beefche

My bishop lives 45 min away from the church building (and I'm not exactly sure he is the furthest from the building). Our ward is one of the largest geographically in the stake.

I haven't had the AP come to my house in years. I don't think our ward does it and hasn't for a very long time. I've not heard this. I understand your reticence, but if this is true, then I'm going to view this as a part of the clerk's job. Whenever I would hand in my tithing slip (with fast offerings or others), the bishopric member would then give those to the clerk. The clerk was responsible for recording the donation, collecting the money and then depositing the money. So, someone knew about my donation and how much I gave. Having a young man do this would be similar to me. I'm not sure if that YM will be able to see everything or just the fact one donates online. I'd be surprised if they give a YM the responsibility to know the amount of the donation.

I have never seen this, but from all the stupid things some of my friends and roommates have shared from it over the years makes me absolutely hate this show. I just cannot believe how much false doctrine is actually taught from this show. In its defense, maybe the false doctrine was around before it was written, but that's no reason to perpetuate it. I'm stepping down off my soapbox now.....

I think the more one focuses on ghosts, scary situations, how awful the darkness is, then one becomes more scared. Instead of thinking it's bad spirits, I would focus more on finding positive, happy thoughts--reading good books (that doesn't mean limit yourself to scriptures), watching uplifting TV/movies, avoiding the negative on the internet, etc. If you hear something unusual at night, try to focus on finding the source (was it a pet, critter, etc.?), creaking board, etc.? Old buildings make noise. Sometimes it might be appliances, sometimes it's just the old framework settling. I do believe in evil spirits, but I don't believe they waste their time knocking on doors or opening drawers or some such things. I think those things are more often attributed to the living. And do have your house dedicated. I think just having that done will settle your feelings and allow you to focus on how to honor that dedication. Good luck!

Oh, see, I do insist that I not work on my birthday. As a kid, I never went to school on my birthday and it just happened that my very first job gave us our birthday off, so since then I've always insisted that I have a vacation day for my birthday. The ONLY time I ever worked on my birthday was on my mission. But, I loved being a missionary so much that it didn't feel like work to me, so I was fine being a missionary on my birthday.

Birthdays were not a big deal in our family. We got a cake and some presents but no parties. Maybe because my birthday is so close to Christmas, I felt cheated because I remember getting presents wrapped in Christmas paper and told, "This is your Christmas and birthday present." So, since around my 28th birthday or so, I began my own birthday tradition. I go to a movie, buy myself a present and go out to lunch or dinner. For this reason, I really, REALLY don't like when my birthday is on a Sunday. That's the only variation from my birthday celebration. For friends, I have a group of 6 girl friends that we get together once a month. During the birthday month of one of us, that person gets to pick the restaurant and we buy gifts for her. I have a couple of other friends that I get gifts for. For my husband, he gets to turn the heat up all day on his birthday (I'm super cheap so our thermostat stays low in the winter--this is a running joke with us that he gets heat for his birthday).

Are you on a desktop/laptop or on your phone? What browser? Also, whenever I leave the site and then return to it, all I have to do is click on the "login" button at the top right of the screen. It then automatically "recognizes" me and logs me in without me having to actually type in my username/password.

And not to sound boastful or anything, but I really hope people appreciate first, the More Good Foundation for providing this site. I appreciate that I have this site for free (but anyone is welcome to donate) to discuss a variety of topics, including spiritual. And secondly, the moderators do try to keep things from being contentious as well as respectful to all religious beliefs. We are human and make mistakes but for the most part I think we do a good job overall.

I belong to only one other LDS forum. That one is for faithful members only and so we don't deal with flat out anti stuff or even the wolf in sheep's clothing (at least not much).

Oh, you didn't see we have a bunch of people signed up as 1 person, 2 people, 3 people....

Well obviously as an admin, you don't need the validation the rest of us need. Just assume that each post you make has at least 20 likes each....

Is it just you, pam? Or do others not see not see the likes on their posts?

TFP, your standard approach includes smoking a cigar? Dude, that doesn't work very well with Mormon doctrine.

If I could ever figure out how to post pictures or gifs, I'd post a picture of 2 declawed cats batting at each other as a description of the "fight" you are referring to here. LOL!

I can tell something happened. The header is gone and the bar with "view new content" stays at the top and interferes with the post.

Apparently, I am very unique and just plain weird because I read Wikipedia for fun.

Didn't Pres Monson help to get the Frieberg temple established originally? It seems that my memory is niggling at me that Pres Monson has a strong affinity for the Frieberg Temple.

This thread is about the Monty Python movie, right?

Honestly, I would approach each person involved in the "joke" separately and privately and let them know that the joke offended you. I wouldn't get angry or respond in a harsh way. "Hey, Jack, something happened that has bothered me since. Last week, you joked about Starship Troopers and how it would be funny to have a couple of missionaries dead. I'm a Mormon and I take my faith seriously. I didn't say anything then because frankly I was taken aback. But I wanted you to know that while I can joke about my religion some jokes are just offensive. Please don't do that in the future." If he apologizes, then just say thank you and move on. If he responds in a negative way, keep your cool and just reiterate what you said. I think their response after this exchange will show more of their character and disposition. Sometimes, we get caught up in things and don't realize how we sound to others. By keeping it private and congenial, I think shows him you are serious and is a kinder way of confronting it.

I really don't understand people who get upset at other people's choices for a wedding reception. If you aren't paying for it, then your choice is either to go or not. BTW, I had both. My husband lived in Utah and his family was in Utah. We had an open house type of reception in Utah. He planned it (ok, let's be honest, his mom planned it). I was not about to plan a wedding and 2 receptions by myself. So, I gave him a budget and said, "have at it." The only thing I requested was that we have some type of food--sandwiches, hors d'oeuvres, cheese on crackers, something. I'm from Indiana and my whole family live in Indiana. We had a reception here and I originally wasn't going to do more than an open house. But, my dad wanted a catered meal and he was paying for it. So, we had a ring ceremony (again, for my non-member dad) and then a catered meal. At both things, I did NOT want to stand for 2 hours in a line. So, instead we mingled and greeted our guests personally. I enjoyed that so much more than standing in a line. And I'm pretty sure we actually greeted everyone who came and while we may not have spent a lot of time with each guest, we did spend a few minutes with everyone. Perhaps the guests didn't like it, but since they didn't have a Benjamin or even a Washington invested, I didn't care. And for the record, I honestly and truly didn't care if we got a gift or not. I just wanted to share this time with my friends and family. We didn't open our gifts at either reception but waited until later in the week when we were alone.

mirk, I hate you.

hahaha! That's great! Thank you!

There is a Jungle Jim's in Cincinnati OH that carries a truckload of varied soda. They have bacon, PB&J, Thanksgiving dinner, and others that I've finally successfully removed from my remembrance. Ugh.

This is my old avatar on the other system we used to use. http://rs119.pbsrc.com/albums/o142/cheezles/lickingcowanimatedavatar.gif~c200

Should I have added to that quote something about picking your nose with your tongue??? I do miss my other avatar, the licking cow.