Hey, Elder Online-Missionary, Didn't know they are sending you on a virtual mission as well. So take care you don't get on one of the many bad bad anti-lds sites, cause you will lose your temple recommend if read about the spirit of critique. The problem about your religion is that it is solely based on your feelings. When the missionaries try to convince you about their Mormon faith, they push you to pray about the Book of Mormon and about Joseph Smith. Then they explain that if you have positive feelings or the infamous "Burning in the bosom", a warm feeling in your breast, that this is the Holy Spirit. This might be suitable for the romance period, where everyone was looking within. However, times have changed. The scientific progress within the last centuries make it impossible to neglect outer truths and realities. So, stop praying until you feel good, open your eyes and face reality. And the reality is: There is absolutely no evidence for the historicity of the book of Mormon, not a single one. No city was found, no coin, no archaeological finding at all. The "reformed egyptian" is unknown to scholars, the Grammar Joseph Smith wrote for reformed egyptian is only taken into account by linguists if they need something for the joke page of their journal. Moreover, Joseph Smith failed on every occasion to prove that he is indeed a prophet. When someone stole parts of his manuscripts, a real prophet would have rewritten them word by word (Jer 36,32), but Smith just wrote a similar story "from another point of view" to hide the fact that he couldn't reproduce it, as he had made it all up. Similarly, he translated the so-called Kinderhook plates, some "ancient plates" which later turned out to be cheap forgeries, anyway, he could reproduce ancient texts from forged nonsense scriblings. That's what I don't like about religion. They close their eyes towards reality, that is, the outside world, and only take their inside, their wishes, their feelings, their emotions into account. This might be suitable for a romance person, it is not suitable in today's science oriented society. I have also studied many religions and read a few of their scriptures. Currently, I am studying the Omotesenke tea ceremony, which contains elements of Zen buddhism. It is so peaceful and void of hatered most christian confessions direct towards non-conformative people (unbelievers, believers of other religions or denominations, gays, blacks, etc. pp.). Ok, just my two cents on your attempt to do an online-mission. I just want to mention that it is optimal to gather as much information as possible, therefore browsing the internet is indeed a good thing to do inspite of "Elder John"'s advice to stay away from it and only talk to "people who know about the LDS church", that is, missionaries trained to manipulate the feelings and free will of people who are unsure about direction in life. Greetings, The omotesenke-Zen-Novice
