Iggy

Apparently, you do.

So sorry, I did not ask you to do that for me. It was for your own information. I already read it and was totally fine with it.

Both of you enough of your *The Sky Is Falling* nonsense. Neither one of you even went to Ancestry dot com to research what they do and do NOT do with the DNA information. I did. Before I even purchased the DNA kits. @Just_A_Guy I actually expected more from you. Such as Due Diligence. And just because you BOTH really pissed me off, here is AncestryDNA Privacy Statement in its ENTIRETY.

I am okay with that like I said - Husband and I don't have any skeletons in the closet.

Ancestry doesn't do that. As for personal information - my mailing address is not personal. Besides, neither Husband nor I have any skeletons in our own closet to worry about, and we are actually looking for ALL of the family skeleton's AND their stories. I do not put out our real names, pinpoint our actual physical address via internet forums, so, in that, I am a wack. The God-given gift of discernment I have has indicated that Ancestry can be trusted. I stand on that.

You were not wrong. http://www.ecollegetimes.com/5-famous-backwards-messages-on-records Only you had to stop the record and push/turn it backward. I did this to an album but put the needle starting at the opposite side. No subliminal messages, just icky sound. Some friends of mine had a VHS movie tested for subliminal images by an FBI relative of theirs. Yep, there were a LOT of subliminal images in it. Dang if I can remember the movie, but I often thought that this was a commonly used thing especially in movie theaters to get you to buy more concession foods.

I am trying to connect with living relatives - some of which hasn't been that hard really. What is hard is getting them to cut loose with the family stories/lore. If only I had the money to travel to them armed with a good tape recorder, camera, and camcorder even, and hundreds of $$ worth of blank tapes. I would even pay for a kit for my surviving brother to take the test so that I can get some DNA information on our Dad's line. BUT, he is still avoiding me because of some past childhood hurt he encountered and blames me for. I wasn't there - so it wasn't me. His son could take the test, but I would rather it be just my brother.

Ancestry is offering their DNA testing for $30.00 off, that is $69.00 folks. Today is the deadline. Oh, if you don't like Ancestry - ALL of the others are offering theirs at discounts too. I purchased two kits for Hubby and myself - this years birthday gifts - will update with the results. I went with Ancestry because both Hubby and I have accounts with FamilySearch & Ancestry and a good chunk of my relatives (who are not LDS) also belong to Ancestry and three of them have FamilySearch & Famicity accounts. I am hoping that there will be distant *Cousins* on Hubby's side who have Ancestry accounts and if there are any who have FamilySearch accounts we will be Over The Moon!

I love to read fiction novels about supernatural beings, vampires, werewolves, etc. Also, historical fiction novels. I love Twilight and have all the HARDBACK books. Love the TV series Supernatural. Oh, and as a teen, I read and loved all of my Mother's books by Georgette Heyer. When she finished the latest book, I read it. All the money I earned by selling white rat babies to the University of Washington, ironing my Uncles police buddies uniforms I gave to Mom to buy the books so she wouldn't have to super scrimp on the grocery money. Oh and I am not even one whit embarrassed by admitting that I love ABBA! Or to telling anyone my gender and age. Female, 66 (soon to be 67)

