priesthoodpower

I was poking around on the lds.org store and while logged in with my member account was able to order new garments. Did something change in the last 15 years?

yoyoteacher, your request for a preisthood blessing will benefit the giver just as much (if not more) then the receiver.

The bishop has a sacred duty to interview and receive confession from its ward membership in private, anyone that goes to a bishop to inquire about the worthiness of a certain member in his congregation is a person that is very judgemental. I can see the humor in a story like this but to be quite honest this just plays to hard on the trust factor between bishops and the general congregations they reside over.

OP in this day and age where corruption in every company, government and institution continue to grow and run rampant. The LDS church will continue to separate itself as a light of hope and righteousness. despite the human flaws of our church leaders I would suggest you continue to seek out your relationship with Jesus Christ, and from my personal experience, He lives and he does have a true church on this earth.

There are many many many reasons that cause HT visits not to occur...here are some reasons why I have not done my HT in two years. 1. I didnt like my companion and didnt even like to see him at church let alone call him to go out and HT 2. I have 3 grade school kids and a Wife and work two jobs where I barely see my family all week. 3. On top of my other volunteer responsibilities as a soccer parent of 3 ayso kids, HT takes the back seat. 4. you'd be surprised that a few of the familys that I was assigned to over the years dont really like us to invade their privacy so they avoid our calls or visits, or maybe they just dont like me. 5. personal issues in my own life/relationships dont really get me excited about preaching to others. I guess you can call it hypocrisy guilt -------------------

In todays church lesson from the new book "Presidents of the Church: Ezra Taft Benson" “When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives.” I dont know how this applies in certain circumstances like yours because wouldnt Jesus unconditionally love your ex and work like crazy to bringing him back into the fold even if it require to remarry him and do lifetime work to reactivate him? Or are you supposed to "drop him" as to not remarry but just remain friends and have some other human being work on re-activating him?

divine (Diety) and divine revelation are two different things, both of which I have experienced. I also believe that revelation and divine revelation are two similar but different things.

In the context that you put it what does divine mean? Face to face contact with angels? Gods voice literally speaking to the prophets ear? A vision via dream? I think the major revelations like Joseph Smiths first vision and the discovery of the golden plates are all divine revelation where the prophet was visited by divine beings. Stuff like day-to-day revelations for the church are more on the side of feelings and premonition, like praying and feeling good about a decision, which add the human element in the decision process and is open to error. Therefore I do not think it is divine.

didnt want to create a whole new thread but wanted to ask a similar question about tithing. I have some depths that i need to pay off and therefore I did not pay tithing at all in 2014. I plan to continue this for 2015 and hopefully go back to being a full tithe payer in 2016. I realize that I am not temple worthy because I do not pay a FULL TITHE, I am willing to try and pay 5% instead of 10% in 2015, will this qualify me to be temple worthy? If not then I dont see a point in paying 5%. It seems as though its all or nothing. You are either a full 10% tithe payer or you are not. Does the Lord bless someone for only paying 5% as opposed to someone that pays 0% any thoughts?

I have been contemplating a lot lately on why all our meetings on sundays are the way they are, it seems that there is no real opportunity to make deep friendships with other members on a personal level, just 3 hours of curriculum based instruction and people listening. Fast and testimony meetings are my favorite because we have random people getting up and talking about random spiritual things. I have concluded that it has to be this way. In the 3 hour block of church meetings we need the spirit of Christ to be as prevalent as possible and controlled meetings that are not derailed by spontaneous topics are the best way for that. Sinful acts and addiction focused discussions have no place in a church setting where we are trying to lift everyone up rather then relate to how imperfect we all are. I think ward activities,firesides,scouting, home teaching,service projects etc.. and all the other activities outside of church are the opportunity to bond closer with ward members.

I think I can relate a personal story as many of us probably can. Growing up as a kid my grandfather was the most holiest man I knew, he was the spiritual foundation for my extended family of aunts and uncles, he would gather us all together once a month and hold Family home evenings to make sure the bond of our family was always strong. When I was a teenager he was in his 70's and a patriarch for the stake. He passed away in 2009. Over recent years my mother told me bits of stories about my grandfather. My mother saw the 25 yr old grandpa, the 30,40,50 year old grandpa, I only knew the 60-90 yr old grandpa. He was consistently an over all good LDS member but it was hard for me to believe some of his actions that he did in his younger days. My father was an alcoholic and womanizer as a young adult, as soon as he had kids he straightened up, took our family to the temple to be sealed when I was a child, gave me and my brothers the priesthood and sent us off to our missions. He always put on a good example for our family. When I heard about his stories as a young single man I was in shock and couldnt believe it.

When the time is right and you feel prompted then yes I believe it is a great idea to reveal your past struggles. Your spouse or GF will appreciate your honesty and know that you are human just like everyone else.

Wasn't joking nor being a wise crack. One benefit of having my own marital/family problems is that I can sense similar behaviors in other families in the ward, instead of being annoyed of other dysfunctional familys in the ward I quietly say in my mind "I feel your pain brother, I feel your pain". When the child to parent ratio is equal then this usually does work. The problem is that a family that has multiple unruly children most likely have parents that are stressed and have marital problems not to mention the pressure of neighbors/friends pointing the finger about how terrible they are at raising kids. Tell these parents to take their kid outside and they will just go home and avoid all that stress. Then a month later in ward council meeting the bishop will talk to the council about how they can bring the family back to church. Three examples of noisy familys in my ward: 1. Four rowdy boys (6-11yr), parents are inactive. 75 yr old grandma brings them to church. 2. One 3 yr old boy with extreme ADHD, mother a recent convert from Germany, husband deployed to Iraq 3. Five kids (2mo-5yr), mother sits in pew while husband on the stand in bishopric The members in my ward tolerate the noise because we have compassion. Does the noise distract from the spirit? yes it does but it doesnt distract the bread and water to making its way down my row.

mormon women usually go on a spurt of birthing 5 children in 5 years. on the fifth year their husband gets called into the bishopbric and is sitting on the stand...u get the idea.

