Religion- How has your religion or belief system shaped your self-perception or worldview?

This is such a touchy topic for me lately. I grew up being super involved in the church and I always loved the church. I did service work for my church in another country. I have held many responsibilities, tried to grow the church's membership, given my blood sweat and tears to the church. But since moving back to Virginia and having to go to a singles ward in Blackburg I have felt super disconnected to the church. I think a lot of it stems from not really liking the bishop there. I ended up going to our stake president and voicing that I felt lost and abandoned. He recommended that I start attending the family ward with my family on Sunday. For some reason this didnt really help. I still felt very unmotivated to go and didnt feel a connection. I felt broken and that I was losing my community. I realized how much of my life was intertwined in the church and that my identity had always been a member of the church. It was super hard for me to find who I really was. I think the pandemic was a blessing in disguise even though volunteering as an interpreter at my church for missionaries was the motivation for me starting community college this time spent stepping away from the church has led me to find inner happiness with myself. I think also since I was one of the most active members of the church in my family I always felt like the mouth piece or that I was held to this unattainable standard. I feel like I have always been a people pleaser because of it. But since stepping away I feel like I have found the confidence to have boundaries and to tell me straight forward that they should make the effort to communicate with my family or that I am not my parents secretary. I have learned that I dont need to be surrounded by a large ward to feel whole, that quality is better than quantity. I think most of all I have learned that I deserve forgivness and compassion as well. Forgiving myself has been one of the hardest things I have done and letting go of the past I feel stronger to face the future. I am sharing this picture of me visiting the temple that is under construction in Richmond in 2021. I was still inactive in the church at the time but still very excited to see the temple progress. I took my friends and they were fascinated with everything I knew but it was just information I learned growing up in the church. I think I am finding my place in the church and forming solid personal connections to my testimony.