mordorbund

Can I just say 'WOW!' I really didn't think I would see this day. You know what, let me clear my calendar. This is one LDS.net gathering that I CANNOT miss. Hold on <checks thread name again> - Yeah, you can count me in.

Didn't you get the memo? No more old jokes on Pam. The following are still fair game: Her cookie-ness You just want a free pass to get baked.Her behavior at get-togethers Didn't you ask that young waiter about your records? Oh, that's right, you asked if he wanted to set some records. Her crush on that Criminal Minds guy As long as you're getting your records updated, why not promote Shemar Moore to "husband".Non-geriatric humor Why don't you like your Church records? The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is classic!!

Since you brought up the latter-day comedy version, you should also check out the Bollywood version Bride and Prejudice.

I imagine the program went down something like this: Rolf the Dog: Bark! bark bark bark! Bureaucrat: I will give you one minute to silence this dog, or you will lose all funding to your program. Rolf: Bark! bark bark bark! Administrator of the Animal Military Training Program: Quiet Rolf! Rolf: Bark! bark bark bark! Administrator: Say, you don't happen to have any notion of reproduceable results do you? Bureaucrat: I haven't the foggiest what you just said. Administrator: Good. We generally encourage this dog to bark because he is the Rosetta Stone of the canine language. We've learned to translate his barks into German. Bureaucrat: You don't say! Rolf: Bark! bark bark bark! Bureaucrat: What did he just say? Administrator: "Heil Hitler" Bureaucrat: Remarkable! You can keep your funding, and we'll triple your budget. Rolf: (I said he smells like squirrel)

I always suspected that Bush's Beans dog was Nazi spawn.

But John the baptist did come with a partial fulfillment of the Elijah prophecy. He was given the "power of Elias" to "turn the hearts of the fathers to the children". I imagine that means that there are keys he was given (presumably by Elijah) to direct that work. Joseph was indeed given "the Priesthood by the hand of Elijah the [Old Testament] prophet." The keys he was given grant him the authority to direct the work of turning the hearts of the children to their fathers. I find it interesting that neither prophet was instructed to fulfill the entire prophecy, but each had his half to work on.

Oh... your... word...

What if we burned all the telestial people so that there was a only a 4 Nephi kind of world. Let's say everybody was self-motivated because of the good it brings. Would the non-competitve systems still be failed experiments? What was the pre-mortal competition? I'm having a hard time following this. How do you "compete with yourself"? I would think of that more in terms of measured progress. There is some fixed standard set, and you strive to achieve it. I think that's a very different spirit from the standard being someone else's skill set. It's this moving ahead of the pack that makes it a competition. Why not just hand out trophies for having worked hard and refining your technique? Why does there have to be a loser? In my mind, it's only because we're in a "fallen world" with pseudo-scarce resources. (I say pseudo-scarce because let's face it, there's no shortage of programming that needs to be done, so there's no reason why you should have to compete for work). What are we competing for? Satan is not competing with me for my soul - I already have my soul and always will. I am striving for the Celestial Kingdom. I'm not aware of any shortage of thrones. Satan, the Natural Man, Recessions and Depressions do not have their sites on the same goal as I do. So they are not competitors at this point - they are obstacles (opposition as others have put it). How is the race to exaltation competitive? Have I lost the crown because you won it? Or do I lose the prize because I'm not fast enough, according to a set standard (not a comparison with the other racers)? There will be losers, but they don't lose because others win.

I think of competition as a check that we have in our current system. I think it can be used for evil (to build up pride and whatnot, dividing parties against each other). I think it can also be used to "keep people honest" as it were. What's to keep my local grocer from gouging me with prices? Well, I hope my grocer is honest and considerate enough to do the honorable thing. But not all grocers are so virtuous, so America's economy is built on the principle of competition. If my grocer starts gouging me, a competitor will open with lower prices and take the business. I don't think this is necessary wicked, but I do think if my grocer were honest it would be unneccessary. I think competition can be used for self-betterment. Let's say I enjoy cooking. My motivation (as a hobby) to be a better cook may be the blue ribbon at the county fair. Or my motivation (professionally) is that I have to outperform the next chef to "win" the customer. I would hope that at some point, I start improving myself for the satisfaction of a job well done. In the case of MMA described above, I may need to trophy to motivate me to improve myself, or I can go to a sparring match instead of a tournament because I don't care about winning/losing. In this case, I don't think competition is wicked, but I do see it as a less-desired form of motivation. (It reminds me of religious folk who say "without God in my life, I would ..." I don't think that's the case with everyone (and I'm glad it isn't), but if what you say is true, then I'm glad you have God. Similarly I hope there's something more to motivate you to improve yourself than being better than another, but if that's all that will motivate you, then I'm glad you have it). So in summary, I can think of a few cases where competition is definitely not good (in some cases, wicked), but I think overall it is a beneficial part of our current system given that we're not all virtuous, self-motivated people.

