Hi everyone my name is colton and I had been an inactive member of the church the last 5 years and am just getting back in recently. I am posting in the hopes that I will get some encouragement and advice. I hope nobody I know in real life will see this as it will really make me look bad. But any ways here is my dilemma.....
I started out as a dumb teen partying and breaking rules etc. etc. Well it led me into a hell hole of heroin addiction over the last year and a half. I was 15 thousand dollars in credit card debt at 21 yrs old and seriously contemplating suicide with no friends, no money and living on the street. One night I managed to get my hands on a shotgun and loaded it and put it in my mouth ready to fire. Before I was going to pull the trigger I prayed to god and begged him for help if he was there. He answered my prayer and I felt the spirit come over me. Over the next few weeks I quit cold turkey and was in extreme pain and sickness until I wound up finding a job in Houston, Texas ( I am from Denver, Colorado). I moved to Houston after 2 months of being clean and began my new job and withdrew for a total of 7 months. It was the worst thing that happened to me ever but it shattered my reality and any premonitions I previously had. I am now a god fearing man. Well I broke my hand doing something dumb, swinging from a tree into a lake in Texas and had to leave my job and move back in with my parents which brings me to now 6 months later. Well the pain pills I took reignited my addictive nature and before I knew it I found myself back out on the streets looking to score. I went to my bishop and asked for help and he has recommended me go to 12 step and counseling. The way I asked for help is I told him I want to go on a mission to change my life I really do. I saw my younger brother go and it was amazing to see how happy he was. I disclosed everything I had done to my bishop, even robbing houses to support my habit and he gave me a time frame of 5 more months until I can go on my mission. I have made reconciliation with all the people I robbed and most of the things I have done. I just recently have been falling back into this awful addiction. So we come down to today, over the last few weeks I had realized I am too screwed up to serve a mission and went to enlist in the army. Well my bishop and stake president and parents have been really pressuring me and trying to help me so that I will be able to go in 5 months. I feel so torn by this I want to go but I absolutely cannot stick around here another 5 months doing nothing. I will fall completely back into my awful addictions, I have been giving it my best effort to clean up enough to get on some sort of a job whether it be mission or the army, whatever then I can improve from there and be away from any temptations. Well I was going over to the army office to get sworn in today when the bishop randomly called me in and asked me to go to his work place. I went in and he asked me not to make any big decisions and said we were going to work hard on getting me on a mission. Well I really felt like this might be a sign from god so I canceled my enlistment to wait it out and I guess go on a mission. I am just looking for advice, sorry for the long read I just feel torn up inside. I have been praying for help a lot but have not gotten any peace or direction. I dont know what to do. Even talking to the bishop and stake president I dont feel like they understand me, what I have been through and the extreme amount of pain that life is for me right now falling backwards again with absolutely no friends, no job, no money and my parents driving me nuts. I wake up every morning wishing I hadnt.