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Yet the US has done so for many years. Some of these negotiations are documented, reputably sourced and publicly available. Others will have taken place behind closed doors. So there is nothing new about these negotiations with terrorists. The phrase "we never negotiate with terrorists" hasn't applied in practice for a long time, it's just repeated by the general public in circumstances like this. I haven't really followed the story in anger, so don't know much about it. But personally, I think there is more to it than is being officially stated. I suspect that this exchange relates to the anticipated closure of guantanamo bay, and partially answers the question of what to do with all the prisoners held there.

Well I've been to the temple and it was amazing! Here's what I put in my blog: If that wasn't enough of a spiritual high, on Saturday I attended the Temple for the first time. A group from my ward took a coach to the Preston England Temple where I was able to do some temple work for some of my own family from my family history work. We arrived at the Temple in the rain but that didn't dampen my spirit, after a look around the distribution centre those who were to be doing baptisms and confirmations for our departed relatives gathered together and were led by our bishop up to the Temple itself. We walked through the immaculately kept gardens and then the Temple was finally in full view. What a beautiful building this house of the Lord is! Though it took three hours to get there it now didn't seem that long to finally be able to enter the holy ground of the Temple! We gathered together and after some final instructions we were taken into the Temple itself. I immediately felt that tingling feeling wash over me as I entered into one of Heavenly Fathers sacred places. It was almost over whelming the feeling of the presence of the Lord. The building is furnished to such a high standard, with paintings of scenes from many scriptural sources depicted. We were taken through the Temple to the baptistery and then given our white baptismal clothing to change into. We then had a brief talk and sang a hymn and a prayer before we were seated before the most exquisite baptistery I had ever seen. It was a lot bigger than I had envisaged and all decked out in the most marvellous marble. The twelve oxen which stood below the baptistery were awesome in their beauty, it was a truly marvellous place to come to do the work of the Lord on behalf of our dearly departed relatives. We left after completing our sacred ordinances and gathered together on the coach for a final word of prayer before returning home. It had been a most uplifting and humbling experience, even though we had risen very early and would be returning home late I didn't feel the slightest bit tired. I was how ever filled peace and joy at having had such an amazing encounter with the living God!

I'd (respectfully and privately) suggest to the bishop, and possibly the ward mission leader as well, that--legal niceties aside--the Church's good name is all over this one. Missionary efforts and public goodwill in your area will, to a large degree, depend on what the ward does now to make this right with the people whose property was damaged. Would it really kill the ward to do a bake sale, or send some elders over to do some grunt work, or . . . something? People can weasel out of their role in the garden, but whatever happened to "bearing one another's burdens" and all that? And if leadership won't act--that certainly doesn't prevent you from trying to scrape something together. :)

Your Ward has permission to use the land, they then should replace what one of their members burned. Comes out of the Ward budget.

People have a moral obligation. I guess people tend to forget that part when accountability is in play.

I see an Eagle Scout project in the works here.

Can't someone take up a collection or something? As a user of the garden, even if I couldn't pay all, I would at least try to come up with something.

I think that there are only a handful of people in the world who have adequate information to make judgements on this topic, and I think that's mostly okay. In the meantime, I'm not one of them, and I'm just glad that the Bergdahl family can have some peace and closure to this period in their lives. If he stands court marshal, fine. But his family knows that he's alive and again on American soil (well, soon to be, I think). I can't help but be happy for them for that.

