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I had the same way of thinking as you for a long time until I watched a documentary on a protestant pastor on netflix (the overnighters). pastor: "you are going to have to cut your hair, appearance is everything in this town" homeless man looking for a job: "why? Jesus had long hair" pastor: "Jesus didnt have our neighbors"

I am happy to report that after 5 months of Bishops meetings, and a stake president approval, I was approved for rebaptism, set for March 21st. This process has not been an easy one, but to all those seeking it, don't give up hope. There is a light around the corner to those who seek it. 2 Nephi 27:23 For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith.

@ The Folk Prophet: I agree that there is a progression and we cannot understand receiving the second comforter if we have not received the first. So once we have been baptized our first order of business is to receive the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. It will lift us from sadness and give purpose to our lives. Unfortunately even this first step in the spiritual realm is misunderstood. In general: The originator of this post (John Prather) is struggling with simply feeling the first comforter and what Christ has done for him. The truth is, there is nowhere we need to "go". We simply need to stop blocking our spirit from testifying the truth of what we have already been given. We need to recognize that Christ is at one with our spirit here and now and if we just "listen we will hear his voice in our hearts and it will stir our very souls.

I believe they get to keep it if they choose to. They can also choose to sell it to a new missionary coming out. They do the same with their bikes.

Notwithstanding my previous post, I do agree with this. I don't have $400 just sitting around waiting to be spent.

I'd be more sympathetic to your supposition that the Church should eat the cost for these iPads if the iPads weren't being regarded as the missionaries' personal property, to be taken home at the end of their missions. I would note in passing that just because missionaries didn't use something ten, or fifty, or a hundred years ago; doesn't mean the thing has no utility or application to missionary work in the present I'm sorry you were caught off-guard by this; the announcement was out sometime ago. My suggestion would be to ask your missionary if he feels it's truly an effective tool. If it is--pay it. If he says it's just an expensive toy--don't; and instruct your missionary to leave it at the mission office or turn it over to your home-ward bishop at the end of his mission. .

My son has sent some amazing emails home while on his mission in Italy. Thought I would share one which is his final one: Ciao tutti per l'ultima volta! Wow. Just wow. 2 years have come and gone so quickly. It's incredibile. I want to keep this brief but sincere. First of all though, Marco Morcioni was baptized on Saturday night and confirmed the following morning. He asked me to confirm him and I did. The Spirit was so powerful. Marco stood up and everyone could see that he was a completely different person. He hugged one of the brothers who stood in the circle and came away crying. He's so sensitive to the Spirit that it's incredibile. One of God's children has just started his journey on the straight and narrow path that leads to salvation and I was able to be a part of it. I love being a missionary. More than anything else. This work, these experiences, the lifestyle of living the gospel to the very highest has shaped and even created pathways in God's plan for me. I am so grateful for that. I love this mission. I love every single aspect of it. It pains me to think that Friday night I'm going to have to remove the nametag and be released from having that unique power and authority that only full time missionaries can have. It saddens me. I'm not worried about the future though. God has promised to always light the way before us. I put all of my trust and faith in Him and I know He's going to lead the events of my life. I am very tired. I've given everything I possibly could to the Lord. I've given Him my whole heart and done every single little thing I could and He has blessed me more than I can possibly imagine. I have fought the good fight. Atleast this one. I imagine there will be many more ahead, but I'm much more prepared now. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and this mission have changed my life. But more importantly than any of that, they have changed my eternity. I believe that we are all born with a natural hole in our heart that can only be filled by the Gospel. Nothing else fills it perfectly. The Gospel of Jesus Christ - His love, His example, His teachings, His perfect and infinite atonement - is what brings us salvation and the promise of eternal life. I love Him. And I am forever grateful for Him. The atonement is real. I've seen it in the lives of others and in my own life. I love this gospel. I love the Lord and I love my Savior who will always lift me up when I fall. No matter what. "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot." My invite is the same as that. Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him. He's doing that with me and I know and bear my testimony that He can do that and will with anyone and everyone who will simply come unto Him. Vi voglio un mondo di bene. Non vedo l'ora di vedervi. Sono davvero contento per questa missione e per tutte le benedizioni che ricevo dal mio Padre nei cieli. "Sì, io so che non sono nulla; quanto alla mia forza, sono debole; dunque non mi vanterò di me stesso, ma mi vanterò del mio Dio, poiché nella sua forza io posso fare ogni cosa; sì, ecco, ho operato in questo paese molti grandi miracoli, per i quali loderò il suo nome per sempre" Alma 26:12 Ci vediamo fra poco :) "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him..." Moroni 10:32Anziano Matthew Gainer#HastenTheWork

I mailed my resignation letter to Church Headquarters the first month of January 2015. I requested not to be contacted by the bishop and was not. I received an official confirmation letter in early February. If you are concerned about someone walking over to your front door, you can also leave a post-it note stating that you don't want any further contact from church members, and I'm sure you'll be left alone.

