Average Joe

welcome to the site. I'll trade you your two cents for my wooden nickel

The Prophet Joseph said: “After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost, (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness [including the Melchizedek priesthood and temple ordinances], and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure.” (Teachings, p. 150.) Elsewhere Joseph Smith elaborated: “From the first existence of man, the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice of all earthly things. It was through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life; and it is through the medium of the sacrifice of all earthly things that men do actually know that they are doing the things that are well pleasing in the sight of God. When a man has offered in sacrifice all that he has for the truth’s sake, not even withholding his life, and believing before God that he has been called to make this sacrifice because he seeks to do his will, he does know, most assuredly, that God does and will accept his sacrifice and offering, and that he has not, nor will not seek his face in vain. Under these circumstances, then, he can obtain the faith necessary for him to lay hold on eternal life.” (Lectures on Faith, 6:58; see alsoD&C 98:11–15 and Teachings, p. 322.) It was to William Clayton, that the Prophet Joseph said: “Your life is hid with Christ in God, and so are many others. Nothing but the unpardonable sin can prevent you from inheriting eternal life for you are sealed up by the power of the Priesthood unto eternal life, having taken the step necessary for that purpose.” (History of the Church, 5:391.)

yes he does, no escaping ultimate responsibility for the ward and that takes time...but he was inspired to put ward leaders in place for a reason, and if all home and visiting teaching accomplishes is delivering a monthly message from the Ensign, the program is pretty much a failure.

This is true, but sending them to those you chose to delegate their aid to will save a bishop a mighty lot of time and energy.

first approach the bishop about what has been going on. your gf may not be the only one get misinformed and that needs to be addressed regardless of you and your gf. as to you and your gf,.honesty is the best policy. especially if you BOTH were considering marriage.

1. Managing the storehouse - Delegation. He uses the E.Q. Presidency, the HP group leaders, and RS Pres. (and they use home teachers) to evaluate needs and form action committees to recommend courses of action to help members in need for the Bishop. 2. Managing the church's funds (D&C 72:10) - Delegation. He uses the Ward financial clerk and the counselors in the bishopric to count, enter and deposit tithing funds. Each ward council presidency and member (like activates committee, YSA) summits a budget for approval. 3. Meeting with every ward member who has an emotional or financial issue. Delegation. Many of these issues are addressed per #1 above. Every ward member, their time and talents are part of the Bishop's storehouse. A member with skill as an accountant, lawyer, social worker, or whoever he deems able to help may assigned to assist. 4. Meeting with every BYU student every summer who needs their ecclesiastical endorsement (THAT must get old!) I doubt seeing someone they watched grow up making something of their lives could ever get old. All in all, the key is inspiration and delegation.

This will be a new experience for you so being nervous is natural. Remember, you have someone with you to assist you and there's a good chance others will be there for the first time also. You won't remember everything the first visit and that is natural too. Savor the spirit...and plan to attend regularly so you can learn "line upon line, precept upon precept". Take some time in earnest prayer and reflection in the celestial room. Enjoy your time in the House of the Lord. :)

When in doubt turn to the scriptures, like Leviticus 19:31 New American Standard Bible 'Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God. King James Bible Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God. ​And remember, God is not the author of confusion, Satan is.

A good message for all I'd say :)

welcome to the site :)

He can't shake my faith but I've managed to place a biblical dent or two in his religion of choice in the past. I like to think I can handle my "troubles" with out including HR.

lol, I've had those types of "discussions" too...this one is evolving somewhat. Apparently he had read about Old Testament scripture fragments being found in Egyptian funeral masks...and Smith (I have gotten him to quit calling Joseph, Joe Smith or Ol' Joe) claimed to translate from Egyptian and scriptures in a mummy. Yeah, I know but at least its Q&A and not "Hey, I'm trying to save your dumb Mormon self from going straight to heck"

umm...since your gonna be picking up cheese cake anyways, I like cheese cake too!

anytime someone says y'all its gotta be a good thing, welcome! :)

cool. not aware of that. thanks for updating me :)

That is my all time favorite - being wrong about my own church - something they've never even set foot in. I know this situation isn't unique to me, it doesn't eat at me anymore but sometimes it gets really, really, really old. Thanks for sharing your story with me. :)

but it also helps for checking on how long someone has been in a calling, like keeping a list of talks for the past few years to help insure no gets overlooked.

gotta agree with you on that :)

for a man who has no time, free time itself is a gift. the last gift I got that I liked was a Ruger .45 - I bought it for myself, so that may not count - and certainly won't help if he's a not a gun guy. :)

I'll bet - since your down there in it too

I'm not in a city, I avoid those like the plague if I can. I'm in South Carolina and have learned how to give as good as I get without getting nasty about it. Most folks here are live and let live but those "chosen few" can be a piece of work.

Wasn't a bad day...more of a "here we ago again" kind of a thing. There are a few at work that, idk, had a tent service or sermon about cults and they become defenders of the non-cult Christians for a couple of days before letting it go and getting back to live and let live. I agree with you. As long as they don't get nasty just roll with it. :)

It is the stake clerk's calling to train the branch clerk. It is the branch clerk's calling to update MLS for callings I don't know about your branch but the ward I attend has a log book of calling and setting aparts - name, date, & and who set them apart in addition to MLS.

it is, everybody is just kicking the responsibility around instead of a soccer ball

I had heard we had a seer stone but didn't bring it up because I didn't have a reference of the source...anyway, what I told him was accurate enough. Thanks for mentioning it...you don't recall the source do you? :)