J-DawgFluffy

but what if the hospital isn't properly teaching it's patients to care for themselves...

Well not so much as what happened as the reaction. I've actually seen it a lot, especially when I was a youth. I remember the lessons I was taught in Sunday School and YM never progressed beyond the stuff I was taught as a twelve year-old, which was it's self only a little more in substance than primary. I would hear people always worried about getting ex-communicated, even thought that pretty much would NEVER happen to youth, and things like that. They do a great job teaching the how, but not the what or why.

LDS social services could be a way to go, but unfortunately they use psychologist instead of psychiatrists, so you may end up getting differing advice from them and then from your primary care physician, as well and any psychiatrist you are seeing now. I say get your primary care as well as your current therapist to send your SP a letter explaining that your need is spiritual counseling. However, four times a month is a little much...

Am I the only one who reads this and feels disappointed in the youth program?

kinda of like a current scheduled-I, that's slowly being legalized.

Thank you Deb, you said that better than I could. My major is History, and I've always been the person to ask "Why?" so I've learned a lot about things like this. Why do we have Christmas trees? It comes from old pagan beliefs. Doesn't' diminish the symbolism our church uses. Just like with other symbolism we encounter in our lives with the church. The origin usually is irrelevant compared to the meaning.

Considering most Christmas traditions- Trees, lights, ect are not rooted in Christianity but the paganism that Christmas was originally celebrated for, I think Santa might be a little but of a non-issue.

I wish I hadn't been too busy the last few months to be an active member of this forum. This quote is taken from a blog that I started (but haven't finished yet) about repentance: "What is sin? And why do we sin? 20. There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated— 21. And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. [1] First, we need to define sin. Simple enough right? Sin is anything that goes against God's will, be it thought, action, or inaction. But why would these things be so inherently evil? Does Heavenly Father simply get to make the rules as he chooses? Does he simply do as he pleases and make up rules on a whim? No, absolutely not. In Doctrine and Covenants, we learn that Heavenly Father's power as deity is his honor. He perfectly understands and willingly obeys all of the laws of The Universe, and therefore, the very elements themselves willingly obey him. [2] Two of the greatest laws of the The Universe are the Law of Justice and the Law of Mercy. (These two laws create a paradox that we will discuss later.) So, in God's infinite knowledge, he creates rules that we should follow if we want to do things in the best possible way. They aren't just good rules; they're perfect rules based on a perfect understanding of perfect laws. ( I feel it's important to note here than we never are forced to obey although we do have an obligation to follow any of these rules; I will also cover that later on.) This understanding gives us a more in-depth look into why sin is so grievous, for as the scriptures say, God "...cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance."[3] Because God's laws are based off of universal and perfect laws, if we violate his laws, we sin not only against our father but against nature itself For example: If someone steals money from another person, he has violated the Law of Justice. He has not put forth the required work for the money to be rightfully his; likewise, the person from whom he stole the money is now out the money for which he is rightfully owed because the person from whom the money was stolen actually did put for the required work to have a claim on the money. If we look at sin from this viewpoint we see Heavenly Father's laws not as overbearing or controlling but as wise and loving. It's all based off perfect understanding of perfect principles. So if God's laws are based on perfect principles, why then would we ever go against them? The scriptures have many answers, but perhaps the best one is found in the Book of Mormon: 28. O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.[4] It's similar (very similar) to a child or teenager ignoring the counsel of a parent. We sometimes think that we know better, but we don't see the consequences of our actions. It's like driving in a city we've never been to before. We know what our destination is, and we have very detailed instructions on how to get there, written by someone who knows the city, and we have others who can help us understand the instructions. Sometimes though, we see a turn ahead, and we decide that we should take that turn; we think the turn is a shortcut and will get us there quicker; unfortunately, we see the turn, but we don't see the road after it. We realize, sometimes quickly and sometimes after a long driver, that our choice to turn away from the course that was laid out wasn't as prudent as we thought. We have a goal of gaining eternal life. We have detailed instructions written out in the scriptures. We have the benefit of prophets, apostles, parents and church leaders who can guide us and help us gain greater understanding of the roadmap placed before us.

HA! You haven't spent time at the MTC. It's already pretty low there Do a mini-mission and you'll see what what I mean. (Former/current AP/ZL don't count. They've usually been out long enough to know how to behave.) Note- This may be skewed as I am now older than most missionaries. My ward has two elders and two sisters. I'm older than all four of them.

exactly

word of advice- Your testimony should be of the gospel, not the church. There is a difference.

