friedmann

Hey there! :) In order for someone to baptize, he has to be male, 16 years or older, a member in good standing and a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. That sounds complicated, but the last two are the actual regulations (the other ones are included in those). Most of the time, one of the male Missionaries baptizes the convert. When there is no male Missionary (because there are Sisters or no Missionaries assigned at all), a member of the congregation baptizes you. If you have a male member friend in your ward who is a Priesthood holder (virtually every male member in this age group holds at least the Aaronic Priesthood, so...), feel free to ask him. You can also ask your Bishop by the way, because he won't be conducting the baptismal service - Your ward Mission leader will. This would also help your husband solve his little "Priest problem". In my case, I asked a man I became pretty good friends with prior to my baptism. Today, he's both my home and sunday school teacher and we both cooperate with the Missionaries in teaching new investigators to this day. In fact, others could have done it too, but I prayed and I strongly felt he should baptize me. He was very excited he got to, and no matter who you choose, basically everyone you ask will feel the same excitement for you to be baptized. You can't do anything wrong. :) Remember, the act of baptism isn't that big after all; It just opens all doors to you. By the way, both of you will wear all-body white overalls for the baptism. No reason to be concerned there :)

Thanks for bringing up Enos! I would have if you hadn't. I know his story is quite idealized though. It's not easy to pray ceaselessly through a night and a day. In fact, it's really difficult and often hard work for me to pray longer than for a minute. But usually, these occasions are when I feel that I no longer pray with the intend to pray, but with the intend to receive answers. You don't need those every day (I assume), so there's no need to pray permanently like Enos did. Although those specific prayers have always felt for me as really conducted by the Holy Spirit and not so much by costums. Imagine you are asked to give the closing prayer for a sunday school class and you have to hurry because Sacrament Meeting is about to start. Over time you will realize that they always sound the same, and say 90% the same things - Don't worry now about what they are. You will grow into it pretty quickly. To a lesser extend, most of my "regular" prayers also tend to sound about the same each time, safe exceptions due to special circumstances. My suggestion to you for those Enos-like prayers is that you find yourself a quiet place, preferably outside in nature (like a forest, a small hill or something alike) where you can be alone with the Lord. Kneel down and let the Spirit take over. Open your heart to the Lord and tell Him anything that concerns you. Ask Him any question. Some of the world's most moving prayers have occured in situations like this. I also like to pray in the locker room before my soccer games (quietly, just moving my lips and asking the Lord for no one to get injured) or before important exams. Both keeps me very calm, which is actually one of the main intensions of prayer in general. You didn't ask, but it will be something that will confront you someday. It's how you position yourself for prayer. Although differences might be acceptable, this is how I would suggest you to do it, based on my personal experience: SIT, as you are seated anyway. During Church meetings, at the dinner table before meals, during lessons with the Missionaries. So, on most occasions. STAND, when you are asked to offer a prayer for your congregation (during Sacrament Meeting, you will sort of be forced to stand when you come up front), or anytime you feel like it, although this doesn't happen the whole time. It's more for special public occasions. KNEEL, like most members I know do when they pray personally before going to bed. I personally like to kneel on the floor and lay my hands folded onto my bed. Variations are possible and seriously, no one will ever punish you for doing it differently. I strongly suggest you to kneel during the "Enos-like prayers" mentionned above. Plus, there are two occasions when you will be asked to kneel while praying. This is either when you are blessing the Sacrament (which you won't do), or prior to receiving your Patriarchal Blessing (which you'll do exactly once in your life). Use it for special occasions, and wisely. All this being said, only one thing is really important: Pray sincerely with all of your heart. God cares a lot less about order and procedures than we do. :)

