sister_in_faith

anne, just come with us! we could do a lot of laundry together!!!

I'm not sexually active, so I can't do any 'experiments' on this, but I would be interested if someone would try, making love to their spouse and in the middle of it trying to 'dial in' to the spirit. Is it there as quickly as other times?

Find a good counselor and go do some couples therapy. Sounds like whatever he is doing isn't working. A good therapist can help both you and him, and help you work out marrital issues.

I have a question for all the ladies in the house... If you were on the trek to SLC, and the announcement came that all the men had to leave (mormon battalion), would you continue on the trek alone, or would you have dropped everything and gone with him? I KNOW that I would have dropped the handcart and all our stuff and went with my honey. No doubt.

acostaroad, very sorry to hear about your loss. Thank you for bringing this up, I hadn't seen it before. Good stuff!

This thread made me curious if I had missed something, or didn't remember the book correctly, since i read it so long ago... Last night I went and bought the book. This afternoon I read it. Took me about 2 1/2 hours, its a very quick read. AGAIN, I DON'T ADVISE ANYONE TO GO OUT AND READ IT if you haven't already. It is very horrific. I read it with the goal of TRYING to find holes in the story, or contradictions. I found none. On the contrary, to make this up would take an ENORMOUS amount of effort and research. There are tons of instances in the book where the descriptions of his thoughts and things she does to him are SO detailed. I don't think anyone who hasn't gone thru stuff like this could make it up. I was going to quote some of the book, but honestly opening it again makes me sick. I may end up burning it or throwing it out because it is such a horrific story, but I'm glad my $11.95 went to support Dave Pelzer.

"this body is a temple, and you ain't got no recommend"

I think this is spot on.

Oh my Snow, how you misunderstand me. Some thing I am quickly learning while participating in these forums is that even when I try to be as clear as possible, SOMEONE will still misunderstand, or misconstrue something. Perhaps that is my fault, and if I can fix it, hopefully with practice, I will. I never meant to condem anyone, or say they are not 'good' mormons. I used the term 'environmental activist activities', and I regret it. I NEVER wanted it to be taken to an extreme. I simply asked an innocent question that I honestly wanted an answer for. The question was why, if it is taught that we should care for the environment so prominently in the endowment (which I admitted was MY take on the teaching), then why wasn't the teaching more prominent at church? I further came to the conclusion that we ARE taught these things, but not in so many words. The use of the term 'carbon footprint' was not meant literally. I mean seriously, who walks around in carbon shoes? They are so dang uncomfortable! I just was saying that if we follow the teachings of the church, we will be acting in a manner that would positively impact the environment. I never mentioned global warming. I'm personally not terribly concerned about it. Does this ease your mind?

Slamjet knows magic.

Magic is cool.

anne, that is VERY sweet. Speaking of valor, I have to give props to my service dog Sophie. She came with us on our Martin's Cove trek, and when we went up into the actual cove I forgot to bring water. It was awfly hot, and I didn't realize that we were walking on crushed gravel (very sharp for little puppy paws) until we were too far to turn back. She never hesitated or balked, but stayed steadfast by my side the entire time. I tried to let her walk on the grass as much as she could while still being respectful of the site, and I was so worried about her getting heat stroke (she's a black lab, so she gets hot faster than, say, a yellow lab), and walking down that trail I could see the river in the distance. I kept thinking, if she passes out, I'm going to pick her up and run all the way to the river (probably not even possible, but I would have tried) and dump her in it. End of story she was fine and drank tons of water when we got back to the hand carts, but she taught me one of the biggest lessons I learned during trek. It brings tears to my eyes to think back on her valor, steadfastness, and loyalty. She is with me all the way to the end, even walking on sharp rocks. What a girl! She would have been a GOOD pioneer dog.

