LDSVALLEY

As Beefche says it is up to the individual to follow within the guidelines of the church. I know of a High Councilor who takes his family out to supper every Sunday at a restaurant. Our family tries to follow it fairly close. We don't watch TV, don't eat out etc on Sunday. However we have gone with the flow at times. When my wife's family came from 300KM to visit over a weekend and wanted to eat out on a Sunday we compromised by them bringing back take out to our home. For a period of several months due to work schedules and other commitments the only day that would work for Family Home Evening was Sunday so we relaxed the Television/Movie watching rule to allow for those activities when necessary. Also we allow church based movies such as Single Ward, Passage to Zerahimla, Baptists at the BBQ, Veggie Tales etc. We only listen to church music or EFY music on Sunday but allow some computer time in the afternoon for the children to check in on Face Book to play a game or catch up with friends as it is hard to find enough time during the week for each of them to do so. The church sets guidelines we are to follow, exactly how we interpret what we can do within those guidelines is between us and God.

Glad you enjoyed it for the most part. One thing to realize is that even long term members who have a grasp of the basics over time end up remembering the doctrine incorrectly. People investigating the church and new members attend Gospel Principle's class which teach the basics of the Gospel, generally they stay in that class for a year while the other adult members attend Gospel Doctrine which is a Sunday School that digs into the scriptures far more. The third class is separate Priesthood and Relief Society classes where twice a month we had been learning from a manual in the President of the Church series. Due to issues with the understanding of the basic doctrine they have stopped this and switched us to the Gospel Principle manual for the next two years. Also I used to teach the Gospel Principle class and even after the third time through the book I was still coming to more fully understand the Basic Principles. Often when we are faced with what seems like non challenging information we tune it out. Instead focus on it and find the little subtle kernels that we normally miss, it can alter what we think we understand.

Greetings from the great white north....eh. Although it is still nice and green with just a splash of red and yellow leaves so far. At your age based on the profile pic I believed in God but not religion. At 31 I listened to the Missionaries for the first time. I was baptized 14 years ago next week. Be wary the gospel works on you bit by bit. Get to active in the site and you could end up baptized LDS before you hit thirty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

I am glad to say that I have not gone through your trial so can't offer any direct suggestion. However I did grow up with a Father hooked on booze. He was the same as your husband, denial then when caught confessing and promising to change. In part it was trying to avoid loosing his family and in part I believe a real desire to change. The only time he was able to change, at least for a few years, ,was when our Mother laid out stiff ground rules. It was not enough for him to desire to change he had to prove it to her and himself. I am sure it was hard on them both but she stuck to her rules and he either had to comply or walk away. I was glad since it gave me a few good years as a youth before he hit the bottle again. My suggestion would be after you move return to church with or without him. Talk to the Bishop or seek a church related marriage councilor. Explain the issue and ask for help devising a plan that makes him change or walk. If possible involve him in the process. It is a fine line between punishing him and creating a manner that allows him and you to make actual progress in rebuilding what was lost, or more aptly creating something new to replace what was lost. The saying that insanity is using the same situation over and over expecting a different result is true. Holding him accountable for his choices, don't expect that you can wave a wand and change him or yourself, you will not wake up one day and say he is forgiven and you move on. You both have a long road to travel, bit by bit that forgiveness will grow as you both make the journey. If you simply work off his desire to change you give him full control over what is happening in your family. You need to work together to allow you to have an equal measure of control. You need to have laid out clear expectations and consequences for future actions. That way you don't have to beat yourself up trying to figure out what you should do. Instead if done up front he creates the end result based on his actions, you simply have to be strong enough to follow through with them. It puts the responsibility where it belongs. PLEASE remember that there has to be positive expectations and consequences as well. Example if he is emailing or web surfing then install a tracking program on the computers as a condition. You both know it will be reviewed once a week and set the consequence for a good or bad review. I would not suggest that at the first slip the consequence is automatic termination of the marriage, when we get into bad areas it can take time for the mind to get out of that mindset and replace it with something else. But there needs to be a time line on it and an increase in severity to the actions. Last turn to the Lord and he will help you, he will help lighten the huge burden you are carrying now. Members can also be helpful but remember they are human and can take odd stances on issues. Take advise to the Lord to determine its validity in your situation along with common sense of course.