I personally have to say that I have a pretty streightforward opinion about what scriptures are and what not. And I would definitely not extend the scripture range too far, because there is a too high chance of error if everything we receive as answers from God was considered scripture. See: We have received the Holy Ghost as our companion after our baptism. We know that, even without having received it, we can pray for revelations at any time, if we do so sincerely. Now here's the thing: The Holy Ghost can be withdrawn from us, or work not in its complete way, if we are not ready to receive it. In this case, also other influences might occur which are not of God, although they look as if they were. It's dangerous to think that we are guaranteed a life-long influence of the Holy Ghost without living up to the standards this requires. Even if there's a slight chance of us not being under the influence of the Holy Ghost alone while receiving a revelation, there is no way it should be scripture. We, as "ordinary" members, need to find truth in the scriptures that are already there, before we even consider our revelations as true. If my revelations were opposing the existing scriptures completely, guess with which one I would go... If the scriptures are true, and if revelations are true, they must be receivable to anyone who believes, and anyone who prays sincerely to receive the revelation as well (remember the revelations of the Tree of Life). Most revelations we receive are not applicable to everyone though, but they meet our personal needs. And then imagine, in addition to our 2,500 page canon, everyone carrying a book full of revelations given to any member of the Church of any generation, of any nation and of any origin. Alas, no one could handle it. There is no way every personal revelation is scripture, even if it's written down. Then there's General Conference addresses, and those are a bit more difficult. Generally, it's another No in my opinion (but here one could well argue another way). We should take a look at the nature of most GC talks, and soon we'll see that many don't have a lot of content that adds anything new. They have a tendency to stress and to talk about (basic) principles of our faith that are already known and that can be found elsewhere too. With literally no exception, they refer to other scriptures and apply them to "real life". In fact, I've never heard of, nor read of a talk that would not widely fit into that scheme. I personally think that General Conference addresses are without a doubt a great way to understand the scriptures better and a suggestion to apply the endorsed standards to our life. Which does not necessarily make them scripture, because here again, especially some past GC addresses have shown to be opposing to the teachings of the Church. It would just make things a lot more confusing and certainly not "more true" to adopt every General Conference talk as scripture. The ones that are, are canonized already, except for maybe the Family Proclamation, which I could well see as an official part of the canon in the future. My take is just that people can receive and reveal and say great things under the influence of the Holy Ghost, without that we should immediately feel compelled call it scripture. The Old Testament, the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price are, in my opinion, the scriptures of our Church. There are so many truths and so much information on what to do and what not to do in those books that it's enough for more than one life...Everything else just helps us to understand. From Germany with love. :)

Thanks for all of your answers! I really appreciate them :) Make a lot of money, build a nice house, drive a nice car, don't get married too early, don't have children, care only for yourself and not for others. I don't think there's a reason why I would need to answer the second question. I will get a job when I finish school next month. Right now it would be pure insanity to work besides school where I spend all day. However, most of what I earn there will go into financing college to start with. I'm German and I live in Germany, but I'll start college at Weber State in Utah this fall. I'd leave for my Mission after getting my Associate's, which would be the easiest thing to do. I'm happy you assumed I was American though... That honors me quite a bit, languagewise. Finally, I'm aware that I don't serve a Mission in order to learn a language or to get a better job, but I have no other way of argueing with my parents because this is the only thing that could possibly count for them, at least a tiny little bit.

Hello Brothers and Sisters, I've been inactive in this forum for a while now, but I really want to change this, because this is really such a great place to connect to others who share my faith :) Anyway, a few relevant things happened since I last wrote something on here: I got baptized earlier this month and I will be ordained a Priest in two weeks. My family came to Church with me twice and also to my baptism and they didn't like it a whole lot unfortunately... Which is something I totally don't understand, but I probably have to live with it. My real problem is that I'm 18 years young, male, and that I would like to serve a Mission. I'm aware this is a big deal, but I know that I have still a lot of time left and that realistically in two or three years it could happen, and I want it to happen with all of my heart. Until my family came to Church with me for the first time, three weeks ago, they all knew about that, and they neither supported nor opposed. They just said that if I don't use their money and don't do anything dangerous they would let me go, but after coming to Church with me, they all have developed a very strong opposition. Some of their points of critique include: - I couldn't pick up college again after returning - I wouldn't be able to pay for my Mission so necessarily it would be them to pay for it - The two years of my life would be wasted - A Mission would harm my chances to get a job - I would forget everything I've learned in school and college - I promised that I would never serve a Mission (which I didn't) - All RMs who say that they benefited from serving a Mission are lying because they want others to serve as well so they can baptize a lot of new tithing-payers - I already speak three languages so it's unnecessary to possibly learn a fourth one - I wouldn't learn anything I would benefit from in real life, only to preach spiritual lies. Something that bothers me especially is that my parents announced that they would no longer accept me as their son if I would serve a Mission, because I'd break up with what they raised me to be. I don't really want that, even though I've expressed towards them that I still want to serve, since I know that it is a commandment that weights heavier to me as long as they are the ones who reject me, and not the other way around. Of course I'm aware that not a single one of those arguments even passes by the truth closely, so it's not me who needs to be convinced. It's - In fact - not even my parents who need to be convinced of those things to be wrong, because they are settled on it and because they won't even permit discussion to happen. The point is rather that I would love if some of you could share with me how they convinced their parents to be allowed to serve a Mission. I'm sure there are a few converts on here who might have been stuck in a situation similar to mine. It would be awesome to know what you did because I don't feel like there's anyone in my ward who really understands my situation and who is close enough to me to talk to them trustfully. Also, I have a question: From what I've heard, it is necessary for a prospect Missionary's parents to sign the Mission papers in order for the Missionary to be called to serve. Is that true? So there is no way to go on a Mission if both parents don't approve it? That would be good to know too. Thanks so much for your support already!! :) I hope you have a fantastic day!

