blackknight5k

I was in a similar situation as you, I felt the urge and I decided to look up my ward and call the number of the Bishop. It took about a week for them to get back to me (the number online was to the clerk's office or something, and they don't check the VM often). The Bishop called me back and we had a nice discussion about what I had done and what I was going to do to make things better. So yes, go talk to your bishop. There is nothing special you have to say to him other than "hey bishop, I'm ready to come back" and he'll help you get there. Thanks to 2 wonderful bishops, a good set of home teachers, and most importantly my wife's support, I am now a worthy Elder and waiting on my wife's 1 year to come up so we can get endowed and sealed in the temple.

David Ridges has a newer book out called 65 Signs of the times - it goes through 65 of the signs (it's not a list of all the signs, I don't think one exists) and it goes through if they have come to pass, are in process of being fulfilled, or yet to be fulfilled as well as "unknown". I highly recommend this book

I actually meant to say something about that, but I forgot as I was typing and watching a movie at the same time. I do know they got some things right, again I don't want to go into detail as I try not to think about it. I also know that the only people I know who have problems with spirits and haunting and whatnot all dabble in some sort of wicca/witchcraft. I have personally witnessed instances of supernatural things occurring at their homes such as items levitating or things flying around the kitchen (whatever it was hated the kitchen). I actually lived in the haunted local for a month while I was transitioning to a new city where I saw the majority of the weird stuff. I mostly was intrigued by this because of the dealmaking that the guy did - just like Cain became Master Mahan. I know people are still making deals with the devil, who knows what they are selling or getting, but no good can come of it.

This thread can be locked if the topics should be merged...doesn't hurt my feelings any

I couldn't tell you...maybe someone out there needs to see it?

Warning - Heavy smiley use because it's the only way I can easily communicate my feelings on this strange subject... I can't stand watching these types of shows, how fun is it watching a team of nerds spending their night walking around in the dark looking for something that probably isn't there? Never have I seen a show that I thought "huh, maybe that place IS haunted"...well, until yesterday. My family and I were visiting my Mom and brothers yesterday and they were watching some hard core extreme ghost hunting show on the chiller channel or syfy or something. We watched 2 episodes - each started with the typical interviews of the owners of the home saying "I see x at y times of the day" and they show pictures of what looks like lens flare off of some spec of dust or something So then they do their start of the "investigation" and set up cameras, pretty much wasting 10 minutes of our lives finding nothing. They finally bring in a "psychic" in some sort blindfold and walk her around the house. Again I'm all as she's saying "I'm getting flashes of a pentagram in this room, and in this room I see specifically an upside down pentagram with a goat in it". Now at this point I'm about to leave the room because I'm bored out of my mind and my eyes are hurting from rolling so much...well they take her into the basement and she starts talking about "seeing" rituals and there's something in this area that is linked to dark spirits and there is more going on...then they switch to the owner guy and ask him "did you ever do any sort of paganism or satan worship" and he says "yes, I use to be heavily into satan worship and I made a deal with the devil" :eek: "the deal was that he would give me 20 years of whatever I wanted and in turn I would give him 20 people converted to stanism" The interviewer asked him what he wanted and if he got it, his response was something along the lines of "you know money, women, protection" and yes, he got it. So I'm now all because this fool actually made a deal with the devil and now he's trying to get out of it and of course there is going to be trouble...anyway, the whole thing reminded me of Cain becoming Master Mahan just sans killing his brother. Long story short, they did some more waste of time "investigation" and one of the investigators said something like "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to show yourself" Which I promptly responded to the TV (I don't usually talk to the TV) "No, Jesus Christ would tell him to leave!" The second episode was very similar with the owners also practicing the "dark arts" and now they are in trouble. They went into more detail about the satan worship which, I'm sad to say I know a little bit of the details as I may have dabbled in some wicca at some point in my youth, as well as having a friend who is very heavily into stuff like that. They detailed a lot of stuff and it was mostly correct (from my little knowledge). So, as for the Gospel side of this thing. Evil stuff is out there, we're told to not talk about it and to pretty much "ignore it". I believe that if you turn your home into a temple as we are suppose to do then it will keep these evil spirits away. However, if you make your home a haven for evil spirits then it won't exactly be easy to get rid of them. I hope this post doesn't violate the "don't talk about it" rules... EDIT - I didn't see that there was a similar thread in the General Discussions sub-forum - I guess the mods can feel free to merge this post into that one if it should be

That's just...I have no words...

