sbales

Very smart

My wife and I have been married for 10 and a half years. In all this time we have never had cable or satellite tv. We finally broke down and got direct tv. It was installed on tuesday. Now I have all these channels to watch and there is still nothing on. Last night I spent most of my time in front of the Boob tube just channel surfing trying to find something that would remotely interests me. I ended up watching something that I could have watched without having direct tv. Now, there are a good handful of channels that my kids will enjoy no matter what is on. I mean, as long as it is a cartoon they will watch it. But I didn't get direct tv for them. They were watching too much tv anyway. So now the question is why did I get this. I knew that it would be like this. I really did. I go on business trips from time to time and sometimes they require me to stay overnight at a hotel. These hotels always have cable and I would notice that nothing really would be on that I wanted to watch. I would often comment on this to my wife. We even joked about this when we were signing up for the service. So again, I knew that there wouldn't be anything on. Why did I feel compelled to get this if I knew that it would not truly enhance my entertainment needs (is that really even a true "need")? Why is it that our society has a NEED for this? We actually PAY to watch television. Now, this system has even moved to radio. I have experience XM Radio. I have recently flown on Airtran and they have XM Radio on the Planes as a free service for the passengers. So is it really cool? Is it just something that I just gotta have? No it isn't. I' m not impressed with it at all. There a ton of channels to listen to however, because people tend to have specific interests, you are only going to listen to handful of them. So, back to tv. Most people in this country now have cable or satellite TV. To not have it is actually an oddity. So why do we as a society feel the need to have this and pay for it? You get over a hundred channels and most of them you are not going to watch. Why? Again, people have specific interests and most of the channels that are offered do not fit into your specific interests. There is actually a NASA channel. A NASA channel!!!! Now I will admit that stuff on that channel would interest me from time to time. But, a whole channel dedicated to it 24 hours a day? How many home shopping channels are there? I think that one is too many. Last night I counted at least four. There might be more but I really didn't care about finding and counting them. Then the other thing that I noticed is that many of the channels like the USA network were showing reruns of shows that are on regular free tv! So now I am paying to watch reruns of shows that I already saw when I wasn't paying for television. Amazing! I don't know if I am going to keep this service. Who am I kidding? I probably will. But, isn't it silly that we all do this?

Dallas (received endowments here) Provo Mesa, AZ Sao Paulo, Brazil Idaho Falls Salt Lake Atlanta, GA (married here) Mt. Timpanogas (sp?) Houston These are the temples where I went and did some kind work. I also have visited the grounds of the Jordan River, Manti, and St. George. I went to the open house for the Bountiful Temple.

http://www.lightplanet.com/mormons/daily/health/cola.htm I think that link sums it up...we have always been strongly encouraged to not drink colas, but it has never been officially part of the word of wisdom. Thanks for this link

Ok, creating this post made me want to look to see if I could find anything. This is what I found from Elder Featherstone back in a Conference Preisthood session in 1975: I was over in England a while back and a bishop asked me, “What is the Church’s stand on cola drinks?” I said, “Well, I can’t remember the exact wording of the bulletin, but I remember seeing the bulletin when I was a stake president. The Church, of course, advises against them.” He said, “Well, I have read the Priesthood Bulletin, but that isn’t what it says to me.” And I said, “Would you get your Priesthood Bulletin? Let’s read it together.” And so we found under the heading “Cola Drinks”: “… the leaders of the Church have advised, and we do now specifically advise, against use of any drink containing harmful habit-forming drugs. …” (The Priesthood Bulletin, Feb. 1972, p. 4.) So, it seems to me that even though there may have never been an official announcment from the pulpit, there was a time when the church taught us not to drink cola drinks.

