hey, i was raised lds and am considering converting to catholicism. as someone who made the opposite journey, i am so curious about why you left catholicism and joined the lds church. thank you if you decide to answer!
Hello! Thank you for the question. In full transparency, I feel as if the majority of the reason I converted to the LDS church was because I was able to CHOOSE it for myself. I think a lot to do with my “leaving” the Catholic faith (I say this loosely because there is still so much from Catholicism that is still with me) has to do with the fact that I was raised in a home where God was made to be feared. I apologize if it’s not as “doctrine” related as you’d like.
There were so many questions that I didn’t have answers to in the Catholic church. Why was the fall of Eden necessary? What happens to children that don’t get baptized? How is God also Jesus?
And so many of these things were answered with the BoM. I feel as if Catholicism is so strict in their teachings. If you aren’t baptized, you are damned. Your family is not longer your family in heaven. God is Jesus and it just works that way (the holy trinity was so confusing — and even after converting it STILL confuses me to think of it this way). I found tiny answers that let me make sense of the one thing in life that we will NEVER fully come to know.
Most importantly, after years of being scared, I finally found a faith in which I felt safe. Where I felt the love of Christ.
To be completely honest with you, we seem to get caught up with labels when it comes to faith. Conversion is SUCH a difficult thing. Leaving the faith that you were raised in is terrifying. But we are all just confused children trying to figure out a way to make means with this life. For some odd reason I found it here. For some odd reason many people find it in the place that I lost it.
I talked to an ex-mo before I fully joined the church. I told him about how I feel this warmth in my chest when I think of God now, but that I can’t fully grasp on to the idea that the things that happened in the BoM are TRUE. He looked at me and said, “Just know, if you convert to Mormonism and you realize that it’s not for you, you can always leave.”
PLEASE try not to get so tangled up in your head. Know that the God who loved you in the Ward you grew up in is the same God who will be there in that glass-stained building between all the pews.
If you decide Catholicism isn’t for you, you can leave. If you still believe the LDS faith isn’t for you, then don’t go back. If your faith ends up this weird mash of both then that’s perfectly fine. God knows your heart.
I like to believe that He shows Himself to us in the way that we need it. My closest friend is Muslim but still goes to Bible study with me. My sister-in-law is a die hard Mormon that hasn’t so much even smelled coffee. My grandmother was a devout Catholic and is now, at 80 years old, asking me to take her to an LDS church.
If we are all made individually, down to the hair on our head, then why would he show Himself to us in the same strict way?
My heart, for whatever reason, found it here. I still do the sign of the cross when I pass by a church. There’s a rosary hanging on my rearview mirror which I pray to every morning. I read the BoM every day. I do Catholic prayers but end them with “in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
God knows your heart.
