Hala401

There are those who would like to portray themselves as champions of America, but in my estimation are consumed and driven by their own fear and less honorable motives. Humans generally are at times like a flock of sheep, and the Bible says so. :) So after 9/11, suddenly all Muslims were terrorists. No one mentioned that certain cities in America were key to our Auto making industry, and some of these cities have a very high percentage of Muslims in their population. No one mentioned that almost 10% of those who died in the twin towers were Muslim. In my <7 years as a Muslim, the women I encountered just wanted to worship Allah SWT, raise their children and do what ever they could to have a better life. Most of the Muslims I knew were immigrants to America. Sadly, I did encounter a few people who seemed quite hateful and were bent on perverting the meaning of Holy Jihad. In WWII, the internment of Japanese immigrants is an embarassment to our government, when fear mongers were able to do unreasonable things. I believe our human brains try to reduce complex situations down to their lowest common denominator and sometimes that means classifying things in one group in a way that is unfair.

But Mother, I ditn do anything.

Please, I'm sorry. I did not mean to cause such strife. I just wanted to share something that touched me deeply.

I think the resurrection was included, because when they drove away, the cross was empty. Just a thought.

I believe it changed me. The next April, I was reading the Bible, Late Great Planet Earth, and praying that God, if there was one would help me raise my children; prevent me from damaging them, and make me a decent woman. Before that, people would come to the door. "You need to give up your sinful ways", they'd say. There was never the slightest acknowledgement that I might be trying as hard as I could and knew I was failing. I know I sent JW folk packing. I may have been rude to some LDS missionaries? The ways that missionaries approached people seemed to be so stupid and heartless in those days. It is unimaginable that Heavenly Father tamed me; made me needy and open, and that those who first gave me the word were gentle and heartful. Hala

Where I was at the time, I would not have listened to the pious, vanilla, soul saving, tiresome things like "Left Behind". The film hit me where I lived, and I see it as one of the pivotal places in my life.

JC Superstar was gritty and frank, tearing open the fine veneer that society has placed over religion. I'd already seen the pious, smiling, phony, back stabbing religion. While my life was blunt and stern, I always sought to do good. Mostly people looked at me and assumed the worst. Heavenly Father rescued me just at the time I was giving up. I won't say the words but I am sure you know what I mean.

I saw it at the theater when it came out in 1973 and it felt a bit blasphemous to me, but it also made me think about spiritual things. The next year, I would seriously begin to address religion in spite of the fact that I felt most churches were false. Something I've not told before is that my x's brother was RLDS and we had a brief exposure to them before my neighbors convinced me otherwise. I still wonder why we did not become LDS at that time. It would have changed so much to have raised my family to be LDS.

I was in my teens, and wanted to be appealing to the other sex. I won't try to convince you I was sensible at that time. :)

You could actually have a worm in the house system and it is performing all sorts of activities that no one knows about, thus making it seem like there are too many users.

I see it too and it sometimes makes me feel so low. From being called a terrorist after spending the day working as a volunteer at the local VA hospital, to listening to certain people on radio and TV that said things so wild and mindless that it made my head spin. I was on a return flight to Portland from Atlanta and on the leg from Seattle to Portland, I sat with an Air Marshal, who said he was an oil executive. He simply could not understand why a happy woman, in her 50's could posibly be Muslim? Though I tried to convince him that I was searching for the true God, he seemed fixed on the idea that I surely must be carrying a bomb or documents that conveyed hateful messages. I finally laughed at Mr self importance, and his smiling and entranced companion. "Sir, the danger to America is from within our own midst".

I've spent the time since 1973 trying to figure out who Jesus Christ is; who God is? Somehow true belief seems to get lost in passion, hand wringing, and hijacked by those too afraid to see Heavenly Father for who he is. They come up with a very narrow view of faith and belief. Don't they realise that Heavenly Father is everything to everyone? The history of the day, as I read it, seems at times irrational and driven by mad men. It is quite difficult to see why the control freaks and power hungry of the day would slay someone simply for calling us to higher ideals. For now we see through a glass darkly, but in time we shall see...

I used to ride in Mini and tank top. It was the rain that day that saved me. Road rash is ever so painful.

Yes, they were. My spirit was reticent to address the issue for a while, and I would not find the true church for almost 30 years.

I found a copy of the original version of "Jesus Christ Super Star", the 1973 version. To many, it was awful for a number of reasons, but it was that movie that brought my attention around to heavenly matters once again.

In my late teens, I was a biker chick, I thought. Didn't get mixed up with the bad boys, though, and I never had anything but a rice burner. I fell off that bike in a heavy rain storm and slid a full city block, and that was it for me. It's amazing that I was not injured. It felt like I was on a slip n slide.

