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I believe that class is called Gossip Essentials. - still no groan button, huh?

*Shrug* I've never personally come across a court case where someone whose caffeine use intoxicated them to the point where they caused a car crash, got in a physical altercation with a random bystander, and/or abused a family member. Convince me that caffeine intoxication is anywhere near as prevalent as alcohol intoxication, and I may change my mind. Speaking for myself: No, because IMHO it creates negative externalities for me and my neighbors. I just don't see allowing a houseguest to drink tea or coffee under my roof violates my religious beliefs, any more than their refusing to tithe their current bank account balance to the LDS Church while under my roof constitute a violation of my religious beliefs. Their decision isn't hurting me or my household, or involving a product that significantly damages the fabric of the society in which I live, or even (in my theological opinion) objectively "sinning" per se. They're just declining to live certain standards that the Lord primarily imposed as an outward symbol of an inward covenant--a covenant that the guest hasn't made. If you feel differently--your house, your rules. :). But as for me and my house--that's how we look at it.

I can't believe I was missed! Yeah... I was... not well mentally. It was pretty evident at times I had a... I donno I'd just snap. I was in my own little world, I'd go on about things and it didn't do well for anyone. I needed to step back, (move across the province) and really get my life under control, as it was just...so unhappy. But I'm all better now, finally gotten things under control, so felt I ought to come back and contribute a little again. I went to one of the meetinghouses here and its too big, and still with this 9:30 am stuff! lol I'd go every Sunday if it was, like at 11:30 lol

Have you talked to your Young Women's leader about this? What happened to you was not your fault. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Hugs!

You know there's a height requirement for that job, right? But hey, if you're called, I'll get you a pair of these:

Who is going to build the temple? Joseph Fielding Smith: "Neither will the Lord call upon those who are cut off from his people to accomplish his holy work. The temple will not be built by those who say that Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet, and who have failed to accept the fullness of the word of the Lord as it came through him. No people will be commanded and directed by revelation from the Lord to build his temple, when they know nothing of temple building and the ordinances performed in temples. The Latter-day Saints may be assured that when the time comes for the building of the house of the Lord, he will call upon his people who have remained true and have been faithful in the purposes of the Lord in bringing to pass the salvation of the living and of the dead. We may be doubly sure that the Lord did not send Elijah the prophet with the keys of the sealing ordinances which are performed, in the temple, so that the earth will not be smitten with a curse when the Redeemer shall come, and then call into favor a people who rejected the coming of Elijah and all the authority and keys he was sent to bestow, and ask them to build the temple of the Lord." and Bruce R. McConkie - "By what power and under whose authorization shall the work be done? There is only one place under the whole heavens where the keys of temple building are found. There is only one people who know how to build temples and what to do in them when they are completed. That people is the Latter-day Saints. The temple in Jerusalem will not be built by Jews who have assembled there for political purposes as at present. It will not be built by a people who know nothing whatever about the sealing ordinances and their application to the living and the dead. It will not be built by those who know nothing about Christ and his laws and the mysteries reserved for the saints. But it will be built by Jews who have come unto Christ, who once again are in the true fold of their ancient Shepherd, and who have learned anew about temples because they know that Elijah did come, not to sit in a vacant chair at some Jewish feast of the Passover, but to the Kirkland Temple on April 3, 1836, to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. The temple in Jerusalem will be built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “They that are far off,” [Zech. 6:12-15.] they that come from an American Zion, they who have a temple in Salt Lake City will come to Jerusalem to build there another holy house in the Jerusalem portion of “the mountains of the Lord’s house." He also said: "A house of the Lord—the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah of the Jews—shall rise again in Jerusalem, . . . because the remnants of Judah shall accept their King, believe his gospel, and walk in his paths. A holy temple, the house of the Lord—a sacred sanctuary with its Holy of Holies where the Divine Presence, the Shekinah of old, shall once more be manifest to Israel—shall be built in Old Jerusalem. It shall be built by the Jews: Jews who believe in Christ; Jews who are converted to the truth; Jews who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Jews who hold again the powers andpriesthoods possessed by their ancestors. The keys and powers whereby temples are built vest in the President of the Church, the presiding high priest among the Lord’s latter-day people. These keys first conferred by angelic ministrants—Moses, Elijah, Elias, and others—upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery have come down in direct succession and rest upon and are exercised by the prophet of God on earth, the one who, as it were, wears the mantle of Joseph Smith. And so it is that the Jews shall build their temple, and the Jews who do it will be Mormons; they will be Jews who are the converted and baptized saints of the latter days." As to where, it can only really be speculated, as the traditional location of the temple is simple that -- tradition -- and we don't know for sure. But it can be reasonably expected that "the" temple in Jerusalem will be on the same holy site as the original temple was (presuming that the traditional location of The Dome of the Rock is where that is). However, I see no reason why that limits the potential for other temples in Jerusalem as well. Just as we now have a temple in Kansas City, it doesn't mean the New Jerusalem temple no longer needs to be built on the dedicated site.