Would you like to rephrase that in a form other than a loaded question?

I think what he's getting at is, if I buy an expensive item while I'm traveling abroad and try to bring it home with me, I have to declare it and I may have to pay an import duty on the item when I'm going through Customs.

When your hands get greasy, would you rather wash them or just wipe them off with a paper towel?

Indeed obedience is important but I think you may be misunderstanding the way to progress in the gospel. If the work of obedience was enough the strict Jews would have received an audience with Christ long ago. But this is not the way. Rather, the person who exercises faith, humbles them self before the Lord, and asks for strength will receive the spirit. With the spirit he will gain power and the ability to obey the commandments. This is the message of the gospel. This is what the Savior has done for us. He has allowed us access to the spirit because we desire it and plead for it, not because we deserve it. If we could do something to earn it we would not need him.

Really? You can't even imagine why he would care? I bet if you gave it some thought you could imagine a little why he cares. M.

by Hughe Nibley. Awesome stuff. Covers a ton of history and how it relates to the gospel.

"I wish I had been able to write such a letter when I was about to return from my mission in Italy. Many congratulations, bytor and Elder Gainer!"

I was speaking generally, skalenfehl, and not directly in answer to any particular post of yours.

For a mission, I think buying preowned is a great idea, and maybe even an older gen, which should also cut down on price.

For the people asking "why apple" and not tablets from much cheaper manufacturers, I don't have any inside knowledge, but my guess is for support related reasons. Historically the church has always developed it's apps for Apple devices first, before focusing on other platforms such as Android or Windows. The missionaries are likely going to be some of the first users of these apps, so it makes sense for them to have the platform the apps are initially developed for.

True; but I don't see any reason why one couldn't get a used iPad on eBay and bring it into the field with them.

My question for you skalenfehl, is -- what you are implying needs to be done to seek the Second Comforter? There seems to be an implication that whatever that is either isn't being done, in which case, what needs to be done needs to be specified, or else the point is moderately meaningless -- like saying in response to a post such as John Prathers, "What you need to be doing is seeking for the Celestial Kingdom." Well...duh. But how? The Second Comforter talk as a recommendation falls flat because it is not a how. Moreover, it's a bit of horse-before-the-cart talk. Don't you think that we ought to be seeking the First Comforter first? Wouldn't seeking the comfort, assurance, and guidance of the Holy Ghost be the first order of business. And to that...is not the means of qualifying for the Second Comforter THE EXACT SAME METHOD as seeking for the first? And can one know Jesus the Christ without having it revealed to him/her through the Holy Ghost. I think not. Is not the Second Comforter more of a promise for faithfulness than a directive? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Can't believe it's been two years. I love missionary work. I love how it strengthens our young men and women and changes the lives of their investigators forever.

As a missionary I was personally responsible for buying a bike and a tape recorder, and at that time, we even had to purchase the Books of Mormon we gave out to investigators. I don't see a lot of difference in having the missionary buying their own iPad.

