KevlarH

I play Delta Force Extreme 2.

I would join in agreement with others saying it should be considered inappropriate and inconsiderate to bring a gun to church or a home of another; at least leave it locked up in your car. The only place I would reconsider it is if I lived in Mexico. It seems even the most innocent of activities down there brings some gangster showing up.

The Osmond Brothers covered a song called The Refiners Fire, on the Gospel Favorites by the Osmonds CD. Amazon.com: Gospel Favorites By The Osmonds: The Osmonds: Music iTunes - Music - Gospel Favorites By The Osmonds by The Osmonds

Living in the heart of the bible belt (South) I get strangers coming up to me in restaurants to give me pamphlets and offer prayers and such. The protestants call it "witnessing." They mean well and most are being sincere, but it can be uncomfortable. Usually telling them that I'm a Mormon does the trick. They tend to look at you like you have the plague and dismiss themselves. I've had a lady tell me her preacher was an Apostle, who could heal me. There was one guy who cracked me up; He ask what church do I go to? and I told him I was LDS. He looked at me surprised, and said: Oh! We love the Jews! LOL! We also get a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses coming to the door to sell magazines and such. It isn't so bad really, because I would much rather be in the section of the country where religion is still an important part of life, than elsewhere, where it is largely ignored or frowned upon.

You say you read that he wasn't in certain places, and insinuate he lied. What and who is your sources who say this? You can't throw that out there like it is a fact without some proof. I found this on the site (FAIR) and it says that charge came from an anti-Mormon: Criticism of Mormonism/Criticism of "17 Points of the True Church" - FAIRMormon

I can't answer for all LDS. But my personal opinion would be that most LDS know that we have Heavenly Parents. As for when or if Jesus married while on earth, my opinion would be he did, but there is no scripture or doctrine proclaiming that . anan's post above gives a good explanation as to possibly why it isn't, very well.

There is a reference in our hymnbooks in the song Oh My Father, of a Heavenly Mother. "Father, Mother, may I meet you in your royal courts on high." If we are Gods spiritual children, and he is our Father, then it only stands to reason we also have a Heavenly Mother. Jesus taught in John 5 19,20 that he doeth nothing except what he has seen the Father do. Jesus came to this earth to make it possible for us to return to Heavenly Fathers presence, and also to experience things the rest of us have had to; like : Temptations, trials, learning, relationships, happiness, sadness, joy, and even pain, suffering and death. Is it really hard to imagine that in order to experience some of these things, he may have been married? In order to do as he knew his Father once did, that he may have went through experiences he knew that Heavenly Father once had to? Is it hard to imagine our Heavenly Father once had Parents also, and that this is part of the eternal way of things? You have to answer these questions yourselves. It makes sense to me. One might ask, why we do not mention Heavenly Mother hardly at all then? Heavenly Father allows us our free agency while learning here on earth. Many wayward children use God's name in vain and in a terrible disrespectful manner. If the same were to be done to Heavenly Mother, he might not hold back his wrath and punishment.

Some of us gain testimonies in different ways. Some of us may have that "aha moment" when you feel overcome by the spirit all of a sudden. A loving feeling that tugs at your heart and brings clarity to your mind and overcomes you with emotion. Maybe however, it could be like me. I just suddenly realized one day that what I have been taught all my life has always rung true to me . I guess I had been having the aha moments a little at a time after learning line by line, precept upon precept all my life. I guess that I didn't always take the time to notice it as much, but the Holy Ghost had been confirming it to me all along. If I was more open to listening while praying, and not just talking I would have felt the spirit confirming these things to me earlier. As for the scriptures the Book of Mormon does not contradict the Bible. The interpretations WE make are what is clouded. Sometimes we may not like what is being said, and want to dismiss those parts. Always, if you want more clarification, ask your Bishop, and listen more closely to the church leaders at the conferences. Finally, as for being together; To continue to be together as a "family" beyond this life, The Lord has told us we need to have those ordinances which are necessary. One is baptism, as no unclean thing can enter the kingdom of heaven. Baptism cleanses us. Another is to have those ordinances which seal families together. What God has joined together, let not man put asunder. Has God joined your family together? Then it is we who are keeping our family apart. These things have to be done by God's authority. Back to gaining a testimony. The reason you may not feel that you can gain one is possibly you are unwilling to accept some of the answers to your questions. Trust in Christ when you pray, and accept his answers and not your ideas.

