Jenamarie

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Everything posted by Jenamarie

  1. I'll just ditto LM. Your works aren't going to bring you a Testimony. When I was questioning the church, it wasn't until the weight of my doubts and my desire to believe finally brought me to my knees in tears, crying out "God, where are you?" that I had my "epiphany". I'd been reading the scriptures, attending the Temple and church meetings, and praying every night, and had felt nothing prior to that. What was the difference? Humility. I had felt a sort of sense of entitlement before, to some big "ah-HA!" moment, when I was searching for a Testimony, and my actions were geared more towards testing God and waiting for Him to deliver that moment to me (LOOK! I'm being a good Mormon! Fill me with your Spirit now!), rather than an actual humbling of myself to His will. It's only been in hindsight that I've seen my actions in this way. I would have said I was "humble" until I was blue in the face before I finally had my moment of true submission to the Lord. I think some of us who seek have to reach a sort of "rock bottom" in our efforts, in order for all of our pride and preconceptions to finally be stripped away, and finally allow the Spirit to work it's wonders in our hearts.
  2. My personal interpretation of this is that the Lord did it to protect Nephi and Lehi. They were sons and brothers of the two people who were keeping the Gospel alive in that family. If they had been successful in killing them, the Gospel would probably not have made it to the Promised Land.
  3. This is my second go round as TFOT's teacher in Relief Society (took a 2 year "hiatus" to be in the YW's presidency). It is my FAVORITE calling. I'm also my ward's Activity Day leader, and while my girls are all adorable, I think my heart would break more over being released from RS than being released from AD.
  4. I'm the Teachings For Our Times teacher in my ward, and I actually prefer teaching from the Ensign than from the manual! Basically pretend you're preparing a Sacrament Meeting talk, with the Conference Talk as your main source, and include class participation. Here's how I come up with an outline for my talks: 1. Pray about what the message is the Lord wants you to present to your class. (duh) 2. Read the article (duh) 3. Read any scriptures included in the footnotes of the talk (often a great source of inspiration) 4. Highlight any quotes from the talk that I especially liked, and that presented the key points of the message. I usually use these quotes as the "points" of my outline. I'll read the quote, or have someone in the class read it, then discuss it more indepth with the class. I'll do this with some of the scriptures as well. If any of the quotes are particularly long (like personal stories from the speaker) I'll paraphrase them. Basically what I do is present a Cliff's Notes version of the talk, broken into 3-4 segments upon a common theme, to the class, then discuss each segment.
  5. I live in Washington state. We don't get any reception because we don't have a digital converter box for our TV. Out TV can only pick up analoge signals, which are no longer available here, and we don't have cable. Between hulu.com and Netflix we don't really miss it.
  6. No kidding. It's one of the reasons why I'm glad we don't get TV reception any more. I get all my news online, so it's easier for me to chose what I click on to read/view and what I don't.
  7. Playing devil's advocate here: but we still don't know if this was a "hoax". Unless the Sheriff has made new statements that I haven't seen, we don't know what the charges are FOR, and considering they allowed law officials to search their whole house, there could be any number of things that could bring out chargers that could be unrelated to the balloon incident, or maybe related, but not related in such a way as to make the whole thing a hoax, like charges of child-endangerment for having a balloon that a kid *could* float away in tied up in their backyard (and they may have genuinely believed he had floated away). Also, in another article I read (sorry I can't remember where, or I'd link to it) they said the call to the TV station was actually a fairly logical thing, because they have traffic helicoptors. If anything, I'd be telling them *DON'T FLY NEAR MY KID!*
  8. Is he taking you camping this late in the season??
  9. My dad had Cabesa when he was serving his mission in Bolivia. He said he got nervous when he saw the children of the family who was feeding him that night walking down the town street in the morning, each holding onto one of the cow's horns, with the head dangling between them. He said you quickly learned two rules about dinner appointments when you're on your mission in a foreign country: 1. Don't ask what it is. 2. Don't turn it over.
