ZionsRodeVos

Members
  • Posts

    181
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by ZionsRodeVos

  1. Yes, I understand that Satan wants us all to be miserable like himself. What I am wondering if by him not tempting anyone if that wouldn't better ruin the plan of salvation by removing his opposition. Would him not tempting us lessen the test and possibly make it irrelevant? Obviously there is a reason it would not work, else I think he'd already be doing that if it was the better way to get back at God but I don't see why it wouldn't work. In 2 Nephi 2:11-13 we find: 11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility. 12 Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God. 13 And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away. By these scriptures I understand that without opposition in all things righteousness could not exist and with no righteousness, no happiness and a lot of other things including if these things are not there is no God. So, is there something compelling Satan to tempt us to create this opposition in all things or could he stop? Surely, he knows these things better than we and also has access to the scriptures if he needed them. And if he could stop then why doesn't he and so cause what is written in the above verses to happen?
  2. Ah, so Satan goes around tempting us, or whispering to us, that he doesn't exist and then follows that up with tempting us to do something we shouldn't. I remember hearing that he tries to get is to believe he does not exist and was so focused on the faith aspect that I forgot it. Interesting to think that Satan has to follow certain rules. I would think that with the power he has he does whatever he pleases. He of course doesn't have more than our Heavenly Father nor than Jesus, but he certainly has a lot and according to Joseph Smiths account he tried to use his power to destroy Joseph seconds before God and Jesus appeared to him. It has been a while since I read the Pearl of Great Price and I did not remember reading about Moses seeing Satan. I'll have to find that chapter and read it again. But if there are rules something like what you say, then Satan could force God to appear to many people by appearing to people over and over again and potentially ruin the plan of salvation that way by removing or messing up the faith element God intended to be in the plan of salvation. This came to me after I posted just now and I didn't realize it would tie into the other thread I posted.
  3. Another thought I've had recently is wondering why Satan and his followers play any role in the plan of salvation. We've been taught that there must be an opposition in all things. Wouldn't it frustrate God's plan more if Satan and his followers did not tempt us. Then there would not be an opposition in all things. Wouldn't that mean that we could not know good because we knew no evil? Or would people without being tempted choose to rebel against God just as it seems Lucifer rebelled when as far as we know, there was no one tempting him?
  4. This is just a question that came to me during the priesthood session and in no way means I want to see any of them. I know we are here to live by faith and one of the aspects of this seems to be that for this reason very few of us have seen our Heavenly Father or Jesus or angels. But why should Satan care about any of that and simply show himself to every one of us and speak to us directly to tempt us to sin like he did to Jesus. Surely Heavenly Father allows him to exercise his agency as much as is possible without a body and surely Satan cares nothing for the plan of salvation. The only thing that came to my mind is that if he were to appear to each and every one of us that might be enough proof for everyone to decide to seek out God and/or might give Heavenly Father a reason to send an angel to each of us to counter such a direct and forceful manifestation of evil. What do you think about this?
  5. I must say this thread has been very interesting to read and I am impressed by how Mikbone and Selek were able to have a discussion and not what I would term an argument. By what I have read here and what I understand it would seem that the only reason Jesus came to earth was to accomplish the atonement and the resurrection and to serve us and other than that He gained nothing by being mortal. With what limited logic and understanding I have I would like to think Jesus got something out of it beyond that but perhaps that is what adds to all he did for us. He didn't have to do it to be a god. He did it for us. He did do it to get his body. As for the old testament. I've read it more than once and find many portions of it difficult to understand, however I would not consider it should be like the apocrypha. The apocrypha is not scripture for a reason just like the old testament is scripture for a reason. The old testament is correct enough to be considered scripture and the apocrypha is not.
