estradling75

I have always been interested in "Doing the right thing" As I have gotten older and more experienced I have come to realize it is not enough to "Do the right thing" but the "Right thing" has to also be done the "Right way" or it becomes the "Wrong thing" This was a kind of paradox that took me awhile to wrap my head around. So when people so when people come with various problems that need to be address.. the debate usually centers on "How to address the problem" not that we need to address the problem. The contention usually comes in when people start accusing others of not caring about the problem which is a strawman. When it comes to Health Care it is never free unless you are enslaving Health Care providers. Without that someone has to pay. And that kicks in a variation on the Golden Rule which is.... They who have the Gold make the rules. In the case of Government paid for Health Care the money is coming from taxes filtering through the Government red tape of Government Made Rules. Frankly the Government has never been very good at managing anything. And here in America if you told people that there Health Care was under control of President Trump half the nation would have a collected meltdown. And just a short time ago it would have been under Biden which would have melted down the other half of the nation. So while we can all agree that making sure the elderly are taken care of in their end of life care is "The Right thing to do" We are not going to agree that the Government is the "Right way" to accomplish that goal

When Nephi and family were traveling in the wilderness, they lived on raw meat. That is not a very good diet. Yet the Lord blessed them and per Nephi they had the strength and energy to do what was needed. While I fully believe that story I do not assume that the Lord would bless me if I made the choice to only eat raw meat. I have other options that the Lord has given me. If I use my agency to only eat raw meat, I am pretty sure the Lord would respect that and let the consequences of my choices teach me different. So I fully believe God can and does work miracles with food. But I also believe God works through small and simple things that he has provided for us, and he expects us to be wise and actively engaged in good causes.... Which includes our health. So for prayers over food I have also stepped away from the "Nourishing and strengthening" request... Not because I do not believe that God can't do it... but because it seems more like a vain repetition and asking amiss, when I have options. For me I have taken to saying things like "Bless this food that we might enjoy it" To me this works on just about every case. Eating food should be an enjoyable experience. If we are trying to eat healthier... then learning to enjoy that is very important. But if we are praying over a table of junk food, well isn't that kind of the point? It totally sucks to consume a bunch of empty calories only to find you didn't actually enjoy it.

I believe it was President Oaks that once said that as a General Authority he has to give General Advice and Council in his talks... Serving a missing is a general advice and council that is really really good. For those that need individual council and guidance that is what the Spirit and the Bishop are for. When one of my sons was debating about if he was going to serve a missing I counciled and advised him as best I could. On of the things I talked to him about was the Church's missionary focus wasn't going to change just because he might get his feeling hurt about the subject. If he did not go he would have to learn to deal with his feelings on the subject because it would continue to come up... and it would be on him to learn to deal with it... Not on the church or various member to tip toe around the subject when he was around. So how do you learn to deal with it? The exact same way you learn to deal with any other mistakes, errors, sins or oops you make in your life. Accept the fact that you did it and it can't be changed. But that Christ can and will forgive, heal, repair and help you move forward as a hopefully wiser and better person. And also remember that while others might have different mistakes, errors, sins and oops, we are all in that same boat of trying to moving forward.

My mother is a resident alien... She has her green card and everything. I have no problem with immigration and those that want to come here and make a better life for themself. I also know that our current system for legal immigration is a horrible mess of a bureaucratic nightmare which needs a massive overhaul. So I have a great deal of sympathy for those that more or less just skip it out of frustration/confusion or what ever. I understand the the basic drive of a choice between a of hard, cumbersome, expensive, legal way vs cheap, easy, fast, illegal way. Now I hear a lot about fixing the second option aka make it harder (walls, cameras, guards, more ICE enforcement etc.) which I generally support but I hear nothing from either party about fixing the first option. That is where I think we need to be focusing. If we make the legal option more viable, more attractive, more doable... Then the second option start losing its appeal to the people we want immigrating. We will still need to make the second option harder because that will still be the only option for criminals/terrorists but if the first option is improved it makes it harder for them to hide among the good people that we want.

If ICE jumped though all the legal hoops then yes they could and the Church would have to allow it and deal with things after words. That being said the legal landscape can be a bit murky and the Church could use legal channels to push back, but that would most likely be after the fact. The bigger question would be why would ICE be trying to enter the Temple? They would be looking for undocumented/illegal people. Now such members might indeed be going to the the Temples or even working there... but how would ICE know to plan a raid? ICE is more likely to be able to gather enough information about residences/and places of work, more then they are Temple attendance. So that is the logical place for them to focus.

Which explains all the "Facts" that the OP has presented with no deeper meaning. Lots of people hate those that are smarter then they are, more so if they end up on the bad side of some deal or arrangement. The rest of the OP claims are opinions which are not subject to being disproven, and wild speculation and assumptions that do not have enough facts to support them. The Jew are like any other group they have good people and they have bad people there is nothing special about that. As for porn.. we as church members are the odd ones on that subject... the rest of the world (including Jews) do not have our understanding or opinion on it. To them it is just another job/business/chance to make money.

