tesuji

I just started a thread there.  Thank you for that.  I know the intent is to keep this thread to introductions.

You mean the one I just changed?  Sorry about that.    The tablets, of course, are the Torah.  The Hebrew on the tablets are the first 10 letters in the alefbet.  The two Hebrew words are "Etz Chaim", meaning "Tree of Life."

No one's replied on this, so -
Lehi was the first Jewish prophet in the Book of Mormon.
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/1?lang=eng

In the Jewish beliefs subforum there is a user by the name of the thekabalist who started reading the Book of Mormon and documenting his findings and thoughts for each chapter in a thread.  He didn't get past first Nephi before he stopped but what he did post was very interesting.
 

No, you haven't done anything. I used to visit a forum on another website. A gentleman living in Jerusalem, an Orthodox Jew I believe, seemed to get offended at everything I said as a Mormon. I think maybe he had a lot of past annoyances from Christians there. I guess some Christians in Jerusalem, maybe mostly the tourists?, can get rather obnoxious, trying to convert Jews, etc.
Also, we Mormons have a lot of respect for Jews and value their experience and scriptural teachings very highly. And of course there's the terrible history of anti-Semitism and persecution, which apparently unfortunately continues in some parts of the world today. We Mormons also suffered a bit in our history for being seen as being outside the mainstream as far as religion, so we can empathize at least a little about that experience.

He he. "Jewish people." I fixed it

Hello. I'm very new here too, but I think it's great to see a Jewish father here.
I happen to have recently started reading the following book, which explains to us clueless Christians how much we don't understand about what Jesus said, because we are ignorant about his Jewish roots. (I hope this does not offend you in any way - no offense intended.)
Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewish Words of Jesus Can Change Your Life 
by Lois Tverberg  (Author), Ray Vander Laan 
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0310330009/
I've also started learning ancient Hebrew recently. For the third time...

So my first question is going to be:  What does your username mean?

Welcome to you.  Look forward to being able to learn more about your beliefs and able to share ours.  I'm happy you are here.

Shalom, shalom.  I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself.  My name is Yared and I hail from Las Vegas, NV.  I am Jewish father of two and love all things theological.  I enjoy meeting people and hearing about their journey with G-d.  I am easy going, love to exchange ideas, and am currently in recovery from sarcasm.  I am excited to get to know you!  Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

It seems to me the problem here is not understanding the difference between education and training.  Education, to me, means to broaden our understanding of things.  Training is what we learn in order to do a particular job or function.

It is my personal observation that many college courses have neither education nor training value.  I may be wrong but I am thinking that is actual concern in the op of this thread even though it was not stated as such.  I am even more concerned that many institutions of higher learning are following the path of human exploitation – encouraging exorbitant and abusive student loans that make the institution rich and leave the students in such debt it is hard to distinguish from poverty. 

 
Traveler

I agree with you, but what I meant is that God is a physical being that exists in our same physical universe. Apparently, other Christian churches do not believe God is in our same physical universe, nor do they believe he has a physical body. See the book Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Cosmos, God, Humanity, by Terryl L. Givens, 2014,  chapter 11 "The Embodied God"
Since he is a physical being in our universe, he must logically be present somewhere. Does he live all the time on a planet? I think we have no idea, yet, about this kind of thing.

I am all for using common sense.
But as graduate with a literature degree I have been saddened to see many people in recent years bashing liberal arts.
So far in my working life, I have had good careers in two different career areas.
So majoring in "less sane" areas is by no means a recipe for unemployment. You just have to be more creative, sometimes, in finding a career. Just having a college degree, in anything but especially in liberal arts, opens a lot of doors. Liberals education teaches you how to learn and how to communicate, which are valuable skills.
Education is for both 1) education and 2) jobs. I hope we never forget #1. If everyone only ever learns STEM subjects, we are on a quick path to being a world of highly skilled barbarians.