  6. Too me a peacemaker is a person that diffuses arguments and tense situations as much as possible and seldom if ever contributes to them. A peacemaker is a person who can look at a situation in various ways and consider many possible solutions and then will always choose a peaceful way to solve a problem first. A peacemaker will back away from conflict whenever possible and in a way that often eliminates the conflict. One example of this would be if someone is looking for an argument with the peacemaker then the peacemaker will not speak and so there is no argument. Most times this action reduces tension. A peacemaker can state their opinion and belief and then fall silent if continuing to talk would create an argument. A peacemaker learns to not use words that will immediately incite non peaceful reactions from others. The same goes for actions and the peacemaker learns how to act in such a way to reduce or eliminate non peaceful reactions in others. Techniques such as redirection can work with anyone to channel anger and aggression away from people and/or animals and often diffuse it completely. A peacemaker does not seek to find offense from others words or actions even when offense was intended and has the ability to ignore such words or actions.
  7. I wish I would get called back to teaching in Jr Primary. I had a lot of fun in that calling and the children actually would be quiet and listen. After that I taught Sr Primary then Sunday School and now the teachers quorum and often have two or more children who talk and won't be quiet long enough for me to teach them much. That is very frustrating. One of the attention activities I remember doing with my Jr Primary was I brought pillow cases and ties and put them on each child's head as if they were a shepherd and then we went out side to find lost sheep. Before class I had hidden one or two plastic sheep that they had to find as part of the lesson. That is one lesson I will never forget giving them and they all enjoyed it.
  8. I get frustrated at times with some of the activities and their timing and such. I don't always feel happy or joy when serving, especially when some of the teachers are talking during class and disrupting it so no one can feel the spirit and when some of the youth don't obey when told to stop playing basket ball to come to mutual. I got frustrated with similar situations in class when I was teaching the same youth as a Sunday School teacher. I've often considered asking to be released or just quitting. So far I haven't done so. Part of my frustration comes from the fact that I am a single dad with custody of my four children and happen to have a 1 and a half to two hour commute. And so never seem to be able to get everything that needs to be done, done and still have time to do things that I want to do such as playing computer games. I'm the type of person that feels that since I have a home I should actually be able to spend some of my waking hours in it and so don't always feel like going anywhere. I think you would be wise to return to church and do your best to integrate the different things you mentioned at a pace that makes sense to you and doesn't feel like it overburdens you or takes away your personal life. Especially if you view things as Anddenex stated which would mean you are still under the requirement to do all the things you mentioned. Well, right now you are doing none of them. So start doing one of them and see how that goes, then when you are comfortable with that start doing another and see how many you can integrate into your life, especially if some can become part of your personal life, and do as much as you are comfortable with. At least that way you will be heading in a more spiritual direction than you currently are.
  9. I can see it would have been better for me not to reply. I didn't realize everything changed that much. The cost has gone up a lot!
  10. My knowledge on this is about 19 years old so I don't know how much of the process is still the same or not. As for income, I was not able to show I had income and had my dad sponsor my fiance and guarantee that he would be responsible for her financially. So if the process has stayed the same then whoever is already in the US just needs to get their mom or dad to sponsor you. When I went through the process there were two types of visas. One for if you were already married and one for fiances. For married people it took a year to get the visa approval letter. For the fiance visa it was 2 or 3 months. So if that stayed the same then your quickest route would be the fiance visa. Once in the US you would have to get married within a month. The path using the fiance visa allowed the non US citizen to work. I don't remember if they could before getting married but know that they could after getting married. I also learned that the time period they said it would take for the approval did not mean you could enter the country upon receiving the approval letter. There was still more that had to be done to pick up the paper work. In my case it took my then fiance a couple more months before she could enter the US. You will want to go to the US immigration and naturalization web site to investigate how the process works today. I learned what I needed to do from that web site and then filed all the paper work myself.
