How did you have the energy? I poured so much into understanding Mormonism that I just don't know how to learn a new belief system. I feel like I used up all my energy. At what point did you just give up? If you didn't, what kept you going?

One of the reasons I left Mormonism had to do with burn out. After six years of mission preparation, mission, and BYU, I just didn't seem to be getting anywhere. My testimony wasn't growing and I felt increasingly out of place in the LDS Church.

Eventually, I resigned and pretty much took a break from religion.

For one thing, I started to get bored on Sundays--watching NFL all day was not fulfilling. Oddly, I missed singing and wanted to meet some people.

The other thing was that I affiliated with a church, which while Christian offered a great deal of flexibility in how your faith and belief can evolve. So, I didn't have to feel nailed down to very specific sets of beliefs on every topic. This way I was felt free to ponder the beauty of the liturgy, music and company of others without feeling like I had to adopt a literalistic belief in everything said, because everyone else probably had some doubts, questions, or disbelief about some aspects of things said in church.

I my view, there is a danger for us in leaving Mormonism to go latch on to some other organization that claims to have all the answers or seems to be everything Mormonism was supposed to be. That just sets us up for disappointment when we discover the people in the organization are human and make mistakes too, or the organization is an organization with cult-like characteristics just like the one we left. It's okay to take our time and think about the extent to which faith and spirituality is important to us and the role it should have in our lives before committing to anything. And no decisions are final.