mikbone

How bout? Richard Ostling in his TIME Magazine, PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer interview, asked President Hinckley Question: God the Father was once a man as we were. This is something that Christian writers are always addressing. Is this the teaching of the church today, that God the Father was once a man like we are? Answer: I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it. I haven’t heard it discussed for a long time in public discourse. I don’t know. I don’t know all the circumstances under which that statement was made. I understand the philosophical background behind it. But I don’t know a lot about it and I don’t know that others know a lot about it. Drawing Nearer to the Lord President Gordon B. Hinckley Nov 1997 Ensign conference issue “The media have been kind and generous to us. This past year of pioneer celebrations has resulted in very extensive, favorable press coverage. There have been a few things we wish might have been different. I personally have been much quoted, and in a few instances misquoted and misunderstood. I think that’s to be expected. None of you need worry because you read something that was incompletely reported. You need not worry that I do not understand some matters of doctrine. I think I understand them thoroughly, and it is unfortunate that the reporting may not make this clear. I hope you will never look to the public press as the authority on the doctrines of the Church.”

Well that got no traction. Gonna bump it with the following quote Devotion to Divine Inspiration By Dr Leroi C. Snow son of Lorenzo Snow Only a short time before his death, President Snow visited the Brigham Young University, at Provo. President Brimhall escorted the party through one of the buildings; he wanted to reach the assembly room as soon as possible, as the students had already gathered. They were going through one of the kindergarten rooms; President Brimhall had reached the door and was about to open it and go on when President Snow said: "Wait a moment, President Brimhall, I want to see these children at work; what are they doing?" Brother Brimhall replied that they were making clay spheres. "That is very interesting," the President said. "I want to watch them." He quietly watched the children for several minutes and then lifted a little girl, perhaps six years of age, and stood her on a table. He then took the clay sphere from her hand, and, turning to Brother Brimhall, said: “President Brimhall, these children are now at play, making mud worlds, the time will come when some of these boys, through their faithfulness to the gospel, will progress and develop in knowledge, intelligence and power, in future eternities, until they shall be able to go out into space where there is unorganized matter and call together the necessary elements, and through their knowledge of and control over the laws and powers of nature, to organize matter into worlds on which their posterity may dwell, and over which they shall rule as gods.”

We had the chapter 5 lesson in priesthood and Relief Society last sunday. Grand Destiny of the Faithful. Did anyone have any interesting discussions?

Perhaps... Elohim and Jehovah are gods. There exist in the celestial kingdom. And they both interact with Satan. Although you may gain entrance into the celestial kingdom, if you continue to progress and wish to follow in the path of our forefathers. You will have to leave the Celestial Kingdom from time to time and deal with issues...

Not indefinite. Eternal. The great cycle will continue. I wouldn't doubt that Lucifer has a higher authority that he refers to in times of need.

He reports to the Preston England MTC in July, and will be in the Leeds England Mission! My #2 son will turn in his papers in 3 weeks. I received my call back in '89 and the packet my son got was much more informative than the one that I got. I remember that after I opened mine, all I can recall is wondering where in the world Orsorno, Chile was located. Then we had to make a trip to the local library and get out an atlas and Encyclopedia. His call was an entire 30 page handout with pictures (country & mission president), maps, addresses, e-mail addresses, well organized instructions, etc. We then jumped onto the internet and were able to pull up hundreds of images of the country. An excellent 20 minute video of the Preston England MTC. And view various blogs with pictures and stories of Leeds missionaries currently in the field. He submitted his papers 2 weeks ago so the turn around was quick, and our bishop knew that the call went out last week. He will be getting papers for the visa soon, and the Church will set up the flight plans and send the plane ticket a couple weeks before his departure. The cost of the mission is $400 monthly. This will be a great experience for my son. Anyone here been to an England mission and have some advice?

I like what you did here Vort. I have seen what you are talking about all over the place. Couples at church, in the workplace... It is interesting when you see a person in a relationship and then let themselves go. It can be either the man or the woman. It is even more interesting when a couple breaks up or has a divorce. Then the guy will try harder to be more successful or the woman will lose that extra 40 pounds that she gained... We should do our best to set high standards and goals for ourselves and should be able to expect the same from our spouses. No one is going to ever get to become as God is by making excuses for themselves and putting their life on cruise control. Life can get tough though. I wish that my wife would be able to have a delicious dinner ready when I get home, and a wardrobe full of clean freshly ironed clothes every day... But then I realize that she had to get up 4x with the newborn last night and she is also getting over a nasty viral illness... What is important, I think, is that as a couple we do our best to uplift instead of tear down our spouses. We should all probably go watch Johnny Lingo again. It is also very important to realize that Lucifer hates to see successful couples. He works hard to destroy families. It probably brings him great satisfaction. Sometimes we just have to realize who the bad guy is.

