askandanswer

It sounds to me, from the OP, that this guy, talking about his enjoyment of sexual experiences, was talking about something of which he had fond memories. This would be a HUGE red flag and probably a deal breaker for me. I would think that a truly repentant person would come to view their previous fornication as the worst ever moment of their life, and with no thought whatsoever of enjoyment and how good it was. I understand that you feel that you love him, but I think you need to take into account that there are probably many, many guys you are yet to meet that you could love. 

When looking for a wife, the most important thing to look for is a wedding ring. If the person you are looking at is wearing one, keeping looking - elsewhere.  

A dog eat dog situation sounds like the ideal solution we have to a problem in northern parts of Australia, where feral dogs do massive damage to flocks of sheep and decimate the local wild life. If we could get them to eat each other we could make huge savings in the budget for the Department of Conservation and Parks.

A different perceptive from the other answers but.... My son is 18 next week, I think he (and you) are WAY to young to be thinking about marriage.  What do you want to do for a career?  Are you finished studying? I think you should focus on what you want in life and have some fun while you are still young enough not to have too many responsibilities.  Don't be so quick to tie yourself down.  
Marriage is eternal, date for a few years first (following the law of chastity of course) get to know girls, so you can work out what qualities are important to you in a potential wife.  Don't overlook the importance of pre marriage counselling, being on the same page on the important things can help give your marriage the best chance possible.  Things like money and how it is made, spent as well as long term financial goals, division of labour in the household, romance and what you need from each other with regards to this.  Children and how they are to be cared for, common interests and probably the most important question - Dogs inside or out!

Neither my wife or I married the person we loved. We married who the Spirit told us to. The love came later and its still coming. We'd been married for 8 months before my wife first told me that she loved me. I would commend this course of action to everyone. Love can bloom and fade depending on how well you look after it but the promptings of the Holy Ghost are constant and true.

What President Uchtdorf said in his October 2008 address during the Priesthood session might be applicable to those who desire to serve a mission but for some reason are not able to:
Some years ago in our meetinghouse in Darmstadt, Germany, a group of brethren was asked to move a grand piano from the chapel to the adjoining cultural hall, where it was needed for a musical event. None were professional movers, and the task of getting that gravity-friendly instrument through the chapel and into the cultural hall seemed nearly impossible. Everybody knew that this task required not only physical strength but also careful coordination. There were plenty of ideas, but not one could keep the piano balanced correctly. They repositioned the brethren by strength, height, and age over and over again—nothing worked.
As they stood around the piano, uncertain of what to do next, a good friend of mine, Brother Hanno Luschin, spoke up. He said, “Brethren, stand close together and lift where you stand.”
It seemed too simple. Nevertheless, each lifted where he stood, and the piano rose from the ground and moved into the cultural hall as if on its own power. That was the answer to the challenge. They merely needed to stand close together and lift where they stood.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/lift-where-you-stand?lang=eng
 The message becomes clearer if we change the word "lift" to "serve." If you cannot serve a full time mission I encourage you to consider how you can serve where you stand.

If you both do things right, eg, love and look after each other, protect and suppor and help each other, the love grows throughout your life. I suspect that many couples married for many years love each other more now than when they were first married. One of the best ways to help this happen is through service. We come to love those who we sincerely serve. 

If you both do things right, eg, love and look after each other, protect and suppor and help each other, the love grows throughout your life. I suspect that many couples married for many years love each other more now than when they were first married. One of the best ways to help this happen is through service. We come to love those who we sincerely serve. 

Neither my wife or I married the person we loved. We married who the Spirit told us to. The love came later and its still coming. We'd been married for 8 months before my wife first told me that she loved me. I would commend this course of action to everyone. Love can bloom and fade depending on how well you look after it but the promptings of the Holy Ghost are constant and true.

That is how it was in my Branch for the last 7 years -with three different Branch Mission Leaders, and the last one you couldn't even reach him on his cell! The BML we have now is a real go-getter. I think having server 3 proselyting missions overseas with his wife makes the difference.
What I think is great is he and the members who have been called as Branch Missionaries, come to the various classes every other month and in 10 minutes  give us a Pep Talk. No challenges though because we just don't respond well to that. But it is more like You All Did GREAT - Keep up the GOOD work. Call on us ANYTIME to go with you -  to help you - etc. etc. Basically it is a pat on the back, Atta Boy/Girl, Keep it up,  and not a single but, you need to do better.

What President Uchtdorf said in his October 2008 address during the Priesthood session might be applicable to those who desire to serve a mission but for some reason are not able to:
Some years ago in our meetinghouse in Darmstadt, Germany, a group of brethren was asked to move a grand piano from the chapel to the adjoining cultural hall, where it was needed for a musical event. None were professional movers, and the task of getting that gravity-friendly instrument through the chapel and into the cultural hall seemed nearly impossible. Everybody knew that this task required not only physical strength but also careful coordination. There were plenty of ideas, but not one could keep the piano balanced correctly. They repositioned the brethren by strength, height, and age over and over again—nothing worked.
As they stood around the piano, uncertain of what to do next, a good friend of mine, Brother Hanno Luschin, spoke up. He said, “Brethren, stand close together and lift where you stand.”
It seemed too simple. Nevertheless, each lifted where he stood, and the piano rose from the ground and moved into the cultural hall as if on its own power. That was the answer to the challenge. They merely needed to stand close together and lift where they stood.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/lift-where-you-stand?lang=eng
 The message becomes clearer if we change the word "lift" to "serve." If you cannot serve a full time mission I encourage you to consider how you can serve where you stand.

Ogres brave all perils. We're not that smrt.