Ok... Lets go back to the broken bone comparison...   If you break a bone.. you can go to just about any medical doctor for a correct diagnoses... Depending on that doctors training they may or may not refer you to someone with more expertise (Not all doctors handle all issues).  But the medical community has a clear understanding of how to treat a broken bone and that treatment is pretty standardized.  So you come out of the doctors office with a cast.  And those non-medical people see the cast and they understand that the person has some serious limits to their activity, and that it is not all in their head, its not something they can just tough out, and it not a case of lacking faith.
Then you get to mental health issues... some the issues the medical community has better understanding then others but all the issues (per you own statement) can benefit from more understanding (which would come from research).  Unlike with a broken bone the medical communities understanding of how to treat a broken mind is still a work in progress.  So you go to a doctor for help and they are going to use all of their training and experiences to try to help. They are going to have to spend some time talking you, listening to what you are saying, observing how you are acting, and determining what it is that you have.  This diagnoses is not as easy as the one for the broken bone (and depending on the mental illness might not be accurate or uncontested).  But after the diagnoses then you need treatment.  A doctor who has had good success with drugs is going to be inclined to go that route.  A doctor who has had good success with therapy is going to be inclined to go that route.  Then you start treatment... maybe it works maybe it does not.  Maybe some tweaking or adjustments are in order.  That is not very standardized
And of course once under treatment no one can visibly see that you are under a doctors care and how you are limited.  You can try to tell them of course and they are are going to respond as they think is the most helpful.  But the non medical community is (understandably) even more clueless then the medical community. They might think that their brushes with some issues (like depression or suicidal thoughts) are the on the same level and give you the advice they found most helpful for them.  Of course this is less then helpful... especially if you are the type of person who gives weight to the opinions of people who lack understanding.  People who would never say to a person with an arm in a cast "Oh its all in your head", or "you just need to choose to be different" as a way of getting better... Could very well do so while trying to help someone with mental illness because they think they know more then they really do about what is going on in your head.
 
 

I'd have to disagree. As someone studying psychology and human behavior, mental illnesses can easily be seen if you know what to look for. It's the general population that has a hard time "seeing" it. There are a lot of philosophical arguments about normal behavior vs. abnormal behavior, but if you take it from the standpoint of someone who has "healthy" behavior and compare them to someone suffering from a mental illness, you can see a stark difference. 
Can we treat it as easily as something tangible like a broken arm? No, because the symptoms vary from person to person and each treatment varies in outcome for each person. But that just means to me that we need more research, funding, and education on these mental illnesses so we can better understand them and therefore treat them. 

(Starting new thread - not really the direction the original thread starter probably wanted to go here.  )
I remember back when I was 10 years old.  My family took a trip to Yellowstone park.  I had been looking forward to it, because my plan was to jump into a geyser and kill myself.  (I forget the details of why I thought this would work so well.  I think my parents, trying to curb my curiosity to leave the trail to stick my finger in a hot spring, had overdone their warnings about what would happen if I did so, and I filled in the rest.)  
30 years of hindsight, here, but I still remember my little 10 year old thought processes.  I had nothing to live for, no friends, I figured I would always be a failure at things, what I've since learned is normal doubts and fears, ramped up for whatever reason to levels of despair other kids just don't have.  The truth was I had no reason to think that way.  There was no abuse, my parents both loved me, I was in good health.  Good enough in school.  Had friends, a bike, and a treehouse we turned into a spaceship.
I remember standing in front of the hot springs that I was convinced would flay me dead instantly.  Trying to work up the courage to run and jump.  I thought if I jumped far enough, I could hit the water all at once, and would die faster than if I jumped in feet first.  But apart from making little jerky movements towards the pool, I wasn't able to get over my fear of the pain and act.  This scene would repeat itself a few times over the next decade, with various methods in mind.  Eventually I changed/grew up/grew out of whatever, and stopped thinking along those lines, and everything just got better. This got glossed over, but yeah, no really, suicide is a leading cause of death in folks age 10-24 in the US.  So yeah, no really, it is a legitimate issue that we as a society must deal with, in the absence of firm medical science.  
Yeah, it would be real nice if an actual physical test that measures brain stuff could scientifically tell us that something is out of whack.  It sure the heck didn't exist then, and it doesn't exist now either.  But what we have learned, is to look for warning signs, and to understand.  We understand most kids don't have thoughts like that.  Most of those that do, don't go through with their plans.  But some do.  Like, around five thousand kids a year, give or take.  Another 160,000 kids per year make a serious enough attempt they end up in the ER needing medical treatment. 
The issue deserves a heck of a lot more than yjacket's lolling and mocking finger-pointing at an overzealous pharmaceutical industry and pill-happy doctors.  

