LionHeart

It sounds to me like you have been relying on the testimony of your parents, and now that you are on your own, you need to gain one of your own. The root cause of how you are feeling is your faith is becoming weak; thus your testimony weakens, as well as your belief in God. To remedy the situation, we must begin at the foundation. First, faith in the existence of God. Does He, or does He not exist? There are many logical things to consider, such as the fact that there are thousands of elements in the human body working in complete harmony to satisfy a common purpose, (coincidence, or design?) that should take away any doubt. But it's funny how it doesn't. Logic never could convince a heart. The best thing to re-build that faith is to remember back when you were a child; so pure and innocent. Remember a profound spiritual experience that affected you greatly. Was it God, or coincidence? I think you know in your heart who it was. The next step is to strive to experience more such things. Whenever you pray, after you say the opening lines, stop, wait and feel for the spirit. Once the spirit flows in, then you may continue. Rather than asking Him to simply help you strengthen your testimony, be specific. Ask Him to help you find that paper that you lost, or to help things to line up in a way that you will have time get all of your studying done and yet still be able accomplish the other neccessities of living. When you ask for help in specifics, and the Lord helps you with those things, you realize that you couldn't have done it without Him; and then it becomes harder and harder to deny His existence. Your faith strengthens, and you witness such miracles more and more frequently until your faith becomes full, and you gain the priviledge of seeing our Lord face to face. And once you gain an understanding of the character and attributes of God, then you can determine which theology is correct. Additionally, when you read scriptures, you might find that teachings, as opposed to history, are more inspiring; such as the D&C. Study also the lectures on faith, as well as the King Follett discourse. I Really hope you can find yourself again. I think you can see that you are losing yourself in proportion to you losing your faith. LH

Hello wanderer. If you would like to read the Book of Mormon, you can find it here: Scriptures Good luck with your search. L.H.

On the fourth of September, 1839, Brigham Young left his home at Montrose, Iowa to start upon his mission to England. He was so sick that he was unable to go to the river, a distance of thirty rods, without assistance. After he had crossed the river, he rode behind Israel Barlow on his horse to my house, where he continued sick until the eighteenth. He left his sick wife with a baby only ten days old, and all of his other children were sick and unable to wait upon one another. Not one of them was able to go to the well for a pail of water, and they were without a single change of clothes, for the mob in Missouri had taken nearly all they had. On the seventeenth, sister Mary Ann Young got a boy to carry her up in his wagon to my house, that she might nurse and comfort Brother Brigham to the hour of starting. On the eighteenth, Charles Hubbard sent a boy with a wagon and span of horses to my house to start us on our journey. Our trunks were put into the wagon by some of the brethren who had come to bid us farewell. I went to my bed and shook hands with my wife, who was then shaking with the ague, and had two of the four children lying sick by her side. I embraced her and my children, and bade them farewell. The only child well was little Heber Parley, and it was with difficulty that he could carry a couple of quarts of water at a time, to assist in quenching their thirst. With some difficulty, we got into the wagon and started down the hill about ten rods. It seemed to me as though my very inmost parts would melt within me at the thought of leaving my family in such a condition, as it were almost in the arms of death. I felt as though I could scarcely endure it. I said to the teamster, “Hold up!” then turning to Brother Brigham, I added “This is pretty tough, but let’s rise and give them a cheer.” We arose, and swinging our hats three times over our heads, we cried: “Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah, for Israel!” My wife, hearing the noise, arose from her bed and came to the door to see what was up. She had a smile on her face. She and Sister Young cried out to us: “Good bye; God bless you!” We returned the compliment, and we were pleased to see that they were so cheerful. We then told the driver to go ahead. After this, I felt a spirit of joy and gratitude at having the satisfaction of seeing my wife standing on her feet, instead of leaving her in bed, knowing well that I should not see her again for two or three years. I just thought I might share this story here on account that I found it to be rather inspiring. L.H.

I think it also refers to gods like Zeus, Apollo ,etc., as well as the Norse gods: Odin, Balder, Loki, etc. There were no physical manifestations of them, but people worshipped them just the same. L.H.

I think you hit the nail right on the head, Luke. D&C 19: 21-22: And I command you that you preach naught but repentance, and show not these things unto the world until it is wisdom in me. For they cannot bear meat now, but milk they must receive; wherefore they must not know these things, lest they perish. L.H.

Rather than say: "I would not have done it." you might change it to say: "I would have done things differently." I have been thinking alot about the worth of people lately. In what capacity should we regard our fellow man? In what capacity are we regarded by our Heavenly Father. This is one of the strong points of LDS doctrine. Answers to these questions can be found by the simple phrase: "As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become." In other words, each and every person has, within theirself, the capcity to attain to the same glory and exaltation our Father in Heaven currently holds. So when we ask the question: "What is the worth of this child?" We can answer, "The worth of this child is un-fathomable." Take care Traveler, and God bless. L.H.

