LT04

Hello brethren and sisters, It feels like I have been getting stone walled when it comes to personal revelation. I have been doing all the CTR things the church says that need to prelude any answer like reading scriptures, praying, fasting so on and so forth. I hear how some people say that the answers they get are so clear to them and they are very detailed and specific answers. I would be happy with yes or no answers. Then when you get a feeling you assume is an answer how do you know its just not wishful thinking? Some times the answers I need are time sensitive I don't think you can just give G-d a time line can you? I hope you guys and gals can help with my dilemma, I don't know what to do. -LT04

I understand payroll mess ups when I got hurt in Afganistan and came back to Fort Drum my 201 file said I was killed in action so my LES (its like a pay stub) said "no pay do" for three months (side note: The personnel office didn't think it was very funny when I asked them for my Soldiers Group Life Ins. policy) What we did was to create a "emergency fund" we scrimpt and saved to have about $500 in a savings account incase say the car broke down. Once we got the emergency fund in place we prioritized bills like you said. Heres some advice, I don't know how honest it is (I'll leave it to your discretion) but we found it worked. We would prioritize bills like you have but even if we couldn't pay lets say one for $100 a month we would still send them $20. I have been told they won't reposes, foreclose or any other of that fun bank stuff they get to do. From the same source he said that it screws up there computer when they see money being paid on that account no matter how much the computer won't always send it to the collections department. He said they would rather go after the dirt bags who have no intention of paying at all. Something to keep in mind. Now I can't let you go with saying something about tithing. I not the best example at this when the belt gets tightened and I miss a few meals a day I'll admit for me that I don't always pay it as I should. That being said I have a story for you: I was a young soldier at Fort Belvoir, VA. My Sergeant who was a southern baptist told us the importance of paying tithing. He asked us do you believe that G-d created the Earth, the solar system, galacies.... (you get the Idea) I said yes. Then he asked do you believe that G-d has a complex system in place to keep the planets from running into each other if he doesn't want them to? I said yes. Then he asked do you think that takes a lot of math to figure out how to keep all that in place? I said yes. He then asked so do you think G-d is way better in math then any one on the Earth? I said well of course. Then he replied well G-d asked you for 10% I think you can handle it! Well depending where in the country you live its early Sunday morning so here is you kick out of bed to get ready for church. Good luck and G-d Bless. -LT04

Thats cool you get to have them come back, and discuss the finer points of each others faith. I just hope thats what they intend to do as well. I have found the missionaries to have a one track mind, sorry to say. I just think you should keep that in mind. As for me I'm LDS, so I don't see the possibility of RLDS or Community of Christ missionaries (if you have any, sorry I know very little of what your faiths practice today. I just have a basic understanding of how they got started.) I remember a wile ago that the LDS church and the RLDS church sat down and had a huge pow-wow I think in Missouri. The mission was to categorize the "major differences" between us. They came to the conclusion that there were four major differences, I don't remember them all but I remember one was polygamy, and another was temple functions. I remember that they decided not to include the "divine right of kings" concept (passing positions from father to son) b/c to some degree the LDS church does as well. I can't for the life of me remember what the other two were, but I'll look into it. Maybe you Community of Christ Brethren and Sisters could "riddle me this" I live in northern New York. A lot of early church history took place around here. The sacred grove isn't far for me to drive. There is a group who call them selves the Community of Christ in a very small town called Hogansberg very far North of here. I found that odd at first b/c as far as I could tell there were only Omish (Om-ish) (don't think I spelled correct) families living there so at first I didn't give it much thought I figured maybe they just had the same name and nothing else in common b/c like the Omish they practice church in there homes not at a chapel. Later I found they only did that b/c they don't have a chapel nor do they intend to build one. From what I gathered they plan to stay until the church budget gets cut then sell this huge field (well over 100 acre's) they have there to the LDS church. I thought that was very odd as well of all the organizations it could be sold to why the LDS church. So when I looked into it more they originally intended to use this site for something more important then a chapel location, I'm not sure if you follow temple practices or not but I'm very baffled as to what other options there could be higher then a chapel and different then a Temple. Maybe you fine Brothers and Sisters could shed some light on the subject for me thanks. -LT04

