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Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/20/16 in all areas

  1. I answered without reading all the posts. i had to smile a little. I see that I live on a different plane than most of you. One thousand dollar cars? My payment is $1,252 per month! You can only imagine the insurance and maintenance on a vehicle like this. No, I don't do my own repairs. Actually, I changed the air filter once. $85 for the filter. Labor was free! I wont embarass myself by discussing my housing costs. But.......no consumer debt.
    2 points
  2. In a two year period, middle eastern migrants committed 208,344 crimes in Germany. I'm in agreement with Trump that we need a much more stringent vetting process before allowing any migrants into the country. What is interesting is that in the process of getting my wife's green card, she has to undergo a background check. Every potential migrant needs to provide documentation that proves their lack of criminal background. http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/us/migrants-committed-more-than-200000-crimes-in-germany-in-just-two-years
    1 point
  3. Jojo Bags

    Healing and Faith

    I never did say that Satan created anything. I do not believe he has that power. What I did say was that he manipulated and afflicts; not the same thing as create. Again, how do you explain the scripture in Job's case? God allowed it, but Satan performed the act of smiting Job with boils. How did he do that? What about the magicians in the court of Pharaoh? Through the power of the Devil, they duplicated some of Moses' miracles: the rod turning into the snake and turning water into blood. How was this accomplished? Either the scriptures are accurate or they are not.
    1 point
  4. askandanswer

    Healing and Faith

    I'm usually quite cautious about asking "why' questions because it seems to me that whatever the answer to the why question might be, it should not change the way we are supposed to be living. The principles of righteous living and obedience, and what we need to do to gain salvation are the same for all people, all the time, regardless of our individual circumstances. If I am not healed because I lack faith, that fact in no way should increase or lessen what should be my already diligent efforts to increase my faith. Whatever the reason for something happening, or not happening, if it is a bad thing, it should already be the case that I am not doing it, and if it is a good thing, it is already the case that I should be doing it, so whatever the reason is, it should not change what I am already doing or not doing. We should be striving to live the gospel to the best of our ability regardless of what happens or why it happens.
    1 point
  5. It is getting close to that time of year when we all do our taxes. I have an accountant that does mine. Recently, talking to my accountant he relayed several stories of good LDS families that sacrificed for education. It seems that several, otherwise wealthy families engaged in cosigning for their children for student loans (because in days past the Church has stressed education and the consideration of debt for education) and recently have lost in essence everything including their homes along with their retirement savings – 401K’s, pensions and even their Social Security and tax returns has been garnished. All this to obtain education at what we call prestigious institutions of learning. I have had in my library an interesting book titled “The Richest Man in Babylon”. However, this particular book seems to disappear as I loan it and it never comes back – though I have replaced it a number of times. The author (I forget his name) compares debt to eating one’s own children. In essence he says that whatever excuse we think is mitigated by debt that such argument would be realized as ridiculous by trying to justify such things through eating our own children for the same reasons. His advice, he says, may seem harsh but is because debt turns our loved one’s (children) from cherished assets into worrisome liabilities. I wonder if debt has now gone beyond eating our children to eating our parents. And I would add that debt also turns our hearts from helping the widows and fatherless to just trying to survive ourselves. It turns the richness and joy of honest labor into the bitter drudgery of slavery. From a religious standpoint one cannot live the divine law of consecration while serving debt and must repent of all debt before actually and honestly entering into that covenant. Keep in mind that I have also advised the difference between a debt and an investment – in that debt is contracting an agreement to pay more for something than it is worth. An investment is holding onto something that is worth more than what is left to pay it off. Our society have crafted very cleaver schemes to deceive individuals into entering into contracts that will require that they pay more for things than they are actually worth. I have a daughter and her and her family have learned the bitter lesson and now are somewhat resigned that their bitter lesson will exclude them from ever owing a house of their own. It is sad but their debt has turned them bitter towards many good things – including the church and even their siblings that are all able to purchase homes that seem to my daughter to be exorbitant luxuries. Their debt has made other necessary expenditures to be added to their debt as health issues for one particular child has added to their debt comparable to perching a home (which my wife and I have decided to make sacrifices ourselves to assist in their medical costs). And debt does not go away because we are sorry. We cannot repent of debt with tears but only with the labor and drudgery of a slave and pray than our debtors, neighbors and friends will have mercy and make sacrifices themselves for our errors because we have not sufficient to pay or debts. Even G-d compares his forgiveness of our sins to the forgiveness of forgiving someone of their debts that have become such a burden that they cannot pay enough.
    1 point
  6. Vort

    LDS A or An LDS

    How nice to hear Elder Hinckley's voice again.
    1 point
  7. http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/02/19/john-mcafee-ill-hack-san-bernardino-terrorists-iphone John McAfee, the guy who founded the organization which makes McAfee computer products, has offered to break into the phone via "social engineering" (thus supposedly eliminating the need for a back door) providing that the FBI meets his terms. He's also claiming that the reason why the FBI can't do things like this for themselves is because the restrictive culture at the FBI is a major turn-off for the younger, more adventurous computer types who get scouted by others that are willing to cut them some more slack.
    1 point
  8. pam

