NeedleinA

Allow me to apologize for not keeping up with the forum.  I will not have time to read or respond to posts through this season and will likely not even have time off to celebrate Christmas this year.
 
This has caused me to reflect in the few quiet moments I have this season to ponder why Christmas is important.  I do not believe this is the season of the Christ's birth.  But I have come to believe this is the perfect season for a forgotten reason to celebrate Christmas - so much so that it may be the most important reason to celebrate Christmas.  Perhaps the season of most darkness (longest night) is the perfect season to celebrate the Christ coming among men.
 
I would propose that a reason to celebrate Christmas is to look forward and prepare for the second coming.  Or if you will - the second Noel or the second advent.  Perhaps we ought to be looking forward to the end of oppression, war, strife, sickness and pain.  A time when saints and angles will sing together to welcome a new era of love, peace on earth and good will to men -- which is my hope for us all this season - to remember Christ will come.

This has always been a tricky one for me personally. I'm not sure by what measurement "church presence" is gauged by? Formal missionaries with name tags or military service men and women sharing the gospel in countries they serve? Are we officially already in China with the Hong Kong temple? Does a LDS ambassador or oil field worker serving in a country count if they share the gospel while there. Does a general authority participating in a discussion forum at the Vatican count as missionary work for that country?
 
In early church history, it was easy to say that there was "no church presence" physically in most  countries, however, I would safely suggest that every single country now have LDS members living in them and sharing the gospel one way or another. Have they alone established a "church presence"?

The first thought that comes to me is that I lost my childhood through sexual abuse.  I was a very miserable kid and went on to be a very miserable adult.  My compensation has been the atonement removing that pain and giving me a unique perspective on life, and the ability to empathize with other victims of abuse.  One of my gifts is the ability to talk, to persuade, to counsel and those gifts have been enhanced because of my childhood.  Often, I can find something to say to someone who is dealing with depression and PTSD because of their own abusive childhood.  I think of this as a precious gift.

Here is an update on this subject.  A supervisor who was making about forty people miserable was terminated on the 30th of November 2015.  Thus far since he is gone the work environment has improved.  We shall see how the environment continues.

In all honesty...  people need to get out of the mindset that they have the "right" to do whatever they please at the expense of someone else.  And if they make an agreement and then break it they should not have to pay the consequence.
 
And that is exactly what this question boils down to.  If a person does not like the rules BYU has then they should look elsewhere.  If they do go to BYU and then decide to break the rules then they should be ready to face the consequence of that choice.

Yeah.
It's been my experience that most rank-and-file critics of the church know nothing more than what their ministers spoon-feed them.
...as regards not only us but their own theology & history as well.

You might also point out that the slaves who went east (to Moslem countries) died of sexual abuse: the boys died when their captors castrated them without anesthesia or bandages, the girls after being raped repeatedly, during child birth (the children following the same paths), or beatings.
There are almost no Blacks in Arabia, although millions were abducted. There are millions of Blacks in the West. The difference is that Blacks in the West reproduced, lived, while those in the East died.
No one is advocating slavery, but there is a difference between slavery as practiced in the Americas and that still being practiced in Arabia and other Moslem countries.
What also gets forgotten is that there were at least as many White slaves as Blacks in what would become USmerica: the term indentured servant doesn't carry the same weight as slave, but they were, for all intents and purposes, the same. In some ways indentured servitude was worse because the master had no vested interest in keeping the indentured servant alive toward the end of the indenture. A slave was going to be worth something to him in ten years, an indentured servant would not only walk away, but he was required to outfit him and give him some money at the end of the term. So, the indentured servant at the end of his tenure was expendable.
And, finally, the first slave owner in what would become USmerica was a Black man who refused to honor the end of the term of an indentured servant he owned. The court ruled that the John Casor had to remain with Anthony Johnson. Both had been captured by Moslems in Africa and sold to slavers who brought them (at different times) to the colonies.
Government, in this case, failed to enforce the terms of a contract. Just another indicator.
Lehi

I don't like to use derogatory terms, but everything points to a money-grubbing . . . person . . . . This behavior is typical of someone who has no desire to to the right thing all they see is getting as much as they can for as little as they can.
 
Your house is paid for-that speaks to someone who either has lived very frugally, made lots of money, or done both.
 
