Heather

Just goes to show that it really does depend on us whether we get anything out of church meetings or not.

I agree with you for the most part, but I think I definately need my husband as much as he needs me.

I like foodnetwork.com too. They also have ratings, and I always like how it turns out. Plus it has ratings for difficulty.

costco has some really good slow cooker recipe books. if you have a card, check it out.

ooh nice article!

My family always gets together for Swiss Days over Labor day weekend. We've been going to it ever since it started, and before I could even remember. We always go to the ward there in Midway, and more often than not, there is a member of the 12 there. (President Monson, Elder Nelson, and Elder Maxwell when he was living.) The Bishop always says that testimonies will end 10 or so minutes early so that the Apostle in attendance can address us. It never fails that people go on and on with travelogs and pridamonies talking about how great they are and how great their family is. The major thing they always do is thank everyone for doing such a great job with Swiss Days (at least 5 members feel they need to get up and do that.) One time there was a man in his 50s-60s who got up one and sang not one but two hymns during the middle of his "testimony," which ran on for over 15 minutes at least. I don't feel like I'm at a testimony meeting, but rather that I'm at a talent show and the winner is hoping to perform at the next General Conference. The entire time I'm not feeling the spirit, because I'm just staring at the clock, wishing the person would sit down, and just let the Apostle speak. Once he does, of course it's great, and the spirit is overwhelming. I just wish that the Bishop would forgo fast and testimony meeting all together and let the Apostle take up the whole meeting. On another matter -- My ward lets the kids get up for the first 5 minutes only. I think that has worked out pretty well.

What do you all think, that we're going to separate heavens? You will have "something to do " with everyone there. Its the relationships that will be varied. Yes I know. That's why I said "I would have an extremely difficult time if I believed that," which could be what the woman is going through in wanting to have her sealing canceled. What if she married and was sealed to her first husband, and he died a month later? Then she remarried and spent 75 years with her second husband. Don't you think if you were in that situation, you too would be a bit worried that you would spend eternity with someone you can hardly remember? That's why I have said that you need to trust in God that he will make it so everyone is happy.

I think from a woman's point of view this is a very difficult subject. I for one don't know if I could handle "sharing" my husband. And from a liberal standpoint, it doesn't seem right that a man can be sealed to multiple women, but a woman cannot. I may feel different when I reach the other side, but I do feel I'll never be asked to do something that I won't be happy with. In discussing it with my husband, if something happened to me, I would definitely want him to get remarried when the time is right. I know that he and the children would need that. However, neither he nor I feel comfortable with him marrying someone who hasn't already been sealed to someone else. He would prefer to marry someone who has lost a spouse as well. The way I feel about it is things will be worked out on the other side in a way that everyone will be happy with the outcome. Something impossible to see now or work out now, but our ways are not God's ways. I think it's jumping judgment a bit too fast to make assumptions on how the wife feels and how the second husband feels. I know that if I were in that situation and I fell in love again, I would have an extremely difficult time if I believed that in the next life, I would have nothing to do with this person again. As difficult as it is to do, I think that you just have to have faith that God will make it so everything will work out. He wants us to be happy, and if we're faithful in our covenants, he can make sure that we are with the ones we love.

I would suggest reading the Anita Stansfield's First Love and Forever series. I think there are 3 or 4 books. The first one is a bit unrealistic to me, but they get a lot better. It is LDS fiction.

Quite a few people I went to HS school with didn't like or respect Shakespeare, although they had to read and study his works. I'm sure that feeling carried on through college. In my case though, I was studying it with other English majors. Even if there were some who didn't like Shakespeare, I don't think they'd admit it. :)

