Likes:
L1: Health and $. I think I am healthier since I have not drank alcohol or smoked. It has saved me some money too, although tithing likely cancel's this out :-)
L2: I speak Japanese and really like the Japanese people. Serving a mission for the church was difficult but a major blessing at the same time. I will not regret it. Japanese people, culture and food are awesome.
L3: I met my wife at BYU. She is great.
L4: The Family Home Evening program is wonderful. I appreciate so much the churches encouragement and provision of resources to families so they can strive for unity and knowledge in the gospel. It just feels so right to have Family Home Evening when my family gets together. I know it is a great thing for our family! (added 12Feb04)
What do you like or dislike about the church or gospel? E-mail me and I will make a list of submissions from others.
Dislikes:
D1: That one can join the church after attending just one sacrament meeting. I was a stake missionary a while ago and we had an investigator join the church. He had attended only one sacrament meeting. He got baptized. His member girlfriend broke up with him. He never showed up again. He was never confirmed a member. Sometimes I think it is to easy to join the church.
I believe I recently heard that the missionaries are discontinuing set discussions. I think this can't hurt. I would always have reservations about an investigator who was rushed through the discussions by the missionaries in one or two weeks, attended a meeting and then get baptized. It gave them no time to get used to the church or determine whether they were really committed to being a member. A ward can't properly fellowship an investigator prior to baptism if they are rushed through. As a stake missionay I was doing good to get out one night a week with the Elders. I wonder what percent of investigators who have member friends are "rushed" through the discussions in a single week. I bet on average the time of teaching is longer for member referals (where the member also takes part in the discussions) than for those who have no prior friends in the local congregation. I don't think members would tolerate their friends being rushed.
Anyway, as a member I have felt guilt over the fact that investigators can fall away so fast. I felt condemned by the church (not at the local level) as if it was entirely the members fault. If a person joins and stops coming, all of a sudden it is the ward's fault for not fellowshipping enough. It has been difficult for me to accept this contention especially when a person has not even attended a full three hour block of church.
D2: I don't like it when the fly leaf (dust covers)of a religous book published by a member of the church uses irrelevant information to market the book or sell more copies. For example, it is especially irritating to open a dust cover and read that so and so is the father of 8 sons and 5 daughters. It is like the publisher is saying "Look how good a person this is because they have so many children". Some Mormons take the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth a bit to seriously. My wife commented recently about how elated she was when a visiting general authority who only had two or three children visited BYU to speak. It meant she could feel "Yeah, I don't have to have a dozen kids to be a good member". To me this means some women in the church have definately felt pressured to have lots of kids.
[email protected]