Jenamarie

My parents actually used their plastic buckets of wheat to support the plywood shelves that hold their cans. It's in their garage though

I belief what HizWife's question about "Who crucified Christ?" was to point out that, in her opinion, any Jewish belief in multiple levels of Heaven is false, since they were willing to cruicify the Messiah they'd been waiting thousands of years for. ETA: But maybe I'm just in a muddle from trying to catch up.

Men AND women because Gods and Goddess, Priests and Priestesses unto the Most High God. (meaning we are still His servents. We never usurp His Authority) I'll leave it to others to answer the other questions you've posed. I've got a little one in need of attention.

They probably get frustrated because we get asked these exact. same. questions. ad naseum, and the conversations never go in a productive direction. You won't accept our answers, and - because we truely believe we've recieved a Witness from the Spirit as to the truthfulness of the Gospel - we're not about to change our minds. It turns into an unending debate that leads to both sides wanting to tear their hair out.

We're a family of four in a 1000 sq.ft. house, and our garage is not ideal conditions for food storage (detached, uninsulated) so all of our foodstorage is inside. What we did with our wheat, rice, and beans, since it's all good for decades, is store it under our queen bed. It means lifting the mattress and boxspring off of the frame when we want something, but as that stuff is good for 30+ years we're not too worried about taking our sweet time rotating it out.

We seem to be attracting a lot of "Save the Mormons!" people here lately.

Someone who's truely seeking to understand someone's beliefs doesn't ask questions they already know the answers to (as all your quotes of Joseph Smith and others show, you've been "studying" Mormonism already). You're asking US questions so you can give us YOUR questions. I don't think you understand any more about Mormonism today than you did yesturday when you started the thread.

I don't know what the "rules" are (even though I was in my ward's YW presidency for almost 3 years) but COMMON COURTESY would be to tell the parents their children weren't going to be at the chapel! We *always* told the parents where we were taking their children if we weren't going to be at the chapel, and if we were running late we had the girls pull out their cell phones and call their parents/rides. A few times we ran over and we drove the girls home ourselves, rather than have their families waiting in the parking lot for 30 minutes. And who thought it would be a good idea to have the girls walk blindfolded on surfaces they could fall off of? I'd be annoyed at the president's lack of concern over this. I wonder if it wouldn't be appropriate to apprach your bishop, or the stake YW's president about this...

Exactly. I'm reminded of the dwarves at the end of The Last Battle (Chronicals of Narnia) who decided while in mortal life that they didn't need Aslan (C.S. Lewis's type for Christ) and had the motto "All dwarves for themselves!" Even when they were literally *surrounded* by Heaven, and face to face with Aslan, they did not see him. They saw what they'd convinced themselves was the only "real" thing, which was the shed they'd been sitting in when the world ended. They described in detail the dampness of the shed, the scanty light, the dryness of the bread they had to eat, all the while being surrounded by lush grass, brilliant sunlight, and thousands of people shouting for joy that they had fought the good fight and jonied Aslan in his land. If you've cut yourself off from the witness of the Spirit in this life, I don't believe it's going to be suddenly easier to accept it in the next. And being in Spirit prison won't automatically "prove" the LDS faith either, IMO. There are lots of other faiths that teach about an "inbetween" world where you go to await reincarnation. I wonder if people of those faiths, finding themselves in Spirit Prison, will assume that that's where they are, and still be unwilling to listen to the missionaries, and perhaps try to work against them and "preach" their own religion. I wonder if the Gospel Missionaries will be the only "missionaries" there... (but this is complete speculation on my part, please do not take this as official church doctrine)

Our Gospel Doctrine teacher this past Sunday mentioned the movie "I Am Legend", and how she felt Moroni must have felt much like Will Smith's character in that movie, being completely alone, and trying to save a world that was destroying itself.

Here's an article published in 1977 about it: LDS.org - New Era Article - Q&A: Questions and Answers

Because Community of Christ owns the copywrite. And also, I can just imagine the controversy that would come up if we published our own Bible. Just look at how much flack the JW's get for their Bible. It could really hurt the missionary effort and make us seen as even more "unChristian" in the eyes of traditional Christianity.

Hi Tracey! I'm in SW Washington, so possibly not too far from you. :) Where in Oregon are you?

That verse intrigues me too. I see it though as a statement of that author's humility and disappointment in himself. He had to have known that the small plates would be coming into his possesion eventually (it had been handed down father-to-son for a few generations by that point), but perhaps he didn't appreciate it and didn't live up to his parents' teachings, and so felt unprepared when the responsibility was finally given to him. I see him as being like a young missionary who grew up expecting to go on a mission, and yet didn't spend much time preparing for it, and suddenly realized the full weight of that responsibility when he finally found himself going door to door. The feeling of disappointed in himself for not living up to what he'd been taught and warned to prepare for, is what I get from that verse.

What an awesome talk from a 13 year old!! Sounds like it was a great experience for her. :)

Asian immigrants. That's why the shortages are worse in the Pacific states. Rice is practically their bread. They eat it with nearly every meal.

Your excitement is awesome HoosierGuy. Enjoy the Temple!! I always loved going as a youth to do proxy baptisms. I think it's one of the most amazing ordinances of the church. SO spiritual! And how awesome that you get to do it for your parents!!

Welcome to the site, and CONGRATULATIONS on your Baptism!!! Enjoy all the blessings that will be coming your way!

Oh I remember doing that in Seminary. Very powerful lesson.

And it looks like Skalenfehl and I have the same calling. ETA: except he's teaching the guys and I'm teaching the gals.

I'm also a teacher (in Relief Society) and my lesson today was on Elder Uchtdorf's talk on "Have We Not Reason to Rejoice?" It was about rejoicing in our knowledge of the Gospel, and allowing it's teachings to raise us above the fear and misery in the world today. Not that it eliminates it, but having an "eternal perspective" (realizing the problems of this world are for this world only) can help us to endure our trials, and we can rejoice in the calm assurance that Christ has promised us the Gift of the Holy Ghost to speak to our minds and guide our steps, and grant us knowledge to act in ways we might not have thought to act on our own, but which will help us overcome a trial. My favorite scripture was this one: 2nd Nephi 32:3, 5 3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do. 5 For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do. I likened this to knowing how to deal with our children, when maybe they can't (or won't, in the case of teenagers) tell us the things that are bothering them. Sometimes I've had ideas come to my mind on how to best deal with my daughter, that I *know* didn't come from me, but came from the Spirit, as I was reading the Scriptures, and they have helped me to meet a need my daughter had that she hadn't been able to communicate to me. I also loved this one: 2nd Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. How many of us "glory" in our infermities? And yet it is in the midst of our trials that we rely most heavily on the Lord, and He is waiting there for us, offering us His Grace, to help us overcome them. I know your questions was what did we *learn*, and this is something that I taught, but there's a common saying in the church that often the person who learns the most from a lesson is the person giving it, and I certainly learned a *lot* while preparing this lesson. It was a great talk, and very uplifting.

I think you mean woman.

Awesome!!!

Just finished reading this today! Took me a MONTH!!! (I normally read books of equal length in a week or less!) And in my quest for a Testimony it has been by far the most helpful book for me (after the Scriptures, obviously ). I love how it laid out Christ's life from Pre-existance to looking forward to the Second Coming, and put it all in context. It has made reading the four Gospels more enriching. Really just a great, meaty book!

I have read both. I'm unsure as to how many times, but I have read them both. :)