dahlia

I've been on a Doctor Who music kick since reading these posts. I've seen videos of the 'Long Song,' but not this version, which is very cool.

I was in Ann Arbor in 1996 when there was a Klan march. A black woman put herself between a Klansman and the crowd, which was about to beat him up. Every now and then the story will come up in some 'faith in humanity' article. Well, the last time I saw such an article, I looked for the woman on FB, just to see what she was doing after all this time. On her page, she says that she doesn't care if you are gay, trans, illegal, whatev, you're cool with her UNLESS you voted for Trump. In which case, pretty much get off of the planet. I was so disappointed. For 20 years I've thought of this woman and her brave act, only to learn that, if I were to meet her and express admiration for her selfless act, she'd probably turn away and not even talk to me, just because of my vote. This is why I don't deal with known liberals. They lie and say they are open to everyone, but that's only true if you accept their world view, or confirm their believe that as a minority, woman, gay, etc., you must be a victim and in need of their care.

More related to you than to me -- I left my car in front of a friend's house (actually, the house I used to live in when I first joined this board) while she drove us to Nauvoo. When we came back, she had to go to the store, so she just dropped me off at my car and left. Long story short, the car was acting strange, I couldn't get it up to speed, but was able to get it to the dealer, which happened to be nearby. Squirrels had eaten my wires!! While I went to the Temple! I guess I was lucky; it was only a $300 repair and not the $10,000 repair the guy told me he had done on another car. Maybe that's 'cause I was at the Temple? I dunno. You'd think I'd get a Temple blessing so it would be at least $500 so it would be covered by my deductible.

Not gonna lie, those darn Angels creep me out. I don't like the idea of something moving close to me when my eyes are closed and then opening them to see those angels right in my face. No. I cry like a baby at the Vincent Van Gogh scene in the art museum (nice 'no small parts' appearance by Bill Nighy, too).

A co-worker's son just finished his basic & advanced training with the National Guard. I know he couldn't talk to his parents for awhile in basic, but the guys (and women) have so many more opportunities for family contact, even when they are overseas, than when I was growing up as an Air Force brat. A member of the ward's son was over in the Middle East and texted her all the time. My father wasn't calling my mother all the time when he was away. In general, it's just easier to keep contact with family, which I still see as a good thing.

As a female, I am ashamed of myself. I've been a Whovian since Tom Baker (of blessed name), but I cannot deal with a female doctor and haven't seen any of the new shows. I don't know why. I'm usually happy to see women in different roles, such as Ripley in the Aliens franchise, but this just rubs me the wrong way. Were males looking for a female doctor to crush on? Was casting a woman just another misguided attempt to bring diversity to the show, such as with the gay character? I'm waiting for the next incarnation.

I don't know, but I do know of at least 2 missionaries back when I was investigating and just after baptism, that went home early because they just couldn't stand being away from their families w/such limited contact. I'm sure there are some who think missionaries shouldn't talk to anyone while they are out in the field, but the missionaries aren't super people. They are young adults, most of who have never been away from home before, much less in another state or country. I see no problem with letting the sisters and elders talk to parents, get encouragement. Who knows how many will be able to stay on their mission just from being able to talk to parents more than twice a year? We don't ask our young military to cut contact with their families, we don't ask it of college kids, I have a co-worker whose daughter is a semi-cloistered nun and though she can't call home every week, the convent doesn't ask it of her - I don't know why we ask it of our missionaries. So, for me, it's a good thing and I was excited to hear it.

'Edward, My Son' w/Spencer Tracey. A good study of what privilege w/o discipline does to a family and a child, even though we never see the child.

I read every post in the thread, thank you.

Wow. So I'm scrolling through Facebook when I come upon an article from 'I am LDS' about the Urim and Thummim which contains a reference to Leviticus. As a former Catholic, I don't know the Bible (Catholics read Catholic materials, not the Bible; that's for Protestants). I do know there is something called Leviticus, which held more weight for me than references to verses in the BOM. I went to see what the verse said. Right there in plain sight was a reference, in the Bible and not in the BOM, to the Urim and Thummim! "And he put the breastplate upon him: also he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim." I had no idea they were 'real,' as in having a reference outside of the BOM. I am not the best Mormon. I take a lot of what I've been told or read and just turn a blind eye because I find more things to recommend Mormonism than not, so when things come up that just sound 'out there,' I'm like, OK. We just won't think about that one too much. But every time I do that, I find out that there's a reference to it in the Bible. Let me be clear - just because it's in the Bible doesn't mean I'm taking it as 'gospel.' What it does mean to me, is that there is consistency between the Bible and the BOM. Maybe that still makes me a bad Mormon, but for me, it just shows me, over and over again, that the Church is true. One day I'm going to read that Bible - it sounds interesting.