As many are aware I had a near fatal heart attack on June 20 as I posted in an earlier thread. On August 12th I underwent triple bypass surgery and am now in recovery. I have quite a journey still left in this adventure, but the surgery was very successful and I am told I may never have any more heart related issues. The Lord reached down from the heavens and changed me and I am SO grateful for this rich blessing that has redirected me or awakened me to life again and also for the opportunity to continue this mortal probation and the opportunity to become better, love deeper, be a better husband, father and friend and a life more consecrated to serving Heavenly Father. Please take advantage of every day.......God Bless you all! Brother Gainer

Like going to a house where everything is kosher and asking for bacon.

Strangely argumentative. They can. Everyone was once the "true" faith, as the true faith came through Adam and Noah...so...how is this meaningful? Well...if you're sure then...it's settled. I think we are the only ones who can build a temple under proper authority, just as we are the only ones who can baptize under proper authority, and preach the word under proper authority, and do all else pertaining to God's work under proper authority. Anyone that wants to can build a temple though.

If they are no Mormon they are not required too keep the WoW, and it is no sin to have these in your home as long as you don't imbibe.

You are not the only one that laughed! Earljibbs

Annieness, (cool name btw) The pain and struggles I've experienced in my own life have brought me to one conclusion. The only person you can control is yourself. You say you love the Gospel and the Savior yet you are giving control over your emotions and well-being to someone imperfect (your friends dad) who honestly has no interest or concern over you. I could go on about how wrong he is and how he’s only hurting his son and himself but too what end. It certainly won’t help you. You seem to have been blessed with a sense of right and with a love of fairness, justice and kindness. Not all people are blessed with this. Some are weak in this area. While they may be blessed with the ability to follow the letter of the law, fall short when it comes to having Charity. Don’t let others weaknesses become a stumbling block for you. This world is setup for to bring us those experiences that will shape us into something wonderful. And those experiences are often painful. But if you keep the right perspective they will allow us to transcend and grow, if you don’t they will bring you down. I second the advice you’ve been given to seek professional counseling. The pain you are harboring could be coloring and warping your view of things. I would talk to your Mother and Bishop about seeking help with a professional counselor.

I am a parent to a young daughter that struggles with severe anxiety. It scares me to death when she is overloaded. I cannot imagine if she were also abused to that situation. I am sorry to hear about your struggles. If this is as serious as you say, then you must take serious steps immediately. Talk to your mother about the abuse. I am not sure this boy or his father for that matter is at the heart of all of your struggles. Neither are they the solution to them. You have said a lot in your post, but there is definitely a ton that is not shared. I cannot make suggestions on everything you have said, but here are a few. You said that your mother doesn't know that you were abused? Talk to your mother about your abuse is the first thing I would do. After that, your mother should look into getting you in to see a therapist to help cope with what you have been through. From experiences in my own family growing up, holding that in without dealing with it properly can do serious harm to you. You feel unclean? From what I know this may be a standard thought, but it definitely is not a valid thought if you have been abused. I guess I only have one piece of advice. And that is to talk to your mother and seek proper help. Best Wishes.

There are many reasons to go on a mission as well as reasons not to go on a mission. For anyone that will serve G-d, they will find a great deal of support to reason such service. For those that desire to serve other cause - they will find one excuse as valid as another to justify their desire. In the end we all live our lives (not just our formal mission) according to our agency. Perhaps we choose even more our attitudes than our destiny or our responses to whatever we confront in life. It appears to me that there is a great deal of joy with those that chart a choice of service of G-d and their fellow men. It also appears to me that there is a great deal of depression and resentment with those that for whatever reason are convinced that they have lost direction of destiny or that their choices are in conflict with G-d and the exaltation (divine enlightenment) of their fellow men. We will follow a trend in life such that a mission or some othere choice are only some of the steps in a greater journey that will define us.

