Reasons I am a member

My Bishop asked a very simple and profound question to me a week ago and these are my thoughts regarding the question. As a preface some of these answers may seem generic and cliche but they are things that I have really pondered and that I deeply believe.

The question is: Why are you a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

• Because the lord has blessed me with so many intimate moments of love and the feeling of his  spirit. It is in these moments when i feel the spiritual connection to the eternal and know that God knows and loves me.

• Because I have been given a testimony and know through the spirit of the things I must do, and those things are pertaining to this church.

• Because I want to live with my family for all eternity.

• Because I fear God.

• Because I love God and Christ.

• Because I was raised in the church and it is my culture.

• Because it brings me peace when I need it.

• Because I need the ordinances.

• Because I want to go to the celestial kingdom.

• Because I want to live forever with my future wife.

• Because my savior has suffered, died, and rose from the dead so that salvation can come to me. With the restoration of the gospel I know that the atonement is fully offered to me through the ordinances of baptism and the sacrament. I cannot be perfect, so through the atonement, I have a weekly cleansing which is the vehicle of my exaltation.

• Because I have had a profound spiritual experience and now know through the spirit that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration. 

• Because I have had a profound spiritual experience and know that there is a living prophet today.

• Because it's true.

• Because I feel the love and bond between church members.

• Because I am a sinner.

• Because I choose Christ once before in the pre-existence and I have a testimony of that.

• Because I have been baptized and have made a covenant and promise to God to obey His commandments.

• Because I've been given the priesthood and have made a promise to God to honor it and use it.

• Because I have made covenants and promises to God in the temple and I must strive to keep them.