Darcy23

I appreciate everyone's well wishes and encouragement but I think its hopeless. Me in a Mormon Church would really be an odd, heinously odd thing. I'm notorious around here as a fighter and womanizer. I chain-smoke cigarettes and drink a pot of coffee everyday. If I became mormon I would be excommunicated within a month or two, and no mormon woman would want to date me. I'll probably wind up being Catholic. I'm sorry for bothering everyone. Thank you very much for trying. I applaud you all for your faith, kindness and discipline.

I don't care about what my family and friends think because I know that within the church I will be accepted. I know how the mormon church works. If you have a genuine testimony and you take part in church activities and you allow the church culture to work for you it is a great blessing. Even though the church is mainstream it still offers a kind of culture within the culture. Mormons take care of other mormons. I don't think I'm romanticizing it. Its what I've observed from knowing some mormons. I want my family, the woman I marry and the kids we have, to have the kind of pious life I wish my parents, myself and my brothers would have had. I do not want my children to grow up in a broken home. I want them to grow up happy and healthy and with a steadfast love and worship of Jesus Christ.

Wow. Very well put. Thank you. I face temptation wherever I go. I am known as a celebrity lookalike and an artist in my own right. I sing, do martial arts, write, speak very confidently. The only young woman who ever really encouraged me to be a good young man and be Christ-like was a Mormon. I don't talk to her anymore, she does not live near me, but I will forever be blessed by the example and the council she gave me. She was not perfect, but she faced such incredible temptation by me and by her non-church friends, temptation to forsake her beliefs, and nothing, I mean nothing, could get her to waver in the slightest. I know mormons are not perfect, but it seems they try hardest, and have the best teachings and organization, to get people to follow Christ. I come from a broken home. My peers mainly come from broken homes. Every time I listen to a general conference talk or look at the example of Mormons I see a great effort to undo this sad social trend. I feel much trepidation in trying to become mormon because I have been influenced by family members and thinkers and peers to look at the Mormon Church as wrong. But I don't like alcohol, I don't like being around young women who are not walking with Jesus, and so I am looked upon as odd anyway. My friends think I don't like them because I don't like to go drinking with them. Some people think I'm homosexual because I get so much attention from young women but I almost never give in. I do not think members of other churches are bad, but it just seems like so many of them give in to temptation more than Mormons do. Becoming mormon when your family and friends are ultra-non mormon, in fact laugh at and hate the church, is really tough. But I believe its the right thing to do. I hope God gives me the courage to go all the way and abandon my great pride.

Thank you Blackmarch and Skippy740. I believe Christ forgives me for my sins. I repent very deeply and honestly every time I sin. But I know I have to become a member of a church and the mormon church seems to be the church which most closely follows the bible. I like many churches, see positives in all of them, but after studying the mormon church for a couple of years, listening to endless general conference talks and praying about it, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints seems like the right church. I had romantic feelings for a young mormon woman. She tried with all her effort to bring me into the church. She was the most marvellous example of Christian virtue I have ever encountered. She really followed the church doctrines and was not tempted to abandon her faith in the Book of Mormon even though her feelings for me were so strong. It was in listening to her and trying to argue against her that I cam to know the mormon church quite well. But I hated it before. For a year or so I deeply hated the church. I was even rude to a bishop on the phone. And now I know that if I try to join I will be accepted and welcomed. I know how the church takes such good care of converts. But I was so blasphemous against the church its hard for me to come to terms with this 180 I've done. And its not fleeting. I've wanted to be mormon since I first learned about it. I just know from her example how incredibly pious mormons are expected to be. I don't think its because mormons are crazy or anything. I think its because mormons follow Jesus' teachings most closely out of all churches. For two years I've looked at the mormon church with a kind of longing, like if I were a better man I would be at home among LDS. I'm going to try. I will read the book of mormon in its entirety and then pray. I contacted the LDS website service which alerts local missionaries and they should be coming to see me soon. Anymore encouragement or advice would be appreciated.

I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the right and best church. I just don't think I am good enough to be Mormon. I know a lot about mormonism. I love the mormon church. I love the way of life, the message, the people in it. But I smoke cigarettes. I lust, I lust so much. I get a lot of attention from young women and am good at avoiding situations where I will fall prey to temptation but I have given in many times in the past and I have trouble forgiving myself for it. It seems the culture here is not friendly to young men who struggle not to give in to lust. I have a million opportunities to make something out of my life, to take advantage of my talents and my ambitions, but I feel lost. I feel a need to belong to a community of like-minded people. The mormons I've known seem like those kind of people. The mormon lifestyle and teachings seem so incredibly enlightened and positive to me. I just honestly don't know if I can live up to the standard of behaviour required to be a member of the church. I have a lot of pride. I am something of an intellectual. I have trouble submitting to authority. I would really appreciate some help with these problems/concerns.