Carl62

There's a whole big can of worms right there. What sports are officially O.K. and not O.K. for wearing our garments? Or is this left up to everybody's own discretion? About 20 years ago, my mother saw our (at the time) Stake Presidents wife playing tennis wearing tennis shorts that no way garments could have been worn underneath. So is playing tennis O.K. for not wearing garments? Where does one draw the line on all of this?

My big question with all of this is.....why do we even need to go swimming? If we're told that taking our garments off for extracurricular activities is looked at as not taking our covenants seriously, then why would we need to do something extracurricular that would require us to take them off? I never understood this.

From what I understand of this, the teacher was writing 'loser' on the papers of students who were getting nearly perfect or perfect test scores as a joke. That's why the girl, who's parents were the ones who complained about this, actually laughed at seeing 'loser' written at the top of her paper. If this was a student who was doing terrible and the 'loser' remark had been written, then I could see a reason for complaining. I think some parents actually like to try and make issues of very miniscule things simply because they want to show schools and teachers that they have some kind of "authority" over them. As someone who has a sister who is a schoolteacher, I've heard many horror stories from her about the way parents like to show their muscle over very little things. I think in the case of the 'loser' student, some parents need to lighten up just a bit.

I always find it interesting how parents (and not just LDS parents either) are horrified and shocked and will refuse to let their kids see any videos that may contain 5 seconds of some minor nudity (ex: women's breasts), yet they'll let their kids do virtual killings hour after hour after hour and that's O.K. I'm still trying to understand the logic behind that.

When I read about some of the guys on here wanting to have "several nice long chats" with their future SIL's about various things connected with the church and their worthiness, I was thinking how this reminds me so much of the movie "Meet The Fockers" where Robert DeNiro is trying to get so much information out of his future SIL (Ben Stiller) that at one point he injects him with truth serum and when Ben Stiller gets up to the mic at a family party, his whole family ends up getting more truth than what they bargained for. Definitely check out this movie if you haven't seen it. It's hilarious.

You say that sometimes when a Bishop gives a calling to someone, that it may not be direct instruction from the Lord. So what does constitute direct instruction from the Lord to a Bishop, if not a calling?

If you have somebody who respects you and treats you like a lady, shows no signs of wanting to cheat on you, has a positive and happy outlook on life, has some education outside of high school, respects his parents and yours, misses church only once every other month, has the drive and desire to hold a job for a lenghty period of time, is worthy enough to hold a temple recommend, isn't verbally or physically abusive and isn't afraid of commitment, then regardless of whether or not he served a mission or was in the military, you shouldn't just walk with him to the temple, you should run. If you truly have somebody who's all of this, I'll guarantee you're probably in the less than 5% range of most women in the U.S. who are either dating, engaged or already married. Strike now while the iron's hot. Good luck.

Five bands that I can think of off the top of my head that have awesomely positive lyrics are Creed, Vertical Horizon, Evanescence, U2, and Collective Soul. An interesting fact that people didn't know about Collective Soul is that all of them are Christians who just happened to form a rock band, yet they didn't want to fall under the banner of being called a Christian rock band. The reason is is that they wanted to take their music with their positive messages to the people who they thought would actually benefit from it more(secular people/FM radio) as opposed to the people who they thought needed it less (Christians). I don't know if any of your YM/YW are into The Beatles but for those who are, check out the Christian rock group Pray For Rain (their last couple of albums they went just by PFR). They are an absolutely incredible band who sound VERY much like The Beatles. Can't recommend them enough. Good luck to you.

How many RM's change or go inactive after their missions? See what Marlin K. Jensen, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, has to say about the high percentage of RM's who go inactive after their missions: The Mormons . Themes . The Massive Missionary Program | PBS

If I were dating a woman and I treated her with respect, dignity and love and the only reason she wouldn't want to get more serious with me is because of some stigma she has that marrying only a return missionary will automatically make for a better and more spiritual marriage, I would not walk from that woman, I would RUN!!! If marrying a return missionary is supposed to be the main criteria and belief for women in having a successful marriage, and since there is probably some temple marriage going on right now as I'm typing this with some bride and her new RM husband, then why is the divorce rate the same in the church as it is in the U.S.? IMHO, and I'm sure I'm going to get flamed for saying this, but I think this is more about women maintaining a certain social image and standard in the church for who they are to marry than what their future spouses spirituality is. Any person, RM or not, can change overnight in any way, shape or form that they choose to. Instead of women worrying about what a man's social status is within the church in finding a mate, why not focus more on how that person is treating you day by day throughout the courtship. I've never once heard of social status, whether it be in the church or in your own neighborhood, being the key in having a successful marriage. It might work for putting on a successful fake front for the family and friends, but for building and maintaining a happy and spiritual marriage? Never.

