Maureen

Since you are familiar with Mormon Stories podcasts, may I recommend another podcast that might shed more light on people experiencing a faith crisis.
Allan and Kattie Mount are a married couple who have a podcast called Marriage on a Tightrope. Allan is now a non-believer, while Kattie is a believer. They share their experiences through this podcast with other married couples in similar circumstances. In one podcast they interview David Ostler who has written the book Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question. It is published by Kofford Books and Deseret Book also sells it. David was inspired to write the book because of a calling he and his wife received. He is a believing member of your Church.
I would recommend listening to this podcast if you wish to understand more about why members stop believing and attending.
M.

I can somewhat understand.  My two boys were both born with hypospadias.  Our first was so severe, the doctor and nurses thought he was a girl when he was born.  They are androgen insensative, which means their bodies don't respond very well to male specific hormones.  Both boys have already had multiple surgeries and the older one will have more when he's closer to puberty age.  They will need to get testosterone shots.  After our second son, we didn't want to bring more genetically defective people into the world.  A couple months ago, my wife was a week late in her cycle and we went through a lot of similar feelings that you described.  After a day, I felt better about it, even excited.  After it was clear she wasn't pregnant, it was a little disappointing.  We even started talking about adoption.
I'm sure you'll find joy in your pregnancy and your new child.  Have hope and trust in the Lord.  

So, I'm pregnant. When I found out, I bawled, and my husband said it was the type of tears I reserved for disasters. Yes, this was not planned. In fact, we were done. It was a conscious decision to be done and we were planning out the rest of our lives.
Part of the issue is one of our other children has cystic fibrosis, which is a genetic roll of the dice. Everyone we know in the CF community who has lately dared for more kids has been unlucky with the odds.
It's been a week now, and I am struggling to feel any sort of happiness. I understand surprise pregnancies can be emotional, so I'm hoping this will pass.
I know babies are blessings. I know women who would love to be in my position.
I just didn't think I'd be so miserable.

The more atrocious the more sugar required. 😎

I definitely prefer the Canadian healthcare system, particularly Alberta Healthcare. I live in a large city so I have easy access to healthcare. Rural areas aren't as easy since if they require certain healthcare they need to travel, but I guess that applies everywhere.
M.

My guess would be...
Latte..

Its not about his debating skills, its about who he relates to. A young mormon. 
My 16yr old stopped going to church, youth activities, devotionals, service projects because she finds it boring but she will climb a mountain to attend a church dance.

The author of the article did not complain about her bishop. She merely mentioned how she was surprised by his question, thinking that even now, after all these years, someone would think that a woman wearing pants to church is a sign of rebellion. When in actuality wearing pants is a lot more comfortable to a lot of women than wearing a dress. From what I read, that is precisely why the author wears them. 
M.

IMO, he knows what he believes he just has trouble articulating his beliefs to a large audience.
M.

I'm cheering for Justin Verlander (Astros), Max Scherzer (Nats) and Anibal Sanchez (Nats) who are all former Detroit Tigers pitchers but couldn't quite bring the championship to Detroit.

You've gotta like Roald Dahl (who was quite the gambler himself!) The whole poem is online here: https://www.monologues.co.uk/Childrens_Favourites/Snow_White.htm.

My oldest daughter got her mission call.  It was a long time coming.  She always wanted to serve a mission, but she developed pretty bad depression her senior year in high school and ended up not graduating.  Basically a straight A student dropping out with one semester left to go. 
It all set in right after her Karate Sensei quit.  The new sensei didn't click with the students and my daughter quit Karate and within two months she spiraled out of control.  Meds didn't help, therapists didn't help.  She had constant suicidal thoughts, but thank goodness she never did anything to self harm.  This went on for several years and it was brutal.  I had no idea of what to do.  
She eventually found a job teaching Karate.  This was a true answer to prayers.  Slowly she got out of the funk she was in.  Over the next two and a half years she changed dramatically into a new person.  On her own started really studying to gospel.  She was instrumental in her best friend joining the church.  And she saved money the best she could because she wanted to pay for the mission herself.
So she finally got her call.  And yes, she would have been happy to serve wherever, but like her old man got called to one of the top three places she wanted to go.  I am so happy for her.  After the struggles she went through, it is hard to think of a better place to go.

My dorky hobby is actually visiting different churches just to see and better understand/love, so I've been to many
Almost always it's a very positive experience, that helps me better understand other people's beliefs (and better love them).  It also helps me better understand my own beliefs, whether that's from agreeing with another or a thoughtful disagree.  I always leave with an impression 1) how human people everywhere are, and 2) of how big and glorious God is.
 
