LDSVALLEY

44 until October 9 2010 I'm further past it my wife wouldn't even check with me that I knew how to use the oven. She'd skip me and tell our kids. Happy Birthday

It's from a book called Potato not Prozak

try a simple trick for two weeks and see if it makes a difference. I work night shifts 5 days a week 11pm to 7am. So my off days it is very hard to switch over. EAT A POTATO 30 MIN BEFORE BED. Does not work for everyone, but many people with sleep issues have a lack of something (been a while since I read the book so I forget what it was.) A small to medium potato (better with skin) cooked and eaten provides whatever it was missing. The key is you cannot have any protein with it or after. So butter is okay sauces, gravies etc is not. No milk etc. If you don't lack the whatever it will make no difference and do no harm. After a week just quit doing it. If you do lack it you will find the first few nights you will have funky dreams, more vivid. Then they will become normal and you will sleep very well. If you continue to have intense dreams after a few days reduce the amount of potato you have. (Since my body is used to eating supper at 4am I tend to have them on the large size to keep from waking in hunger in the middle of the night.) As I said unless you have an allergy to potato it will not do you any harm to eat them and you will know within a week if it helps or not. As for the assisting others, you can only do what you can do. If you need the sleep then let others know you will not be able to show up until 10 or 11 etc. I have found that often people know regulars will show so they don't feel the need. When people make it clear they need their help they rise to the occasion. You do no one any good if you burn yourself out.

He knew they were going to do it, he helped them plan it out. Not sure how they proved it. My guess is he drew them diagrams and they were caught with them. Knowing him, his name was on it or something. He got 9 months in min sec. served 6.

BTW what time zone is this clock in? It shows 11:15pm but my clock is 7:30 PM!

PRAY...PRAY.....PRAY Then prepare a lesson and show up! Unless he gets hostile toward me or toward the church then I would give the benefit of doubt. Even if this is a plan of his and the group I would still be teaching the gospel to someone. I know others who went into the lessons just to prove the missionaries wrong and ended up baptized and a solid member. Besides which the less active Daughter needs the Missionaries to stay true to the obligations they have made. Think how she feels believing he is coming over to dump her, she needs the Lord's strength more then he. Now I will add one thing, I would continue to meet as long as some progress seemed apparent. But if I was swamped with real prospective people so I could not deal with everyone he would be the first to go. I would still do what I could for the family however.

my 5 cent reply. Because it is a loving and caring religion we have standards and consequences. Just as I do for my children so God has for his. But you are welcome to your 2 cents of course, Because God has given it to you. Peace and joy this season Metis.

From what happened to a school friend of mine yes! He helped two youth figure out how to rob a government institution. He went to jail as an accessory without having been involved in the actual crime. Mind you they were 15 and he 17 so in part it was because they were classed as minors.

The joys of not being accountable to the Lord for what advice we give. Oh wait.....we are. My thinking on this is if we steal from the rich to give to the poor and ignore the debate on it being stealing or not the Lord still would not be pleased. If we take from the rich and give what they had to the poor then we are denying them their agency to do what they would choose with what the Lord has helped them obtain. That would be the Law of Satan not God. Besides it is stealing we just like to justify things. What is the greater good for one is not for another, it is up to the Lord to decide what is morally correct and what is not.