I think its a good idea. I live near Fort Drum, New York home of the 10th MTN Division (Light Infantry). the size of the unit on the base almost doubled in the past few years so did the 3 wards in the area. Most people as soon as they got here would ask the bishop if there was a LDS real estate agent in the area. My mother is the only one for about 100 miles in any direction. (but I'm some what unsure b/c Canada only 19 mi. North of here, but thats what other agents tell her). I guess if thats a quality you want to have in an agent why not have a place to find them? Honestly for me as long as the person is honest I don't care where they go to worship G-d I think there ok. But to each his/her own. -LT04

When I got hurt in the Army overseas the Army and the VA left me holding the bag on the medical bills after they medically discharged me. So I know how it feels to have to much month left at the end of the money. My wife and I got mean and verbally hostile to each other at this time. We were both inactive in our faiths (me LDS and her Catholic). We both had to work more just to keep the lights on. This to me sounds like the same story only the names have been changed to protect the guilty (hehe). It seemed like we only made enough time to see each other to argue with each other. One day my wife and I said things need to change or we aren't going to make it in this marriage. So this is what we did: 1) Made a list of the bills. We decided first we needed to buy food, second the mortgage, then the lights, lastly the car. (the car came last b/c we had one already paid in full) 2) Then all the credit card debt med. bills and every thing else went in order from smallest to largest and over the past two and a half years we paid off over $45,000 in Med bills alone. Once money wasn't a source of contention between us we got along famously. 3) Like Ben said I started just going to sacrament meeting. Recently I was becoming less active till I found this site, so Sunday mornings I would get up a few hours early and browse around here to gather inspiration. I know scriptures are great and all but at the time they didn't seem to work for me I needed support from real live people. Then I would leave for church about 30 to 60 min early and just sit in the chapel getting into the frame of mind I needed to be in. (that came some time later) I'm going to be honest it was very hard at first the first person I talked to asked who I was, how long I lived in the area then demanded to know what took me so long to get there. It was a little brutal. Now that same fellow is now my bishop and asked if I would be in his bishopric. If you want to become active again surround yourself with people who have the same ideals. A good example of that would be my sister-in-law. She meets guys in bars and complains how they are the bottom of the bucket. Its hard for me to tell her thats where she found them in the first place. She got exactly what she picked up. I understand how your husbands schedule can be difficult, I think its so much harder to what to go if your all by your self. You feel like a sacrificial lamb. What I started to do after a wile was to offer to bring the elders they live several miles from the church building. It worked out I got to go early like I mentioned above and now I had to stay to whole time to bring them home after. I hope this post has brought you some encouragement and I hope others will do the same to support you in your efforts in the mean time. My wife and I will pray for you that you may find the intestinal fortitude you need to make it to the bench tomorrow morning. Good luck and God bless you, -LT04

Here's my two cents: Al Gore says (in his movie and else where) that all these events are occurring at an "accelerated rate" I would take that to mean they were going to happen any way. I also would have to agree with Bill O'Riley when he said that we would be stupid to think that the human race hasn't had an impact with all the things we have done over the past two hundred years. I suppose that left you all confessed taking both sides. I just think that both the left and the right have pieces of the truth but nether side has all of the truth. Does that make sense to any one??? -LT04

If you missed the priesthood session last night I 'm here to put it into a nut shell format for you. I can break it down into four parts. 1) Priesthood: Be worthy to hold your priesthood. Become worthy to receive the priesthood (if you don't have it). If you do hold the priesthood magnify your priesthood callings. 2) Emergency Preparedness: Work on you year supply. Start small with a week supply if you have to slowly you will make it. Also work on you financeal savings, and stay out of debt. They said last night most people do this backwards they have a year supply of debt. 3) The Aaronic priesthood: A) Stay on the straight and narrow. This young generation will see things bad and evil the world has never seen before. B ) Young priesthood holders need to stay away from from sexual transgressions. They need to respect and protect the young woman of the church. 4) Pres. Hinkley spoke: A) First he said it's to bad to be growing old in such an exciting time. He spoke of the acomplishments of the church in his twelve years administration. In the past 12 years 40% of all the total missionaries of the church have been to the mission field. Over 3.5 million converts have joined the church world wide. B ) He spoke of a story when Joseph F. Smith went on a mission to Hawaii, and went from a boy and his transformation to a man. Sorry I didn't use more detail but from this you get the general idea of what was said. Feel free to add to this if you think I left something vital out. Well here it is in a nut shell. -LT04