This is not advice, and I don't know what the law says, but if it were me.  I'd take all my bank accounts, stocks etc. I'd cash them out and I'd buy gold in cash. The only thing that is traceable is the cash-out.  You can sue me, garnish my wages, etc., but the gold is untraceable-ain't getting it. I can hold a lot of value in very little space with it. If they knew I'd bought metals-I'd level my backyard, I'd put the amount that I decide she should get in the backyard for her to find good and deep. I would hand her a shovel to my backyard and say
 
"You want it, dig for it; it's a perfect metaphor for you". 
 
Yes, I am ruthless at protecting what's mine :-). And yes I really would do that.

Many Sith hide behind a mask. Many MLM Sith hide behind the mask of pretending to be friends until they realize you aren't going to buy something. 
 

I believe the Smith family used the term "adieu" quite a bit, so it would have been very familiar to Joseph.
 
The French word "adieu", like the Spanish "adios" and the Italian "addio", literally means "to God". Of couse, the native English word "goodbye" is a shortened form of "God be with ye" (which should grammatically be "God be with you", not "ye", but that's another discussion), but the word "God" is sort of lost in the contraction. With the French word "Dieu" ("God") front and center in the term "adieu", maybe there was a sense of the loving invocation of God's name that seemed somehow lost in the English term.

I am trying to read the BOM by Christmas. It's not going as fast as I had hoped, but I'm still reading, so I guess that's what counts.
 
The other day I read, "Brethren, adieu." in Jacob. Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. Adieu? In the BOM??? Obviously I didn't read as closely as I might have the first time around. This was shocking. Now, I firmly believe that Joseph Smith translated the BOM, but 'adieu'? Surely Brother Joseph sneaked in there a little, certainement? I could have let that be the beginning of a slippery slope of picking apart the BOM for what I thought didn't belong there.
 
Then I did some online searching and found 'Why is the French word "adieu" in the Book of Mormon?  And my questions were answered!  See:  http://en.fairmormon.org/Book_of_Mormon/Anachronisms/Language/%22Adieu%22 
 
As President Uchtdorf said, "Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters - my dear friends - please, first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."  
 
Doubt your doubts and do your research!
 
 
 

Being invited to a ward members house for dinner = nice and thoughtful
Being invited to a ward members house under the disguise of dinner only have the MLM people jump on you = not so nice and thoughtful

You may be a long way from where God wants you to end up, but does that mean you are not where He wants you to be now?

Crises among those you love the most tend to sharpen your focus, and the unimportant trivia that so often fills our time and our minds suddenly drops away. Would that I always had that clarity of vision.

Very sorry to hear Anatess. Strong members can unfortunately become weak BUT weak members (ex-members) can become strong again too... you never really know. The one thing you can know for sure is what "you" are going to do regardless of what others do. 
 
Members leaving the church over a policy change isn't something new and will most likely happen every time new "change" occurs. 
Either the Savior is in charge of running "his" church OR he is not. I think many faithful Latter-day Saints have taken the time to understand, study and pray about the changes in the church. 
 
Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.
 
If faithful lifetime members are leaving the church because of a month old policy, it seems like a pretty knee jerk reaction to me. I wonder how much pleading unto the Lord they did for understanding of the policy first?

all the other blather about what Joseph Smith maybe did or didn't say, or people's personal glosses on scriptural passages, or stories about some supposed prophecy that may or may not have been made 150 years ago, all start sounding like college sophomores prattling on about their pet politically correct topic. It's the blind leading the blind, a maddening parade of foolishness and noise, an example of the words Shakespeare put into Macbeth's mouth:
 
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then is heard no more: it is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing. 
When our soul craves truth -- real, solid truth, not meaningless trivia or someone's stupid idea of one-upping others by displaying their immense grasp of nothing at all -- then we are ready to be told the painful truths. At that point, the question is whether we are humble enough to receive the truth and whether we have cultivated our spiritual sensitivity enough to have ears to hear.
 
God give me ears to hear and a humble heart to accept what I need to know. Whatever pain I experience will be made up ten thousand fold in the pain I and my loved ones can avoid. And God keep me from being one of the prattling fools who are more interested in showing off than in learning and teaching real truths.

Very sorry to hear Anatess. Strong members can unfortunately become weak BUT weak members (ex-members) can become strong again too... you never really know. The one thing you can know for sure is what "you" are going to do regardless of what others do. 
 
