tesuji

I'm truly glad the missionaries are safe, and sad for the members who have died. However, at the risk of sounding callous: With 80,000 missionaries in the field and almost 17 million members, statistically you would expect some of these to die every day. I don't see the point of the news headlines announcing things like this, unless I guess you have a missionary or know some members in the area.

D&C 128:11 https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/128?lang=eng Memory maybe tells me there might be more Latin in that same section - read it and see

I know people who do not ask questions. Many of them are not particularly intellectually inclined. They are happy to read their scriptures and listen to Sunday School and General Conference, and enjoy the confirmation of the Holy Spirit about the truth of what is being said. I do not recommend this, but I do not fault these people. The most important thing our religion teaches us is to learn to submit to God and to love and serve others, and to forgive and repent. You do not need to read books about the history of polygamy or about Book of Mormon DNA studies to get into heaven. D&C 131:6 says, "It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance." This could be talking mainly about ignorance of the saving truths of the gospel. I believe Elder McConkie said as much. D&C 130:18-19 says, "Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come." This could also be talking mainly about gospel knowledge. Notice it says this knowledge is gain by diligence and obedience. HOWEVER: Both of these scriptures could also easily apply to all knowledge, not just the "spiritual" kind. The LDS church encourages members to be educated and learn all they can. I love to learn and I recommend it to everyone. Elder Uchdorf has reminded us that most knowledge and modern revelations in the church has come because prophets asked questions. My thinking about all this was greatly influenced by a documentary about Hugh Nibley called Faith of an Observer, when he talks about what he learned from his own near-death experience. Here's Nibley, one of the most learned me we've ever had in the church. He would certainly tell you to learn and ask questions. But he also says it's not the most important thing in this life:

One that comes to mind, which I tracked down by googling: In D&C 128: "and the summum bonum of the whole subject that is lying before us, consists in ..."

As has been said, Mormons believe in adoption. Mormons believe God promised great blessings, including eternal salvation, to Abraham's descendants who are faithful to God. Faithful Gentiles can be adopted into the covenant too: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/abraham-covenant-of?lang=eng

A couple other threads here reminded me that I wanted to recommend a book I read recently: What's on the Other Side? - What the Gospel Teaches Us about the Spirit World by Brent L. Top Deseret Book, 2012 http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Other-Side-Gospel-Teaches/dp/1609070461 Brent Top is a BYU religion teacher. I have both the book and the audio CD - I prefer the audio CD. It's a lecture he gave, I think at BYU. This book has been life-changing for me. It's made me not worry so much about death, but also motivated me to live the gospel better in this life. I highly recommend it. I don't usually read "church books," preferring instead to just read the scriptures, or maybe the church institute manuals. But this book was truly great

I am very interested in life after death. I haven't read this book, but after checking out reviews on Amazon and reading a negative review from the Neal Maxwell Institute, I decided to pass on it.

That's crazy. I've never heard of anything like that in all my decades in the church.

Yes, I agree. I meant faith is in opposition to doubt. Without the possibility of doubt, there can be no faith, because I think faith is the act of choosing to trust in God. Some people seem blessed with the gift of faith and/or don't care to ask questions. They are happy with the Sunday School answers and don't go any deeper. I guess that's OK to get you through life, if that's what you want. It doesn't work for me, because I'm too curious and I want to understand things deeply. And I also I worry about those folks - if they ever do ask questions, they might be unprepared to deal with that, because they have no experience with dealing with doubt. As far as "doubt promoting rumors" on the internet - I'm talking about the attacks you read in news headlines and from doubters - I have looked into all of these. In every case, I have found reasonable answers. But I had to suspend disbelief long enough to keep searching for them. The LDS Gospel Topics essays have been very helpful, as has the unofficial Fair Mormon website: https://www.lds.org/topics/essays?lang=eng http://en.fairmormon.org/Table_of_Contents I don't mean that I have found proof for everything. Just reasonable explanations. As someone has given in the quote above from the last General Conference, you still need faith. I'm just happy to find that my faith doesn't have to be blind. The LDS gospel is very rational to me. As Joseph Smith said, "This is good doctrine. It tastes good."

