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Indeed... The sin in this case is breaking the Law of Chasity which is simply put no fornication and no adultery. And you are right... cohabitation is not necessarily breaking the Law Chasity but it makes it so very easy and huge temptation. (Plus the whole appearance of evil thing) As you grow and learn the Gospel living the Law of Chasity is one of the things Christ will want you to do. (Missionaries will help teach this). Once you learn this for yourself... God is going to expect you to live it (To the best of your abilities). If marriage is not right (which it may not be at this time).. you might need to look to other alternatives to fulfilling God's commands. That can also be very hard, but the scriptures are very clear that once we know God's will concerning us we should not procrastinate it. We know this... which is why members will be encouraging you to move in one direction or the other. (Marriage being the most likely direction. Separating is also possible)

Funny... Maybe something happened on this forum where this wording was used (or perhaps I used it and forgot), but I have been contemplating this very saying off and on all week trying to make sense of it. Is the correct term “few and far between”?

I think we can all sympathize with someone who is trying to follow the legal process to immigrate. I think we can also all sympathize with not putting your life on hold as the process drags on (20 years wow). I also think we can all sympathize with after waiting and building the panic and desperation of being denied. (Even if maybe you did something a little foolish to trigger such denial). All that sympathy however does not mean that that the denial is racially motivated or that accusations of racism are factual. It does however reinforce the need to fix/cleanup how things are currently being handled.

I wouldn't think so, but there has to be some point, before saying things you know not to be true, where a line can be drawn. I mean, the alternative shouldn't have to be capitulation.

So since we can’t be baptized until after marriage which won’t be happening soon sadly, talking with the missionaries wouldn’t be too helpful other than the social and testimony. But going to Sunday school and studying would be better for now? When we get married the missionaries would be more helpful to us in order to work towards our baptism? Probably a year or two before we get married. I’m joining the church because I believe Jesus is my savior and that this is his real church. We’ve talked to the bishop already and he said he’d set something up with the missionaries to visit us and have lessons.

Now I feel like I have to clarify my tongue-in-cheek remark. You are right, of course, @Anddenex; "few and far between" makes perfect sense. But the thread is a jokey rant against the inversion (some might say perversion) "far and few between". So the fact that you are not a Millennial explains why you understand that "few and far between" makes sense, while the fact that you are older than Millennials (weaker eyesight, wandering mind, distractions galore) explains why you misread the thread title. Ha ha ha. What a riot. Well, of course it isn't funny when I try to EXPLAIN it!

We really do not know much about anyone in the G-dhead. We think we know some of Christ because he walked among us here on earth but in reality the total we know of his life would not account for much over a month of his mortality. There is an old native American saying that you cannot know of anyone without walking in their shoes for at least 3 months. I am not sure we know that much about the Father or the Holy Ghost. Our only example of a G-d is Jesus Christ. I believe this is because we are fallen and Jesus is the mediator. The only way to know of any G-d or anything of G-d or G-dliness is through Christ - and for many trinitarians - I think their logic is flawed and confused. The Traveler

Make sure you mention the internet people also gave you crass, thoughtless, and awful advice. Look, sorry to hear about whatever happened to your sister. You're light on the details, so got no clue if there was a car accident or a beating or what. But if you're gonna turn on people who are trying to be helpful, make sure that's not the only thing you end up doing, because it isn't going to help.

Tampa Mission, but I spent 1 year in Fort Myers and 6 months between Bradenton & Sarasota, the rest was just here and there.

We are taught a very simple and easy principle -- avoid the appearance of evil. If the two friends were just sleeping in the same tent they aren't breaking the Law of Chastity, and they are not avoiding the appearance of evil. There is a reason why BYU has the policy of no one in opposite sex apartment after a certain time.

Speaking personally, I think it's VERY important to be upfront in explaining what "the fullness of the Gospel" means. Because it's not what folks assume by default (that "the fullness of the Gospel" = every detail about God's Truth is in there) cause it's not. We are a faith that very much believes that we STILL don't know everything about God's Truths (see Article of Faith 9). Rather "the fullness of the Gospel" is talking about the centerpiece with IS the Gospel: that Christ, the Son of God, was born, lived, died, and rose again as our Savior. That's the huge centerpiece and foundation. Ordinances, while important, aren't the counterpoint of the Gospel. Rather, they are branches springing from the trunk which is Christ's life.

I’ll probably read the article and the actual speech later, but I wanted to say that I find it really cool that general authorities are taking an interest in FairMormon. If I’m not mistaken, this is only the second time a general authority has spoken at this and it appears to becoming a annual thing.

See, I'm not sure honesty and compassion have to be exclusive. The truth is the truth. You can control the love you deliver it with. You can control whether you even deliver it at all. You can't control how it is received. That is owned by the recipient.