Having had 3 kids between 1yr-5yr at one point in time I understand how hard it is to keep them calm in sacrament. when my eldest turned 7 she was a perfectly molded child that sat quiet and listened during the entire hour of sacrament (she is 11 now). My other two kids get restless but are slowly fitting into that mold. It is a hidden blessing and i believe an important human behaviour that we are teaching our kids to sit patiently and reverently. In about twelve years when all my kids are out on their own and me and wife are sitting alone in sacrament I will smile and be proud of all the naughty little kids running around in the sacrament room causing distraction from the speaker, because those little kids will grow up to be our future leaders. Whats the alternative? tell familys with young kids to go into another room and listen to sacrament through the speaker system until the kids are 7yr old and can sit quietly? Where ever there are kids there is chaos. I lived in provo before and they just have more kids per square foot then most other areas. In my current ward here in Hawaii there are two young familys that are inactive because they seem to be stressed during the sacrament in managing their young kids and the old single ladies do an eye pass as to say "hey you guys are loud".

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What are your rules for your kids about social media?

i dont know the percentages but i would think that the first qualifications for a potential mate is physical attraction/appearance. i have known a handful of married couples that have divorced over the years and its so funny to see the divorced men automatically go back to the gym and start working out becoming more muscular and fit.

I dont keep my yellow receipts when paying tithing through out the year, I just wait till the end of the year "tithing settlement" meeting with my bishop and collect the paper that he prints out that says how much i paid. I then take that paper and give it to my tax preparer to declare as "charitable contributions" on my Federal taxes. In most all cases the bishop puts a sign-up sheet on his door in mid december inviting all members to schedule a time to meet with him, last year was the first year in my life where I did not pay a full tithe and so I avoided signing up. The clerk called me the last week of december and invited me to schedule the meeting. I met with bishop and told him that i have been going through some rough times financially. He is not there to be judgemental but rather as a comforter. The Lord commands you pay a tithe not the bishop, the bishop is there to assist you in fulfilling the Lords commandments. Bishop told me that I dont have to back pay for the times that I missed paying the tithing. He said "I encourage you to start now and get yourself back on track to paying a full-tithe". I totally love the fact that our leaders dont encourage us to pay tithes because the church needs money, they encourage us to pay tithes because they know the Lord blesses those that follow the commandments. I remember in some of these meetings having bishops that dont even look at the amount that I paid, they just simply hand me the paper to look and confirm the total amount paid and ask "are you a full-tithe payer?"

Anatess you sound like a guy when talking about Lebron James. :) I do agree that working to improve at anything (careers, relationships etc) takes work. How easy or hard you view that process of WORKING determines your outlook, its a mindset. Here are a few quotes I gathered through out the years that help to explain "success" at anything including relationships a little better, hope you guys find it helpful. -------------- - Wherever we put our time, money and energy also ends up receiving our passion, interest and affection. #familycomesfirst - "DON'T COUNT THE DAYS, MAKE THE DAYS COUNT." MUHAMMAD ALI - "The good news about life is it's not a snapshot, it's a filmstrip. It's ever changing and you're not stuck where you are right now." Dave Ramsey - "I think that's the secret to happiness, not doing what you like, but liking what you do." - Joe Ades - Grattitude is the healthiest of all our human emontions, the more you express grattitude for what u have, the more you will have to express grattitude for. The more u complain, the more problems u will have to complain about.

not these two scriptures John 8:7 ..."He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Matthew 7:3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? What im saying is that as a society we need to stand up for what is right, i will gladly march (an act of condemning) down capital street in support of passing an anti-gay marriage laws, but I will not condemn a gay child in my own home (lecture in love about gay being a sin yes, condemn no).

you hear people talk alot about having a moral compass. well, I say you need a compass for everything else too. - Friendship compass - hobby compass - church calling compass - work compass - family time compass - diet compass - excercise compass - arguing with your wife compass - how to raise a child compass etc.... not knowing your limits and finding that perfect balance will help you avoid un-needed stress/anxiety my two cents

I am currently in the same exact boat as you maybe a few months ahead of you, I have passed the tolerate and accept stage and am learning how to embrace my wifes new outlook on life. I think the way that im getting through is to say to myself that "its not a bad thing", "its just a phase and she will comeback one day". She has already had bad experiences with non-lds members out in the community where they back stab her or act less civilized then what were are used to with our member friends and through these experiences she realizes that mormons arent that bad after all. Sometimes you need to experience the dark side to realize how dark it really is. Keep the faith and have hope my friend. Good luck bro!

it is a very hard and touchy subject. Im glad God is the judge and has the last word in everything. I think it is our duty as human beings to maintain a society based on christian values but it is not our duty to tell a sinner (gay person) that he/she is a sinner or evil. But how do you have the one and not the other? I have a seven year old daughter that has shown some weird behavior from ever since she was a baby, lets just say that if she went off to college and came home with a girlfriend I wouldnt be surprised. I would never now nor then say or show any thing toward her but love. There is just too much gays that commit suicide because of opposition from their familys and friends.