heatwaveo8

Members
  • Posts

    27
  • Joined

  • Last visited

heatwaveo8's Achievements

  1. I agree with some of the sentiment here that in an ideal situation, the man should ask out the woman. But I also agree that the woman should be willing to express that they'd like to get to know the man better. Then if they do this, the man should ask the woman out if he is sincerely interested, too. I've had one occasion where a woman told me this, and you'd have no idea how special it made me feel and how much easier it was to muster the courage to ask her out for the first time, since I had felt the same way about her. Unfortunately a date never happened because of her busy schedule and my schooling out-of-state shortly thereafter, after which the feelings were lost. But I will always respect her for her willingness to let me know at that moment what she thought. I also had another instance where a woman showed interest with a few soft touches on the arm. It was just enough to catch my attention, and then I went ahead and called her a few days later. Every other time I've asked a woman out, it has been based on my feelings only, without having any clue how they felt. This being said, I'll be honest and say that I'm in a similar situation as you. I'm 27 and haven't had a girlfriend yet, though I've come close at times. But I have faith in the Lord, that for my sacrifice I will be blessed with an amazing person who will love me for who I am.
  2. For most purposes, I can tell based on whether the burning feeling or stupor of thought came from my own effort. If yes, there's a chance I forced it. If no, then it was the Spirit.
  3. I feel for you, so, so much. Although I've never dealt with the exact issue you speak of personally, I met a couple of people on my mission who dealt with a similar issue. For one of them, we blessed his home, and advised him to throw away any books that would increase the temptations. I also met a less-active lady in the same area with the same issue, but less humble. While in her home, we were teaching a lesson to her without realizing until after the fact that she was playing bad music. We had 2 ward missionaries with us, and the 4 of us needed to pray pretty hard after that, because we could tell that something didn't feel right in her home. She was likely using music for the same purpose you were. The last thing is, I had to deal with an addictive struggle of my own, for an unrelated issue. I know what it's like to be bound in your thoughts from addiction, even when you're trying to change. If it can serve as consolation to you, I still can have thoughts to this day from time to time, even 12 months later. But the power and the desire to ever act on them again is gone. This took months of prayer and self discipline, getting a priesthood blessing from my Bishop, and taking the effort one step at a time. Sure, it wasn't easy, and sure, I wasn't healed quickly and lapsed along the way. But after 1 1/2 years, I did it. Once you've stopped and all you have are the thoughts, that's where the forgiveness of self needs to begin. So here is the key thing: Be sure you are praying and reading the scriptures every day! And do it multiple times a day if you can! It took about 4 months of prayer and scripture reading for progress to be seen for me, and almost 10 months for the lapses to completely stop. Along the way you may lapse, but what you're doing by continuing, is that you are letting light in, and you are allowing the Savior's grace to take full effect in your life. Any stop in the middle, and you'll be delaying and lengthening the process. Last thing I would say is to get rid of any music that will tempt you. Maybe you can reconsider in a few years, but I would resort to uplifting music for now. And be sure to go to bed early and rise early, keeping the Word of Wisdom is key to overcoming any addiction or habitual thought! Blessings to you, brother. May God's choicest blessings be upon you!
  4. Just as darkness is the absence of light, sin is the absence of obedience. The penalty for sin is separation from the Father. Therefore, He doesn't want us to sin because the eternal law of justice requires that such persons be separated from the Father. As well, our ability to receive exaltation will depend entirely on our effort to obey the commandments the best we can during mortality.
  5. Peace only comes through the Savior's grace, made possible by the Atonement. In order to allow grace in, though, we have to make the choice. Once we do, we will then go through a process of healing. How long it lasts, will depend on how quickly we are willing to let the Savior fulfill His role.
  6. Hi there. I know there have been a lot of posts here, but I wanted to chime in. I would think of it like setting up a company. When you set up a company, you want to start small, with a solid structure to build on and only a few workers, and then build the company slowly but surely. You don't want to make yourself known and attract customers too quickly, otherwise your responsibilities and demands would be too much, and your company would become chaotic, and customer satisfaction would fall through the roof and the company would fail. In much the same way, it's the same with the Church. Your focus right now should be on building a solid foundation through praying and gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the Church. As you do this, start by applying the things the missionaries have taught you to your life, and the Lord will help you to understand the meat of Church doctrine over time. Gaining knowledge of the meat too fast will make you confused. Church members know this, so we are careful not to explain things too deeply to new members. The following are the doctrines you should be learning about right now, and enhancing your knowledge of on your own time: The restoration of the Church through Joseph Smith, The Plan of Salvation, Faith, Repentence, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, Enduring to the End. Also, the following are commandments I would suggest studying about in further detail: Pray often, Study the Scriptures, Keep the Sabbath Day Holy, Baptism and Confirmation, Follow the Prophet, the 10 Commandments, the Law of Chastity, the Word of Wisdom, the Law of Tithing, the Law of Fasting, giving Tithes and Offerings, and Obeying and honoring the Law. I would also suggest learning these Christlike Attributes: Hope, Charity, Virtue, Patience, Humility, Diligence, Obedience. Many of these above principles should be discussed in the Gospel Principles manual. You can also find conference talks about these. For reading, I would suggest the Scriptures, Gospel Principles, True to the Faith, The March 2008 and October 2007 Ensigns on lds.org, and the April 2011 General Conference addresses (May 2011 Ensign, on lds.org). If you choose to join the Church, I would suggest getting a copy of Preach My Gospel and Jesus the Christ, though the latter of the two should be read carefully and maybe a year or two after you are baptized, as a lot of the text can be difficult to understand and requires the guidance of the Holy Ghost. I would read Preach My Gospel right away after your baptism. You should be able to get copies of True to the Faith and Preach my Gospel from your ward, without paying for it yourself. Hope this is helpful for you.
