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I noticed a pattern of phrases in 3 Nephi 9 that Christ repeated four times in somewhat similar ways and was wondering if anyone has ever come across any conference talks or has any insight about this repetition? Assuming things that are repeated are extremely poignant and of significance among scripture. 3 Nephi 9:5: "...to hide their iniquities and their abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come any more unto me against them." 3 Nephi 9:8: " ...to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints should not come up any more unto me against them." 3 Nephi 9: 9: "...to destroy them from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints should not come up unto me any more against them." 3 Nephi 9: 11: "...that their wickedness and abominations might be hid from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints whom I sent among them might not cry unto me from the ground against them."

I was just looking at the Temple Lot in Independence, MO. Supposedly the Community of Christ owns that lot and now has its "Temple" on that spot. But one of my professional competencies is that of a Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM). So, I was wondering about the flood potential for that lot. It turns out that the entire area is near the top of a hill. Lots of small tributaries to the Missouri River. They're all over the place. But it looks like they have a very effective drainage system throughout the city. So, that was nice. It also seems like it attempted to use the grid system that was used in so many Pioneer settled communities. But it has been REKKED. So, I don't know if we ever really set anything out there. But it is a mess compared to other LDS settled areas. Interesting Thoughts: 1) The highest spot of land there is where the police station and post office is. It's a better spot than the CoC Temple Lot. And it's not that far off from that spot. 2) It seems to be an area of cheap real estate. By all mortal measures that I've been able to determine from publicly available sources, that other area would be better all around. 3) There is also another high point not too far away which is mostly residential. It seems to be pretty cheap real estate as well. There are some nice apartments near there. I wonder if the specific spot has been set in stone already. What if the CoC has it wrong? Do we also have records that this is the chosen location? What if the campaign against religion results in weakening the Church of Christ and the Community of Christ so that we can finally obtain that land? What if we're supposed to buy that land on top of the hill? What if we're a lot closer to obtaining the land than we think? Of course, the post office and police station would be a big deal to relocate. But it looks like almost everything else at that location would be easy to relocate. There are some pretty nice apartments nearby for initial move-ins (say... construction teams). I would soooo love to be the engineer to design that city and all the buildings therein. I undrstand that Joseph drew up an initial city plan for that area. I've seen it. It was pretty simplistic. I'm supposing that it was a first iteration and we're to expand upon it via preset fractal patterns. That's going to cause some problems given the existing city. But I think it can be worked. Thoughts on this lot?

Fun post @Carborendum and fun things to think about. I found the following: I don't know what is meant by "stone". Did they drop a no kidding stone/boulder sunk in the earth... or was is more like he placed a, for example, softball sized stone sitting on the surface of the ground? The land wasn't theirs, so I kind of doubt (?) they were dropping a permanent stone, but I'm not knowledgeable on this subject. Could we have the location wrong...perhaps? For referrence:

As a whole, these verses are part of a slightly larger chiasmus https://chiasmusresources.org/3-nephi-913-22 The rhetorical device serves as a mnemonic device for oral traditions, which includes focusing attention on the central idea, and in written traditions.

Elder Bednar dropping bombs:

https://www.facebook.com/russell.m.nelson/posts/3650727088328034

Here is the thought Elder Renlund provided that is irritating "thought leaders" and those that have succumbed to these thoughts leaders: The metaphor is a brilliant metaphor relating sickness (virus) to spiritual sickness, and how we should avoid anything in our lives that might threaten the eternal reward of our family. Seems to be a very appropriate analogy in light of scripture. And yet, this section is full of people irritated because -- the guilty take a truth to be hard. My favorite comment is this, "I doubt that this was an inspired comment and hope you’ll reconsider what a damaging impact this sort of stigmatizing and divisive sentiment has to our congregations." First, it's funny that someone thinks they are able to say what is inspired and isn't when it was "personal" revelation to Elder Renlund, which he is sharing. The Lord doesn't work horizontally with revelation or inspiration, so the pride involved in this sentiment is even more sad. Truth only impacts a congregation harmfully if the congregation is prideful and doesn't want to accept truth. It really becomes tiring reading comments from people who want to twist words an apostle or prophet will say to further their justification for their decisions.

Agreed. The Church of Christ, Temple Lot owns the parcel where the footprint of the original building was to have stood. I rather wonder what we would do with such a temple, when we got one. The construction plans revealed to Joseph Smith wouldn’t make a building that was suitable for what we traditionally know as “temple work”; and we have larger and better facilities for gatherings. IIRC the original platte for the city of Zion called for twenty-four “temples” all on that plot, for a variety of purposes. It strikes me that what Joseph Smith had in mind was probably a headquarters campus with a variety of office/administrative/assembly/liturgical structures, all genetically called “temples”.

