Tazzerina

Yes, you can. My boyfriend just graduated MCT and is currently at his MOS school in North Carolina. He is also planning on serving a mission. Once he finishes job school in February he will be a reservist and will then go on his mission and activate when he gets home. We have quite a few retired military in our ward that have given him great advice about how to manage the Corps life while still being a faithful member and missionary. It's not easy being LDS and in the USMC (where 90% of the guys drink, smoke, chew, cuss, and look and bad magazines), but it can be done and definitely strengthens your faith. I'm so proud of my boyfriend for being a Marine, but I'm more proud of the fact that he is able to uphold his standards in that environment. It's worth it :) Oh and PS... Marines aren't soldiers They wouldn't appreciate that too much... haha

If you want to be in good standing with her family (which I assume you do if you care about her as much as you say you do), then you need to go talk to her dad. Let them know what's been going on, and then back off. You guys do not need to be dating right now. Trust me, I know how stupid the rules can seem and how condescending and unreasonable adults can appear, but as an almost 18 year old, I can tell you it's not worth it. I had my first boyfriend when I was 14 and hadn't joined the church yet. He was 17. No, we didn't make any major mistakes, but it completely took over my life and I was devastated when he went to college and we broke up. I sure learned a lot, but the fact is, at 14, kids just take relationships too seriously and get way too involved. I, too, thought we were the mature exception. Everyone thinks that. Even at 17, people make some serious commitments that they are in no place to make. I have friends now that are in exclusive relationships, and I just have to watch as feelings get hurt and drama splits everyone up. Just focus on making good friends. Keep her around by all means, but don't call her your girlfriend. If she's that important, she'll still be around later. If not, why waste your time and energy on it now?

Me too! My friends and I were talking about that for the rest of the night.

Loved it. I really loved Sister Dalton's talk and of course President Uchtdorf is always amazing.

Guess who's getting baptized in two weeks... :) Met with our awesome missionaries today and decided on February 7th! My best friend is baptizing me too. Ah! I can NOT wait! :)

Bienvenue Guillaume et felicitations pour ton bapteme. J'espere que tu aimeras le site.

Yeahh I'm definitely the baby... 6,445 days...

I'll definitely go talk to my bishop, I just wasn't sure if there was a more definite timeline like for temple recommends etc. Thanks for the responses!

I was just wondering how long you have to be a member before you can put your name on the list for a patriarchal blessing or if there is a requirement? Thanks :)

To the OP, I just wanted to thank you for this thread. As someone getting closer to baptism and also someone who might have done altogether too much research (like you, I gotta have that academic side too), I really appreciate what you're saying and agree completely. My dad, who's not a member and keeps trying to convince me not to join, once asked me, "What if you knew Joseph Smith was at one point a liar and a cheat? Would that make you change your mind?" And, regardless of whether or not that's actually true, I found myself saying "No" for the same reasons you mentioned. Any places for improvement make him more relatable and human, which only strengthens my testimony of his as a prophet. Anyway, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your comments and everyone else's as I too have trouble finding people who are either willing to discuss things like this or who are even aware of them. This forum is so refreshing :)

I'm not sure how long this will get, but props to anyone who makes it all the way through. I really don't know what to do anymore. To start at the beginning, my family is not religious at all. They're happy for me to go to church, but of course it's only "that mormon church" that concerns them. Anyway, I started dating my first boyfriend three years ago and he was LDS. At this point I knew nothing about the church and didn't have any desire to. But I loved and was just attracted to the people I met through his family. I went to church with him once but didn't take it seriously and didn't really get anything from it. A year later, we stopped dating, but I was still close with his family and the friends I'd made. Now fast forward to this summer. I had just come back from an exchange in Chile and started dating another guy from the church. We'd been really good friends all throughout high school and a long time ago I had asked him for a Book of Mormon (his dad's the bishop). At some point during the summer, I just decided to find that old BoM and actually try to read it this time. I know it looks like it was just because of the boy (that's what I keep hearing from people), but I was honestly curious about what it was that all of these amazing friends I had had in common. Anyway, I was talking to him on the phone one night and I told him that I had started reading the BoM again. He was caught totally off-guard but was so excited. The next day I met him in a park and he started teaching me about the church. The next week he brought me to church, sunday school, and I met up with my girl friends for young women's. That was in August and I've been participating in all the activities, classes, and seminary since then. I've also made a lot of changes in my life to meet church standards, which is not easy in a house full of people who just don't get it. Now the problem is that I simply don't have a testimony. I LOVE the church. I love the people and I love the ideals. It's not even the doctrine or practices I have a problem with. It's simply a matter of knowing that by getting baptized I would be making the most important decision of my life correctly. I've been praying nonstop, studying scriptures (almost through Alma!), talking to friends, and doing a ton of outside research on the tougher questions. I WANT to believe the church is true more than anything. But then I'm scared that by wanting it, I'm just making myself think a certain way. I know I need Heavenly Father in my life but I just don't know how He wants to be in it. Like I said, I've been praying about it for months but haven't gotten any kind of answer or confirmation like those that I hear about from other members. I know He has a plan already, and maybe I'm just not ready for the truth yet, but I just don't know what else to do. I'm trying to just turn it all over to Him and let Him know that I'm completely ready to do whatever He would have me do. I just don't know what that is. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Before I started going to mutual I heard our ward did a mystery dinner night which sounded really fun to me. In a couple weeks we're having some people come in to teach the priests and laurels social ballroom dancing :)

Hey guys, my name's Ashley. I'm a senior in high school and have been going to church, sunday school, and young women's since August and started seminary this year. No one in my family is a member and they're all pretty wary of the church, but I've just been finding my own way and loving it. I'm at that point where I really know all the basics and understand a lot of the tougher questions, but am just waiting to really know for myself if it's all true before I get baptized. So I'll just be lurking around here reading through discussions and asking my own questions every one in a while :)

So I was reading my scriptures the other day and I came across a passage that confused me a little. Maybe I'm not reading it right, but it's not making sense to me. Alma 11:38-39 38 Now Zeezrom saith again unto him: Is the Son of God the very Eternal Father? 39 And Amulek said unto him: Yea, he is the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth, and all things which in them are; he is the beginning of the end, the first and the last Maybe someone can clear this up for me because it seems a little more Trinity-esque than Godhead-esque the way I see it? Thanks! :)