askandanswer

I'm belatedly working on tomorrow's Priesthood lesson about service. I'm having mixed thoughts on whether I should include the following as part of my lesson. On the one hand, it might come across as a bit too strong or direct, but on the other hand, it does seem to follow reasonably closely from what Elder Ballard says. The idea is that I would play the video clip and then ask the following questions https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2015-06-0030-service?lang=eng "President Ballard seems to be suggesting that there is a link between our love for God and Jesus Christ and our acts of service for others. How accurately does the amount of service we give reflect the amount of love we have for our Father and our Saviour? Is the type and nature and frequency and reason for our service a reliable indicator of our love of God? What does your service say about your love for your Saviour?. Remember what James taught in James 2: 15 - 18 about words, actions and beliefs" What do you think? Is this a little too direct, would the possible negative impacts of including this in my lesson outweigh the possible positive impacts?

. SIgns of progress at last! All my life I've been carefully following the how to be cool instruction books, both the kids and the adult editions.

Trump who?

is this you or Mr Fitzgerald? I haven't seen either so I'm not quite sure who this is.

In my mind, this experience raises the question of whether or not there should be any connection at all between our faith and our circumstances in life, and if so, why. At the moment, I can't think of why there should be any such connections. I think that, at a minimum, our faith should remain constant, regardless of our circumstances, and at more than a minimum, it should continue to grow, regardless of our circumstances.

I came across this image referring to third hour a few minutes ago on the church website. Is there any connection between this icon, which I presume is referring to a twitter feed, and this forum? The layout of the text is not the same but the colours are. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/broadcasts/face-to-face/rasband-restoration?lang=eng

That sounds like a material saving to me.

Same for most (all?) of Australia, as far as I know. (not all in the same home )

It sank in about AD 33 immediately prior to Christ's visit to the Americas, following His resurrection in Jerusalem. It was destroyed, along with several other cities at the same time, because of the wickedness of the inhabitants. Other cities were destroyed by fire, earthquake and by being swallowed up in the depths of the earth.

I'm open to the possibility that once upon a time, a coastal city that existed is now under water. As to where and when, and the nature of the city and its inhabitants, I'm not really sure. 9 And the city of Moroni did sink into the depths of the sea, and the inhabitants thereof were drowned. (Book of Mormon | 3 Nephi 8:9)

Its pretty simple really - he was fired because he fired.

MIssionaries have their own language which they all come to understand and use quite quickly, but non-missionaries don't. As far as I know, missionaries using the term "died" for someone who finishes their mission and goes home is universal That's a big call from his Mission President to aim for 5 teachings a day under the current lockdown restrictions. They're still restricted to their apartment aren't they? He must be doing really well if he is consistently meeting this goal. It's tough on him that he has to learn both Filipino and Visayan, pretty much at that the same time. He's had a lot of study time lately, but two languages at once is a big task no matter what the circumstances are. Was it just you that he taught or the rest of the family as well?

On September 30, 1978, at the 148th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the following was presented by President N. Eldon Tanner, First Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church: 2 In early June of this year, the First Presidency announced that a revelation had been received by President Spencer W. Kimball extending priesthood and temple blessings to all worthy male members of the Church (Doctrine and Covenants | Official Declaration 2:1 - 2)

@BobMaster I'm generally loathe to judge people or make guesses as to what they might need, but in this case, I'm making a guess that you could find the following to be beneficial. It comes from one of my most favourite talks, given by (then) Elder Benson at a BYU Devotional, titled 14 Fundamentals in Following the Prophet. I've only included two quotes here but I strongly recommend the whole talk. https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/ezra-taft-benson/fourteen-fundamentals-following-prophet/ Sixth: The prophet does not have to say “Thus saith the Lord” to give us scripture. Sometimes there are those who haggle over words. They might say the prophet gave us counsel but that we are not obligated to follow it unless he says it is a commandment. But the Lord says of the Prophet Joseph, “Thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you” (D&C 21:4; italics added). Second:The living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works. President Wilford Woodruff tells of an interesting incident that occurred in the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith: I will refer to a certain meeting I attended in the town of Kirtland in my early days. At that meeting some remarks were made that have been made here today, with regard to the living oracles and with regard to the written word of God. The same principle was presented, although not as extensively as it has been here, when a leading man in the Church got up and talked upon the subject, and said: “You have got the word of God before you here in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants; you have the written word of God, and you who give revelations should give revelations according to those books, as what is written in those books is the word of God. We should confine ourselves to them.” When he concluded, Brother Joseph turned to Brother Brigham Young and said, “Brother Brigham, I want you to take the stand and tell us your views with regard to the living oracles and the written word of God.” Brother Brigham took the stand, and he took the Bible, and laid it down; and he took the Book of Mormon, and laid it down; and he took the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and laid it down before him, and he said: “There is the written word of God to us, concerning the work of God from the beginning of the world, almost, to our day. And now,” said he, “when compared with the living oracles those books are nothing to me; those books do not convey the word of God direct to us now, as do the words of a Prophet or a man bearing the Holy Priesthood in our day and generation. I would rather have the living oracles than all the writing in the books.” That was the course he pursued. When he was through, Brother Joseph said to the congregation: “Brother Brigham has told you the word of the Lord, and he has told you the truth.” [In Conference Report, October 1897, pp. 18–19]

