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Connie

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Posts posted by Connie

  3. Who has gone back to church at the building?

    in LDS Gospel Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Connie

    We started going back once a month starting in June when we were still living down south. We separated into three groups. It was short and sweet with everyone wearing masks. As the organist, it was hard to hear anyone singing with the masks on.

    Now that we are living in northern Utah, we are able to go twice a month separating into two groups. There are only two wards in our building. In this ward, there is no singing which is understandable. It’s harder to sing through a mask.

    My husband, who doesn’t even like to sing, has mentioned how much he misses the singing. My oldest daughter misses having full church meetings. It’s been different and hard in some respects. It’s been difficult to get to know anyone in our new ward in current conditions. But we go anyway because it’s important to us that we take the sacrament.

  7. Are Latter-day Saints unified?

    in LDS Gospel Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Connie

     

    13 hours ago, priesthoodpower said:

    LDS think the only way we can serve others is to go to church once a week and serve our own. That is a selfish church and a mindset that needs to change in order for the church to grow immensely as God wants it too (fill all corners of the earth). 

    https://www.latterdaysaintcharities.org/

    https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/shared/english/charities/pdf/2019/LDS-Charities-Annual-Report-2019_R11.pdf?lang=eng

    12 hours ago, priesthoodpower said:

    The temple building is necessary, the chapel bldg is not (as proven by covid when sacrament was being conducted in homes).
    The bishop is necessary, the RS pres, EQ pres etc. is not.

    Living a covenant life only require a bishop and a temple, am I right?

    No. The temple itself needs the higher priesthood to function fully. The bishop has no authority in the temple.

  8. Freedom, Family, and The Gospel

    in LDS Gospel Discussion

    Posted

    That’s a very interesting perspective. I’m reminded of books like Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s A Brave New World where there just are no families. In A Brave New World babies are manufactured. Everyone belongs to everyone. Isn’t that a big goal of socialist/communist ideals? The state is your father/mother or your big brother who watches out for you.

    Or just the idea that’s been floating around for years now that you should “create your own family.” I have a sister who has in many ways rejected the family she grew up in and considers her friends to be more her family than her actual family.

  9. Sealing to wife and family Q

    in LDS Gospel Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Just_A_Guy said:

    Given the traditional sacredness/secrecy of the text of temple rituals generally, I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable getting into discussions where either the current or past variants of those rituals were parsed in detail.

    Generally speaking, though:  the parent-child sealing makes the child an heir to the Abrahamic covenant, through the intermediary of the parents.  The spousal sealing binds two heirs of the Abrahamic Covenant as partners to each other, and sets them up as legators of the legacy of the Abrahamic Covenant to their future offspring (whether those offspring come in this life or the next).  In other words:  the spousal sealing is a peer relationship of functional equals united as partners in a common task; whereas the parent-child sealing is a hierarchal relationship between a parent and a child, leader and a follower, an instructor and a student, a testator and an heir, a grantor and a grantee.

    That’s one reason why you can’t  (for example) just take the old male-male “adoptive” sealings and overlay/adapt that paradigm onto modern gay sealings.  To do so in a theologically accurate way would be to impute a “master-and-servant”, “dominant-and-submissive” dynamic to gay marriages that I daresay most gay couples would find tremendously insulting.

    It’s also why LDS leaders (I think in the early 20th century), based on reports that Joseph Smith had offered “sealing” to Jane Manning, performed an awkward (and never-again-used, AFAIK) “sealed as a servant” ordinance between the two.  Given the standards of the day, they just couldn’t fathom the possibility that Joseph might propose such an exalted, egalitarian, marital relationship with a black woman.

    That's such a lawyer way of putting it. I love it! 😀

  10. Sealing to wife and family Q

    in LDS Gospel Discussion

    Posted

    I don't have an answer to your question, but here's a church source that has a little section about adoption sealings and how Wilford Woodruff ended them. I remember when I first learned about these sealings that were so common and Woodruff's revelation ending them. It's always been interesting to me.

    https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/sealing?lang=eng

  15. I apologize

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    7 hours ago, Traveler said:

    Crap - now I have to apologize again - will this never end???!!!!

     

    The Traveler 

    *Evil laughing*  Why, no. It will never end!  *More evil laughing*  It is part of my evil plot to make you apologize for all minuscule infractions, real or imagined.

    Wait... Did I say that out loud? Ummm... I will now attempt to distract you with.....

    ADORABLE KITTENS!!

    image.jpeg.2cb5ed62e74daf42bfe15df4f7c21b54.jpeg

  18. nothing and everything

    in LDS Gospel Discussion

    Posted

    We should be very careful about saying the circumstances we live in don’t matter in an eternal perspective. Eternal perspective is God’s perspective. And His purpose was to send us here to “prove us” (see Abraham 3:25). He does this through “trying our patience and faith” (see Mosiah 23:21). And that is accomplished through circumstance. Our individualized process of salvation will often include circumstantial commandments.

    For example, He told Lehi to leave his home in Jerusalem and take his family to a far away land. Should Lehi have just stayed because changing his circumstance “didn’t really matter” in an eternal perspective? Obviously it mattered in God’s perspective. He is the one who told him to do it.

    We are seeking to build God’s kingdom on earth. How do we build a Celestial society without striving to change Telestial circumstance? Exaltation does not happen in isolation. Service is a huge part of it. Take Joseph in Egypt. Should he have remained in prison because circumstances “don’t matter?” No. He became the best prisoner he could be, and he used his spiritual gifts and talents to get himself out and become a blessing to not only his own family but all of Egypt.

    “This life is the time to prepare to meet God” (Alma 34:32). We are to “act” and not just “be acted upon” (see 2 Nephi 2:16).

  19. How to regrow my dead faith

    in Support in Hard Times

    Posted

    I’ve struggled with prayer for a long time. Still do, in fact. Recently I’ve been studying the General Conference talks of Neal A. Maxwell. It has been of great help because he has such a wonderful, true perspective. Here are some things I’ve learned.

    The world would tell you to take time for yourself, to find yourself, to love yourself. That’s only descent advice if you know which self to do that with. Hint: It’s not the self the world is usually talking about.

    We mortals are dual beings. We have a natural/fallen man and a divine child of God wrestling for the supremacy of our soul. The scriptures tell us what to do with the natural man. We are to “put it off” and to “deny ourselves” (see Mosiah 3:19; Luke 9:23). The self we should nurture is our divine self. We do this by following the first great commandment and through the atonement of Christ. We put God first. We strengthen that relationship first. Remember that “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6). Start small. You already have the desire to live with God in the Celestial Kingdom. Let that desire work in you (see Alma 32:27). Talk to Him through prayer. Don’t mince words. Just tell it like it is, as you have done here. He already knows, of course, but it’s important that you acknowledge that you know it, too. Ask for strength. And then watch, observe. He works by small means, too, and you have to pay attention to the subtle ways He will let you know what to do. Keep hanging on even if it’s just by a thread.

    Here is a wonderful talk where Elder Maxwell talks to people in exactly your situation. Read it over and over. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1991/04/lest-ye-be-wearied-and-faint-in-your-minds?lang=eng

    I hope this helps, even if just a little. I hope you are able to find peace.
    The Prince of Peace has the power to confer peace. -President Howard W. Hunter

  21. How is everybody doing?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    The library is my home away from home, so I'm missing that. Grocery shopping has gotten weird. It's strange to see all the parks empty.

    I'm missing being able to attend the temple. I'm realizing how much I took that for granted, and now I'm really feeling it. But I'm loving having church at home with just our little family so much that I haven't missed our ward meetings. Is that bad? I'm not sure.