ThirdHour Success Stories of Conversions and Reactivations

[clbent04]

I'm curious how effective this forum is in terms of helping non-members convert to the gospel and helping inactive members become reactivated.  This forum helped me become reactivated simply by helping me rediscover my passion to discuss gospel themed topics.

For the more senior members, or anyone really, how many success stories have you seen pass through this website?

Edited December 15, 2018 by clbent04

[Fether]

Better than every other forum. I can tell you that.

i have never been inactive myself, but this forum keeps me aware of gospel topics and answers to various questions in a way Indont think would be possible otherwise

[clbent04]

2 hours ago, Fether said:

Better than every other forum. I can tell you that.

That’s my opinion as well. Haven’t seen anything out there comparable 

[Midwest LDS]

13 hours ago, clbent04 said:

I'm curious how effective this forum is in terms of helping non-members convert to the gospel and helping inactive members become reactivated.  This forum helped me become reactivated simply by helping me rediscover my passion to discuss gospel themed topics.

For the more senior members, or anyone really, how many success stories have you seen pass through this website?

It's the only one I've found (there may be others but I haven't been able to locate them) where members defend the church, and where the primary focus is gospel discussion. I appreciate that, because everywhere else I went, it was mostly people attacking the church while pretending to be faithful. I can abide and understand faith crises, but I can't stand people smugly pretending to be faithful while eviscerating the brethren. That's why I ended up here.

Edited December 15, 2018 by Midwest LDS

[clbent04]

1 hour ago, Midwest LDS said:

It's the only one I've found (there may be others but I haven't been able to locate them) where members defend the church, and where the primary focus is gospel discussion. I appreciate that, because everywhere else I went, it was mostly people attacking the church while pretending to be faithful. I can abide and understand faith crises, but I can't stand people smugly pretending to be faithful while eviscerating the brethren. That's why I ended up here.

What I mostly found on other websites were what seemed like support groups for people trying to recover from being LDS, not to be confused with being on LSD. I make that clarification because I couldn’t believe the way some people described themselves as if they were recovering addicts from the church.

Whenever I came across those stories, I always tried reading in between the lines to decipher what these people really meant. I thought they must know inside their hearts somewhere the church is true, but yet they post these “recovering addict” posts as a way to rationalize their walking away from the church.

I suppose some people may feel geneuinely duped by the Chuch, but I think more often than not people rationalize their way out of the church. Either that, or they never were truly converted to the gospel to begin with. A seed that doesn’t take root can easily be blown by the wind.

Edited December 15, 2018 by clbent04

[unixknight]

There was a time when I was going to church more or less regularly, but I hated going.  I felt out of place, awkward and uncomfortable.  I tend to have a boisterous personality at times and I like jokes, I like to laugh and try to be serious only when absolutely necessary.  Meanwhile, at around that time, most of the other guys in the Elders' Quorum were utterly  unlike me in every conceivable way.  They were all quiet, reserved, chatted only about their families, gave me blank looks when I would make a Star Trek reference (usually because they didn't have a TV in their house) and in general didn't seem to know what to make of me.

I was afraid that this would eventually lead me to go inactive and possibly even leave the Church.  I hate to admit it, but that's where it could have gone.  All the brothers in EQ were great guys and I liked them, it's just that they struck me as being terribly bland, boring people and I just couldn't see myself trying to force myself to be like them.  

And that's about the time I met @MormonGator on here.  It wasn't him alone, but he was the first to make me realize that one really can  get away with being their own unique and weird (meant in a good way) person while still being 100% LDS.  Others showed me that too, and eventually I realized that it wasn't that I had to conform to the boring image I was getting in EQ.  It was that A. I didn't know these guys in EQ well enough.  Some of them are as oddball as can be, they just put on a mask in Church in order to seem to fit in, and B. Not all EQs are like that.  The ward I'm in now is much more lively.