  11. I've been teaching youth and children for many years now in various callings and I have seen how electronic devices disrupt the class and prevent me and those in the class from feeling the spirit. The youth, use the excuse that they are using the device for scriptures when in fact they are doing other things including playing games during class. I believe if the youth would only use their electronics for scriptures during church and during times they set aside for scripture study and nothing on the device would interrupt them then they would feel the spirit just as much as if they were reading a physical set of scriptures. In most cases, I would say that something pops up or the youth gets tempted to check Facebook and/or e-mail and whatever else and so do not feel the spirit as much when using the electronic scriptures. Whereas if they were using physical scriptures then they would have to go to a computer or their electronic devices to check those things and many would not because they are already feeling the spirit and their isn't an alert that they just got an e-mail to interrupt their reading and/or studying of the scriptures.
  12. The last book I read was Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey which is the second book of a three book series. I've read this book many times and recommend it because it is interesting and lacks swearing, sexual scenes, and even has very little violence in it. The main character is Menolly who happens to impress 9 fire lizards (basically shoulder sized dragons) and shows how she finds a place in the harper hall using her talents to sing and compose songs.
  13. Correct, this can be among the things you could pay for someone to do for you. In my case, I believe that this is a skill I can learn for myself and so plan to do so. I've already been converting to mobi for the Kindle and putting it on my Kindle and reading/sharing my book from my Kindle. So I plan to review my own book on the Kindle and have others review the format before I publish it. If the final editor I hire for my book also happens to offer putting it in the correct format for not too much more then I may just pay the price for the conversion to mobi.
  14. I am another of the hopeful writers working on books to publish. Everyone has given you excellent information about getting published. I hope to add to that and give you another perspective at the same time. At this site you will find a program that will allow you to convert a file to the correct format for Nook, Kindle, and others: calibre - E-book management I have completed the first draft of a novel and have a few short stories that have gone through a few drafts. I am working toward self publishing fantasy and/or science fiction. SQL Server Central on the web has published technical articles I wrote on line and included a few of those in books they published. I try to learn from other authors by going to their blogs and/or communicating with them at KBoards - Index. The reason I have decided to self publish is because from what I have learned there can be great books that publishers don't take because they have met a quota or they just published a book similar to the one you wrote. It doesn't mean yours wouldn't work but that they are not interested right now. With the way things are going on amazon I figure I have a better chance there. Plus with self publishing you control everything about your book including its fate. From what I have learned to self publish and get your book noticed enough that many people will buy it requires that you pay for a good cover, one that will catch the notice of people browsing for books, you have a good blurb, and you hire an editor to get the book polished before publishing. But, all this is useless if your book is not good. The trick is to write a book like the ones you have read that you can't put down and keep reading until 1 or 2 AM because you must know what happens next. If you achieve these things then your book will not be one of the one that gets passed by on amazon. Getting help from Beta readers is extremely useful. I have learned of a number of problems in my novel from Beta readers. I've come across a number of good sayings among writers and interesting articles as I research how to become published and get many people to want to buy and read my books. One of the ones that has stood out which to me which I believe is relevant no matter how you plan to publish is to ponder these questions. How many books have you bought because you already knew the author? How many books have you bought because a friend recommended a book to you? As an unknown author you and I have no chance of having our books purchased because people already know us. So no fan's to help us out yet. However if people that know us read our books and enjoy them, they will tell their friends. This kind of word of mouth is priceless. Having Beta readers can get this process started. I just recently had one of my Beta readers offer to buy other stories I produce and I realized that I have at least one fan now. I know I have a few other fan's as well but most of them are family. I plan to give all my books to my Beta readers for free since that is the best I can do right now to compensate them for their time and effort. Write your book and whether you go the traditional or self publishing route, make it the best you can and you will find readers and many will want to buy subsequent books you write.