Hamlet says, "For there is nothing is neither good or bad but thinking makes it so." Hamlet tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that Denmark is a prision, the worst prision in the world. Rosencrantz says he doesn't think it is, and Hamlet says, "Why, then 'tis noe to you; for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prision." Who is right? They're both right. Of course R&G don't feel the same way towards Denmark as Hamlet does. Hamlet is the one who has returned home to his father's death and his mother's marriage to his uncle all in such a short period of time. I'm suggesting that nothing is good in your eyes, unless you think it is good. I think Shakespeare is wonderful. Based on the assumption that President Hinckley wouldn't quote anyone he didn't think was wonderful, I am assuming President Hinckley feels my sentiments to some degree; however (and not even to use Ray in this because I feel he is borderline in his feelings of Shakespeare) there are those in the world who do not like Shakespeare and see no value in his works. So who is right? I say both are. A person can't be forced to acquire an artist's "taste" or admire and revere what someone else says is wonderful, simply because that person says it is wonderful. You can't force anyone to like Shakespeare just as you can't force anyone to find a testimony of the gospel. It has to be something they come to an understanding of on their own.

In other words, don't sell yourself short because you think the world could only create one Shakespeare. President Kimball himself said that no one has reached the level of Shakespeare: "Has anyone else ever been so versatile, so talented, so remarkable in his art?" In other words, Shakespeare was a master, but imagine what even greater works he could've created knowing the Gospel plan. In other words, God gives each of us talents. It is quite possible that there are those on the Earth who have been given the same talent as Shakespeare and also have knowledge of the gospel, yet they are not utilizing their talents. They're not developing them so that they have the knowledge to match or exceed what Shakespeare already created. In other words, seeing that we have been given the gift of the gospel, we should strive to improve upon our talents. We should study and learn and only then can we succeed those who have come before us. Shakespeare was given an amazing gift of writing and story telling, but he didn't sit down and pound out his first play without studying the other masters who came before him and other playwrights of the time. I don't believe God hands us anything on a silver plater. We have to earn it. We have to want it. We have to show dedication. Did God make a boat appear for Nephi to reach the promise land? He gave Nephi the talent and instruction and Nephi used that talent.

How many people are on the earth...have been on the earth...and how many of them area exactly alike? Even identical twins are different. I get what you're saying though, but I don't think we'll ever get the answers until the next life. Even if we were to get the answers, I don't think we'd be able to comprehend them.

Jason did you ever see Renaissance Man? That was the first time I heard that soliloquy from Henry V. I ended up buying the Brannagh version, and even memorized it starting with "He that outlives this day, and comes safe home..." It gave me chills when I heard those lines. I have to say my favorite is Hamlet, probably because it's the first one I ever read and saw. When I was 12 or 13 I think, my Dad had us all take part in reading the play for a FHE, and then we saw it in Cedar City that summer. Ray, maybe you should take your arguments to the BYU education board. I had to take two difference classes of Shakespeare for my major. All students have to take an English class, which teaches at least one play of Shakespeare and probably a few of the sonnets as well. So if I hadn't passed out of that class with AP exams, I would've had three classes on Shakespeare, not to mention all the other classes which touch on some aspect of his works. I could've graduated a lot sooner! Maybe not all learning is "uplifting" to everyone; but that doesn't mean it won't serve us well in this life or the next. I don't find anything uplifting about Biology either; but I do hope to be able to create worlds with my husband, and probably be wise to know a bit about life and how it all works. I could go on and on about how Shakespeare is uplifting to me and how it has affected me, but I don't know if that would hold much value to anyone else. So perhaps I should direct you to the lds.org website. If you do a search for "Shakespeare" in only the Ensign listings, there are 100 articles and talks found. For example, President Hinckley quoted one of my favorite lines from Hamlet in an Ensign article in Sept. 2004, saying, "And it was Shakespeare who put into the mouth of one of his characters this persuasive injunction: 'To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.' " President Hinckley quoted Othello in Oct conference 1982: Who steals my purse steals trash. … But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him And makes me poor indeed. (Act 3, sc. 3, lines 157–61.) President Monson said in an article in 1993, "In Shakespeare’s King Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey bemoans his fate. Shorn of his power, deserted by his friends, he cries out: 'Had I but served my God with half the zeal / I served my king, He would not in mine age / Have left me naked to my enemies.' The sweetness of success had turned into the bitter wormwood of disappointment and defeat." The list goes on and on. Spencer W. Kimball often quoted Shakespeare as did Marion G. Romney. I'm on my way out, so I don't have time to go through it all, but that will get you started. Perhaps you should start with this talk by Spencer W. Kimball: First Presidency Message The Gospel Vision of the Arts. Ensign, July 1977. In it he says, "Then there is Shakespeare (1564–1616). Everybody quotes Shakespeare. This English poet and dramatist was prodigious in his productions. His Hamlet and Othello and King Lear and Macbeth are only preludes to the great mass of his productions. Has anyone else ever been so versatile, so talented, so remarkable in his art? And yet could the world produce only one Shakespeare?...Take a Nicodemus and put Joseph Smith’s spirit in him, and what do you have? Take a da Vinci or a Michelangelo or a Shakespeare and give him a total knowledge of the plan of salvation of God and personal revelation and cleanse him, and then take a look at the statues he will carve and the murals he will paint and the masterpieces he will produce. Take a Handel with his purposeful effort, his superb talent, his earnest desire to properly depict the story, and give him inward vision of the whole true story and revelation, and what a master you have!" How can anyone say that there is no point to studying these great masters?

