dekalei

Thank you all for your responses. My husband and I felt prompted to remain in our assigned Stake and so approached both the bishops of our assigned ward and of the ward we intend to attend. I was quite disappointed when part-way through my explanation to the Bishop of my assigned ward, he interrupted me with "Well, you should at least give our Ward a try before you make your decision. We have a calling we would like to extend to you." As for the Bishop of the Ward we intend to attend, he was a little more understanding but explained that plenty of people have bad family relationships and through humbling themselves and relying on Heavenly Father, are able to get over their issues and lead happy lives. He has absolutely no issues with us attending the Ward, but then there is the issue of our not being able to serve in any callings or sit a temple recommend interview with him. After all this, I feel down. I may just write a letter to the First Presidency and see how things go from there. I am not keen to take out a restraining order against these people as they still have contact with other family I care about and will only just take it out on them. I am trying to go about this without ruffling too many feathers and making things even worse.

Thanks Anddenex, My husband and I very much want to be a part of the Ward, have callings and be able to renew our temple recommends without hassle and so will involve the Stake Presidents just to cover our bases.

Oh right, that's easy then. Being a Stake change, I had assumed the Stake Presidents of both might need to be involved. Thank you.

My family and I are moving into our new home at the end of this month, and unfortunately have found that we JUST make the boundary for the ward in which some of my family members live. These family members are toxic and abusive and I have only recently cut them out of our lives for mine and my daughter's safety. I thought it was alright, we could attend the ward on the other side of the line, and hopefully get permission to have our records moved there. However, this ward meets in the same building as our assigned ward and I am very worried about bumping into these people because they have no shame in confronting me in public and making a scene. The only other option now (until we can move) is to attend a ward outside of our Stake. So far, I have only seen some discussion on these forums about attending different wards. How do I go about with changing Stakes? Would we need to contact the Stake President of each Stake involved, or just deal directly with the Bishop of the ward we plan to attend?

Hi there, I stumbled on this site after a Google search for LDS advice regarding a personal issue and have been hooked since! I love seeing that outside of our Sunday smiles, we are all real people struggling through mortal life to better ourselves as children of our Heavenly Father. It's nice to read through the forums and not feel so alone. Even better, reading advice and helpful comments and applying them to my own life. See you around, dekalei

I guess you don't know until you try it. It might depend on how your leader sees it. Many years ago, - a new beehive fresh out of Primary - I received a beautiful necklace with a cross hanging off it from a non-member friend for my 12th birthday - with pretty little rhinestones. I wore it to church and didn't think much of it until our Stake President walked up to me and demanded I take it off. "Take it off." His first words to me as I stood there with my arm extended waiting for the handshake. I had no idea what he was going on about and stood there stunned:huh: as he repeated "take it off, that thing around your neck. You shouldn't be wearing that here." I felt like I had the devil around my neck After that, I've always felt uncomfortable about seeing people wearing crosses during church sessions, though in my current ward, I see crosses all the time on jewellery and printed. No one seems to have an issue with it.:)