Skip to content
Main Street Plaza

A Community for Anyone Interested in Mormonism.

Main Street Plaza

A Community for Anyone Interested in Mormonism.

Sunday in Outer Blogness: Personal stories edition!

chanson, February 26, 2017

Here’s a charming little story of making a connection across cultural boundaries:

A moment later it spoke back in Chinese. His eyes widened. I showed him the button to press on my phone. He spoke into it, and a moment later it said “Yes, I am sad.”

“Why are you sad?” I asked. My phone translated.

“I lost my gloves during lunch,” my phone said aloud after he spoke to it.

Angela C revisited her mission, which brought back memories:

So in deciding to go on a mission, I felt like my identity was unsuitable anyway. I needed to be silent and milquetoast if I couldn’t be that pastel-wearing smile machine that seemed to be the desired stereotype. Since I was mostly pretend-dour in the MTC, my district didn’t really like me. They thought I was a killjoy (me! a killjoy!), and they would hum the Miss Gulch/Wicked Witch theme whenever I came in the room. My companion was cool and didn’t see me that way, but I silently let the elders think that, considering the loss of identity my necessary cross to bear.

Sam Young continues to vote his conscience:

I vote opposed in the expectation that this law will once again become the common law of church governance. I have made a temple covenant to obey the law of God. Consequently, I vote opposed in order to keep my sacred promise of obedience.

Sadly, in order to participate, you have to attend church which is boring and no fun — though you can liven it up with coloring books and comic books!

If you’re wondering whether you’re an exmo in Utah County, La has a helpful list for you. Jaxon Evans has created his own Christianity / Zen Buddhism fusion.

Does anybody understand how the forever families doctrine works? The Rational Faith bloggers have some thoughts on here-and-now marriage as well as on combining Mormonism with other identities like queer or Latino.

In scripture study, RT posted an analysis of Michael Austin’s application of Biblical canonical criticism techniques to the Book of Mormon.

Sorry I’m not feeling like posting about politics this week. I’m sure I’ll be back at it next week though — see you then!

Sunday in Outer Blogness

Post navigation

Previous post
Next post

Related Posts

Sunday in Outer Blogness: The Mormon Moment Edition!

April 3, 2011November 9, 2011

It’s not just a musical anymore, it’s in sci-fi films, books, and other interesting plays, even politics — everything is coming up Mormon!!! Meanwhile — rather than capitalizing on it with another shocker-conference — the CoJCoL-dS decided to go with their previous conference strategy of boring the pants off everyone…

Read More

Sunday in Outer Blogness: New exits edition!

May 28, 2017

A cool new blog appeared this past week, starting with a (perhaps familiar) story: In many ways, nothing about me has changed and yet everything has. The thing is, I’ve really only changed in the same way every other person reading this changes—subtly and over time. None of us are…

Read More

Sunday in Outer Blogness: Done with scouts edition!

May 15, 2017May 15, 2017

This past week the CoJCoL-dS has started decoupling its young men’s program from the Boy Scouts of America (and Canada)! They’re keeping the Cub Scouts and the beginning part of the Boy Scouting program (for now…), but for older teen boys (14+ in the US and Canada) the Boy Scouts…

Read More

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Mormon Alumni Association Books

Follow us on Substack!

Please use the "no pledge" option because we are not set up (or even want) to get money from Substack.


donna * monya * johnny * holly * chanson


Brodie Awards!!!


X-Mormon of the Year!!

  • 2025: Rebecca Bibliotheca!!
  • 2024: Nemo the Mormon!!
  • 2023: Adam Steed!!
  • 2022: David Archuleta!!
  • 2021: Jeff T. Green!!
  • 2020: Jacinda Ardern!!
  • 2019: David Nielsen!!
  • 2018: Sam Young!!
  • 2017: Savannah!!
  • 2016: Jeremy Runnells!!
  • 2015: John Dehlin!!
  • 2014: Kate Kelly!!
  • 2013: J. S. Anderson & M. Ferguson!!
  • 2012: David Twede!!
  • 2011: Joanna Brooks!!
  • 2010: Monica Bielanko!!
  • 2009: Walter Kirn!!

  1. chanson on Thanks Gloria!September 20, 2026

    @Donna -- I wouldn't say you were one of the "dumb girls". You were a young starry-eyed convert who thought…

  2. chanson on New church schedule! Good? Bad? Inspired?September 19, 2026

    @Holly -- yes, I have absolutely felt that parallel in my life. I was fortunate enough to be able to…

  3. Holly on New church schedule! Good? Bad? Inspired?September 16, 2026

    You're no doubt right. Living in Trump's America right now feels to me the way I felt about the church…

  4. Donna Banta on Thanks Gloria!September 15, 2026

    There were years of cognitive dissonance, at least in my case. I told myself that the church was a compassionate,…

  5. chanson on New church schedule! Good? Bad? Inspired?September 14, 2026

    I can't help but feel like in today's church you wouldn't even have had the opportunity to mention Santa's not…

8: The Mormon Proposition Acceptance of Gays Add new tag Affirmation angry exmormon awards Book Reviews BYU comments Dallin H. Oaks DAMU disaffected mormon underground Dustin Lance Black Ex-Mormon Excommunicated exmormon faith Family feminism Gay Gay Love Gay Marriage Gay Relationships General Conference Happiness Homosexual Homosexuality LDS LGBT LGBTQ Link Bomb missionaries Modesty Mormon Mormon Alumni Association Mormonism motherhood peace poetry politics Polygamy priesthood ban Secularism Sunstone temple

Subscribe


 

©2026 Main Street Plaza | WordPress Theme by SuperbThemes