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Your husband's ex-wife sounds like a nut case. At least on this topic. In these situations, I can't repeat myself enough times So I think the best strategy to handling this emotionally is to quietly acknowledge she's a nut case and ignore anything she has to say on the matter. Frankly, your stake president should have told you the same thing*. * While it may be true that, given decades (centuries?) you may come to like her, that notion is immaterial to your sealing.

On a whim I traveled from Reddit to MormonHub just to get a more relative perspective for various topics I was reading about and it appears that this thread I created over half a year ago gained quite a bit of attention. I save my login and passwords for everything so I had no trouble accessing my account again. The replies here are really thought provoking and interesting so much appreciated. As a brief update I did end things with my ex girlfriend. Which was almost 7 months ago. I found the situation to be impossible to move past. I was never going to feel comfortable with any level of friendship she had with the other guy especially considering the circumstances of the proximity they would have. It was the toughest thing I have ever had to do and it took me a long while to do so after a lot of helpful advice from my own friends and family to finally end it. But I thank the Lord I did. I may have been fully committed but my ex unfortunately couldn't be. With everything said and done I am content with life and moving forward with the direction the Lord wants me to go. I still yearn almost to be in another relationship because of the intense happiness that is felt being able to open yourself up to another person in the way I did, but this longing is conditional on being in a relationship where our boundaries are compatible hence why I must take my time and be patient. I pray you are all well and are blessed till the end of days.

This part, at least, I can help with. https://pb.churchofjesuschrist.org/pbrequest/?lang=eng#/

Also I should note that I am a covert so this was ALL so new and foreign to me. I would cry and stress over this. So I hope this gives you some relief.

Thanks for all the kind thoughts and prayers. Update: his leukemia is the most common kind, therefore the most treatable. They are keeping him in ICU to help him deal with the reactions to the chemo he started yesterday, and will be in the hospital a minimum of two weeks. I also found my patriarchal blessing. It was in the same document holder as the folder, but in a different slot.

I sympathize with you and your frustrations and concerns in this matter. I feel like even long term members have a pretty superficial understanding of the sealing (yes, that's pretty elitist of me to say), and so I can only imagine how uncertain this all must feel to a new member who has probably been told something along the lines of "You can be married forever." It both is and isn't quite that simple. Allow me to use an illustration. This illustration shows, effectively, how marriage and sealing relate to each other in the modern church. I've depicted each concept as a circle, and the two circles intersect, but neither consumes the other. That is, a sealing is not a marriage, and a marriage is not a sealing. On the left side in red, marriage comes with certain benefits that are not (necessarily) bestowed through the sealing. Think things like property, inheritance, next of kin, beneficiary status for insurance, etc. A lot of these are legal and/or social matters that are agreed upon in the local society. In some locations, such as the U.S., a sealing may be recognized by the government as a marriage, which would allow those benefits to be granted. But those benefits are still a function of the marriage, not of the sealing. The sealing, in blue, also has a number of benefits that are not bestowed through marriage. Something along the lines of "Ye shall come forth in the first resurrection; and if it be after the first resurrection, in the next resurrection; and shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths" (D&C 132:19). Sealing was also described by Joseph Smith, Jr. as an "order of the priesthood" (D&C 131:2). I don't have great references for what that order of the priesthood entails (Smith died about a year after naming this order of the priesthood and never really developed it. No one, to my knowledge, has developed the idea much further). My personal take on it is that the sealing offers benefits similar to the Gift of the Holy Ghost; that is, a promise and assurance of constant guidance and support, especially as it pertains to marital and family management. Academically speaking (and I understand academically speaking doesn't mesh well with the emotional), this is a big reason why the Church is hesitant to cancel sealings unless there is the prospect of being sealed to another partner in the near term--we don't want to deprive individuals who choose to live up to their covenants of the blessings a sealing gives access to. There is also an area in the background that is gray, and represents things that neither marriage nor sealing bestow/guarantee. Personal exaltation would fit in that area. Certainly, we believe a sealing is a necessary condition for exaltation, but it is not sufficient; it is just a part of the expectations. It's also important to recognize that a sealing is not an unbreakable bond. It does not impose any kind of possession of one individual to another. Regardless of whether two people are sealed to each other in mortality, they will only remain sealed to each other in eternity if they mutually choose to be. While we often focus on the fact that the sealing authority can "bind in heaven what is bound on earth," it also has the power to unbind. Some notes on process I've shepherded a few sealing clearances in recent memory, so let me give you a brief description of what the process will entail Your bishop will initiate an Application to the First Presidency for a sealing clearance for your fiance (no application is necessary for you because you have not been previously sealed. But women that have been previously sealed also have an application prepared for them) Your clerk or bishop will review with you and your fiance your membership information, wedding plans, and verify that everything is accurate and spelled right. Your fiance will be asked to complete a form giving background information about his previous marriage and divorce. I've heard some objection to this part of the application on the grounds of "if he's repented, it shouldn't matter." However, the First Presidency isn't concerned with whether or not a person as "repented." They are concerned with whether the applicant understands what contributed to the failure of the marriage and, in particular, what they have learned that may lead to the success of the future marriage. Your fiance's ex-wife will be asked to submit her explanation of the relationship, and her feelings about the sealing. This is not a request for her permission. More often than not, it serves as a check to make sure that the applicant's description of events is not one-sided (that is, it keeps the applicant honest). I've seen application(s) where the applicant blames everything under the sun under the previous spouse, and then the previous spouse's letter reveals some serious issues, such as abuse, that the applicant(s) didn't own up to. If the former spouse cannot be reached or does not respond within some amount of time, the non-response is annotated and the application proceeds. Your bishop and stake president's will write their perception of the situation for the First Presidency to review. If they decide they want the First Presidency to review the application, they will submit it. The process is not fast. It may take several months to finish the application and a couple more months before you hear from the First Presidency. The pace at which things progress depends heavily on the local bishop and stake president. Inevitably, these discussions create more questions than answer. That's normal. Feel free to come talk to your Relief Society president, friends at church, or come hang out with us here if you have more questions about it.

