Vort

The allegation is false. No one is penalized.

SLC has Hogle Zoo. Temple Square is fascinating. There are tours and such, e.g. Brigham Young's houses. The city itself is fun to walk around in and explore. My wife and I took a "vacation" to SLC while we were at BYU. We stayed at Tom Bodett's on 6th South for a week and enjoyed the city. It still ranks as one of our favorite vacations. Of course, if your idea of "fun" is clubbing and "partying" (alcohol-related, not birthday-hat related), then I can't tell you much. But I gather that's not really your thing, so I think you should have no problem finding a weekend's worth of entertainment in SLC.

Brother, you are LIVING the punishment. And you will keep on living it until you follow your heart and talk to your bishop and stake president. Seriously, what's the worst they can possibly do? Excommunicate you? Because you have already effectively excommunicated yourself. But in fact, the odds are they won't excommunicate you at all, but welcome you back and try to help you get where you want to go from where you are. Give them a chance.

No.

Right after our ten-year-old was born, Sister Vort was asked to be a seminary teacher. (This was before seminary teacher was a calling.) Sister Vort explained to the new bishop that she was caring for and nursing a newborn while homeschooling three boys, the oldest an eight-year-old, and otherwise running a household. The bishop replied that he knew her situation, but he felt like she should be a seminary teacher. Despite her hesitation, Sister Vort accepted the call to serve. What followed were two years of great spiritual growth and insight for her (and two years of having a great teacher for her seminary kids). It was tough for her, and it was not an obvious or "logical" job for her by any stretch of imagination. But it was the right thing for her. Vort's moral: Don't discount a bishop's inspiration just because you think you know better. I am one who tries to live by "never turn down a calling", and I think I have been blessed for it.

I do not dress up in a white shirt and tie to watch General Conference sessions (though my children usually convince me to put on pants). Given the importance of Priesthood functions and that Priesthood meeting is a Priesthood function, I wonder if getting the brethren to dress up in their Priesthood duds, both physically and spiritually, is not one reason we still meet as a body for Priesthood.

Nonsense. They were not cast out of heaven and eternally damned merely because they chose wrongly. They were cast out and eternally damned because they openly rebelled against the Father of all. This was no mere "oopsie". This was rank rebellion, open defiance of God himself. Satan sought the Father's glory and openly rebelled, and those who were like Satan followed him. There is no other reasonable interpretation of the scriptures. Those Latter-day Saints who hold to the idea that those cast out just "chose wrong" utterly miss the point, and completely fail to explain why those lost souls (and they are eternally lost) seek the destruction of us all. They openly rebelled and defied God the Father. Please, let's have no more of this ridiculous nonsense that the premortal council and, ultimately, the war in heaven, were simply a "choice" between "competing plans", and Satan's followers were simply "deceived" and just "chose wrong".

How so? I may not agree with what was said, but I can't see any possible sexism in the idea. Can you explain what you found "sexist"?

Grapes and olives thrive in the same microclimate and similar soil types, and growing the two together is an ancient practice (which, interestingly enough, is catching on in the US now). So olive groves were (and are) commonly used as vineyards.

There is a significant difference between saying that people should act like A and should not do B and saying that people are stupid or disobedient or faithless because they don't act like A and keep doing B. You were, by your own account, an unrighteously judgmental person. I am glad for you that you are not like that any more. But by the same token, you should not assume that anyone who holds uncompromisingly to standards is as much an unrighteous judge as you suppose yourself to have been.

Yes, a love letter or poem is better. And you can use a paper clip to attach a picture of your privates, just in case your spouse has forgotten what they look like.

It's not without reason that many irreligious people consider the religious to be superstitious.

I am such an eye-dee-ten-tee. Anyone want to bet me $200 on whether the FTL news is true? I bet "no".

I actually agree with your analysis. In any meaningful sense, Adam's and Eve's transgression must be considered a sin of some sort. The effect of sin is spiritual death -- being cut off from God's presence -- and of course that is exactly what happened. What you are missing is modern revelation that explains more fully the meaning of these things. This is not a condescending remark to put you in your place; it is simply fact. You do not accept, and thus do not know or understand, modern revelation on this topic. Without such revealed knowledge, you are left with traditional interpretations of translations of ancient writings as your best path to understanding. It is insufficient.

Actually, we don't have to wait. That's my point. Except in this case, the "real wolf" never existed.

I agree with you, but in fairness it should be noted that many people, including leaders -- including General Authorities -- implicitly measure mission success by number of converts. How many times have we heard an illustration of So-and-so's true conversion offered by the speaker saying, "Then So-and-so served a mission to the land of Far and Away, where he baptized over one hundred people"? In the same sense, we cannot measure success in gospel living by the position we are called to serve in, yet countless times we have heard some variation of, "Because Sister XX became active again, she brought her six children into activity, and one is a Primary president, one a stake Relief Society president, two are bishops, and one a stake president." (The sixth, apparently, is an abject failure, never serving in a position above Young Men's president.)

Yes, you can certainly talk about the buffalo from Buffalo, though I think that's borderline cheating.

I have great difficulty believing you. Do you truly and honestly find it strange that someone would say, "I would rather follow God's word and commandment and be unhealthy than disobey God and be healthy"?

It's more basic than that, LittleWyvern. The experiments that say neutrinos travel faster than light are wrong. How many times must we hear the tachyon-lovers cry "Wolf!" before we learn to ignore them?

CHECK BACK IN A WEEK TO HEAR THEM SAY, "Oops, never mind, guess we messed up"!!!!!!!!! Roll over Einstein: Pillar of physics challenged | Deseret News

[threadjack] "Buffalo" is a great word. You can string it together any number of times from one to infinity and get a parsable, grammatically correct sentence. This is because "buffalo" is a verb, a singular noun, and a plural noun. For example: Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo. This can be interpreted several ways. One way is: "The bisons who bully other bisons bully bisons bullied by other bisons." "Fish" works the same way. Fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish. [/threadjack]

How would the "amended plan" have worked, Snow? How would people have been exalted? Oh, yeah, that's right. They would not have been. No plan. The only "plan" Satan ever had was to usurp God's honor through the destruction of man's agency. There was no element of salvation or exaltation offered. There was no "plan".

To me, this point seems both important and obvious. Yet I have been making it for years, and only rarely does anyone seem to recognize the importance of this point. The false "two-plan theory" of premortality is so deeply embedded in Mormon folklore and the LDS subconscious that it may be impossible to uproot it without a prophet or apostle explicitly announcing in a General Conference, "Hey, folks! There were never two plans! There was only the one plan, and Satan tried to amend it to gain glory! It was REBELLION, and those who rebelled were cast out! It was never, 'Okay, look, you need to select this or that'."

Worked perfectly. Thanks, Dravin!

Lessons that would not work well for the brethren can often work quite well for the sisters. There is a difference in temperament and social interaction that makes some lessons meaningful for women that would leave men cold, and probably vice versa.