Wingnut

I think a sans font might be easier to view. Like Arial or Helvetica. It\'s a minor thing, I guess, but the Times New Roman is really busy-looking.

LP, I don\'t think all the other stuff was there before. That was part of the purpose of the system overhaul -- to add way more features to the site! I agree, though...I\'d like a \"new posts\" or \"see more\" function.

Eat a huge lunch on Saturday (think: Chipotle burrito), then skip dinner, sleep through the night, skip breakfast, and eat when you get home from church. Learned that one on my mission.

Austenland. Cute and funny.

I guess it's a good thing you're not my bishop. Yes. So much "yes" here. This is how I feel as well. Very strongly, in fact. Bini neither said nor insinuated this. I agree with it, though. I'm a feminist. I and nearly all the feminists I know support equal opportunities for women and for men. In other words, it's not all "girl power." If a man wanted an opportunity (physical limitations aside) that is normally afforded to only women, I would likely support that for him.

Catching Fire (finally!) last night.

I'm sorry...did you think that women like being lectured to by men who aren't married to them?

While I won't argue this as in-depth as Church is, for once I agree with him. I think, Skippy, that you give men far too little credit. Perhaps you feel that you personally would have a lazier attitude if women were ordained, but I don't think it would be true of men in the church in general. I chose "I'm ambivilant about ordaining women, but abolition of the Relief Society would change my mind," though it's not entirely accurate. It's not so much that I don't care, but that I'm unsure. I do feel very strongly, however, that women need the Relief Society. Not because they're separate from the Priesthood, but rather, because I think that women need the sisterhood and men need the brotherhood, and having the segregated classes helps foster these fellowshipping needs.

I have two children. I'm done. I always wanted a bigger family, because I'm one of only three, and we're really spread out. But my mental health can't handle more than two. And my husband is sure he can't handle more sleepless newborn nights. We're happy with our small family, and feel that it's complete. Besides having one of those "moments" where I watched my girls playing together and had an epiphany of happiness in the knowledge that my family was complete (I had thought it before, but I knew it then), I've had several confirmations since. I discovered that I could hold and love and cuddle and rock a newborn (friends' babies), without wanting one of my own. It was a good feeling, not having that ache. One of my best friends had a baby last month. It was a really bad pregnancy, and she also has a two-year-old who was born with a severe heart condition (that has since resolved) after another difficult pregnancy. We've been close friends since we first met, but I've grown in my love for her through service in the last two years. Holding her new baby actually almost brings me to tears, because I love the baby so much, but I don't have the ache. I'm not sure if it makes sense, but I think the tears come because I want to cuddle and love my friend's new baby as if it were my own, because it does feel good, but I know that I don't want another of my own. Yeah, that really doesn't make much sense. I think I just wanted to contribute so that you know you're loved and sympathized with, Eowyn.

I grew up in Anaheim, CA. When I was 14, I moved to a suburb of Portland, OR. I was called to serve in San Jose, CA. The southern tip of my first area was less than an hour from where my grandmother lived. I dated a guy who lived his whole life in the suburb of Portland, and was called to serve in Roseville, CA...there was one geographic mission in between his home and his assigned mission. He told me once that he was tempted to ride his bike home from the field -- it would have taken him one whole days, he said -- just because he could. Apparently his last area was as far north as he could be while still being within the mission boundaries.

I have a female friend who served in the Durban, South Africa mission about 11 years ago (she and I were out at the same time), but that may be true in other parts of the country.

My husband actually caught Rapunzel when we saw Frozen in the theater. There's also a nod to Peter Pan, during the song "Love Is An Open Door," when they're dancing in silhouette behind the sail of a ship. The end of that song (the proposal) reminded me a lot of the love scene in Robin Hood. There's also a reference to Indiana Jones, when Anna loses her horse and is trudging through the snow to the little hut/shop. She says, "Why did it have to be snow?"

I served in Salinas, CA 11 years ago. At the time, it had the highest murder rate per capita in the country. That I know of, there are not any missions that sisters do not get called to at all. Usually there may be areas within a mission that are less safe for sisters to serve in, particularly during winter months with less daylight -- East Cleveland, South DC, New Orleans, for example. In my case, our mission president sent us to Salinas because we asked him to (no, really).

Togetherness Project - HOME

So, I was extended an additional calling today, but it wasn't provident living. It's a teaching calling. But I was right that something new/more was coming. :)

Logsteele, this thread may help you as well. About a year ago, I was really struggling a LOT. Much of the above helped me, but I was in a place where I really didn't want to stay, because church wasn't a healthy social environment for me, and I had had some recent strong spiritual experiences while visiting other faiths for a variety of occasions (specific invitations). I almost posted a thread asking people who had gone inactive why they had done so. But as I started to type it out, I had another thought. I knew there must be a lot of people out there who had struggled at some point or another to reconcile something about the Church within themselves, and who had ended up staying strong and active. So I decided to ask about that instead. And I honestly feel that the uplifting words and experiences that I read in this thread -- from so many members of this site -- helped me feel stronger and uplifted, and helped me choose to not give up. http://www.lds.net/forums/lds-gospel-discussion/52207-what-makes-you-stay.html

I can get behind this. I think I might wear my temple dress today. :)