Greetings from Canada

IN a class room when a student is taking a test sometimes a teacher will look at the answers as they are written. They can see when something is not quite correct but they do not stop the student and correct them in order for them to get the right answer. We are on Earth to be Tested, to see if we will follow God's plan of salvation or turn from it. In order for this to work God has to allow us our agency to choose for ourselves what we will do or not do every moment of our lives. If God interfered with that then his entire plan would fail, that is why we have had Hitlers, Rapists, molesters, serial killers etc. God does not create them, we do by the choices we make and that others make. I am in favor of human and civil rights however as much as some religion has abused those terms I find many special interest groups do today in order to make their cause correct. I never believed in religion until I listened to two Missionaries, read what they asked and then took it to God. Ive been a LDS for 14 years next week.

Dahlia, as you can see with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there is a scope of opinion that varies from member to member that is the logic of the Lords plan. We are given guidelines to follow but we are free to follow what path is best for us as long as we stay within those guidelines. I tell Investigators it is like walking on a road you can walk on the left, the right, the center or weave back and forth and the path will lead you to the Lord. It is when we start placing one foot on the grass and the other on the path or walk completely away from it that we get lost. We are also good at going off on tangents such as is happening with your thread. Don't worry about what to serve the Missionaries focus instead on preparing to hear their message. There is a story in the bible about Christ coming to visit two sisters the one worked and slaved in the kitchen, the other knelt at Christ's feet listening to him. When the hardworking one complained Christ admonished her about what was most important. (St. Luke Chapter 10 verse 38-41) The message and your preparation and willingness to hear it is what is important not the setting it is given in nor the comfort of those giving it. Remember they willingly serve the Lord for two years of their life not to eat cookies, get gifts, or drink specific drinks but to share the message. I've been to Investigators homes with the Missionaries where the Host was so concerned about appearing to be a good host they never sat and payed attention long enough to hear and ponder the messages! I promise you that when the Missionaries leave your home they will not discuss how good a host you were but how much they felt the spirit of the Lord and how well they did on presenting the message to you and how well you might have received it. PLEASE remember that they don't represent two young men or even the church, on their mission they represent the Lord and his ministry. They are present to serve you not have you serve them.

Up here in Canada, at least in Nova Scotia the three typical drink choices at Mormon Gatherings is Water, Apple Juice, and\or Mormon Punch. Mormon Punch is a can of concentrated fruit juice mixed with a two liter of Ginger Ale, Sprite or sometimes Cream Soda. Sometimes you can add a can of water to stretch it out if need be. As a former Mission Leader in our Ward here is some things you might find helpful. Hopefully below is a link to our Ward's Mormon-English Dictionary, new members find it helpful in understanding what seems like a different language sometimes. Box.net | Simple Online Collaboration: Online File Storage, FTP Replacement, Team Workspaces ~ Free Version Missionaries have a pace that they run at. They only have two years in the field and want to be the best they can be. Also it tends to be a fine line between someone catching the spirit that leads to baptism or becoming life long Investigators. So most Missionaries try to move things along quickly. If you are ready great, if not just tell them so. Don't feel you need to know everything at once, it does not happen that way, we learn brick by brick precept upon precept, I've been a member for 14 years and have only scratched the surface of the Gospel. Mormon's are regular people so we all have our own personalities, likes,dislikes, strengths and weakness's. We talk about being a family and it is true and like all families there are some you get along with, some you don't, some you think are nuts, some who are annoying, some who have your back always. That is the church members as well. I love all my brothers and sisters but don't always like all of them all the time. Often people mix the Gospel up with the church organization. When they find that the organization is not working the way it should they feel the Gospel is then not true. The organization is run by those people mentioned above there are times the operations of the organization annoy or upset me but it is not the gospel and does not effect my testimony of it. Two things I stressed every time I talk to people just joining or looking into the church. 1 The only dumb thing about a question is not to ask it. We all know something about something but not everything about everything. What might be obvious to me is not to you this gives an opportunity to share and for both to learn. 2 As humans we each have a unique set of filters created by our life, our way of thinking, our history, our individual culture, knowledge etc. Most often when someone feels offended by something it was done without intent. How I say something might make perfect sense to me but because of your filters you could find it insulting. If that happens please talk to someone about it. As Mission Leader for 3 years I had to investigate a dozen or more issues and not once was it intentional. Last of all let me tell you this. I never had religion in my life, neither had my wife for that matter. When we talked marriage we discussed religion, we were married by justice of the peace. When our first child was born we wanted her to have something beyond societies rules so we looked into many church's. When the Missionaries happened to knock on our door I said they could come in but had no chance of brainwashing me into their cult. And I am not a joiner, I don't belong to any organizations, I believed in God but not religion. This month we have both been members for 14 years, it is the best thing I could ever have done for myself and for my family. For us it was the only faith that made sense out of the gospel. At times it can be frustrating but most of the time it is uplifting, soul saving and most of the members are some of the best, kindest and loving people I could ever hope to meet. And thank you for being kind to the Missionaries, most of them work hard and need the extra lift a kind word and open door give them no matter where it leads. I hope you enjoy the journey of discovery that you have started.