"know it is true" is a phrase I will never use, unless a whole slew of things are presented to me and I understand how difficult I can be. My story is a tad different, since I am not LDS but read its scriptures, pray when I can, obey most of the WoW (masala chai is something I don't think I can pry myself away from lol) I seldom attend church due to my not being a morning person, often having a...fragile mood and sometimes I really dislike leaving the house. But when I do I find it very joyful and a lot of that anger I have goes away. I become rather outgoing in a normal sense, there is no need for common interests to get me to speak, I feel like a well rounded person. Anyways, last summer I had a job working in corn fields, detassiling they call it, and one day it was a 120acre field and I, unknown to me, was coming down with heat stroke. In the field, it gets worse and worse and I am drinking water like crazy due to my throat hurting and eventually I just lay down and I remember asking Jesus not to let me die, it would have been annoying not to find out how the book ends, I remember thinking (the Book of Mormon, I had started attending church round the time I started the corn so was always in pain and always looked miserable but I would often perk up). Somehow I got out of that field, delirious and I asked some kid for water I remember. I would often toss aside the feelings people akined to the spirit as foolish or some such thing. I remember being quite moved when one lady gave a talk about being bullied in high school-something I struggled with a lot. Did the spirit come to offer the same as it did to her? Quite possibly. And it doesn't follow my distrust of my own feelings (eg getting a positive feeling means its true), that is a clear cut thing. Person sad and hurt by bullies, made happy by gospel. My mind responds well to that sort of stuff. I always thought I was too proud for worship and God and books like that. Growing up I was basically an athiest, scornful of religion and felt they were all archaic and broken things. And when I went to the meetinghouse for the first time, there was no malice towards me, people were kind to me-a kindess I seldom see in people. I remember saying "I hope none of them talk to me" but when they did I was happy to speak to them. By habit I sat alone at all the lunches but they found me and sat with me and I was actually in a good mood to see them and we talked. So maybe my idea of what the Book of Mormon is, is different then yours. But it has made me a better person, in many ways, I like to think. I had a lively discussion about same sex marriage with a Mormon on youtube, where as before I would have dismissed him as a bigot and that would be that. It started friendly and ended friendly. I don't feel that rage in the pit of my stomach anymore, I don't feel as unfriendly towards other people like I used to. This past month I have done a lot of thinking and reading, and I have come to the ultimate conclusion that is has helped me in my life and I donno if that is a testimony or anything but it is positive-I would think.

Wow, thank you much. Amazing this came up yesterday right when i came looking for it.

We have been thru it with family and Parents. We told them no tea or coffee....it's BYOC or BYOT or the Mini Mart.

I converted from Judaism. My house didn't become unkosher simply because there were guests there, no matter who they were. Same deal now. No coffee, tea, alcohol or tobacco products in my house. If a guest can't survive without those products for a few hours or a few days, then they have a bigger problem than whatever my religion might happen to be. From some of the things I've seen and heard, choices such as this when they are based on religion are considered somehow "wrong", but some of the same people who would not give respect to these choices would applaud someone who made similar choices bases on other reasons...such as politics or even the fad of the day. Just give them directions to the nearest coffee shop.

As of late I find myself annoyed with the "free" and "better place" and "God's will" comments when tragedies occur. I wholeheartedly believe in life after death, we will see our loved ones, etc. But sometimes these comments seem to exist to convince the mourning they should just cheer up and move on. Can't people just be sad for awhile?

One thing I have learned about starting rumors - especially at church. It is not near as fun if you know what is going to happen.

They are given the text before hand. However, what I was told from 2 translators now in an admin group I belong to, the speakers will sometimes deviate as moved to do from what was originally on the transcript and the translators have to be able to catch that.

Fine. FINE!!!! *pout* My old mission president (a native of the country I served in) is in the Seventy now and mentioned on our mission Facebook group today that he'll be speaking, in the mission language, during a session this coming October. That could be subject to change, I suppose; but the impression I got from him was that permission had already been given. Logistically - I doubt it would be that difficult. My understanding is that English texts are given to the various translators ahead of time anyways, so the translators can work off of those. The speakers just won't have any latitude to improvise/ad lib during the talk itself. Heck, I'm told some GAs (like Pres. Uchtdorf) even pre-record versions of their talks in their native languages to be streamed concurrently with their real-time English deliveries. If that's true, they just need to flip-flop the processes--pre-record the English language version and live-deliver the native-language.

I was talking to a girl today I know that translates during General Conference. She said she hadn't heard anything about it yet but she wonders about the logistics of it. You already have all of these people who speak English and the language they are translating to. She said they wouldn't be able to translate from a language that they aren't familiar with.

I like my calling, but I wouldn't mind being released and asked to attend the EQ again. Alas, it will not happen. I was in a Bishopric a few years back and at age 34 High priests doesn't feel like I belong. Most of those guys could be my father. Don't get me wrong they are great guys, I just want to be around some people my age. I crash EQ activities all the time though! Luckily I guess, I am with the Priests which makes it so I do not attend High Priests at this time anyway.

Ward stunt driver....no wait.....stunt driver area authority. On a more serious note, all I want to do is serve where I'm supposed to.

SpamLDS: Oh wow, so women were more "spiritual" than men even in the pre-existence? I don't wanna die young so let me clarify and say I am being 100% sarcastic.

