Hala401

Believe it or not, I just now got on line to voice a complaint almost exactly like yours, so what you say is not about to fall on deaf ears. I'm upset about the same thing! Just this afternoon at the Pioneer Picnic, a rather highly placed individual told me that she had a bad taste in her mouth about Visiting Teaching. As a brand new convert, I should not have to listen to this stuff. I was Baptized on January 30th and in a couple weeks was assigned Visiting Teaching and Visiting Teaching Supervisor. The idea of calling people I do not know and getting to know them is really intimidating for me but I have begun to make progress doing it. I am partnered with another woman who does nothing on visiting teaching, but she insists she wants to go out with me when I go. Very recently, I was called to be Humanitarian Assistance person, but really nothing has happened with the person that is supposed to assign me things, so I have been doing things "Off The Books", on my own. So, I was about to ask if Visiting Teaching is just a fools errand, that no one really does? I have grown so frustrated that I have thought about being just another nasty, whiny ex-Mormon, but my belief in Jesus Christ and what the Holy Spirit has caused to happen in my life completely prevent me from turning away from the church. I feel under so much presure that it seems I must do something or burst! Right now, I am thinking I will create a mild scene in Relief Society tomorrow. I think I will tell them how special the church is in my life and what a miracle Heavenly Father has done for me. Some of you know that I'm the one that was not supposed to make it, I was supposed to give up before I was Baptized; or fall away soon after. Too sinful and too odd to be a member. Well, here I am looking back at the worthy. So, you tell me, is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as mere shaddow of what I was told? Surely there are still faithful out there. If there are then I am asking you to step forward.

One thing about the Theatre Massacre that is sure, is that there is evil in the world, and evil does react to goodness. Of note is the fact that one of the victims of the shooting narrowly missed being killed in another shooting in Canada. It has made me realize that evil reacts to goodness in a very aggressive and recognizable way, though. So, an extreme case is evil reacting to Jesus Christ. Then think hard about the opposition that good people run into. I hate to get Job-ian about this, but sometimes goodness attracts evil. Look at poor Job, who had gained the notice of the evil angel. Then, in our own realm, think about the times we are just trying to behave and bad things happen to us. Perhaps some would feel that there is little connection between just trying to live a good life and evil attacks. All I am suggesting is that even in the face of what we think is random evil, we should still try to be good; to please Heavenly Father and to reach out to those who need our help.

I am not a counselor, or mental health professional. What I know about PTSD is because of having it, and by the mercy of Heavenly Father, learning to deal with it. There are several ways to get PTSD, and the battle field is only one of them. I have sat in group sessions with soldiers, both men and women who had it and not a single one of them said that their issues were any different than mine. I think it can be dealt with and we can go on and live very fruitful lives. I have met people who are successful people in civilian lives who have been treated for it, and then there are people who never seem to get better. I can make no judgement about either type of person. The LDS church has made dealing with the effects that are lingering a great deal easier.

I have T-mobile, Samsung Galaxy s2 and it is very easy. So, I just go to settings (the little button on the bottom left that is dark unless you touch it will open it), then Wireless and Network, then scroll down and go to Tethering and hotspot and then go to Portable Wi-Fi and hotspot settings, then go one more click and you are in the menu. I must warn you that this sucks battery A LOT! So, when I use it, I have the phone plugged in to the car or the wall outlet.

I would laugh at her, but then my performance before the Doctrine class, lesson #23 immediately comes to mind. I was so nervous and frightened that I wore skirt suit from my working days, with heels and the whole thing. No, in light of my performance, in which I forgot everything and had to fess up to it in front of 50 or so other members ... I think the poor girl did well to not faint dead away, as I almost did. LOL

I agree with you, um unless I won one...

Sigh !

I wish I had some of it. :)

Well, the Amish roots are part of it; no offense to the Amish intended. It is more a part of my thinking than I like to admit. As a very undeserving recipient of forgiveness because of the Atonement, sometimes I obsess about pleasing Heavenly Father.

I have to say that I have some really conflicting emotions about this and admit that jealousy could be one of them, thought that is not the only one. I was taught to not be exhibitionistic as it is shameful, but admit that I like attention; like way too much, and were it not for the Holy Spirit and my desire to please Heavenly Father ... well, enough said. I will pray in church, but out in public just does not feel right to me because Jesus Christ said to pray in private. It is just hard to sort things out some times.