First of all... BIG HUGS to you Eternum. This may sound as just platitudes but I do believe with all my heart that God loves you and has a plan for you, even if it's nowhere near evident what that is. One of the first things that came to my head after reading your entire post is "You've made the first step in Jordan Peterson's Self-Authoring Class". Then I thought, hmm... maybe what you need is not to go back to Church but to finish the rest of the Self-Authoring class... THEN go back to Church. So, I looked up how one could get the class and found out you need to pay for it now. Shucks. Anyway, in my opinion (and please keep in mind, I'm nowhere close to being a professional counselor), I think you can greatly benefit from my motto of - I can't control what other people do, I can only control how I react to them. So, one of the Self-Authoring concepts is that instead of exhausting our efforts to change other people's stupidity, we can go the route of accepting that other people are stupid and work that into our plan for ourselves. So, the objective is to get to a point where we don't much concern ourselves with things that won't be able to change our path forward (things we can't control, like trying to change your stepfather's narcissistic tendencies which is not in your control but in your stepfather's control) but concentrate on getting ourselves on a path that goes towards our goals (things we can control, like how you can avoid being a victim of your stepfather's narcissistic tendencies). So, the general idea is, you deal with 3 phases of your life at a time. 1.) Past, 2.) Present, 3.) Future. You write down (author) every single thing in the past that has made you who you are in the present (experiences that has shaped you. This is in the past so it's things that you can't change anymore. What weaknesses resulted from it, what strengths and virtues you gained from your experiences), then describe what is your situation in the present (who you are today, what are weaknesses you can work on, what are strengths and virtues you can further develop and use as your assets), then describe who you want to be the future - near future. Like 3 years from now future. Then you're going to try to put the past to rest (Let it Be since you can't change it anymore) and then bridge the present to your future to create an action plan - writing down, every single step by little step what you believe can get you from where you are in your present to who you want to be in your future knowing that you can only act on things you can control and have to stop things outside of your control (like your stepfather, your bishop, your ministering sisters, etc.) from holding you back from your path forward. Just write it all down. Don't worry if it's possible or not. Just write it down like you wrote down all of your past above. And it would be really good if while you're writing all this, you can seek God's help, stopping once in a while to pray to God for inspiration. Then maybe... just maybe... you'll see a light forward and be able to let go or ignore the darkness. Then maybe... you can actually start putting one foot forward... Anyway, I'm just another random anonymous poster on the internet. But it's my wish that I've at least given you just a bit of hope for a brighter future.

Hi, @Eternum. Forgive me if I have interpreted your story incorrectly. You said you were in therapy in the past--have you continued that? Or have you considered going again if you are not currently doing so?

Sometimes the best thing you can do is let it all out. At the end of the day, this is between you and Heavenly Father. Does the Church have a rapidly spreading cancer? Let's table that for now. Do you believe the Book of Mormon is the gospel for our time, that Joseph Smith was a prophet called by God, to restore Christ's Church? If the answer to that is no, then whether or not the Church has a cancer is irrelevant. You need to regain your testimony. If the answer to that is yes, then that's awesome. Now we can go to the next step. The natural man is imperfect. Society is falling further from Heavenly Father, and that without a doubt is bleeding into all aspects of society, to include The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That doesn't, however, mean all Saints. I truly believe the majority of Saints we meet are just trying to be the best person they can be in the image of Christ. However, we all fall short at times. I know I do. I bet you do, too. That's what makes this individual. The Church needs you, you need the Church. Why? Because He wants us to need it. He wants us to serve each other. He wants us to gather. You need to go to Church, and follow the covenants YOU made with HIM. You need to do this because in the blink of an eye you'll be facing eternity. You want to be the best disciple you can be. What other members are, or are not, doing is not relevant to you. You need to do what YOU need to be doing.

This is a misapprehension. Latter-day Saints aren't setting themselves up as Usage Cops. Rather, the idea is that how we present ourselves is eventually how people perceive us. Why is "Mormon" so ubiquitous? Because many generations ago, the Latter-day Saints adopted the word usage of their enemies, and wore "Mormonism" as a badge of honor. I do not blame them for doing this, but imagine if, for the last hundred years or more, we had called ourselves Latter-day Saints instead of Mormons. If we and our ancestors had been doing this, the term "Mormon" would be little used today. Instead, it's de rigeur. People literally don't even know that we believe in Christ, because, well, Mormon, y'know. President Nelson is an intelligent man, and has no delusions about changing everyone's usage overnight (or, heaven forbid, policing their usage). His point is that if we start using correct terms today and keep it up, then two or three generations from now, others will have followed suit.

Good . . . good . . . let the hate flow through you.

"If" that is all that happened then no, no problem. The Law of Chastity revolves around sexual relations. What if they were watching a movie and fell asleep on the couch? No problem, as sleeping is not the problem...the problem is physical interactions that are meant to be reserved between a husband and a wife, and placing ourselves in compromising situations that can lead to trouble. The use of the word "sleeping" in our culture has more than 1 meaning. Just sleeping (as in Zzzz) - not a problem. Sharing a tent while unmarried - definitely a bad idea. They should set better boundaries in the future and stick to them.

I could actually look up the section numbers for the restriction on baptism. But that is not the same thing as a restriction on a calling. I know that probably sounds insane, but as a case study, there was a certain person in my ward that, if they had requested to be baptized, I don't think we would have been supportive of it (habitual, serious transgressions that were unlikely to change quickly). But, as it turns out, the person had already been baptized and began their descent into this pattern of transgression after their baptism. Their name came up as a potential primary teacher. The bishop was hesitant because he was considering disciplinary action. So I told the bishop, either call the disciplinary council or give them the calling. They won't progress until you do one or the other. This person became a primary teacher. I won't say that we hold pre-baptism people to different standards than post-baptism people, but we do sometimes respond to their specific challenges differently. Is there a case where I might give a cohabitating member a calling? Maybe. Depends on a lot of different factors. I just think it's important we don't invent requirements that aren't needed, or perpetuate requirements that don't actually exist.

You're not a Millennial, so you think "few and far between" makes sense. You're older than Millennials, so you didn't read the thread title right. You win some, you lose some.

sorry

The name “Mormon” is available now if you wanna snag that.

Day-a-nows, it means that you will encounter them far apart, and there will only be a few between those encounters.

I didn't realize you were that old....

The two things that kept me from pursuing a career in medicine: blood, and calculus.

You're really going to get upset about this? I could care less.