Ok so we all know the word of wisdom. We know what we can't do and what we are suggested to eat, etc. Here is my question. Why did the attitude about caffeinated drinks change? Everytime I pose this question to people, the first response is always, "no it didn't". Let me stop you there if that is your initial reaction. Yes it did. When I was growing up, it was wrong (wrong I tell you!) to drink a Coke. I am not sure if it would keep you from being temple worthy, because I wasn't old enough for that yet. But, the attitude was that you need to stay away from these types of sodas. As a child in primary, I remember being taught in church that we shouldn't drink drinks like coke or pepsi. I even remember a family home evening lesson we had on the word of wisdom. My mother and father both talked about coke, pepsi, etc. and how we should not drink them. Now, one of my father's favorite drinks is Big Red, which tastes exactly like the gum, and yes has caffeine. When I was attending Ricks college, in any soda vending machine on campus, there were no caffeinated drinks to be found. Even Barq's Root Beer which normally has caffeine had a decaffeinated version of it's drink for Ricks (and I'm sure for BYU as well). I don't know if it is like that now, it has been 11 years since I have been up there. The fact is, things have changed. No, there wasn't any official announcement made that said it was ok. We didn't hear anything from the pulpit. It just seemed that the attitude did change. The big problem here is that people outside the church still think that this is still one of those things that we don't do. I have been asked on many occasions, "I thought you people weren't allowed to drink Coke. Why do I see mormons drinking coke now?" This has sparked some silly stories like the church bought stock in Coke or Pepsi so now it is ok for as to drink it. So, what do you think? Why have things changed regarding this matter.

Brazil (that's where I served my mission) and Austrialia

Funny Monica.... I think that I would also have to write someone else in.

Ray, What is wrong with wanting friends at church. What is wrong with wanting to fellowship. It isn't that I NEED them to NEED me.

I guess that I didn't make it clear on this one. I am fine with the calling. LOL when you are in nursery, you don't have any meetings during the week that you have to go to LOL. But really, to me, a calling is a calling. Many people would hate the idea of being in the nursery. I'm fine with it. To the person who suggested that I start worshipping at home, um no that is not the answer. My wife and I are not feeling that people are mean to us...just indifferent. She made the comment that if we were to leave, she thinks that we would not be missed.

I was born in the church. I went on a mission when I was 19. I went to Ricks. I married my wife it the Atlanta, Georgia Temple. She is a convert. She joined the church when she was 17. She went to Ricks. Of course, that is where we met. Here is my problem (our problem). I hope that this doesn't sound too much like whining. I have a testimony of the gospel. I know the church is true. However.....I do not like going to church. My wife and I were just talking about this yesterday at church. We go, we sit, we listen to the talks as we are trying to keep our three daughters reverant. We both have been called to be in the nursery. After sacrament meeting we go to the nursery. There is no fellowshiping. The sad thing is that I think that it is us. I think that we just have a problem relating to other people. I don't know why. We have been married now for a 10.5 years. We have no real friends. Sure there are people that we are friendly with. There are the people who we might talk to while we are still in the hall right after sacrament. But real friends, not a one. Have I tried? Of course. Example: I like to TRY and play golf. I was talking talking to a group of men as we were helping someone move. We start talking golf and I made the suggestion that we should all go play. Next thing a know, everyone from that group went and played and didn't call me to join them. It is stuff like this that makes my wife and I feel like we show up to church, but we do not feel like part of the ward family. Before, I believed that as long as you had a testimony that was all that was important. I could never understand why people with a testimony could go inactive. I understand now. If you don't feel any connection with the rest of the ward, it becomes more dificult to keep going. Here is the reason that I think that it is us. This is the second ward that we have been in since we have been married. In both wards we felt this way. Again, it isn't like we don't try. We talk to people. We invite them over for dinner. We try and be friendly with others. It is just never reciprocated. We see how they are all connecting with each other. We hear them in the halls talking about how they had such a great time doing things together. So again, I go back to...it must be us. There must be something wrong with us. I don't know. Bottom line...Church is not enjoyable. I don't like going. My wife does not like going. I basically MAKE us go every Sunday. Then the problem is that our kids see us struggle with going and so the voice their protests with going as well. Does anyone else feel like this?