If you've been here a while, you might have noticed that I'm big on education.  It's a Family Tradition.  My dad is one of 9 siblings and in that family there is 1 lawyer, 1 general surgeon, 1 teacher, 1 architect, 2 nurses, and 3 engineers.
I graduated from Computer Engineering even as I'm more interested in programming because my dad insists that there's more money in engineering.  He's an engineer.
My brother graduated from Electronics and Communications Engineering even as he is more interested in soccer because my dad looks at him and says Soccer is not a career.
My dad is right about something... there's more money in engineering.  And without my dad, I wouldn't be where I am today.  My brother especially... because he sustained a bad injury while playing professional soccer and it affected his game... he retired early and is now using his Engineering degree to feed his family.
That said... I am not raising my children the way I was raised when it comes to choosing a college education.  My eldest son, for example, wants to play piano for a career.  I can just hear my dad in my ear... Piano is not a career.  It's a hobby.  If you're Mozart, you can make good money.  If you're not, you're looking at piano teacher... peanuts.  So be like my uncle who is professional musician on the weekends and a Pediatrician during the week.  Or my other uncle who sings with his guitar for weddings, funerals, and church services and a lawyer during the week.
But, I'm not telling my son that.  Rather, this is what I'm telling him.... Find something you really, really, really love to do.  Something you could spend your entire life doing for free.  Get really, really good at it.  The best.  Learn perfect work ethic.  The money will come.  I'll help you figure out how to make money out of it.  So yeah, he's trying to get good enough to audition for Julliard.  But if he doesn't make it there, then BYU has a really good music program.
So, he's only 14 and he figured out there's actually people who are interested in buying 15-30 second snippets of music he can create in his digital audio workstation for $10 a pop.  My other son who is 12 is helping him with the drumbeats... people buy 4 measures of drumbeats for $12.  The 12-year-old doesn't want to be a career musician though.  He wants to build bridges and skyscrapers.

I apologize if I was wrong. I'm new to this site and, no, I don't know you. I was just going by what you said. In my circles I'm used to hearing conservatives bash liberals without any clue of what they're are talking about. Most of my relatives are what I would consider "very conservative," pretty far right of center. So I get tired of it.
Again, I apologize and I did not mean to offend you. I jumped to conclusions. 
Politics sucks. Please remind me to stay out of it. I'm sick of it...

The truth is that anti-Mormons are liars. Quit listening to them.

Just because something is hard to measure by science doesn't mean it's not real.
I believe God exists and in a Holy Spirit that testifies of him. I've felt it, I know it's real, but science can't easily measure that either.
Psychology is a young science and I think it has a long way to go. But that doesn't mean it's worthless. Ask a mental health counselor if mental illness is real - they deal with it every day.
If you have no experience with mental illness, then I can understand why you don't understand about it. It doesn't sound to me that you do.
[added]
In my opinion, psychological health or illness is much harder to evaluate than a physiological condition. We are talking about the sum of many things - the brain, the mind, the human psyche. These are very complex things, as is their interrelation. And the mind, the eternal human spirit? That's might be the deepest subject of all.
So you're not always going to be able to come up with an easy test for chemical imbalances or whatever. 
Even regular medicine, the physiological type, is far from understanding everything. 
 

Some people have no experience with mental illness. So it can be hard for them to understand.

Mental health issues such as depression and critical lack of self-esteem are VERY really issues, even at the age of 16.  And there very well could be trauma which has occurred in that person's life.
Do not dismiss another person's issues simply because of their age or "small" world.