See, this is where you lose me. Sleep paralysis. Look it up. It's not demons or spirits and unless you are schizophrenic, have a brain injury, Alzheimer's, or something similar, it's not hallucinations. Why do people even ask questions like this?

Jeez Louise - that ain't music, son.

I can't find the book now (I thought I ordered it on amazon, but I might have borrowed it from my university's library), but I read a book that had letters from the leadership on certain matters, thoughts about girls wearing mini-dresses to the temple, using a Disney film for the temple, etc. One of the issues that came up was members adopting black children - they were advised not to do it. I forget if (other than the racism) one of the reasons was that they couldn't be sealed to these kids. I keep things like this in the back of my mind when dealing with older people who didn't grow up in a diverse area. Awhile back I posted about a member who asked me, rather imperiously, why I wasn't going to take a 2nd cleaning shift. I really didn't like his attitude, but can't say it came out of racism. He could have just been trying to exert power or he is a sexist pig. We have had some other black converts since I joined, but only 1 has stayed, and she doesn't attend that often, so there's not a lot of people in the ward to be racist about. : )

My concern was with what Mormons think now. I can let history go and let people be of the times in which they lived. I also understand literary license. I was more concerned with whether the Mormons I was going to church with are racists (which I'm sure some are, but most aren't).

I'm still not sure I have an answer on people of other Christian religions. Just because someone decides not to become LDS doesn't mean they aren't good or have rejected the Gospel. I'm not talking about people who choose to go down the wrong path, just those who express their beliefs through some other Christian belief system. I guess I still need clarification - are you guys saying that because someone decides to remain Jewish, thereby rejecting the Gospel, that they are damned?

I was looking for something else (as usual) and came upon an article in 'Ask Gramps' about what happens if your kids can't join you in the eternities. In the response was, "If the children of the faithful couples, whose marriages remain in force for the eternities, stray from the gospel and live recreant lives, those children will not participate in the first resurrection, but will be remanded to the custody of Satan for a thousand years." Wha? But what if they were good people, but just decided not to stay in the church? And what about adult children of converts, who decide not to convert themselves? I understand there is probably a problem about them joining you in the Celestial Kingdom, but 1000 yrs w/Satan? I thought we were supposed to respect people of other faiths? It's kinda hard to say, "I respect you being a Methodist, but you're going to spend 1000 years with Satan. Sorry."

I'm gonna tell you, when I was taking lessons and came upon this, I pretty much stared holes through my young missionaries. "What is this???" We had a discussion, I let it pass, but it was still bothersome as I know people probably used this to discriminate against blacks and keep them marginalized in the Church.

We have a lot of brothers with beards. The majority of our ward are professors, doctoral, and med & dental students - all which lend themselves to beards, especially at the end of the term and studying wins out over shaving.

How cool is this? It just gives me the chills.

Wake me up when they add mandatory daily Halo Top or peanut M&Ms.

https://transcription.si.edu/instructions-freedmens-bureau

I'm not an indexer (other than in spare time), but a family history consultant. There are now a bunch of us - youth, RS, men's, ward. We are trying to get family history & temple work in front of members each month via articles in our group newsletters.

I am writing an article about the Freedman's Bureau files as part of my calling as a genealogy person (sorry, I'm a terrible callee. I think they changed the name for this calling, but I forget. It's late.). Anyway, the digitization for this project was completed in 2016. These documents are supplemented with other documents held by the Smithsonian and you can volunteer to transcribe these documents. I want the white members to know that they can do this work, too; don't just save it for the black folks. I'd like to say that they would get blessings for contributing to the project, which will help black Americans, who have never had access to Civil War era family history before, to do their family history and temple work. Can you get blessing for doing something like this for other people? Do regular church members have the doctrinal right to say that someone will get blessings for doing a particular thing? Inquiring minds, etc., etc.

Some folks have a hard time having a sense of humor about stuff.

Y'all are just freaking me out. First it's 'ministering,' then it's the 2-hour block, then it's let kids advance in Sunday school as a group, and now the sister missionaries can wear pants. Where is it going to end? If I wanted changes this fast, I'd have converted to Unitarian.