SpiritDragon

I did actually do scouting both in and out of the church, and while the experience in church troops was different, neither of them excelled in actual scouting or at least my perception of it. Not a navy seal, but Scouting originated with the military discipline of scouting - as in surveillance, detection, avoidance of detection, sending signals and so on. I just happened to wish for it to live up to the purpose of it's existence from my understanding as a child. Lord Baden Powell put together the scouting program first to prepare boys to be more useful in military application and things were later revised for a more civilian take on improving life and building character, but the useful military application shouldn't have all but disappeared into history. Fair enough - I should have stated how to minimize odds of detection. From an actual scouting perspective the ability to get back and relay information without being detected is incredibly valuable. It could also be highly valuable to the innocent person who witnesses something that puts their life in jeopardy. Perhaps more of an urban movement course would be appropriate for most, but still a valuable skill set. Indeed, if my father had been a hunter I could have learned many of these skills. He wasn't and didn't - and that's okay too. Interesting points. You've hit the nail on the head. There is a lot that is/was SUPPOSED to happen that doesn't/didn't. It's easy to blame it on how the church ran things, easy to blame it on parents not being involved enough, easy to blame it on scouting in general... none of which is entirely true, and all of which contributed to the issues. My primary point in all of my pointing these things out is that at least I wouldn't have been disappointed by the new program for not living up to it's legendary potential, perhaps I'd be dissatisfied for other reasons - but not because it failed to meet expectations.

I completely agree with this anecdotal experience. We foster public speaking skills in primary as well as basic music and rhythm. Our youth further develop the ability to set and meet goals, plan activities and delegate responsibilities through other church responsibilities so that they are reasonably well prepared to take on further challenges as missionaries which really has the potential to instill some great leadership skills. So from that perspective I would have to say the church is already more effective at developing leadership skills than scouts ever was. But my bias is showing because I found Scouts to be a huge disappointment. I had hoped to learn things like: how to cross terrain without being detected how to pick up on tracks and signs of others (human or animal) Edible foods for living off the land how to make a fire without matches building improvised shelter recognizing when you're being followed how to lose someone tailing you Any number of useful survival, outdoorsman, espionage skills that seem to fit into the scouting umbrella. Other fun things that may not directly apply but would have been cool (i.e. archery, marksmanship, etc.) When I think back to what I learned... how to tie a square knot stands out as about the only thing that stuck with me. In fairness, I had opportunities to go on hikes in nature and learn a little about edible vegetation and so on. Still more often than not, we were doing seemingly random stuff that never built on other skills to the point of proficiency - nevermind mastery - with the occasional field trip to go see how a water treatment facility works mixed in with a healthy dose of fundraising like selling honey at a booth at the mall. Almost all of the useful skills I wanted to learn in scouting I either have still not learned or picked up on doing things around the house with my dad or on camping trips with my family. I'm still somewhat optimistic that the new program the church roles out will be excellent. There is a part of me that is concerned it will turn into an extra night of seminary and lack the physical side of things to the extent one would hope, but again in my experience that was all a fail anyway, but at least this way I wouldn't be expecting it to be something it's not.

Is it wrong to ask... which one is Vort?

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/competition-bureau-mum-on-metro-vancouver-gas-price-investigation About $1.80 in the Vancouver area. It's not as bad across the country, but it's not pleasant either: https://www.gasbuddy.com/CAN

@clbent04 This has been my preferred source of reading and listening on this topic as well - I have found Hale's works to be very well done and trustworthy. I listened to the audio version for free with links from this site: http://josephsmithspolygamy.org/

Let me know how it goes. Feel free to share what you discover if you're comfortable doing so.

My three year old is giving me a time chasing her around on her training wheels as well. She often decides to just stop pedaling and she has a long way to go before steering is working well. So I tend to end up stooped over running alongside trying to keep her from steering herself off the edge of the sidewalk. I'm looking forward to her getting it a little better. The biggest challenge is that she doesn't want to put in the effort to learn, she just expects that it should come easily. She always wants to bail out and go play at the park. Which is fine except I'm left carrying her bike and helmet which she said she wanted to ride five minutes earlier. My point being, I think I can relate quite well.

Congrats on the 15 lbs down. I want you to think about some alternatives to your guilty pleasures that you think could be satisfying in a less guilty way. You don't necessarily need to give them up, but simply reduce the frequency and'or volume consumed to start seeing improvements more often than not. You might also investigate food associations - are there particular activities you get involved in that bring about certain foods? Could you break the chain by associating different foods or snacks with the activities that bring about the worst perceived offenses? Could you give up the activities and in doing so curb the mindless feeding? Some of the most common food associations are things like eating chips or popcorn while watching movies... or nightly binge watches on a favourite streaming service. It can be tricky to swap the munching to something like carrot sticks or even nuts for some people, while others quickly realize how mindless the eating is because they don't even care so much what is going in their mouth. Food for thought

Sorry I haven't been as active in here to comment sooner. Have you had some great rides?