 
Thinking of some memorable specific experiences.... there was the first time I visited a mosque for Islamic prayer services.  I committed literally every social taboo possible, but the people there were still gracious.  Several of the women in particular were beautiful and so caring for others.   The message itself was... honestly kind of vanilla as to not have much to commit about it anyway good or bad.  
 
 
I remember an inter-faith Christmas singing service in town, hosted in a church my toddler nicknamed "Jesus's castle".  It was a beautiful old Episcopalian cathedral: one of those with stone architecture, the stain glass windows, and carefully crafted acoustics so that you hear everything coming from the front.  The event was a huge smashing hit-- I showed up with my toddler 20 minutes early and the place was so packed that there wasn't even standing room available.  Wondering what to do, one of the ushers saw us, and said "if she can sit on your lap, we have an open seat".  Very grateful, I am led to the front row.  We sit down, as a soon as the first song starts my very shy toddler starts SCREAMING.  You remember what I said about those carefully crafted acoustics?  
So embarrassing.  
Honestly though, everyone got a laugh out of it.  Some things are very universal.  And we all had a fantastic time singing and feeling the Spirit.
 

Welcome to the Worship Wars. Most large churches decided a couple of decades ago that there was a crisis amongst the young, and that all efforts must be made to retain. Let the elders grit their teeth. They are mature, and can deal. We must keep the youngins! Still, as a pastor, before I would say the music interrupted the Spirit--or the worship--I would want to see what most in the congregation are doing. Are the 'rockin' to the tunes? Are they being entertained? Or...are they worshipping. It is sometimes amazing to hear music I consider a bit much, but then to see most--yes, especially the young--lifting hands to the heavens, mouthing the words, with apparent adoration of the LORD as their countenances. Then I look to the words, and often they are actually sound and solid and deep. Sometimes it is hard to discern...especially when there seem to be fingernails rubbing against chalkboards.

While I can appreciate your thoughts and opinions on this...I feel like sometimes we can take things a bit too seriously as well.  Sometimes we just have to lighten up and have some fun. That's what this was...just an attempt to have some fun.

Scroll down to the bottom of the article. 
On the mouse (the thing you have I your hand) there are two clickers, and between the two clickers there is a wheel you can spin.  Soo  the wheel toward you. The screen will then slowly move in a downward direction. Eventually you will reach a section that says “comments”. it is here that you will see a series of names, or pronouns, beneath said pronouns will be series of letters, spaces, and punctuations outlining individual opinions of readers. Beneath those you will see a series of other letters spelling out “David Snell” where you can read the author’s response to the comments...
...🙄old people🥴...

I was introduced to your Church because of these dances. And it wasn't because of standards and supervision, it was because they were fun and the kids that attended them were fun. Although I did like that etiquette of the boys asking the girls to dance holding out their arms. And back in the '70s, the music was fun and jiving was still a big thing at Church dances. And then there were the after dance socializing at Boston Pizza or *A&W, or someone would have the brilliant idea to TP someone's house. Good times.
*Not sure if some are familiar with A&W back in the '70s, but it was a fast food place with Papa, Mama, Teen and Baby burgers and root beer. You order in your car and the food is brought out to you with the tray of food attached to the driver's door window. And the popular beverages at the time were called brown cow (milk and root beer) or swamp water (all the flavours of pop mixed together except for coke or pepsi because they were not allowed 😊). Now a days A&W is no longer set up that way. ☹
M.

It was "brown face" and "black face" and unfortunately Trudeau is our Prime Minister. 😊
M.

It was "brown face" and "black face" and unfortunately Trudeau is our Prime Minister. 😊
M.

It was "brown face" and "black face" and unfortunately Trudeau is our Prime Minister. 😊
M.

Ok. Interesting difference in cultures. Isn’t it nice that we found this out? 
I remember talking to an American female accountant who lived in Canada who was very angry that she could not conceal a handgun on her person. Now she had never owned a handgun, but the fact that she could not was disturbing.
The dinner party tried to explain why we felt that giving up handguns in our purses made us all safer. She was very unhappy.
But such differences just make us all more interesting right? Fluttering of eyelashes.
Are we not now a more interesting neighbor to have? 
Lets be honest. None of you were ever going to move here anyway, right? So really none of us have lost anything.
Your neighbors ro the north are just interesting and fascinating people.
Try to find us quirky and delightful!