The amount of taxes, fees etc I give the Government every year it should be..... render unto Seizer cause they seize it seems like 90%

So smile when you pay your taxes..................It's the law!

Maybe they were busy elsewhere. I guy at work told me a couple of years ago that his brother in law was ex Mormon who had to flee to Canada from Nevada. He had been on Stake Council and knew the inner secrets of the church, when he went in active he had to flee the Mormon Hit Squad that the church sends to deal with all Mormon Traitors. There must not be many on the hit squad considering all the ex Mormons or Inactive Mormons I come across.

As an adult convert to the church I can understand your problem. One downside of being raised LDS is you are not well equiped to understand the differences in motivation when faced with the anti mormon stuff and it is easy for dought to arrise. You are condtioned to think and believe in a set of beliefs. Understand I don't mean brainwashed or forced simply the way any person is raised creates a condition. I see it in our children who have been raised in the Gospel and I rejoice in it compared to my upbringing in the "real" world. when people first learned my wife and I were looking into the LDS church we were bombarded with anti mormon stuff from every side, family, friends, strangers it was amazing. Instead of being concerned about it I was greatful for it, and in truth it gave me a source for humor for many years. One thing many people neglect to do is to understand the motivation behind someone doing something. An Insurance salesman is not going to direct you to the perfect insurance plan for your situation, they are going to direct you to the best insurance plan for your situation that thier company sells. Nothing wrong with that, it is thier job and they need to support a family. But if you don't keep in mind the salesman's motivation then your judgement on what is best for your needs can become clouded. To use a business term you have to do a cost\benefit annalizes (spelling error). In other words what do they get out of the effort they have to put in. I assure you that no one continues with something when they get less out of it then they put in. I chatted with one antimormon person several times, we politly discussed our different points of view. After a few rounds of this I was struck by a thought over his username trappedinmormonhell. I asked him since he had gotten his name removed from the church many years before, since he stated he had never believed the false doctrine the church taught then why was his username trappedinmormonhell. Since he was free from the church why wasn't it freefrommormonhell. I said the only reason I could see him using trapped was if he really did still believe the Gosple because hell is where those who have found the truth and reject it will go. I never heard from him again. Think about this hundreds of people spend hundreds of hours every week for years on end to put out antimormon stuff. They study our texts, our manuals, our beliefs, conference talks etc. Many spend more time on scripture study of the Book of Mormon then most members. They surround themselves and spend much of the short time we have on Earth in something they don't beleive in or find distastful. Why? what is the motivation. Most don't run LDS down to promote a different religion. About half claim to not believe in a God at all. So what do they get out of it for all the effort they must put into it? Why was that one person still trapped in mormonhell after over a decade of freedom? What is the benefit? A dog or other animal who has been hurt by a person will assume the next person will do the same and in defence will often attack first. I have found one major reason people leave the church is over a real or imagined hurt. With animals it is instict with humans it can last longer we justify our actions by turning them back on the person or group that hurt us. One general comment can be turned into an atatck because of how each of us filters what we hear a bit different. Soon it builds to the point the person stops attending, when the church doesn't respond to that sign immediatly then the church itself is pulled into the knot of anger building. Then often God himself. people justify thier actions by being the injured party and turning things around so the Church is at fault. When that knot of anger becomes familiar it is then fed by people spending a lifetime continuing to attack the church out of revenge for the 'wrongs' done to them. Other people go the same path because an aspect of the Gospel or direction from a Leader goes against the grain of personal belief or what they want to hold onto. But the end result is the same. Don't try and pit your testimony against thier anger. The benefit over the cost they get is to avoid putting the truth where it belongs, to hold onto something that gives them a feeling of power and control. Most open to that attacks are multi generational LDS who grew up in many ways sheltered from the harsh enviorment outside the Gospel. With the fertile soil of the gospel your roots have spread wide but not deep. Those of us grown in rockier soil don't have the far spread roots of the gospel but what we have gotten we have had to go deep to anchor us in it. We are better equiped to deal with many of the harsh winds of opposition then many in fertile soil. When you come up to anti Mormon stuff don't waste your time on figuring out the truth or lack thereof. Ask yourself first what is the motivation behind thier cost in presenting it. Second what is the benefit vs the cost of your studying the information? Remeber as much as they would not keep spending thier life posting this stuff you would not spend so much of your energy on it without the benefit to you being higher then the cost to your testimony and heritage. I never had any intention of joining any church let alone LDS. When I was twenty I would have laughed in your face if you had told me I would be LDS. I had my own belief in God and said I would never sway from that stance. I've been a member for over a decade and still never changed my belief that I developed on my own when I was 13 years old and used logic to make sense of the Lords love. For me the cost\benefit was clear. The formula was only in my favor if I joined the church so I have. And while I have had issues over the years with members or leaders from time to time the Logic has always continued to be that the church is true. And the reason I was grateful for all the anti stuff we got when we first begain the journey? It is logical to believe that the only reason people would spend so much time spreading stuff about the church and not simply ignore it was if it was true and Satan was working extra hard to discredit it. No one in the church ever told me this the thing was simply logic.

