bytebear

Interestingly enough, when Germany reunified, it became the second nation on earth with two temples, behind the United States.

I would say authority from God. All doctrinal issues are a byproduct of that.

By the way, I believe the LDS understanding of the creation, preexistence and the fall of Adam are some of the plain and precious truths restored in modern times. I can think of no doctrine more clear or Biblically sound.

One time, some religious folks came knocking on my door. I bet you can guess who. But they had a pamphlet to share on the creation story, and how they were striving to create Earth as it was in Eden. We discussed the creation, the fall of Adam, and they were very nice, and the woman was very intrigued by what I was saying (at least she seemed very enthusiastic about my thoughts). I talked about how if Eden was perfect, and created by a perfect God, why did he not only allow imperfection, but actually planned ahead for it (by providing a savior). Then I told her that the fall of Adam was a necessary step for the advancement of mankind ("Adam Fell that men might be" - 2 Nephi 2). She seemed truly amazed at this insight, and asked, "How did you come up with all this?" And I simply replied, "Oh, I believe there are modern day prophets who have revealed more truth that clarifies certain doctrines of the Bible." I believe I then offered her a Book of Mormon (I always keep a few in my entryway), to which she declined. But I have offered it to others who have accepted (out of politeness, I am sure).

Although Grunt may get a kick out of this, one family I know, lives in Athol, MA, and have lived there as lone Mormons for at least 4 generations.

It's really about geography. If you live in the Mormon Belt of the West, most of your ward is going to be multiple generation Mormons, particularly in small towns. There are literally churches on every block, sometimes two or three across the street from each other, each hosting 2 or 3 wards. My high school covered, I think, 5 stakes.

I think, more than likely, the spirit will tell you who not to continue to date. But you don't have one soul mate that you need to find. You have lots of potential people who are compatible with you, and your goals and your hobbies, and your personality. And a lot who aren't. Just know the difference.

I'm a lifelong member, from Utah, where, for the most part, everyone's already decided on a religion, and so we didn't have many new members, but we did have move-ins, both Mormon and not. And so I think the assimilation to a neighborhood exists. But from my mission (decades ago) here are my two convert stories: In one ward, a family had joined the church, and of course, immediately the mother was called to be in the primary presidency (the childrens' program). This is not uncommon when you need good people to fill positions, and she was more than capable. Well, the tradition is in Primary, when someone has a birthday, we sing happy birthday. But, due to copyright issues, the church has it's own birthday song, not the traditional birthday song. So in church you sing: Happy happy birthday children dear. Happy days will come to you all year. If I had one wish, then it would be a happy happy birthday to you from me. https://www.lds.org/music/library/childrens-songbook/happy-happy-birthday?lang=eng&_r=1 Well, being a convert, she started everyone singing happy birthday, and she sang the traditional song, while everyone else in the room sang the Mormon version. Another story comes from a convert I met who joined the church when he was in his 60s. When I first met him, he told a wonderful conversion story, but what struck me most, was that I had met him when he was in his 80s. He had been a convert longer than I had been alive!

I have Canon as well. Rebel is a great choice for a first camera. Lenses will be where things get expensive. One tip is that some camera stores have rentals. I use Samy's in California. They have excellent weekend deals and have rented everything from lighting to cameras to lenses. So if you want to try out a lens or are looking to buy a new camera and you want to try it out first, rent it. The only catch is they do take full price deposit on your credit card, but they give it back. I am also lucky because there is a Canon repair center near by that used to do free cleanings, and I have had things fixed there under warranty. And Canon does free seminars on photography. They used to have a great one in Catalina. Free transportation to the island, free tee shirt and free seminars. And I would make a weekend of it. Those were the days.

I love GIMP, and use it for almost all of my photo editing. It's free and does most everything Photoshop does. It also has excellent color correction features for old washed out photos or pictures where you didn't do the white balance correctly. Great for minor touch ups, or image correction (band aid tool for getting rid of spots). I've used it to get rid of pimples, scars and added sleeves and lengthened skirts. I even added my nephew to the family photo of his 2nd birthday, since he was napping at the time.

