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will it be a big quilt with the word "simplicity" in the centre of it?

I'll go with the Atonement also---not so much about the "why" of it, but rather the "how" of it. Regarding polygamy, though, I've never understood why so many Latter-day Saints find it troubling or mysterious? Look at it this way. It's clear (at least to me) from the scriptures, prophetic discourses, and empirical evidence, that women generally are much more inclined to be righteous than men are. The practical result of this fact is that many more women than men will qualify for Exaltation. The scriptures tell us that following the Second Coming "seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach". Or in other words, "we’ll pay our own way if you’ll marry us so that we can legally have children". And why would they be willing to do that? Because the number of men who survive the Second Coming will be a fraction of the number of women who will survive it, and if those women wish to have a family they'll have no other choice! If Exaltation requires being sealed to a spouse (and it does), how will all those surplus women (for lack of a better term) claim that blessing absent polygamy?? I believe the principle of plural marriage is an example of God's tender mercies. He is simply looking out for many of his righteous daughters who, because of circumstances beyond their control, will find themselves single and with no prospect of marriage, and hence would not be able to enjoy the blessings of Exaltation otherwise.

So I'm going to step outside of my no-frills-teaching zone and actually bring a centerpiece for my Relief Society lesson tomorrow. It may even look nice, but that's still a far-fetched notion. Wish me luck!

The problem with the "assumption" that more Woman will make it then Men is that it is based on how things "appear" now (aka Women are active in larger numbers) and that is a crappy way to make prediction of who is going to be exalted (Which according to Elder Oaks is an unrighteous judgement no matter how you do it) To make the claim that God created a defective gender (a gender inherently less likely to be make it IS a defect) makes God a respecter of persons preferring one Gender over another. Same general idea holds if the imbalance exist but God didn't create it, in that case, God being a righteous and fair judge has to compensate for the aspect that is out of the control of the individual.

I personally wouldn't take offense at that particular joke. They were just trying to add additional realism to the movie. AFAIK, and I've read most of his books, Heilein was an admirer of the church. He always saw it as a cohesive group standing on the correct side of an issue. I think the writers of the movie (which has the delicious Denise Richards in it) maybe took a little much license, As for me personally, all my best friends are not members. So take this joking with a grain of salt. I'll give as good as I get in this joking area.

The chapter heading and the subsequent verses appear to me to be CLEARLY talking about the millennium. I honestly don't see how it can be interpreted any other way? But if I'm wrong it hardly invalidates my assertion that there are more righteous women than men, and hence more women than men will qualify for Exaltation. We have no factual or revealed information regarding the comparative number of males and females who will be in the (highest degree of the) Celestial Kingdom (that I've ever heard, and I think this would be everywhere of late if there were such). I'm certainly not going to hold my breath until the Lord reveals the future numbers (why would He?), but I don't see why it's difficult to extrapolate when the current numbers are known.

I'm curious as to why you don't believe it?Have you observed anything inside or outside the Church that leads you to believe otherwise?I certainly haven't.In my ward there is a much higher percentage of active and faithful women than men. I can think of at least five women who hold temple recommends whose husbands are not active, while on the other hand there isn't a single temple recommend holding man whose wife does not also hold one.Not long ago I attended a meeting with our Area Authority Seventy, which dealt with the problems of member retention. The statistics were sobering, but two that stood out to me were the gender activity ratio (59% to 41% women to men) and the "singles over age 30 who attend Church weekly" (21 men for every 100 women). Leaving aside the fact that women generally live longer than men (affecting the latter ratio), I believe these statistics still prove my point; women in general are much more faithful than men.Which leads to the obvious conclusion that there will be a greater number of women than men in the Celestial Kingdom. In light of that fact, what would you have God do to rectify the problem? If marriage is necessary for Exaltation (and it is), and absent plural marriage, how would you propose solving the dilemma without violating the principle of agency? Also, I daresay that it's a principle much easier for men to accept than women. Oh, I don't know. Reading the accounts of the early brethren I don't see very many of them who were enthused with the idea. I certainly wouldn't be. I love my wife dearly and I'm not the least bit interested in sharing my affections with another woman. But after shrugging off this mortal coil with all of its carnal, sensual, and devilish baggage I expect to see things a whole lot differently than I do now. And I suspect righteous woman who oppose plural marriage now will see things differently then too.

Thinking about this, a couple of scientific examples: 1) Among the first "laws" I recall learning in physics and chemistry were the two basic "conservation of matter" and "conservation of energy". As simple as these two basic laws are, a good portion of understanding the physical world around us gets caught up in following how matter and energy move through the system we are looking at. Some of this is going from the generic "qualitative" statement ("energy is conserved") to more "quantitative" statements about how much energy is present and how much is in what forms (potential, kinetic, electrical, chemical, heat, and so on). As simple as the basic laws are, one can also spend a lifetime trying to quantify and explain the different phenomena that follow from these basic laws. 2) Euclidean geometry (which we all know and love) is based on five simple postulates. (For those that want to remind themselves what they are: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Geometry/Five_Postulates_of_Euclidean_Geometry ). As simple and almost self-evident as these postulates are, one can spend a lifetime and more exploring the theoroms and other consequences and properties of a geometric system based on those five postulates. If desired, one can explore other geometries by simply changing one or more of these simple postulates. I suspect that the Gospel is similar. There are simple principles that form the basis of the Gospel. These principles are simple enough for a child to understand. However, one can spend eternity exploring how to measure these principles, and what follows from the foundational principles, and how these principles apply to oneself, and so on.

