Hemisphere

Make fun all you want. Nobody forces you to drink that garbage anyway.what surprises me that you make big wave about something that doesn´t hold any significance as there would be more worthwhile topics. What this is, is pure complacency. Not that I would prefer to be mean, but I would reckon that some brothers and sister outside the US living in poorer parts of the world, couldn´t give a rats'*** about assortment of drinks they are not gonna have inside a temple of pretense and conceit in Salt Lake while they have to labor for the necessities you take for granted. Instead of peeing yourself in your pants over this, I find myself hard pressed to find the same intensity and energy put forth into something worth while. how about it ? how does this compare to something that would include actual charity outside your comfort zone ?

wow... this is really a topic ? who cares about self improvement or the genuine service for the Lord or being your brothers keepers that would exceed the usual lip service ? So what, there is more beverages now. you might want to summon the word agency from the deepest recesses of your memories. being served does not mean you are obligated to drink it. its still kind of a choice, like decency and charity. you can do it but don´t have to. you know... that is what makes utah and saltlake so disfavorable. all those meaningless and insignificant topics that consume so much passion and time instead of the things that really matter. I bet when you think about the word of wisdom you probably forget that you are not supposed to partake of meat outside winter... how convenient to cherry pick...

I am adding an addendum to my post. You people might want to consider not having a checklist of expectations and pretend that finding your partner has to be done in a specific "church" way. You will find yourself sorely disappointed when you view this all as a chore/ meat market. Instead, be the person your potential partner expects you to be. That includes also dignity and self respect. Do not chase after someone who doesn´t appreciate you for yourself. It is a waste of time. You will miss out on some people and in the end you will be glad you did. Because there is no price nor a fast forward button on love and integrity. You may also would like to reconsider not to be "just friends". A European thumb of rule in the past, was to find your future bride/groom 100 hours away from home. Why ? because there where you are from you may not be appreciated. And perspectives vary from location to location. Where one is pauper he / she may be a prince(ss) elsewhere. However, it will require you work on your side. Complacency is the most ardent of saboteurs. Don't beg someone to be with you. Don't degrade yourself and don't conform yourself for the sake of an outside opinion. Be yourself and you will see, that the genuine light of your soul will find someone that will feel drawn to it.

I am a firm proponent that the church culture ( not the church) widens the chasm between gender. In my life I have never met a bunch of people that were so dysfunctional in terms of dating than the LDS people. It is as simple as it gets. Women objectify men by wanting them to be the bishops boy, mr. universe- handsome and an accomplished missionary. If you are a convert, you are automatically friend zoned. Men objectify women by who looks nice and makes the cutest baby with the willingness to be a baby factory and home maker. What the kids are being told in young men/ women just makes my hair stand up, as they tell you to not date someone for what you aren´t instead of taking into consideration what they actually are. I made it a standing policy not to be "friends" with someone who rejected you as you go through the motions of humiliation and being kept around as a tropy. Sort of like a hungry dog chained to the post with a sausage dangling in front of him. It only breads resentment and undermines self respect. Thankfully my wife saw it similarly and we are going strong now for several years. For all you rejected folks, I can only say, turn to converts or look outside the church because there is less "airs" and you happen to be able to play by rules you can understand.

hope is the meadow where the fools are browsing afterall .

I would rather compare them to thrashing drowning people who hold on to anything they can grab, no matter that they push down others or swim in the wrong direction for the gain of some short lived... breathing break

you do know that there is virtually no difference between those lizards. the poison has just a different colour. and both groups supporting these... questionable money grabbers did not do their homework, much less used that wonderful brain, the Lord saw fit to give them to conclude that CLUMP is simply a choice between pest and cholera

When I think of Trump (and Hitlary), this springs to my mind.

well, as it so happens, living in europe makes it quite a challenge to obtain a permit. too many hippies and leftists running around. say kapikui, what are you using as edc pouch or bag for your gear ?

well, hitlary will lead you into the next war, you people don´t want. she promised her jewish backers to assist Israel with the "Iran" problem. Most of all, being morally bankrupt, she only stands for one group and that is the people that pay her campaign and I am no necessarily talking about the voters that have problems opening their eyes and ears. Also we are talking about a person, that has nothing in common with average hard working joe and hasn´t had a civilian job in how many decades ... ? she just went from one seat of power to the next, living off the taxpayer and promising them to continue to do so against any interest of the american people. However to be fair, voting for Clintor Trum / CLUMP is equally a bad choice, one of them being pest and the other the bourbonic plague. In light of those... a second american revolution might just be a very healthy idea.