Members leaving the church over a policy change isn't something new and will most likely happen every time new "change" occurs. 
Either the Savior is in charge of running "his" church OR he is not. I think many faithful Latter-day Saints have taken the time to understand, study and pray about the changes in the church. 
 
Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.
 
If faithful lifetime members are leaving the church because of a month old policy, it seems like a pretty knee jerk reaction to me. I wonder how much pleading unto the Lord they did for understanding of the policy first?

Very sorry to hear Anatess. Strong members can unfortunately become weak BUT weak members (ex-members) can become strong again too... you never really know. The one thing you can know for sure is what "you" are going to do regardless of what others do. 
 
Members leaving the church over a policy change isn't something new and will most likely happen every time new "change" occurs. 
Either the Savior is in charge of running "his" church OR he is not. I think many faithful Latter-day Saints have taken the time to understand, study and pray about the changes in the church. 
 
Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.
 
If faithful lifetime members are leaving the church because of a month old policy, it seems like a pretty knee jerk reaction to me. I wonder how much pleading unto the Lord they did for understanding of the policy first?

It's never easy, especially when they were people you looked up to. I have to remind myself that the way I remember them wasn't fake, they weren't just pretending to love the gospel or to feel the spirit. The lessons I learned from them were still inspired and changed my life. No matter how much they bag on the church now, it doesn't change the fact that at one point, they were a power for good. But it doesn't make what they are doing any less hurtful, especially since I knew them during better times. 
 
I am sorry Anatess.

Save $15 on an item you really didn't think you needed to begin with. 
 
1. Struggle to find parking
2. Stand (fight) in line
3. Crazy people
4. 99% fake off brand deals
5. Long check out lines
6. Etc.
 
I'll save more than $15 by just not going in the first place. Marketing ploy with a real deal only once every 5 years.

Save $15 on an item you really didn't think you needed to begin with. 
 
1. Struggle to find parking
2. Stand (fight) in line
3. Crazy people
4. 99% fake off brand deals
5. Long check out lines
6. Etc.
 
I'll save more than $15 by just not going in the first place. Marketing ploy with a real deal only once every 5 years.

I accumulated a box just like this. Kept hanging on to it "just in case". Technology/cords change so fast that a lot of it is obsolete before you realize it anyways. Goodwill in our area has a "computer" donation center. I just took the whole box there. Great feeling to get rid of the clutter/junk!

Facebook Friends Song
 
 

If anyone's ever unfriended me I don't know it. I've unfriended several. I can't stand Facebook, and it doesn't take much to get you unfriended. If I check Facebook I only want to see happy, positive, uplifting things. Otherwise -- unfriended!! 
 
I suspect there will come a point where I have no Facebook friends left and no reason to go on Facebook at all. I can hardly wait for the day! 

Heh.  I was unemployed in the '90's for a while, and had my resume out on a million websites.  Got a call from a company named something like MegaTechnoTronics Unlimited or some such - they liked my skillset and wanted to interview me.  Red flag #1: The interviewer leaned in close and said as if sharing a secret, that he'd discovered a great way to make a [crap]load of money.  Red flag #2, the presentation for all the applicants would start soon.  The big wall of "product", the sensationalist urgent message, yeah, it was an MLM.  I left.
 
A few weeks later, a different call from a different company on a different end of town - SuperTronicTech Limited or some such.  Different people - but when I walked through the door I saw the exact same wall of "product" - I guess it was a standard display setup thing.  The attractive cleavage receptionist lady saw me walking out and tried some weird jedi mind trick thing by making powerful eye contact and saying "go back in".  Yeah, no.
 
A day or two after all of that, I got a call from an employer saying I had been hired, and when could I start?  It took me a minute to realize it was someone from one of those two companies.  
 
Me: "Oh - right - the multilevel marketing scheme people.  Look, John, I don't...."
Him: "Scheme?  I don't understand - this is an aboveboard job."
Me: "Ok, look.  I do not accept employment with you folks.  I do not believe I'm a right fit for your company.  I am discontinuing my interest, and I am letting you know I'm turning your offer down and you should look elsewhere. I do not want any further contact from you or anyone else in your company.  Am I clear, or do I need to start looking into how to file a complaint against you people?"
Him: "I think you have us confused with someone else - this is SuperChipTasticMegaTechno Company [or some such], we're leaders in the industry of..."
Me: "Call me again and I'm filing a police report." [click]
 
Yeah, no love for these guys.  John said he was a returned missionary, and I have no reason to doubt him.  It's a shame.