Not necessarily special because you have lots of company. We were brought into this world by people we trusted, though in time I learned not to trust my parents. We were conditioned all the way through school to say the Pledge Of Allegiance, and to think of those in government as honorable. When, in truth, it was not always like that. I was not LDS during all those years, but I wonder if even the loving people of the Wasatch were loving to their sons and daughters when they came home. I don't have the answers, but I do know that when I face Heavenly Father I will say that I tried my best. Oh, if we ever meet, will you give me a ride on your bike? :)

I hope that this does not sound to crazy. It is true. My home life when I was young was pure Hell. I was the youngest of Mom's 3 and she married a man that had 3, and then they had my younger brother between them. This was not a happy family and we all seemed to hate each other. For some reason, my Amish stepfather singled me out to beat. My two brothers would fight back but I was so little that I couldn't. If we went to church on Sunday, it only provided a short interlude of peace and then it was right back to the swearing, alcohol, beatings, and molestation. Around 12 years old, an old man gave me a book and said I should read it. It could have been the Bible, and not knowing any better, I just read it like a book, not knowing that it was supposed to be true. Later I realised that some people took it very seriously. I knew my family didn't but my step father would yell at me some Bible thing when he got mad at me. He was really fond of telling me that children that did not obey should be stoned. Then one day he said that and I said, well the Bible also says that you should not drive your children to distraction. I don't remember if he kept quoting the bible. He often threatened to kill me and a few times I thought he did. One day, he was coming after me again and I saw the hatchet on his bench, so I picked it up and meant to bury it in his head. He never tried to beat me again, nor did he touch me any more. Around 12, I was really curious about God, but it seemed that God just ignored me and life was awful until I left home at 17. I had never dated anyone and married the first person that showed an interest in me. We had two children and adopted one. Both of us had a lot of baggage, and life was stormy at first but we kept trying and I know that our children had a better life than we'd had. He had been horrifically abused as a child also. So after we'd been married about 8 years, we had an experience with God, and Jesus Christ and attended church faithfully for about 32 years. I had a problem and in just a week or so, I was thrown out, lost my church, job and everything else. In about 6 months I was almost homeless. Then I became Muslim because I wanted to worship God but I'd had enough of the Jesus . Islam was hard, but it did make me more modest, and devout. The loss of everything made me seek God with all I had. I spent almost 7 years as a Muslim, but it began to fall apart for me because of a number of factors; the biggest one was Jesus Christ. Muslims believe in Jesus Christ but there are some important doctrinal differences. So, one day I was out driving near Kirtland, Ohio and happened upon the Kirtland Temple. I felt compelled to learn more about it and finally stopped at the Kirtland Visitor's center. The next three months were a series of occurances that could be explained only by seeing them as the operation of the Holy Spirit. Sisters would want to study scriptures that I had read that day without us having previously communicated. I experienced miraculous healing of my bitterness and anger about my childhood. I was constantly bathed in the love of people I barely knew. The list just goes on and on until I had to accept that Heavenly Father loved me and wanted good things for me. I realise that I have finally found a church who really does try to do the will of God. I was baptised January 30th, 2012.

I am guessing that the user is not even LDS and not in the building. Under certain conditions, WiFi will go quite a ways, and there are antennas that will suck it even further.

Stand Down soldier, you did your job honorably.

We were conditioned to trust our leaders. WWII and Korea proved it was nessessary. Vietnam had the draft, and the service was more or less involuntary. I served in the Army in the years 66-69 but of course there was no combat for me. People of the Iraq and Afghanistan war were effectively forced to serve because of economic presure and economic incentives to go to college. When I tell a Vietnam Vet that we meant well and just tried to do what we were instructed to do, it seems to help somewhat. Even me, when I got out, there was no public support and I was actually spit at once in the airport. Iraq era soldiers are suiciding at the rate of one a day right now. And that in spite of public support for their service if not for the leaders who put them there. This is a big problem right now, and you just don't cure it by telling these vets to "Man UP". The Atonement is key here, and the other day when I was struggling with my past deeds, a sister reminded me that if we do not accept the attonement, then we do not accept Heavenly Father. That was like cold water in the face.

I'm with T-mobile and the insurance on the phone almost requires that I have my GPS on. There is also a feature such that if I lose it, I can get on my computer and locate it, and either find it myself or report it as stolen and ask the police to retrieve it. I'm OK with that, as long as I do not hear an unmanned aerial vehicle buzzing about over my head. Those rockets really create a problem on the commute you know.

Anyone who has a cell phone is tracked. As a Muslim, I changed my name to Khadijah, and recently found that Americans who convert to Islam and change their names are watched closely by the FBI. I am thankful that they watch me, because if I get in trouble, I know that they will show up to help me, right?

It was once illegal for Blacks to marry whites. In places in the Middle East, marrying a Kafir will get you both killed by the removal of your head. I am sick onto death of all these people running around saying they believe in and are guided by God and then doing what they want.

So, you are the majority? I think most people want the people of faith to act like it, and the GBLT folk to stop with the persecution complex. Personally, I am just as sick of sanctimonious people as I am of those others.