Gwen

small amounts of radiation doesn't hurt most folks. however, my mom had chemo for cancer, had some specific health issues since. after 20yrs she found a dr who told her the radiation was bothering her. to throw out her micorwave and not eat any food that had been in or near radiation. she did it and in days felt better. she had been told that the radition levels in her body are still higher than most folks and what was safe for them is over the top and could make her sick. she's been improving ever since, and can feel it within hours if she accidently eats food that has been microwaved and such. just something to consider

you can still receive a temple recomend if you are not paying your tithing, however, it must be aproved first. at least that is my understanding. you should pay your tithes, if you are in a financial situation in which you can not then go to the bishop imeadiatly. he will probalby go through some information that is provided for welfare needs at which time he will advise you to pay your tithing and he will provide food (or whatever) or he will advise you to not tithe. you can not just stop and then wait a year till tithing settlement and say i didn't cause and expect to hold a temple recomend. this in not a case of better to ask forgiveness than permission. ask permission first and let the lord's appointed representitives help you make the decision. then even if it is the wrong one you will be blessed and the bishop will have to answer to the lord. that's my understanding of it anyway.

ppl are distracted enough as it is when they drive. i don't know if i like the idea of a tv in the windsheild. lol

i'm not saying that this is true accross the board, but we have some hispanics here, mexican and cuban, and they are hard workers. we also have a lot of ppl on welfare and projects, most are not hispanics. the sad thing i see here is that the dream is to come to america. once they get here they work themselves to death and have little to show for it. their dream was to come here, that is what they did. meanwhile one family i know is paying to much for rent on a house that is falling appart. they are here legaly and work hard, i try to get them to understand that they could be owning a home and making life even better. they are almost to content to just work hard, they haven't figured out how to work smart in this system. i know there are a lot of problems, but i'd sure love to see more americans with the work ethic of the hispanics arround here. before anyone says anything, i do not agree with illegal immigration. there are ways to do things and they should be done that way. but when ppl follow the rules and contribute they shouldn't be harrassed or discriminated against or taken advantage of either.

men and their toys. lol however, the cantalope did look kind of cool.

i was just sharing some random thoughts on the topic, so i thought. not intended to be anything but that. :) my faith from my perspective, that's all i can offer.

i've always gotten my callings in person. what you will do will be somewhat dependant upon the needs of the ward or branch you are in. there is a handbook of instruction the primary pres should be able to give you a copy of the sectary's portion, that will tell you the offical stuff. aslo just ask the primary pres. she knows you know nothing about this and will teach you what to do. be pacient with yourself, it takes time to learn and none are perfect or come in knowing what to do. take the opportunity to learn to hear the spirit. callings are great testamony builders. congrats also lds.org has some info on serving in the church you could look up

i have a question here. isn't anyone teaching about any religion, weither their own or not, simply that religion according to their perspective? even two lds do not always agree. the only way to not taint something with your own perspective is to quote it exactly. example if someone askes what the church teaches about a principle and i quote an article of faith. that is pure doctrine, however, if i give any further explaination in my own words or from my own experiance i have now tainted the true doctrines with my personal perspective. does that mean i've corupted the doctrines and made them false? i hope not, but possible. that is the wonderful thing to me about the gospel and even temples. it is line upon line. each learns and develops at their own pace and understanding. going to the temple does not mean that you are perfect but that you are trying to improve yourself and living certain covenants. in the end i am the one who deems myself worthy to go to the temple or not. in the end i will be my own judge. i will sit with my savior as i sit with the bishop and account for myself and determine my worthyness and thus reward. i guess my point is that i think, given the things said, pc would be doing a good job in fact possibly better than some lds because he would be starting the conversation with the preface of it's not my religion this is my understanding. where as and lds person may forget to say this is my religion from my perspective and experiance and thus be taken as doctrine. i understand what ray is saying, but at the same time i think we are all subject to unintentionally taint our own bleifs when explaining them. and on the other side of that is how is it being received? we may quote only pure doctrine from the prophet himself and it still not be understood by the receiver. they will as the information comes in taint it to their perspective and understanding. it may not be as clear as the one presenting thinks. religion and faith are very personal things. that is why comunication, and willingness to share and talk and have a dialoge comes in. that is also why the use of the holy spirit is so important, only god truely knows what and how we will understand. the holy spirit is different for each of us, how i hear may not be how someone else hears and because we will all be given the opportuninty to understand it must come in a way that each can hear. that is also why i can't be the judge of somone else. it's up to me to have mercy and forgivness. justice and judgement belongs to the lord. some of my random thoughts anyway. :)

