zenbones

Thanks for the comments. The past few months have been good. I was actually just sustained to the Melchizedek Priesthood yesterday at Stake conference and will hopefully have it conferred upon me next week. I kind of feel like Peter when he requested he be crucified upside down because he wasn't worthy to be the same as the Savior. I just can't get over not feeling worthy to hold this high honor.

Wow, it seems several people have their sarcasm detectors set to 0.

Eowyn, if that is the case then it should be stopped. And if the accusations against them are true then they should be investigated, shutdown, and even arrested for infringing upon the liberties of others. And I respect that you want to continue to fight against it. I see nothing wrong with that nor do I necessarily see anything right with pornography.

Who knew the Taliban relocated to Provo?!

I support your right to boycott as well as support Groupon's freedom to affiliate with whomever they want to. I also support the porn companies right to function as they like as long as they are doing it legally and are not coercive and all parties involved do so at their own free will. Isn't free agency wonderful?

"liberate oppressed knowledge" I can think of a gentleman around 180 years ago that liberated oppressed knowledge. I for one am grateful for him doing that. If not believing the official version of things makes me a conspiracy theorist then I proudly call myself that. Funny, I see lots of people claiming the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a vast conspiracy because we don't tow the line in regards to the Council of Nicea. I guess we better get back in line and stop being so fringe!

Because a site doesn't repeat the propaganda that everyone else does, it is conspiracy theorists? Are you aware that you can be charged with conspiracy by the government? If the government thinks conspiracy is legit I don't know it has to be mocked. Maybe it is because sometimes those theories turn out to be true. Yes, zerohedge is focused on the financial system. Like exposing the fraud that is ongoing in it. The corruption and lies. But it must be crazy to talk about how what you are officially told isn't always correct. I guess I should start watching CNBC instead.

zerohedge.com, read it and learn something

Or another reason could be the 2 trillion dollars of "liquidity" the Fed and other central banks have pumped into the capital markets in the past 3 months. Just sayin'.

I have some recent experience of something related to this. My wife added my grandfather to new.familysearch about a month and a half ago. I went to print out a card with his name on it last Friday as we were going to the Temple the next day. To my surprised someone had already baptized him. Now my Grandfather has only been dead for 27 years. And my Grandmother is still alive. We emailed the person who did it and she said she was related about 8 generations down the line, far removed from being a close relative. We asked her to cease and desist. She said she just got carried away. To be honest it upset me a lot. Let this be a lesson to all, you need to reserve the names of your ancestors as soon as you add them or find them. Or else someone will do it for you.

Lilith was first mentioned in the jewish Talmud around 500 years after Christ was resurrected. She wasn't mentioned as Adam's first wife until 300 - 500 years later. This was in Jewish folklore. Not the teachings of the Ancient Prophets as described in the old testament. She was however mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls but hardly anything about being anyone's wife.

I've got a couple of tattoos that I got when I was younger and far away from being a member. They are unseen unless I have my shirt off. Would I have gotten them if I knew then what I know now? Probably not. But I can't say I regret them. They do have meaning to me. They also represent in a way the path I've taken to know Christ. That being said, if I woke up tomorrow and they were gone, I wouldn't be sad. I've made choices in my life that were done without appreciation to the wonders of God. I repented and the Lord forgave me.

In states it may be legal to grow but unfortunately the Feds still like to bully us around. I'm well aware of the situation on the border. I live in Tucson. My neighbor is a BP agent. Seems like half the members of my ward are agents. What you see on the news isn't even half of it. All I'm saying is if you decriminalize the use then you narrow the need to use underground methods of obtaining it. Regarding the cartels, they are not going away regardless of anything. They are big business. Not only to themselves but to others. You don't think they just keep all those billions lying around in mason jars in the backyard, do you? A good book to read is NarcoDollars for dummies by Catherine Austin Fitts, former member of the first Bush administration. The illegal drug trade is big business on both sides of the border. For both the good guys and the bad guys.

Or you could legalize the growing of it here. Put the cartels out of business. Maybe raise a little tax revenue.

D&C 89:8 And again, tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly, and is not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle, to be used with judgment and skill. "an herb for bruises" and "to be used with judgment and skill" All bruises are not physical. Some are mental. Take it for what you will. Although take heed that the Lord does advise to use judgment and skill. Again, let the spirit guide you. Again... D&C 89:11 Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving. If marijuana is to be considered an herb (it is by many), then it could be interpreted to allow for its use but with strong discipline. Again, the most correct answer is from the spirit when you pray.

I'm an Iraq vet myself and was diagnosed with PTSD from the VA. Although I don't partake of cannabis to help me with it, I wouldn't condemn you for using it. Just follow the spirit.

When I was investigating, my LDS neighbor told me to not only look at the good but also see what others were saying about the Church that was negative. I did and I believe it made my faith even stronger. Instead of turning me away it brought me closer.

If you can't pay 10% right now, try to save a little bit up at a time. Maybe sometime this year you'll be able to pay up what you weren't able to before. There is no set rule on when you have to pay it in a given year. Just as long as you pay 10% of your annual increase. That could be week to week, month to month, or you could pay it all at once at the end of the year.

You'd also be assuming that it was written during the time that the Apostles were alive.

Prison walls have crumbled in the past but not for false prophets.