I once had a girl ask me to marry her so she could have my last name (Pillow) We dated for a while, but nothing ever came from it. I do have to say I'd be all for taking on my wife's name if she wanted it, as long as it wasn't the last name from a previous marriage.

Okay, I guess I was more ambiguous than I thought. SHe and I were "exclusive" long before this ever happened with her friend. She and I didn't really give marriage a serious thought until we had been together about a year. The stuff with her friend happened before we got to that point, but she and I were still "officially together" at that point. And the only reason we never were formally engaged was that she wanted to serve a mission (which she eventually did) and she didn't think we should be engaged official before that. A lot of people we ran into together actually thought we were married. We had been very close friends for a long time before we ever admitted we loved each other. Eventually we broke up. She had moved to California for health reasons, and after several months things continued to get more and more strained till they hit a breaking point. I said some things I shouldn't have said, (I told her I never wanted to talk to her ever again.) and we haven't really talked since. I still am in touch with her mom, whom I was also good friends with, and a few of her siblings, but she's married and moved on, and I've moved on and had my heart broken a couple more times since then.

My dad worked for the Teamsters for a few years while he was on an injury leave from UPS. A lot of time he would end up in a car alone with a female from another local or someone involved in campaigns (My dad was a lobbyist for a few years.) He didn't like this very much- he's a good looking guy and he's had women make passes at him several times, including one sister from our ward. He always did everything he could to avoid being with a female in a car. If it had to happen, he always brought up my mom as part of the conversation almost immediately, and in his car he kept a picture of them together in front of his dashboard. A few years ago I was informally engaged (Or engaged to be engaged as she put it) to my high school sweetheart. (Meaning, we didn't have a ring or a set date, but we had serious plans, including which temple, how we would handle the finances, stuff about kids, sex, ect.) Well there was an old friend from her high school band (we attended different schools and lived about an hour apart) who had always liked her. (He was very upset when he found out about us dating, and tried to keep in between us physically at one of her birthday parties.) She was very naive about his motivations and such from time to time. I was a little bothered when he took her to go see a movie, and she couldn't understand why. Since we couldn't agree with him never taking her out to see a movie, she agreed to always bring her little sister along. Supposing that our first real argument included him. He had suddenly become interested in the church, even though he still claimed to be an atheist on Facebook. He started going to institute with her, usually with him driving her, even though he lived no where near her. One night, she hadn't texted me or called me by about 11, and I got really worried. (She and I usually spoke every night before bed since we didn't get to see each other much durign school.) Well, after 3 missed calls, she finally picked up. She sounded quite annoyed. She told me that her friend had a bunch of questions about the temple, so they ad driven to the Orlando South Stake Center and we in the parking lot talking about the temple. (The Orland South S.C. is across the street from the Orlando Temple.) I was extremely upset, and she couldn't figure out why. She said they were just talking about the temple and nothing was going on. She then told me I needed to trust her. I told her that her friend wasn't interested in the church at midnight, and while I trusted her, I didn't trust him. The next day she agreed not to stay out that late without letting me know first, which wasn't really a satisfying agreement but the best I could get from her. That was in November I think. A month later, she told me that she wouldn't be calling, and that she and her friend were gunna go look at Christmas lights in the park. That annoyed me even more, because now she was deliberately taking away my time with her so that he could have time with her. It's interesting to note that as soon as he got a GF, he lost interest in the church. Never would have guessed that would happen.

If you do it to make her mad, then Yes. oh wait.. I meant no...

I scored very high on touch, and tied with quality time and words of affirmation in 2nd. Pretty accurate for me. I

Oh yeah, About the science behind the WoW Some (IE almost all) of those studies that contradict the W.O.W. Contain two very vital flaws in the methodology: They contain to control, (though in some cases, a control would be difficult to test) and they don not test for all the variables. Example: Studies show that drinking a little wine every day is good for you. That may be true, but is it the alcoholic content of the wine, or is it the antioxidants that are naturally occurring in grape juice that make the difference? And before you start trying to dive into deep doctrine, get a solid base of the basics (Articles of Faith) and keep that base strong. I've seen many people lose their testimony because they neglected the basics.