I RETRACT MY STATEMENT EARLIER. I NO LONGER WISH YOU WERE TEACHING IN OUR WARD

We are told with the GP manual we should teach the lessons the Investigators need. I honestly stuck with the chapter by chapter method because with several Investigators, New Converts and Less Actives there was no logical way I could bounce around and cover everyone's needs. I identified some chapters as Hot Button Lessons. (Try teaching a woman attending for the first time who has 3 kids by 3 men and not married to any the law of chastity!) What I usually did for Hot Button lessons was explain at the start that I considered this lesson about to be taught a hot button to some people. I then carefully explained that new comers should not get worked up about this because they have yet to get a full understanding of the basics and can not fully grasp what the intent behind them is. I also tell them that it is normal for people to take these personally and this narrows the information input they allow in. If they have an issue then please come talk to me or the Missionaries about it. It was easier for me to taylor lessons because as Ward Mission Leader I had an idea of the issues they had from the Missionaries, you might be surprised at how little they actually report on however. One big thing is get the WML to provide you with some basic info on brand new Investigators. The Investigator walking through the door destroys any chance for the Missionary natural flow of teaching the lessons to occur. Remember if they stay for all three hours they are going to end up in really heavy gospel doctrine as well. We cannot isolate Investigators or New Members from heavier discussions until they are ready. Even Sacrament is heavier doctrine and sometimes slightly off course doctrine for them to hear. The most important thing you can do is create an atmosphere of safety for them. That they come to trust you and know they can ask questions without ridicule. I made sure to repeat over and over that no one in this building today knows everything, everyone in this building does know something about many things. You might ask a question that is obvious to the person next to you but I guarantee that you will know things they don't on other topics. We are here to learn together, we will have misunderstandings, some will be caused by someones world view clashing with the gospel view. Some will be by the manner I teach. Or by something someone else has said. Expect this, assume that when you feel offended it is simply a misunderstanding or poor communication and lets get it fixed. I will not be offended by having someone say they don't understand what I have taught. And I can't help others if you don't help me fix something I might do wrong. It is a narrow course you must steer, remember as the instruction you are in charge of the class. I have had to ban regular members from attending a few times because they wanted to go deeper or started joking around when it was not proper. Switch your world view to an Investigator. As you plan and pray about your lesson think at each stage if I knew nothing about the Gospel what traps would I find in this lesson. What might I misunderstand. What might I need to know. Actually I found the Less actives who were back for a refresher were harder to teach then an Investigator. They seem to have more baggage with them and it was harder to keep their negative experiences from infecting the class. The best advice I can give is to watch body language. People will say one think and mean another but if you watch facial expressions and body position it will tell you how things are being received and allow you a chance to alter or explain what you are saying without them even realizing you saw it was upsetting them. Don't get too stressed about this, having seen many of the responses you have posted you appear able to respond at a level best for the situation and people involved. You are simply the first step in Gospel teaching, creating a safe haven is far more important then what you teach. Keep it simple, allow leeway for those the class is for to go where they need to as long as you don't get deeper. Pick out one or two key points, the rest is just filler. From a personal opinion don't just pass manuals around and read line by line. People tune that out and don't learn. I varied how each lesson was taught, who read how much, even what order of teaching within each lesson. Wish you were the new GE teaching in our Ward. Since my release I have been hearing lots of complaints about the teaching in it. ( Not because I was so good, I simply tried my best), but because no one is working on the atmosphere simply pushing info by reading the manual and referencing the scriptures.

Just released from doing that as Ward Mission Leader. If you have teaching experience then allow me to add these important points. 1 keep in mind that the members in your class mostly have no idea of the Gospel by our standard. Many are not just trying to learn the gospel but learn what it means to become LDS. 2 Communication is the key, what we consider normal or easy to follow is out to lunch to them. Take into account what their understanding level is. 3 I used to take 10 minutes at the start of each class and explain something about church life. 4 I put up my name, number and email address and let them know they could contact me anytime with questions. 5 I had a sign, the only dumb question you can have is the one you don't ask. 6 I went over it every week. The class belonged to them not members, not missionaries. Without them it did not happen, we would go where they needed the lesson to go. 7 I spent much time fire fighting because non members can easily mix up what is taught and get upset over something that happened in their life. 8 I would work out a lesson plan then be ready to ignore it depending on who was present and where they needed the information to go. 9 In our ward some members attended as well for filler. I made it clear I would ignore them to meet the needs of the Investigators and new members. 10 As an aside we created a mormon english dictionary to help them out. Sorry it was fast but I was working on a christmas list with my wife when she got a call. I started to answer this when she of course got off so i have been called twice to go back and work on it.

Honestly I don't know exactly, my understanding from my time as a clerk was that it was up to the Bishop or Branch President and there was no set items. I know of one who held a calling, could offer prayer but not take the sacrament. Another had the calling but could not do prayer or sacrament. Some also had other conditions such as set amounts of scripture reading and then reporting back, extra service work etc. If someone needs to know I would suggest asking the local Leadership.

5 seconds 50 minutes depends on three variables. 1 how many people and whom are around. 2 how dirty the surface it landed on is. 3 how much I happen to love the food that has fallen.

By the Way At the moment my hair is down to my shoulders. Not because I am not a good Priesthood holder but because money has been tight and I was saving $12.00. My Mother In Law can cut it for free but everytime she was coming down something happened. So were going up to her place over Christmas! I have to now it would cost me $17.00 to get long hair cut!

