bytebear

The internet. The church began emphasizing the church name over "Mormon" a decade ago, and their search hits fell dramatically. People simply couldn't find official sources when they searched for Mormon stuff. So, they did SEO techniques to get people to official information using the search term "Mormon" I think they still do, but are now directing to Latter-day Saint sites, and hopefully they can correct misconceptions. And I think the Sister Wives and the Warren Jeffs news really confused people on who were Mormons. So the church is smart to just abandon the fringe Mormon news from official use by just not using Mormon any more.

Well, LDS claim to have the fullness of the Gospel, but not an exclusivity on truth.

I also suspect within the next 4 years, "democratic socialism" will be replaced with open Marxist Communism.

Well, if you watched the news, you would have no idea their agenda, or it's poopooed as hysterics.

FYI, I grew up in Holladay and I still love it there. But the prices are well above 400k on average.

The benches are still desirable. Homes are older though.

I would say Murray or Taylorsville, but the homes are a bit older than you may want.

People ask where I live in California, and I just say, near Disneyland. Easier than trying to explain the geography.

There is a shadow communist arm of the Democratic party which is running far left candidates against incumbent Democrats in order to force the party to the far extreme left. The DNC needs to correct this, or they will be over taken.

I grew up in South Salt Lake, and moved to Southern California when I was in my late 20s, and have been here for almost 30 years. I find the church is known as a bit quirky, but well respected. The LDS kids are usually the good kids in school, and non-Mormon families are happy to have them hang out with them in school, but not marry or be more serious because they don't want them caught up in a quirky church (putting it politely). One of my coworkers was worried her daughter would get married in a temple and not be let in. But what still kind of surprises me about Utah anyway is the culture is so Mormonic. Either you are in the church, or you are mocking the church. I am used to the LA Weekly and the OC Weekly which are standard liberal news mags, but in Utah, the SLC Weekly was the same thing, but every single article was about how rotten those Mormons were. The non-Mormons in Utah, particularly in politics are really bitter. Even smoking. Here in California, non-smoking laws are praised by the left, but in Utah, they are all upset about it. It's really bizarre. That said, I have thought about moving back, but the winters and family out here keep me here. Thing is, there are enough Mormons here to make it feel culturally significant. There are several church buildings nearby, so I still feel like I am home. And some of the inland suburbs feel very community driven, like the neighborhoods I grew up in.

Tell the testimony speaker to stay on topic.

Reagan would be nice. For living, maybe Rand Paul or Trey Gowdy. Jesus would have a hard time I think, because ultimately he is a benevolent dictator (but actually is) and would be unable to rule in our secular, imperfect world.

I know a lot of people get upset when many of the leaders are businessmen, but this is an international church now, and we need leadership familiar with the business and political world to achieve the goals of the Lord. Do you know the first non-US country to have two temples? Germany. Why? Because of the savvy of our leaders, we were able to negotiate a temple in East Germany before the wall fell. After the reunification of Germany, the country had a West German and East German temple. That is simply remarkable, and could no be done if the Lord did not place those leaders in those positions. A friend from high school was in the Austria mission before the temple and was one of the first missionaries to enter East Germany. The Lord knew what was coming, and prepared the people years before it happened.

Even if the numbers are correct, the leaders would have put far more into the church via volunteer time and tithes and offerings than they ever would get out from a stipend? The only time church leaders are paid is to compensate for their families (i.e,. the money is to support wives and children who would be affected if he was suddenly no longer making a living). A leaked pay stub from an apostle, showed his stipend at just under 90K in 2000. http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=4800350&itype=CMSID Put that into perspective, and your typical IT specialist managing the church's website makes more than an Apostle.

This is why I love the way we approach doctrine. We (even prophets) simply interpret what we know from past revelations. And we may be right, we may be wrong. And if a prophet has a personal conclusion about something, and a revelation corrects his belief, we don't all panic. We simply accept additional light on the topic. "[W]e believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. "