I'm not an atheist, of course. Nevertheless, if I was one it's not hard to imagine how quickly I would become irritated by my spouse thinking I needed salvation, 'God,' or to join a particular religion. There would be a constant sense of distance, of a holding-out. The problem is obvious enough that the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians that when an unbeliever wants out of a marriage, let them go in peace. The difficulty is likely to be less evident during the dating phase, and really come out after the marriage is up and running. Bottom line: Don't start down a road that scripture warns is fraught with danger and failure.

I kind of think of it like this. I learned a long time ago when driving into very public areas to keep a "clean car", don't leave anything that looks like it might be valuable out in the open. Everything should be put away, no laptops, phones, shopping bags, etc. By doing so it lessens the chance that my car will be broken into; thieves will see nothing of value and think "move onto the next car". Now it doesn't always prevent a car from being broken into or stolen-it simply makes it less inviting for criminals to do so. Is it my fault if I don't keep a clean car and it gets broken into-no absolutely not-the criminal is at fault not me. Could I have done things to have made it less likely-probably. If I'm on the subway at night, I have a grumpy face-it's the "don't mess with me face"-I do it on purpose. It's not about blame or fault, it's about protection and lowering the odds of something bad happening-it may not prevent it-but walking around in a mini-skirt and a deep cut blouse at 2am in a seedy part of town sure ain't gonna help your odds.

Memorial car and plaque made for the Barney family.

Douglas Scott Barney II June 3, 1971 – January 17, 2016 Officer Douglas Barney, 44, was killed in the line of duty on Sunday, January 17, 2016, while trying to question a man who seemingly had done nothing more than leave the scene of a traffic accident. An 18 year veteran police officer, Doug loved law enforcement and interacting with the community. Doug was perfectly suited to law enforcement..., never able to sit perfectly still, always eager for something exciting, and relating to other people in a down-to-earth, sincere way. Doug was born June 3, 1971 on a military base in Taiwan to Douglas Scott and Darlene Heinz Barney. Doug was raised in Anaheim, California, and worked at Disneyland as one of his first jobs. He attended Clara Barton Elementary School and Loara High School. He played water polo and was on the high school swim team. Just before his senior year, his family moved to Orem, Utah where Doug graduated from Orem High School. He loved the move to Utah and being able to ride dirt bikes daily in the hills behind his family home. After graduation Doug worked a series of jobs, mostly in the auto mechanics field like his father. He loved working on cars and raced his cars a couple of times at the old Bonneville Raceway. Doug and his wife, Erika, grew up near each other in Anaheim and he liked to tell stories of how he had always had a crush on her. When Erika moved to Utah to attend BYU they continued their friendship and he tried his hardest to get her to commit to dating him (she had a habit of inviting her roommates along when he asked her out for pie.) In 1995 he showed up to her apartment unexpectedly and asked her to marry him. He asked again every day for several months until she finally accepted. Doug married Erika Gilroy on February 17, 1996 in his family home in Orem. Their marriage was later solemnized in the Jordan River Temple. Doug passed away one month before their 20th wedding anniversary. After their wedding Doug told Erika that although he loved working on cars, it was a bit too lonely of a type of work for him. He didn’t like being underneath the cars by himself all day long and would tend to move around looking for conversations with other mechanics. He admitted to his wife that he had always wanted to be a police officer and, with her blessing, began applying with different agencies. Doug was hired as a corrections officer with the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office in December of 1998 and one year later was hired as a patrol officer. He worked primarily in Kearns and Magna, Taylorsville City, and Holladay City during his career. Doug earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah by taking two classes a semester while working full time to support his family. His degree was in Sociology with a Criminal Justice certificate. Doug is survived by his wife,Erika, their three children, Matilda 18 (Matti), Meredith 16 (Merri), and Jacob 13 (Jack). He is also survived by his mother, Darlene, and his three siblings and their spouses, Tammy (Jason), Russell (Heather), and Brian (Jennifer). He was preceded in death by his father, Douglas Scott Barney. Between Doug’s and Erika’s siblings there are 23 nieces and nephews who love Doug, and each are pretty sure they are his favorite. Doug had a special way of relating to children and loved to hold them, tickle them, and incorrectly guess their age. His church family knew it was his habit to come to church and look around for someone with a new baby to sit near, with the hope that the baby would get fussy and they would let him hold it. Doug was a devoted husband and father who loved spending time with his family and talking about them when he couldn’t be with them. He loved teaching his kids how to shoot guns, appreciate cars, and the basic approach to a few defensive control techniques. He loved music and listened to every conceivable type of music. For years he kept a cassette tape keyed up in his patrol car to Kenny Rogers’ Long Arm of the Law, which he would sing loudly when a prisoner seemed especially sulky on the way to jail. The end result was usually that they would come into the jail laughing together. Doug was well known for his boisterous personality. He was larger than life in every way. He was very funny and was often able to diffuse a tense situation with a perfectly timed joke. It is very hard for a criminal to consider violence while laughing. Doug’s law enforcement brothers remember him for his signature greeting of, “hey, brotha!” or “hey, sista!”, and an almost knocking-the-wind-out pat on the back. Doug struggled with bladder cancer and the side effects of treatments and surgeries for many years. He was frustrated by the time it took him away from work and from his family, but had an amazing ability to stay positive and upbeat and even lighthearted about the challenges. His only desire, always, was to be able to get back to work and to take care of his family. Doug will be forever missed. The family would like to thank the community, both locally and nationally, for the outpouring of love that has been given this week. Services will be held at the Maverik Center, 3200 Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City, Utah on Monday, January 25, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. A public viewing will be held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Stake Center at 2811 S 6400 W on Sunday, January 24 from 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. Interment will be at the Orem City Cemetery.

UNICORN SIGHTING!! It's Heather! But is it REALLY Heather? Maybe it's just a horse with a horn glued to its forehead! Who can tell?

Officer Jon Richey was released from the hospital and went home today.

Don't date an atheist.