Personally I think the issue over hair length is kind of nuts for the school board to create. However my opinion does not matter. It is a school board policy and the parents should be teaching their child to conform to the laws of the land. (12th article of faith.) If they have an issue with it, then they should keep their child in conformance of the policy, while working with the school board and community to get the policy changed. I watched a Father march his family out of the chapel, resign all callings, and only attend sacrament because a Young Woman's Leader dared to take his daughter aside and quietly remind her that she had been told if she attended Young Women anymore not dressed appropriately then she would have to leave. That this was the third time and now she had to go home. The Father, instead of talking to the daughter, or even requesting a meeting with the Young Women President and Bishop made it a very public affair. He expected the church to change the dress standards because he was struggling with a daughter attending church. But what about the girls who followed the standards? After this issue the Young Woman President gave up enforcing it since she was not supported by the Leaders in the Ward. So then the girls who had followed it got upset when others who were not didn't get talked to. And of course the one who started all this then looked at the fact that she was singled out. So instead of being about not proper dress it was the Leader not liking her. The end result, the girl ended up with a live in boyfriend two years later and pregnant. The Son lost any interest in going on a mission or even showing up. The Father after a year of anger found out he had cancer. He had a year to live, came back to church, apologized to the former YW Leader etc. He's gone now, his son shows up some times. His wife was able to rejoin choir which he had forbidden, was recalled to Primary which she had loved. But by not following the policy, then by the parents not supporting the Leaders many more people were effected in a negative fashion. This hair length issue being played out is the same deal. Lots of time and money will be wasted on a tiny issue. This is not a lesson to teach a child how to protect a freedom but how to only worry about what they want and not following the rules or working to change bad policy in a reasonable manner. Why can't the children wear what ever hair length they want? Why should someone be excluded. Why can't any member who wants attend the temple? Why should someone be excluded. Why can't women have the priesthood, other religions are allowing female leaders. It's old fashioned just like women wearing pants. We should always question things we think are wrong, but in a manner that does not do more damage.

It's what we nicknamed it, I don't remember the actual name. The Area 70 held a meeting with Priesthood Leaders, spent 45 minutes explaining it. 15 min. answering questions, that was it. Next day a new Stake Presidency was called that afternoon the 70 went home. It is a method to get auxiliary leaders involved with the Missionary Effort and dealt with the reporting methods to get the information back to the Ward Council. So it went in a circle of reporting and effort. It was to reset each Stake Conference. Ward Council was to get together and come up with a list of names of Part member, Less Active, or Investigator people or families. Each Auxiliary would then pray and select from 1-3 names they would be responsible for. They would pray as a unit then in Ward Council discuss and list who had whom. The Leaders would then go themselves or assign someone to go and visit those selected people. Visit and explain they wanted to request permission to have the Missionaries come and teach or reteach the lessons. Also explain how they were missed, or find out more about them etc. The approach would of course depend on the particular nature of the people involved. They would then report to the Ward Mission Leader who would assign them to the Missionaries when the Missionaries had low teaching pools. The Missionaries would report on each lesson taught to the Mission Leader who would then report to Ward Council. The Area 70 reported very good results with baptism or return to activity were over 80% From our first attempt and as I mentioned with only 3 not 6 months and the change in leadership we managed 40%. The biggest thing was how excited the Ward Council got because the Bishop and I took the time to explain and train as too how important the Leaders were to this, and how it could make their callings easier in the long run. We had blended the Ward Council into Ward Missionary Correlation and allowed 1.5 of the 2 hours for this. After 2.5 hours I finally had to close the meeting because I couldn't get them to stop. Then energy was incredible. The reset under our new Bishop he sent it home as homework and we had 15 minutes of a 60 minute Ward Council to present the selected names. No excitement, no interest, 3 of the auxiliaries didn't even know what to do, only the 3 main ones RS, HP, EQ even presented names and every one was leftovers from the first attempt. No spirit, no excitement.

It was heading up here to Nova Scotia, we figure about the time church starts it would hit us. Just heard it is going further East then expected. We are on the other side of the Atlantic Coast, we might get an inch over this side.