During one natural disaster, can't remember which one it was a few years ago, there was a prison who kept calling asking when their connection would be back up. Now, this is understandable because in a prison NO ONE can move when they can't connect to their system. Prisoners can't be let out to the yard or go to the lunchroom or anything because all of their movements are recorded. What's NOT understandable is that they kept arguing with us because we kept saying "there is no power to that entire section of the city" and they kept saying "we have power! we have power!" - come to find out they had a backup generator, but that doesn't mean their circuit will be up because the switches down the road in the telcom center didn't have power...they just couldn't wrap their heads around it.

We do the network security and transport (pretty much we're the internet service provider) for all of the Department of Justice, Department of Treasury, and US Courts (Just to name a few of the government customers in that area) - things got really crazy really fast after the quake, but looks like lots of the places are just going home which made call volumes die down. Hope things aren't as crazy for you, seeing as how power is more important than an internet connection.

I'm in NC, we felt it and lots of my customers are evacuating or evacuated. We're now taking calls from our sister-center in VA because they can't go back into the building (probably just until it's inspected).

Sure, let me have the self defense instructors create accounts on this site just to argue with you. I didn't say I would approach them, I would stay in an easily defensible area and shout out that 1) I have a firearm and 2) I will use it, also 3) the police are on their way. I was trying to stay generic. I am no longer going to argue with you only have deaf ears for this conversation.

My responses are based upon lots of research and suggestions made by self defense experts, lawyers versed in NC law, and law enforcement personnel. Your opinion means nothing to me, no offense, as I respect those above people's advice much more. If you don't feel like owning a firearm, then by all means don't own one.

That's a good question, despite the lack of information I am going to assume a few things in my answer: 1 - My children are in bed across the house from the kitchen 2 - I am between my children and the intruder My actions, in order: 1 - obtain phone and firearm 2 - call 911 to report a break in - informing the dispatcher that I am armed and am in fear for my families and my lives 3 - have my wife get the children and take them to a safe location 4 - cover the direction in which the intruder is, minding where my shots could go always following the 4 firearm rules 5 - inform the intruder that I know he is here, I am armed and ready to defend my life and my family's lives The events after this are dependent upon the intruder - if they flee, then I will let them go. They are no longer a threat to my family or me. If he attacks me, then I will shoot him until the threat is neutralized - at that point I will inform the dispatcher (I'm sure they would know after the gunshots). If the intruder stays put until the police arrive then I'll let them do their thing. I am not a bloodthirsty, delusional person with the hero syndrome, on the contrary I hope to never have to use my firearms in any manner against my fellow man. I am prepared to defend my family - that is all.

I have a carry permit, I don't carry into the church because I don't have a jacket (nor want one, really). However, I want those of you that claim that people carrying guns just escalates arguments to cite sources. In all honesty, you're all talking out of your rear ends. Just because someone chooses to carry a firearm doesn't make them quicker to anger nor does pulling your firearm result in them getting shot "more often than not". Here is a link to a PDF with more gunfacts than you'll probably read (honestly, I doubt you'll even click on the link) - all statistics are cited. It's honestly insulting to me that you would insinuate that I would, just because I am carrying a firearm, escalate a simple heated debate or argument to the point of violence and possible murder. I am a level headed human being, as most people are. We have been told to protect our families even unto bloodshed, it doesn't say "well just when they are in your home". Please stop the ignorance.

As a former Atheist with Atheist (ex)-friends I will tell you this - Arguing with a rabid Atheist or really anyone else with another extreme viewpoint than your own, it is not worth the time or the torment to argue with them endlessly. If they ask you a question, it's ok to answer, however if they are being rude and hardheaded, just walk away. Log off from the computer and go take some deep breaths, read a little bit, go for a walk, whatever but when you come back just leave them be. I have a cousin that has caused so much ruckus over religion and child-raising that I will flat out refuse to talk to her anymore - does this make me a bad person? I don't think so, I gave her plenty of chances to calm down and discuss things rationally rather than with the "holier than thou" attitude that the majority of the people my age have these days. tl;dr - just ignore them and don't argue

I do feel as if her companion is walking over her since she's new and she isn't very confrontational...with people outside of her family. We went to Gospel Principles together for almost a year before she was baptized and we both grew tired of it. In this ward they don't go lesson to lesson they "teach what the spirit guides them to teach" so I swear we've heard the repentance lesson 4 or 5 times along with a few others from the front of the book. We started reading some of the lessons at home and we decided to go to Gospel Doctrine after that. I feel the spirit so strongly in that ward, there are a lot of good people in it and I love the ward. I don't want to sound like I don't like my ward, the church, or serving the lord - this is just been a very frustrating few months and we're starting to get pushed to our breaking point. We hate being away on weekends we are away, every sunday we go to a different ward we miss our ward, but sometimes I hate feeling like I'm just on a list...