May I recommend Rhett and Link are hilarious and totally kid safe.

Brother Marriott purchases quite a lot of alcohol. Heck, I buy alcohol for cooking.

Get a dog. Viszla puppy would be my choice. You would probably do great as a mission president. What are your callings in the church. Scouting or young mens might be good for you. If polygamy wasn't outlawed and all... You will figure it out and get out of the funk. We love ya.

Yeah. I remember after my residency, I sent my family to our new residence - states away - and finished up business on my own for a week or so. For a day I was excited about the freedom, no diapers, no arguments, ... The rest of the week I was lost. Bored & lonely. My oldest 2 are both getting ready for missions. The oldest just had a rough semester at BYU Idaho and is now home and will submit papers this month. The younger is having a better experience at BYU Provo but turns 18 in June. My wife had a bit more foresight then me and although I only wanted 4 kids she persisted and we just had number 10 six months ago. I now fear I will never have the opportunity to be bored and lonely again... Anyway, I am looking forward to writing inspiring letters to my missionaries and hearing about their experiences. I also can't wait to stop buying pampers... But I can't wait for the daughters and sons-in-law as well as grandchildren that will inevitably will come. Moses 1:39 rings true. We glorify in our families. My job also gives me the opportunity to see many people in various time frames of life. The indestructible teenagers. Adults trying to find their way in life. And the elderly with their failing bodies. In the end, it all comes down to family. The elderly that were good parents have their children around them and are successful patriarchs. I have also seen many people die bitter and alone. Just this morning I took care of an 83 year old woman who broke her shoulder elbow and wrist. I fixed her fractures yesterday and she was recovering from the anesthesia. Before the surgery she was telling me about how successful her life was with her career as an actor, dancer, and model. New house, blah, blah, blah. This morning her real personality showed itself. She was abusive to the staff, spitting, and throwing her breakfast tray. No family was there to comfort her, and she had instructions that no information was to be released to any of her family members if they should inquire... She had undergone perhaps 10-20 plastic surgery procedures, but they failed to make her any more happy. I plan to die with some dignity and grace. And absolutely not in a hospital.

I've know many intelligent people. And many individuals who thought it was very important that I realize that they were intelligent. There is a huge difference. I think anyone that is prideful of their blessings either good looks or intelligence can be rather irritating to be around. If we were able to test Jesus Christ's IQ, I'm sure that He would be off the chart. Does that mean that He is irritating? Doubt it.

Well then I guess that makes it ok...

Anyone else feel that the sex was over the top this year? We couldn't watch the halftime show. And we stayed up to watch the Elementary show after the superbowl because we both like Sherlock Holmes, and the commercials looked ok. Big mistake! The opening scene was out of control. Really, how much sex does sherlock holmes need??? A good story should stand on its own merit. We don't watch CBS, NBC, or ABC anymore. Just fox news and the science channels.

Really? If I get the impression that my instructors are recommending to me that I do something stupid. I do not do it. I don't deify them openly, but I do speak my mind and concerns. If I am wrong in my assumptions, I like to learn the error in my thinking. With prayer, the spirit, the light of Christ and council with our brethren, we should never feel that we are doing something wrong or stupid. I certainly have not.

Since I'm the OP I'm gonna answer this. But I have grown weary of this thread... We are not required to follow our leaders over a cliff. You and I both know that incorrect decisions have been made in the past by local authorities. And even many general authorities were excommunicated in the early LDS church history. Your above argument leaves no room for anyone to come to their leaders with legitimate concerns. I am the the first councilor in the EQ, not the first follower. Why do you suppose that they chose the word councilor? When I spoke in private about my concerns of monthly PPIs with my EQP and discussed the pertinent portion of the Handbook, he expressed great relief because he felt that he had been failing at his calling because he was not able to perform these frequent interviews and he realized that they had not achieved the desired effect of increasing HT numbers. We discussed ways that we could work smarter not harder and are making some news plans for the quorum. My original desire for this thread was to see if anyone on this site was doing monthly PPIs, if they were effective. And where this idea originated from. How many PPIs have you had as a member from your quorum leader over the years as an average? Cuz the number of PPIs that I have had during my 25+ years is exactly one.