i heard this one, but the answer to the exam was "Why not?" so i guess there are two answers. lol ok, so here is one. but i don't want to pick on anybody, so you fill in the alternate religion. lol there were two missionaries walking down a narrow sidewalk. after awhile they saw two preachers from another church comming up the side walk toward them. as they walked they eventually met and were stopped standing face to face. one of the preachers looked at the missionaries and proudly said, "Do you mind, we do not step aside for preachers of false religion." the missionaries looked at eachother and said, "We do." and walked arround.

if you are getting called into singles then you must look into conferences. i don't know where all this is done, but here in the southeast we have all weekend conferences, most in the summer time or holidays. usually there is a fee for the conference and it covers several meals, and a hotel stay. you register on friday night, there is a dance, then breakfast (sometimes covered by the hotel), seminars, get to know ya activities, luch, free time, dinner and a dance that night, then a sunday sacrament mtg. the one's here are great. ppl come from all over. then there are the mini conferences, saturday only, find your own place to stay. and yes, all ages attend, most are combined ysa and sa so it's not to uncomfortable for the inbetween years. :) for example, i attended conferences or saw ppl from all these places at any given conference. Panama City, FL between christamas and new years Dothan, AL in Feb. Pensacola, FL in June (i think) Atlanta, GA in July Mississippi Tenn Carolina's Even a car load from Texas Huntsville, AL Basicly all over the south east. i drove up to 6 hours for a conference. in fact i met my husband (who had a son by the way) at one i drove 3 hours to and he had driven 2 hours from the other direction. so it was a little difficult to date over 5 hours but that is what you do if you want a member of a certain standard and you don't live in the mormon capital of the world. does anyone else have these conferences? we have missionaries from out west ask us all the time, how do you find a member to marry around here, there just aren't that many members? i just laugh and say you learn to love driving.

from Joseph Smith History "11 While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 12 Never did any passage of ascripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible. 13 At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture. 14 So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally. 15 After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was aseized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction. 16 But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. 17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" the reason i coppied this here is to remind that satan does have power and does try to interfeare with our gaining a relationship with God. i am by no means saying that you will have a vision or visitation, but to encourage you to continue in rightous desires and the answers will come, do not be discouraged by unseen powers which desire to distract you. God Bless

this wasn't for holiday gifts, but was fun and easy for me. at our local dollar store they had the small wooden shadow box frames with these ugly golf tees and stuff in them. they were 50 cents each so i bought a lot of them. my husband was not to happy at first. i took my exacto knife and cut away the hot glue holding the back on and opened it up, pulled the ugly items inside off, and lined the backing with some nice paper. insert side note. my step son had taken a trip to hawaii with his mom and her boyfriend. he had brought back a hand full of small shells he found on the beach for his brothers to have. i wasn't real sure what to do with them. back to the point. i hot glued these small shells on the paper, put it back in the frame and then hot glued it back together. i wrote on the back when and where the shells had come from and now it hangs in the childrens room. i also have some chocolate molds that look like our local temple. so i took one of them and filled the molds with plaster and made small temples. i took those and some of the frames and scrap fabric and other odds and ends to young womens one wednesday. we had a lesson on the temple and then i taught the girls how to take these frames appart, we lined them with fabric this time, the temples, and other personalized items, and put them back together. all hot glue and very simple. the girls loved it. didn't take long at all.

