"Actually, for all your questions, you will get far more complete and well-sourced answers on Wikipedia than any one person could answer.  That is my recommendation if you are looking for explanations of where these things came from. "

"  Just another Nephite in J. Smith's pantheon.  All the BoM prophets come across pretty much as self-righteous pricks - the 1st Nephi and his blathering on in 2nd Nephi being the worst.  Moroni struck me as the most tragic…"

"   OK, the idea is a little weird,, but for us in Massachusetts going to the DC temple, is was more a road trip and party than a weird religious rite.  And the doctrine makes sense inside of mormon theology.  It was really no big…"

"I went to BYU 1979-84.  While I was there I positively LOVED it.  It was a friendly, open, incredibly clean (physically) place for a believing LDS like me.  I made a lot of friends and liked (most) classes and opportunities I…"

"Wow.  About knocking on doors and being told, almost universally "no thanks" (some more emphatic than others), well, you come to expect it.  Training was so brief and unrealistic that it was of little use.  I never knew…"

"Went to Hill Cumorah pageant 2 times as a teenager in the early 1970s.  Crowded, lots of mosquitoes, lots of people handing out anti-mormon documents.  Pageant was dull, doctrinaire.  Highlight of course was jesus showing up at the…"

"I believe this doctine was in Doctrines of Salvation, which used to be in the paperback church history set, but I threw all this stuff out a long time ago. If any of you see Bill Marr's "Religulous" which is very funny in parts and…"

"What stories!! What got me out? Isn't it obvious? I was offended and there were too many commandments I could not keep! There really is only one article of faith or doctrine or creed in all of mormonism actually: Believe whatever the leaders…"