Because the people you are interacting with have learned some lessons from History. The fruit of the tree of your third point is one that is very corrupt, bitter, and evil. And those that tend to such trees and partake of that fruit often become what they eat... corrupt, bitter, and evil. We do not know how far along you are in consumption of this evil fruit, but we are concerned, because you have started. Your third point historically leads to things like genocide, holocausts, enslavement, etc. Most people have a profoundly negative response to others that try to justify such evil, and you have started on such a path even if you didn't really mean to

A member of my ward is dying of metastasized kidney cancer. They have chosen to stop prolonging treatments and just focus on comfort care. He spoke in church on Sunday. A short but powerful testimony.

On the subject of Justice and Mercy. A week or two ago I heard someone give a talk about Justice and Mercy. In that talk he reconciled these two divine traits in to one. His reconciliation was "The good that is necessary for an individual." I am still wrapping my head around that. That is not how we mortals tend to view it.. but maybe it would be helpful for us if we did.

I have heard two reasons. Both make sense to me. Both are speculative. Reason one. Space. Moroni is abridging the record. Moroni is alone, and out of resources and does not know how much time he has left. He is using reformed Egyptian Characters in his writing. Brother of Jared would be 2 Characters. Mahonri Moriancumer would have to be spelled phonetically which would be about 12ish (If the people I am sourcing are correct). Given how often it is used that saving adds up. Reason two. Documentation of the Royal Line. The Jaredite kings come from Jared. Both Jared and the Brother of Jared in the initial setup of the kingdom both are very important. A case could be made that the Right of Kings belongs to the Brother of Jared rather then Jared given how awesome he was. But if the official record only names one of them (Jared) and only identify the other by the relationship to the main line (Brother of)... Then it guts competing claims of legitimacy. You have read their history and their Kingly battles it would make total sense for some king along the way to say lets reduce the competition and alter historical record a bit.

A lot of people prefer things to make sense. Human error, Human racisism... totally understandable. God doing things that seem and appear hurtful, harmful by our limited understanding. That is harder to understand. That is when we need to have the faith of Abraham. God promised Abraham a son and many blessing that would come through his son. Then once his son was hear and it looked like the blessing were well underway... God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son. Do you think Abraham really understood what God was doing? I don't. But Abraham did what he what he was commanded right to the end when God revealed more unto him. Abraham was bless for his obedience even if it did not make sense at the time

Blaming Brigham Young for the priesthood ban is easy, simplistic, and completely misses the point. The scriptures and historical record are full of prophets and apostles making mistakes, getting things wrong, and generally screwing things up. They also show God correcting his prophets, and apostles. Rebuking, calling to repentance, and otherwise correcting course. If you want to believe that Brigham Young made up the priesthood ban for whatever reason... More power to you. But that just punts the question down the road to being... Why did the Lord wait so long to correct it? If it was indeed an error of Brigham Young... God owns that gap. If it was not an error of Brigham then the question becomes what purpose was the Lord accomplishing if it was not? Those are the hard questions that we do not have clear answers to.

I have a 14 year old son who look like he is going to develop the build for a line backer. He also has the mental capacity of a non verbal toddler... So yeah a special needs kid.. Your comments hit. We love (and he loves) going to school. Its a nice change for all involved. All of last week he was sick (Schools are still germ factories) and we kept him home and this required adjustments. I have been fortunate that I can work remotely (A good thing from COVID) but last week I was traveling out of state. My wife has started going back to school, she had to miss the in person classes and do what she could do remote to cover the time he would have been in school. Most extended family are also busy with there lives and family so not much ability to help there. Grandparents are retired but they are also old and winding down. They just can't keep up with him for more then an hour or two at a time. My family and I are fortunate/blessed to keep things covered but it wouldn't take much to put us over the edge.

That's kind of where I am now. When people say "How could you possibly vote for a man with such glaring flaws and faults?" And I know he has many.. But I do not believe his Ego, pride, or antagonistic nature are any worse then any other politician running for president, he just does not hide it. The others do

Its been my experience that God does not hand us things... Rather God opens doors and it is up to us to have the Faith to walk through them or not. I can't tell you if this is God opening a door for you or not. That is out of my Stewardship and directly in yours. I can tell you that if I was in your place I would follow the advice above, while praying to God that I seen an opening and I am taking it. And if it is his will then please bless the effort and if it is not then please shut it down. Then I would prepare myself emotionally for it to fail while hoping it succeeds. This way God respect my agency and I respect his will as best I know it. This of course is assuming you actually want to be in a long-distance relationship... I think that is a safe assumption but I could be misreading your intent.