I thought a little less gravity would be nice this afternoon. So, I was just going through the internet news, since I do not have TV here, and noticed a story about a beauty contestant "Tebowing" after she won. Um, so why do they call what she did a Tebow? It did not look like a curtsey. Where did that name come from. Hmmm. Should LDS women involve themselves in beauty contests? Isn't this straining Agency a bit?

I like discussing belief systems, and used to greatly enjoy the discussions in islam.about.com because non-muslims have some truly wacky beliefs about what Muslims believe. The same is true for me when discussing Mormonisim, because there are people out there who also have wacky ideas about the LDS. Though, for some reason, anti LDS folk seem to sometimes be more harsh than anti Muslim folk, some have even sworn at me. I still think that a similar phenomena is at play in both instances. And I sometimes think that some of our detractors are just frustrated folk looking for something in which to aim their ire. In my opinion, and you are welcome to correct me, some of the nasty things they say about our church, may have been true 50 or 100 years ago. What I like about the LDS church is it is a living, growing church and it is capable of change. A woman who is 85 once told me in Relief Society that one time, you had to obey your husband what ever he said, and not even the Bishop would help. In my ward, I know that to not be true today. It is a good day when I can have a fruitful and healing conversation with a non Mormon.

As a convert, I find this discussion has ascended to such a high intellectual level as to be completely useless to me. Plus, I am just a pretty straight talking old farm girl. What ever is implied in your lofty conversation, I will say flat out that there is something special about the LDS church that I have NOT seen in a dozen other denominations in the US, or in Islam. I resist any implication that the others are just good folk and we all oughta be nice as theirs is just as good as ours, because it ain't.

In looking at what happened to Jesus Christ's Church after his Crucifixion, the Gnostics and Essenes were slain, the library at Alexandra was burned, the inquisition happened, the council of Nicea occured, Mary Magdalene was declared a whore, and so on and so on. So many of the present day doctrines of other churches are not supportable, and it just goes on and on. I was baptized 4 times before being baptized in the LDS church, and one of them was in the Jordan river in Israel. I really wanted to belong to Jesus Christ, but it never really took hold until a young Elder did it in an LDS Ward. Though I am reluctant to use the term you have to describe other churches, I will not dispute what you say.

I think that we are now talking about a different set of issues here, when you speak of persecution of the church in California. I really had little understanding of the issues, until Rickety confronted me on Prop 8. And, I don't really have a lot of understanding of it yet. However, I do believe that some of the GBLT side have told outrageous whoppers. Civil rights and religious rights are two different things I think according to our constitution. The conflict around confusion on the matter is what has ignited to controversy. While I may not endorse the morality surrounding same sex marriage, I do not believe that anyone has the right to legislate morality. As church members, we have the right to enforce our own set of moral rules, but we can not apply them to others. The GBLT, again, some of them, have capitolized on creating confusion around the issue with the other voters, who are mainly interested in getting their pork chops and fried potatoes on the table.

I agree with you to a point, however there are important differences that can not be ignored. I do try very hard to obey the rules and covenants of the church, however it does not erase the fact that my experience at the hands of other churches was harsh, so harsh that I completely disavowed those of the "plastic Jesus"," who have a form of Godliness but deny the power there in" and was Muslim for years because of them. It may not be pretty or nice but it happened and to imply that it did not ... There is something special about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, other wise we would not learn of the apostate church. So, I dislike one of the original premises of this thread in that it gets dangerously close to saying that one church is as good as another. Yes, we should be loving and good and kind to others, but we have a little more of the truth than them.

I am happy that you've had such a nice experience.

To be very clear, especially in light of following the conversation. The LDS church is firmly about Jesus Christ, and following the commandments of Heavenly Father. The LDS church is uncommonly loving and stands above all other churches that I have encountered. The call is for us to unreservedly follow Jesus Christ in all that we do. And, believe me, there is a lot about me that those other churches hated. I stand on the Atonement, and make following the commandments in all that I do a priority, and that with varying success.

To be frank, Islam was failing on me, and without any family and few close ties, Heavenly Father was pulling me in. At first, it felt really frightening to me, and I even asked the missionaries if they realized how repulsive I was. So, it was not like Mormons got a great deal on me. It did save my life though, what ever that is worth.

