pkstpaul

The people who run that country are pure evil. Given resources, they would run tyranny over the entire Mideast. Imposing sactions was not just about nuclear power. It has to do with state-sponsored terrorism accross the entire region and horrible atrocities they have imposed on their own people. If not for Russia supporting them, with their own limited amount of resources, Iran's leadership would have fallen long ago and there would be a limited democracy - and prosperity - there.
 
To remove santions is to grow evil. We are unleashing Pandora's box.

Sounds like a bomb ready to go off.  If he isn't in trouble with the law, it likely will come. Honestly, there isn't much one can do beyond the obvious - love, mentor, set an example, etc. If he's 13, there is some hope that he will adjust. 14 and older, he likely is going to attach himself to whomever he can associate with - the bad kids at school, because they accept anyone. At 17 he'll leave home and go back to Florida. That's a dark picture, I know, but it is the most common.
 
The best thing is to keep him involved in something, anything, even if he doesn't like it. That means time that I bet an expectant mother with four children doesn't have (nor the father).  Bini, if your husband is the type, he could be a great mentor. I was involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters and it really doesn't take much time to make an impact. Just a few hours a week. Go fly a kite or fish or volunteer to drive him to soccer, etc. The child may not seem like he wants or appreciates it, but trust me, the alternative is sitting around texting and surfing YouTube.
 
Good luck.

Sounds like a bomb ready to go off.  If he isn't in trouble with the law, it likely will come. Honestly, there isn't much one can do beyond the obvious - love, mentor, set an example, etc. If he's 13, there is some hope that he will adjust. 14 and older, he likely is going to attach himself to whomever he can associate with - the bad kids at school, because they accept anyone. At 17 he'll leave home and go back to Florida. That's a dark picture, I know, but it is the most common.
 
The best thing is to keep him involved in something, anything, even if he doesn't like it. That means time that I bet an expectant mother with four children doesn't have (nor the father).  Bini, if your husband is the type, he could be a great mentor. I was involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters and it really doesn't take much time to make an impact. Just a few hours a week. Go fly a kite or fish or volunteer to drive him to soccer, etc. The child may not seem like he wants or appreciates it, but trust me, the alternative is sitting around texting and surfing YouTube.
 
Good luck.

Perhaps it is specific to the teacher. I, for one, had a terrible time with team teachers in the room. It was generally a mess with no chemistry. I guess we just lacked faith. Personally, I think the kids deserved better and did better with a dedicated teacher.

Amen to that!

She's trying to tell you something and you're not listening. Listen.

Making it to the Celestial Kingdom is a choice. It's not like winning the lottery.

She's trying to tell you something and you're not listening. Listen.

She's trying to tell you something and you're not listening. Listen.

I think some simple reasons, at least for those who are newly converted or don't have a strong testimony to begin with, are things like: feeling alienated or disconnected from fellow members, not feeling the spirit in their ward and finding it elsewhere, unable to come to terms with certain teachings and doctrines, and sometimes, it's a clash between them and another member that never gets resolved.

One reason your father's ward may have more Sisters assigned than Elders, is that many wards have the members housing the missionaries and many members cannot have, or do not want, Elders living in th home. It is easier to find housing for Sisters. My ward now has two sets of sisters and I haven't seen Elders in years.
 
In my opinion, the Sisters may be too embarrassed to say 'no' to your father, or he makes it difficult for them to say no. He may be perceived as wealthy and that the gifts and meals are not extravagant for him. In either case, most missionaries would turn down the money and would not be comfortable eating a fancy meal. Ask your father to be considerate of the missionaries feelings and offer less or embarrass them less. Going out for meals is an ideal way of tackling what you saw as an issue of sisters not being alone with a single male. They should have discussed the matter with their leader and he may have given permission for them to be alone, due to your father's age. I'm sure every case is different and handling the situation is often done "by the Spirit." 
 
I might suggest you join your father in the discussions. This may curtain some of the behavior you are witnessing and will help you in understanding any decision he makes regarding baptism or activity in the Church.

I hear this the most. A simple offense toward someone, a slight comment, taken to heart. It cuts deeper then one would think.
 
I see too that people find an occasion not to attend for more than a couple of weeks in a row and find out that nothing bad happened. Nobody got hurt and nobody feels any the worse. They then measure the relative ease of not going to the "burden" of going and decide to just stay away. 
 
It is one reason I advocate for less orthodoxy in the Church and why I get caught up in arguments in the fourm. I believe being at church should be joyful and not a burden. Nobody should be made to feel out of place or unworthy. Making the comments in SS or RS about what "perfect" behavior should be, or telling people the resolution to their problems are only about becoming more perfect are not solutions at all - not for those who feel weak.
 
It doesn't mean turning church into a three-ring circus where everyone feels good doing whatever they want - something TFP said I was insinuating - it means being more sensitive to those who struggle to be at church and who don't "fit" the mold of reading scriptures everyday and holding FHE every week and pray five times a day, or pay a full tithe. I hear over and over again comments in meetings that I think offend others by calling people unto repentance (not directly) or insinuate people's problems are due to unrigheousness. No, peoples' problems are sometimes just due to life - the Plan.
 
Do we have a responsibility to call people to repentance? Yes.  Are we to seek exaltation through edification? Yes.
 
