...really believe that the Garden of Eden was near Independence, Missouri?

It can get pretty cold there in the winter time especially without any clothes before the Fall.

Remember, the lands were all one continent until after the flood in the days of Peleg when the land was divided. Gen 10:25, D&C 133:24

So, the climate could have been more tropical.

"That makes perfect sense."

-- Elder Cunningham.

Wait! Are you saying that Mormons believe in climate change?

Nope, RAPID continental drift.

D&C 133: 23, 24 "He shall command the great deep, and it shall be driven back into the north countries, and the islands shall become one land;

And the land of Jerusalem and the land of Zion shall be turned back into their own place, and the earth shall be like as it was in the days before it was divided."

If he's under 40, probably not.

I believed it as a Mormon. Until last year when it all came crashing down, I'm 37 now.

And I know my 33 yr old wife still believes it.

I believed it, and I know all of my TBM family members believe it. You can't really deny it without questioning Joe's calling as a prophet.

I believed it as a Mormon as well. It's a basic Mormon belief.

I also believed in a literal global flood because I believed that the Earth had to be baptized.

really? wow.

I was so delusional, I guess. I sort of thought that the stuff that was fuzzy for me must have been fuzzy or questionable for others, too.

On the other hand, I can remember teaching it to my kids less than 10 years ago, so I did believe it then at least on some level.

It must be magical like the gold plates and Disneyland. You can only get in if you pay $150 per visit, or do mushrooms.

I recall that during the 2012 campaign, Russell Ballard was briefly interviewed on CNN by Anderson Cooper. Cooper asked Ballard if the Garden of Eden was really in Missouri.

Ballard's response: "That's what the doctrine says."

Cooper wasn't satisfied with that weak answer and so he pressed Ballard, repeating the question.

Ballard's response was identical: "That's what the doctrine says."

It struck me that Ballard, an apostle of the Lord and Defender of the Faith, couldn't or wouldn't give anything more than that. No positive declaration; not even an active affirmation of belief ("Yes, I believe that"), much less a testimony. To me at least, that was evidence that Ballard thinks the Eden-Missouri connection is BS.

The older the TBM a person is, the odds are likely yes. But I doubt that the youth believe it's possible(unless they've been really brainwashed that is).

TBMs, no matter what age, believe what they are told to be as truths of the gospel. JS said it was so and thus it is.