List some positive things Mormonism brought into your life

[_Lucretia MacEvil]

I came into the church at 14 and it was good for me at that age. It gave me motivation to pull up my grades. The good people in that little ward gave me love and approval that I didn't really feel at home. (My homelife wasn't bad, but my parents were critical and emotionally unavailable). I still have nothing but love towards those folks, flaws and all (the few who are still alive).

Mormonism has brought family members into my life that I am happy to have, especially the children. It has brought close friends into my life, and the relationships that are no longer close are still precious to me.

It did provide so much of the context of my life, and at the time it seemed good. In retrospect, I still see plenty of good in it. I'm not sure that I wish it away if possible, only wish that I had outgrown it a little faster than I did.

[_Dr. Shades]

I learned how to speak a foreign language fluently in preparation for a Mormon mission.

??? How were you able to find out, in advance, which language you'd end up speaking?

[_Mephitus]

my parents where Mormon, my mother divorced my mother over his porn

I didn't think Mormons believed in gay marriage?

Hehe, oops, typo. I was at work doing something else when i was typing this.

[_Mudcat]

List some positive things Mormonism brought into your life

1. Mrs. Mudcat

[_malaise]

I learned how to speak a foreign language fluently in preparation for a Mormon mission.

??? How were you able to find out, in advance, which language you'd end up speaking?

People do this stuff at missionary training centers before leaving for their missions. That's common knowledge. I guess you could say you were already on the mission while at the MTC.

[_malaise]

I suppose I should also avoid saying I attained fluency in preparation for the mission itself. Real fluency took me a long time to achieve.

[_beastie]

Mormonism helped me to quit smoking. I was a convert at 19, and had been smoking off and on as a rebellious teenager, but started smoking a pack a day in college. I would quit for a while, but the yearning for nicotine never went away, so after a few months would pick it up again. I'd been doing this for almost two years prior to my conversion to Mormonism. But when I decided that God had told me the church was true, my desire to smoke disappeared overnight. It really felt like a miracle.

The truth was a bit more subtle than that, because I actually dreamed about smoking for at least a decade afterward. So clearly the desire was still there, just deeply repressed.

But I often wonder if I would have had the will power to do it without feeling that God's judgment was involved.

I also had three wonderful children in my horrible marriage to an abusive Mormon. That marriage was a mistake, but my three kids were not.

I also became fairly fluent in French due to my mission, although I regret I did not keep my skills up in that area. However, I love the French language and one of my "retirement" goals is to become fluent again. And my mission did give me the unique opportunity to actually live in a foreign country for a while, which is completely different than just visiting. I doubt I would have had that opportunity otherwise.

If I had never been LDS, I would never have met my soulmate, who is exLDS as well, and whom I met 15 years ago on an exmormon email group. If there is really a God, which is unlikely, then that God clearly wanted me to be LDS for a while. When I still believed in God, I wondered why God told me the Book of Mormon was "the word of God", and the inevitable conclusion was he WANTED me to be LDS. But he also wanted me to leave the LDS church after a while, because God refused to tell me that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. That was my doorway to doubt later.

(Insert here some believer's obtuse argument that the Book of Mormon being the "word of God" automatically meant Joseph Smith was a true prophet. It doesn't. Use your imagination to figure out how. They are two different propositions entirely.)

[_Ceeboo]

In a word, Nemesis




Okay, seriously:

Mormonism has enriched me with a taste of what others believe (or used to believe) and has allowed me the unique opportunity to broaden my scope concerning the life-journey of, and perspectives from, many who have traveled a different road than I have.

Although I do not happen to share the beliefs of Mormonism, I am certain that I share a lot with Mormons.

Simply put, Mormonism has brought Mormons into my world, and for that alone, I am most grateful.

Peace,
Ceeboo

[Guest]

An appreciation of Catholicism. Being Mormon helped me:

1. First, see the religion vilified
2. See my own religion talked up to no end
3. See the warts of my religion
4. Leave my religion
5. See the good aspects of the Catholic church that I very much would have enjoyed growing up
7. Wish I could be Catholic

[_jon]

Nothing I wouldn't have gotten elsewhere for less...