Missionaries ran into my wife and I when we were just starting a family 14 years ago. I did what they told me to do and pray to see if the church was true. I did it three times each time it felt like a warm blanket was put around me. I then went 4 years as a member before I felt the spirit again, or at least being able to know it was the spirit. One thing I quickly learned was there is not really a testimony it is many testimonies of many things. I believed the church was true both from the warm feelings and the logic of the LDS gospel over other religions. It took longer to gain a testimony of Priesthood, Joseph Smith, tithing etc. I was a member for 3 years before I agreed to pay tithing and started to do so. Almost 4 years before the Priesthood. 5 years before we went to the temple for the first time. I simply held onto the small testimony that I had that the church was true, that told me the rest must be even if I did not have a testimony of it for myself yet. Testimonies are like trees, they need to be fed, they need time to grow strong anchoring roots, they need time to grow into strong tall trees to with stand the winds and storms of life. As we are taught step by step precept upon precept. When I was a Mission Leader I trusted those who had fast testimonies of all things most often their roots were spread wide but shallow instead of narrow but deep. When the winds of adversity blew their testimonies fell quickly. Find a small testimony in something, keep doing what you should, attend church, classes, scripture study, prayer, etc and leave it in the Lord's hands. When you least expect it suddenly there it will be a strong testimony nurtured in faith until you have a forest of testimonies.

When I prayed and asked the Lord if the church was true I got a definite answer that it was. So my wife and I joined. That was it for around three years, not another hint of anything. I spent much time wondering if I was not worthy or doing something wrong. Then one day while mopping a floor I got another one very clearly to the point tears were flowing down my face. I now realize we get them when the Lord intends for us to get them. Sometimes we even get them without knowing we have gotten them. But when he wants us to have it we get it.

The economic situation is true however in both the United States and Canada. An article I was reading last year pointed out that we went from a balanced trade to a huge import surplus. We have cheaper products such as furniture, computers etc then twenty years ago because we moved all the manufacturing over to China and now India. Everyone was worried about free trade sending our jobs to Mexico but they lost out to China as well. The biggest problem is we have lost the high paying factory jobs and replaced them with lower paying service jobs. The railroads and highways are jammed because of the amount of stuff we import from China. As more and more people go under the economy will continue to slow down and it will come down to the level that the lower paying jobs will provide for. But since most are now in the service industry many many of these will lose their jobs in the economic downsizing which of course will make it worse. England did go through it, World War One all but bankrupted the British Empire and they lost the high end jobs to the States. It took them years to adjust their economy to the new society. We have gone from a manufacturing society to a consumer society.