This is so true, going on my list of quotes Also, thanks for all your other advice. I'll make an appointment to talk to the bishop as soon as possible. We have an odd ward, we have a core group of members who live in the area that hardly fill up the chapel, but in the summer we get slammed with all these younger couples from Utah and California who are here to sell pest control and alarm systems. Our ward size doubles over the summer, then cuts down. The core group are all very active - I was surprised to hear that we are each only assigned 2 hometeaching families because there are so few inactive members and so many active members. I honestly think in any of the wards the volunteer model would work, it would be this one because there are so many active and helpful members in the core. I personally was assigned to be a HT companion to one of the pest control or alarm system guys (not sure which one) and I haven't been able to get ahold of him to go on assignment this month. In order to progress to be an Elder I have to "be faithful in my hometeaching and my calling" - so I guess this month I'll be HT alone (which I really don't mind). Another thing my wife just brought up that I had forgotten is that her VT companion's husband is a councilor in the bishopric - I'm not sure if he's 1st or 2nd off hand but he's a good guy...I don't want to start anything but this is driving my wife crazy. I told her to talk to the RS president about it, but she won't and says "i'll just deal with it" - but I don't think she should have to. You're all right, she shouldn't have to put up with this right now. It's only been 6 weeks since my Son was born and only 4 months since she was baptized and it's WAY too much for her to have to be put through right now.

Having just gotten back into the church in the last year or so, and being away for over 10 years, I need to know the answer to this question - when did they stop asking for volunteers for things and just start assigning tasks? I don't mind volunteering, but when you ask for volunteers you get someone who can actually morph their schedule around the task instead of sending out assignments via email a few weeks in advance. Instead, you get an alphabetical list sent out every month saying "here's your x assignment". I just got assigned to splits on the 3rd of July. I was already planning on going out of town for the extended weekend with my family - but now in addition to making holiday plans I also have to find someone to take my spot for something I didn't know I was going to do until a few weeks in advance! A few other members on the list aren't even active, and another is going to Utah for a month leaving in 4 days but just got this assignment last night saying "oh yeah, in 2 weeks you have splits". He won't even be in this part of the country! So far we've been "volunteered" to feed the missionaries, which we didn't mind the first time, but the 2nd time the Sister became pushy because we said we couldn't at all for a month because my Son was due during the time frame and we'd already been to the hospital once with complications, ended up going one more time (near a night we had to feed the missionaries) then she was induced and in the hospital for almost a week. We COULDN'T feed the missionaries that month, but the lady felt like getting pushy. Then I was volunteered to clean the meeting house - which thankfully worked with my schedule and was actually sent ahead of time. In addition to those two things, I've been volunteered for last minute moves that I hardly had a chance to get the email for. Now what's kicked me over the edge, my wife was baptized in late February. At her baptism after her confirmation and the closing prayer a Sister walks up and says "I'm so-and-so and I'm you're visiting teaching companion" - my wife, who was hardly 10 minutes out of the baptismal font said "huh?" She didn't have time to get an answer because everyone wanted to congratulate her. So, a week goes by and we have some friends over from the church and tell them the story - the said "oh, maybe she's one of the companions who are your visiting teachers" and we both said "huh, I guess that makes since". Months later this Sister starts contacting my wife telling her more and more about visiting teaching, lo and behold my wife was assigned a task before she was even baptized or anything. The next month my wife had the baby, so couldn't go do anything (mentioned above) - now on the 31st of last month her visiting teaching companion comes over and says "so I have to get visiting teaching done this week because my kids will be out of the school for the summer, also next month I can only do it during this week, and in august I'd like to do it the last week" - she she came over and told my wife "this is when I can do it and that's when we'll do it" My wife was shocked and just said "ok" and never heard anything back until this past week when her companion came to her AGAIN and said "oh yeah, sorry I didn't get back to you" - my wife offered to call the women and make the appointments but her companion said "oh no, I'll call them and you can teach the lessons since I'm making the appointments"....what the crap is that? My wife hasn't been a member for long and she's already been told that she will teach the lessons all on her own. The next day her companion calls her and says "can you come to so-and-so's house to visit teach at 1:00" (it was 11:30). This week my daughter is out of school and of course my wife still has a newborn and was just given an hour and a half to get them both ready to go to someone else's house - and she has no car (we have one car and I had it with me at work). She politely tells the companion that she can't just give an hour and a half notice to go and that she'll need at least a day or 2 notice since we have so much going on. All this is hitting us pretty much at once, she's really frustrated because 1 - she was never told by anyone other than her companion that she had the assignment, she doesn't even know who all of the women are she is suppose to teach, and 2 - her companion is being very rude and pushy. I don't want to sound like I don't want to serve, I do, but I preferred the old way. If someone would say "hey, we need meals for the missionaries during these days" we'd sign up when we can. If someone said "the missionaries need people to do splits" I'd probably go out one night every other week or more when I can. I can volunteer to move people as much as I can, but only when I can and not last minute being volunteered. I really want to serve, but not in this way. I feel like this takes it from "service from the heart" to "mandatory service".