obama... ? never heard of her before...

well, I personally see no problem with violence in movies. if it is not glorified, you could actually use it to reflect upon. Though in the passion of christ, it is not for the faint hearted. that is for sure. when the movie came out I really saw people puking into barfbags which the cinema so graciously handed out. My father had good care to explain to my 5 year old me what was going on in A bridge too far, and why it was happening. Never did me any bad and frankly I think violence these days is depicted in a very tasteless way. Though I would love to give frank miller with his 300 credit here as my wife, who is not a big fan of gor and violence did find pleasure in the 300 spartans and that was not because she saw a sea of six packs =) in terms of comics, I can however recommend that the aforemention titles. nausicaä is definately one of the best pieces I have ever read

Both your candidates are morally bankrupt and frankly, the media is doing its very best to pour sand into the eyes of the american populace. There is other candidates out there aside from the same corrupt bunch in dc but no media coverage so there you have it, undemocracy in action. It would take an army of exterminators to get those roaches in congress and senate out. If I would be american, I would be hard pressed to find someone I could vote for. But then again, I am not. however unfortunately, whatever happens in the US will sadly affect us in Europe and the rest of the world as well. Your government simply has too many hands in too many honeypots

I would rather call it animated art. There is comics, clearly for kids. And there is stories clearly catered to an older audience. The japanese in that regard excel in drawing and story telling however, you want it more artsy, I would recommend you to look for franko- belgian comics. They are just the thing. Lightly starting off with TIn Tin or the smurfs, Asterix or Yoko Tsuno or Tassilo, each a masterpiece in its own right.

what is so unsettling about a severed arm ? You take the the fall of Jericho, Sodom and Gomorrah or the Painwalk of Christ and you get the very essence of it. I mean the old testament does engage into violence and ultra violence in a classical way. Sword and gor. You wanna see an unsettling Anime, dead man wonderland and neon genesis evangelion are my runners up in that category.

Add Eden and perhaps Mother Sarah to it. argh... that makes me feel so old

I don´t doubt it. I just have certain specialists in mind who I put already on the ignore list. because obviously they have no room for other peoples opinions and their life in their heart. And they really get up personal and offensive while putting themselves on a moral high ground which also serves as analogy with people you can meet at church which I tend to avoid if it is somehow possible

unfortunately this is a well accepted notion that finds enough tolerance and emulation through wards and branches. The smaller ones are the worst. I remember that my first branch president tried to bully me into submission. He just didn´t expect that I would make this a very public deal across the stake. The same bishop reduced a congreation of 60 people down to 20. Things likes those factors usually can be pointed out at but rarely are taken care off. Voicing these things get you ousted and shunned. As I noticed again in this forum with certain individuals who see speaking out as an affront against the church ...

it also holds true with multigenerational families in the church that hold consideral influence. Especially the ones that think of themselves as "church nobility" and consider the church their personal social sandbox

@Maureen I can´t to be honest, because the not so good cases were conveyed by personal interaction and correspondence. I just simply think that these people have a desperate need for something that they think will fill their void in a quest / crusade against the LDS church. I still see them as human beings though. They just failed to convince me to join them and it is more due to the fact that I firmly hold on to the opinion that i have a covenant with the Lord and not with the people.,

Well even though I got flakked for it in another topic there is places where people are hurt on such a level that one can´t blame them for leaving and be a lifelong enemy of the church. I know some people don´t like to hear it but sometimes we fail to make people at home. However also I think the Lord want us to be happy and if leaving a toxic environment is ultimately better for your life and health then I think I would add a helping hand to it than rather drag them back into perpetual unhappiness

I most often found that antimormons rarely make a good case and are poor salesmen and my personal issues within the church don´t align. Most of all, the opposition is usually comprising of people who got slighted, or found it not in their heart to do some soul searching and once in a blue moon you find people who have been really hurt but they are rare because some of those people either lack conviction or got in touch with "educated" sources that are atheist anyway and then they find something exciting as a pretext to rebel against something that is more personal related than faith related. yeah I simply hope they don´t have to make a living in retail or used car sales. Sale is not their thing

There is nothing wrong with doing things right. However you find those terms mostly aligned with people who are a) sanctimonious or b) people who wnat to impress their lifestyle on others in a very obtruding fashion. I for one make a distinction between faithful mormons and "lifestyle"- mormons. We try to shun the latter because we dislike the judgement for not wanting to chime in and homogenize into this ... excrescence of living faith. Mostly also, people feel that "molly mormons" and "peter priesthoods" like to steamroll and suppress people that did not grow up in those church strongholds. People in that category rarely engender good will.