I'm sorry to hear about your divorce. It sounds like you are doing all you can. As people have said, your covenant is with God, so you are not breaking that and have nothing to be ashamed of. It sounds to me like your husband is trying to escape his problems. If so, then I'm afraid his current feeling of peace will be very temporary, because his problems will return, and then he won't even have the blessing of marriage either. I think you are wise to realize you can't force your husband to do what's right. You can only keep trying, yourself.

I like what people have said here. I think the key is to ask questions, but keep trusting in God. He will give answers to you when you are ready (which might not be until after this life). Faith cannot exist without doubt, it seems to me. However, Mormons believe that with continued obedience to God and through revelation from the Holy Spiirt, you can get to a point where you no longer need faith, because you know. Faith is the first principle of Mormonism, as given in our official Articles of Faith, https://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/a-of-f/1 Alma 32 from the Book of Mormon was mentioned. It's an amazing passage, and directly relevant, so I'll quote it here:

If you're interested in a brief overview of our beliefs, mormon.org is a good place

Apparently so. http://en.fairmormon.org/Jesus_Christ/Date_of_birth

I have felt like this. I am sorry that you are going through this. If you haven't heard it, Elder Holland's latest talk was greatly encouraging in this regard. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/tomorrow-the-lord-will-do-wonders-among-you?lang=eng Also, Elder Uchtdorf has given a talk or two about this, about how things will get better. I commend you for sacrificing and working for your family. You don't sound like a bad mother too me, but rather an awesome mother. [added] Sorry, I missed the last part about your husband. That must be an especially hard thing.

Is this official policy? I've seen it required but I thought it was a personal preference by a local church leader. I would support my leader and shave my beard if he asked, if I had a beard. Obedience is a virtue. But I would never ask someone to do this, unless it was official policy.

Is this official policy? I've seen it required but I thought it was a personal preference by a local church leader. I would support my leader and shave my beard if he asked, if I had a beard. Obedience is a virtue. But I would never ask someone to do this, unless it was official policy.

And if I remember rightly, Samson shaving his beard didn't go too well for him either

I was glad to attend BYU and live by the BYU rules, even though I thought the dress code was a bit silly. It was something some students came up with in the 1950s, I think, and was unfortunately made official policy.

The article seems quite confused. It's wrong. From the recently-published, official Gospel Topic essay on LDS.org:

Unfortunately, it's a package deal. I think it wouldn't make sense to avoid going to a place that you thought was 99% great and 1% silly. You go for the good. Doesn't mean you have to agree with or condone the silly.

My point is that beards are an entirely superficial thing. Outward appearance only. Jesus harshly condemned the Pharisees of his time for thinking outwardness equals righteousness. What matters is your heart and your actions. And we are a world church. American notions of styles of rebellion from our 1960s era don't translate at all to other cultures. Beards have cultural significance in many countries. In the Old Testament beards were also a sign of a covenant with God, if I remember correctly.

This whole beards and Mormons thing is a peeve of mine, so I have to post. What is possibly wrong with a beard? And how much does it matter either way? Jesus had a beard in every painting (no photos ) I've ever seen of him. Brigham Young had a beard, as well as many prophets. BYU still prohibits beards, as far as I know. Nonsense. My strong feeling for this comes from when I was a BYU student. I'd been there many years. One day I saw a young man, I think he even had a U of U t-shirt on, in the library. He had grubby jeans and a beard. I immediately thought, "Sinner!" And then I stopped myself in horror. I had been so conditioned by the clean-cut BYU dress code that I had immediately judged someone by their mere appearance. I'm still horrified by this. End of rant

(apologies for the double post again - not sure why it happens)

OK, here's a good quote (from an official class teacher's manual) about Mormon doctrine on being adopted into Israel. It's about what Mormons call the Abrahamic Covenant, which is of core, essential importance in our doctrine: The verse from the Book of Abraham is Abraham 2:8–11: The Book of Abraham is a revelation from the prophet Joseph Smith, described as follows: There's some controversy about what is meant by "translation" but, people, please start another thread if you must discuss that.

OK, here's a good quote about Mormon doctrine on being adopted into Israel. It's about what Mormons call the Abrahamic Covenant, which is of core, essential importance in our doctrine: The verse from the Book of Abraham is Abraham 2:8–11" The Book of Abraham is a revelation from the prophet Joseph Smith, described as follows: There's some controversy about what is meant by "translation" but, people, please start another thread if you must discuss that.