Off topic-- Hey M, just to stick up for Ray, I did add that part later. I came down pretty hard on the whole thread after me and two other mods had to go through it 3 times and delete the bashing. I realized afterwards that I and others would want to respond to each other's favorites.

Ray, I moved all of the deleted posts to the open forum. I tried to PM you, but your inbox is full. I've edited my other post above. I realize that some may want to comment, and that's fine, it was just the arguing and name-calling that was getting way out of hand. I didn't know it was an "in" thing to like Shakespeare. I thought it was just the English major in me. Woohoo! I'm cool!

Jason, when I read your favorite it reminds me so much of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 (one of my favorites.) Thanks for sharing that.

All off topic posts have been deleted. Please feel free to post your favorite scripture. If your favorite scripture contains parts which might offend others, either post only the reference, or refrain from using italics, bold, etc. Any posts which are off-topic, bickering, or instigating will be deleted. If you want to comment on other's post, that's fine, as long as the bashing is kept out of it. There is a separate thread in the open forum where all deleted posts have found a home.

We did the nativity one too. They set up different areas all around the gym and we had to go to each one for different things, such as getting authentic food to eat. We were all dressed in that time period as well. (robes and towels.) Fun idea. I remember the food was terrible. :)

I'm implying the if there were to be declared an evil part of New Orleans, it would be Bourbon street, don't you think? Considering the murders that took place there after the hurricane from junkies trying to get their next fix. I'm implying that it was not destroyed, since a bar was reopened there before many other buildings in new orleans were. Personal beliefs? No I don't think that God holds the environment that takes place in many bars with the greatest esteem. Of the recorded times that God has appeared on the Earth, I don't believe any of them were in a bar.

If that were the case, I would think that Bourbon street would be completely destroyed, instead of having reports that a bar was reopened there just a few days after.

Thanks Please. I really never recalled that. Fact still remains to me that we are not Christ and we cannot see or understand all; I have yet to read anywhere which God or God's Prophets have said to the general members of the Church for us to take up a whip towards our fellow men. I've never heard anything that suggests that it is okay to disrespect one another and not show love towards one another. Using your line of thinking, would you also say that it would be okay to kill someone, because Nephi did? Just because God commands something of one person at one point in time, doesn't make it right for us to use that as a justification for us to carry-out the same act at another point in time.

Yes. I don't remember him having a whip then either, unless you're talking about certain artist's depiction of him cleaning the temple, which I wouldn't classify as scripture, but mere imagery to show interpretation.

I don't think Christ ever had a whip or leather thongs. I remember him healing with the touch of his hand, not smiting off ears with a sword.

They should've been prepared and had the house in order before he got there :) I'm not talking about being a fanatic when it comes to cleanliness, but I don't feel the spirit in my home when it's a disaster. I love being in a clean home. We've all been in unclean environments, be it a store, a resteraunt, etc. Would you really want to eat anything there? Would you want to read your scriptures there? How about invite your inlaws? I honestly don't see how having an unclean house can be a good thing. I feel I get so much more done if everything has a place and everything is in it's place. To me it shows that I respect myself, I respect those who come into my home, and I respect the items that I own by taking care of them.