Triggers for Returning to Activity

[Guest mormonmusic]

Have you ever been less active in the Church, and then later became fully active again?

What propelled you back into activity?

[Hemidakota]

Personally meeting an General Authority in our ward. :)

[marts1]

A hometeacher that even after 10 years, just would not quit, was the first step into my getting back into it.

[Tarnished]

I didn't like who I was becoming, I had done something I truly regretted, and I had a visiting teacher who kept visiting me and kept asking me to come back to church. All of these helped to bring me back to church, and I am so happy that I did return.

[Elgama]

I am currently inactive due to an abusive situation with my daughter and the primary president. I have had many blessings, one of which stated to step away, it says I will know beyond doubt when it is safe for her to return, and that this time will allow things to move forward. I oddly think my daughter was born for this situation, and will be the instrument in Heavenly Father's plan here.

What we will be doing now we have the car back and summer is here is making the trip to another ward once or twice a month. I actually find it very hard to be inactive, I love the Lord and want to be at church. Its much harder not to go, than go and deal with consequences, but had we continued my daughter could have been lost for eternity, when someone came and tried to harrass us back to church a few weeks ago, she had a series of nightmares

[zippy_do46]

A non-member mother who told me, if I could not live what I believe then I needed to go where I could.

Knowing the gospel was true I started working myself back in. Also some very good Visiting teachers and home teachers helped.

[Guest mormonmusic]

I was semi-active for 7 years. I got fully active again after moving into a Ward where the people did their callings. Every single auxiliary was functioning at top speedm, with phenomenal results. It was inpsiring.

Every single Sunday I came away uplifted and inspired by the quality of the lessons, teh information shared, the preparation and commitment of the people. My heart felt clean and swept as I drove home, and everyone in the family had something positive to say about their experience that day.

When there was a need for people to clean the chapel, the room was full of hands in Priesthood, and they all showed up. You didnt even have to follow up.

It was Zion -- I saw the kinds of lives and communities people have when they really live the gospel to its fullest. It was inspiring and it just kind of sucked me in.....I spontaneously lived the gospel better, and then was called into the Bishopric within a month of making the decision to be fully active again.

It goes to show the power that is unleashed when a Ward takes their callings and the gospel as seriously as other competing interests in their lives.

[laconnaritchie]

my father died, than my mother 6 years later. I suddenly realized I was alone and couldn,t go where they were. I needed to change and now i,m working my way back to them. I don't believe a day goes by without me missing them beyound tears. I now go to the temple to feel them and my fathers in heavens love for my efforts.

[Hemidakota]

It is thread like this I deeply appreciate more than most of those posted on this forum, who are candored and provide emotional moments for all of us to read and heed.

Edited May 6, 2010 by Hemidakota

[mliff]

i became inactive in 05 and last sunday was my first time back. Im not too sure what caused me to go back but one of the reasons is my home teacher, he started coming over and the second time he said he would like to invite me back to church. a couple days later it hit me and that sunday i woke up got dressed and went in.

[Baycitygirl]

my life was spinning out of control. i was losing my husband, my kids, my dignity, my life. i spent a really hard night one night looking back over my life and realized was i was searching for and needed i had once. i knew i needed to get back, so made a call to the missionaries. got my 14 yr old baptized finally and my husband and i are 3 weeks a way from getting our recommends back. life made a complete turn around. i went from contemplating divorce to being happy again, living in chaos to peace, and watching my kids becoming strangers to being best friends with them. I thank Heavenly Father everyday!!!

[NeuroTypical]

What caused my inactivity: Finally reaching the point that I could tell my mom I wasn't going any more, and she couldn't do anything about it.

What caused my interest and going back: Wanting what my friends had. Searching for a reliable answer about whether the church was true or not.

What caused my return to activity: Getting my answer!