Just got back from the Rapture. Turns out we were wrong about many things. For instance, clearly we raptured folk return to earth. But before coming back, we completed our 12 hour Mysteries Seminar. I'm looking around for a place to hang my certificate. I apologize upfront that I can't share too much about what was discussed in the seminar, but I'll just say that the Who's Who of the Apocolypse has been made much clearer to us. And we know how to survive the Tribulation. I wish I could tell you more, but I had to promise not to. Although it would be safe to tell SlamJet. He won't be spilling secrets anytime soon. Let's just say Slamjet should avoid anything connected to an electical outlet. :excl:

I didn't know Dravin served under President Newel Whitney. I learned something today.

Stop exercising. Problem solved.

When I was a missionary, I visited an inactive member who wanted to come back into the church, but was having a really hard time reading anything in The Book of Mormon. When I asked him what kind of movies he likes, he said Action movies, and listed a few, including Gladiator. So we turned to the story of Shiz and read all the way through to his final gasping breaths. At our next visit, his wife told us that he had read that story over and over and had downloaded the audio to his computer.

Oh I have. The snake with legs (clearly a dinosaur) was cursed to eat dust all the days of his life (clearly massive asteroid fallout). It's all there in the Bible. And for what it's worth, Leviathan can be found today in Loch Ness.

None of Talmage's works use the Joseph Smith Translation, which can greatly change the context or meaning of a verse. Recognizing the great foundation Elder Talmage laid, Elder McConkie tossed his own hat in the ring with A New Witness for the Articles of Faith (compared with Talmage's The Articles of Faith) and the Messiah series (compared with Jesus the Christ). These books were written about 50 years after Talmage's. The Messiah series is 5 books that are faith-based (like Talmage's - that is, not primarily intended as a scholarly work, but rather as one that provides primarily a doctrinal context and secondarily a historic context for the Gospels) using some of the same source material as Talmage while also using some more recent sources. For historical context, the manner of crucifixion is different in the two works. For doctrinal(?) difference, I've mentioned the use of the JST leading to some different explanations. And then there's some general differences just because who's writing it. Talmage states that the imprisoned Baptist sent messengers to Jesus to shore up his faith. McConkie says the purpose was for the messengers to move from the water Baptist to the fire Baptist. Neither offers strong support for his stance. Beyond these two, I can't think of any more recent Apostles (or even Seventy) who have attempted to paint the Savior's life as a landscape - even though we have even more documents today and digs fleshing out more details of the "times of Jesus the Messiah".

I did a quick search through the scriptures (including the modern ones) and could not find a reference to the Holy Spirit as "Almighty God" (although I could find the title referring to both the Father and the Son). Does anyone have verses I'm missing?

I either need to find a new forum, or get an insulin perscription.

Should we move this to the open forum? I mean, it's about bare sh**ld*rs. <tee-hee> sorry

And yet, for many LDS, Jesus the Christ is the work for studying the life and times of the Savior.

Would the security measures we have in place now prevent another 9/11? I can't carry a boxcutter on the plane, but I can file down some credit cards to make a shank. From there, follow the same formula as before to hijack the plane. The 9/11 threat is turning a plane into a missile. The current security measures is to prevent bombings. Now, I admit that a bomb on a plane is pretty devastating (since you are pretty much guaranteed that if you survive the blast, you don't survive the fall). But you can also have a devastating death toll by bombing a security line that winds back around on itself several times. This is nothing more than security theater.

Since this discussion was started with an informal assessment of a student ward's demographic, I think anecdotal data are fair game for this discussion.

*pew* *pew* *pew* *p-p-p-p-pew* *brrrrrRRRRRRRR-KKKSSHHHHHHHHHHHH-BOOOOOOM*

I just recently read in Gospel Doctrine (Joseph F. Smith's sermons) that if anyone has a question on how their tithing money is spent, they can go to Church HQ and ask to see the ledger. I'm curious as to what's the practice today (100 years later) - maybe you get the report via the Church Almanac or something?

I asked my mission president about this during one of our interviews. He didn't have any official answer, but said for him it was like an embrace that offers his whole self in prayer.

You are correct that we still have many symbols representing the same thing. Today we are symbolically washed and anointed, whereas Aaron and his sons had the same symbol in a literal manner. Today we move from room to room to approach the presence of God, whereas the Temple layout was divided similarly and also leading to God's presence. For us, we have a room representing a fallen world where we are taught the principle of sacrifice, for them they had an outer courtyard filled with death and sacrifice. For us, we have a room where we prepare to enter God's presence where prayer is included. For them, they had a room where everything was named in a way to remind them of the Lord's presence, as well as an altar of incense to represent prayer. For us, we pass through a curtain (which is labeled "veil") where we see a symbol that welcomes us where God lives (the third room). For them, they pass through a curtain (which is also labeled "veil" where they see a symbol that reminds them this is where God lives (also in the final room). Of course there are other differences and we should acknowledge that. But we shouldn't be faulted for seeing similarities as well.