that is what i believe about the holy spirit. that "word of knowledge" or "mother's grace" or an unexplaied sixth since, gut feeling, or anthing else that leads you to a knowledge you can not explain nor prove to anyone, yet is all the evidence and proof you will ever need. that is the power of the holy spirit. that is his job, to comfort, warn, give direction, and testify of truth. and when he does these things it is for the receiver only. everyone who is listening and beleiveing in god can receive the power of the holy spirit in these circumstances. those who have been given the gift of the holy ghost or spirit by the proper authority can have this with them at all times, not just durring those grace periods that are critical. for me to hear wonderful stories where others have felt the power of the holy ghost it uplifts and saddens me. i am sad that they don't understand that it doesn't have to go away, it could be a constant. that is what i beleive as an lds and from my experiances with the holy spirit. i know as i've said before i can not give or prove this to anyone. my whitnesses came from the holy spirit and were for me alone. if you want to know you must seek for your own faith affirming, testamony building experiances. i know no better way to explain his involvement in my life other than to relate it to what you may already know or have experianced. i hope this made some since, if not just ask.

i think most cultures or religions account for mother's intuition or gut instinct. but do you beleive that there could be a time frame in which the lord allows intuition to be on overload; knowledge of things even intuition can't account for? have any of you experianced or know someone who has experianced this? not just a something isn't right gut feeling, but specific directions (like this lady was to take her son to the hospital). this question is for anyone with a thought not just PC. :)

what i understand it to be, from the stories i've heard, is a time period when a mother just knows things. a grace period given for a specific reason for a specific time, and then is removed. (not techniclly limited to mother's by the way) the most moving example of this that i heard was from a mother whose son was born with a heart defect. it was repairable by surgery, but by law heart surgery couldn't be performed on someone under a certain weight. the baby was a premature and thus they had to keep him alive until he gained enough weight. or as she said it they were praying him to the right weight. durring this time she knew things for and about her son that she could only explain by god telling her. one night she awoke from a dead sleep for no reason and just knew they had to take her son to the hospital. there was nothing apparently wrong with him but her husband supported her and they began driving there. on the way there his heart stopped beating. if they had waited till it stopped and then taken him or called the ambulance there would not have been enough time and he would have died, they needed the head start. she said that these kinds of things happend to her alot durring this time but after the surgery and all was well it seemed to be gone. ok, so i don't tell the story well, it's been a long time since i've heard the story, and my be missing a few of the details so please don't ask me if you are confused on details of the actual medical side of the event. i think the idea of mother's grace that was being spoken of is here, and that is my point. i guess what i'm wanting to know is.... how many other religions beleive in this concept, what is it called, and how do you explain or describe it?

Tennessee

in my experiances in talking with non lds i've heard several women refer to something they call 'mother's grace'. i'd like to know some definitions and/or examples of this, particularly from the non lds folks we have here. thanks so much.

sorry if this sounds harsh, but stop making excuses. get up and do something. get a job, any job, fast food, grocery store, pizza delivery, whatever. get an income, do something, and when you do you will start to feel better about yourself, and when you start to feel better about yourself you start meeting ppl. it's a cycle, get in it. don't worry about a wife at this point, because yes when i was in the ysa program the things you listed would be shiney red flags. where you live, renting a basement appt. that's fine. welfare, the credit card debt, and the joblessness, that's not cool. we make things happen in life, things don't come to us. what are you going to make happen? i heard someone talking about intentions one time; there was the woman complaining about how her life turned out and she said "i didn't intend for this to happen". the question was posed "what did you intend to have happen?" i loved it. that is the question, did you consider the impact of your choices today on your tomarrow? do you have an intention and do you have goals to make that happen? yes bad things sometimes happen. yes sometimes life throws things at us. but when we are honest with ourselves we find that a large part of the problem could have been changed, altered, or even stopped if we had made some different choices. my point i guess is we make things happen in life. if it's not working where you are then go where you need to, do what you need to do. make life happen for you. i read once that "you do not discover new lands without consenting to loose sight of the shore for a very long time." if you don't like the beach your on then discover new lands. i really do wish you the best of luck, or should i say the courage for action.