I would have to agree with all of you. I think that making notes in scriptures brings me closer to them as well as facilitates my referencing them. I understand why my wife likes the clean cut, pristine look to a book. So now I (playfully) tease her that she never reads them. RE: A-train, I love your idea for marking speakers I plan to start this some time in the not to distant future, even if it takes me twice as long as you I still think it would be worth it. RE: CrimsonKairos, I also love your idea; however, I think it would be hards to follow both your plans together. Maybe I should buy a 126 color cran box? I think that would solve the problem, but a color blind person might not notice the difference between midnight blue and navy blue and so on. Oh well I'll toy with the idea and see what I come up with.

When I started becoming active in the church again I pulled out my scriptures and started marking the scripture mastery ones I could remember. My wife (who is Catholic) was horrified by this act of desecration and wanted no part of it. I was always taught that your scriptures gained character when you marked them, and that its to facilitate referencing them. My wife was always taught marking the Bible was like putting graffiti on it. I'm going to continue to mark mine she's going to continue not to. I'm just interested in your input for pro's and con's. -LT04

Here's a funny genealogy story for y'all. My best friend and I met in the US Army. His parents are from Pakistan, and my mom's family is from England via several generations in Utah. Turns out his parents are very interested in genealogy, of course I am I work at a FHC. Last time I went to visit him in his home town his parents have this huge scroll connecting them to Abraham through his oldest son Ishmael. A day or two before I got a huge poster size family tree from the Genealogical Society of Utah, connecting me through the tribe of Levi son of Israel and Leah, who is the son of Isaac, who is the son of Abraham. We had known each other for years and it wasn't till late last year we found out we are "half-30th cousins 167 times removed." I thinks its crazy to think that after thousands of years and a few continents apart people today can still prove connections to other people half way around the world.

My wife looks for it now. She used to hate every thing on the discovery channel. With this show we seem to have found a happy medium. I kinda favor the ones where he helps the military, b/c I'm a dogface vet.

Why do we use a Catholic calendar with pagan names? I don't think it matters when we observe the sabbath (the letter of the law) as long as we do in fact observe it (the spirit of the law).

Thats true I forgot all about the consultants. I'm just a FHC spc.. A consultant will work around your schedule to help you. Like Alaskagain said they do go to people's houses. I have even seen them open the history center at 01:00 AM for people who have different work schedules. You should look into that also.

"infallibility" is a Catholic belief. Even then they only believe the pope to be in an infallible state at specific times. As far as I can tell they are the only one who believe in infallibility. Not even the Anglicans or Episcopals believe in it. Hope that was of some help to you. -LT04

I work at a family history center in my area, I have found that the people looking for on line help are typical mothers with small children. Thats why I suggested Genweb first. familysearch.org isn't much help unless you have family already members of the church and then it still lacks basic information. For example my grandparents were married in the salt lake temple in 1956, they are no where to be found on the church web site. Genweb can be hard to use b/c its a county run site, so there is no uniform system to look through. Ancestry.com is awesome you can use it for free at the family history centers, and if you can't it will cost you a pretty penny. I would still recommend you give your local history center a try. We get kids in there all the time with parents thats why I keep candy in my office. I know it can be hard as a parent trying to focus and get some work done wile praying the kids don't burn down the building. When the children are a little older I set them down on the computer and show them how to play minesweeper and solitaire on the computer. Give going to the FHC a chance, thats where most of the information is at the present. Soon it will all be on computer, but until them you should make an effort to try. I get all kinds of forms at the FHC I can't find any where else.

"So this is my question... How do I get the genealogy info from him that I need to add to my mother's side?" A: Do you both live in the same community? All of my father's family strongly appose the LDS church so I had to use local news papers to find records. Also google "Genweb" thats a government web site that has helped me a lot. Lastly, you could try going to you local family history center, they have a lot of local records and acess to other records you might not be aware of. Try those let me know if you still need help there are a lot of other ways around dead ends.