[GADBabaganoosh]

I went inactive a long time ago, because I stopped caring. I was passive aggressive. I hated my ward. My dad died. We had changed wards, and a lot of the people, I'm convinced hated us, or at least disliked my family greatly. I didn't go for a long time. Then I was working at walmart, being depressed. My home ward bishop from the ward that I hated showed up randomly (this is years later) and tells me that he thinks i should go on a mission. I couldn't look him in the eyes. I knew it was right. I had a strong impression that I couldn't begin my life until I had gone on a mission. It was then that I had became active again, got back into the swing, started developing a testimony again (because I had slowly lost it through my own poor decisions) Now I'm back from the mission, a year and a half later, and have been active ever since. I still struggle a little, but I attend weekly. When I went back to that home ward and gave a talk when i got home from the mission, all the people I thought were cool, just happened to be there. Oh yeah! There were people that probably liked and loved my family. I was just so bitter I hadn't noticed them or had forgotten about them. I keep in contact with them, among others.

[Hemidakota]

These are profoundly moving posts....thanks for allow the moment in reading your experiences. I truly marvel on how GOD provides means for HIS children in coming back to the fold.

[MormonMama]

I've been inactive twice.

The first time I was prompted to return to activity was when I took my then 2-year-old daughter to see the lights at the Mesa temple at Christmas. She had never been taught about Christ, we didn't not have pictures of him in our home and she was not exposed to anyone who could have had time to teach her about Him. But when she saw the Christus statue in the Visitors' Center she shouted, "Jesus! I wanna see Jesus! Jesus!" She was reaching for Him and calling His name over and over. We didn't get in the door in time before they closed the curtain for their Christmas presentation (they would let in a certain number of people and then close the heavy curtains to block out outside noise), and she cried and cried until the curtain opened again a few minutes later and we could go in. She just stared at the Christus with a huge smile on her face. I felt the Spirit so strongly and knew that I needed to go back to church.

Unfortunately, several years later I was inactive again. During this time I met my current husband. After we became engaged I started feeling very strongly that I really wanted our family to be together for eternity (my first husband is a nonmember so we were never sealed in the temple), and I knew that would never happen unless I returned to church. He later joined the church as well and we are now sealed together and to my three daughters.

[mnn727]

I was semi-active for a couple years after living in a Ward that I hated - literally we moved just to get out of the Ward boundries. The move was into a better Ward but old habits hang on and I was still semi-active

A calling to teach EQ (out of the J.S. manual)got me in 2 Sundays a month, it also reminded me why I joined the Church in the first place, that led to a desire to go back to the Temple (I had let my TR expire for about 3 years) which led to my becoming more and more active, about 2 month's after getting my T.R. I was called as Ward Exec Sec which means I now spend about 7 hours every Sunday at Church (and 2-10 hours more a week on my calling - only going for 3 hours would seem like a piece of cake now!

[Bini]

My trigger is a harsh reality. I am almost twenty years younger than my husband and realise that there will come a day when he'll pass on and I'll be on my own. My fear is not of us separating at death but of the harsh reminder that we'll never be together for time and eternity unless we live the gospel and follow its teachings. As of now, it's been a challenge because we've both been inactive for many many years. Over the last year or so, my testimony has grown but I know that my husband is still lacking one. I worry that we won't have our act together before our time runs out. My husband is my best friend and he's the person I want to be with forever. That not happening, will break my heart. So to sum all that up, my motivation to return to the Church is to have a temple marriage and be sealed to my husband.

[baver3]

wow. I love these stories. You are all amazing.

[Hemidakota]

I was semi-active for a couple years after living in a Ward that I hated - literally we moved just to get out of the Ward boundries. The move was into a better Ward but old habits hang on and I was still semi-active

A calling to teach EQ (out of the J.S. manual)got me in 2 Sundays a month, it also reminded me why I joined the Church in the first place, that led to a desire to go back to the Temple (I had let my TR expire for about 3 years) which led to my becoming more and more active, about 2 month's after getting my T.R. I was called as Ward Exec Sec which means I now spend about 7 hours every Sunday at Church (and 2-10 hours more a week on my calling - only going for 3 hours would seem like a piece of cake now!

The point on going to the temple is what?

Thankyou...thankyou in sharing such insights to your life experiences. This is also to others who posted here.