My advice: Move, not just to a different place but a different location, different city, different state, etc. 3 bed apt. for 1900 means you either live in DC, NY, SF, LA or one of those extremely high cost of living places. I have a house I'm about to sell (4/3) and the most I could get for rent is 1200 in a decent area. Plenty of really good places to live exist in the US with decent jobs. The rule of thumb for buying a house used to be 20% down + 6 months living expenses. In general, if you don't have that one should not buy a house. 10k in savings is not much when you've got a house. New HVAC 6k+, roof 6k+, plan at least 100 a month in maintenance. Make sure you are truly comparing apples to apples. With a house, you have insurance, taxes, mortgage insurance (if you don't have 20% down). In general having a 30 year mortgage is a fool's game, the same with rent. The average time to move is 7 years. 7 years into a 30 year mortgage one has paid very little into the actual principle, in addition if housing prices go down one can be stuck in an area for a long period of time with a mortgage. The only way a 30 year mortgage works is through the magic of inflation and moreso wage inflation to be specific. But it requires a lot of assumptions. Assumption 1) Wages will increase making the payments less painful, 2) Work 30 years without a substantial job layoff or major life crippling event 3) stable location. In today's society those are a lot of assumptions. I own 2 homes, 1 completely paid for 1 half paid for (about to sell) so I certainly believe buying a house is the way to go, but it requires the right circumstances to do so. Buy the cheapest house you can possibly live in and pay that sucker off, 15 year, double payments, etc. You will be amazed at how fast you can accumulate wealth when you have a house 100% paid for. I thank HF everyday that for whatever reason I had the foresight and inspiration to not mortgage up. If I had mortgaged up, today I would be in a very desperate situation, even more than I already am. You never know what kind of a screwball, life will throw at you and the best way to deal with it is to be as prepared as possible. Good luck, I used to live in an extremely high cost of living area; I can definitely understand some of the pain. I knew my income level could never get to the level of comfortably affording what I hoped for. My ultimate solution was to move.

Deseret News published an excellent article today on the Race and the Priesthood essay released a few months ago by the church. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865604750/LDS-blacks-scholars-cheer-churchs-essay-on-priesthood.html I have liked these essays, and appreciate this publicity given by Deseret News. I am often amazed at who doesn't know about these essays and how many don't know about them. I think they're important for us to know about, particularly because they take so much wind out of the sails of the antis.

I agree with everyone else. Someone needs to take up a collection, or find a away yo pay it back. It looks bad when we teach accountabliity and we are not being accountable!

I think it needs to be clearly understood what is and what is not "the endowment". The endowment itself is not everything said and spoken in the endowment room. There are specific bits that are the actual ordinance. Those are the parts that I question having once been different. The rest...as you say, is only presentation.

It is. That's what the Tribune tells me anyway.

But wait! I thought the Deseret News was God's newspaper!

P.S. I wouldn't say I'm doing this blindly. We've been in this apartment for 12 years and repeatedly made the decision not to buy. Then the housing crisis happened, so we were glad we didn't.

Exactly. If the Lord tells you to jump off a cliff you jump. Otherwise, it's a pretty stupid thing to do. Walking around with an, "I have faith so I can walk into busy traffic without looking" attitude is a pretty severe misunderstanding. As it applies to the OP, the cost of living is increasing. My suggestion for an application of faith is to look for legitimate means to increase income. Make wise choices in those regards and then dig-in, sacrifice, and go to work to do so with faith that the Lord will assist.

No stealth edits. Just a misread.

Unless he did a stealth edit, he said potentially correct, not politically correct.

Leap of Faith means... That the Lord has told you to do something and you don't know how its all going to work out but you do it anyways.. Leap of Faith does not mean you leap and then while you are in the air you tell the Lord you expect him to catch you and protect you from your foolishness. So Morningstar the question is what has the Lord told you to do?

I don't know where you are or how far and wide you're willing to travel, but I understand that Texas has great real estate in comparison to other states. You get a lot of house/property for your buck. Maybe look into that.

Sounds like your income is not in line with your needs. That being said, you might consider moving someplace where the cost of housing is cheaper.

Taking a leap of faith doesn't mean to do it blindly either. I don't think it means that going into an apartment or a house that is far above your means entails that money will magically appear because you took a leap of faith.

Yeah, one of the most cogent comments I've seen was over on Althouse, where a commenter said "He may be an [epithet], but he's our [epithet]". In general, I'm glad we have him back--even if we're just going to have him spend his golden years up at Leavenworth. But frankly, I don't think it was worth the cost.

I don't remember a formal letter, but I haven't paid attention to such things in several years now. While it is technically correct to call a man "Bishop" if he been ordained to that office, it isn't necessary. For example, we don't call all of the members of the Elders' Quorum "Elder [name]." We reserve the title "Elder" for those serving is particular callings. Likewise, the typical preference is to refer to the person currently acting as bishop as "Bishop [name]" and the former bishops as "Brother [name]." Strictly speaking, it is inappropriate to refer to a former stake president as "President [name]" as president is not an office in the priesthood. Realistically, people develop such strong bonds and emotional affiliations with the bishops and stake presidents that it is common to refer to them as Bishop and President even after the release. In most cases (at least among adults) this fades and they gradually return to Brother in the course of a few years. And that's fine.