@CommanderSouth Since we are studying the New Testament this calendar year I have been using the complete Joseph Smith Translation alongside the KJV. NOT just the footnotes, but the Complete book. What a difference it makes. Talk about plain and precious truths being lost - omitted from the KJV. As for the church history being re-written, I don't see it that way. I see it as Father, through his living prophets has been giving us morsels that even the weakest of us can understand. Here a little, there a little. Line upon line. Precept upon precept. Milk before pabulum, pabulum before meat. Going back to our New Testament study. Reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They have written about the same incidents - repeating the same instructions from Jesus Christ, yet each man has omitted one or more things, or added one or more things. But in reading them over several times and listing what I call the bullet points, they are ALL saying the same thing. As for comparing Jesus Christ's Church to the Baptist's, Protestants, Catholic, Lutheran, Christian, etc. isn't really a fair and true comparison. The LDS faith - The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the same now as it was when Jesus organized it originally. As for comparing the history of the church, or the history of any of the latter-day prophets, seers & revelators told to us by various and sundry peoples aka their journals, letters, newspaper articles, said to a friend who then told a friend who then - - - etc., etc. Then claiming that said history has been rewritten is folly. Read the accounts with a pure heart, prayer and true intent by bringing the Holy Spirit into your heart. By ASKING Heavenly Father to give you a clear gift of discernment AND understanding. Ponder what you are readihng. Make notes. Lots of notes. Bullet point those impressions, or highlight them. Back many years ago when the church released those essays about church history, my niece and her husband's family went all ballistic and left the church over them. Their hue and cry - battle cry was "They lied to us. Everything that was said, taught from Primary, Seminary, Gospel Doctrine & Gospel Principles were lies. Lies, lies, and more lies." After her three Aunties patiently went over her complaints, point by point, and brought evidence of the truth of the recounting. No, there were no lies. Yes there was omissions. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little. Milk before pabulum. Pabulum before Meat. Then the declarations regarding same sex marriage, then later about the children in same sex households. Whoee, you would think that she, her husband, ALL of his near family (Mother, and all siblings & most of the spouses - Father did not enter into this *Stooopid Nonsense*) were gay, lesbian, trans, bi. NONE of them were - are. My nephew-in-law's heritage hails from LDS Pioneers. My neice on the other hand is first generation LDS. Both her parents are from NON-LDS families. My sister basically grew up in the church being the youngest sister to 4 siblings who were baptized at ages 16, 15, 14 and 14. You bring up historical doesn't back up what has been taught in the LDS church. My point of view is that there is historical backing that has *not yet* been discovered. Remember also to take into consideration the author of each revisionist article. Their history within or even without the LDS church. For that reason alone, that is why calling upon the Holy Spirit is paramount in your readings. Discernment. To have discernment in which the Holy Spirit is able to testify of the truth to you, you must stay true to the covenants you have made with Heavenly Father. Discernment is one of the major gifts that Father has blessed me with. As I have matured in age as well as in my knowledge of the gospel and principles of the gospel, this discernment has grown exponentially, and I have learned to listen, pray, ponder and then take heed of what the Father through the Holy Spirit is saying to me. I am able to discern via the internet, email & snail mail letters, videos, phone calls and of course face to face encounters. Since *forever* we have been encouraged to pray before, during and after our studies of all church related lessons. It is the same with studying/comparing the different historical essays-writings of the LDS church/ LDS peoples. Pray, ponder then ask the Holy Spirit if it is true. Then listen. Truly listen.

wear your bra over the garment, that will hold it in place.

I had to look up what retconned meant. Then I reread the posts. From the definitions (went to three different sources and got the same information) it seems both of you are looking/reading the scriptures, history of the church, perhaps even the written testimonies of church leaders as if they are fiction. They simply are NOT. My testimony is based on what the Holy Ghost has validated regarding the Book of Mormon, The Bible, the words of Father's living prophets today. NOT on the fictional recounts of anti-Mormons, disillusioned LDS members, etc. Nor is it on man alone. @JohnsonJones you said it so beautifully, thank you.

Our Branch and the Ward to the north of us are splitting off and the singles from each will be meeting at our Branch building as a Singles Branch after our *Family* block. This is not an April Fools joke, just don't know when it is going to come about.