From 1,000 years of Book of Mormon history we get a little over 520 pages, some of which was simply taken from Jewish history? You can be sure that after a thousand years of LDS history, if a later historian were to compile the gems of LDS prophetic teachings, we would end up with something far richer, with much greater substance and power than what we get from the Book of Mormon.

I thought that happened when you were in your 50's?

When the Lord speaks, quite often, it is not just to the church that He speaks, but to the whole world, to all of His children. Every word that the Lord speaks brings condemnation to those who heed it not, and I can imagine that in today's world, there are many who would heed it not, so perhaps God is being merciful when it appears that He does not speak in the way you would like.

Religion does not appear to be a factor in this death, but it's concerning that it happened opposite the chapel where the murdered person attended. His parents forgive his killers. https://www.9news.com.au/national/deer-park-stabbing-family-of-slain-teenager-do-not-want-justice/6568bb29-bdce-453c-a634-21e004f5799b https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.7511418,144.7725077,17z?hl=en&authuser=0

I'd like to present exhibit A in support of the arguement - @MormonGator

I believe, and i'm sure you believe, that God does all He can, within a certain set of rules, to save as many of His children as He can.

Comparisons can be tricky. Here’s an example of why: Comparing those who stormed the beaches with those who protest at BYU for same sex relationships, one thing that both groups have in common is that both groups put at risk something that was very important to them in order to extend and defend the freedoms of others who they hardly knew. One important difference is that one of these groups was paid, the other wasn’t. One group had the entire political, industrial and military support not just of the US, but of several countries, while the other group have somewhat less support. And to be clear, I am not supporting the cause of those at BYU who advocate for BYU to allow homosexual relationships. Like many others on this forum, I agree that students who sign the BYU Honour Code should keep the commitments they agreed to when they signed onto that code. I’m just pointing out that comparisons can be tricky and making comparisons is not always a great way to support an argument.

And how many more young missionaries are there now compared to 20 years ago? And how many more children and youth are there now who are being raised by returned missionaries?

From a strategic point of view, and I’m not sure how interested God is in strategy, it makes sense to save your strongest people for the time when Satan is strongest. I think we can safely say that people, including youth, prior to the restoration of the gospel were not as valiant as those after the restoration of the gospel – if they were, probably the gospel would have been restored sooner. If we accept that proposition, then it’s clear that the people, and the youth, of the last 200 years are more valiant than the great majority of all people going back to the creation. So when considering the people from 1830 onwards I think its reasonable to believe that youth who have been exposed to, and raised in, the full programs of the church are more likely to be valiant, or are likely to be more valiant, than those who were not raised in the full programs of the church. To disagree with this would involve accepting that the divinely inspired programs of the church have failed and that God’s kingdom is failing to achieve some of its objectives. In discussing this topic, it might be good to keep in mind that difference does not always equate to better or worse.

This is pure speculation on my part but I believe that there may be at least two reasons, apart from the teachings of prophets and apostles, to suppose that the youth of today are more valiant and more righteous than the youth of previous generations First reason It is reasonable to suppose that, in general, being in or near the presence of God is a good thing, and that the longer you are in or near that presence, the more likely it is that you will be benefitted in a positive manner by that proximity. In the pre-existence, we were in or near the presence of God. Spirits born in the year 2000 have had the opportunity to be in or near the presence of God for 50 years more than people born in 1950 and are therefore likely to have been the beneficiaries of being near to God for 50 years more than those born in 1950. The benefits of this closeness to God for a longer period might show up in earth in the form of greater valiancy, greater faith, greater righteousness, etc. I think that rejecting this argument would require rejecting the idea that there are benefits from being closer to God. Second reason I think that Satan learns. Possibly the more experience he has in working with, and watching humanity, the more he learns and the better he gets at what he does. Satan today is 50 more years clever than Satan of 50 years ago, he has had an additional 50 years to refine his tools and techniques. This means that it will be harder now, and take greater faith and strength and commitment to resist him than what it did 50 years ago. So those youth who are able to do so are exhibiting greater faith, strength and righteousness than did the youth of 50 years ago. It’s a changing situation. People are not the same as they were 50 years ago because they have had more time being in the presence of God than the people of 50 years ago, and Satan has had 50 more years of experience and practice.