Jane_Doe

I don't see Christ's Gospel as something that needs me to defend it-- His power is absolute and strong without me lifting a finger. In fact, all the fingers I do raise are because of His power. He wins/won this war. As to the points factor: people sitting on the same pew are not clones of each other. There are some folks whom share my pew on Sunday that I don't agree on certain points of their beliefs/actions, and I cannot join them in celebrating those specific points. I suspect it is the same with the pew you sit on?

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.

On this we'll just have to disagree, as we do on many points

If you're actually loving ladies as Christ instructs a man to, then you're not being chauvinist. The converse it true too: being a chauvinist isn't loving a person the way Christ instructs you to.

Family comes first. That being said, I'm not sure that moving is the solution to the situation with your son. But Spiritual inspiration and your judgement makes that call.

Yes, there were many people he could of spoken too, including doctors and getting referrals for professional counselors. But if he choose not to, then that makes giving help all the harder. Just like now. He needs to speak.

The extreme isolation JKing is describing goes well beyond the normal returned missionary blues, and sounds like it actually pre-dated him coming home for months at minimum.

@Junior, why are you responding as @JKing ? I'm confused.

A proper man of God isn't an misogynist. A proper man of God respect and loves woman, and treats her has his equal help-mate. The #MeToo movement supports this Christ-like behavior in encouraging people (of both genders) who've been hurt to speak up, and encouraging people (of both genders) to treat each other with respect.

@JKing , if no one says anything, health problems can't be treated. And it sounds like your son is doesn't say anything at all. There are EXTREME red flags here. So it's time to play the mom-card and say something. Tell his mission predisent what you told us and ask for any insights. And most of all, talk to your son. He needs to speak.

This screams of a mental health issue. If you have his mission president's or recent companions contact information you can talk to them.

That is not normal. Feeling out of sorts is normal-- you did just move continents after all. But not practically shunning your family and being THAT isolated. In fact, most missionaries are required to write their families weekly. Honestly, I would suspect a mental health issue. Have you asked your son what's going on? Does he have any future plans?

There could be a very real medical issue coming into play here (such as clinical depression). Doctors are there to help us take care of our bodily temples (which included the brain).