bytebear

It would be one thing if the bill really set out to just ensure insurance for those who cannot get it through traditional means, but have you actually seen the bill. There are so many pet projects from clinics on school property, to additional government czars to come up with "preventative" initiatives. There are a lot of new boards, with who knows what kind of power to create all sorts of new programs that aren't clearly laid out in the bill. It's just a bunch of new crap that we don't need. Personally, I thought it was the job of charities to help those who cannot get help any other way. Here's my problem with government programs over charities. Say you have charity A and charity B. Charity A has a philosophy that you don't agree with. Well, you can give money to charity B. So, we have direct control over how successful a charity is. If a charity is corrupt, we stop funding it, and it goes away. And it has to compete with other charities for money, so it will be forced to be better than others to gain supporters. If it's a government program, we are forced to pay into it via taxes, regardless of what the program does. It may be wasteful, immoral and corrupt, but we must support it.

Obama also promised not to raise taxes, but few people think he will keep that promise, and this health care plan is only adding more doubt to that promise. I agree that people were swept up in the excitement of hope and change, and I think race played a large part of that. it was a signal that we had emerged beyond our racist past as a nation. But, I think now people are realizing that the price of absolution was higher than they wanted to pay.

The rodent inserts are funny. It reminds me of a recent trip we did to Disneyland and I realized we weren't in very many pictures, so I cropped us from one of them and added them to the others. It was a hoot seeing all these sites with us all in the same exact pose.

It's funny, the early converts were only given very recent miracles to work with. They didn't even have that much doctrine to contend with in the 1830s. All they had was the word of a few witnesses and the Book of Mormon.

If you are interested in "hardcore theology" I would recommend Jesus the Christ and Articles of Faith, both by James E. Talmage. The first book goes over essentially every aspect of the life and doctrine of Jesus Christ, from the creation of the world to the second coming. It's chronological and is jam packed with scriptural references that explain every aspect of the role and mission and atonement of Christ. The second book goes through the 13 articles of faith one at a time and goes into the same scriptural depth explaining what is meant by each point. I would also recommend getting a copy of Gospel Principles. It's a Sunday School manual that goes over all the basics in an easy to follow lesson format. It's very good for understanding the fundamentals, and cross referencing with the more detailed stuff. As for finding the books, have you contacted your local ward or branch. I bet you find a lot of resources through them. Even if the church library doesn't have them, if you find an active member in your area, I am sure they have many books they would be happy to lend you.

I think if you and this girl are both active in the church, and the community of saints is small, you will have plenty of time to get to know her. Just take your time as you become more involved with other members, and you will naturally get to know her. There is no rush.

I am curious. Has there ever been another similar incident in the 150 history of Utah? I have never heard of another cricket infestation, or a massive seagull retaliation? If this wasn't a miracle, why doesn't it happen ever few decades?

I think it's wonderful to give and care for the sick and hungry. I find it immoral to force my neighbor to do so against his will. Charity is wonderful, but socialism is not. It defeats the purpose of free will. Ezra Taft Benson was truly a prophet of God.

You may want to get the Institute of Religion manual of the Old Testament.

I think at the very least, they will have to wait a year if they decide on a temple wedding. He will probably have to abstain from temple worship for a while, and probably from the sacrament as well. I agree that since they are both LDS they might want to both talk to the bishop about it either together or separately depending n the level of their relationship.

Sounds like you are going through the typical trials of a pre-missionary. Just know your goals, and stick with them. Since she has no interest, it should be easier. Hang out with your friends, don't be alone with any girl, and don't date one-on-one. You won't be finding your eternal companion until you have gone through a bunch of temporary ones.

I would just add one thing. Even if you have been dating for a long time, if you find that you aren't a true match, don't hang on. Break it off. Don't invest further in a relationship that's wrong, even if you have already invested years. Just make sure that when you marry that you are both doing it for a life, and not just for love.

For what it's worth, Genghis Khan lived from 1162–1227 AD. We know he lived, and we know he had palaces in China. On October 6, 2004, a joint Japanese-Mongolian archaeological dig uncovered what is believed to be Genghis Khan's palace in rural Mongolia, which raises the possibility of actually locating the ruler's long-lost burial site. There is no archaeological evidence of any of his hoards of armies. In other words, even knowing where his palace should be, archaeologists don't really know if what they found is it. Now, you want to presume it should be easy to find such places mentioned in the Book of Mormon, that existed centuries earlier, and in a geographical area massively larger than the area in the previous example? Food for thought.

One of the problems with shaking the faith of Christianity is that it also equally shakes the faith of LDS. After all, we share the same Biblical history. We could look at books like Misquoting Jesus, or lack of archaeological evidence of the great flood, or the lack of historical evidence of Moses. We could find discrepancies in the Gospels, or other Biblical errors. We could look at scientific assertions that near death experiences are just brain activity gone wild, or that speaking in tongues is just gibberish. There are a ton of things that are illogical about faith, but in the end, you must rely on your own beliefs and know that God has answers that man has not found yet. The only difference between Biblical criticism and criticism of the LDS faith is time. We don't have affidavits from the neighbors of Peter. We aren't privy to the business dealings of James, John or Paul. We just have a lot more criticism of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young because we have far more records of them than we do of Biblical prophets. Other issues stem from the fact that the LDS Church is a united church with a specific historical legacy. Christianity can dismiss its racist or violent past, for example, by simply saying, "that was other Christians who did that, and we have no historical connection to them." It's not really true, but it's an easy way to avoid historical criticism.