  7. One thing you might be missing... based on your research, have you tried making a conclusive decision for yourself first before asking God about it? That's the real key to receiving answers. Think about it this way: once we know what the truth is, we know it forever. It is engrained into our soul, and how we follow up on the answers we have received will be accounted for at judgment. So God will want to ensure that you would be willing to act on the answer you get before giving it to you. You show him that willingness by studying it out and making a decision for yourself first. Hope this helps.
  8. Hi there. I hope the insight I give you will be helpful. We believe that salvation means residing in God's presence for eternity after the final judgment, and being in His presence forever. We believe that salvation comes both by grace and by works. Through the atonement of the Savior, we are able to receive our bodies back after we have died and be resurrected like the Savior was. Also through the atonement, all will be able to return to God's presence to be judged. These are free gifts to all, as a redemption from the fall of Adam. We also believe, though, that we will be held accountable for the things we willingly do wrong when we know what is right. If we have knowingly done things wrong and haven't repented of them, we will be held accountable for them at judgment. Depending on how faithful we live our lives after joining the Church, we will be assigned a kingdom to reside in for eternity. Whether or not it is God's kingdom is up to us. If it's not God's kingdom, we will never see Him again after that. That being said, it is important to distinguish what exactly faith is. Faith itself is not righteous works. Rather, faith itself is a power, and that power is made manifest in us through righteous works. This is best explained through the following scriptures: Ephesians 2 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. The power of faith is forever present in us, but it requires exercising it through righteous works to make it stronger, like a muscle. Our works alone don't save us. Our faith must be exercised in Christ and His atonement through obedience to the commandments, otherwise the atonement will have less effect for us and mercy can't be fully applied when we make mistakes or when we are judged. Here is a really good talk if you want to learn more about faith. The Sustaining Power of Faith in Times of Uncertainty and Testing - Ensign May 2003
  9. Cain was a follower of evil, seeing he made an oath with Satan, yet he chose God's plan and therefore received a body.
  10. I'm going to be a little bold in saying this, but I think any doctrinal misunderstandings or confusions can be addressed by focusing most of your study time on the atonement. For example, the atonement has limits on when its effects are valid. It allows everyone, good or evil: to be resurrected, and to be brought into the Father and the Son's presence to be judged by Christ (overcoming the consequences of the fall... including separation from God... even if it's only temporary). This is a gift to all. In regard to the second spiritual death (sin), if you haven't achieved exaltation at the judgment, you never will, and your progress will stop in your kingdom of glory, because the atonement's effects will no longer take hold (ex. King David).
  11. In the days of Jesus, the meaning of the word in Greek implied completeness. The correct interpretation of the scripture would therefore be: "Be ye therefore complete, even as your Father which is in Heaven is complete." Complete in what? All of the spiritual attributes. This, however, requires learning to be exactly obedient at all times. Is this possible in mortality? The chances of that are pretty much nil, not because we've sinned in the past, but because we won't become humble enough to achieve it before we die.
  12. The atonement covers all worlds that have been organized by the hand of Jesus Christ, and the inhabitants of them. Whether there are other Saviors in Heavenly Father's realm is not important to know, since Christ is our Savior, and Him alone.
  13. I was looking for some inspirational videos and came across this one. It really touched me so I thought I would share it. YouTube - HD 2010: May You Have Enough...Faith, Hope, Light
  14. I think I was a little unclear on my last post, sorry about that. Let me clarify. The Church's official teaching on this is that man has more power and glory than Satan's followers, and because of this, it is only when we allow them to enter our bodies that they can. I don't think an obedient person would allow an evil spirit to enter their body. On the other hand, I believe that they are present in our homes and around us all the time. Otherwise we would never be tempted. And it's true that they tempt us more when we are more obedient, but that doesn't mean that they can enter our body. People who have served in the line of authority over missionary work, including missionaries themselves, have much more familiarity with this, and when a person actually has first-hand interactions like the ones I've described to you and sees it with their own eyes and feels the evil powers they exert, it changes one's perspective on it forever.
  15. Yeah that's true mikbone.... it's actually kind of confusing me now. For us, marriage ceremonies can only happen in a body, be it for the living or the dead. Christ could have been married to someone while in mortality. But the sealing powers were gone between the time of Elijah and the time of Joseph Smith. Therefore, if our rules applied to the people who lived between Elijah and Christ, they all would have been resurrected without being sealed, including Christ Himself. And Christ has said that in the Resurrection people neither marry nor are given in marriage. So with our rules, Christ would have been resurrected without ever being sealed. It makes me think that Christ likely had an exception to our rules of some kind, and maybe the faithful who lived between Elijah's time and Christ's time have received the same exception to it as well. One of these days we'll know the answers, but more importantly, God is fair with all of His children, and everyone will have the same opportunity to receive all of His blessings.