That's very true. What I'd also like to add is why would Joseph Smith, if he just made the BoM all up and is far from Christian as some percieve him to be, go about writing a book that actually teaches more about Jesus Christ than the New Testament does? The BoM mentions Jesus on average of every 1.7 verses compared to 2.3 in the New Testament. Of the 6,000 verses in the BoM, far more than half refer directly to Him.

Wow, I can't believe how strict things are getting with missionaries these days! When I was on my mission ('82), we were allowed to teach single women without there being a male present in the house. I guess that's out nowadays. Heck, I even baptized one single lady and her daughter. No questions, no problems. When I first began investing the church when I was 16, it was 2 sister missionaries who came over to my house while by myself and taught me the discussions and even dropped by occasionally just to say 'hi'. They even drove me to church a few times. Again, no problems or questions from it. It's a completely different day and age I guess.

"Well I can go, go, go in my Hoveround"......lol. I just heard the commercial about 20 minutes ago.

What I find even more interesting is that since most of mainstream Christianity teaches that God and Jesus are one in substance and thought and that Jesus spoke more of hell than heaven for us living in the last 2,000 years, then why didn't Jesus (God) speak not one word about hell in the entire Old Testament, which covered a span of 4,000+ years? So did those people who died during that time all the sudden wake up in front of some guy with horns and a pitchfork waiting to throw them in a fiery lake, where they were going to burn forever and ever without ever hearing a word of warning of their impending fate? Is this a fair and just God? Why would you believe that a merciful God would ALLOW such a thing? This seems absolutely beyond comprehension of a loving and just God.

So what has been said about this through our current LIVING prophets and apostles? After all, doesn't what a living prophet says (or doesn't say) override what a dead prophet says? That's what I got hammered into me in a previous thread where I tried to bring up something that was clearly stated and even signed by the entire First Presidency 25-30 years ago, only to have it overturned by the new "living prophet vs. dead prophet" counsel because nothing has been recently said about it (at least within the last 10 years anyway). Does the CHI say anything about avoiding R-rated movies?

Welcome to the board Wondering. Hope you enjoy being a member of our community and if there is any questions or concerns you have, fire away. We'll always be here for you.:)

Just two months ago, I began seeing this woman who I've now fallen head over heels in love with and am starting to get somewhat serious with. She is a non-member and now a problem has come up in regards to the church. While she hasn't said anything negative about the church doctrinally because she really doesn't understand it, she did have a bad experience with missionaries back six years ago when she actually had the missionaries in her house a few times and in one of those cases (when she wasn't home), the one missionary started to get flirtatious with her daughter. That killed that and has since left a bad taste in her mouth towards having any missionaries over. Another problem that has come up is that she watches the T.V. show Big Love. Yes, while I do watch the show myself, I was unaware that she was watching the show also up until a few weeks ago. How does one go about getting someone interested in the church and then, at the same time, try to explain all the controversial church related things that goes on in the show. While she's practically addicted to the show, she has had some questions and even concerns over some of the things she's seen, especially this new season! Any advice on how to side step all of this and possibly get her interested in the church would greatly be appreciated. Thanks.:)

There's something about the act of baptism that cements, ceremonializes and publically celebrates the whole "born again" experience for me, unlike some people who say they said a prayer and got "saved" while they were merely taking a shower or driving down the road.

Born again = baptism

Here's what BYU has to say about it: Gambling in Utah

If you're having to put money into the company before they hire you, then yeah, I wouldn't take that job either.

You mean people don't use money when they play the slot machines? Wow, that's news to me!

Everybody thinks they are acting "intelligently" in regards to the stock market or anything related until they lose. Bernie Madoff's victims I'm sure thought they were acting intelligently until they lost everything. Oh but that's right, as long as they were thinking intelligently about there decision, then it's not considered gambling. Got it.

I honestly wouldn't rule out that it is. It just may be considered a different form of gambling. I guess every individual in the church has to decide whether or not what the church learders have said falls under this category.

For those that still think investing in the stock market isn't gambling, check this out: www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/krantz/20