  15. You take very good pictures. I enjoy observing animals and liked seeing these pictures.
  16. The constant criticism I experienced was exhausting. I just realized that I handled it very differently while still living with my children's mom and started handling it very differently sometime after the separation. Before the separation I would ask her to stop or demonstrate to her how what she said was wrong and of course that just fueled an argument. I became weary of those. After the separation whenever she would start talking about irrelevant things or began criticizing me then I just hung up on her. The first way was communication but very unproductive. The second way simply eliminated most of the communication. There are still times when I hang up on her because of the negativity in her communications. She seldom if ever agreed with my way of doing things whereas in my mind there is more than one right way to do many things. I was very concerned about the welfare of my children and the only solution I found that would allow me to continue to be an influence for good in my children's lives was to seek primary custody. In ways my confidence was shaken in some things but in others it increased as I saw first hand that things improved for my children after I was granted custody. There have been set backs too, very difficult ones which I think I have too long attributed to the separation and divorce but I now think it may go beyond that. Planning things that will make a difference helps a lot. It has seemed to get better slowly over the years for me and my children but still the challenges keep coming. Emotionally it did get better within a year or so after the separation. I sincerely hope you find a solution that will work for you and your family.
  17. I was 27 when I got married but was very naive and minimized any problems I recognized and thought they would not be problems. I didn't see a lot of the conflicts/problems and since I never was able to figure out the real reasons my children's mom acted the way she did until after the separation I really had no chance of changing to resolve the problems. Every time I would change because of a reason she gave me the problem still was not fixed and that added to my confusion. I too read and learned a lot about things I would never have learned otherwise.
  18. I separated from my children's Mom in May of 2005 and got a divorce a few years later. I still don't fully understand the why. For me, my best guess of the why this happened to me and my family is that I may not have understood the answer to some prayers correctly and/or made some/many wrong decisions leading up to my marriage and then throughout the time I was married and probably more. And God allowed it to happen because we are free to choose what we do in this life. What has always confounded me is that if God new that my marriage to my children's Mom was going to end in divorce then why didn't he simply make it more clear to me that I should not marry her and save us all a lot of pain and suffering, especially for our children. And that just leads me back to the freedom of choice and the rest of what I put in the above paragraph.
  19. I still remember how my divorce affected/is affecting my children and at times I think I have failed them and/or am failing them. My oldest only goes with his mom when he wants to and often it seems she doesn't make time for him these days. My second oldest doesn't want to talk about that time period at all and by choice has no contact with his mom at all because of their deteriorating ability to communicate and understand each other. It's only been in the last year or two (he's 15 now and he would have been about 6 or 7 when the separation was initiated by me.) that he has begun opening up a little with me. My other son and only daughter go with their mom when she makes time for them which is sporadically at this point. The rapport I had with my children prior to the separation gradually went away and has never really returned to what it was before. And I am not really trying to put blame on my children's mom here nor on me. I'm trying to give you an idea of how children can react to a divorce based on how I've seen my children react. My daughter was 4 or 5 at the time of the separation. She saw her mom and I hugging and told us we couldn't do that because we weren't married. I was very worried about how the separation and divorce would affect my children more than how it would affect me. I've seen though that how it affected me also affected them. All three of my boys have anger issues they've had to learn to control and problems with built up anger and frustrations. It becomes a very dark time for everyone as the separation and divorce process exacts a heavy toll on the emotions of everyone and the scars take a long time to heal, but as I look at things now it seems that most of those scars have mostly healed now. I hope you can find the best solution for your situation and minimize the impact to your children. I don't remember much of the conversation when I gathered my family together to let them know that their mom and I were not going to be living together anymore. I do remember it was not a happy nor good moment.
  20. Another idea is, that with the age change for women too, you could go on a mission when you are 19 and that would have you coming back 6 months after he gets back and if he were to extend his mission a month or two more the time for him waiting would be less. I didn't have a girl friend waiting for me during my mission so maybe I don't understand, but if your boyfriend can focus on his mission then I don't see why breaking up has to be the answer, especially if neither of you seem to want to discuss it.
  21. From the restoration we know that some people have kept using their mortal name after their resurrection. Some examples besides Jesus would be John the Baptist, Peter, James, Moroni, and Elijah who identified themselves to Joseph Smith using their mortal names. I would think we had names before coming here just as Jesus did and that once the veil is gone that we could continue using that name and/or the name we had here in mortality. Most likely for any who visit the earth after their mortal life they would use their mortal name because that is the name those still in mortality would know them as.