Wow, 25 is old now? How about, when you are 35, you will look at 25 like you 20 somethings look at 15. Every decade is completely new and exciting. and your life will go in directions you never expected. I can't wait for the next 10 years. I turn 40 in 2 weeks!

As to the insurance thing. If you have COBRA or can extend your insurance, it should be retroactive to the day you lost your job. In other words, you may still be covered and not know it.

Sing a hymn. That will bring the spirit in every time.

I heard (although unconfirmed) that the question was actually a language issue, where they said "mr." instead of "mrs." and although it sounded like they were asking about Bill, they really weren't. All I can say is.... Awkward.

The word 'perfect' has different meanings. Today we think of it as being without error, and in that sense Jesus was perfect, but it has a second meaning which is to be complete or finished. In that sense Jesus was perfected only after the resurrection when he was given a perfect glorified body. Compare Matt. 5: 48 with 3 Ne. 12: 48, one was pre-atonement and resurrection, and the other was after. Also read John 14:28 "Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I." If Jesus was perfect, or complete, he would be equal to the Father, but the father was greater. I believe this was in part because the Jesus did not yet have a glorified body as the Father had.

I think the closest equivalent to the temple experience is that of a high and holy mass. When you go, you know what is expected. There is some interaction, but you are for the most part passive in the presentation. It really is less about the specifics of the words or lesson but more about how the lesson is presented. In other words, it isn't like a Sunday school lesson or even a sermon or a church talk. It is a presentation, with very specific symbolic meaning. To the passive participant, going once is not enough to understand the full meaning of the experience. You attend many times, and soon you know what to expect, and you can easily fall into the passive role, and just let the experience pass without much contemplation or meaning. But, even though the experience is essentially the same, you gain wisdom by repeating the experience. It takes on different meanings depending on what is going on in your life. It takes on new meaning as you mature, as you progress in life. You literally gain hidden knowledge that you could not experience in any other way, and it can only be gained over time and by taking your own personal experiences outside the temple and incorporate them into your understanding the symbolic lessons being experienced within the temple. I think that is something that also exists in high liturgy in other churches, but is often lost in many protestant churches who have rejected ritual for a more direct or even entertaining way to teach eternal truths.

Long Beach as a city has a lot of different areas. It's pretty urban, and there is a bad side of town, but they have cleaned up the downtown area a lot. Also, Spanish in all of southern California is a very common language, so don't expect him to just be in poor areas. Also, one thing I discovered on my mission is that criminals don't target religious folks, because 1) it is immoral, even for a thief to steal from clergy, and 2) they know that missionaries have nothing of value to steal. If you want to talk to former missionaries from Long Beach, check out this website: California Long Beach Mission | Welcome

So, if I pray for gumballs to fall from the sky, I can just expect it to happen? "Where much is given, much is required" which means that if you have perfect faith, you really could make gumballs fall from the sky, but I think if you are at that level of spirituality, you will not ask for something so trivial. Before the miracle comes a trial of your faith, and clearly you are not to the level that warrants the miracles you are asking for. There are so many examples from teh scriptures of this principle that it is seriously flawed to think that you can just get whatever you want whenever you want.

As I understand it, there are two estates. The first estate was given in the pre-mortal life, and those who rejected it are sons of perdition. Those who accepted their first estate, entered the second estate, which is mortality. They were given bodies. We are in our second estate. Because of that, we are promised a level of glory. If we deny the Holy Ghost with a sure knowledge (a very difficult position to be in) we cannot lose our second estate. But, what level of glory we have depends on our commitment to Christ. If we have no commitment to Christ, we receive telestial glory. If we believe and accept Christ, we receive terrestrial glory. If we covenant with Christ through baptism we receive celestial glory. If we further covenant with Christ (temple ordinances) we raise our glory within the celestial kingdom. If we still further our covenant, and enter covenant with a spouse, we receive the highest level of celestial glory. Of course, celestial glory depends on our fulfilling the covenant.

I wrote the author with a few corrections, and three were corrected or at least clafiried. One was, he called the church "The Church of Latter-day Saints" How ignorant. They did change one of the "Mormon Church"s to "LDS Church" but still use "Mormon Church" throughout.

It's also killing charities. There are several that take in used cars, and their supply has dried up. It's sad because those old cars can be used to help the poor, but instead they are being destroyed. It's a horrible program that does nothing to help the poor, and just indebts the buyer as well as the tax payer, and only the car dealerships and car companies benefit and not that much forAmerican brands. Besides they already got their bail out money. They don't need more.