adultry is what married ppl do fornication is what single ppl do and yes you are bringing both upon yourself

Is it wrong to date her? yes Would I be excommunicated for something like kissing her? can't say, you want to chance it? it never stops there What if I fall into temptation and do more than just kissing? that is adultry, you probably already know that Are platonic/friendly dates okay? no, that is how affairs start she is already commiting adultry in her heart, you want to be part of that?

service and love are a funny thing. they defy the laws of math. when you serve, you give, that should be subtracting and taking something away from you. when you love the more people you include it should divide the amount to go around. but it doesn't work that way. there are those that do things for a tally sheet and they have their reward, a tally sheet. those who give real service are added upon themselves. both the giver and the receiver are added upon by the act. it fills both hearts, no one is left empty. i don't keep a tally but i do remember the acts because i was blessed by them as well. it filled me and thus became a special experiance for me, a memerable one. we love those whom we serve. families build a great deal of love because of the great amount of service there. the more family the greater the love. if done the way god has asked the family builds love and strength, not divides and subtracts. that is the only goal i have, to do things the way i was commanded by my heavenly father. people here could say, well that is just stupid, you didn't really do anything or someone didn't really do anything for you. it wouldn't matter. my only regret would be sharing something so special with people who didn't care or appreciate it. doesen't chage what is in my heart. so weither someone is sharing a tally sheet or sharing special experiances. makes no difference to me, God knows whos hearts are whose, not my problem. also i guess critics of christianity could say the bible is one big tally sheet of how wonderful Jesus was. all the good things he did. just a plea for attention i guess, and a good one because we are still talking about him today. and they could say that all day long, doesn't change what i know to be true.

i agree it was good managment. and i know that no two restraunts are equal, it is all in the managment. even knowing that there was an alterior motive it still meant a lot to me. we just never know. one thanksgiving our local grocery store had one of those campaigns where you spend so much money in a set period of time and they give you a discount cupon. i received one that was $25 off a $50 or more purchase. it was the day before thanksgiving and i relized it would expire that week. we were headed out of town so i knew i would not use it. i turned to the lady behind me with a buggy full of stuff and asked her if she had over $50 of groceries. she looked at me wide eyed like $50 is an understatment. i handed it to her and said happy thanksgiving. she must have said "God bless you" five times before i could leave. my only regret about it was i didn't have a passalong card in my purse to give her with it. lol we all have alterior motives. it makes us feel good, advertisement, sharing the gospel. doesn't matter what it is, in the end it still comes out to loving our neighbor. i guess in this day and age we just have to hope our neighbor loves us. or maybe we need to change from random acts to premeditated acts. plan them out so as to make sure if our neighbor doesn't like it they can't call the cops on us. lol

in another thread Marsh shared this experiance. it reminded me of one of my own. i thought it would be neat to share experiances that we have done or have been done for us. the things we do because we love our neighbor, or have touched us because this world has some beauty left in it. this is something that happened to my family. it was this last mother's day. we have 5 children, 4 of them between the ages of 5 and 1. we provide for ourselves, but don't have money comming out our ears. we go out to eat, but rarely do we splerge. we share drinks, and meals that kind of thing. we can feed our family at a restraunt for less than some couples spend on the two of them. anyway, for mother's day my husband wanted to treat me and we decided we would go to the olive garden and splurge (this is where i wanted to eat and it was my present). everyone got their own drink (lol), whatever plate they wanted, apitizers, desert anything was good that night. we really couldn't afford it but we did it anyway. (i know shame on us, also a source of anxiety for me). the manager kept comming by our table and checking on us, making sure we were taken care of, talking to the kids, she was even getting drinks herself or having anyone who walked by reguardless of their table get things for us. she was excited about the kids, and asked lots of questions about where we were from and if it was our mother's day meal. (we were having the dinner on friday night after picking up my stepson who lives 1 hour drive north of us.) with our kids the ages they are we are used to a lot of attention so we thought nothing of it, it was just really friendly and a lot of fun. the manager brought us the check, that was odd, handing it to my husband she looked at me and said happy mother's day. i figured she gave us the manager or employee discount 10% or something (which would have been more than enough to be a gift). my husband opened the check, and then looked at her. she said get you wife something nice for mother's day, and bid us goodnight. when we got outside i took the check from my husband and looked at it. it was well over $100, and she gave it to us compleatly free. we could have paid for the meal, and we would have to have tightened the budget the rest of the month to do so, and it was a decision we made. i don't know why she did it, and i don't know why she picked us. we are not poor, and would have survived. however, i must say i think it touched me more than she will know, when i realized what she had done it brought tears to my eyes. it chokes me up thinking about it now. that kind of thing doesn't happen to me. it was one of the best gifts ever given to me and by a stranger no less. there is a lot more as to why it touched me so much, but that's not really part of the story. lol we just never know how we touch ppl. as we come into this season of thanks giving and gratitued i'd love to here some of the experiances you have had.

