priesthoodpower

Looking forward to his return is a positive thing in that it gives you hope and meaning even if he didnt or wont come in your lifetime. I personally have come to dislike it when people say "We must prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ" especially in the context of getting us to be more obedient. I much rather prefer the words "We must prepare to meet Jesus Christ" because this implies meeting him if he did return to earth tomorrow or if you died tomorrow and met him on the other side.

(These are only my opinions and my perspective) We do have two big familys in our stake whose roots go back to the settlement of the church in this area. Most of their relatives have served in high positions over the decades. Recently their two son-in-laws were bishops in two wards one of um is now the Stk pres. People here are really laid back and dont care about those things because those families are really good genuine LDS people. My thoughts are more along the lines that they have more stable support from their realtives to fulfill those callings. I can see how in places like Utah or Idaho where the thought of nepotism would raise eyebrows because it seems that the church culture there is a competition sort of like keeping up with the joneses both spiritualy and financially, atleast thats what I observed when I lived in Provo from 1995-2002. Maybe its good that we (specifically Utah) is getting less church, more time to reflect on themselves at home instead of going to church to compare themselves with their neighbors and even worse...judge each other. I loved the 3hr block and I loved my upbringing in the church back in the 80s and 90s because it was 100% my social life, more church was ideal for me growing up, but may I make an interesting observation and comparison? I got my associates degree in 2002 and failed to return for my Bachelors because life got busy and I just dont like traditional schooling. I love learning but not in a college setting and definitely not at the price of tuition. I made one attempt in 2010 to finish my degree at the Univ of phoenix but only lasted one semester and dropped out..it was 50% on-campus and 50% online. This past summer I was introduced to a 100% online accelerated program, you work at your own pace and test out of classes as fast or slow as you want. Price is also way cheaper. So this past June 2018, I started the program and so far after 4 months have completed 21 credits. I dont meet face to face with any teachers or counselors and dont need to wait on other students, not much pressure and Im in control. Is this an anti-social environment? Yeah, but what matters is the end result. My Bachelors degree will be just as valid as one from any other Big or small university. I was not planning on going back to get a Bachelors degree in my lifetime but a new system was introduced and it met my needs. The end result for us LDS is to obtain and maintain a temple recommend, which assures us greater chances of eternal life with our Heavenly Father. Traditional methods of Home Teaching are gone, a new ministering system is introduced to meet the needs of the people. Traditional 3 hr church is gone, 2hr blocks are introduced to meet the needs of the people. In the end its all the same goals and results. Get that TR. Who knows, maybe one day we wont need to go to a church building, interviews with bishops via skype or even through an lds.org website chat app. Not having to be face-to-face with my leaders is not going to influence me to be less obedient, heck maybe even the opposite, I will be able to grow at my own pace and take responsibility for my own salvation and be more serious about it. I know members who have left the church (my ex) who is still very spiritual and God fearing but the current human structure of any religion is a big turn off for her. She actually found a place of worship and no human stand between her and her faith, its listening to abraham hicks talks on youtube. I dont like those abraham hicks talks but I dont see how our church cant morph our style to reach out and fill the needs of people like my ex. I see this change from 3hr to 2hr church as a form of taking just a little bit of the social human element out of the worship and putting it onto ourselves. *once again, just my perspective.

Last year when I worked on Sunday and could only attend the 1hr sacrament, My bishop told me in my TR interview "due to your circumstances its ok to only attend sacrament, partaking of the sacrament is very crucial." and issued me my TR. The internet is opening social avenues for people of all ages and particularly the younger generation. I am 42 and not really a millennial but I relate more with that generation. Outside of work/school, we are having less and less tolerance of being told what to do because we can go online in social media (FB, IG, Blogs etc..) and find acceptance there. When you attend church you hear people telling you what do to...or else you are "going to hell", or "you will not have the spirit with you." We are on the internet learning of new ideas (science, diet, health, spiritual, medical, etc...). We are more informed and connected to cultures and people on the other side of the world that are interesting to us and we have less interest in the social culture going on in our own physical neighborhoods. With new research coming out everyday we are more able to connect the dots between science and religion. I believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true gospel and his church is the only true church but church is a social activity, worship is an individual thing between you and God. If I attend church and the majority of active members are 60 and over (wheres all the young families?) I have to put up with old people and their old way of projecting their ideals upon me. Its not a social environment I have to be in . Technology has brought satan into our homes 24 hours a day so its spot on that our Prophet is countering with "less church" and more "home worship". This revelation is also the result of the reports coming up the chain from the stakes and wards that many are going inactive (I speak for my stake as a prime example). There are many that have left the church (my ex-wife is one) but have not requested removal from church records, so despite thinking that membership numbers are high, active members is a different story. I see these new revelations and changes in our church as a process of problem solving.