Sometimes it's not about the number of people you have in a bedroom it's the gender of those people in the bedroom. Perhaps it's a cultural difference between the states and the Philippines but most people I know have a problem with the two genders sharing bedrooms as they get older. Or maybe it's just me. When my kids were getting closer and closer to becoming teenagers, I realized that having the 3 of them in the same bedroom just wasn't going to work. My daughter needed privacy as well as my 2 boys when it came to dressing etc. While I really couldn't afford moving into a 3 bedroom as a single mom, I did it anyway to allow the privacy I felt was needed.

The apartment may cost more than a house payment, but a house usually costs more when it comes to utilities. And as anatess mentioned, you have the cost of repairs that you don't have when renting an apartment. So in the long run you could be coming out even.

I wonder if I am going back to Nauvoo soon......:)

To be fair...and perhaps this is a shameful confession...but were I put on the spot to recall what the duties of a teacher was, I'm not sure I'd come up with more than "prepare the sacrament" without looking it up myself.

Little children who die before the age of accountability will receive the highest reward. They will be exalted in the Celestial Kingdom. Bruce R. McConkie had this to say about the salvation of little children (The entire talk is in the Apr. 1977 Ensign https://www.lds.org/ensign/1977/04/the-salvation-of-little-children?lang=eng): Are all little children saved automatically in the celestial kingdom? To this question the answer is a thunderous yes, which echoes and re-echoes from one end of heaven to the other. Jesus taught it to his disciples. Mormon said it over and over again. Many of the prophets have spoken about it, and it is implicit in the whole plan of salvation. If it were not so the redemption would not be infinite in its application. And so, as we would expect, Joseph Smith’s Vision of the Celestial Kingdom contains this statement: “And I also beheld that all children who die before they arrive at the years of accountability are saved in the celestial kingdom of heaven.” (D&C 137:10) It is sometimes asked if this applies to children of all races, and of course the answer is that when the revelation says all children it means all children. There is no restriction as to race, kindred, or tongue. Little children are little children and they are all alive in Christ, and all are saved by him, through and because of the atonement. Speaking of the Prophet’s statement that all children are saved in the celestial kingdom, President Joseph Fielding Smith said: “This would mean the children of every race. All the spirits that come to this world come from the presence of God and, therefore, must have been in his kingdom. … Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and all who rebelled were cast out; therefore, all who remained are entitled to the blessings of the gospel.” (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:55.) How and why are they saved? They are saved through the atonement and because they are free from sin. They come from God in purity; no sin or taint attaches to them in this life; and they return in purity to their Maker. Accountable persons must become pure through repentance and baptism and obedience. Those who are not accountable for sins never fall spiritually and need not be redeemed from a spiritual fall which they never experienced. Hence the expression that little children are alive in Christ. “Little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten,” the Lord says. (D&C 29:46.) Will they have eternal life? Eternal life is life in the highest heaven of the celestial world; it is exaltation; it is the name of the kind of life God lives. It consists of a continuation of the family unit in eternity. We have quoted scriptures saying that children will be saved in the celestial kingdom, but now face the further query as to whether this includes the greatest of all the gifts of God—the gift of eternal life. And in the providences of Him who is infinitely wise, the answer is in the affirmative. Salvation means eternal life; the two terms are synonymous; they mean exactly the same thing. Joseph Smith said, “Salvation consists in the glory, authority, majesty, power and dominion which Jehovah possesses and in nothing else.” (Lectures on Faith, pp. 63–67.) We have come to speak of this salvation as exaltation—which it is—but all of the scriptures in all of the standard works call it salvation. I know of only three passages in all our scriptures which use salvation to mean something other and less than exaltation.

To the first question, no, clearly not. //I think of it more like something I would here from a motivational speaker. When you are feeling despondent because you are not good enough, because you continue to make mistakes, don't let your past sin define who you are. Don't let recurring sin define who you are. When sin happens, pick yourself up and turn back to God.// I like that. //...and to remember that he can and will save us from our sins.// And has.