  10. As a teen I once made chocolate chip cookies, and forgot the flour! (it was just the white and brown sugars holding the "dough" together). I didn't realize my mistake until they came out of the oven flat as pancakes (except for the chips, of course). They had to be peeled off the tray. My older brother said the resulting mess looked like something Cookie Monster would throw up. (but they tasted really good!!!!)
  11. Isn't one of the Baldwin brothers a conservative?
  12. Jumping in here... In regards to the verse about Eve's sorrows being "multipled in childbearing" I guess I always thought of that verse as meaning emotional pain, versus physical pain. Ya, labor is painful, but for the most part it's brief. Children can bring lots of pain to a mother over their lifetimes. Whether intentional (rebellion) or not (chronic illness, untimely death, etc.) a mother's heart is often filled with sorrow for the trials of her children. I'm not saying father's don't feel sorrow because of their children, but I think as mother's, being the nurturers, we feel it more acutely.
  13. I'm sorry you're having such a hard time. In regards to your wife, could it be that she's having an emotional affair with her co-worker? She may not even realize that that's what it is (she may just think that there being "no one else" means there's no one else she's being intimate with). There was a great article in one of the more recent Ensigns (I think September or August?) about emotional affairs that you may want to read to see if they fit your wife's situation with her co-worker. (and I'm not saying that she's hiding anything from you intentionally, it may just be that, since it's not an "affair" in the traditional sense of the word, she thinks her relationship with her co-worker isn't inappropriate) Many prayers for you and your family.
  14. When was it reported that he was nominated? I don't recall seeing ANYTHING in the news about him being in the running.
  15. That's a rather harsh judgement on the guy. You don't become President of the United States by sitting on your tumbs.
  16. Our house rules: Don't kill eachother. Inside voices. No swearing. No alcohol, smoking, or any sort of drug (legal or otherwise) that isn't being used for appropriate medical purposes. Take off your shoes when you come inside (you step in all sorts of stuff outside, and I don't want it getting on the floors with a crawling baby in the house). Kids' shoes go on their beds until I can put them away in their closet, parents' shoes go on the shoe rack by the door. Laundry left in the basket is NOT meant for hide'n'seek. No jumping on the couch (the rule most often broken). FLUSH the toilet! (my 5 year old forgets a lot) Dirty dishes on the table, in the sink, or in the dishwasher, depending on your ability. (3 year old can leave it on the table, the 33 year old can't ) We go to church on Sunday unless you're sick. That's all I can think of just now. We don't have very many hard'n'fast rules.
  17. Behold the power of Google: Does alcohol burn off in cooking?
  18. Wow, Beefche, all this time I thought you were a cow! ETA: yay, I haven't lost my mind! You are a girl!
  19. Cookie decorating always goes over well at our trunk-or-treats. Also "Fishing". You attach a long string to a "pole" (any long stick) and tie a clothes pin to the end of the string, paint some blue butcher paper with an ocean scene and tape it to one of the portable church chalk boards, and someone hides behind the chalk board to clip little cheap prizes or candy to the clothes pin when the kid throws their line over the board. Cake walks with cupcakes and/or cookies as prizes. In our ward the Young Women usually make them as a service project. Bowling using a kids' plastic bowling set (someone in the ward usually has one of these sets) Donut-on-a-string. Tie donuts to a string, tie the strings to a broom handle laid across some chairs, players have to try and eat as much of the donut off the strings without using their hands within the time set (15-30 seconds usually)
  20. I think what MOE was referring to was pride. If the choir or performer is performing in church because it's a captive audience and they can "show off" a bit, then that is not an appropriate Spirit to bring to the meeting. It's one thing for a performer who loves their art to want to share that art with the congregation, and another thing for someone who loves the *attention* they get from their art to perform for the congregation so that they can get more of that attention, whether their performance brings the Spirit or not. I think it's similar to what one of the GA's related in Conference this weekend (can't remember which one!) when they talked about the simple, non-English speaking convert who, in broken English, gave a very powerful, spirit-filled lesson, and the more studious Gospel Doctrine teacher who used obscure references and large words, not to increase the Spiritual edification of his audience, but to show off how smart he was. One is appropriate for worshipping the Lord, the other isn't.