  22. Christina, You are in a tough situation very difficult indeed. I'm Robert, divorced, and have custody of my four children. It was very difficult for me to decide to initiate a separation that I was sure would lead to divorce and I worried a lot about how this would affect my children. I tried for years to make changes and to get my children's mom to change but she wouldn't and obviously the changes I made were not enough. I also was the type of guy that would help out some in the house after work and on weekends and even tried to give my children's mom a break from the children to help her. Keep praying even if it takes a while to get an answer. While praying and waiting consider your options and if they may include separating then you need to prepare for that possibility. The good thing or bad thing about preparing for a separation/divorce is that most likely means you will separate/divorce your husband so consider that well before planning for that possibility. You have said that you are pregnant and run down and sick. It sounds to me like this is a perfect time for your husband to not complain about how well the house is kept clean and to clean it himself. Many men, and I include myself, don't realize fully how much their wife does and probably won't until they have to do it themselves. I got a clearer picture once I separated as I then had to do a lot more and still work full time. If you would feel comfortable with this idea, go visit family for a day or two and leave him at the house with one or two of the older children, he may just learn to appreciate all that you do in your home. If you are not already asking your 6 year old to help out, I suggest you ask him/her to help out. At 6 years old there are things he/she can do to help out that won't be over burdensome.
  23. I started my mission when I was 24 and finished when I was 26. I felt that I was behind because I went so late and then of course married later than what I was taught was the norm. I still have no college/university degree and yet I am a database programmer making a good salary. And I worked in data conversion/data entry for about 3 or so years after my mission before really getting into the technology sector. So the career I have now started when I was 29 or 30. I give this example to show you that you would not be as far behind (if you want to call it that) as I was and everything worked out fine for me. I do believe that Heavenly Father blessed me with the job I have now. So, if you are going to convert because you believe then do so and go on your mission and then you won't have to worry about not being considered for dates because you didn't serve a mission.
  24. The way I understand the gospel and our Heavenly Father is that just because He knows what choices we will make does not mean we don't have the freedom to choose what we want. He just happens to know us well enough to know what we are going to do. It's similar to parents who know their children well enough to know what they will choose when there is a choice their child must make. One simple example would be that if a child likes yellow and a parent offers the child a choice between many different colored shirts and included in the selection is a yellow shirt then the parent can be very sure the child will choose yellow. Too me, this does not take away from the child's free will to choose what the child wants even though the parent knows what the choice will be.
  25. I've thought about why I keep going to church on various occasions. One of the major points of the gospel is being able to be with your family forever. Well, I'm divorced, and have one child already not going to church and suspect that one or two of my others will leave too. I've a sister that also doesn't go to church anymore. My parents are divorced. So this leaves me with a lot of questions over what my family will even look like, assuming I actually make it to heaven. It seems there will be so many holes in it that the promise of families can be together forever just isn't going to happen for me. My faith seems to be failing me in many ways (or me failing to use my faith or something) and yet there are a number of significant ways it does not fail me. One of these is in my decision to go to church every Sunday and to live the gospel as best I can. I'm not depressed but feel as if I should be happier than I am. I still feel a desire to go to church that keeps me going every Sunday. I'm sure my testimony of the gospel helps a lot as I still hope for something better in the future. Since returning to the church I don't remember seriously considering not going anymore. The closest I may have come to that is wanting to be released from callings that seemed beyond me or to frustrate me every time I tried to do what I think is right in them, but that doesn't ever lead me to thinking I should stop going to church. I question a lot more these days and wonder why some members do things in a certain way that seems to impact me or my children negatively but that doesn't change my fundamental desire to go to church. I think some of why I still go is the hope I have of making a difference by how I serve in my callings (most of my callings in the past 8 or so years have been teaching classes) in helping others to learn the gospel and gain a testimony. But at the same time I think it would be nice to have no callings for a time so that I can just come to church, be there, and then go home. I like being able to help others even though some of that help is just providing transportation to youth and others who don't have transportation and need to get somewhere.