Don't be ugly. j/k

My wife spent some time growing up as a child in Mesa, Arizona. She had a familiarity with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She had LDS friends and she often went to church with them. She had read the Book of Mormon. I grew up in Georgia where if someone had told me they were LDS I would have asked them to spell it. I knew of Mormons. I knew they lived in Utah. I knew that they wore suits on bicycles in 90 degree heat. As far as I know my first experience with a member was an Army buddy of mine. He was definitely the odd man out amongst a group of men who couldn't complete a sentence without a curse word or two. While we went out drinking until the wee hours of the morning, he stayed at home with his family. At the time I thought I had the life but now I realize that he had the life. My teenage years were spent learning things and doing things which might be called stupid. I treated my mind like it was a lab for experimentation. I did drugs because I thought I liked to feel "high". I searched out a different spirituality than the one I was familiar with, which was based on going to a Protestant church when I was younger. At one point I considered myself an atheist. I mocked God. I cursed God. I did everything I could to provoke Him. I consider these years my lost years. I would gradually come to have this belief that there has to be some underlying power in the universe. I couldn't believe that the beauty of everything around me was happenstance. Yet, I was still too afraid to admit there was an almighty God. It was not until after my oldest daughter was born that I can remember my heart being softened. It happened while I was driving to work. I just remember thinking that there just has to be a Supreme Being and there was no point denying it. Even with this revelation I still didn't believe that any Church could be true or that even the Christ died for my sins. As fate would have it, we moved to Tucson, Arizona and purchased a house. Our neighbors happened to be LDS. Didn't really matter to me too much. I could tell they were good people and I hoped that they could tell I was. One night my wife gets a call from the neighbor asking if a couple of missionaries could stop by. We were about to go to sleep so my wife told her that they could come by but just not that night. They would come by the next day. I remember being open minded about it. I joked to my wife that I would try to be nice to them. I knew that my wife was serious about this because she wanted to raise our daughters in a church. She had tried to get me to go to other churches but they didn't feel right to me. The missionaries came to our house the next day. I let them in my house and asked them if I could get them some water. I remember thinking, "Here we go." I sat there at first with an open mind. I noticed that they were nervous and couldn't help but think that you have to have courage to do what they do. They noticed that we have a lot of pictures of the kids around. They said that family was important to the Church. I thought, "That's good." They showed me the Family Proclamation. I remember thinking that I agree with pretty much everything on it. The longer they sat there the more intrigued I became. I went to sleep that night with what they said on my mind. They came by a few more times and asked how I felt. I told them that my curiosity was peaked but I wasn't sure yet. I knew my wife was going to get baptized. For me it was hard to accept that I could belong to a church because my relationship with God has always been a very intimate thing for me. They asked me to read the Book of Mormon and pray on it. I told them I would. They continued to come by and I started to want them to come by. I not only enjoyed their company but a change was beginning to take place in my heart. I was doing most of the talking in the form of questions or asking if what I had just said made any sense. I was sure they were quite annoyed with me. I still had not yet read the BOM but one night I woke up from sleep with what I can only describe as a haunting feeling in my soul. I had the urge to call them in the middle of the night and ask questions. I had the urge to empty all the alcohol in the house down the kitchen sink. I was driving to work one day and an incredible feeling came over me. It was a feeling I had never knew could exist. It felt like my heart was about to expand to the point of explosion. It felt good. I somehow knew what that feeling was. I was feeling the Christ in my heart. I knew right then that I had to get baptized. I knew that this was right for me. I was starting to believe. The first time I went to church was shocking to me. I actually enjoyed it. It was not like any other church I had been to. It felt genuine. I discovered that I could read the scriptures on my phone via the Gospel Library App. I discovered that I had an easier time reading the BOM on my phone than through the pages of a book. I was immediately mesmerized. I started reading it night and day. I couldn't put it down. I remember thinking that this book is so amazing that it would be impossible for someone to just make it up. It took me two weeks to read it. I started feeling good. We had a date for our baptism set. But before that we had to get interviewed. Driving to the interview I started to think about all the things I had done in my life. I thought about all the things I had done and all the ways I had treated people. I felt ashamed. I felt this tremendous weight on my shoulders. I felt the burden of my actions. I also felt relieved. The day of my baptism came and it felt like the start of a brand new life for me. I had to get submerged twice because my arm was out of the water the first time. My wife joked that it was because I was so dirty with sin. I didn't argue with her. I was asked to bear my testimony afterwards and at first I was a little nervous. Did I have anything worthwhile to say? I got up and started to speak. I didn't have a plan I was just going to go with what my heartfelt. It was an emotional experience for me, to share my testimony. Afterwards, I tried to grasp how I was feeling. I wasn't sure. The next day after being confirmed I was still uncertain about how I was feeling. I did feel a tingling sensation inside of me. Someone told me that was the spirit. The next Monday at work I grew frustrated with something. I said something I should not have. I said the Lord's name in vain. I immediately had a feeling of dread. I stopped everything and said a quick prayer. I asked for forgiveness and I asked for patience while I work through my transgressions. I received my answer almost immediately. I had never felt so high in my life. It was a true high. I had the knowledge in my heart that the Lord is always patient. He had put up with my transgressions all of my life. He had watched over me and comforted me even when I wouldn't recognize him. I felt his love. I knew then that I was blessed. In the weeks passed I have felt so blessed. I want to climb the highest mountain and yell to everyone that will here, "Do you know how wonderful this is?!" I went from somebody who denied to someone who believes in all of my heart that this is where I'm supposed to be. I ask Heavenly Father everyday for the guidance I need to continue to have a softened heart. I know he is there with me. I know that when I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ that it is true. Amen. [

Makes sense Vort.

Being a new convert myself, I don't understand either why you'd want one group to know and not the other.