I, in no way, would condone any member to live less than what our prophets and leaders have taught. That is not my argument. My argument is that those whose only repsonse to people questioning and hurting is to "do better", only pushes people away from the gospel. We need to allow (tolerate) some level of "sin" in order to pull people into the influence of the gospel by keeping them in church.
 
Be sensitive when discussing obedience in class.

I still pay my tithing but I am inactive. Have been for quite some time. My reason is that I simply do not belong, many members have gone out of their way to remind me of that fact, and the benefits of regular attendance have never yet outweighed the benefits of staying at home whilst still doing everything else I ought to be doing. 

I believe that the reason most single sisters are not married is because there are very few worthy males to marry.
The stories my daughters tell me about the guys they or their friends meet. I have a 31 yr old daughter twice divorced. First guy never held a job in the four years they were married, he had his own business. That meant he could play XBox until late at night with his buddies and then work and hour or two and rest before next Xbox marathon. Divorced him when she had the baby and he still wouldn't work or take care of the baby and the house while she worked. Next guy she married was physically abusive.
Other daughter served a mission in South Africa. Holds current temple recommend, very outgoing, physically fit and beautiful. She is 29 and all the guys she knows around her age are not interested in a serious relationship.
The rest of the guys have issues with immorality, pornography, still students at 28, too occupied playing video games, etc.
One guy invited my daughter out to dinner, she went to a medium priced place, he told her to pick the place. When they got there he ordered water, she ordered a soda, he asked her what she liked on the menu, when she told him he said, oh good we can share it. She told him, "you know I work I can pay for my own meal." He still shared it with her and she paid half. Here she is a single mom, he asks her out on a date and she has to pay half. Loser.
Ben Raines

For as long as I have had a care to care, I've regarded the creation story as just that, an allegory. 

Cool.

I think it will be more of a... I wonder how long until the lawsuits start showing up.

I've been through the immigration process from your cousins spouses perspective.
Firstly, it's been a couple of years since I had to deal with it, but I'm pretty sure there is no mechanism for transferring from a tourist visa to a marriage visa while in the country - it has to be applied for outside of the USA. It's different if he is here on a fiancee visa transferring to a marriage visa, but I'm pretty sure what they are doing is illegal, whether they know it or not. I'd caution them to check this with USCIS. If he is here illegally, its grounds for a denial and a ban when it comes to applying for a visa in the future. These bans can last from 10 years to a lifetime and believe me when I say USCIS have no sympathy.
It's also worth noting that a courthouse wedding with no real wedding photos or guests won't look good when the application for his visa is made, and he wouldn't be the first to be denied on this issue alone.
Secondly, I have a great deal of empathy for them both. When I got engaged to my wife, I was accused of using her for a green card by members of her family and members of my family were mocking and taunting my wife both behind my back and in front of me, despite having never met her. I think much of it was -because- they had never met her and our relationship was fairly unusual due to the long distance involved.
So I understand why they made the decisions they did, but I suspect they did it under a misunderstanding and no real experience of going through the visa process.

I love Thailand and its people. I have been to the site with the bomb was detonated. Knowing the peace of those people was shattered is a devastating thought. They are just people going about their lives; not politician or soldiers. Just people going about their business.

I don't see defending the faith as, for the most part, arguing with someone one on one. There is little use in that sort of defending. Bear testimony and leave it at that. Where I do think "defending" the faith that comes by way of debate makes sense is in public forums or other situations where those criticizing or the like are being heard by others who might be swayed by their comments. In these cases, standing up and making a defense makes sense to me.
 
If a friend were texting me critical of the church I would probably, for the most part, ignore it.

I've never understood the advice from certain quarters to let a child skip church if they announce a desire (or whine) to not go. Will the response be the same for children who don't want to go to school or fuss about doing chores? You don't like it so you don't have to do it?
Sure, there are those who will argue "it's different". The bottom line is he is the child and you are the parent. You get to make the rules and set the standards in your home. There is absolutely nothing wrong with church attendance being one of them. That is NOT "forcing it down his throat". Should parents just abandon taking their kids to church altogether in case it somehow, someday might or might not offend their sensibilities?
You can set the pattern of attendance and require him to go. Why help him set a pattern of being inactive? Even adults can find it easy to fall into a long pattern of inactivity as the longer you don't attend, the easier it gets to simply continue with that pattern. Once he is an adult, he can make whatever choices he wants. But for now he is a child in your home, under your rules. Whether he chooses to have belief is up to him.

What the WHAT?!
 
  
Actually, it's up to the kid.

Give the kid choices . . .okay son, it's your choice if you don't want to go to church, no problem. But you don't get to just sit at home watching TV and playing video games while the rest of the family is at church. You've got 3.5 hours, when we get home the bathrooms will be cleaned, the living room mopped, the garden weeded and lawn mowed. Better get hopping 'cuz times a wasting! :-)
 
And if he isn't obedient enough to follow those instructions then you've got bigger issues than his religiosity.

Yes I don't know many if at all any 14 year olds that are having issues with these things.  Sounds more like adult issues of understanding or misunderstanding.

I use as my avatar the cover of a book called Natiya's Garden. It is a work of fiction intended to demonstrate how faith is aquired and excercised. In your scriptural quote, the meaning of perfect faith is nothing more than where your faith is to be placed, not the quality of your faith. Your actions of repentance and baptism are to be based on the savior and not any other motivating factor (i.e. fear, social acceptance, etc.).

You can insist that he attends church but I doubt you can force him to believe.
 
M.