I never served a typical mission, but live in the exact type of city your son is serving in. (We're only two hours from the mission home, though.) Our branch covers ground in at least four counties, and many of the surrounding towns wouldn't have a ward even if every citizen was an active Mormon.
Anyway, I'd encourage him to focus on asking questions and listening to hear the answers when they talk to people, rather than listening to respond or lead the discussion. In my own personal missionary work, I set a goal to bring everyone I can one step closer to Christ. Elder Bednar gave a great talk a few years ago addressed to nonmembers. In there, (I'm paraphrasing) he invited them to bring with them whatever truth they already had to see if we couldn't add to it. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/come-and-see?lang=eng
 

We have a sign on every exterior door with the Branch Presidencies, Auxiliary Presidencies, Primary Presidencies Names plus the hours of service for everything. There is also phone numbers for the building, the Branch President, the Missionaries and for emergency. Our building number goes straight to an answering machine, and it says so on the door sign.
Askandanswer, have they involved the members in bringing in investigators and in assigning members as Branch Missionaries and having them reach out to the less active members? That is what has boosted our Active Members list.
We are also having the Temple & Family History Consultants contact the less actives regarding doing their family history. Our Sister Missionaries have brought several investigators to our T&FH Consultant Lead to find out the truth about temple proxy work. That led into getting them started on their own genealogy, which led to them following through with the missionaries which led to at least one family, Dad, Mom, and when daughter turns 8 next June, getting baptized. The other two families have either a Dad or Mom who are members but have been inactive for decades, the kids are the ones who are interested in the gospel, the parents in family history. 
"Every member a missionary. . ." David O. McKay

Weekly Basketball scrimmage.
I tell ya, it's popular everywhere - from the Philippines to Florida.  Just a place to hang out with Mormons without any proselyting.  Then it's up to them and their curiosity if they would like to investigate the Church.

I can't get past the triangular light. Might be obscure, but "Come to the Roger Waters of baptism."

My missionary son sent us this pic a while back. I think it could be captioned “The true gold at the end of the rainbow.”
Any other suggestions?

Just out of curiosity @Blossom76 how far are you from the brissie temple and have you been there yet? It's at kangaroo point overlooking the river. Non-members can roam the grounds and perhaps feel of the spirit of the temple and temple work. If you haven't been yet i encourage you to choose a wise and experienced temple recommend holding friend and take the time to just sit and think and pray and feel in the temple grounds for an hour or two. It can be a very peaceful and comforting experience 

The way something operates can reveal information about the person/Being who set up the system that is being operated. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a line of computer code in my life before, but I suspect that for someone used to looking at computer code, when they look at a bunch of code prepared by someone else, they can get some idea of the way the preparer thinks, the way they have analysed the problem the code is meant to help solve, the various options the code writer could have followed, and the choices and reasoning behind the option they ended up following. When a mechanic decides to put a screw in spot x rather than spot y, he has made a decision that reflects certain values and preferences. It’s a mechanistic action and it reveals something about the actor. When God set up operation atonement He decided to send His son to satisfy the demands of justice rather than some other method, or perhaps even choosing to ignore the demands of justice. He has made a decision that reflects certain values and preferences. I think it is not beyond the wit of man, coupled with prayer and inspiration to examine the operations of God and His systems and come to a greater understanding of His values and preferences and ways of thinking. This is one way of fulfilling Joseph Smith’s teaching that we must come to comprehend God. I see this is being an excellent reason to study the mechanistics of God’s operations. It’s a big task but with enough people, and enough time, doable. And I’m quite confident that if a group of people were to start on this path, with the right intentions, God would help them because I think He wants us to know Him.

The Atonement of Christ is a wonderful thing to study (as is any other gospel topic)...  Other people opinions on the subject(s).... maybe not so much.

Lesson two down!  Loving all I am learning  

Interesting observation.  For these many years that I have studied the atonement I have sought the mechanical understandings.  For myself it is the lack of mechanical understandings that prompts individuals to say that we just don't understand the atonement precisely because it doesn't make sense that mercy is not robbing justice when it prevails, it makes no sense that if God the Father can forgive us after the atonement why does his Son have to die.  Why can't he just forgive us if we accomplish the same growth and his Son doesn't die?etc. It is the mechanical that explores these issues and if one successfully navigates the process there are answers to these questions.  I agree though that in the rehearsal of the mechanical one can loose sight of the spiritual and so it is incumbent to pull the two together as once one does grasp the mechanisms God used to bring all these things about one can only grow in ways not accessible through any other venue as one observes how all things are subject to the Father and that he manages the law with flawless brilliance to achieve his goals.

Yup. The more the atonement is active in our day-to-day living, the greater the understanding. As with many principles of the Gospel, comprehension flows from experiencing and doing, or in other words by living an atoned-filled life..
Thanks, -Wade Englund-
 

Just out of curiosity @Blossom76 how far are you from the brissie temple and have you been there yet? It's at kangaroo point overlooking the river. Non-members can roam the grounds and perhaps feel of the spirit of the temple and temple work. If you haven't been yet i encourage you to choose a wise and experienced temple recommend holding friend and take the time to just sit and think and pray and feel in the temple grounds for an hour or two. It can be a very peaceful and comforting experience 

I think that the examples you have mentioned here are examples of laws that God has made for us, His children, and not for himself. As shown in the scriptures, God can break these kind of laws without consequence, probably because they are not binding on Him, but there are other laws that God cannot break without suffering some kind of consequence, eg Alma 42:13. Therefore, according to justice, the plan of redemption could not be brought about, only on conditions of repentance of men in this probationary state, yea, this preparatory state; for except it were for these conditions, mercy could not take effect except it should destroy the work of justice.  Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God. I believe that there are other laws that pre-date the existence of God, and to which God is subject. An example of this kind of law are laws of justice and I suspect there are many others.