The more I think of it, the more I believe that evolution is a bunch of mumbo jumbo. For example, one of the premises behind the theory is mutation out of necessity. For example, If an animal is exposed to a certain environment in which it cannot thrive, it supposedly adapts to that environment. So pray tell, was it such a neccessity of life that we be able to pick up a penny that we formed finger nails? Perhaps bums evolved from monkeys and then we evolved from bums. Also for many things, there are factors that have nothing to do with the life form in question. For example, the dandilion, or the tumble weed. They utilize the wind to spread their seeds. I find it hard to believe that they mutated that way out of necessity for survival. It must be a result of the creative mind of the creator. There seems to be a perfect balance of things on this Earth. Hundreds of things seem to be balanced so perfectly so as to be able to support life on this Earth. For example, the distance between the Earth and the sun. If you move the Earth slightly further away, it becomes too cold. If you move it slightly closer, it becomes too hot. Other examples are the thickness of the Earth's crust, the fact that plants and animals support each other. Or consider this one: the very speed at which the Earth, as well as all the other planets travel around the Sun. If you slow them down, their orbit decays and they fall into the sun. If you speed them up, they fling out into space and become comets. And we have our giant neighbor Jupiter. Jupiter is a huge planet that takes the hit for the Earth whenever a large asteroid threatens to hit us. The mathematical odds of these things all happening by chance to seemingly meet the single goal of enabling Earth to support life would be billions to one. I'm sure for most of us, the conclusion to all of this is a no brainer; that there ultimately is a divine creator. But I do enjoy observing all of the evidences of the existence my Father in Heaven. And I can't help but marvel at the thousands of such things that are on this planet and the size of the blueprint it must have required. And realizing the effort that went into this project, it only saddens me when people attempt to explain away His existence through such rediculous theories. L.H.

The song is called "Soul, Heart and Mind." L.H.

I'm sure Joseph was concerned for his companions; and I am equally sure that he was concerned for his own life as well. But look at it this way: If you somehow knew that next year the world was going to end, would you quit your job, or cease your education or whatever you may have going and loaf around for the remaining year? I certainly wouldn't. As far as the mason issue goes, I beleive Joseph attained to a master mason. His brother Hiram was also a mason, as was Brigham Young and John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff. In fact many great men of the time were masons; men like George Washington and Ben Franklin. I believe that many of the things included in the church were a result of Joseph's membership among the masons. This, in my opinion, does not lessen his status as a prophet of God. L.H.

Thanks for pointing that out Dr. T. I suppose the fact that it was written in Arabic lessens the likelyhood that Joseph Smith read it. I did some research on translation dates which are as follows: The Koran was first translated into English between 1648 and 1688. However it was not a very good one as the translator was very uneducated in the Arabic language. A more reliable english translation was published in 1734. A latin translation was accomplished in 1143 however, it remained hidden until 1543; when it was finally published. From the Latin translation came the German, and Hebrew translations; which were accomplished by the mid 1600's. There are no known Greek translations. L.H.

Perhaps we do not need to know as such knowledge will likely have no effect on our salvation, however, for the sake of not blindly following leaders, it helps to know a few things about them. On the other hand, some of us may simply be looking to satisfy our curiosity. As far as whether Joseph Smith read the Koran or not, I would say it is highly possible; simply because in a discourse he gave, he mentioned the bibles of a few different languages. He pointed out that the German version was the closest to the original Greek version. This would indicate the possibility that he read the bible in a few different languages. The languages he had studied in the School of the Prophets were German, Hebrew, Latin and Greek. I also gathered from that discourse that he had become quite fluent in Hebrew. L.H.

Due to my working circumstances, I was going to be alone for a few months. But I had a computer and internet access. So to avoid becoming a recluse, I tried a few chat sites but many of them were rather vulgar; so I ran a search for LDS chat sites and found this one. I hang around because of the many interesting people here; as well as the fact that I am fascinated with understanding religion. L.H.

I personally believe that God the Father, along with Jesus and all of the noble and great ones created this Earth. This being said, Jesus, being the most faithful son to our Father was placed in the position of project manager. (remember, our Father has many worlds to oversee) Although Jesus held that position, He still had to come here in the flesh and fulfill all of the rites and ordinances pertaining to the Celestial Kingdom. (including marriage) But due to his responsibility over this world, he was also the one chosen to make the atoning sacrifice. In regards to Jesus being married, it is my understanding that it was custom for all men in Israel to marry. Although it was not law, it was expected. Although the bible does not specifically say Jesus was married, it may only mean that He fit in with the norm. For Him not to be married would have been very abnormal and likely would have been mentioned in the scripture. L.H.

But was it based on one statement alone? After all, it was Joseph Smith himself who made this statement in his discourse on the Godhead. If one is to believe that he was a true prophet, who is to say that he was not inspired in that statement? After all, is not the bible merely a collection of the words and actions of divinely inspired men? If Joseph Smith was a true prophet, then why should his teachings carry any less weight than the teachings of the ancient prophets? L.H.

That is a very cool site. Does it have a search function to search the scriptures for certain phrases? Thanks. L.H.