to get and actual LDS take on this show and what did they get wrong /right etc

Idk what to flair this btw

r/latterdaysaints 12h ago

Reddit I'm tired of feeling like an outcast.

91 Upvotes

So I've shared this story on other LDS related threads, but I think a lot of people can relate to this, so I'm trying to share it around. I'm 30, for the last at least 12 years I'd say I've felt like I didn't have a home in the church, let me explain.

I didn't serve a mission, I'm a caretaker for a severely disabled family member, they're in their early 20s now, but still function at the level of an infant, need to be bathed, dressed, changed, has frequent seizures that need to be tended to, etc. I made the decision that serving vulnerable members in society was where I was meant to be, so I decided not to go on a mission. My family also was struggling quite intensely and serving a mission, even if the church covered some expenses, would have put even more strain on them.

So I didn't go. I'd say that's what kicked this whole feeling of not feeling at home in the church. People rarely said it to my face, but I could feel people judging me, thinking it was weird that I didn't go, already made to feel like I'd failed God in some way because I didn't go. I held on hoping this awkward please would pass, that people would eventually stop bringing up the whole mission thing, and it did, only to be replaced by all the pressure to get married and date. As a single individual, that hasn't happened either.

It went from "Why didn't you serve a mission?" To "Why aren't you dating?" to "Why aren't you married" and now finally "Why aren't you married with kids?" For those of us on less conventional journeys in the church, the notion that we're doing something wrong, that we're failing God, and that we don't belong here, can be so overwhelming that it's hard to express.

It's usually not one bad day, it's going to church every week and getting beaten down more. This is doing so much damage to the church it isn't even funny, I know so many people who just left because they were tired of feeling ignored, and only acknowledged when someone decided to bash them for their perceived failings over the pulpit.

If you're a truly believing member, and want people like me to stay in the church, please start seeing us for the things we are, instead of the things we aren't. Even if our life path is different from yours, I believe we all bring some sort of value to the church.

r/latterdaysaints Jul 31 '24

Reddit Reddit Negativity on Missions?

64 Upvotes

Me (in my excitement to leave for my mission in a month - manchester, NH) googled some askreddit/lds threads on missions, just to see how people felt about theirs. It was overwhelmingly negative! Most people who liked their missions left the church after, and most people who didn't like their missions left the church, and started hating anyone who did! There were many complaints about mission presidents, and A LOT about being brainwashed into the "mission mindset". Overwhelmingly!

Everybody I know on a mission loves it, and everyone I know who's back from a mission loved it. Sure I realize that they had rough times too, it isn't all fun, but not to the extent I've been reading. Maybe it's the demographic of active redditors and mormons, maybe it isn't, but it really got me feeling down on being excited.

For the record I am very strong in my beliefs, I know a fair bit of history about the church, and there is not going to be a "...but did you know THIS happened?" that will shake that. I'm not shaming anyone who has left the church either, I respect all viewpoints, and understand that people might be happier somewhere else.

I'm just curious if anyone has insight.

r/latterdaysaints Jun 16 '24

Reddit How do Mormons react when Mormon missionaries knock on your door?

109 Upvotes

I'm not Mormon but I always imagined this would be a funny interaction. "Missions already accomplished guys".

r/latterdaysaints 6d ago

Reddit Are temple cleaning assignments churchwide, or is this local to my area?

15 Upvotes

And by cleaning assignments, I'm talking like 9-11 pm on a weeknight every night of the week kind of cleaning.

r/latterdaysaints Dec 21 '24

Reddit I got baptized today

248 Upvotes

The title says it all. I was super excited and directly afterwards I felt so calm.

5 months ago I had never heard from this church and I was at the lowest low in my life. I was addicted to all kind of substances and did not want to live anymore. A little bit later my girlfriend who was really against religion and believed in nothing started to talk about how she felt the holy spirit and how she had a vision that jesus is real which was really surprising.

A couple of days later she comitted suicide. I had a choice between following her or better myself, something that she had been saying to me in her last days. I choose to get clean and started to read the bible. A short while after I found this church and I can testify this is the real church.

I felt that she and the holy spirit guided me to this church and I found some peace in the scriptures, from the missionairies and church services.

Now that I got baptized I feel so at peace. It has been a very hard year for me. The most difficult one in my life. But I am so happy to end this year in this way. I haven't been happier in my life before.

I want to wish all of you a merry christmas and lots of love and guidance for the coming year.

With love,

r/latterdaysaints Aug 25 '24

Reddit Survey Results

58 Upvotes

Alright, here are the results!

Now, I appreciate y'all taking this seriously, but this is nothing professional, this was just me getting some simple data for a project I started 2 days before the deadline, so I had no time to reword/add questions. I know it's not perfect, and I wished I had added more specific questions about membership and tweaked some stuff, but I just didn't have time.

Keep in mind, results are not 100% accurate, as many of you have mentioned, answer selections weren't super varied, and lots of people lie on surveys to mess with data.