There needs to be a balance. When the Area 70 started the "circle plan" it was a short talk and a one page handout. That was not training. The Stake should have been trained on it before the area 70 showed us it. Then the HC could have been our reference when trying to figure out how to implement it. The current Bishop when it started was very Missionary minded and grasped the ability of the concept to make a real difference. I spent 3 months figuring out what our Ward should do then training our Ward Leaders on what it meant and how this could help them. ( I was Mission Leader.) The new Bishop, being swamped with so many things. Didn't get it, didn't have the time to get it, and tried to short cut it. The first time we ran it we wanted a maximum of 12 names, I could not get the Ward Council below 18. They were fired up because they understood it. Even the fact that our Bishop was called to the Stake Presidency and was trying to do two callings for 5 months didn't lessen their attempts to follow the plan. Since it took 3 month to get started they only had 3 months to run it and the last month was under our new Bishop. The second time under our new Bishop our goal was 16 names we got 6 all leftovers from the first run. I tried to explain it was not going to work because the Bishop was trying to short cut the set up. Instead of inspired direction from the Stake and area 70 it was a waste of time to be done and forgotten. After spending 4 weeks on the draft for the Ward Mission Plan I got the reply....Looks good it should keep the Stake off our back. Taking the time to properly train people is the key. I have seen, when a Clerk, in EQ and as a WML several excellent Stake plans. But they all failed because they spent months figuring out the idea but only hours training and had no system of followup for them. When there are issues that effect more then one Ward then it is the Stake's responsibility to get involved. It is their role to keep the Wards and Branches on track and within the guidelines of the church.

Great idea, Bishops should do this more often for many things.

The why is simple. The Church extends callings without in depth training. Most Bishops simply struggle to deal with the issues in front of them. Long term stuff sounds good but not in this Ward mentality takes place. For example in our Stake in April we had an area 70 present a "circle plan" for Missionary work. He spent 45 minutes explaining it and the first question was from a Bishop." let me guess that trial area you mentioned was in a high Mormon area like Utah wasn't it." He got a yes it was heavy LDS." yeah that stuff is good there but we are different here." I stuck me hand up as a Mission Leader and said it sounds good but before we try running it we should take the time to fully train and understand it." It was launched the next day! We struggled with it but actually did good the first run through, it resets after each Stake Conference. A new Bishop came in, I tried to explain it too him but he was into efficient not effective so instead of getting everyone in Ward Council together to reset it and get them understanding it and excited he did it as homework for them. The result was this time no one even tried. If the Stake wants to launch an initiative they first must take the time to get the Bishops to understand not just the expectation that God wants this but how it can make their calling easier. Then they need to send the Ward support in doing this with the members who need to be in it. I have seen many good ideas come from the Stake that die because Wards are not trained and shaped into understanding how it benefits the Ward. We need to think being effective not efficient. It is easy to get agreement of support it takes more effort and time to get an understanding of what that support really means. The way these things are represented it is simply one more thing a Bishop needs to deal with, it is a negative no matter what the Stake sees as the benefit. The time needs to taken to turn it into a positive, that it is a way to reduce the stress on a Bishop I see it all the time in our ward. So much effort is wasted because people try to shortcut training. Not taking the time to train new members, not taking the time to train new callings, not taking the time to study all aspects of a problem or its potential solution. And even not taking the time to see what the real issues are. Then tossing hands in the air and saying we do all this and they don't respond, what is the point. Any issue that does not seem to work simply trace the underlying issue then go up to see where we are not doing as we are directed and you find the place the fix is needed. As humans we look at the surface and think what quick fix can we create or "think outside the box". The Lord tells us to think within his box, do things as he directs and the solution will work. We don't have exact rules but guidelines I have yet to find a long standing issue in our Ward that is not the result of being outside the line.

for Question one: Fast for a purpose. To just go without eating because you should is not a purpose. Think about it a day or two in advance, pray before you fast , pray during your fast, then pray at the end when you break your fast. I often can't fast because of medication I have to take with food, I can manage sometimes but the medication is hard on an empty stomach. But when i do I find eating a big meal just before starting is actually harder on me, I find it works better for me to have a big meal before my last one then have a small or medium meal that way my stomach is not swollen with food and feeling the hunger of nothing in it more. Question two about what age: We talk about when we are fasting with our kids since the oldest was 10 now 14. Each of them (currently 10,11,14) have fasted at least 3 times. We allow them to decide, sometimes they end up doing just a half fast other times they do a full fast. Sometimes they don't do any. The key is they have been raised to understand the spiritual blessings of fasting and have been able to experience it for themselves.