I would personally say that someone flying first class expects a certain level of comfort, including extended space to sit, the opportunity to sleep during the flight and also to be undisturbed in order to work, for example. Having (small) children on board in this part of the aircraft contradicts these standards so much that there is no alternative to excluding small children from first class. They can be anywhere else though, in classes where people don't pay extra money in order not to have small sitting children next to them. This might sound hostile, but I have spent a 12 hour transcontinental economy class flight sitting next to a maybe two year old boy. It may be nice for a while, but he was literally screaming during the whole flight and his mother did not make any efforts to calm him down at least a little bit. Now, I didn't say anything since it was a cheap ticket I bought (and I would be able to stand some suffering in return), and no one else complained, as far as I could see, but if I would have met the same boy in the first class department and would have paid $10k to fly from Los Angeles to Frankfurt, there might have been another reaction. Even by me family-friendly fellow.

Thanks for all the wonderful warm welcomes! :) Noelledawn, thanks especially for this wonderful conversion story. When I was younger, I also happened to live less than a mile from the Bonn ward without realizing it. I can't believe how I didn't because it is just a beautiful building, like an oasis in the middle of the poorest and perhaps most "ugly" part of the city. I would have wished to be there frequently back then but it's just too far to drive from where I live now, especially since I don't have a car... But I have never regrettet going the steps I went and I still think joining the true Church of our Savior might become the best decision in my life. I will try to be active in the forum, but school (I'm going to graduate next spring) and work already take a lot out of me right now, so it might be not the huge quantity of posts. I will just try to write my few in the best way I'm capable of :)

Hello, I know exactly how you feel - But if you are strong in your Faith and you really live your life the way you just described it, you'll be fine for your Temple recommend interview. Be aware that your Bishop knows you and your "worthy" lifestyle (since, as you explained, we don't exactly know what worthiness actually is, this judgement is a little vague) and that he wants the best for you like he wants it for each member - And if you keep this awareness throughout both interviews, you will be just fine. Now, how would I define worthiness? It's important for everyone to do by themselves and to live those standards. Worthiness, first of all, isn't a matter of perfection at first try. No man, other than our Savior Jesus Christ, could ever keep up those standards. Rather than instant perfection, it is also about making mistakes, realizing you made mistakes, returning from them and trying to not make them ever again. Our Heavenly Father wants us to grow during our life on Earth, and the process of sinning and returning is essential for growth. Worthiness shows off through living the Gospel. The Word of Wisdom for example is a part of D&C you should always obey to (there are others, mentionned above). It doesn't only tell you what to do in order to "stay in physical shape", but it also tells you that you, as a person, are worthy being protected from potential bad influences. Actually the Word of Wisdom (and parts of the Sermon of the Mount) might end up being the most important pieces of scripture to define worthiness, since the people who are worthy are arguably those who will also receive the biggest blessings in the Kingdom of God. If you follow the doctrine of the Church, it being the doctrine of Jesus Christ, not because you regard it as a law, but because you wholeheartedly know that it's true and right, you will be worthy. Temptations don't spoil worthiness, but giving in to them does. Worthiness also shows off through treating others, and this is where perfection becomes impossible for us. Sometime, everyone of us will fail treating all the people who surround us the way Jesus Christ treated the people who surrounded him. It's maybe again not a worthy attitude of me, but I just think it's human (which also helps me not being upset when I'm not treated the way I'd like to be, which is frequently). My suggestion is just to try your best. Share your love, your support, and the Gospel the best you can. Bringing joy to others is an essential step to fulfill the Plan of Salvation. As I said, those three paragraphs were nothing but my own thoughts, and others might have better suggestions/definitions. I can only say that this is my personal worthiness guideline and that it has worked very well for me so far. Sincerely :)

