Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Hello, friends. I'm Elder Reel, and welcome to Discussion #5.
So far, we've talked about God's plan for humanity, the Restoration through Joseph Smith, what membership actually involves, and some of the complicated parts of our Church history. But before anyone considers baptism, I believe there's another important question we should address:
What does it actually mean to follow a living prophet?
Latter-day Saints believe that God continues to guide His Church through prophets and apostles. In this discussion, we'll talk openly about prophetic authority, what it means to sustain Church leaders, personal revelation, and what happens when our own conscience or understanding seems to conflict with what Church leaders are teaching.
We'll also acknowledge something important: prophets are not infallible. Throughout our history, Church leaders have changed policies, corrected previous teachings, disagreed with one another, and sometimes gotten things wrong. Faithful Latter-day Saints understand that tension between divine inspiration and human fallibility in different ways.
As missionaries, we naturally hope you'll come to trust the leaders of the restored Church. But we also believe you deserve to understand how much influence those leaders may have in your life—and to think carefully about the relationship between prophetic counsel, personal revelation, evidence, reason, and your own moral conscience.
That's what informed consent means.
We're not asking you to surrender your judgment in order to join the Church. We're inviting you to understand how authority works within our faith and decide whether that relationship is one you can enter into honestly and freely.
If you haven't watched Discussions #1–4, I encourage you to begin there, because each discussion builds upon the previous ones.
Thank you for joining me. Let's begin.
DISCLAIMER: The LDS Missionary Discussions: If the Church Was Honest is an independent educational project and is not affiliated with, produced by, sponsored by, or endorsed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Elder Reel" is a fictional missionary character used to explore what LDS missionary discussions might look like if they emphasized informed consent, transparency, and a fuller presentation of LDS beliefs, history, expectations, and commitments before baptism.
Hello, friends. I'm Elder Reel, and welcome to Discussion #5.
So far, we've talked about God's plan for humanity, the Restoration through Joseph Smith, what membership actually involves, and some of the complicated parts of our Church history. But before anyone considers baptism, I believe there's another important question we should address:
What does it actually mean to follow a living prophet?
Latter-day Saints believe that God continues to guide His Church through prophets and apostles. In this discussion, we'll talk openly about prophetic authority, what it means to sustain Church leaders, personal revelation, and what happens when our own conscience or understanding seems to conflict with what Church leaders are teaching.
We'll also acknowledge something important: prophets are not infallible. Throughout our history, Church leaders have changed policies, corrected previous teachings, disagreed with one another, and sometimes gotten things wrong. Faithful Latter-day Saints understand that tension between divine inspiration and human fallibility in different ways.
As missionaries, we naturally hope you'll come to trust the leaders of the restored Church. But we also believe you deserve to understand how much influence those leaders may have in your life—and to think carefully about the relationship between prophetic counsel, personal revelation, evidence, reason, and your own moral conscience.
That's what informed consent means.
We're not asking you to surrender your judgment in order to join the Church. We're inviting you to understand how authority works within our faith and decide whether that relationship is one you can enter into honestly and freely.
If you haven't watched Discussions #1–4, I encourage you to begin there, because each discussion builds upon the previous ones.
Thank you for joining me. Let's begin.
DISCLAIMER: The LDS Missionary Discussions: If the Church Was Honest is an independent educational project and is not affiliated with, produced by, sponsored by, or endorsed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Elder Reel" is a fictional missionary character used to explore what LDS missionary discussions might look like if they emphasized informed consent, transparency, and a fuller presentation of LDS beliefs, history, expectations, and commitments before baptism.