Thanks for the advice and well wishes all.

Your response is not a one size fits all recommendation. A man that is brave enough to cross the boundaries (emotionally) with his friends wife is a coward. I do not protect nor have the tolerance for cowards. The fact that he is in a position of power as the Bishop aka Spiritual leader and he allowed this to happen for months and is a family friend makes him an even bigger one. My suggestion was for the OP to confront the bishop face to face at the OP's earliest opportunity, even if it means Thursday night after work at the bishops house while the Bishop is having dinner with his family, a man that messes with another mans wife should expect repercussions, not violently of course but just words, whats wrong with words. Story #1 My 15yr old daughter was at summer fun last week and one of the adult leaders, who is a goof ball but sometimes takes things too far, got annoyed that my daughter wouldnt stop speaking in a british accent. So he sprayed her with a spray bottle and told her it was toilet water. She repeatedly asked him if it really was toilet water and he would not respond yes or no. So my daughter called me crying that she got sprayed by toilet water. I rushed down there and walked in the middle of the room where they were having closing ceremonys and ask Who is Mr. XXXX? He raised his hand, I pulled him to the side and we conversed in a normal tone which I dont think everyone overheard but just the fact that I was there meant something was up. He swore that it wasnt toilet water and it was just a big misunderstanding so he offered an apology to my daughter, we shook hands and I left. He did not respect the feelings of my daughter by admitting to her that it wasnt toilet water, instead he left her wondering in fear. My first reaction was to tell her to let it slide, just take a shower when you come home and then Ill call his manager but no, his actions do not deserve a respectful and discrete response. The Lord has no problem with the way I handled the situation. Story #2 10 yrs ago a father in our ward went on a business trip over seas, he had an affair during his trip. He came home and the wife found out so she started to make plans to leave him. One Sunday as they (him, her and the kids) were walking toward the entrance of the Chapel I had no idea what was going on with them so I asked, "are you guys coming to the ward activity next week?" She said, "No he cheated on me, were getting a divorce and im moving back home tmrw!". Im sure the Lord has no problem that she wasnt discrete and respectful of his character.

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OP I know how you are feeling, of all people in the world the Bishop is the last to be an enabler to a vulnerable married woman. If he is guilty as charged You have every right to confront him and call him out on his BS, there is this culture of keeping things quiet in our church and to calmly sweep things that dont seem to be major under the rug. NOPE! Make a big deal of it or else he and others wont realize the severity of his actions, and yes, others need to know, as in his wife, the counselors etc..

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Things are changing now because change cannot be stopped anymore, this new younger generation of kids believe in open source and sharing ideas where as the older generation is stuck on patents and monopolizing industrys. Google Monsanto Once these men build their companys to be big and powerful, they want to keep it that way, even if it means playing dirty politics to shut down the competition that may have a better product/service.

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Thank you for sharing your story and being real. Similar to you and your family, I too feel the effects of life taking its toll on me and my relationships. I have had similar thoughts as you in regards to my relationship with my wife, when I think back to the advice that my bishop gave me over the years, he was right all the time, the only problem was that I choose to make my own decisions. In my current situation I have not yet visited with the Bishop, I am afraid of hearing what he will say. Another piece of advice that I have come across was that the Lord puts obstacles in our path to strengthen us, he puts people in your life to teach you a lesson and grow from it. You can look at it in two ways. 1. Your wife came into your life, and you both experienced this sinning, and now you can go your seperate ways. Adultery is justifiable for divorce. 2. You experienced this sinning together and now need to learn to forgive and grow closer together. My intuition of hearing about your wifes attitude in not wanting to be repentant and actually liking the sinning, is that she needs to continue to go down that path until she can comeback on her own. You wont change her and I think you need to move on.

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I allowed my 15yr old daughter to wear anything as revealing as she wanted, but not in public. So she took 10 of the most skimpy bikinis with her into the department store dressing room, stayed there for 1 hr. Came out, put it all back on the rack. The next day she went swimming in her usual rash guard and board shorts. Oh, and I was sure to monitor her IG account to make sure none of those pics got uploaded.

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Christ was not assigned to minister to people. He casually went about his travels and anyone he met along the way he shared the message. That is true, genuine, Ministering.

Faith starts where science ends. God is the ultimate scientist and in order for us to become like him we need to advance our science, aka electronics, Its not going to go away, in fact its getting better every decade. The only thing holding us back is corporations greed for power/money. @vort mentioned petroleum as the life blood of our society, yet the petroleum industry is controlled by powerful men that dont want things to change. It is already a reality that electronics are going to replace the truck driver, maybe iits not too long b4 we get rid of the truck too.