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It was a great visit. The GA and a member of the Stake Presidency came to visit me. We strongly felt the Holy Spirit, and it's been a long time since I felt it that powerfully. They shared a lot of love with me and it was moving. I feel grateful they selflessly took time out of their lives to visit me. I believe the visit was meant to be. It even worked out to where we had the house to ourselves since I didn't have my 6-year old daughter with me like I usually would since she was at her friend's birthday party with her Mom. Personal experiences, stories and advice were shared in response to my doubts about the Book of Mormon, and as the point was stressed to keep trying, I brought up how I was concerned I might talk myself into a testimony of the Book of Mormon versus accepting it based on truth. The Holy Spirit most strongly manifested itself to me when the GA shared how he had been praying earlier this morning to help even just one person today, and how this meeting was meant to be, and how his assignment to visit my area had been assigned by Elder Ballard. I received a distinct impression as he was sharing all this that it was true and had been orchestrated by God and the Holy Spirit. I plan to stay in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I will continue trying to develop within it. I can't deny how powerfully the Holy Spirit manifested itself to me. I still have many questions and maybe some will remain a mystery to me till after this mortal existence, but the important thing is I feel like God blessed me today to get over my hurdle of uneasiness about the Church with all the mounting questions and skepticism I had about it. I know I have a lot to learn, and even though I'm a slow learner, I'm hopeful to bring others unto Jesus Christ by sharing the kind of love that was shared with me today. I'm taking a new approach starting today. When it comes to the Church, I'm not going to fixate on the things I don't understand. I will focus on the things I do understand and allow God to fill in the rest in due course.

I didn’t bring up temple ordinances. I probably could have talked with them for 5 more hours, but the 1 hour we did share was well spent. As far as the Doctrine and Covenants, there’s a lot of good passages there, and I like reading about the unique doctrine you can’t find anywhere else, although I have to be careful going forward that I don’t let what I don’t understand consume me to the point it inhibits my spirituality such as the three kingdoms of glory and polygamy.

Matthew 16:1-4 When I was preaching in Philadelphia, a Quaker called out for a sign, I told him to be still. After Sermon he again asked for a sign. I told the Congregation the man was an Adulterer, that a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and that the Lord had said to me in a Revelation that any man who wanted a sign was an Adulterous person “it is true” cried one “for I caught him in the very act”. which the man afterwards confessed when he was baptized. "History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843]," p. 1466, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 15, 2023, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-d-1-1-august-1842-1-july-1843/109

Yeah. You really can't worry about things you don't understand. There's so much I don't understand. But we don't need to understand everything. We only need to know the Church is true*. The rest comes line upon line in God's time. And most of that we may not really ever understand in this life. *This goes hand in hand with knowing Jesus is the Christ.

I am interested in converting to Mormonism, but first I want to talk to a missionary to make sure I make the right decisions.

Yeah, I was a little taken aback by the wording there. In the US, obviously one can use deadly force to defend against a bona fide home invasion; but if I take pot shots at a doorbell ditcher—even an aggressive one— on the grounds that “his knocks sounded threatening” or “he traumatized me”, etc; it probably isn’t going to end well for me.

This is the right approach. Do as much as you can and let God magnify it - loaves & fishes - in the end, you'll have not only more than you started with, but more than enough.

I have wondered about this connection. Is it always to be taken literally?

In this country it wouldn't end well for you either. They used to say an Englishman's house is his castle. Its a shame that's not true any more. (And that's coming from someone who thinks that for all its faults the British system is better than the American!)

https://www.channel4.com/

Howdy! Sorry I’m a bit late to the party, it’s been a crazy weekend. @zil2 already provided you the formal missionary link. I’m not a formal missionary, but would be thrilled to answer any questions here or via DM/email. Whatever you’d like!

First, what a wonderful experience you had. Now for my quote, I've had a couple of questions since my teen years. The answer I received through the Holy Ghost about those questions was I would get those answers on the other side of the veil and they did not matter to my mortal existence (hmph .) I am glad you had the experience you did and will remain in the church.

Welcome, @Emmett Xavier Theodoran! You can contact missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the Come Unto Christ website, via the "Contact Us" menu. You can also find a local church to visit and meet members in person. On this site, members and others discuss a wide variety of topics. If you'd like to post a question here, you're more than welcome to and we'll do our best. But for missionaries, check out above link.

Exodus 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you. Revelations 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. From Wikipedia - Ego eimi (Ancient Greek: ἐγώ εἰμι Greek pronunciation: [eɡɔ̌ː eːmí]) "I am", "I exist", is the first person singular present active indicative of the verb "to be" in ancient Greek. "I Am that I Am" is a common English translation of the Hebrew phrase אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה‎‎ (’ehye ’ăšer ’ehye; pronounced [ʔehˈje ʔaˈʃer ʔehˈje])– also "I am who (I) am", "I will become what I choose to become", "I am what I am", "I will be what I will be", "I create what(ever) I create", or "I am the Existing One". The traditional English translation within Judaism favours "I will be what I will be" because the imperfective aspect in Modern Hebrew is normally used for future tense and there is no present tense with direct object of the verb "to be" in the Hebrew language. According to the rules of biblical Hebrew grammar (as preserved in the Masoretic Text), the verb root behind the name Yhwh should be hawah, "become". By contrast, the phrase ehyeh asher ehyeh (which effectively translates Yhwh’s meaning) is derived from the much more commonly used root hayah, "fall out, come to pass, become, be". The early rabbis thus understood the meaning of Yhwh as "He Who Was, and Is, and Will Be" (that is, asher hayah wehoweh weyihyeh, all of which words derive from hayah). The Greek phrase in Revelation 4:8 and elsewhere, once back-translated into Hebrew, is very similar (asher hayah wehoweh weyavo, "Who Was, and Is, and Is to Come"). The apparent conundrum here is resolved when one realizes that hawah had fallen out of common use when God revealed His personal name to Moses (or when the account of events was written down in its present form by later scribes). The Tetragrammaton from Ancient Greek τετραγράμματον consisting of four letters, or the Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym יהוה‎ (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are yodh, he, waw, and he. The name may be derived from a verb that means "to be", "to exist", "to cause to become", or "to come to pass". While there is no consensus about the structure and etymology of the name, the form Yahweh is now accepted almost universally, though the vocalization Jehovah continues to have wide usage. Jewish teaching and all of Christedom loves the title I AM. But only by means of the Book of Abraham and Moses do we more fully understand Jehovah in the past. John 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

To put it bluntly, I am at this point pretending that the Disney-era productions don't exist. The franchise has been so badly mismanaged, and Disney in such a shambles, that it's hard for me to feel excited because there's no guarantee anything will actually survive very long. I mean... Episode 8 collapses with the question of "Where were the B-Wings?".