Jane_Doe

When I was in middle school, there was this boy that had a HUGE crush on my gal friend. He hung out with us all the time, they flirted, etc. I truly believed that they were PERFECT for each other. But, he was nervous and It took him until Junior year of HS to muster the courage to formally ask her out. And she turned him down!! He was devastated. But still, he felt so strongly for her. Freshman year of college, he asked her out again, and she said yes!!! I was so excited!!!! When I heard the news, I literally danced in my kitchen for an hour-- finally she had realized it, and the were so wonderful for each other!!! 22 days later she dumped him. And not nicely either. There was no coming back from this. ...why was she like this? Didn't she understand how they were so great for each other? A few years later, I'm hanging out with this male friend more-- cause we were still friends after all. And he asked me out!! What the?!? I sobbed. Literally. The water works, snot running down my face, "What about Sally? She's was meant for you." Really confused, he responded, "No... yeah, I liked her for a long time, and that's part of my past. But it's just the past. I want to be with you." Fast forward: we have been blissfully married for seven years. God... is all knowing. We really don't appreciate the grandness of what He sees, the way His marvels work. And just because the marvel didn't turn out the way *we* thought it would, don't make the grand design any less.

This focuses on comparing a person and their house as being one... ah, that's not how LDS Christians see things. I'm not one with my house- my house is an inanimate object. Rather, I one with my husband: my literal physical husband, and my metaphorical husband Christ the Lord. I strive to make His ways my ways, His thoughts my thoughts, His goodness my goodness. And He empowers me to do so, even though it's only to a small degree right now. How about instead we turn to scripture-- John 17, emphasis mine-- 9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. 10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. 11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

Awesome! For you friend "Mike": you celebrate the points of agreement and goodness the two of your share, treating him with love, when his actions/beliefs are sinful and when they're saintly. You do the time with your friend "Bob" and "Sarah" and "Taylor". It doesn't matter which if "Bob" or "Taylor" is Pagan or Muslim or sitting in the literal pew as you.

For me, the big thing is what point is being celebrated? If person A is celebrating/worshiping a point I agree on, then I of course feel free to join them. If person B is celebrating/worshiping a point I DISagree on, then I of course I'm not going to join them.

Jesus Christ is the Muslims Savior, the same as you, I, an atheist, etc. They may not realize it, and during this life they may not visibly accept Him, or perhaps only do so to a small degree. But He's still everyone's Savior. I obviously have a major disagreement with a Muslim about acknowledging and embracing Christ as our Savior. While I acknowledge this, I also still acknowledge the other good things about the Muslim's faith and actions. Acknowledging the good and the disagreements. We're not treating anyone differently depending on their exact glory in the next life. We A) Don't have that information and B) even if we did, it didn't matter because we embrace sinner and saintly folks the same.

Ah, give other persons a little more credit MG! True, many people only want to hang out with folks that will echo their own thoughts. But many others aren't like that.

We can be friends while disagreeing and keeping precious things precious. I can have major problems with another person's / group's beliefs and still acknowledge their relationship with our mutual Savior Jesus Christ. I can also acknowledge major difference in beliefs without feeling like my beliefs are being threatened. And I don't think that I'm special in that regard. Many people from all walks of life are likewise capable and do so with majesty.

Haha! Don't worry, it's literally the exact same questions as the regular interview.

Nationwide >56% of college freshman are female, a number that has steadily been rising in recent decades. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/08/why-men-are-the-new-college-minority/536103/ Affirmative action. Really. In order to encourage a more equal gender ratios, BYU admissions lowers the requirement bar for males, versus females. I'm not sure the current figures, but when I applied 10 years ago, the difference was several ACT points and a notable GPA difference.

Parents: it's pretty much the same process as any other group that prizes marriage. You don't actually need your parents approval, but having goodly parent's wisdom & guidance is a great thing. Plus it makes the whole post-wedding life easier to have good relationships with the parents ;). Bishops in regards to civil marriage: a bishop is actually certified to do legally marry a couple- I was married by one. There's no super formal process here, we just asked my parent's bishop (whom was a long term friend of mine) to come to the place we were having our wedding and officiate. He was quite excited, offered us good guidance, and did a fantastic job. Bishops in regards to a sealing: you do need to have a special interview and recommend before you have your marriage sealed. It's very similar the 'normal' recommend interview, except that there's more talk about the importance of a sealing and what this means-- the desire to make sure the couple understands the promises are they are about to make. It's the same process for all couples: those just now getting civilly married & sealed at the same time, those which have already been civilly married a long time, etc.

An old troll / sock puppeteer.

WOOT!!!!

Sometimes we do have to cut of toxic relationships and strive for positive ones. Which can be done by moving or many other methods of boundary enforcement.

This is a very in-depth conversation. I'll To try to give a short version answer here, it’s going to be VERY imperfect. There’s a LOT of depth to go into here. Official Creedal Cristian theology: You and God are different species* of creatures (*for want of a better word). God has existed forever, if perfect, and is defined as God due to the species He is. You are a different species, less than a century old, and will forever be inferior to God. The end. Official LDS Cristian theology: God the Father is literally the father of your spirit. You are the same type of being He is. You obviously make mistakes and sin, and hence are lesser than God. God is perfect in all of His actions, knowledge, motivations etc. Through the atonement of Jesus Christ, you can ultimately become as clean and perfect and like the Father. This is called exaltation, and is taught throughout scripture and modern revelations. Good resources on this: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-47-exaltation?lang=eng https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/becoming-like-god?lang=eng Now onto speculative** LDS ideas--- **Again, for want of a better word. We LDS Christians readily acknowledge that there is much about God and His kingdom / wonders we don’t know right now (see Article of Faith #9). The topic of any of the Father’s past is in the bucket of stuff we don’t know much if anything about. The King Follet discourse does exist, but actually focused on man’s potential and it’s never been canonized as “thus saith the Lord”. Yes, LDS Christians do have a process of canonization and emphasizing things through time, it’s not “oh one leader said something, that makes it automatically Thus Saith the Lord”. The King Follet Discourse, while interesting, lacks this canonization or repeated emphasis, hence my placing it in this zone. Anyway: to actually talk about the discord: it essentially boils down to speculating that if we can become like the Father, then perhaps this may of worked in reserve before- that the Father maybe once was a child.

All baptized people (age 11+) start off doing baptisms for the dead, as well as confirmations for the dead. This does for adult converts as well. After an 18+ person is spiritually ready, (if male) ordained a Melchizedek order priest, and been a member for at least a year, then they can take out thier own endowments. After that they may do endowments and sealings for the dead. I'm not sure if you're looking for teenage experiences, but I know @Grunt and @anatass2 have talked about their adult convert experiences.