Hello, although I have blogged about my conversion process for so long, and although I've talked to so many people about it, it still seems difficult for me to write on this topic because no matter how I put it, my words just seem to be unable to reveal my true feelings for the Church and for what I've experienced. I'll start out with a brief version of my biography: I am 18 years old and I live in a rural area of Germany. Although my parents both are quite convinced atheists, I attended a roman-catholic elementary school (simply because it was the only school in town so that I wouldn't need to commute) and for lack of alternatives, I attend catholic theology classes in school until today. I actually found my love for our Savior Jesus Christ at this early stage of my life, but the more I thought about it, the more questions hit me. I just thought the doctrine I knew was incomplete. Essentially, there were two events that lead my out of my roman-catholic mindset and made me look around for something else, something more true...Firstly, I remember asking myself why, if God was the Father of all of us, he would have "abadonned" us more than 1500 years ago, after almost three millenia of tight interaction with humanity. The answers I got never satisfied me. Secondly, I remember how, one day, my catholic theology teacher openly said that attending church was boring and no one would really do this each sunday, and that you wouldn't need to take the Sacrament regularly in order to be a good Christan. In fact, this is really the attitude of the vast majority of "mainstream-Christians" in Germany: "Faith is like going to a self-service restaurant - We pick whatever doctrine suits our current situation best and ignore everything else." It's not what I wanted to be for the rest of my life. If there was truth somewhere, it had to be lived... Now this is a conclusion that I came to about five years ago. At this point of time, and for a couple more years, I knew nothing about the LDS Church. Nothing even of the bad and widespread prejudice even, plain and simple nothing. Then, there came my year as an exchange student in Utah, with a Methodist family, in one of the most densely LDS-dominated regions in the world. The family I stayed with actually seemed to share most values of my original family back in Germany: Not going to Sacrament Meeting (any more, my host father used to be a Methodist preacher) and a life far apart from any type of religion. But the outside influences of the Church just kept coming in, and in order to show respect, and I'll admit mostly for curiousity, I started researching. And reading the online version of The Book of Mormon. And then Doctrine and Covenants. And then the Price of Great Pearl. Yeah, it almost became like an inofficial start to reading the Scriptures every night - And back in the day, I read even more than I do now. I did then not learn that it was the truth, but I learned how to find out. I knew that our Heavenly Father would answer in his ways, if I asked him in a prayer. But I waited. The organization of my exchange year did not allow me to make so-called "life changing decisions" during my stay in the U.S., including religious conversion. The time this waiting gave me, I used to do more research and, after all, to learn from the members that surrounded me. I learned that, obviously, a strong Faith in the Gospel, made them people of such high moral standards, that spending time with them just seemed to be the greatest thing I could ever experience. Especially, I talked a lot to two of my friends I made in high school, who have both started serving Missions this year - Although I've never been officially taught about the Gospel in any of the six typical units of teaching for potential converts, talking to them really "clinched" my decision: Within the next few months, I wanted to be ready to ask our Heavenly Father if the Church was true, just the way Joseph Smith did it prior to his First Vision, and how so many other converts did it in the past. I had returned to Germany and it was last fall, October 26, 2010. For the second time, I had just finished reading the Book of Alma, when I decided that my time had come. Courageously I started praying, but within a very short time, I fell asleep on the spot, not dreaming, not having a real vision, but with a tremendously strong feeling of peace - So strong, "strong" by itself seems inappropriate to describe it. When I woke up the next day, I knew it was true. First, I told my parents, and I was ready for some kind of beating. Fortunately, this didn't happen and they even seemed to be accepting my conversion, with one condition to it: I would have to be baptized in the U.S., preferably when I attend college there (which I planned to do anyway). If you would like to know why, despite my mental conversion, I am not a baptized Member of the Church until today, this is why, but in not too long time, I will be. I know I need to be patient for at least another year, but I will never leave the path I have just started walking. I am also glad to have wonderful friends, both members and gentiles, who supported me during my decision-making and who have always accepted me and my values at all times. Without them, my conversion would have been impossible to complete in this often hostile environment. I am grateful to be able to become a member in this forum, and I am looking forward to inspirational and constructive discussions on my (and mostly our) Faith. Although I have lived in an English-speaking environment for a while, my language skills are probably far from perfect since I'm not a native speaker. I hope this is okay for you. Also, I hope my decision to wait does not offend you, but it's the only reasonable choice my life situation offers me. Sincerely :)