Comments about someone who commits suicide being "free" are in the same vein as comments about cancer victims no longer being in pain, or accident victims being in a better place. They're comments from survivors meant to ease the tragedy by giving it a silver lining. In my limited experience you see such comments from those further removed from the situation, family members and best friends are usually in too much pain to either be seeking a silver lining or to feel such comments constitute them. When we're talking about someone like a celebrity most people who 'knew' them fall outside of that immediate circle and thus you get a plethora of of such comments, so seeing it in the case of Robin Williams doesn't surprise me.

For the record, I'm not complaining. The length of some of the leashes given out has played a big role in my reduced activity here (and perhaps that should include my own leash). But, then again--and with all due respect--I'm an idiot. More seriously, the level of activity around here has decreased because, to rephrase john_doe, there's very little fresh blood. A part of that has to do with the loss of the chat room (I'm not advocating to bring it back, just stating my observation). It's a lot harder to establish yourself in this community with only the forums. I felt like a lot more people drifted into the forum--and stayed longer--from the chat rooms than we get now. Probably because it's easier to establish rapport with others in an immediately interactive environment as opposed to the delayed interaction of the forum. One thing that would go a long way to revitalizing the community would be for us to back off of new posters a bit. I feel like we often see a new member post a thread, and then we all pounce and leave three pages of responses before the new member even has a chance to come back and see that there is a response at all. And since the lifespan of a thread staying on topic is an average of 3.2 replies, they probably feel like we've alienated them before we've helped them.

I may not have seen the newest one yet, I've seen two, I understand their could be a third... Any how never noticed Adam digging - I guess in his child like state he wanted to play in the dirt like little boys do.:)

Addressing the penalties associated with non-violent drug crimes would be a good place to start. I am all for "hard labor" as a form of rehabilitation. Grow your own food, chain gangs etc for the violent offenders. I know prison is not a nice place currently, but, a boot camp type model with no opportunity to continue criminal activities would be optimal.

It's always a good thing to go back to the Basics

Even when it is, we come to find out that artificial turf offers no sustenance. :-) Where we sometimes err is in thinking that if we just add more water to the lawn then we'll feel better. Sometimes we need to stop watering, sit down, and enjoy some lemonaid. How might that look for us? Well, maybe instead of one more visitation, or one more task, what we need is to sit down, put on some inspirational music, and allow the peace, rest and comfort of our Master to soothe our weary souls.

with all this talk about astral projection and candy... I should find my drums

Aussie influence (great grandfather served with an Australian regiment... We also sing Christmas carols in the summertime as an unrelated quirk). Early onset Alzeheimers runs in my family. Typically age 30-60 if its going to hit. ANYHOW... About 200 years ago one of my ancestors decided that what Alzheimer's was was his wife's spirit trying to take care of things in this world before she passed, because she didn't have enough time to take care of those things in her lifetime. God being generous allowed her spirit to do the things it needed to do, but also come back for a time, and from time to time to be with the people she loved, instead of simply dying. The concept has just stuck. Watching my grandmother, and now my mother, it's simply one of those things which may not be right... But FEELS right. No idea whether things are temporal or spirit world, and quite frankly, I'd prefer not to find out. It usually only hits one or two a generation, and that's not the grenade I'd prefer to jump on. It just got the name in WWI (WWII? Tripoli.). The phrase has been catching on, lately. My great grandfather picked it up from an Aussie family familiar with early onset, we've used it for a few generations, and the ward my grandmother was in, rather a lot of the staff and other families adopted it. So it's not just "ours". Or even originally ours. Similarly (family beliefs)... The fluidity and grace of childhood comes from he spirit being new to its body, the pain of old age the spirit preparing to leave its body. Also meaning that the natural consequence of Spirit Gone Walkabout are physical consequences. That there is no, lubrication?/ vivacity/ fluidity, with the spirit gone... So things go a bit pear shaped on the home front. Plaques, sclerosis, calcifications, atrophy. The idea being that when the spirit isn't home to mind the shop, things aren't taken care of as they ought to be. Also my family has gallows humor. Anything possible to smile at, we do. I should mention, my family isn't LDS. Mostly totally secular research scientists, military, medical types. Q

lucid dreaming is harmless, since all it is, is you are almost awake (or almost asleep) and your mind still is active enough to control your imagination. since most of my novels come from my untainted dreams I leave them alone

The best person to talk to concerning this would be the Lord and a priesthood leader. If prescribed (out of need)* by a doctor I would not personally consider marijuana to be a Word of Wisdom violation. That said there is the issue that while your state may consider it legal federal law still considers it a controlled substance so there is more than just the Word of Wisdom considerations. * Hydrocodone can be prescribed for legitimate medical reasons, if you're hitting your doctor up to get high off it though you are violating the Word of Wisdom in my view.