You can breath again. We hit 30% for EQ this month under the new system. Of the 20 families assigned to pure EQ teams we managed to teach 6. Our President did 3, a Husband - Wife team taught the husbands parents, and the full time Missionaries saw 2 of theirs this month. Since these are the same ones taught every month except the FTM have been only getting one I am not sure how much an improvement it really made other then lowering the number of families expected to be taught which increased our average. And I don't have a clue about the High Priest. But at least the percentage went UP!!!!!! PS I realize it is not months end yet but everyone passed in the numbers that they were done for the month of September.

Several people are saying things are black or white on this issue. Oddly enough I must be my own color call it Med green that's a nice color. Simply put I believe most callings are inspired by most Leaders as with all things there are always the exceptions. In our Ward I honestly think they are 99% of the time inspired. I believe (as I stated earlier) the issue is the manner the Leaders are praying. It is not enough to pray and ask blanket questions like who can fill this calling, or should member X be called to this position etc. 1 Callings must be in line with Church guidelines and purposes or they will not work. 2 The Leadership needs to find out back ground information on a person before an interview. 3 Of course callings need to be inspired of the Lord. 4 A clear vision of the calling must be explained and extended. 5 The importance of the calling should be explained. 6 A member should be properly trained in the actual role not what the outgoing person thinks it is. (from experience they can be very different.) 7 A Leader should do a followup interview after a period of time, month or two. Most often I find the issues relate to number 1 and 2. As humans we constantly alter things to make them work better, the problem comes when we alter so much we stray from what the Lord has laid out and then can't figure out why it's not working. I have not yet ever refused a calling however I have no problem telling a Bishop or Stake President that I need to go pray and inquire of the Lord on my own because I have not felt revelation. Or refusing it if I did not get that confirmation from the Lord. If people accept calling simply because the church culture says they should they most often will not do an inspired job. Too often I have heard leaders downplay the importance of a calling to make it seem easy, that is one reason why so many refuse. I used the opposite tack when I was an Auxiliary Leader, I spent time explaining the importance of the calling and how it effected other people for good or bad depending on how they did the calling. I will say to date every calling I have been given other then my very first, I knew in advance it was coming because the Lord would tell me a week or two before it came along.

Sometimes even inspired callings are not done correctly. A few years ago my wife was called as a councilor in Young Woman's. She was specifically told one of her roles was to "fix" the presidency because the President was unorganized. Since we are supposed to accept callings she accepted this even though both her and I felt it was wrong. Since we had three young children I had to give up being active in my Ward Clerk calling since I was unable to attend the meetings we held on Wednesdays. She struggled with an improper calling as it should never be a councilor's role to fix a Presidency that is the role of a Bishop. A councilor is to support and help not to correct their Leader in all things. To keep it short things did not go well and the stress created stress for both of us at church and at home. The only blessing was it was short lived, the Presidency was dissolved a few months later.

It was announced in Febuary that we were going to this new format. The change did not acutally occur until September 1st. So we were still using the old format which used to give us around 70% average home teaching of assigned families made up of both active and less active families. So while on the old system but waiting for the new one to be implemented we dropped down in both high Prest and EQ. Of 5 EQ teams we have one consistantly hitting 80% (EQ President.) The rest including the full time Missionaries are under 20%. Overall since the end of Febuary it has been a continual decline in teaching. The only change during that time was the announcement that a change would occur. This is the first month on the new system so I don't have numbers yet but it doesn't look good so far.

My wife and I have found at times we get wrapped up in dealing with life and neglect our relationship, it leads to fighting, arguing, defensive attitude etc. In a seven habits book a person complained that they no longer loved thier wife so what could he do about it. The author replied love her. But I said I used to love her but do not any more, what can I do? Love her, love is a verb and a noun. The noun of being in love is the result of one or both parties working at loving the other. When my wife or I find us down that not loving road one of us or the other so far will "fake it" we will pretend that what the other is saying or doing is not bothering us, that we are still in the act of loving them and bend over backwards for the other. Most often the other is not aware of this being done at first. It has never failed us yet in 15 years of marriage, when one of us "fakes it" after a week or at most two we are both in love the noun and the verb. When one of us goes through the motions of being closer the other naturally jumps on as well. That is not to say it solves every problem, but too often we end up focusing on the things irritating us in the moment and not the reason we fell in love in the first place. I figure if I ever have to do it for a month or two then it will likely be too far gone at that point. Yes it can be very hard to not react to the other person, but if you focus on the little things they do positive and thank them for it then that slowly builds upon itself and the person can come back to the way they were when you fell in love the verb.