I think the polarization both religiously and politically, is occurring because there is a wider gap now in what people believe is moral and right. It reminds me of the conflict in the Book of Mormon, where you had what were called King men who were wanting a monarchy government to change the law and have more control over the people, and the Free Men who wanted to protect the freedoms they had enjoyed. The situation today seems very similar to me; We seem to be at the same type of crossroads. There may not be a compromise to be had.

I agree most TV is boring. I find myself basically going from the history channel, to the food channel, to animal planet more than anything else.

I don't drink as many soda's as I used to, but when I do it is the caffeine free diet kind. When you drink diet drinks for awhile, your taste buds change and the regular drinks start to taste too sweet. I am used to that now so I find the diet dew very good. :)

Much, much longer than 20 years skalenfehl. There is no dancing around anything. Why can't people simply see it for what it is? It is simply how Floyd Weston and a few others gained a testimony of the gospel and joined the church. It was presented at a fireside in an inspirational talk. Why are so many of you making it out to be something to dismiss? It may be old, but it is still interesting and inspiring. I found that the points (which were created at the time by someone who had known practically nothing about the church) to be an amazing story. The points were given in the talk simply to invite investigators of the church, to ponder about the church Christ established and seek to know more just as Floyd Weston did . It is a great missionary tool.

The list you mentioned letsjam was from a fireside talk given by Floyd Weston a convert to the church around the time of World War II. The list was compiled by his Catholic roomate who was a brilliant man with a photographic memory. Weston along with his roomates attended a lecture at Cal Tech, given by none other than Albert Einstein. Einstein was thought to be an atheist, but made the statement that "The more I delve into the sciences of this universe, the more I am convinced that some higher being had a hand in it". This sparked a religious discussion with each of 5 roomates of Weston, and each belonged to a different faith, and one was an atheist. Weston's Catholic friend, (his name escapes me now) decided to go through the bible to try and determine if possible what charachteristics the church Christ established should possess. He pulled up a long blackboard and during their time at the University, began compiling the points that you now find in the aforementioned list. They together would visit different faiths and talk to different church leaders during that time. Eventually Weston got drafted in the army and lost touch with the others, but each of them was given a copy of the points which they kept. Weston talked to some army buddies who were members of the LDS church and probably former missionaries. Weston became interested in the church and after much time soul searching discovered for himself that the LDS church met every requirement on the list of points. Years later he ran into his Catholic friend and discovered he too had joined the church. I think the atheist guy was killed in a plane crash during the war, but all of the roomates had wound up finding their way to the Church of Jesus Christ. Now this really happened and was told by Floyd Weston to inspire other seekers of truth to truly investigate these points and find out for themselves just like he did. James 1:5.

On my mission, I had companions that would buy it, I never would. I've always felt that it fell under the "avoid even the appearance of evil" category. I had friends in my youth that bought gum that resembled cigarettes. It was just gum, but I felt it was wrong to mimic what I knew was bad. Did anyone technically brake the word of wisdom? Probably not. However, it would be wise to not try to mimic an act that is against the word of wisdom, as you would not imitate sinful acts.

In this particular case, (none) of us need to give any advice, except to say that you need to bring this to the attention of your Bishop. The Bishop will discuss this privately with you and will counsel you as to what you need to do.

An interesting subject. I have read in the book of Mormon a scripture that said something like not a hair of their heads would be lost, so obviously we won't be bald. I would think if someone was burned or born with a defect, those imperfections would be healed and our bodies perfected. If those kinds of imperfections are made right, then I would think other kinds would too. Such as body weight? I've never seen an artist drawing of a fat angel, except cherubs. LOL! I have always thought that we would not be so oddly out of place in size or height and that we would not be physically displeasing in appearance. I've always believed that with the exception of gaining some of the physical attributes of our parents, that we would pretty much return to what our spirit bodies must have looked like before we were born. I dunno, thats just the way I've always thought.