I am not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but I have a fairly extensive collection of LDS publications: different editions of the Book of Mormon, Teachings of the Presidents, etc. One of the more unusual editions of the Book of Mormon in my collection is one that I found at a used bookstore: it's called the "Restored Covenant Edition," and it's published by something called the Zarehemla Research Foundation. It's very nicely laid out, it's a "red letter" edition, and it has a concordance in the back. It's clearly not an official Church publication, but it's a pretty nice piece of work anyway. Has anyone seen this publication? If you are interested in reading the Restored Covenant Edition online, here is their website: http://www.restoredcovenant.org/RCE.asp?CAT=RCE Would be interested in an LDS perspective on the edition and/or the website linked above. Peace, Cory

Fair enough. I look at Skousen's work as a scholarly curiosity, and engage with it from that standpoint. But my day-to-day reading for spiritual edification is the Church’s edition, over 90% of the time.

I’ve not heard of it before. Via some Googling I see that Royal Skousen (considered a scholarly guru on the text of the Book of Mormon, at least within LDS circles) apparently had a favorable view of the work they’d done—but given the choice between an edition praised by Skousen versus an edition actually produced by Skousen, I’ll take the latter every time.

Reviewing the Zarahemla Research Foundation there's key sentence used that renders everything else there garbage: "The covenant relationship is strictly personal. It does not require a public ordinance like water baptism." This is false. Therefore this "foundation" goes on the trash heap where it belongs.

Also untrue. However, this was my bumper sticker 4 years ago. Time to break it out again:

I'm not a sister, but I'll chime in, anyway. Your white temple dress is perfectly adequate. If you want to change into a somewhat showier wedding dress for pictures afterwards, that's probably fine as long as the dress is modest. Check with the temple. Fwiw, if it were me, assuming her sealing/temple dress weren't to be used for pictures, I would prefer my wife to wear a nice, non-showy dress for pics afterward.

She had one job yesterday and she blew it. She was wound up too tight and looked more like a nervous nelly always going for the feelz, which gets you nodding Alright, Alright!... then going overboard with it so you end up cringing. All she had to do was appear to be the sane person in the room. Nobody was going to clobber her. Beto was the guy with the money that everybody was going after. This is the glory days of the internet - where video proof is one click away from most everybody. The old way of going progressive in the primaries and then swinging back to the middle in the general doesn't work anymore when ordinary joes can just upload a video of you waxing poetic on the extremes at any time. She whacked her "palatable middle ground" with a sledgehammer when she went overboard with abortion - not only did she vow completely unrestricted access to abortion (supported by only 17% of the entire American population), she went so far as to vow Legislation for unrestricted and government funded abortion. She also joined in on the fracas about eliminating private health insurance (supported by only 12% of the population). You know who won yesterday's debates? President Donald J. Trump.

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Judging by yesterday's debates... there are no slightly moderate Democrats left.

Pump the brakes, One relapse since full repentance over a year ago? I'd put this on the home repentance plan and not get super wound up about it. You are now an adult, if you can identify what led to the relapse and ensure there are no further issues I would get on my knees ask for forgiveness and go about my business. However if you really feel like you need to confess in the flesh to a Bishop by all means please do so.