Husband has about 4 bankers boxes full of cords, power packs, etc. Not one of them still has the item it is to power. So why keep them? MightComeHandy's? I think NOT. We also have a banker box full of speakers. Again our computers don't need external speakers. Those speakers are in the Take To The DI Pod box. He also has two bankers boxes FULL of 5" floppies, 3" floppies and OS CD's that are no longer in existence. When his son gets here, sometime in June or July, then all of that is going to the dump. I spent all of October and November cleaning out the boxes of my STUFF that hadn't seen the light of day for nearly 10 years. If it was obsolete it went to the dump. If it was usable then it went to the DI Pod. Did take the extra phone cords and assorted accsesories to the DI Pod. I ran 100 foot cords along the walls inside, so that I could set up land phones where ever I might want them. It never fails that when the power goes out, our cell phone batteries are near dead, I feel safer with a land phone in each room. The cordless & cell phones that were broke went to the dump. Didn't break my heart at all. Why they had even been packed up and moved - Twice - is beyond me. Broken is broken, toss it. We have two printers that have been taking up valuable space in the closet. They are broken, & have been replaced so why won't Hubby take them to the dump??? What did get taken to the dump without my knowledge is the box of extension cords. Not a thing wrong with them either. They were 4ft, 6ft, 12ft and 15ft ones in brown, white and green. There were about 4 6ft long 4 outlet strips too. Haven't a clue why those got tossed. Or maybe one of the neighbors who helped load up the U-Haul truck took them as "payment"??? Instead of taking my old sewing machine to the dump I found a guy who paid me $10.00 to take it off my hands. He repairs them, and he needed parts. I was glad to get rid of it! He called me three months later and said that he couldn't get it to work, but he was able to use every part from it on other machines. I was glad to contribute to his new start-up business. He also found a buyer for the embroidery cams, zipper, and button hole attachments and asked for my mailing address. He sent me a $200.00 check as my part of what he got for them. Yeah me. The other thing that Hubby has kept for decades [like 4 decades] are greeting cards sent to him. Those he can keep, as they really don't take all that much room/space. I would like to put them in 3 ring binders, rather than in the variety of boxes they are now in. Me, I like getting cards, but if the picture can't be cut up into smaller usable pictures (tree, flower, box, etc.) then the entire thing gets tossed into the paper recycling. Or if the greeting is unique - I like A LOT- then I cut it out, add it to the folder of past greetings to be used in future cards that I make. But Step Son has quite the job ahead of him when he comes to visit. He knows how much STUFF his Pop has accumulated. He also knows that ALL of it is unusuable and really must go to the dump. I need to find some sturdy, smaller than computer size boxes to put all of our empty recycable glass jars into. Small enough to be lifter by Step Son and then emptied out at the dump. I say dump, because it once was. A Big Hugh Landfill. Newspapers, brown glass, green glass and clear glass bottles, tin cans and aluminum foil was the only thing seperated for recycling. Now it is a transfer station. All the above are recycled as well as only two kinds of plastics. Cardboard such as egg cartons are set off to the side and those in this area that raise chickens pick them up. Anyway. Step Son has a big job on his hands. Convincing Pop that all those cords, cables, floppies, etc. must go. He has also promised to: *replace the 6 interior door knobs with the paddle/lever style; *replace the old -crappy tract lights in the kitchen with new ones plus remove the double bulb light above the kitchen sink with a two tract light fixture; *to find the stud above the kitchen work area to hang my three tier mesh basket; *paint the walls in his Pop's "Office/Den"; *to move the massive solid oak Man's Desk w/equally massive hutch against the smaller wall; *then help his Pop transfer data from the 3 not working right computers to the two 32GB, and one 64GB thumb drives so that they can be downloaded to the one working correctly computer. Then I want those computers gone out of this house! Once all that is done, then I will get to work on scanning all of Hubbies fathers letters to his own mother from when he was serving overseas during WWII. AND cleaning up all the framed pictures we rescued from his mothers (my MIL) home. When I take them out of the frames, I will scan them into my computer. Clean the glass, wood frames and then put them back together. Don't know where they will go after that - but they will be cleaned up at least. My plan is to label the pictures after they are downloaded along with the letters and any other correspondence I find in the many boxes place it all onto thumb drives and send to Hubbies Good Brother, his son and his daughter.

I re-read your OP @Just_A_Guy and found the link [This] and I don't like the word parasite either that the author uses. Instead, I would liken this genre of LDS as Cherry Pickers.

Wow! to all of you. @Just_A_Guy why didn't you include where this quote of yours came from? My take on it is that an investigator is making his/her observations regarding our faith, giving their cons to our pros. As President Hinckley has said repeatedly: We are a UNIQUE Peoples. Not unusual. What was said to me by my VT when I had just recently reactivated back into the church after 30 years: This is NOT an easy faith to live. It is NOT a maximum of one hour on Sunday, Easter & Christmas only church. It is a faith you live 24/7. We eat, breathe, walk, talk, think, sweat, pray, ponder our faith day in, day out, week in, week out, month after month. Regarding LDS marrying young ~ it is odd how the majority of you who have commented consider 20 something's as young. In a lot of cultures, it is 13 for females. In some areas of these United States, it is 13 for females also. As a youth convert (was from a non-LDS family and I was baptized at 14) my impression of why we young women waited for Returned Missionaries was to wait for the young men to grow up & mature before marrying them. Pretty much all of the young men I knew who went on missions, had greatly matured at the end of said missions.