i think parents should have the right to make the decisions that they feel to be best. however, when you start getting into these types of decisions where are the lines? some questions i would consider, that make this a very difficult area. are the parents making a decision based on quality of life for the child or cost of taking care of the disability? a parent shouldn't have to let a child die because they can't afford it. are we talking about things like deformed hearts (one ex) that could be corrected for an unknown quality of life vs not sergically correcting it knowing they will naturally die in a few years reguardless of the best loving care? are we talking about taking medical action to speed up the death to prevent long term suffering durring this process? what about children who will live long lives with their disability, but very uncomfortable lives? do we deny them the life saving oxygen tanks that would allow a long life and let them slowly sufficate to death? which medical intervention do we allow and which is a right of the child? sugery optional? oxygen tanks optional? feeding tubes optional? medicines in general optional? where does the dr draw the line? can a dr decide and pressure the parents, or is it 100% the parents choice? could grandparents who do not agree with the parents choice take them to court and tie things up for unlimited time and $? (that has happened in other cases with adults) and what disabilities and deformitites are we talking about? if you think about it all babies are disabled. they can not provide for themselves the things they need to survive. if left 100% alone they would die in fairly short order (in the grand sheme of a life time, very slow and painfully) of compleatly natural causes. could a parent of a child with retardations or some other long term disability decide to just let the baby die of natural causes? where is the line with not interfearing with nature and dieing from neglect? although i beleive that dr's can predict the quality of life they can be seriously wrong too. my mom had her thyroid cancer discovered arround the same time she discovered she was pregnant with my little brother. the dr pressured her to have an abortion (she was in the first trimester) and then proceed with the cancer treatments. he showed her pictures of babies that are born from mothers with no thyroid and told her that was the best she could hope for. he described a very dismal future for them both, neglecting the cancer for 9 months could mean death for her. when she refused the dr refused to treat her. she went through many dr's who all refused to see her if she would not have the abortion. she finally found one who had most but not all her thyroid removed (left just enough to maintain the pregnancy) and then treated her and my little bro after the birth. this very skilled treatment was very expensive and my family could not afford it. a loan of sorts was set up and they made token payments that they could afford until my bro was 12 at which point the remainder of the loan was forgiven. we teased my bro and told him i guess you get to stay and won't be reposessed for failure to pay anymore. lol anyway my mom is still here today, the only problems my bro has are some learning disabilities that he could have had anyway. it runs in our family. how wrong they were. this is a very difficult area of debate.

i beleive when giving a talk it can come from personal opinion, but i think it should be made clear it is your opinion. when giving lessons, i've been told in many stake trainings that we should only use church approved materials (being those materials published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). i had a seminary teacher that would go so far as to have this really bright colored goofy looking hat that had 'opinion' written on it. whenever she would state something that was her opinion or not from a source approved for her lesson she would put the hat on before saying it and take it off when finished so that we wouldn't confuse the two. a bit goofy but effective i thought. that being said i too agree that we must be very careful to let new members know what is offical doctrines and what is personal opinion. it can become very confusing, there is a lot to take in all at once.