That's true if you are printing in pixilation, but most photo printers blur the colors, so you can't see pixels. It may be blurry, but won't look pixilated. Even in the zoomed in, you can't really see the pixels, but you can see some JPEG residue, but that's a different issue. I assume if you are going for full quality, you are shooting in RAW. But even still, JPEG is generally good if you keep the quality ratio high.

So, make sure things are in focus, so that when you zoom in, you can see the details you want to see, because the bigger you blow it up, the more details will pop. Here's an example of what I mean. Look at the detail of the raindrops when zoomed in. You want to make sure they aren't out of focus if you go that detailed.

I've done promotional posters that are 3'x6' and they look fine. If you are looking for framing something for home, you should be fine going up to 18"x36" easily. How big are you thinking? And how much detail do you want? Do you want to see reflections of things in a person's eyes? Or an architectural photo where you can see the paint flakes on the siding?

Anyone can use the LDS welfare program regardless of membership. However, they will have to meet with the bishop and abide by the same rules that members have to (i.e. working at a welfare cannery, etc..)

No. Yes. Who's hiding it?

So you just can stop paying your taxes? Good luck with that.

This is the research that needs to be shouted from the rooftops. Well worth a read. http://news.northeastern.edu/2018/02/schools-are-still-one-of-the-safest-places-for-children-researcher-says/

The issue really isn't with the recipient, other than I feel government programs don't do enough to improve the future of people, and tend to lead to long term dependency. But the bigger issue is that the funds for government programs are taken by force (via taxes), and not through charity. Church funds come from willing members who want to help you, and that makes a difference both in their attitude toward the recipient, and to your future, knowing that something like fast offerings may be helping members of your own ward. That's the true meaning of charity, and love for your fellow man. Taxation does not teach love, but actually fosters resentment.

When I was on my mission, we'd take greenies to this neighborhood and see if they noticed anything. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7506594,-70.6656676,17z

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Fact is, we are all afraid. And that's the problem. Here's from a news article: But you really want a scare, look at these stats: These are just the kids that NCMEC assisted with. But are we freaking out about child abductions? No. Why? Because it's not beaten down on our heads every time one happens. This is why I hate the news coverage of this. It sensationalizes an extremely rare thing, to the point where you think you are more likely to lose a child from a school shooting than just being abducted randomly on the street. And you start living in fear. So much so, that you want to ban all guns, when the fact is, gun owners, unless they are criminals, in which case, they aren't allowed guns anyway, are responsible, and more than likely to save lives with their gun than without. One more thing to ponder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_gun_use Weigh the lives lost to bad people with guns, vs the lives lost because good people didn't have guns.

I think it's working out fairly well, at least as good as any other country. The Nice, France truck attack killed more people than the largest mass shooting in US history. School shootings are extremely rare. Also, the US has 323 million people compared to Australia's 24 million. I think there are a lot of factors at play, and guns is just one of them. I truly believe the trend is because it's trendy. If you are a disgruntled kid with no outlet for your anger, you do what all the other kids are doing, which is go and shoot up your old school. Used to be the trend was "going postal" which referred to a rash of gun shootings from disgruntled post office workers. That trend went away, but not before it coined a term we still use today. This trend will go away too, if we stop glorifying it. But taking guns away is not the solution.

Yep, I think the church's use of wards was simply calling a congregational ward by the governmental ward it was in. Nauvoo was set up like this since it was a self made city, and when the Saints moved to Utah, they followed suit setting up both religious and governmental geographic areas called wards. Your bishop was also your town representative, since Utah (Deseret) was a planned city built from scratch, with Brigham Young as church leader and territorial governor, it makes sense. So the term "ward" stuck, even though it has no religious meaning, but it is a lot easier to say than "congregation". I guess they were making up for having such a long church name.

It might be interesting to note that the term "ward" is in reference to governmental electoral subdivisions, and parish an administrative division, also governmental (similar to counties). Louisiana has parishes, not counties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_(electoral_subdivision) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parish_(administrative_division) So both Mormons and Catholics use governmental terms for geographic regions. The term "stake" comes from Isaiah 54:2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stake_(Latter_Day_Saints)

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