One of my favorite quotes came from my mom,  "the church is not perfect,  it is full of imperfect people searching for perfection. The gospel is the guide to perfection but always remember the people at church are seeking as well. "

Ah, I never invite someone to a fast and testimony meeting for their first time coming.

As an active member, I will be totally honest... The "sermons" (we just call them talks) can be WILDLY inconsistent in quality from week to week. Every week, different members are asked to give talks in our sacrament meetings. Sometimes you get some really great speakers (sounds like you struck gold with getting a history professor). Other times you get people that are just not capable public speakers. While that certainly leads to inconsistency in the meetings, I think it is, overall, a good thing for the church and its members.

Active LDS here. Love your video and your perspective. When I was a missionary, I hated missionaries that had that "Yeah I will listen to you, but then I will tell you whats up." Having an actual deep respectful conversation to actually understand each other is one of the coolest things ever in my opinion.

"Cats and dogs? I like dinosaurs"
Bro I can guarantee one of the missionaries wrote that down in their notes of quotes

Temple open-house. For sure is the way to go.

Glad you had a good time. Nothingspeed, my friend.

I'm an exmo, and honestly, this video was refreshing. I think Mormons get a lot of hate, and a lot of it is undeserved. Thanks for having an open mind and being so nice! You just earned a sub.

Seeing this almost 10 months after it was posted, and not even a week after our prophet and president passed and a congregation was tragically terrorized. I appreciate the honest view and opinions. This is what we need. We don’t need everyone to convert. We don’t need everyone to love us. What we need is a mutual understanding with everyone that we will try our best to love and serve. Disagreement is ok, and even welcomed sometimes. Hatred and demonization is never ok. And honest conversations like this does wonders for building bridges of understanding that leads to peaceful coexistence.

1:49 haha you went to a testimony meeting AKA ward thearpy open mic meeting thats why 😂😂

I like your honesty
Dont know what the algorithm is doing right now but there are no accidents
thank you for checking us out

I think you really hit the nail on the head behind the why of YSA wards. So many people say "oh the church just wants us to get married and start families, that's what YSA's are for". Haha maybe. But in reality, I really think it's the latter that you said, it helps people of that age want to go to church, maybe even incentivized by the idea of making friends or even meeting someone lol YSAs can be really awkward or they can be SUCH a blast. You meet so many interesting people who are in a similar place of life as you, you don't feel so left out like in a family ward if you're single, you also get many cool and amazing ways to serve that you might not get in a family ward. Your 20s especially is such a time of personal growth, especially of deciding what you want for your own life and if the church is a part of it. I had lots of fun in YSAs and student wards and I'm grateful for my experiences.

Left the lds church for 8 years, started attending my ysa ward a few months ago. It’s pretty chill

Some fast Sundays are pretty bad, yeah. But sometimes they are the most powerful meetings. It's very hot or miss

My gosh! That was such an incredibly fair representation of our church! Thank you!

Your analysis of how Young Adult Wards came along is 100% accurate 🤣

The ghost of Brigham Young was like, "Yeah, I like this guy :)"

Dude, you really need to do a temple open house walk through. You get more of the symbols and architecture that advertises that you are in a sacred space.

This was the first video I watched from this channel and it was so interesting! I've noticed that a lot of atheist channels ironically have a hard time just "shooting the breeze" with different ideas, and are a bit too focused on proving things right and wrong. Nothing wrong with that approach, but I find it dull to listen to people who are just criticizing religion to validate themselves. I feel like this video was refreshing to watch because your approach is driven by genuine curiosity. I like that you share your opinions and criticisms in a fair way that acknowledges nuance. I learned something new!

I’ve lived in tons of wards and some have a little more energy than others. It’s good to hear that you had a better experience this last time though!

This was a refreshing perspective! I appreciate the sincerity, and even the constructive feedback about our faith. We should be friends.