Are you in a YSA Ward? Do you go to church sponsored activities? Are you Temple worthy? If you don't already have a recommend, then go get one just to go do baptisms & confirmations with. Read your scriptures, read the Come Follow Me for Individuals & Families AND the Sunday School one. Ponder the lessons and the accompanying scriptures. Then when you are in class, don't hesitate to participate. As a teen, I never felt pretty or even good looking. I was the 4th of 7 children, the 3rd girl out of 5. None of my older siblings dated. We were too busy helping Mom & Grandma with the housework, cooking, and tending to the younger (still in diapers) siblings. We were, however, encouraged to Go Outside And Play - just take the little ones with you and keep them out of trouble/danger. My oldest brother was 16 when he was introduced to the LDS Church. I was 8. What brother did, I demanded to do. Thus I went to church, to all of the activities and I went to all the dances. Absolutely loved the practice at church on Wednesday nights. My parents were not members. But the way they lived their lives, the moral compass they taught all of their children was exactly the same as the LDS doctrine. We danced at home. Moved all the furniture to the sides of the room, and waltzed, polka and then as a Junior in High School I taught them how to swing. The rock-n-roll dances were not allowed - but I (we) did them outside in the street. I also went to the "Gold and Green' Balls at church from the time I was 14 until I moved away at age18. At school, the guys that I most preferred were the Not Knock You Over Handsome. I was a senior when I went on my first date. The guy was a classmate, of the Muslim faith. His father was my hairstylist and his Mom taught me how to prepare meals with no bowls and very few utensils. We went to dinner then the movies. Saw The Godfather. We read the book before. My parents were not pleased that I saw the movie, but then Mom read the book and decided I was old enough to see the movie. At church, I danced with all the guys. I really enjoyed myself, and I had some really good, adult conversations with most of them. The Pretty Boys not so much. Their heads were so far up their arses they couldn't carry even the simplest conversation. Add to that I lived in the poor part of town, and I wasn't even Middle Class. I was Lower Middle Class. ALL of my clothes were re-sewn hand me downs. Clothes Mom got from the neighbors and her new Sis-In-Law (upper crust clothes of the finest materials). The neighbor lady was close to 400 pounds so her skirts and dresses could be re-made into a skirt and bolero for me and sometimes a skirt and trousers for the two little ones. Mom was an excellent seamstress, so unless I exposed the inside back of the tops or the inside seam where labels would be, there is no way anyone would know my clothes were actually homemade. My sewing home economics teacher in high school was flabbergasted at the skill my Mom had. So, no matter what you look like, it is How you act, how you treat others. Stop being so needy. If you are in your mid to late 60's and still single, then you have cause to be needy, but even then don't It is such a turn-off. Actually, it is disgusting. Live your life like you want your wife to live. Be the person you want your wife to be. My second husband (we married 15 years ago! I was 52 and he was 62) tells me often how pretty I am, he bolsters me up and encourages me to be me. When he saw pictures of me as a teen - in my ball gowns, graduation outfit, even some of the Halloween costumes I made for church events - he told me that had he known me as a 20 something, he would have beaten down doors to court me and eventually take me to the Temple. Hubby #2 is not Knock You Down Gorgeous/Handsome. BUT his good moral compass, standards, gentlemanly good manners, and being a righteous priesthood holder MAKES him Knock You Down Handsome. Every time I see him looking at me, my heart skips a beat and I find myself catching my breath. LordyMoses I love him so. He is a keeper. He better be as we are sealed for time and all eternity! Be a good, righteous priesthood holder. Live a temple worthy life. Stop being so needy and self-deprecating. Look for a woman with these same attributes: Good, righteous LDS woman. Lives a temple worthy life. One who is humble yet confident in her own skin. One who knows she is a righteous daughter of God! Remember, remember You are a child of God!

