estradling75

I just passed the test for all three levels last night. The FCC just issued my call sign. Woo Hoo

Indeed many horrible things have happened over the years, decades and centuries. Something horrible happening is not an indicator that things are getting worse... The indicator that things are getting worse is that we are not uniting in the face of the horrible things and collectively condemning them... Rather too many on all sides (depending on which horror) are trying to justify it as Ok, or not that bad, or only fair or expected because of X...

As a general rule I agree... But there are too many examples in the scripture where even the prophets themselves ask why the Lord is not responding (Take Joseph Smith and Liberty Jail for example) and there are many teaching in the church how blessing do not always instantly follow obedience. (Nor punishment instantly following disobedience). Thus expecting instant answers, once we have done our part is not something we should expect, but often do. Many times in my own life I have had to take that leap of faith, and step out into the darkness with nothing but faith, hoping that the Lord will light the path once I am committed to it. Once I've done that... then the many of promised answers have came, but some I still wait for... knowing that they will come.

In matters like this... we tend to forget that the Lord will keep all his promises... in his time... That last bit is kind of important. For example if we are talking to a faithful and true member who desires the blessing of being sealed... we have no problem believing that it will happen, but the timing might not be for a while or even in mortality, but the Lord will work it out and keep all his promises. Yet when we hear someone who is not getting a testimony of the Book of Mormon... we assume they are doing something wrong.. and while that is a good thing to check... We also have to acknowledge that the Lord is in control, and it will happen on his schedule, in his timing. While we might not understand the delay we do need to accept that it is for a wise purpose.

Which raises the question? What do we consider the 'basics' We live in a very complex society, and adults are expected to navigate lots of different things. I consider my job as a parent is to turn my kid into a functional adult... That can look like a lot of different things to different people.

The bottom line is... Parents... Parents that are engaged and active in their children's education can make just about anything work. The parents that can't be bothered.. will find that just about everything will fail.

I have no problem with a line... I have a problem when we are hypocrites about the line. Take fetal homicide laws. If a person attacks a pregnant woman, and causes her to miscarry... not only can the attacker be charged with the assault on the mother, but for killing the unborn child as well (where these laws exist). To me this law just feels right and correct. But if it is right and correct... then I can not turn around and say but it is ok if the mother gets a doctor to do it or does it herself. We can either have fetal homicide laws or we can have legal abortions but it is very hypocritical to do both. And I prefer the first

Some the greatest crimes and tragedies that one person (or group of people) have inflicted on another has been enabled by seeing them as 'less' than human... Holocaust, Racism, Slavery etc. In many of these cases we have said NO and Never again. To justify abortion we have to call the unborn... not human... That is only way we can feel good and justify our actions, of what would otherwise be horrific. Given that these unborn simply need a bit more time to be unarguably human... It seems that saying that they are not old enough to be human.... is as weak as saying someone is not human because of skin color, or ethnicity, or religion

Wi-Fi node is a generic term for Wi-FI hardware. @mikbone has posted some good examples. (And he did the weather protection which I hadn't been thinking about. That is important too)

As been pointed out the trailer being a faraday cage is a big factor limiting wifi (and cell service too). Running a cable is something is something you need to do to get past it. Now if running the cable through your house is an issue and your wifi outside the house is good.. Then you could put a wifi node outside to take it back to cable and route it into the trailer. Once inside you could continue the cable or do another wifi node on the inside. You would have to do some looking to see if that kind of thing would make sense for you (Cost wise and making sure you still have enough speed.)

Indeed.. The corporate side of the church does have an obligation... The obligation it to whatever it agreed to/offered as part of it employee compensation... whatever that might be. (It seems clear that no one here can really answer that question) The idea that the corporate side church should "do more" then its obligation raises the very logical question of where does that end? After all the command for charity does not end with a singular persons aunt. If they "do more" for her then they should do more for everyone else. And if they are busy funding everyone retirement what is happening to our Temples, the temple work, the church building and missionary work? Funds are limited... That work is also commanded us of the Lord. So the church has to balance all the commands of the Lord, all of which require funding. The church will not ignore the Aunt if she runs into problem in retirement because she neglected to prepare for it... but it will not be solving it with piles of cash... It will be in the local ward leaders trying to help her and her family solve it themselves.

Having fresh vegetables as food storage is totally doable. You just need to commit to a slightly different set of preps. In this case you learn to garden, you eat what you 'grow' and your food storage isn't massive containers of wheat or beans or whatever... but a seed bank, plus whatever incidentals you like on your vegges. Of course gardening is not without its own set of challenges... which is why you need to figure it out before you need to live off it.

The bottom line is if your Aunt wants to retire she needs to figure out how to make it happen... If her family wants her to retire then they need to figure out how to make that happen. As an employee there is probably something... but there is no guarantee that it is going to be enough. What ever the employer offers (aka the Church) is what it offers and then remainder has to be covered in other ways... This is why it is not recommended that a person waits to plan for their retirement.