One of the great problems is that we see the border from one side - the side we live on. The problem at the border is far more complex than what is see from our unique perspective. A couple of years ago I had a long talk with a engineer working on the same project I was working - he lives in Mexico. From his perspective there are greater problems at the borders for Mexicans than those of us in the USA. We see human trafficking (mostly illegal alliins) and drugs. Mexicans see the border as a flow of black market operations. For example, crime syndicates operate in Mexico to bring black market goods to the USA. The petroleum in Mexico is owned by the government and is the largest known reserves in the world. Crime syndicates rob the Mexicans of both crude and refined petroleum products and sell it to US companies under sanctions made legal by our government. Vast amounts of weapons cross the border from the US into Mexico. Not just civilian guns and ammunitions but military grade anti tank and anti aircraft weapons. Mexico is also used by US based crime syndicates to smuggle cash that is laundered for legal international purchases - often for US businesses, land and technology. I personally believe that some of the laundered money finds its was back to the USA and into politician pockets through family owned international businesses (case in point - Hunter Biden) dealings and so called charitable organizations. Much of Mexican politics is controlled by crime - not just the drug cartels but by crime organizations from the USA. Likewise - much of our government is controlled by the same organizations. Most of the monies supplied for US political campaigns comes from businesses moguls and organizations and very little from individual private citizens of the middle class. I am reminded of Oran Hatch that while running a while back for the US Senate to represent Utah - announced that he was not even going to try to raise money among the citizens of Utah because he already had sufficient funds from outside sources. Although Senator Romney has not made any comments along this line to the public - I expect the same monetary control operates within his organization - And I suspect what monetary pressures apply to Romney are many fold concerning representatives of more influential states. The Traveler

1. However that Stake Center got there... you are correct it is massive. 2. Yes the green area is the Temple location and Yes, the CoC temple is in the wrong spot.

Currently the relationship between ourselves and the Reorganized is very good. Much better than what has existed in the past. I am sure when the time comes to build that the L-rd will have his hand in the work and it will go forward on His time table. It will take me a while to find the source but I believe the Missouri center as planned will have several temples and temple complexes. As a side note the largest single land owner in Missouri is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most of the land is farm land and the Church subs out the land to be farmed. I do not know how much of the land is operated for profit and how much for the Church Welfare Services. Also I discovered a large area of land up by Adam-ondi-alman (the middle of no where) that has been developed for residential living and is outfitted for utilities - including fiber-optic cable which appears to be planned for over 100,000 residential lots. I have contacted some individuals that work for the Church in downtown SLC that should be in the know if the Church is involved - but they are unware or any such development within the Church. It is my personal opinion that if the L-rd was to so command that the church could move very quickly to respond to building in Missouri. The Traveler

Come to my house in the spring, she winters at one of her kid's homes.

RECIPES! RECIPES! RECIPES! RECIPES! RECIPES! RECIPES! RECIPES! Soooo... uhmmm.... just how would we get to know that neighbor of yours...? Asking for a friend.

I'm still not getting it. As a side note, we are at day 7 of our family's exposure and nobody has symptoms.

I'm more like J Golden Kimball.

My filtered words may have been more panicky than how he portrayed it. He was of a very cheery disposition throughout the whole discourse. Yes. It only serves to underscore my MIL words.

So, a minor correction from your resident Titanic nerd: The crew (with very few exceptions, mostly coming from Captain Smith himself to men he deemed to be of the non-panicking sort), did *not* tell most of the passengers that the ship was actually sinking, because they wanted to avoid a panic. At least as far as the female first- and second-class passengers were concerned: Those who trusted that there was good and sufficient reason underlying the captain’s orders and made it a priority to obey, made it off fine.* *Third-class women were another story because there were no lifeboats in the designated third-class open decks; and men of all classes risked being excluded from the boats depending on which of the senior officers happened to be supervising the loading of any particular boat—Lightoller and Lowe took harsh “no men” rules, even if there were no women around, and had to be persuaded even to admit teenaged boys; the other officers were more willing to admit men once all the women nearby had been loaded into the boats.

You’re not supposed to talk about good and evil. In certain circles of the Church, there is no right and wrong—only the church’s money, and GAs who aren’t woke enough to use it the way it should be used.

The Lord said he would sift his church... We saw this with the whole Prop 8 and rainbow movements... Now we are seeing it hit the other side of the political scale, with the face-masks and shut down mandates. In the end we will see who is on the Lord's side and who thinks the leaders have fallen because they disagree with them...

The amusing thing is, that wing of the Church had assumed that since Elder Renlund had a small family, a lawyer wife, and frequently cited to his experience in Africa—that he would be as libertine as they themselves are. And yet, he clearly isn’t. It’s a useful lesson. We all get tempted to assume that this GA or that is “one of us” on any given social, political, or theological controversy; but really, the question is whether we are one of them.

