AMEN.

“Intellectual pride is very prevalent in our day. Some people exalt themselves above God and His anointed servants because of their learning and scholarly achievements. We must never allow our intellect to take priority over our spirit. Our intellect can feed our spirit and our spirit can feed our intellect, but if we allow our intellect to take precedence over our spirit, we will stumble, find fault, and may even lose our testimonies”.
(Joseph B. Wirthlin, “Press On,” Liahona, Nov 2004, 101–4)

I feel like people take themselves too seriously and they talk themselves out of trusting in the Lord. I haven't gotten really religious on here in the past, but here I go.

A friend of mine (someone I do still consider a friend) recently declared themselves to be agnostic. Basically renounced the LDS faith and opened them self up to other religions. Please don't bash me for saying this- but seriously, this is why I would never raise children in Utah. They just don't get enough exposure to other religions. Not that I don't LOVE people of different faiths- I DO. But, at the same time, I really, really love being LDS because of the simple truth that it brings into my life.

I've seen people struggle for knowledge, I've seen people try extremely time consuming, meaninglessness activities- to try to fulfill their spiritual needs. I feel that all search for truth is a good thing. But why do GOOD things when you can be doing GREAT things? The search for truth and wisdom is a extremely noble activity. Extremely. But personally, I'd rather listen to one session of Conference (as seen HERE) and get all the answers I've been wondering about, than spend the next 10 years wandering and searching.

I do have personal experience with this, before anyone thinks that I don't. I served my mission in Iowa, where oddly enough there's a spiritual community in Fairfield that practices Transcendental Meditation. I mean- the area is extremely "golden" (full of people who are seeking the truth) and these people have (for some of them) spent their entire adult life seeking truth (which is noble, remember?) but in speaking to some of the members of the ward in that town, they would tell us how where they used to meditate for 5-6 hours a day to be at peace, they could now go to the temple once a week and have the same amount of fulfillment. AND they were free to live a "normal" life (i.e. average American life).

When it comes to life experiences, I guess I'm super blessed because I've NEVER needed to do something personally to learn from it. Drugs? Nope. Smoking? Nope. Premarital Sex? Nope. (seeing a good friend go though a abortion at the age of 14 ended that impulse quickly).

For all that I gripe about my life- I've been super glad to be free from the impulse to experiment. Probably also because I've always known how extremely apt I am to become addicted to things- just don't open the box. Pandora can keep her secrets.

But I can't keep this one. I know that Christ lives. I know that Pres. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and I know that, while this life holds many good things and that many things are true, the only whole truth is to be found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Thanks for reading this. Let me know if your interested in learning more, or have questions.