My thoughts on the question of why God creates someone that will not make it.... is really simple. Even a little bit of progress is better then no progress. Lets walk through this... God sees a pre-existent Intelligence and knows what it is capable of... And does what he does to advance it to being one of his spirit children. The focal point of my thought is that the selected Intelligence is much better off with the advancement even if it goes no further. Then there is the physical body, we are better off with a physical body then with out one. Then there is the resurrection and degrees of glory. Each type is better then mortality, but some are better then others. Thus each step along the way is a benefit and gain for us but we only go as far as we are willing to go. With this idea then even Lucifer being lifted to a Spirit Child is a positive and net gain for him even if he does not go any farther. Now we do have the things like 'endless suffering' and 'eternal damnation' to deal with... But I have to ask... compared to what? What an exalted person has... Sure... But maybe not when compared to a pre-existent Intelligence

Did you notice my use of the word "Mandate"? Because if you did then your twisting of what is a clear disagreement with Civil Authorities, into Church Authorities is fundamentally dishonest... It is not my job to steady the Ark of God (aka the Church)... It is my job to hold my elected government authorities accountable... and I can fulfill both objectives at the same time.

Indeed... yet we in the very thread we have had people accuse those not vaccinated as being murders spreading COVID... And other places they are being accused of being Anti-science along with being murders. And for the record I am fully vaccinated precisely because I wanted to help those more vulnerable, and I want the data to show that I made an effective choice... The data is not there. I helped myself (Which I really didn't need) as the risk of unknown future side effect if any. I don't consider that a good exchange at this point.

For a very limited definition of effective. It protects the person from "when" not "if" they are infected... that is a plus. But all the reasons for mandating the vaccine personal protection isn't one of them. We are told to get vaccinated to protect other people. By those metrics it appears to be wholly ineffective. The vaccinated still become infected, and are still contagious... If want to protect grams and gramps from you accidentally bring COVID to them... you better not be depending on the vaccine and being Fully Vaccinated

It is also something life long members can have difficultly understanding. Those who have received the Gift of the Holy Ghost at age 8 and have been diligently trying to keep the commandments all there lives, will have a strong tendency to view the blessing they are getting as 'Normal.' And if it is normal then it is just like everyone else. It took me hearing testimonies of those that had fallen away for a time before coming back, and their descriptions of how things felt, before, during, and after, to help me have a greater appreciation of that which has been so easy for me to take for granted.

Case in point: Lack of effort nuff said

Since you started this thread to get answers to your questions... that puts the burden on you... Since you do not want to put in the work why should I bother?

Your post demonstrate repeatably that you do not.

I see no reason to continue talking to you... until you start showing sign you can understand what I wrote... rather then use it as a pretext to flog your hobby horse.

I do not care if you subscribe to it or not... The scriptures use the term Happiness. And it would really help if you read what I wrote. Living the Gospel truths brings happiness... Not being a church member. They are not the same thing. A Non church member Living the Gospel truths will be happy, as happy as a church member living it the same amount. The Point of the Church is "More Gospel truths" which you can not get anywhere else. Living more Gospel Truths (not just knowing) brings More Happiness. Thus the church offers an increased in happiness, if you live the Gospel Truths it teaches. But note the conditional, just being a member is not enough.

This topic reminds me of a complaint I hear from some long time church members, who had lived as faithfully as they could. Then they meet a new convert who lived a very worldly life and converted later in life. Like the 'Good' son of the Prodigal son or the 1st hour labors complain about things being unfair. Thing is I really never hear the new convert say... I am so glad I was unconverted for so long, nor do we hear the Prodigal Son praise how wise and how glad he was that he rebelled and went of to party. They usually have some level of regret for past actions when they come/return to the light. The Book of Mormon talks about living after the manor of happiness, aka living the gospel. And the scriptures also say that "Wickedness, Never was happiness" Thus per the scripture the closer we live to gospel truths the happier we will be. (Which is not the same as saying trial free) Please also note I said Living Gospel Truths.. Thus someone outside the church could be happily living a lot of truth. But if we truly believe we have the restored gospel and restored church, then that means we have maximum available Gospel Truths, and therefore maximum possible happiness, but people have to live it, not just claim membership.

Totally agree but I would add D. The number of worthy men does not outnumber the number of worthy women.. Namely because we have no tools to handle that situation. The corollary to this idea that the more polygamy is practiced in Heaven... the more brutal the implication toward men. The mortal birthrates have largely been 50/50 which imply that in the pre-earth life we were near 50/50 as well. If exaltation has a 2 women (or more)for every man deal. That would mean that men are 50% (or worse) less likely to make it then women, and that is a very brutal assessment. So for me I am counting on a really close to equal numbers of men and women. With polygamy picking up slack.