Alaskagain

And this is one time that Miracle Whip should not be substituted for MAYO :)

Yed, that wasn't in any way meant to be derogatory; rather, you teach me the way words SHOULD actually be spelled! I think you are very intelligent. Some of my best friends are very poor spellers.

Yed, I just love your original way of spelling. :) I think that's Noxema cream, and it's good for sunburn. has a cooling effect. A spray of white vinegar ( a spoonful) and water (about 8oz) mixture will help take out "the sting", you can soak a washcloth in the vinegar water and lay it directly on the skin too. Hope it goes away soon!

Ditto

Well, no that isn't exactly what I meant. How do you choose who you will date or not date, where you will go, and whether you will go with just one person or with a group? The excellent link Xhenli provided tells you what the Youth Standards are. How you choose to date is still up to you and your parents. I commend you on your decision to "save yourself", and am glad you are looking into the Church. :) (edited for spelling error)

what rules do you have for yourself for dating now?

I wasn't trying to be funny. When I read your definition of Courage, he is the first person I thought of. That's all. didn't mean to politicize an apolitical posting.

hmmm. sounds kind of like Pres Bush to me. . . . .

Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

Hmmm, Yed, meet Ogre. Ogre, meet Yed.

I don't have a wonderful solution for you to try. Just want to offer some support. Yes, being divorced and in the church can be a lonely existence. Sounds like you have been doing a great job with raising your kids for the past five years. I don't know that people see you as a "freak", just different, but I know it is easy to feel that way. It is a different relationship than what you had before, because before, you were a part of a couple. A lot of times, people don't know how to accept that difference and maintain the same level of friendship. But, the very same thing happens when we leave singlehood to get married. . . we leave behind our single friends because our marriage is more important to us, and we suddenly are involved in the married couples social set. The only thing I can offer, is the example of a woman I knew in a ward I used to live in. Her husband left her and 3 children, and this lady was one of the most faithful members of the church I have ever known. She took all of her energies and poured them into the ward choir, boy scouts, parenting, earning a living, her callings. I never heard her make a negative comment about anybody. She went out of her way to be friendly to everyone who walked into the church building. Obviously, she was closer to some people than to others; some of her closer friends were married, and some were single. I think she retained her friendships with married women as a matter of purposeful choice --- she decided she simply wasn't going to give up the friends she had before. Still, I am sure those relationships changed - perhaps there was more individual socializing, or lunches with "the girls" rather than couple-oriented dinners, etc. But she still worked hard to maintain the friendships. I don't know if that helps you any at all, but there it is. Maybe if you choose one friend that you used to have when you were married and tried to rekindle the friendship, relying heavily on the Spirit and Sisterhood, perhaps you could inch in to that "inner circle" place you want to be, or somewhere closer to it than where you feel you are now. Good luck to you

CK, I really wasn't offended either, My original posting was one of mock indignation, it just didn't get interpreted that way (forgot to put that darn smiley face in there) , and I'm sorry. . . .

Wow, this is Great! I had planned on taking tomorrow off, anyway, time for me to regroup and lounge out on the deck B) , read scriptures and other uplifting material, and really relax. So I was already planning on saving a lot of electrical energy. Now, my trailer is starting to get a little unkempt, but I can't classify it as trashy yet , so my plans for the day have not changed. No vaccuuming, no washer, no dryer, no dishwasher. And now, I don't even have to shave my legs. Counts more if I don't use the electric shaver. Awesome.

No, Dr T, the term "trailer trash" is color blind.

Belmar, Just a thought. Maybe the new bishop is going through a period of adjustment in his new calling. Maybe he is unsure of himself in personal meetings with the members. Maybe he doesn't think of himself as a good communicator. He doesn't seem to be someone you and your husband were friends with prior to your daughter's birth. Has he moved into the ward since then? He might have been struggling with trying to make a connection with you, trying to find out what your needs are. Give the guy a break. Make another appointment with him - the suggestion of having him over to your house was nice, I thought. Be honest with him and tell him you feel he doesn't appreciate or understand your circumstance, and ask what you can do to have him know your family better. And I have a feeling it is a very good thing that you are a strong willed individual, because this little girl that Heavenly Father has blessed you with needs that strength in you, her best advocate.

Yediyd I don't think anyone here considers you "trailer trash". You have come a long way through many trials and continue to seek what Heavenly Father wants for you to do. I enjoy reading your posts, and you have a great sense of humor! Now, I have to go move that old dryer further behind the shed out back so people won't be able to see it from the street. . . . . .