I went through the same thing at the same age you are now. 4 years later, I've found a lot of answers and have no doubts about what the truth is. I never had a lot of faith for myself while I was growing up, always just borrowing from my parents and later on my then fiance. When She and I broke up, I had nothing to rely on, so I just floated. The Lord was always there for me though, even when I didn't really care or notice. Looking back, I can see huge blessings that he gave me even though I really didn't deserve it. I always attended church, but it was always just so I could hang out with people. Finally, I was talked into going to a special Sunday school class, taught by a man I couldn't stand. (Note- I love science. I am a pre-med major, I always took every science class available, and always scored in the highest percentile in science competitions. I live and breath science and arts. It's who I am.) Well, this teacher was one of those people who actually was a lot like me- he had a ton of questions, and did everything he could to learn every doctrine and science in and about the gospel. After a few weeks in his class, i started wanting to do things for my own. I wanted to learn more. I wanted to go to church, not for social interaction but to genuinely learn. My advice to you is just stay the course. Do everything you can on your own and trust the Lord. He wants you to know. Knowledge is power; it's God's infinite knowledge and wisdom that give's him his power as deity. He wants each of us to know all that we can know for ourselves, but we must make an effort. Learn to feel the spirit on a personal level, and not just what everyone says you should feel it as. As you learn this, do everything you can to keep it with you. It will help you and guide you. Take chances- I never would have learned had I not attended Brother Singler's class; likewise, take a chance and talk to your leaders. If you scared to talk to your bishop, keep this in mind: a bishop is the only calling in the ward approved by Salt Lake. Every bishop around the world, every sing one, is approved by the Prophet himself. This doesn't' get delegated to anyone else. His calling comes signed by the prophet. I would hope that changes the way you look at it.

I used to call all three of my previous romantic interests "babe" more so as a joke about our age difference. (Which, in all reality isn't much at all. I'm only 23. They were all fresh out of high school.)

I'm in the "friends" one. I'm the one with the black shirt and grey board shorts

I'm guessing this happened to you? Your story is so much like what I went through at your age. I was born a member and I had several girlfriends throughout middle and high school. But "M" was my HS sweetheart. We met the summer before my junior year, as her "dance partner and practically a brother" was my best friend. She and I hit it off well, and because she and I both wanted to finish HS single (she was a senior that year) we became very close, and became best friends. Well, we met in July and in March we started dating. She and I fell in love very quickly, and became very close. (Those who didn't know us thought we were married. We had several people ask us that over the course of our relationship.) Well, about 2 years after we met, she had to move across the country. We stayed together, but things got bad. We started having fights. Her mom (who I was also very close to) wasn't happy with me and things I was doing. By Oct (2008), things were at a breaking point. She called me and broke up with me on the 29th. My world completely collapsed. I stopped working on my mission papers. I stopped caring about anything. I went into a very deep depression, and like you, no one understood why it was taking so long for me to get over her. It took a while. Close to a year. Some advice: She hurts too. She had the advantage knowing this was going to happen, but she hurts too. Just because she isn't in the depths of despair doesn't mean she is okay. When M broke up with me, she didn't show a lot of outward grief from what I've heard. the kid who introduced us saw her 2 months later, and he told me a lot of things about what she was doing at the time, and she didn't seem like a girl on the rebound at all. But he did tell me he knew she was hurting. Just give it time. True love can be very painful to lose like this, and the closer y'all were, the harder. Just give it time. You can't be friends. Not now, and not likely ever. You'll eventually be okay with that, but the sooner you get that concept of still friends out of your head, the quicker healing will take place. like the quote says, "Being friends with your ex is like keeping your dead dog."

So, in my ward, we have a member who goes my "grandpa." He loves the missionaries and does everything he can for them; he also loves pranks, (as do I) so he and I have a tradition of pranking new elders in the ward. (Our ward has two sets of missionaries. Currently we have sisters and the ZLs.) We found out the day before this that the southern area was being whitewashed, so neither of the elders in this prank knew what was going on. Skip to about a minute in to see the video. (BTW Grandpa actually did fall that day. I had to take him to the hospital before we did this.)

This was a skit that my group did at the South Florida YSA conference this past summer. Enjoy!

I took Spanish three times on middle school cuz it was the only language offered. In high school I studied two years of German and one year of French. Not long after I started French, I began dating my HS sweetheart. I would always try to woo her in French, but she hated it. She said she didn't like now knowing what I was saying.

Okay, not really. I am however from the Florida. I'm 23/m and from east=central Florida. I'll be leaving for Rexburg in April to start my undergrads. Guess that's about all there is to say.