Generally_Me

I hope you already knew this......(sic) means that he was aware he was misspelling "shepherd", that he was doing it because it had been previously done.

We recently had a testimony meeting in which an investigator got up and spoke about a recent death in his family, he was dressed in street clothes and holding his toddler daughter as he choked up. He said that being there with us that day gave him a lot to think about, that he was looking for something and really appreciated it that we let him and his family be there that day, and that we were willing to share what we had. He ended it with "Thank you all, for letting me speak today." We'd had 3 kids and a couple youth bear their testimonies that day. Tomorrow, that young man will be baptised a member. "Every member a missionary."

Oh, and I married a non-RM. Our marriage is as good, or bad, as anyone else's. We have a goal to serve a mission together in our retirement years.

There are many young men who don't serve missions for various reasons. Have you both prayed about it?

I consider OMG to be harmless, Oh my G-d not harmless, any aspects of capital-L "lord" off limits as an exclamation. As for proxy swearwords...oh, law! We wouldn't have anything to say in surprise if we cut all those out of our language! An exclamation point makes a great comment in a comic strip but it's rather hard to have a bunch of symbols pop out of your mouth in real life. Personally, I frequently use such made up words as "spidunkendorf" or "shibugan". Something that fully covers all aspects of surprise, and is a surprise as it leaves my mouth.

We didn't ever have leaders that provided the rides; we'd either carpool together, or our parents would drive us, or both. Of course the farthest church dance I ever whent to was about 40 minutes away, and my mother took herself shopping before she picked us up.

I know that Pentecosts and the Orthodox use it in a similar way to the LDS, anointing the sick and so forth. Catholics use a couple different consecrated oils, from what I understand it can be blessed for some different uses, each oil drop can only be used for what it was specifically blessed for. Here, I wiki'd it up out of curiosity. Anointing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are definitely people out there who choose to have dogs instead of children, but how do you know that they are LDS? Sure, some may be. But when you take out the number who choose not to have kids, or not have a tribe's worth, for medical, fiscal or spiritual reasons, that number has to be incredibly small compared to the rest of the world.

King Benjamin counseled parents not to suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither … that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil" (Mosiah 4) If by not using birth control a couple has too many children too quickly, they could have children they can't provide for, or too many children for them to spend one-on-one time and teach to do right.

I was going to mention "Paint your Wagon" but I see it is on the cheat list.

What an unfortunate situation! We've been through something similar (crazy people, no animal hoarding) and, our answer was, we played the avoidance game for a while, and when she started telling people tales about me my husband gave me the great advise of "the people who really matter know what really happened" and "Feel sorry for her, this is really how she sees the world." I don't know if any of that helps you, but thought I'd share.

Some raunchy movies aren't R. And some Rs aren't raunchy. Personally we go on a case-by-case, using online tools to research the movie. I found Schindler's List to be a one-time, very good movie. Meanwhile, some prime time cartoon shows drive away the spirit very, very quickly...but they are rated for most audiences, and on TV during prime evening time.

Eternal Promise, Sorry, I don't have much online time anymore and didn't see your question right off. Yes, you're right, we are not already endowed/sealed; we have been married nearly 6 years, and have a temple trip planned next month to do all this, and be sealed with our daughter as well. It will be awesome!! And, something I can look forward to, is accompanying my sister when she is able to go and make her own covenants.

When you commit a sexual sin, you can ask that person for their forgiveness (in causing them to sin, etc) in this life. When you murder, you can only ask that person for their forgiveness beyond the veil. I can only be grateful that sexual sins are something that I could be forgiven of.

I think some bishops are a little more lenient than others. When the bishop married me and my husband, we didn't have the line of groomsmen, and I didn't follow bridesmaids up the aisle while on my father's arm. He also told us we could only use the traditional vows. However, when my husband's cousin got married, they did all that and exchanged a brief vow over the ring exchange. Personally I don't care for all the pomp in a "regular" ceremony, it felt overblown. I liked walking up the aisle at my husband-to-be's side, stopping in front of the bishop and having simple vows over a brief message from the bishop (our message was about leaving the parents to cleave to the spouse and becoming a half of a whole).

I really enjoyed The Host. Better than the Twilight books.

We didn't/don't have dance cards either. Actually our dances were a big missionary event; we spread the word and lots of nonmembers would show up.

I wish I lived within an hour of a temple

You could always just point out that roughhousing isn't very reverent, and if he wants to play with your boys (at YOUR house and YOUR supervision) that would be fine, but you'd just like to make him aware that throwing balls in primary is not a church activity.

We recently switched over from elders to sisters. One sister, who recently left because her mission was complete, was one of the most spiritual and uplifting people I have ever met. Her companion, and the new companion, have been striving to continue the progress she made while she was here. They have a new sister convert this last month, they have been the only missionaries in years to get in the door of an inactive that no one has been able to visit in years. There are definitely good sister missionaries out there.

From personal experience...yes. We've been married 6 years in April, but next month are getting sealed in the temple. Also, though, from experience, they have a lot of work and pain ahead of them. But if they are committed together and to each other, and to repenting, they will probably be fine.

Was that in the same talk where he was talking about children ripping the cross off of other children?

Interesting. Thank you Ram. I had heard that a woman could share authority with her husband but didn't know quite how it worked.

My sister is 22 and her bishop won't let her get her endowments yet. He said 24. Meanwhile my husband and I have our temple recommends and are going to the temple next month, for endowments and sealing. But my sister, who really helped me get on the right track, won't be able to be there. She has a good attitude; she will go to the visitor's center and wait for us all to come out after.

I appreciate this thread. It answered some of my questions. We'll be traveling 7 hours to the temple, the distribution center is next to it and it's good to know that the temple sizes are different from my regular sizes.