Thank you SO much, ALmom! I have been struggling lately . . . and this is a great help to me. Now to find out if Nelson Mandela also said it, lol! Just saw the answer posted earlier, missed it in my enthusiasm! Here's another link: http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/4564.htm

From the March 2000 Ensign: Regarding the dedication of the Raleigh Temple "Located in the suburb of Apex about 10 miles southwest of metropolitan Raleigh, the new temple serves about 27,600 members in eight North Carolina stakes: Winston-Salem, Durham, Greensboro, Raleigh, Goldsboro, Kinston, Fayetteville, and Wilmington. " That was 7 years ago, so there are probably more members now. West Coast to East Coast: A big change is getting used to the sun rising, not setting, over the ocean. Best of luck!

Alaskagain, that is great. Thank you for that. You are quite welcome. Although I would likely get along well in person with people I chat with online, I am very cautious about actually meeting an online contact. Words on a screen, they are easily written and can be easily misconstrued. And there really are people out there foraging for an emotional attachment that they can't seem to forge in 'real life'. Risky business.

Susie, Full Ancestry.com access is no longer available at the Family History Center libraries. There are a limited number of databases available that are still free, but the information has been greatly curtailed. I am not sure how much information they had on South African records, anyway. Since the foster parents work is being seen to by a relative (although you both could help in that area, too), and you have been advised above that the church's stand is to follow the biological trail, then I think what I would do in your situation is go ahead and fill out the Family Group Sheets with all of the information you know on the biological parents. Then go to work on the biological grandparents. Your husband probably does not know that information, but you may be able to get some information from his recently contacted biological father. You do not need a relative's permission to do temple ordinances for a person who has been deceased over 80 years. So you will probably need to go back to even the previous generation. But write down everything you can find out on a Family Group Sheet, because the 80 years will go by and someone can do the work! If you Google "South African Genealogy" there are a couple of sites that come up, specifically one that starts home.global.co.za looks like it has a good list of points for you in how to start and what types of records you can research. Also, you can go to familysearch.org and look at the Library Catalogue for Place - South Africa. It looks like a lot of the civil registration records and parish records have been microfilmed, and you can order a microfilm at your local FHC. If you have at least one name and a place and a time frame, you stand a good chance of being able to determine the names you need to get a good portion of the family together. Best of luck to you!

SusieSA The very first thing you should do is to call your ward's Family History Consultant. That person has been called to help people just like you. As you have PAF already installed on your home computer, the consultant will probably make an appointment to come right to your house to get you started and provide advice and guidance. And should you have to go the library, your handy-dandy visiting teachers might be able to help with baby-tending. Second item might be of interest to all of you, is that Ancestry.com is no longer being provided on the FHC library computers. Officially, as of April 1st, but in our library, access has already been restricted in some way, as we keep getting booted off. Previously, Ancestry was provided by its corporation at no cost to the church, but now Generations Network, the parent company, wants to charge the church a subscription fee. (Considering Ancestry has extracted a lot of databases from the church library system, seems a bit odd to me.) Some have said that this was because of "competition" from the church in the free databases that will be available after digitizing and indexing the records in Granite Mountain, through FamilySearch.org. But I think that is just the opposite - the church was inspired in starting that project because of the possibility of being asked to pay subscription fees. (Ancestry's library subscription fee is about $1700 per year. -- now how many Family History Center Libraries do we have? ) At our FHC, we are sorry to see Ancestry go. How many patrons have come in and used their search engine on site, and then gone home and ordered a subscription for their home use? I personally think it is a big mistake on the part of Generations Network. (Sorry to get off track with this editorializing!) But there are other resources available at the FHC. There are a lot of places on the internet that a person can get free information - many state archives now have have searchhable on line databases for records of its citizens, for example Maryland State Archives has a searchable death index, and so does West Virginia. The USGenweb project is great - volunteers maintain websites on each county of the U.S. Some sites have bare minimum of information, while others have census transcriptions, marriage records, etc. Just depends on where you look. HeritageQuest can be accessed from your home computer if your local public library participates - you just need to call your librarian to get a password using your library card. And of course, you can always order a roll of microfilm if you need to - you can search the FHC library catalogue at FamilySearch.org and see what is available for the locality or surname you are searching. And the best resource is the staff members who are there to guide and brainstorm with you when you just don't know what to look for or where to go next. Good luck in your ancestor hunting. I hope you are able to connect with your uncle, he will be your best source of information, I think, and be able to tell you family stories you won't find in the official records!

well the obvious question is, would he risk doing something like drinking alcohol for the experience of it? and what is the difference, if any?