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We changed stake boundaries about 4 years ago. I don't know what is considered a "larger geographic area", but from my house at the edge of the ward to the other side is about a 50 minute drive.

See that everyone? Australia needs members! Go move there instead of Colorado - then they can have their temple!

Pres. R. asked twice in the last couple of years and was told no to boundary changes. He said it would be the next SP's problem.

I just don't friend anyone. Less work that way. Who needs friends when you have the internet? I remember reading a bio of Karl Marx where the biographer described Marx by saying something like that he "loved people in the aggregate, but not individually". Sounds approximately 180° (that's π radians for you metric folks) away from how God loves people.

That's about the size, perhaps smaller, of the ward I was in when we lived in upstate NY. I have no idea if there are rules on how geographically large a ward or stake can be, and if there are, no idea how they reconcile it when the various rules seem to conflict...

As I mentioned before, I spent a decade helping to support a YSA branch. The branch was created because we had about 400 YSA in the stake according to the membership records. Nobody actually bothered to confirm how many were still within the stake, a critical step as we're supporting a major military base where people come and go all the time. As a result, we actually had less than 100 people still within the stake, and there were Sundays where as few as 20 people actually showed up.

I suppose you're "safe" until the next time your stake want to change any boundaries. I wonder if there will be wards downgraded to branches, or if folks will opt for wards that cover a larger geographic area (that could be very challenging).

We wouldn't meet the requirements for a ward today.

Come, come, ye saints :_

The Branch that meets in the same chapel as my Branch has about 50 attendees on a good day. Its western and eastern boundaries both extend about 300 kilometers. Going south its about 250 km to the next Branch. Every time he comes up here the Mission President talks about having a Temple in this city of two Branches with a combined weekly attendance of about 160

Yes. My ward has been shrinking, too. I think it's only a matter of time before our stake rearranges boundaries.

Here in sunny Colorado Springs, we've been growing for 20 years and show no sign of stopping. My original ward boundaries are now home to 2 stakes and a dozen or more wards. A while back I was talking to a guy who had lived in the same house, but ended up in 3-4 different wards because of all the boundary shifts due to growth. Most of it is people moving here, but also in my ward we've had 3 baptisms already this year. All y'all with shrinking membership, maybe stop sending them to us?

You may have noticed our ward has gotten smaller. We are pretty close to branch numbers that attend.

I think the difference is that many circumstances require us to live with our teams 24/7 and depend on them for our lives. Unit cohesion and trust is important. If you can hump your own gear, not to mention the extra gear a team requires, you're a liability. If you bring your drama to the unit, and the unit isn't allowed to sort it out, you're a liability. If you can't execute your assigned position due to mental or physical ability, you're a liability. If your relationship with a member of the team affects your, or their, ability to execute their assignment you're a liability. Liabilities can lead to mission failure and or team death. You don't have to like the person you're serving with, but you have to be able to operate with them.

Why should "free will" mean "unpredictable"? This is not obvious to me.

This is all interesting on a sort of academic level, I suppose. On a personal level, I am curious why the Priesthood ban was in place—especially since it's obvious that a man of black African descent could hold the Priesthood before 1978, as demonstrated by Elijah Abel and others. The video you reference suggests a fascinating possibility, one I'd like to investigate. But curiosity notwithstanding, my main personal concern is the increasingly common belief that the Priesthood ban itself was some sort of horrible mistake, an unqualified evil that somehow infiltrated the Church under Brigham Young. This belief I consider to be tantamount to apostasy. It is not merely disloyal (though it is quite clearly that). It is pandering and obsequious, a capitulation to political correctness and an open demonstration of shame at the mockery from those in the great and spacious building. We should be better than that. Nephi showed us the correct response to such mockery. It's high time we started to engage more actively and regularly in "heed[ing] them not".

This is one of Satan's tactics. My recommendation to you is: Stop reading (at least for now) the site (and similar sites) that caused the problem. Read the Book of Mormon. Focus on Christ. Pray. Bear your testimony to God. Tell him your problem. Ask him for help to overcome these doubts. Ask him to guide you in what to do next. Sure, we can reassure you and remind you of the truth, but our reassurances are nowhere near as powerful as the witness and comfort of the Holy Ghost. Seek that. If it helps, note the evidence - reading whatever you read and dwelling on it is causing you fear, sorrow, and confusion. Satan is the author of those things. Ergo, Satan is the one promoting the determinist view (which really sounds exactly like his plan). Tell him to get lost.

Sorry I missed it. Silly me, I pegged you as being lonely and miserable. Imagine that.

Look up the controversies around the show's creator, Vivziepop, and you'll see that the show very nearly didn't happen. Let's just say that Vivziepop sounds like someone who doesn't exactly have it all together.

I suppose the good news for fans is that they will be allowed to spend the eternities pursuing their fond dream. Lord, please spare my children and grandchildren from such.