Hello Again!

[Guest shmrie]

I got off to a rather rough start last time around and sort of swore this place off since I stuck my foot in my mouth when it came to the mods, and everyone else (way to go me :|) but I was doing a Google search of my username to make sure there wasn't anything too bad associated with it and I found this place again.

When I first joined I was going through my existential crisis that we all seem to go through as teenagers. I say existential because it wasn't just restricted to my criticism of the church, but of life in general. I was going through a rough patch in everything and while I was considerably miserable at the time, it did enable me to have a look at my life with a profound amount of clarity. It would be nice to say that the church really pulled me through (after all, this is an LDS forum) but it honestly didn't. I did, however, realise that my negative feelings toward the church were not really because of anything the church had done in particular, I was just mad at everything.

Strangely, what really helped me through was the discovery of my MBTI type (INTP) which is not a very common type in the US (particularly for my gender) and especially in the church(source). When I first discovered this, I reveled in my difference and I daresay I was considerably flippant in this forum, sorry for that. I was immature, and for those of you typology nerds out there (pleeeeease say you're out there somewhere!), I was in one particularly bad tertiary loop that was just... bad. Anyway, as I was trying to get over my existential crisis, I realised that the reason, or at least part of the reason, why I didn't jive with anyone else at church (or anyone in the rest of my life, honestly) was because there are so few who thought and felt and saw the world in similar ways to me (I say that with more backing than just having some percentages; I actually went through and figured out what the type of all my friends and family members were so I could figure them out, the percentages in that link are fairly accurate, IME). Upon that realisation, I was able to take steps to accommodate my personality with the rest of my life and a world that I perhaps don't naturally fit into as well, and that helped me so, so much to get myself back together, emotionally, mentally and spiritually (not so much physically though, I never actually had any problems with that during my existential crisis).

As far as the church goes for me now, I've had to resign myself to be a cafeteria Mormon (or a Liahona Mormon, if you want to put it nicely ), having to stop and ask myself how I feel about every belief I think I have ("Do I really believe this? Can I really believe in this? Does this fit into what I think works as a system for doctrinal understanding and worship? Or am I disregarding my feelings and missing the Holy Ghost's input?") Maybe I have a long way to go, maybe I'm already where I need to be; I'm not sure, but I hope I can make a good contribution to this forum and others like me out there :)

Hoping I didn't offend any of you ,

Shmrie

TL;DR I was a jerk here at first, I grew up and now I'm back. Let's roll!

[pam]

TL;DR I was a jerk here at first, I grew up and now I'm back. Let's roll!

I hope we can get off to a better start than last time. If I recall correctly, your intro last time accused us all of being closed minded conservatives. Just follow the rules of the site and we'll get along splendidly.

Welcome back.

[rameumptom]

Welcome back. While many LDS are conservative-minded (and some are off the charts on it), there are many of us who are open-minded in many things. The focus is to discuss things, agree where we can, disagree where we must, and try to be charitable to others while we're working through the process with them.

Even apostles do not always agree 100% (as witnessed by differences in opinion between Joseph F. Smith and James Talmage, or between Ezra Taft Benson and Hugh B. Brown). But they always sought to be united where it truly counted.

[FunkyTown]

Welcome, Shmrie!

I wouldn't worry too much about the odd person being offended. The only way to grow is to stretch yourself beyond what is comfortable and I'm fairly certain that anybody who says they never offended anybody as a teen simply don't take time for retrospection.

[Guest shmrie]

I hope we can get off to a better start than last time. If I recall correctly, your intro last time accused us all of being closed minded conservatives.

I'm pretty sure that wasn't my actual intention at the time :/ but I was very ineloquent at communicating that I have political ideologies that don't fit into what I've perceived as the norm in the church

While many LDS are conservative-minded (and some are off the charts on it), there are many of us who are open-minded in many things.

Well, I hope you'll all be open minded to me and acknowledge that my more dastardly past remarks are the product of my confusion toward the church as well as other things in my life and not bring it up against me as I try to grow up :|

[rameumptom]

Past is forgotten. We'll now strive on making a better future.

[Maya]

Welcome with the better start... live and learn you know... even the conservatives do that ... I think... or do they.... aa guys... you conservatives....?