It was our wedding day. We were not members at the time and not being religious felt it was wrong to have a church wedding when we didn't support any of the faiths. So we did JOP in a public park we could and did rent. Being an outdoor wedding and not being flush with funds we taped all our music, we had a sound system for the reception but used a portable stereo running through an eighty watt power booster I had for the park. The Male half of the wedding party was responsible for the field while the female half had the hall. Anyway we only had the stereo left and an hour to go before the wedding. (It had rained most of the day so everything became last minute) I went and got my tux on, got back to the site with 30min. to go so the rest of the wedding party could get dressed. The best man tells me the booster is shot, no music. I grab his car keys jump in his car and drive like mad to the nearest Canadian Tire store. Running in there is ten or more people in line at the automotive section. In my tuxedo I push past all of them interrupt the customer being served and tell the clerk. "I'm getting married in 20 minutes and the power booster for the wedding march died! I NEED AN EIGHTY WATT BOOSTER NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Oddly no one in the line, including the customer I interrupted said anything hostile to me or complained I should go to the back of the line. The clerk just went and got it as fast as he could. Of course there was a line at the cash so I did the same thing, everyone was reasonable. Or they were worried about getting this tuxedo clad overwrought idiot out of the store as fast as possible. Normally it takes 15 minutes just to get to the store. I had 30minutes from the time I found out the thing was broken. I got there, back and had it hooked up and working with 3 minutes to spare or in less then 25 minutes. Mind you my wife never remembers that. She just remembers how while trying to hook the booster in the judge asked for her Birthdate and I got the right month and year but mixed the day up with the day of our first date which was three days difference.

NO simple answer to this. On one hand the current potential missionary should have the same chance as others in the Stake. On the other hand the other hand the debt needs to be paid. The biggest issue of course is the Stake President has control over what happens and the Bishop has limited input on what can be done. The employment specialist idea is one step that should be done. He needs to be part of this or it is a waste of time, if he can not increase his income, someone should sit with him to help him decrease his expenses. What can he sell to help raise funds. If he needs to be debt free it is not appropriate in my mind for the church to pay off his debts to serve, that is his duty. Can the Ward start a send Brother X on a mission fund? A previous Bishop we had once went to select families who had some disposable income and asked them to support a Missionary while out in the field. If the Bishop can get a process started. And the young man shows he is willing to do all he can to meet the requirements he has to make. Then the Bishop can go to the Stake and show what they are doing and ask what the Stake is willing to do. Maybe the President can be nudged into realizing that all funds going to reduce a debt ( that most likely should not have happened in the first place) is harmful to the Stake Missionary Effort and spread the repayment out over a longer period to allow at least half the funds to serve current and future missionaries. A Stake Missionary Fund Drive could be created to do fund raising or asking for donations to pay off the debt and provide funds for future missionaries. Last option is if the young man does not have the funds for a mission, is not debt free to go on one in a reasonable time, and these are requirements to serve a mission then does the Prophets consider him to be a worthy missionary. I don't mean to imply that he is not spiritually worthy to serve one but does not meet the standards due to finance. If he does not then it is not wrong for him to not go on a mission. Personally I would not use church funds nor ask members to help with paying student loans for example. It might seem a great thing but I believe is spiritually damaging to the youth. Nor should the church pay the full cost of the mission. There is spiritual and temporal reasons for the church policy on who pays for a mission. We should always help young men and women who wish to serve but there is a fine line between helping them and doing it for them. Perhaps the Bishop needs to pray and see if another course is best for this man. A Ward Missionary is as valiant as a full time one. At 22 what is the most reasonable timeline for paying off his loans even with a better paying job. At his current pay you said 7 years so is less then 4 even a remote chance. At 4 years he is 26, I submit if he has a reasonably good job from 22 to 26 there is small chance he will be ready to give it up to serve a mission. That is the time of life he is in the settling down and getting stable phase. We are accountable for our actions. While he did not make sinful choices, he choose a course of study that is of little use. He choose the debt he has created. Therefore he has chosen the consequence of those actions. We can help ease those results as we should with anyone but we can not take those consequences off his shoulders as it would undermine his spiritual relation with Heavenly Father. I started this without a clear idea of a solution. I was trying to find a way for this young man to serve a mission. I am ending this with the leaning that while I would dig around to see if there was a reasonable way I believe I have my suggestion. Based on what the Bishop has control over, what he does not, what church policy is, and without being able to take into account being a Bishop with the ability to call on Heavenly Father for direction. That I would lay it all out and suggest to the young man that while he tries to get his life in order to serve that we look into other options like a Ward Missionary etc.

congrats from Canada. I made the choice to join at age 30, 14 years ago, best thing I ever did. Don't worry about the rocks you find on your path, take your time, focus on the gospel and endure and you will get around every one. Remember there are no perfect Mormons, simply many imperfect ones trying to get better. Measure yourself against your own progression. not others.