mrmarklin

As someone who has traveled to Germany extensively, I can say that for sure Elder Uchtdorf did not come from some underprivileged background. Granted his family may have experienced some problems following WW2. But Germany is a very stratified society, and he could not have flown as an officer in the German military or held his job at Lufthansa, without some level of status in society. What we here may call privilege.

As an upper middle class White guy myself, I'm very gratified in the discussion my comment has generated. It caused some people to think. I'm a slight Horatio Alger story myself, as I paid my own way through college and came from a monetarily very humble background. But the US is still the greatest land of opportunity ever, and I took advantage. But I think my point still stands. A son of mine recently moved with his family, to Utah Valley from California, and the cultural contrasts are subtle but distinct. And this culture is very noticeable in Church leadership (who, BTW I support unreservedly). An old example, but I remember a program called Block Teaching. It was renamed Ward Teaching or Home Teaching sometime in the 1950s. Why the rename? The Church was so Utah centric that Home teaching was assigned in literal neighborhood Blocks so the teacher could walk to his assignment. It took a while, but someone at HQ realized that this terminology didn't translate well in the hinterlands where it was impossible to walk to do the monthly teaching. Totally unconscious by leadership, they were just naming the program due to their experiences. Similar things happen today. At some level, we are all products of our cultural experiences and upbringing.

Elder Uchtdorf was an airline pilot, Gong grew up on the SF Peninsula, a bastion of white upper middle class values, and its obvious that Kearon grew up upper middle class from a first world country. All these people never really lived or even saw a third world lifestyle. I'm not advocating for affirmative action at all. If people are not ready for the responsibility of the Apostleship so be it. But if we want to be truly a World Wide Church, maybe a training program would be in order to get people ready.

"As a senior leader of the Church, Elder Kearon will serve under the direction of the First Presidency and lead a growing, global Latter-day Saint membership of more than 17 million people who speak more than 180 languages." I'm sure Elder Kearon is a good man. But reflecting on the above sentence in the Church News, I think a nod to the vast membership of the church in other countries, for a leadership post such as this, would have been a better choice. Elder Kearon is just another upper middle class White guy, that only can ever partially understand the problems of the majority of Saints who live outside the US. Is there no one else ready????.

You have total free will. God cannot see the future, but we are told that He has all things before Him. He sees us in His real time, That's not the same as determining our path.

Let's see what the scripture actually says. 3 And I will give apower unto my two bwitnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. 4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. 5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. 6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to aturn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all bplagues, as often as they will. 7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall aovercome them, and bkill them. I personally believe that they will be LDS missionaries. Not necessarily GAs. With the advent of the internet, certainly with the power against their enemies, that will not be able to control their preaching, they will be hated, and be what we call today "influencers". Remember, the whole world will be watching, and later in the chapter (after the resurrection of the "prophets") the Lord basically declares all governments null and void and that He is taking over. It will certainly dominate the news!!!

The reality is that all LDS that I know, regard anything less than attaining the Celestial Kingdom is the functional equivalent of hell or damnation. So degrees of "glory" become very academic.

Jacob 6 10 And according to the power of ajustice, for justice cannot be denied, ye must go away into that blake of fire and brimstone, whose flames are unquenchable, and whose smoke ascendeth up forever and ever, which lake of fire and brimstone is cendless dtorment. Forget degrees of Glory. Does any thinking LDS believe for a moment that anything less than attaining the Celestial Kingdom, for all practical purposes, ends up anything unlike what is described in the Scriptures. Temperature has degrees..............:-) Endless torment.

I resemble that remark!!!! On another note, I was recently in the UK and noticed many more tattoos than we seem to have here in the US. I'm in California and we have plenty, but the UK (London) seemed to have more.

We must always remember that the Gospel is the original religion as taught by Adam to his children. So even though sects such as Buddhism have deviated from the true path, there is still a lot of truth that descends from the original teachings.

This sort of thing is why there is repentance.😉

If you were in full fellowship when your name was removed, it would seem a re-baptism would do the trick, assuming you are otherwise worthy.

I guess that if your tithing equates with a mortgage payment, you make plenty of $$$$. What else is going on in your situation??

Here is a book that puts a serious knock on the Mesoamerican theory. Joseph Smith at one time, posited that the original landings happened near Valparaiso, Chile. The book about BoM ecology supports this idea. I've always liked a South American location for the majority of events in the BoM. As an aside, Murdock-Morris https://www.mmetours.com/ travel agency provides many LDS oriented tours to "BoM" lands as well as Israel etc. This agency is not affiliated with the church although it has its origins as BYU travel. Another aside is that the Darien isthmus is basically not passable, even to this day. Much more that 24 hours if even possible. There is a reason that the Pan American Highway, built during WW2, skips this part! Not buildable either. https://www.amazon.com/Book-Mormon-Ecology-reveals-keepers-ebook/dp/B08338W4SM/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2LRNDSRUI9N7E&keywords=book+of+mormon+archeology&qid=1663022868&s=digital-text&sprefix=%2Cdigital-text%2C172&sr=1-1

The Spanish version of the Book of Mormon that I used on my mission was translated by a prominent member of the Church who was Mexican. As one who speaks fluently a foreign language, I can say that it is not an easy job. Language can be very nuanced. It was interesting to me that the translation used in that BoM used the Spanish word desert for wilderness. I don't think of wilderness as desert, necessarily, but wilderness certainly encompasses desert.

AFAIK this was a single action revolver. Those guns have a loading gate behind the cylinder and any one checking the gun via that gate would have seen the back of a primed cartridge. From that angle there would be no way to tell the type of round loaded in the revolver. One could check the gun looking at the front, but then one would have to point the barrel at oneself. And depending on lighting, it would be uncertain whether a live round would be recognized. I believe that press checking involves semi automatic pistols.

Eating what we store would be very problematic. We eat fresh vegetables, never canned. And my wife is never going to run a wheat grinder, nor am I.

We have a 72 hour kit at our second home. This because the area is subject to occasional power outages. Here in CA, most homes don’t have basements, making any serious storage impractical for most families. Not enough room. The real problem in any serious emergency is access to water. Without water one will not live very long. Luckily, in both my residences, the water table is high, and I own a shovel. 😃

Been a long time since I’ve heard a food storage talk. I didn’t know it was still a thing. Here in CA we don’t have basements, so any serious storage is problematic at best.

Only one true “Holy War”. The rivalry for the Axe (a real object) between Cal and Stanford.

I’m the owner/manager of an office of around twenty people. If someone is behaving inappropriately, they will be let go. Can’t work here anymore. Their motives and or reasons for the problems are not my problem. If they refuse to correct it, they must be gone. I won’t jeopardize the other employees or the business with problems, even if I’m sympathetic.

It means: No good deed goes unpunished. 🤐

Probably more experience than you. In 1993 I was in Guatemala when there was a government coup.

Because according to the US constitution, there is a bill of rights. Abridging things such as church attendance, or any peaceful assembly is specifically prohibited. Where, except in a politician’s feeble brain, is the government’s right to mandate me doing anything I don’t want to do in this phony emergency?

I repeat: I don’t obey mandates from wannabe dictators. I won’t argue the merits, but it’s in the US constitution. Obviously, if one doesn’t live in the US there can be different rules.