The vast majority of nuclear waste, the so-called "low-level waste", has a radioactive half-life measured in months or even weeks. It is currently stored on-site until it has decayed enough to be safe to throw away. "High-level waste" is a small fraction of total nuclear waste. It consists of dangerous, highly radioactive material that must be sequestered. Most of this actually decays pretty fast, too, becoming safe in a time period on the order of years or maybe decades. But high-level waste also includes some "transuranics", very heavy (>uranium) artificially produced elements like neptunium, plutonium, einsteinium, etc. Some of these have a half-life of decades or even centuries; plutonium-239 has a half-life of over 24,000 years, and thus requires on the order of 240,000 years (ten half-lives) until it has decayed to a one-thousandth of its original radioactivity. It is these highly poisonous, extremely long-lived radioisotopes that present the greatest concern. At this point, let me put in another plug for molten salt reactors. The basic design of any such reactor allows easy isolation of such transuranics, and also provides an easy way of destroying them: Keep them exposed to the nuclear processes in the reactor until the neutron flux breaks them down:

First I need to admit to not having read all of the posts in this thread. But thought I might give you some perspective on fuel prices. In the UK we are currently paying about £1.35 a litre = @3.8 litres per US gallon = £5.10 per gallon. Conversion for currency = ~ $6.60 And we are enjoying a fall in prices over the last 3/4 years, I can remember prices up to £1.60 a litre. A large percentage of the fuel cost is tax - Fuel duty is currently levied at a flat rate of 57.95p per litre , whilst VAT (value added tax added to all purchases except for a few exempt goods in the UK) at 20% is then charged on the total price (the product price + the fuel duty). Retailers have a very small margin and make more money on goods and produce sold in the shop. The taxes are obviously a significant government income stream and rises are lobbied for on environmental grounds. The bottom line is we pay because we have to, and suck it up because there is no other choice. OH and drive small cars Enjoy your cheap fuel

Based on the last time I visited the moat, I figure you're going to need way more than a gallon.

For most of my working travel - I commuted on a bicycle. For many years I commuted 25 miles one way. With the heavy traffic I added about an hour a day in commute time but since I did not have to exercise (because I have a desk job) commuting by bicycle saved me time, money and significantly improved my health. Any area of high density travel should have public transportation. It should be part of our infrastructure as much as a freeway is - and if properly designed would be even faster and cheaper for everyone. I believe that using public transportation or commuting by bicycle (especially bicycle 😎) should have tax incentives - if we as an nation are serious about pollution. The Traveler

We also have it pretty good compared to Europe, where gasoline is often two or three times as expensive. The thing is, because the U.S. economy relies so heavily on cars and trucks, a price increase affects us much more than it does to Europeans. The majority of Americans drive to work, while the majority of Europeans use public transit. We have a lot more trucks to move goods over much longer distances. Not to mention railroads, which are almost entirely diesel powered in America while many European rail lines are electric. So we do have cheaper prices, but we're also more sensitive to market fluctuations.

This is me* * Note - this is not me.

One of the kids in my CTR4 class (that I've been teaching for about a year, since they were Sunbeams) has just been diagnosed with leukemia. I have also just been assigned as his mom's ministering sister. I've been friends with her since the time they met in the YSA ward. They have a little guy who just turned one, and the four year old is as sweet as can be; he was so excited to tell me about his skinned knee on Sunday. And I've just gotta say....I am really struggling with this. I almost feel guilty asking for prayers for myself; he's not even my kid (outside that hour on Sundays). I'm questioning how I can be of emotional support to my friend, my student, and their family when I can hardly keep it together and find faith myself. I've been having that cliche monologue: "why is this happening to him? to them? It's not fair." I've never had that reaction to any other trial. Not when my parents divorced, not when any of my relatives died, not when I got fired, not even when my sister miscarried. Bonus struggle: I can't find my copy of my patriarchal blessing. It's been a great strength to me for as long as I've had it, and it's not in the folder where I've kept it for almost ten years.

Time to repent and realize you've been voting for neocons the entire time.

Was Gabbard the young woman who kept making a point of her military service? Yeah, I was ok with her. And the one guy who admitted it is sort of important to detain lawbreakers at the border. And the other guy who gave lip service to consensus building and bipartisan efforts. This little conservative boy didn't vote for Trump, but I didn't see anyone I'd come within a mile of voting for. I guess tonight is the 'real' debate, because Slo Joe vs. The Burn. Also, I've heard a few words of begrudging respect for Buttigieg, now I get to actually take a gander at him. Might as well get these out there now. I assume he'll be the nominee, because nobody else has this many memes.

Cows urinate, Mozart composes, Texans brag.