I did as soon as I found out. I just find it bizzar that the church has such a open ended answer for a question. What I also find weird is that wasn't always the answer to that question. I always looked at the church as a constant. It caught me off guard when it threw me a curve ball.

UKdal1, I think what you are trying to do is throw out a topic and see what everys two cents look like. I don't think your trying to start a fight. I can't answer your question properly b/c I can't see the connection you are trying to make between Jesus dieing for our sins and Joseph Smith history.

I HAVE AN ANSWER, After jumping through many hoops, I got an answer. I don't know if I like it but it's an answer just the same. I'm not going to repeat the question you will have to read the above discution and see for your self. The answer I got from temple services in SLC was this young woman is sealed to her mothers first husband. Lets say her mother gets married to her third husband, her mother can get a temple cancellation. Following that she will be sealed to her third husband. (the young womans now step father). She will always be sealed to her mother (unless her mother gets excommunicated) due to this she will then be sealed as the daughter of who ever her mother is sealed to. He's the indecisive part. This young woman now has the option to choose her mothers first, second or third husband as her genealogy link to her past. This is a new rule. The old rule was who ever she was sealed to as a daughter (blood or not) was her church recignized father. Like I said before there were a lot of errors made in temple work over the years for example Hitler had his work done 3 times that I'm aware of. I don't like it that there isn't an easy or even a absolute answer. Leaving it up to the individual seems odd to me, but it came from temple services. How do all y'all think about this should I look some where else for an answer?

Good idea, How about priesthood enrichment night.

OUCH! <he he he lol, don't throw those words so hard they are pointy. Sure glad you didn't throw them at me.

Please forgive me for stepping foot on sacred relief society soil, for I know not what I do. Its been said you will cut out my tounge, and take a hot poker to my eyes. This is so I can't tell others of what I saw and to make sure I never see what goes on behind the relief society doors again. J/K (just the ramblings of a former out of control deacon) I have posted a topic in the priesthood section I would like the woman of the church to take a look at as well. We the elders have wrestled the idea of a elders home making meeting. I wanted to see what you think and I want feed back. PLEASE DON'T POST HERE, POST IN THE PRIESTHOOD SECTION. I want to keep replies consolidated.

Hey gents, The Elders quorum in my ward for a long time has found that "if we can't make it work find out what the relief society does and copy it" This stragity has worked very well in the past. In recent meeting we have contemplated a Priesthood home making meeting as a way to get priesthood holders together on a week night once a week. We weren't sure what we would do so I thought I would run it by you fine gents. We are for the most part a military community. Most service men and woman I have found have never seen snow. We got about 10-12 feet in Jan. So a priesthood home making meeting proposal would be how to use and trouble shoot a snow blower (military housing here provides them). I want to know what you think or if you have a similar system how do you make it work. P.S. I know we can't call it elders home making meeting b/c it doesn't sound manly. P.P.S. Any idea for a new name for elders home making meeting?

The Elder missionaries in my ward did the quid-pro-quo with an investigator last summer. It worked he became a member now hes in the Elders quorum presidency. As far as the $700 can't say any thing that hasn't been said.

Yep, My mom's Mormon (like me), my dad goes to a Nazarene church, his parents are Baptist, my uncle was Episcopal, now he's Anglican, my best friend is Muslim and my wife is Catholic. Depending what family member I visit depends where I go. If any one else finds them selves in this situation and follows suit, make this note. "Don't visit multiple friends/ relatives over the weekend, here's a story why. I visited my best friend in PA. on fri. went to Mosque that night. Got up early Sat. drove to D.C. went to mass Sat. afternoon at the National basilica with my wife. Drove to Maryland to see my uncle went to mass Sat. night. Got up very early Sun. morning drove to my grandparents house in Virginia went to church at 8:00am. Drove to my dads house went to church at 11:00AM. Didn't have the ambition to go find a local LDS church in VA to see if there was a ward that met in the afternoon, and it wouldn't shock me at this point if there was.