    LDS A or An LDS

    Actually President Hinckley said Mormon SHOULD mean more good. In his General Conference talk in October 1990 he explains: “Look,” he went on to say, “if there is any name that is totally honorable in its derivation, it is the nameMormon. And so, when someone asks me about it and what it means, I quietly say—‘Mormon means more good.’” (The Prophet Joseph Smith first said this in 1843; see Times and Seasons, 4:194; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 299–300.) His statement intrigued me—Mormon means “more good.” I knew, of course, that “more good” was not a derivative of the word Mormon. I had studied both Latin and Greek, and I knew that English is derived in some measure from those two languages and that the wordsmore good are not a cognate of the word Mormon. But his was a positive attitude based on an interesting perception. And, as we all know, our lives are guided in large measure by our perceptions. Ever since, when I have seen the word Mormon used in the media to describe us—in a newspaper or a magazine or book or whatever—there flashes into my mind his statement, which has become my motto: Mormon means “more good.” https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1990/10/mormon-should-mean-more-good?lang=eng
    1 point
  9. Not in SF Bay Area. Average earners are are renters here. One bedroom apartments rent for $4,000 or more in SF. Not a lot better in other cheaper areas. Rent can suck up a lot of ones disposable income.
    1 point
  10. Debt is a valuable tool, handled properly. Today's rates are especially attractive for automobiles and real estate. i would never pay cash for a vehicle in today's environment of sub three percent interest. It would be stupid to pay cash in today's investment environment where one can easily make more than that. Similar with housing, although here in the SFBay area, the market is very overheated right now. One must be cautious. Consumer debt is of course to be avoided for non necessities. Business debt is probably beyond the scope of this discussion, but used wisely is the basis of all modern business, no, debt is certainly not a sin. The Church's counsel is wise:. Avoid consumer debt.
    1 point
  11. Sounds great. Something you may want to look into for treating depression is http://www.truehope.com/ I have a child with some mental health issue and this has been very helpful for them.
    1 point
  12. I have really narrow shoulders so every shirt I wear is usually on the edge of my shoulders (thus showing my garments), so I always have to have a DownEast layering shirt underneath. So I don't ever have a problem with that, since I already have a layer on underneath that covers my garments. It probably looks strange to non-LDS people who don't know why I have a shirt on underneath my shirt, but it helps me to not have to worry about my garments showing and makes me feel a little bit more secure.
    1 point
  13. I do this. It's getting more and more difficult to find clothing that covers the garments completely (unless I want to dress like my grandma and I'm old already). So, I have no problem throwing on a sweater, jacket, something to cover up the sleeves.
    1 point
  14. NightSG

    Antonin Scalia Dies

    Oswald was just defending himself. JFK shot first.
    1 point
  15. A hug. That's what you hope to gain, because it's what people need when hearts are breaking. *HUG* I'm sorry your family is going through this, that you're going through this. It might not be too much, but know that you guys are in my prayers.
    1 point
  16. Back for a check-in. It's been quite the ride these past few weeks. Nutshell version: We found out my husband is dealing with some depression (specific diagnosis to come) and is the root cause of some of his behavior (the clinginess, the refusal to do things). So a new challenge in and of itself but I like knowing what's going on. I'm relieved. We were able to do a big housecleaning weekend with some family members and I feel so much better. We're setting up a chore chart.
    1 point
  17. NeedleinA

    LDS A or An LDS

    nunca (never) for me. "She is LDS" but never "She's an LDS".
    1 point
  18. I'm not sure the advice is being careful what source you go to can be valid any longer. It also is not the root of the real problem. I say that not by way of criticism of the comment or anything, but by way of focus -- by that I mean what the focus of our efforts to help others should be. The "don't read anti-mormon stuff" just doesn't work in the age of information/internet. It's really more about why they're reading that stuff in the first place. There are plenty of people who are very, very well versed in those things and have no crisis of faith at all. So what should our focus be? The same as it always has been. The things of the Spirit may only be known by the Spirit. God stands revealed or not at all. We have to know the church is true because God has told us that the church is true through the Spirit, and then all the anti-Mormon stuff in the world doesn't stand up. There is also another simple principle that we learn even in primary but then we seem to forget part of it. We know that the wise man who builds his house upon the rock will not be washed away. But we seem to forget what that rock is. The teaching is that those who hear the word of God and do it will not fall when the storms come. I bring this up also by way of counsel for how we should exhort those who struggle. I want to add as well, particularly in light of the fact that I know my posts can come across sometimes as emotionless, logical and cold, that I have recently gone through the same thing with family. I cried a lot.
    1 point
  19. Vort

    Healing and Faith

    Interesting that cleave and cleave are opposites.
    1 point