It would appear that the context shows that beginning to be old is followed by knowing they will die soon, so perhaps it has less to do with age and more to do with health and function. In any event, I'm not ready to begin to be old if it means making preparations for my imminent grave

Excellent. I don't remember my copy having that, but it probably does. Mine is all three in one large book in paperback that I picked up second hand as a teenager. It's falling apart now and I recently found a boxed set trilogy with the Peter Jackson movie rendition characters on the cover for $5.00 to make sure that I can continue reading them to my children past the time my old copy will hold out. I think old and young is largely relative. I don't personally think of 55 as particularly old, but certainly more experienced. I would say that my universal cut off is around 70 anyone can be officially called old and less than 20 is young. Everything in between is simply an adult with more or less experience - hopefully not a protracted adolescence extending into the late thirties or a premature geriatric due to poor stewardship or health concerns out of one's control. I imagine that if I live long enough to see my own children turn 50 I may very well start to think of 50 as young

I love the history lesson, thanks! As for Smeagol, I always thought it was Smee-A-gohl, but when the movies came out everyone started saying smeegle or, as you put is SMEE-gull, and I had just decided I was mistaken and never found it something worht looking into - I wasn't nearly as used to checking everything against google in those days. It appears I wasn't too far off after all, but still wrong in my assumed pronunciation as well. I imagine you became versed in the world of Tolkien long before the internet was the main way of checking on things like this, did you have a a guide to pronouncing names? (Note I'm not calling you old, but I know you have a son who has returned from a mission and that I didn't use the internet for the first time until I was 13 or 14 years old, so I would assume you are a bit older than I am since I only have toddlers and even if health challenges hadn't delayed my family would still only have a ten year old at most which has me thinking you are 10-20 or more years my senior)

The first thing I want you to do is to try and determine if your personality is best suited to cold-turkey lifestyle overhaul or targeted improvements a step at a time. From there I can help you with your first steps. Don't be afraid to read through the entire thread as there is plenty of useful information that has already been shared by everyone.

And that's great. The fact is that if everyone liked the same names it would be hard to enjoy much variety. I find when names are too common I tend to like them less. So I actually appreciate that people like names that I don't because it increases the odds that the names I do like will be available when I have each of my children. I don't much care for having cousins and close acquaintances with the same names, so if they all pick names that I don't care for that's so much the better so I am free to have my choice of the good names (and fortunately my wife has been quite agreeable to good names as well) I figure everyone can go on being happier if they feel like they have good names for themselves and their children, even if it means there is little agreement on what constitutes a good name.

I confess I don't really like any of them.I mean some of them could be alright for some one else's kid, but I wouldn't want to hear most of these names, let alone have to say them often. In fairness, though, some like Eden or Eva aren't hideous names, and could be kind of pleasant, but I have negative associations with individuals with these names. Andy isn't bad, and I have no negative associations with the name. Declan seems to represent everything wrong with naming boys for the last decade, I don't really know why, but it just fits into and epitomizes a category of names that I truly loathe.

My wife and I were pleased to see that at least at the conference centre it sounded like the request was respected. I believe that would have meant a lot to President Nelson. I would have really feared for the membership of the church if a simple and direct request could not be honoured.

Yes, simply let us know what your goals are and we can help offer encouragement and suggestions.

Today I tried out a fun new exercise class. It was a boot camp style class, which has nothing to do with actual military training and in fact is a fairly meaningless term other than it sounds more intense than simply advertising group exercise. It was a lot of fun though. I talked to one lady who has been going six times a week since January and is down 25 pounds.

Quote of the day! A great Vortism.

Do we have a factual narrative from the Mormon Newsroom? I'm curious to know what has actually been said by the Church on the matter.

It depends a little on what you prefer as your go to and how much effort you are willing to put in. @Jane_Doe is correct that veggies are easy to go to and take very little preparation time. That being said, they are not most people's idea of comfort food either. One of my all time favourite comfort health foods is brownies using beans as the base - here is the recipe my family enjoys: https://www.drfuhrman.com/recipes/1556/fudgy-black-bean-brownies If the weather is hot and your looking for something cool and refreshing you might try a frozen mixed berry smoothie. I love putting in a banana with a bunch of mixed berries and almond milk. As a stand alone that's pretty decent, but I also like to throw in ground flax seeds or part of an avocado for a richer creamier texture. If you prefer crunchy snacks you may enjoy some DIY Kale chips. I love these spicy chipotle ones: https://justglowingwithhealth.com/cheey-chipotle-kale-chips/ The biggest challenge with these scrumptious chips and brownies is the time investment to prepare them for how quickly they can disappear.

Can you elaborate? It sounds like you are comfort eating to soothe emotional pain which could certainly be considered disordered eating, but isn't necessarily an eating disorder. Some alternatives to disordered eating could simply involve reconnecting with old passions that you haven't been able to enjoy in years or taking up a challenge such as learning new knots to tie or solving a Rubik's cube. Spend time with friends and family. Learn to bake some healthy treats. However, if you think you have true eating disorder, get some professional help with that. It can become life threatening and you are role modelling for your 18/19 YO daughter. You don't want her picking up on this type of imbalanced coping strategy.

I imagine it all depends on a variety of factors such as your proximity to a YSA ward, local leadership, your local membership dynamic and so on. I stayed in the family ward until I went on my mission and returned to continue going to family ward for an additional 2 years post mission. The nearest singles ward was an hour drive and I preferred a five minute walk to church. There were still other eligible singles in my ward too. However, I did ultimately end up meeting my wife in a singles ward and she lived in a city (about an hour driving the speed limit away) and they were strongly encouraged to go to the YSA wards. As for me, my family ward was happy to put me to work in various callings and never hinted at the idea I should be anywhere else. I ultimately decided to go to YSA because my youngest sister really wanted to go, but didn't have a ride, so I took the opportunity to drive her in to the next city. The next thing I knew I had a carload of girls wanting to ride to YSA with my sister and I and then I was assigned to home teach most of them simply due to proximity. In any event, I only felt very supported in my decision to be at family ward or singles ward, the only thing that would have been frowned upon is if I had been jumping from ward to ward. As long as I was consistent, which I was, leadership was happy and no one else ever said a thing.

All thirteen.

I'm a little old school and only access these things from a lap top as I have not adopted this new-fangled mobile phone contraption. Something about a phone bill that costs 1/7th as much at most, and the idea of only being able to have people track me down at work or home, but not everywhere else is too appealing to me to give up thus far.