Yes, you may ask.
Thank you for asking. It's been a number of years since I read the books (and @MrShorty can correct me if my memory is faulty), but my impression is that Robinson frames the discussion on grace in Protestant terms. This typically happens in these conversations because Protestants have been (historically) more concerned about recognizing grace and placing it front and center in their soteriology. So in debates and discussions the Protestant brings up either grace, faith, or works to broach the subject, and the Latter-day Saint speaks to how the many works we're associated with still fit with grace*. Robinson takes this a step further and preaches a very Protestant model. I can't remember if he uses the actual terms, but he talks in very much a "grace alone" "100% grace" manner. And if memory serves, he uses a works-as-an-outgrowth-of-grace model, which I wouldn't say is traditionally LDS.
*I think if it weren't brought up in a grace/works framing, LDS would speak more of salvation in terms of a covenantal relationship with God.

I find this attitude odd. To me allowing public derision or belittling of a specific demographic group is abhorrent. I actually find this attitude to be just amazing like the time an lds American sent me a picture of what appeared to be a machine gun. He was very happy about his new purchase. Other than wanting to own a machine gun he was a pretty lovely fellow. Loved his wife and family. 
I guess this is why one belongs to message boards like this one. One learns such interesting things!
But there we have it. I suspect this is a cultural difference. I suppose that it is not unusual to find the behaviors and attitudes of others to be puzzling. I wonder how Australians feel about this. I have occasionally been shocked in watching UK tv when they make fun of the welsh or the scots. I was also watching an Australian show where they used a nickname to refer to Lebanonise people to describe takeout   food. I found this offensive. 
@askandanswer is it okay socially or legally to denigrate specific groups in Oz? Do you have prohibited grounds?
Well muchos interesting! Normally here educated people have a rule of not criticizing those in prohibited grounds situations. I think though that my attitude is not unknown in the US. I had an absolutely hysterical conversation with a English woman in her late 60s-70s. This English lady was spitting blood. As part of a charity organization’s work, she flew to Boston. The American administrator gave her information over the phone because the older English lady was not comfortable with email. The American administrator described the greeter who would meet the English lady at the airport to drive the English lady downtown. The greeter was also a volunteer. The English lady had difficulty finding the greeter and thus things did not go smoothly. Later the English lady discovered that the greeter was black. This information she had not been told. The English woman rounded on me in fury when she reached the Canadian leg of her journey and demanded to know why she had been told the greeters approximate age, profession, gender but not her race which in the English woman’s opinion, this information would have been the most useful. I tried to explain the difficult situation that the American administrator may have been in. The organization was run by retired experts from various fields. I have to deal with retired experts in my job and they can be a real pain and seriously touchy. So I can see why the administrator behaved as she did. I can also completely understand the point of view of the tired elderly English woman worn out by travel and dying for a cup of tea. In fact to me this story, the rage of the irate English woman and the conscientious American woman are so funny that I can barely type.
Of course, you may also be pulling my leg in a major way! Where is my foil hat? Its’s a conspiracy. I will ask prison Chaplin as soon as I can think of a tactful way to ask the question. 
After all I don’t want to offend anyone! 😂  
 

I have for good reasons no clue of what the intention of @Anddenex's post was, but in one way I agree to it.
There's no discussion in that the list is something that we all should strive to fulfill and that repentance is a wonderful thing. However, there are two problems if only fulfilling such a to-do list is required for exaltation.
First of all, no one on earth follows the to-do list to perfection, therefore, everybody would suffer damnation. We all sin in one way or the other and that's a life experience. That's why we needed a Savior to begin with. We are not expected to be perfect in this life but to become perfected in Him. At the same time we have people who either have handicaps or other struggles in earth life that makes it impossible to do certain thing, but they are not blocked from exaltation either. At the end of the day we are all dependant on The Lord's grace.
Secondly, what if I actually do those things but for the wrong reasons? I can desire positions for the sake of being on a pedestal, the same by doing good to others. In other words, just like a pharisee who sat on Moses' seat, but because they wanted recognision from men. If those works are to be accepted, they need to be done for the right reasons. Does that mean that we should stop to keep the sabbath day holy or stop doing FHE because we don't feel like it? Absolutely not! it's still better to do it than not doing it. At the same time, it's one of the ways to work for the real intention.
 
At the end of the day, what I'm trying to say is that everything is not just black and white. There are many holes and "what ifs" to say that we should just do all those things and first then are we rightious. In other words, one who follow the things in the said to-do list can certainly be rightious, but one can also be quite unrightious. Maybe it's an example of why it's important to not judge one another.... we don't know a persons heart just by crossing off from a list.

That's hilarious. My daughter has an "Alexa" and when I'm at her place babysitting my granddaughter I can ask it (her?) to turn on certain lights or play certain music. And when I do I always say please and thank you. It's weird in a way but it's just habit too. 😊
M.