I always think about Abinidi when this subject of judgement is being discussed. Abinidi warns the citizens of the city Nephi-Lehi that their current state of wickedness has earned them the displeasure of God and that negative consequences will result if they don't repent and turn back to God. The first time he tells the people this they react with anger and take offense. When the king (Noah) gets word of what Abinidi was saying he reacts this way: Mosiah 11:27 27 Now when king Noah had heard of the words which Abinadi had spoken unto the people, he was also wroth; and he said: Who is Abinadi, that I and my people should be judged of him, or who is the Lord, that shall bring upon my people such great affliction? Or in other words: What gives him the right to be so judgmental? 2 years later Abinidi returns to try again. (employing a disguise to get into the city since these people want to kill him after the first attempt. Of course the first words recorded are him announcing he's Abinidi so... not a man of stealth.) He delivers the same message as before except much more urgently. The people in response arrest Abinidi and take him to King Noah. The ordinary, everyday, people are doing this. In fact if it weren't for these people or Noah's priests Abinidi probably wouldn't have been martyred, as is what happened. But the people again say an interesting thing when protesting Abinidi before King Noah. Mosiah 12:13-14 13 And now, O king, what great evil hast thou done, or what great sins have thy people committed, that we should be condemned of God or judged of this man? 14 And now, O king, behold, we are guiltless, and thou, O king, hast not sinned; therefore, this man has lied concerning you, and he has prophesied in vain. Again, Abinidi is being judgmental of us. He doesn't really know us. We're good people. Well was Abinidi being judgmental in calling out the wicked behaviour of this King and the citizens of the city? As an LDS person I would say no because I believe Abinidi to be a prophet who was commanded by the God who loves these people to call them to repentance. Someone else might agree with the opinion of the people and say Abinidi had no right to call them to repentance. "People are allowed to believe whatever they like and Abinidi has no business to tell them what's right or wrong.", some might argue. That's how it goes today and that's apparently nothing new. Seems to me the difference between a person being judgmental or not can very much be in the perspective of the recipient. In the case of Abinidi the people were so offended that they burned him alive. Between King Noah and Abinidi it was Abinidi who was on the people's side and had their best interests in mind, and they killed him for it.

Actually I have a friend in the missionary department at Church headquarters. I'm going to send him a message with some questions. :)

The reason the church issues standardized mission iPads is to encourage responsible mission behavior. The come pre-installed with a digital Missionary Daily Planner and the Area Book (which replaces the traditional printed). They also have The Gospel Library app includes scriptures, manuals, magazines and other teaching resources. Missionaries use them to plan their day, keep the schedule, contact people (including via Facebook, cause that's how people communicate nowadays). They also use them to teach lessons, either my playing church videos, or as a visual aide (replacing the old-school flip chart). Yes, there is a risk that some missionaries will goof off with the iPads. No one denies this. But, as the article Pam posted states, the church is trying to encourage missionaries (and young people in general) to develop good digital habits. This is one venue for them to do that. And personally, I'm of the opinion that the missionaries who are going to goof-off with the ipad would probably be the same missionaries goofing off if iPads didn't exist.

I understand your frustration at this, and in a perfect world they should have emailed you about this before hand. This change was announced several months ago, but doesn't effect all missionaries (like my sister in the Amazon). A little about the iPad--- Your son, as a missionary, bought the iPad. Meaning it is HIS: he gets to keep it and bring it home when he's done. It is HIS. A mission car if not his, and obviously stays in the area. Same with the phone (which keeps things consistent for investigators). What the ipad is used for: building the kingdom of God in a very direct way. Missionaries need to reach people, and the way people connect nowadays is through digital means. Frankly, people just don't talk door-to-door now. i'm sure you're seen this in your own life: how often do you talk to the people across the street, versus the people on Facebook? Having a computer is necessary thing in today's 1st world countries. Side note: the mall is totally a different thing. It was not bought with tithing/missionary/fast funds, and no tithing/missionary/fast funds are derived from it. But that's a different conversation.

This was announced a few months ago that this would be happening. It's not new news. Those monies used for the mall did not come from tithing or missionary funds. It's a new era. It's the age of technology. They are using what technology would be more effective. They also get to take them home at the end of their mission. http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-expands-use-of-digital-devices-for-missionary-work

It's defined in the Book of Mormon as using religion to "get gain". I really can't think of any examples off hand...................;-)

I'm just trying to understand what is "judgmental" about Mormons "get[ting] up and tell[ing] each other just how blessed we are to have the truth unlike everybody else (we have a living prophet, restored gospel, etc)." I mean, isn't all that stuff true? And aren't we blessed to have it?

If I were you, I would explain to my teacher that I neither use nor wish to hear (or read) such vulgar language, and ask for an assignment for a book that does not feature crude language or sexual activity. If s/he asks why, you might explain that you consider both language and sex to be sacred gifts from God and that their misuse is offensive.

Sons of God = covenant people, Sons of man = everyone else. God makes covenants with people, and, at least in some cases, has followed lineage (Abraham through the tribes of Isael). So that's my interpretation. And as for Lamenites, I believe Lamen and Lemuel also married outside their covenant with the natives of America (who may have been darker skinned), causing their covenant to be broken, and their children's skin color being a sign of that broken covenant. But, as was said, skin color doesn't mean rightiousness, or even exclusion from covnent blessings. It's important to note that the early church specifically invited Lamanites (Native Americans and Pacific Islanders) into the chuch because they were of the lineage of Lehi, even though they had darker skin.