I'm gonna quote the exact phrase one more time for those who have difficulty with the interpretation of english. "Where possible, they visit or interview quorum or group members at least once a year." Notice how the phrase begins. Where possible - The writers of the handbook recognize that it is not possible to to even have yearly meetings with some of the quorum members. Next, you may notice that the option is given to either visit or interview each member. This wording was put there for a reason. Perhaps some of the quorum members will benefit more from a visit than an interview. Perhaps we should be using the spirit to guide us. Finally the format of the visit or interview are not dictated. It is interesting that you can find power point presentations online of how to correctly perform these PPI's. Finally, at least once a year. The majority of people whom read this phrase will interpret the meaning to be annually. But in some circumstances you may be guided to have more frequent follow-up. In my opinion this phrase does not justify monthly PPIs. Monthly or Daily PPIs to me actually seem like a program that Lucifer would have employed to make sure that we would be following his regulations. D&C 29: 34-35 - We are agents unto ourselves.

Repent, stop feeling sorry for yourself, buy a lock for your door, and communicate with your wife. Doing what is right doesn't take a genius. It takes committment and self control.

Say howdy? Can an unrepentant thief and addict make it to the celestial kingdom?

Guess I gotta comment, cuz I am the poster of the 'other thread'. And I'm gonna one up you. I don't believe in unconditional love. I chose to marry my wife in the temple because I dated her and I knew what I was getting. I knew that she was a hard working upstanding LDS elect lady who wanted to be a stay at home mom and raise up our children in righteousness. If she were to start smoking, drinking, and sleeping around, we would have to get a divorce. Sometimes I slip up and am not at my best and she whips me into shape. At times when she is having difficulty, I do what I can to help her get her mind straight and gut it out. We don't accept our faults blindly. We try to fix the things that are wrong. But accept the things we can't change. The Lord is not going to let the meth addict thief into the celestial kingdom. Why not? Because there are regulations that we have to meet if we are to be judged eligible to inherit eternal life.

Yes for the win. Clears up the misconception from: I copied the above from http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/49/49-3/JETS_49-3_549-568_Huggins.pdf

Lesson #5 ftw!

I'll try to be more specific. The Handbook states 7.3.2 "Where possible, they visit or interview quorum or group members at least once a year." The term Personal Priesthood Interview is not in the handbook nor the scriptures. You can find it in the Ensign yes and all over the Internet. I remember when I was a missionary and was instructed to give discussions from memory word for word. The missionaries no longer are required to do this, their discussions are much more free flowing allowing circumstances and the spirit to dictate how they teach. If you have been having monthly PPIs since the 1970s that would be approximately 500 PPIs. I highly doubt that you have had near 500 PPIs... If you have had that many, you have my condolences. When my EQ president informed me that we are required to do monthly PPIs with each and every member of our Elders quorum I felt a great unease, for the following reasons. 1) Time requirement for interviews would be excessive and burdensome on the presidency, members and secretary setting the appointments. 2) It felt like I was to micromanage the Elders in our quorum. With directed questions about their life, Goal setting, and accountability. 3) Repetitive nature of these interviews would no doubt make the interviews less significant than annual interviews or visits. 4) I had never had monthly PPIs previously as a member of my prior quorums in Texas, Utah (BYU), or California. 5) I am already having plenty of contact with the EQ members with church events, home teaching, home teaching reports, weekly priesthood meetings, etc. 6) The requirement of these monthly PPIs is not reasonable, and in my opinion will lead to failure. Especially in a ward whose home teaching numbers were in the teens. 7) When I asked my EQP if the PPIs were having any positive effect on the HT numbers he said that they were not. 7) The Handbook does not recommend monthy PPIs. This monthly PPI recommendation struck me as a business model of a boss micromanaging and checking up on his employees. Much like the 360 degree evaluations where I used to have to evaluate my Attending Surgeons, nurses, etc, during my residency. All the residents would sit down for an hour at the end of each month and circle numbers. Some residents would vent on their evaluations whereas I would never leave any comments. Those 360 evaluations did not have any effect on our business model other than wasting an hour of my life every month until we decided as a group to stop the process after a 6 month trial. I recommended to my EQP that we do PPIs on a annual basis and that with the time that we save we could actually work on Home teaching. I asked my EQP to give me the names of some elders who were not doing their HT and that I would start taking them out Home teaching to teach their families. This gives me the opportunity to pray with the Elders. Show them what a home teaching visit consists of, and meet some of the ward members in their homes. It allows personal visits with the elders, and bolsters our HT numbers. I have a testimony of Home Teaching not monthly PPIs. I felt inspired to question the motivation and plan of my EQP.

yes Exodus, thanks. So, if anyone other than the Lord, or the Prophet's father, or whomever ordained the Prophet were to mention that what Moses was doing was not right they would have been apostate?

Genesis 18: 13-18 Was Jethro apostate in the above scripture?