Thank you for the summary. Ugh. For a slightly more hopeful outlook, I go to Elder Christofferson: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2020/10/22christofferson But of course, looming over it all, is the 25 year old Proclamation on the Family:

This was the link: http://mywebcast.churchofjesuschrist.org/broadcast But it was a broadcast Zoom meeting. So, it's essentially dormant now. I just took a closer look at the email that announced this. It may have been intended for this local audience only. Since it was a general auxilliary officer, I thought it was at least nationwide. But that may not have been so. When I click on the link now, it says "Ogden West YW/YM instruction." And as I recall, the young woman who gave the closing prayer was announced as being from an Odgen ward. I'll try to repeat all I can remember from the fireside. (I warn that I was not listening as intently as I otherwise would have. I was busy with my calling at the time and only half listening.) ** Announcement: Brother Wilcox will speak at a virtual "For the Strength of Youth" fireside on Sunday, January 17 at 7pm.All Youth and Parents are invited to attend. ** BEGIN SPEECH I believe many of you are thinking that this is probably the worst time to be alive. This is the worst time to be going off to college and start your life as an adult. This is the worst time to be on a mission. I'd argue that this is the best time to be alive. This is the best time to start your life as an adult. This is the best time to go on a mission. It is especially the best time to go on a mission. Why? Because the world is the Titanic and the Church is the lifeboat. The Titanic was supposed to be the best, the strongest, the most luxurious ship ever built. New technology was applied to ensure that this ship was unsinkable. Everyone thought that this was the pinnacle of mankind's achievement (heh-heh). In fact, many boasted, "God, Himself, could not sink this boat." (At this point I - Carb - was drawing a parallel to the Tower of Babel). Does this sound familiar? We have the strongest economy ever. The stock market is higher than it's ever been. Our military is the most powerful on Earth. NOTHING can sink this nation. God, Himself, could not stop this economy. Until the tiniest creature on earth (a virus) stopped the entire world. We all know that the ship hit an iceberg because of lack of care on the part of the Captain. He was too confident in dangerous waters. But what happened afterwards was an even greater tragedy than it needed to be because the passengers themselves were too confident in dangerous waters. After the collision, and after assessments were made, the captain gave the announcement for the passengers to get into the lifeboats because the ship was sinking. The crew ushered passengers as best they could and tried their best to encourage them. And if you only saw the movie, you'd think that the crew was being lazy or didn't do their job. But the research I've done on this story (he held up a stack of papers about 100 pages long) the crew did their job. First hand accounts say that the crew were almost in panic mode. But the passengers were laughing at the idea of getting on the lifeboats when the ship was unsinkable. They thought it was like a fire drill. "Oh, don't worry, it's just a drill" they'd tell one another. But the crew was adamant and did all they could to convince them it was not a drill. Some people got on. Others refused and even MOCKED those who were getting on the lifeboats (Great and Spacious Building, anyone?). That is why lifeboats were going down half-full. Not because of the crew's incompetence, but because the passengers simply didn't take the threat seriously. Then the ship began to tilt. Then there was the chaos that you saw in the movie. This is the best time to be a missionary because there are many passengers out there who are looking for the lifeboat. Nothing can save this world, but God, Himself. We are the crew trying to usher them into the lifeboats. And only something so dire as a pandemic is as clear as the boat tilting. So, go about gathering Israel and ushering them into the lifeboats. That's our job. We're the crew. -- I remember there was more to the conclusion portion. But I honestly can't remember what he said.

Some years ago I started mixing my own seasoning and never looked back. You also may not be letting the meat sizzle enough. You want a nice char. You also may not be my ancient neighbor who hails from middle-of-nowhere, Mexico and possess all Mexican cooking wisdom. Word to the wise: If you're in my backyard when her three billion descendants are over dinner, do not make eye contact with anyone over the fence. If they get the slightest inclination you are aware of their presence, a giant paper plate of food will be prepared for you and you will have to eat it. It may be delicious, but it is also a month's worth of food on one plate.