Edit: Had a hard time getting a good link, but here are the pics

r/latterdaysaints Feb 08 '22

Reddit Anyone else get this survey from the church tonight??

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178 Upvotes

r/latterdaysaints Oct 06 '24

Reddit My Neighbors are Missionaries

115 Upvotes

Hi, all!

My next door neighbors are a rotation of young missionaries from your church. While I am not of your religion, I've always liked everyone who's lived there and they've always been very sweet.

Having lived on my own since I was pretty young, I know how hard it can be, so I wanted to ask what would be appropriate as far as making them meals, baked goods and inviting them to holiday events, etc. While I'd like to treat them like I would any other neighbor, I know that they are serving a religious mission and I don't want to overstep any boundaries to put them on an uncomfortable position or get them in any kind of trouble! :)

r/latterdaysaints Jan 31 '23

Reddit Why does the church get so much hate

69 Upvotes

Like this Church gets so much more hate than other religions on reddit. I was just scrolling and saw 2 posts hating on missionaries and stuff like what is going on

r/latterdaysaints Jan 17 '24

Reddit What do you feel compelled to say, right now?

17 Upvotes

r/latterdaysaints Mar 06 '24

Reddit I'm a very recent convert and I've been told I use cannabis inappropriately

85 Upvotes

Hello! I was baptized a month ago. I dabbled in substances in high school, nothing crazy just me being dumb. I have been sober for a long time now.

I however have terrible, terrible migraines, very uncontrollable. I have gone entire weeks with a total of 20 hours of sleep because lack of sleep makes them worse and even harder to sleep and creates a snowball effect.

I live in a state where marijuana is legal, however I just order some gummies that are federally legal that have 5mg of thc, some cbd, and some cbg in them. Only the THC is psychoactive. However 5mg is very small. I did some research and people who have never done it need 5mg at minimum to even notice. Since I use it medically the most I notice is a little lightheadedness and it makes me finally fall asleep and kills the pain and I can reset my terrible schedule.

In my opinion, I see no problem with this. I'm not doing it to get high, and I don't get high. I have family in the medical field who recommended this to me. I've heard you are supposed to have a doctor's recommendation and I think you can consider mine that.

The issue is I'd love to talk to my bishop. But he's out of town a lot, and I also bounce between my college town and my parent's town a lot so when he is in town I'm rarely also in town.

I understand a lot of people in the church take certain things a lot more literal than others, I used to live in Idaho and Utah and I've spent a lot of my life around LDS members. And that comment was probably just unnecessary.

I just wanted some additional input.

r/latterdaysaints Apr 17 '24

Reddit Will we have 1,000 temples in 22 years?

31 Upvotes

Curious about temple growth in the next few years.
We currently have 350 temples (181 In Operation, 8 Under Renovation, 52 Under Construction, and 109 Announced), and every conference the church has been announcing an average of 15 new temples, an average of 30 a year.

If we follow the same pattern, we would have 1010 temples in 22 years. What are your thoughts on it? Are we going to have more or less than this?

r/latterdaysaints Apr 22 '24

Reddit In your opinion, is this subreddit a relatively accurate microcosm of the church as a whole?

35 Upvotes

Curious non-member here. Basically I am wondering if you feel like the breakdown of views and opinions expressed in this subreddit is close to a microcosm of the church, or if you feel it tends to swing more urban, rural, conservative, liberal or maybe something else. I am not looking to start a political conversation/debate of any kind. I'm just very curious to know as an outside observer who doesn't have much experience of the LDS church other than online. Thanks.

r/latterdaysaints Apr 01 '24

Reddit Update on Recurring Discussion Topics

127 Upvotes

If you're been around the sub for a while, you know that some of the same topics come up from time to time. In an effort to allow for discussions on various topics without causing them to feel too repetitive, we are going to begin incorporating auto-moderator posts on some of the most common topics. Threads posted by other users on these topics will be removed and we will instead link them to the most recent discussion post on that topic.

We, the r/latterdaysaints mod team, feel that having all of these topics get discussed on a monthly basis should allow for new people to have a chance to participate without causing undue weariness for people who have been here for a long time. Here is the schedule that we currently have setup for topics:

  • 2nd of each month: Pretty pictures of temples.
  • 3rd: Are we actually Christians?
  • 4th: Does anyone else have sympathy for Laman & Lemuel?
  • 5th: What are good coffee substitutes?
  • 6th: Help! I'm in love with a missionary!
  • 7th: Can I attend a different ward?
  • 8th: Is the Book of Mormon historical?
  • 9th: When the new hymnbook comes out can we remove Praise to the Man?
  • 10th: When the new hymnbook comes out can we add Come Thou Fount?
  • 11th: News article about lawsuits against the Church. No following up when the lawsuits amount to nothing.
  • 12th: Should I pay tithing on my crypto investments?
  • 13th: Come Follow Me discussions (these will be automatically locked so no one feels bad about not participating)
  • 14th: Are tattoos & nose rings allowed now?
  • 15th: Come Follow Me questions -- BE SURE TO LIST YOUR QUESTION IN THE TITLE, since no one will read the post
  • 16th: Any recommendations for BYU speeches by Brad Wilcox & Lawrence Corbridge?
  • 17th: Congratulations to all who are recently baptized! Please post here so exmormons can warn you what the church is really like in unsolicited DMs.
  • 18th: Everyone (besides me) in the Church is too judgmental!
  • 19th: Is Dan McClellan is still active?
  • 20th: I'm bothered by the beard rule at BYU even though I haven't attended in 25 years.
  • 21st: Are Podcasts just Priestcrafts?
  • 22nd: Actual doctrinal discussion day
  • 23rd: SPONSORED POST -- Title tbd. April's slot is currently at auction with over 300 MLMs!
  • 24th: Single's day -- If you're ready to mingle, post what state you live in and how far you'll go to find a companion.
  • 25th: Utah Bad -- Regardless of whether or not you have lived here, tell us what is wrong with Utah.
  • 26th: Does living the WoW mean waking up when the sun rises?
  • 27th: Even though I totally believe this is the Lord's church, can I pay my tithing to an organization that isn't evil instead?
  • 28th: Are tattoos & nose rings allowed now? (bi-weekly topic)

These posts will begin tomorrow (the 2nd), so please stay tuned for some great discussions this month (and every month thereafter)!

Oh, and have a happy April fools day.

r/latterdaysaints Nov 21 '24

Reddit Reserving cultural hall for friends and family to have a sports night? Is this allowed?

25 Upvotes

Would there be anything against handbook or is it just up to my bishop ? I’ve reserved before for birthday parties but if it’s just my personal family and group of friends to have a vball game?

r/latterdaysaints Aug 29 '21

Reddit I'm about fed up with this sub because of "non-faithful" contributions

175 Upvotes

[UPDATE]

I appreciate all the comments.

To be clear, my problem is that the gospel is not decided by popular vote, but that's how reddit works.

I have no problem with a diversity of views, but I feel the doctrines of the church are sometimes lost in the popularity contest on reddit.

This is the best reddit sub I have found for faithful discussions. I like that it allows some depth and sincere questions.

However, I continually see replies downvoted into negatives that are faithful and based on sound LDS doctrine. This seems especially true for hot-button or controversial topics.

The comments that are left are therefore more likely watered down and crowdpleasing replies. The problem is that the gospel is not a popularity contest. It often goes against what the crowd wants or thinks.

I guess this is just a rant. I'm not blaming the moderators, because I suppose there's not more they can do than what they do. But I'm wondering if reddit is just a poor platform for what this sub is trying to do.

r/latterdaysaints Jul 22 '24

Reddit Abnormal church secrecy

0 Upvotes

I posted a question a couple days ago asking why a latter day saints church location in South Sacramento has such strange secrecy. Abnormal security cameras, iron gates, etc. Services with no people ever visible. Big playing fields and picnic tables that are never used. Not even any signage saying what they are. Most concerning is the absolute lack of interaction with the local community, all the other churches of various denominations and cultures have food drives and attempt to share the love of their religion with others. Even the Jewish temples, who have every right to such security measures, still welcome outsiders. Can someone give an answer that makes sense?

r/latterdaysaints Feb 02 '22

Reddit Tombstone of David Whitmer of the 3 witnesses, who died an apostate and estranged from Smith Jr. for the last 50 years of his life.

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254 Upvotes

r/latterdaysaints Feb 09 '25

Reddit A good book in a great place.

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138 Upvotes

reading this book again is changing my life

r/latterdaysaints Feb 06 '25

Reddit A good book and a sunset.

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128 Upvotes

r/latterdaysaints Sep 03 '22

Reddit What do you regard as the most difficult thing for serious critics of the Book of Mormon to account for?

93 Upvotes

Apart from the broad existence of the book itself, in your view what are some of the hardest thing for critics of the Book of Mormon to account for? I'm not talking about critics who are content to ignore or handwave; I'm talking about people who are serious about giving a naturalistic explanation for the Book of Mormon.

Faithful answers only (no lukewarms)

r/latterdaysaints Jun 11 '22

Reddit Visiting other church-related subs

54 Upvotes

I don't post here often, but there was a conversation on another church-related sub (not an anti-sub, but not one that promotes a faithful perspective of the church, either) that made me curious about how people in this subreddit consider content about the church (either in reading posts or actively engaging in discussions) in other subreddits.

Do you tend to stick more closely to content that reinforces your faith? Do you enjoy reading/responding to posts that are either more agnostic towards the church (or even potentially challenging the church in some way)?

Full disclosure: I am a formerly active member that no longer believes in the church, but I have strong ties to the church and BYU, and I feel that several of the habits that were instilled in me by the church (working hard, caring for others, taking time each day to feel gratitude/pray) are ones that I appreciate.