Others in this thread so far have addressed some of your specific questions, so I'll tackle this more existential one. I have three experiences/references that I'd like to share with you, that have helped me personally. (1) When I was in high school, I had my first crisis of faith, albeit a mini one. I panicked one day and sat down with my Seminary teacher and told him that I didn't think I had a testimony, because I'd never had an "a-ha! moment," but had only ever thought I believed. Bless his heart, he knew exactly what to share with me in that moment. He opened up his scriptures to Doctrine and Covenants 46, and read to me: He explained to me that many people never have that moment, but they just know anyway. It's a gift of the Spirit. Some people's gift is to believe those first people. And still others do have those "got it" moments (which I eventually did, several years later, though it was really only confirmation for me of what was already there). (2) I didn't get my Patriarchal Blessing until I was 21, just a month and a half before I left on my mission. I had wanted to get it earlier, had a recommend when I was in college, but waited until I got home for the summer, so my parents could be there. Twice I had let my recommend expire. For some reason, at some point, I took that repeated expiration as a sign that I wasn't ready or still wasn't supposed to get it yet. One day, I was flipping through my scriptures, specifically in D&C, looking for a specific verse to share with someone who was struggling with something*. In my search for this person, I read this, in section 6, for the first time: It jumped out at me, and I immediately thought of my struggle and delay with my Patriarchal Blessing. I read these words and felt as if God was saying to me, "I already told you that you could get it...what are you waiting for? You already know this!" I've since gone back to this verse for a number of other things in life, and it has always spoken peace to me. It's interesting to me that it specifically says "did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter?" Whenever I read these verses, I feel peaceful, but the back-and-forth arguments in my head almost immediately cease as well. (3) Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence, by Jeffrey R. Holland. One of the best talks in the history of ever. I probably read it at least once a year. Well, I did, for many years. Now when I struggle with things, I feel more peace when I even just think about this talk. It's been a long time, though, since I've actually sat down to read it all the way through. But the section that always stands out to me, and that is perhaps most applicable to you in your current struggle, is this: (emphasis NOT mine) I think of this passage often, particularly this one sentence: "If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now." *I never could find what I was looking for for that person, nor do I have a clue now what (or who) it was. I needed to find that verse on that day.

There are many who have already labelled this group as "apostate." I've even been told by a member of this forum that I should "find my way out of the Church" for sympathizing with them. Agreed.

I have a calling already, that I've been in for less than six months. It's a calling that my bishop created, specifically with me in mind. I'm the "ward fellowship specialist," which basically makes me the official Sacrament meeting greeter and heard-it-through-the-grapeviner (insofar as stuff I learn is of interest to the bishopric). I check in with the bishop and Relief Society president each week and let them know about anyone that I've noticed who hasn't been at church in awhile (of the mostly active folks), or anyone who IS at church that is notable (like a less active person), anything that I know of going on that they should be aware of (a struggling less-active couple who is getting a divorce...a husband whose job has been eliminated by the organization he works for), or that I just have a feeling about that they need to check up on. I enjoy my calling, and it suits me well -- I'm very social, and I tend to be tapped into the underground news in the ward, so it's a good fit. It also wouldn't be overly demanding or unreasonably time-consuming to add another calling on, particularly such a flexible one as Provident Living. What a neat experience, and how special that you feel your mother was still looking out for you, even from beyond the veil. Thanks for sharing. :)

Okay, it's been about two weeks now since this thought first occurred to me, and it's stuck. It's even stronger than initially, and I'm at the point where I'm actually really excited about it, and itching to get started. But there's no indication that it's going to actually even happen...lol. Would it be really weird for me to ask the bishop to call me as the ward provident living coordinator? Haha!

I was talking about Wear Pants, but that's obviously going to spill over. And I think I'd pay good money to see President Uchtdorf wear a purple leisure suit. "Wear ______ color" is easiest, because you don't have to worry about any overhead cost of distributing armbands, or any sort of uniformity, so I can see how that makes sense. A purple ribbon on the lapel would certainly be doable. And actually, it would probably be more of a conversation-starter than a man wearing a purple tie or purple shirt. Okay, you win!

Wow...sorry! I got a little heated there. I've actually been doing really well all week this week, both here and on FB in conversations along this topic, and I've felt that threads on LDS.net have been really civil on both sides. Not sure what got into me earlier this evening. I agree with what I wrote here, but I could have expressed it more tactfully. Well, I don't doubt that will happen. But it doesn't matter if it were purple, green, or white (all colors associated with women's suffrage, BTW )...it would still happen. I think that choosing a color was just for the sake of inviting men to visibly participate as well. And women's suffrage aside, purple tends to be a more feminine color, but not as taboo for men to wear as pink. It's a natural choice, even aside from it's history.

The reason for choosing purple was because it is a color associated with women's suffrage and the women's liberation movement. It makes sense that it was used then (wear pants), and that it would be used now (Ordain Women). Also, (1) it's a color. Get over it. (2) No one owns colors, therefore colors can't be "hijacked." (3) It's not a sudden thing. It's a new application of a color previously used in a similar way.

I'm really liking Saturday morning's line-up. That ends up being the session I pay the most attention to, anyway.