The lord will not allow a Prophet to lead his church astray - now what that means I'm not exactly clear on, but I do believe it contains in it "false prophecies to gather in far away places".

I had that fact worked into my response, but I pulled it out since I didn't know how touchy that subject was. In general, I'm not a fan of police officers. Pile on me if you will, but the whole "thin blue line" crap and the ever increasing militarization of the police forces angers me. It seems all the police officers I know got significantly...err...harsher? meaner? I'm trying to keep it as clean as possible. That being said, I highly respect those officers who deal with child pornography even just once, let alone those poor souls who have to see it every day. They have to analyze every picture for every detail trying to get as much information from it as possible. I would probably be the most depressed person in the world if that was my job. May God bless them and bless all those children who are in those situations across this earth.

There are plenty of people out there who would argue that "visions" are caused by mental illness or brain tumors or something. These are also the same people who wave away "near death experiences" as "tricks of the brain" etc. etc. They make a good point, how do you know if someone out there is really receiving revelation from God or are just hearing random voices in their heads? Now, tbaird22 got it right - though maybe a little harshly. We need to have faith to believe them, though how does one gain faith? Through prayer, scripture study, and personal revelation. I know that I have received answers for my prayers and personal revelation plenty of times in my life, as have most members of the church. Now, does that make us all mentally ill? I sure hope not...

More specific to the OP - I went through a somewhat nasty divorce. The divorce part wasn't the problem, it was the custody. I had to do some internet sleuthing to get evidence that my ex-wife was unfit to be a mother (which she is, sad to say). Anyway, my lawyer was a member of the church and in the course of that investigation I stumble upon numerous pictures my ex-wife had posted online of herself in the nude...they were very pornographic, however my lawyer had to look at them with me...I don't think he had an issue going to the temple any time after that or felt the need to repent, it was part of his job and it had to be done to determine if they would help us prove that she was unfit. Would you feel like you were barred from the temple if your job including you having to look at porn in your work? There are more jobs out there than you think that involve that - certain subsets of my job require me to test proxy servers and sometimes if the proxy fails you get a glimpse of something that you didn't really want to see... Though there are jobs out there that are clearly wrong (prostitute, bartender, tobacco co CEO, etc..) we all have to do things that we may not agree with.

My Grandfather was a Bishop while working as a buyer/seller at a large grocery chain - he probably bought more alcohol or tobacco than most people will need in their lives. When asked about it, he would simply say "I'm just doing my job" and that was that. The bishop in the OP's question is doing that - he's just doing his job. What do you expect him to do? turn down every case where the person is guilty but pleads innocent?

I have never seen or heard of "Ancient America Peaks", however in the temple bookstore there are plenty of books on mesoamerica and its relationship to the Book of Mormon. Honestly, I was skeptical about them at first but after taking my honeymoon in Playa Del Carmen and going to Chichen Itza and seeing some very obvious similarities between aspects of the religion and ours I decided to dig deeper. I picked up Decoding Ancient America: A Guide to the Archaeology of the Book of Mormon by Diane Wirth (link) which really opened my eyes to the similarities. However, you have to keep in mind that Cortez, the Conquistadores, and the Catholic Church destroyed tons of valuable information on the religions and histories of Mesoamerica. Most of what we know are from 4 codices preserved by a few catholic priests who thought "hey, maybe this should be preserved". Also, another thing to keep in mind is that from the time of the fall of the Nephites to the discovery by Cortez was about 1000 years, and by the time the Nephites fell the opposing religions and nations around the Nephites were large and influential. Because of the nature of the Book of Mormon we don't have many specifics on the ways of life or what the tribes actually called themselves, it's more of catch all terms like "Jews" and "Gentiles". I am by no means an archaeologist so I could be completely wrong, however I do suggest buying the book and having a read through.

My wife and I watched Top Shot pretty regularly. I wasn't a George fan either until the last episode when he missed on purpose. Chris Tilley's dad owns the best handgun range in the area so I've seen him a few times, he's an OK guy but smells pretty badly of cigs. I wasn't rooting for him though, I liked Ashley and Chris Reed.