http://www.focus.de/familie/schule/schuelerin-prangert-schulsystem-an-allgemeinbildung-fehlanzeige-aber-ich-kann-ne-gedichtsanalyse-in-4-sprachen_id_4398825.html I apologize for this being German. There unfortunately not an English Article for it. The headline describes : "I am almost 18 years old and I have no clue about Rent, Insurance and Taxes, But I can disseminate a poem in 4 different Languages." This kicked of a debate whether or not this snowflake and the other millennials and other children receive enough education in Germany and if the current state could be improved ( which it ought to, but for different reasons ). I would love to say that the offending topics in question ought to be conveyed and shown to the children by their parents. Not once in my life have I receive a necessary life lessen that should be taught at home in school. It either is a statement in juvenile ignorance or the sad testament that this girl was left to her own devices if these topics were never mentioned. Though I wish that sensible savings and investment would be taught in school I would really say, it is not a school institution to substitute for the want and failings and parents rearing those children. That is not what teachers are therefore. The strain on teachers anywhere for that matter, pierce the heart of any one teacher I know. Being married to one, I am very well acquainted with her position. What is your take on this ? Do you have similar wines likes this from where you are ?

@classylady Dear Classylady good for you, at least you have something ahead of neuro typical and needlein a. Unfortunately your German friends don´t represent the rest and there is a great many things to be disliked or outright shunned. And as a missionary you ought to know that things aren´t going as good as they ought to be, compared to other locations where other missionaries hail from. even you will have to admit to that and it draws itself like a red line through my country. Membership as a convert is not a joy for the most part and if you ask the question why someone is single... I can sum up, just like at the beginning, that dating itself is a soul crushing experience especially in light of being a convert or someone who didn´t manage to generate enough clout to make himself presentable enough to be considered. Church in Europe has and simply will maintain its unique set of problems, unbeknownst to most that deny that a good portion of people will never have the awesome experience of a loving, supporting church like it ought to be. Needless to say that we lost a good many people for that. If you missed out on that, you turned a blind eye to it ( which I hope you didn´t, because I can respect that you don´t judge from afar) it would be sad. Similar to the problems in Germany where status comes into play, you will find that membership in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Britain and Poland are similarly daunting or challenging with it´s own unique set of problems. I can say that the expectation of dating within the church border on outright pressure (the same could be said of pulling out children out of the hat if you happen to be newly weds) while making it as hard it can possibly be and then some more. I have seen good people who went a different rout and got flak for it. I don´t blame them one bit for leaving if it means to be perpetually happy. I personally think what outrages people about the statement is, the fear that some truth may lie into that and the hope it would never come to pass near them. I know it is not uplifting so say such things but then again, not everything can be. I wish I could open my heart and put it into a projector for everyone to see, I think even neuro typical and needleina´s contest of my statement would probably soften up if they could put themselves in the shoes those that get the short end of the stick where church is not as strong as they wish it would be everywhere. The screams for proof on a subject that would be quite a challenge to prove has also the same impossibility to be disproven. After all, would you really want to start raising a statistic over a question like that ? It would be very disheartening. So I can understand all your sentiments even needleins and neuro typicals dismay, while I did not really like their vehemence or their aggressive style that they practice across the forum... but that is their own prerogative. It echoes out of the woods as you shout into and I am no exception to that, missing out on gentler words that could have made it more receptive which I pretty much gave into temptation to choose similar harsh conduct. I just wish they and other people would understand that the church is a hospital and we are the patients and that every ward or branch elsewhere is a different annex of a building where different problems take shape that can not compare to those in another. I also wish that people would understand that bad things do happen outside the US in other church institutions and through my time spent inside and outside Germany in Europe that I have seen my share and accept that often it is not a battle to find your place but to remain true to your covenant and that your membership hangs on a very thin thread because some hearts have not build up the strength for a testimony to endure. I invite you, if you have the means if you can stay for an extended period again to not be a guest but a member and not just open our eyes but also your heart and look at the people that get left out. There is a story in every ward for that in Germany and it gets handled in different ways and even there ( wherever your served) it even depends in what state of Germany you are. The nuances change but the general attitude is quite comparable with some branches and wards standing out raking up some sad records. Not just in the converts department but also in the "I am still single ..." question. Living here is still difference from being here on a mission and rotating, surely but you have to admit that visit is usually superimposed with a joyful moment where one does not look for things that can or could have gone batter. I do appreciate your objection and take it in the spirit you conveyed.