askandanswer

I think that some of the relevant considerations that would need to be taken into account when addressing the question of whether or not we should have stopped wearing masks after 1918 are the relative effectiveness of masks in slowing the spread of the flu vs their relative effectiveness in slowing the spready of covid19. It would also be necessary to take into account the differences between how infectious the two diseases are and their mortality rate. So I guess I'm saying that at a certain juncture of cost, inconvenience, effectiveness, mortality and infectiousness (and a whole bunch of other factors) , it may become desirable to wear masks, at another juncture of the same things, it might not be. Where that juncture is at any particular time, and for any particular group, or nation, is a decision to be made by that group, or nation, or the leaders chosen by and for that group.

Regardless of the specific circumstances or the quality and nature and personality of the two people involved, their families, their past, their addictions, their level of worthiness, their attitudes, their involvement in church, their income, their employment, the strength of their testimonies, the answer to this question, and all others like it is very simple: make a decision and then pray to know if you have made the right decision and then wait for an answer, however it may come. If God, through the Spirit says it right, then its right, regardless of whatever the circumstances might be. If God does not say it's right, then you cannot be sure it is right, and you proceed at your own peril. Love is a good foundation on which to build a marriage, but I don't believe its the strongest foundation. Love fades over time, and sometimes it even dies. The word of God is sure. My experience is that the strongest foundation on which to build a marrage is an undeniable spiritual confirmation that you should marry that person. Knowing that you have had such a spiritual confirmation that you should marry a person can sustain you through a mountain of difficulties that otherwise might be heavy enough to crush any feelings of love. A note of caution - for this approach to work for you, you have to have some experience with prayer and answers to prayer and spiritual confirmation so that you can recognise that confirmation when it happens, and, equally importantly, when it doesn't.

A very gradual first step might be to read all of the Ensign each month. It's a good mix of doctrine, practicality and uplifting accounts of and by ordinary people. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/ensign?lang=eng

Hi @Nicole bennett I read the following this morning. It comes from a talk given by Elder Vinson, one of the members of the Presidency of the Quorum of Seventy at a BYU Devotional in February. He spoke of when he was a Bishop counselling with a female who was seeking repentance. I've underlined the most important part. Note that what (then) Bishop Vinson focussed on was the Savior's ability to love and heal through confession and repentance. What bishops feel the most when helping people repent is love. In our Priesthood lesson last Sunday, our current bishop and a former bishop in my ward both said exactly the same thing. https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/terence-m-vinson/meekly-placing-our-total-trust-in-god/ I remember hearing the confession of a young lady in the ward and not having the slightest idea how I should counsel her. Yet words flowed from me,11 and I remember feeling an almost out-of-body experience, as it seemed I was an observer to this interview, watching from behind where I sat as the Savior lifted this young lady’s burdens. I was in awe of the Savior’s love and ability to heal. There have been many times when all the Lord required of me was to not shift in my seat as He led me down the precipitous slope to land safely at the bottom.

The meeting described in Section 138 sounds almost exactly like a Zone Conference whereby the Mission President calls upon the Elders in the Zone to cease teaching and preaching for the day so that they can come and receive further instructions on what and how they should be teaching.

I don't see how these scriptures eliminate the possibility that others were preaching to the dead prior to Christ's arrival in the spirit world. I think that the most we could reliably assume from these verses is that perhaps Christ instructed that a new component be addded to their teaching about the redemption of the dead.

If this statement/idea is true it would mean that in the post mortal spirit world, there would be people who knew and lived the gospel in mortality but who, for some reason, were commanded not to, or were somehow restrained or prevented, from preaching the gospel to those who did not have it. This seems like an unlikely scenario to me, and somewhat contrary to the great majority of God's dispayed desires, intentions, and actions elsewhere. I understand that Doctrine and Covenants 138: 18 - 37 explains Christ's involvement in preaching the gospel in the post mortal spirit world but I don't see anything in Section 138 or any other scriptures, that eliminates the possibility that Moses or Elijah, or Abraham, or Jacob, or Alma or any other prophet might also have been preaching to the dead before Christ showed up. It appears that section 138 is limited to showing how Christ organised the preaching of the gospel to the dead, but I'm not sure why we should presume that this is the only occasion on which someone organised the preaching of the gospel to the dead. Given that there were many prophets before Christ who spent much of their lives preaching the gospel in mortality, it would be a bit surprising if they had not continued doing the same thing post mortality.

Not for @pam

Lol, @MormonGator being clever? Lol, I think not. That would be an egregiously erroneous, absolutely absurd, fully fallacious, really wrong, assumption to make.

Yeah and let's not go down that rabbit hole either.

I have been trying for many years now to pull down the walls I built around myself as a teen-ager. I think, but I'm not sure, that those walls served a useful purpose at the time they were built, and for a short time afterwards, but many decades ago, they outlived their usefulness and become an impediment to progress. In my experience, pulling these walls down is slow, hard necessary work, because the natural instinct is to stay safe behind our walls and to not abandon our protective shelters and to protect ourselve from whatever the world might send our way. However, such a path prevents growth and personal progression. It produces a sense of safety from hurt at the cost of crushing almost every other emotion. In reply to Simon and Garfunkel, I invite you to consider the words of the 16th century English poet John Donne that no man is an island: 'No Man is an Island' No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Because WE haven't figured everything out.

@Gomezaddams51 would it be correct to say that you view the world, and the people in it, through a very transactional lens eg, you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, and if you can't/won't scratch my back, then I'm not interested in you?

Well I always try to make alowances for engineers

And you didn't even spell Pfbfbbttt correctly - 3 tees not 2. And correct grammar would suggest either a saurus or the saurus but not both a and thesaurus

Well tomorrow, members of my Elders Quorum will get to hear me giving a live Zoom presentation on the importance of love. How good is that?

Im finishing off my preparations for tomorrow's Priesthood lesson. The rather wordy objective of the lesson is "To encourage the brethren to develop a greater willingness and ability to feel and show love by helping them understand how important love is and how greater love can be developed." To inform the discussion tomorrow I'm very interested in hearing responses to this question: What do you do or not to that makes it both more likely, and less likely, that you will feel God’s love for you and what do you do or not do that makes it both more likely, and less likely, that you will feel and show love for His children?

I feel that wherever you end up studying, any questions and concerns you have about marriage will ultimately be decided BY u

There's a small group of men in my ward who go out on occasional bike rides together, including the Bishop and the Elder's Quorum President, who is also a police detective. I'm not sure what all of them wear, but I know that some of them wear black leathers, simply because leather is the safest thing to wear while on a bike and black is the cheapest colour.

In my scripture reading this morning, I came across what could be misinterpreted as an alternative view: 41 And also he hath need to repent, for I, the Lord, am not well pleased with him, for he seeketh to excel, and he is not sufficiently meek before me. (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 58:41)

I suspect that this might be part of the reason why it appears that your prayers have not been answered in the way that you would like or a way that you can see. At a minimum, to have any sort of impact, we need to pray with faith.

Not knowing much about these things, just out of curiousity, does the football do anything while it is being watched, or does anything interesting happen to it?

Or, phrased differently, have any elements of tyranny began to appear? I don't have a view one way or the other in this discussion, I just think the way I have phrased the question might be more likely to lead to a more productive discussion. And even if some elements of tryranny have began to appear, that still doesn't' mean that things have become tyrannical, because there might still be countervailing circumstances, but it might suggest that the position on the scale might have moved.

Its also a fact that average lifespans have been incresing for many decades now but Im not sure what conclusions this might point to. Are our bodies become less corrupt and degenerate?

Its a very poorly designed sign.