I think years ago I would have had the old fashoned view about it too... I don't think it is that common... This is going to be a bit of a stretch, but here goes... If I was a boy, years down the line, and I wanted to marry theoriginalavatar's daughter, I would certainly ask! It's awesome when it does happen! For ME, NOW, I would be horrified if my honey asked my mother for my hand. She doesn't get to make major decisions in my life any more! But that is ONLY my situation!

I would have kept going, but I bet I would have died along the way. I have too many medical issues...

I love history reinactment stuff! I was in the SCA for a while... rapier fighter, and a good one too! Only problem is that if I was actually born in that time period they probably wouldn't have let me, a girl, play with swords! Also, when you think about hygene issues back then, I like my flush toilet, and taking a hot shower whenever I feel like it! I think I am just fine living now, with my period clothing (pioneer and SCA) hidden in my closet, and my rapier on my mantle. I can go play any time I want, and drive home in my car to take a shower!

My mother still believes that she was an excellent mother. Far better than the average mother. Even when confronted with undisputed facts and events, she shrugs it off saying that any 'mistake' she may have made is 'evened out' by the rest of her wonderful parenting. I think it is typical for abusive parents to deny their abuse.

ive thought of trying to build a temple out of sugar cubes, but legos, thats pretty awesome!

This has me ALMOST wanting to go to church wearing a nice pair of pants, JUST to see what the reaction is. I'm in a different ward, so I'm really not sure what the reaction would be. If I get up the guts I'll let you guys know how it goes.

I think I need to clarify my interpretation of the word 'demonize' in this context. I certainly do NOT think we should ascribe any action to someone that they did not do. I mean that we should be honest about the truth of what happened and pin the blame where it belongs. Like I said, she should have been charged with a crime, just as any other child abuser. We get all up in arms over people who are convicted of, or admit to horrible crimes all the time. Why not her (again, IF it's true)? I believe in the innocent until proven guilty line of thought, and like I have said several times, I don't know if it is true or not. Insofar as there never being anything constructive about 'demonizing' another human being, I think (again, in my understanding of the word in this context) that the victim always has the right to publicly expose their abuser for what occured. Even if that person has died. I don't think we have any responsibilty to try and keep someone's reputation unsullied just because they have passed away, or even because we can't 'prove beyond a reasonable doubt' in court that they are guilty. (Especially when we are talking about people who were children when they were abused. The abuser usually keeps these things secret and a child is not usually very good at evidence preservation. I know I wasn't!)

Vort, I agree... I also think that someone who makes a false claim of rape should be publicly humiliated in the same way the person she acused was. I hate it when the media covers the allegation part of the story, but disappears when the innocent needs their help to clear their name. It is not fair, and when talking about false rape, most of the victims are men, and it is not acceptable. This such a difficult discussion, because it is so dangerous on either side if we are acting on false information. Anne... I am SO sorry about the pain you and your honey have experienced. You are NOT alone. We will get thru it, and walk away stronger. I would hate to be in our abusers shoes when judgement day comes! <hugs!>

I'm assuming that you are asking this question in the context of this thread. If you have read the thread you know that I have come to the conclusion that following the teachings of the church, makes us environmentally minded by default. For example, growing our own food, sewing our own clothes, caring for our animals and crops, all these things help decrease our carbon foot print so to speak. I am not perfect in doing this, but I am striving to do better, and especially after discovering this I will really try to do better. Does that answer your question Snow, or did I miss the point?

lol bytor

I have a question... if suddenly all of our technology were to 'disappear', all of us, with our knowledge were left, but we had no tools or anything like that, how long would it take us to rebuild our society back to the level of technology we currently enjoy? We would know HOW to mine minerals, but the miners would have to start from scratch to even build mining tools, etc, etc...

On the bus ride back from a trek at Martin's Cove we played 'the ipod game'. We all took turns. The player has to play a song on their ipod loud enuf so they can't hear themselves sing, and then they have to sing along to the song. It is hysterical. I ended up doing will smith's 'gettin jiggy with it' in a pioneer dress and bonnet. We decided that was probably a first.

I'm gonna go with no.