You are preaching to the choir here Anatess.

Perhaps my thoughts on "Eternal Progression" (gained primarily through experiences and making choices... why we chose and kept our First Estate) is flawed? D&C 132:19-20 While this scripture is primarily describing entering into the Everlasting Covenant of Marriage, it does describe what it means to "be gods". It is simply stating that "they have no end". D&C 130:18-19 It doesn't say anything about knowledge being a pre-requisite to becoming more like our Father in Heaven. Abraham 3:24-25 It says "if they will do"... not determine how much you need to "know". D&C 130:20-21 It would appear that obedience 'trumps' knowledge obtained. So, we need to not "over-complicate" the plan of salvation. That we need to humble ourselves as little children, and follow and do what we have been commanded by revelation to do. I like that Anddenex referenced the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Were the workers who were hired to labor... did they all perform their labors - despite the length of time? I believe the parable states that they all did. So I got to learn something out of this - that it isn't necessarily about following the commandments AND knowledge, but in simply following the commandments and humbling ourselves to be as little children, even as Christ submits to the Father.

One of the terrorists that was released - there is a picture going around where he is posing with five heads that he cut off himself. Just awful. These weren't just any prisoners. They are the worst! It seems pretty evident that Bergdahl did desert his post based on the fact that he mailed his things home a week before and the email conversation where he expressed his disgust with America and his dad told him to follow his conscience. I think he is possibly mental ill or extremely naive, thinking he could approach the Taliban as their buddy. It's amazing they didn't behead him a long time ago based on what has happened to so many other people, but then he turned out to be very useful to them. Still, that's not the big issue to me. The big issue is that we negotiated with terrorists, which shouldn't happen.

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Hello and thank you for sharing with us. I do hope that you will be up and well soon. You seem to be a very strong member, don't ever forget that the Lord loves you and your family soooo very much. And He is proud of all that you do, and who you are. He see's you holding on and doing the best you can under this situation that you are in. It is great to see your ward supporting you as well as you supporting them. Keep smiling Keep shining know that you can always count on Him for sure, that's what He is for. Why can't I paste a pic of Jesus Christ on here???

To be honest I find it interesting that you teach a youth Sunday School class and find that your students do not seem to know the answers. If I was a betting person - I would bet you that if you asked the same question this next week - even though you just went over all the information the previous week - you would get much the same answers you got the first time. Rather than explain why this is; I would point you to the whole purpose of the Follow Me direction recently adopted in teaching the youth. In essence the objective is not to disperse information (which has been the objective in teaching for millennia)? But to train and encourage youth to study on their own. Your asking question is a good way of teaching and the way we have encouraged teachers to lead class discussions -- but misses the new objective which is to teach youth to ask the questions and seek out their own answers in order to gain or strengthen testimonies and change behaviors and lives. As the SS president in our ward I have struggled with this new method and our teachers for a year and a half now. Not that the teachers are not among the best in the church - just that changing the culture is more difficult than I ever thought. If you figure this out - please let me know. If you have not figured this out yet -- don't feel bad and please do not give up. You are the vanguard for perhaps the greatest effort in the restoration - I am convinced that your concern and efforts are as needed now as any have been in the history of man. We are preparing a generation for something that few generations before have ever faced.

You've turned a blind eye to it. He does, actually. Constantly.

I've been a member for 50+ years and I've never seen anything that even remotely comes close to this and I grew up in a military family as well and moved around. And was married to a retired military person. I've been in numerous leadership positions in the church and our opinions were taken seriously.

I take my daughters to the library regularly!

Trips to the library. It's all e-readers now.

But does the forum have a limit is the question. :)

My children will never know the joy of climbing freely around the car, over seat, under sister/brother, whilst mom and dad cruise it down the freeway joyously seat-belt free. Okay...cynicism a bit there. I do think the car-seat thing has gone a bit far though now-a-days. I do support car-seats and seatbelts, however. :)

Spending all day outside exploring without adult supervision. We were sent out to play and we came home for lunch and dinner. We had fun. We never thought of danger. I feel so bad for kids now. It's all structured activities or video games. Spontaneous play and exploration seem to be a thing of the past.