Welcome it takes all kinds and all opinions make things clearer for all.

Before my wife and I joined the LDS church we had never belonged to any religion (neither of us were ever baptized anything.) We to checked out different faiths, I never considered LDS until the Missionaries knocked on our door the week we moved onto a new street. I told them they could come and talk but had no chance of brainwashing me into their cult. They confused me by not defending that outlook but telling me their role was to teach me a few basic principles and I should take it to God and ask him what I should do. Of all the religions I had looked into none had ever told me to ask God for the answer. I've been asking his advice now for 14 years! For our family there could never have been a better choice then joining the LDS church. The people are not perfect, local leaders can make mistakes, some members don't follow the gospel the way they should, some are busy bodies, some just don't know the Gospel, sometimes I get frustrated with the organization etc. Yet for me the Lord's plan for his church makes perfect sense. It is designed to be administrated by imperfect people and yet in the long run still function perfectly. If you come across issues with "people" remember that is not the gospel but individual imperfections. When I feel "offended" by people I try and assume it is my interpretation of what they are saying and most often it is not their intent to offend. And overall even if it is intentional it is people not the gospel. Our family is so much better with the gospel then it was before we joined. I can honestly say my wife and I would have divorced long ago if we had not had the gospel teaching us how to be better spouse and parents. And without the eternal perspective on life. Remember our faith is based on small steps one on top of the other that over time allows us to stand tall and strong but everyone is always climbing that one step at a time, sometimes we need to hold tight to the rail to avoid falling or a push or pull from someone a step up or down or beside us. Or we need to be the ones helping someone else make the next step.

welcome again

Don't not go to church because you fear getting a calling, callings are the beauty of the church they provide each member with ownership in the church, it makes them part of not just someone who attends. Also remember just because we should accept callings does not mean we have too. If a calling is extended to you explain your situation, time constraints etc and ask for time to converse with the Lord. If you don't have him let you know you need to take the calling and it is beyond your time ability to accept it then decline. Many in our ward are regular attending members who don't have a calling and have not had one for years, most by their choice. While Bishops almost always pray about giving a calling they do not always do the background work we should be doing to insure the person can actually fulfill the calling before asking the Lord if a person would be good for a calling. So go to church, if the Lord really really wants you to do a calling he will provide a way for you to do so. We are not expected to neglect our other commitments in life to serve the church, we are expected to stretch ourselves to exceed what we believe are our limitations.

When I was a Ward Clerk I watched the Bishopric pray about each calling and they would only extend it if they had confirmation from the Lord by each one of them. The Bishop was very clear that if one of them didn't get a firm confirmation they should say so. However I believe the Lord answers the prayers that we ask not the prayers we should have asked. Example the Relief Society Presidency prays about if Sister Smith would make a good RS Teacher, gets a yes then submits to the Lord. Then the Bishopric does the same thing, gets a yes and so extends the calling. Sister Smith turns the calling down because she is moving in three weeks across the country. Does this mean the calling was not from the Lord? What was prayed about? The people in authority asked of the Lord if Sister Smith would make a good RS teacher. Sister Smith is a worthy dedicated member of the church. She does all she can to raise her family in the gospel. So would she make a good RS Teacher? Yes she would. Which is what the Lord answered. Is she the one that should be called to hold that position for this ward at this time? No, but I have never heard of anyone asking the Lord that question. The second issue of course is that the Lord requires that we do all we can ourselves and then take it to the Lord. If we do not take the time to make sure someone is going to be around or available to do a calling then why should the Lord make up for our lack of effort. I knew of someone in my old Ward who was called to the Young Men's Presidency who worked every evening except Sunday and Monday. So they could only be active during Sunday, yet the Leadership kept complaining that he was not carrying his share of the load! Yet they called him so obviously they had not taken the time to find out his work schedule and the Bishopric who interviewed him dismissed the issue. I believe almost all Leaders rely on inspiration from the Lord and only a few use desperation but all to few make use of perspiration that is required prior to the inspiration to avoid the desperation.