I have a family member that has come t the US legally (not immediate family member, extended family) who has not been able to become a citizen for over 5 years now. It would strike me as particularly cruel in a turn of fate if those who come in illegally gain immediate citizenship vs. those who try to go the legal route. On the otherhand, the US could have easier routes for those who wish to immigrate. There are reasons to be fearful of many of those coming from the South of the Border. They are coming from poverty and many are seeking a better life from it. I imagine if there were others of us that had the choice between seeing our children and families starve to death or trying to save them from that hardship, we would choose to try to cross over borders and nations anyway we could find. At the same time there is a vast amount of violence (in Honduras for example) which propagate a massive amount of suffering and death from the savage gangs and daily skirmishes they bring upon the citizens of the nations they reside in. Many are fleeing this violence in order to find a better life in a society they see as more stable. Unfortunately, many of them simply think they can travel and get a better life rather than changing their own families first. This has caused the rise of many of those same gangs found in those nations which cause such violence to be established in the US. In some of the cities in the Southwest and California there are areas where police now do not go as much and the threats are just as real as any of those nations South of the Border. Those immigrants have brought the same gangs and violence with them. Instead of changing, they simply brought it with them. They have brought the problem to us and with every new immigrant of that same mindset, brings us closer to that same anarchy found in their nations which they say they are fleeing. I don't have the solution to this problem. You want to be compassionate to those that truly want to immigrate to the US and want to be a benefit to our society, but at the same time if we do not screen the bad elements out, we eventually could become just like those nations filled with violence that they are trying to escape from. Bringing this full circle..of course, with the route that many are following currently in the US both on the Far Right and the Far Left, it may be that we create our own violence among each other soon enough. If we do not heed the wise counsel of our Prophets and Apostles (and honestly, almost all Americans are not members of the Church and not listen to the leaders of our church...but perhaps it would merely just take the members of our church to be an example first if nothing else) it could be that we devolve into such dissension that violence will continue rising among those who are divided in our nation.

We had tacos last night. We always use the Old El Paso seasoning, which I like, but I don't believe I've ever had tacos at a restaurant so I don't know how much better they are there. Having said that though, about 30 years ago I visited a colleague in Dallas, Texas, and he took me to a proper Tex-Mex restaurant, where we had enchiladas. About a year later, back in the UK, I went out with some friends to a Mexican restaurant, and asked for enchiladas (remembering how much I'd liked the ones in Dallas) but what they gave me was (by comparison) the most miserable excuse for an enchilada imaginable. So I can well imagine "proper" tacos being a quantum leap better that anything I've ever tasted.

This is a false and hateful statement. No one here has mocked Nicaraguans, yet the resident self-proclaimed atheist sees fit to lecture us on what he snidely calls "the American Jesus". I have had it with these kinds of lies and the apparent lack of any effort at all to moderate such verbal feces on this, an ostensibly LDS-oriented site.

Indeed... For example I am personally willing to help other individuals. But if one of those individuals has a history of threatening violence against people trying to help, well my religion and faith would excuse me from going over. My responsibly to stay alive for my family trumps, rendering temporary aid to a stranger. When we move this up to the macro scale and immigration it still holds. We help those we can. But those that are threats we do not, because it is not safe to do so. We have an obligation to protect those already here... the only way to do that is to vet those incoming. And large numbers make the vetting more difficult . To have this concerned be so toxicly twisted into pure selfishness and mocking and scorning of the poor an needy shows the fundamental dishonesty of the statement. A variation of this dishonesty is to claim that we think ALL immigrants are criminals and dangerous. We are not saying that they ALL are. We are saying that the odds are that small subset of them are, and that subset needs to be dealt with for the protection of all.

I do not, and I for one would like to know. However, My feelings are definitely on a macro level, not on the individuals coming in. Here is what I think when I learn about these caravans or any type of illegal entry. - So many entitled Americans think the US is an awful place... yet millions of people all over the world want in. - There are, without a doubt, criminals in that mass looking to get. Drug dealers, mules, human traffickers, rapists, murders, etc. this is why we vet and don’t let everyone who knocks on our door in. It’s not fair to let 9000 people in to the US while putting at risk everyone who is already here side note: One great way to ruin a conversation and prevent dialogue is to insult the views of the other person. Whenever I see someone throwing in ad hominem, I write that person off as “not having anything useful to say”. Whether that is true or not, I much prefer engaging In Conversation, not in verbal attacking (though I am far too familiar with the temptation to attack the person instead of defending the point).

A perfect example of why this country is polarizing. One side demands that we treat every issue they think is important with utmost care and concern... Yet when the other side presents something they are concerned about, the response to attack the character of the person expressing the concern and strawmaning their statements and belief.

If you are using a store bought taco seasoning mix, this could be it (I can't stand that stuff--too salty and taste like preservatives, to me). Make your own and make sure you get quality ingredients. I recommend going to a local International market or Latin market to get your seasonings. I make my own and store it in an airtight container. Whenever I need Mexican seasoning (taco, chili, taco soup, etc), I use this.

If only Antifa and BLM would heed the wisdom of the First Presidency.

The next time I talk to Pres. Nelson*, I'll tell him you're the guy for the job. * (I've never actually talked to him, but you never know.)

with or without the polish?

“I know, right! It’s so weird. 😉“ -Pace Picante