I wasn't religious until my late 20's and then was evangelical/fundamentalist for a little over 30 years, going to a Baptist church, Catholic church, Assembly of God, Foursquare International and a few others, until I got disgusted and they threw me out. Then I was Muslim for about 7 years, and had not intended to become LDS. I was seeking God, but never thought that "those Mormons" would have any clue about that. Initially, I was not interested in the church at all. They just had this fantastic historical site in Kirtland, with this very interesting looking church up on the hill. I even told them flat out that I was not interested in being a Mormon but that after reading about them, felt sympathetic to their plight in the 1800's. And, their management was not sure they wanted me either, but seemed content to allow me to learn all about them. Well, I'm not going to repeat the story since the lurid gossip about me is probably more interesting. The point is that, some of the other non LDS religions do a better job than others. I've talked to some very Christ like people, and then there have been the others that say we do not believe in Jesus Christ, do blood sacrifices, torment women and all that outrageous stuff that we here know to not be truthful. At the risk of being chewed out again, I will say that in my experience, most in the LDS church, in fact all who I have encountered face to face practice a love that is uncommon among christians. I find Mormons to be generally non-judgmental, and were even loving to me when I was still a Muslim! Don't delude yourself, Mormons are uncommon in that respect. In fact I know of a few churches where if I walked in there in Hijab and Abaya, there would be a tear in "their" fabric of heaven. By contrast, I walked into the Vistior's Center next door to the Portland Temple in full Niqab and Abaya and asked for a tour in my fake pseudo Arabic trying to speak English. Much to my astonishment, the sisters there were absolutely loving and kind to me. I thought I was playing a joke on them, but the incident was so moving for me, it absolutely proved to me that Mormons are who they say they are. So, please do not sell Mormonisim short. I think there is something special here. In my experience we say that we simply have a more complete truth.

Exclusivisim is one of the worst dangers to a true approach to Heavenly Father that I can think of. It is up to him to decide who is acceptable and who is not, not us. I believe the LDS church is the true church, but I can't put down another person's journey, because if they are true seekers, they will find our church. In the mean time, I need to be sweet and loving to all I encounter.

I don't think I have heard anyone say that our church is the only one. I do believe, and have for a long time, that the churches strayed far from what Jesus Christ intended and that the LDS are closer to the truth because we are the restored church; with complete knowlege of Jesus Christ. I was not christian in any sense of the word until I was in my late 20's and after over 30 years, I was thrown out of my evangelical church, and became Muslim. My reason for becoming Muslim being that I was disgusted with the christian church. Being Muslim prepared me even more for my encounter with the LDS, and once I was being taught by the sisters, it did not take that long for me to re-engage Jesus Christ. Though I nearly did reject the LDS church because one of the members of the priesthood at my current church stated that sister missionaries were not qualified to teach. That statement sounded too much like very radical Muslims from Pakistan. He did seem to back down from that obvious sexisim and we eventually became friends. I don't think the LDS are the only ones going to please Heavenly Father, but I must say that for me, in this church, "things happen" and I am glad to be a member.

I've learned to avoid franchises when possible because I think that locally owned and operated resturants are more likely to pay attention to quality. Middle Eastern food, I think is some of the best. Middle Easterners do wonderful things with honey and lemon juice. Goat or Lamb shwarma is great on a bed of rice and humous. Kabsa, a rice and chicken dish is really wonderful. In many places in the Middle East, fruit juice drinks are readily available and mostly the fruit is sun ripened, not artificially sweetened like most of what we get in Oregon.

Unixknight: I think the clacking is a valve lifter, and I did notice that when I drove from Portland to Provo, it quit doing that. I bought the car at 103,000 miles and have never done anything but change oil and the Air Filter to the engine. Are there still spark plugs in them? If so, when should I have them changed? It bothers me because lots of places want to add all sorts of things on that make the bill astonishingly high.

I've used synthetic oil in my car since I bought it. One of the men who commented in my "church while traveling" thread, and suggested that I add this "stuff" at each change, but I can not remember what it was and can not find the thread. "Oil Can Henry's is two blocks away, so I will ask them, I guess.