From the moment I was born I was raised in the church, but I never really had an opportunity to develop my own testimony. I just stayed quiet and did what my parents did to the point I became an elder. I was basically force fed everything LDS by my friends, family and leadership without much say.[br][br] Shortly after high school I joined the military, moved out, and was on my own to face life. Unfortunately, telling my family that I was not sure I believed the LDS teachings couldn't have gone worse. I simply was trying to tell them where I stood and that I wanted to develop my own testimony, but they disowned me at the first thought of me potentially not being LDS and things went way downhill from there. I started drinking, partying, and basically turned my back on any religion altogether. I found what I thought was an awesome woman to date and eventually got pretty serious with her. We started talking marriage, and with that, intimacy. I was not chaste by LDS standards, but I was 100% faithful to her. She moved away to further her career in the military, and with that, found someone else and wasn't so faithful.[br][br] I have never been more lost in my life, I quickly found another woman and continued the unchaste behavior. After about 2 weeks, it was as if something smacked me straight across the face. I felt extremely guilty, and it was because I felt I did something wrong, not because my parents or others told me so.[br][br] I started nightly Bible reading and stopped all drinking and partying, and stopped the unchaste behavior completely to include talking about it and thinking about it. Eventually the nightly Bible study transitioned to Book of Mormon study, something I had never truly done before.[br][br] Fast forward a year later, I have never been happier in my life, and finally don't feel lost. I have a confident and strong testimony in the church to the point I have lost many "friends" because I don't drink anymore and don't participate in unchaste behavior. I have been attending church weekly and I am so much happier than I have ever been. I am about to PCS (move) to another duty station, but still have a few months.[br][br][br] Basically the whole reason I am writing is I am curious what is the next step I need to take? After nearly a year of living by the law of chastity (haven't started seriously dating again yet, but I haven't so much as kissed a girl since last summer), and following the word of wisdom to include stopping alcohol consumption, is there anything else I need to do to be forgiven by Christ? I have prayed and as I said before have never been happier or stronger in the church and my parents are finally talking to me again, even though its 4 years after I initially told them I was unsure about the church.[br][br] I know I was supposed to talk to the bishop, but with all the moves I haven't found one I feel confident to confide all this in because of some past nightmares (also part of the reason I fell away from the church in the past). At this point, I know without a doubt this is the true church and want to do everything to be 100% in good standing so I can live the rest of my life righteously and live with our Lord again. I feel at peace and forgiven, but I just want to make sure.[br][br] Thank you for all of your help, and please only serious LDS responses :biggrin: .
