Many of the Mormon I've met were pretty normal people on the surface. Shiny maybe, but not all holier than thou, or mysterious. I am in Florida though, so ours are pretty far from Utah.
I think most religion sounds worse, and stranger in the telling than the actual practice, and day to day life.
What they do isn't any weirder to me than praying to statues, taking sacrament, or rolling on the floor speaking gibberish.
The temple thing, meh, every religion needs goals to strive for, that's part of the reward system. The Catholics still make these guys look like amateurs when it comes to mysterious rituals.
I had this conception of Amish people that was way different than the reality was.
I have a question for one of the new LDS members.... it;s a history question, and maybe no answer.......
After Joseph Smith died, and Brigham Young took over..... how much did Young alter or change Church tenets over the course of the early years?
Does the Young family still have a lot of say in the Church? Thanks.