ttoth2k

Pam, could I get access to that page as well? Thanks!

If you don't itemize your deductions, you're probably fine doing them yourself. Either way, what I would recommend is doing them yourself and then take them to H & R block. They say they'll check a return done by someone else for free. That way if they save you money you can pay them. If they don't, you're out nothing.

That'd be great. Thanks.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and the links. I think it might be something I'll struggle with for a short while, but I have not intention of leaving the church. I think this is going to help make my testimony stronger. For as old as I am, I've had only that smallest of testimonies and I've lived on the testimonies of my parents and other family members for so long. Now I'm finding my own testimony, and finding that it's stronger than I ever imagined. I really appreciate the links. I'm not sure when I'll have the chance to go through them in detail but I have them bookmarked for future reference. And if anyone has any good links to church history sites, I'd be grateful. I think it's something that I want to learn a little more about. I'd like to be able to pass some of this information onto my kids, age appropriate of course, so that they're not blindsided by it when they get older. Thanks again to everyone.

We pray as a family regularly and I say my personal prayers, although that's not regularly and sometimes not even often. I guess I was just wondering if there were anyone else out there that felt the same way I do.

To answer the first question about what I think: I want to believe the gospel is true and sometimes I think that it's possible to separate the gospel from the church, but then...then I wonder how can or why would God restore a perfect teaching to people that are so imperfect, but then I remind myself that no one is perfect and I just kind of keep going back and forth. with it. As far as exactly what the issues are, I only have a glimpse of all the things that have come up for dh. Some of them are the kinderhook plates, today he mentioned that throughout the BoM they talk about "church" when that's not even mentioned in the Bible once, some of Joseph's wives being so young and many already married, graduates from church institutions having their degrees revoked because of a change in their beliefs, the church building a mall in downtown Salt Lake (among other financial decisions)...that's just a few of the things he's brought up but it should give you an idea. Most of this is stuff that I already had an idea of, but now that's it's come to the surface, I kind of have to deal with it.

My husband has recently been doing some research into the history of the church and may decide to go inactive. I don't want to go into detail, but all of it has to do with things that just kind of make you wonder. I believe everything he's said he's found, I've done a little research myself. But I also believe in all the things that I was taught in the church growing up. Being a family forever and that we have a Heavenly Mother are the first that come to mind. I want to believe the gospel is true, but because of the actions of the church and church members, I'm not sure how. So my question is, can you have a testimony of the "gospel" while still believing that the "church" may not be all it's cracked up to be? Can you really separate the actions of the church and the church leaders from the gospel? And how do you do that? Does that even make sense?

That's interesting that you say that for a couple of different reasons. I consider myself a happy person. My life isn't in the best situation right now, but it's as good as it can be considering the circumstances. I also consider myself a religious person. The other reason is that my husband has been struggling with the church for a long time now and for a long time he's been an unhappy person. He's only recently begun really sharing what's been bothering him, so I'm only starting to get the tip of the iceberg. But when I read your post I knew I had to reply because I've been wanting to post something about this, I just didn't know what. Anyway, thank you for sharing. I'm not sure what it means or how it's going to help, but for some reason it makes me feel better.

I just wanted to introduce myself and tell a little about me and my family. I won't be posting much, if at all, mostly reading and lurking. My husband and I were married in the temple 12 years ago and we have four children. Two boys, 11 and 9 and two girls, 6 and 4. We live in North Eastern Michigan. I currently work full time and am going to school full time (online classes) while my husband works from home. Since only one of ours is home from school, it's not too difficult for him, but it will be alot easier once they're all in school. That's a little about me and I'm looking forward to reading some of things that are being discussed.