@Sunday21 are you financially dependent on family money? Say a trust set up where you receive X amount of $ to assist in your mother's health needs? Then if you are, I would have an independent lawyer (yours and yours alone) go over that trust and spell out in bullet points your responsibilities, each siblings responsibilities, etc. Then if the other siblings are not doing what the trust lays out for them to do, have your own lawyer proceed with legal action against them. Get your locks changed for heaven's sake - include your home office also. Are you on good terms with your neighbors? If so, ask them to call the police if they see any of your siblings traipsing about your home and yard when you are not home. I have a younger sister that is a "nut job" like @anatess2 says. Took the rest of the siblings nearly 15 years to finally realize just how toxic she is. Because of her screwed up actions she now lives a very, very lonely life. Her husband divorced her, her 4 children and their children have nothing to do with her, and her 4 remaining siblings and their 8 children and their children avoid her at ALL costs. Toxic is toxic. Last we heard even her Ward & Stake members are avoiding her. It was and is a continuing struggle to forgive her ~ in writing this, I am fairly certain I have forgiven her ~ I just will NEVER forget, or allow her back into my life. When asked by the neices, nephews, and their children why, I am forthright and tell them why. That story has been told so many times, that now I can do it without deviating (Oh, look, a shiny dime), and without hatred in my voice. Remember, remember that the gospel of Jesus Christ is TRUE. I suggest that your download the Come Follow Me for Individuals and Come Follow Me, Sunday. Study each weeks scriptures. What I am doing is also printing out the Joseph Smith, Jr Translation. This way I can fully understand the scriptures. , https://rsc.byu.edu/recent/joseph-smiths-translation-bible-electronic-library Download Word Cruncher, then select the free books from the menu selections. Joseph Smith translated corrections to both the old and new testaments. Actually I copy and paste, then I paste in the verses that remain the same, change their text color to red. As I listen to the lds.org scriptures, I read along with my copy of the JST.

To your original question ~ why can't people find God? Because they are listening to Satan's description and being misled. Listening to the philosophies of men, not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Cherry-picking the Lord's Commandments to suit their own wants, then getting offended, made at God when He doesn't follow through with what they think He should do. For every act by man, there is a consequence. As for how you came across in your sermon AND in your posts here on the forum, you are open, honest and stand firm in your faith. I also believe that you are a "dry" Latter-day Saint. @prisonchaplain can you answer a question for me? Never have I heard it said in the LDS church that we go to Worship. My step-daughter belongs to Calvery Chapel in Hawaii, where she is teaching her grandchildren (and also taught her children) to Worship by raising their arms above their heads, swaying, and yelling Halleuah, Amen, Praise Jesus. She takes video's of the two oldest grandchildren marching around, stomping their feet and yelling the songs rather than singing them, the people who are standing and singing. To me, this is not Worshipping. Her eldest child is in her early 30's, the youngest of 7 is a junior in high school. 5 of her children are less than law-abiding citizens, two have children born out of wedlock and none bare the name of their biological father. I guess in my 66 years being here on earth, with 52 of those years being a baptized and confirmed member of the LDS faith, obeying the law of the land where I reside, obeying the Lord's commandments that I covenanted with Him at baptism than later in life when I received my Endowment, kept me on the "straight and narrow path" by "holding firm to the iron rod". In the LDS church, we listen respectfully to our Sabbath speakers, and when they finish with ". . . I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen, we also say Amen, but in a revered, respectful way. After Sacrament, we go to classes where we study, discuss and interact with each other over the New Testament book(s) selected for that Sunday. Actually now we alternate Sundays for Sunday School- where this year we are studying the New Testament and the other Sundays our Auxiallry Presidents (Relief Society for the Women, Elders Quorum for the men, Young Women & Young Men for the youth) choose a talk from our last General Conference for us to study, discuss and interact with each other. To me, learning about the teachings brought forth in the Scriptures ~ for Latter-day Saints these are the King James version of the Holy Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine & Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price ~ this is Worshipping. My personal, private prayers at home are prayers of gratitude, thanks, and pleas to God the Father for wisdom, strength, knowledge, compassion, etc. and are said through His Son, Jesus Christ. My personal, private prayers are said with the familiarity of His child to her Father. This to me is Worshipping. Just recently I came across of the entire Joseph Smith, Jr translations of the Old and New Testament. What a wondrous and marvelous find. So, back to my question: Define Worship and how you/ your parishioners do this.

When we bought this manufactured home I made sure it would out of the tsunami area. The roads here are in the danger zone, but we are okay with that. Neither of us is in any physical shape to Bug Out. We are staying here at the house. Little by little I am stocking up on the water - potable and flushable/washable. Hubby now likes the Idahoan Mashed Spuds made with all the water from a can of kitchen cut green beans and water to make 2 cups of liquid. To my surprise and utter delight Hubby loves sprouts. Not just the Ho Hum Mung Beans, but alfalfa, radish, all variety of dry beans, amaranth, clover, fenugreek, all of the lentils, mustard (yellow & brown), all the different whole peas, spelt and whole raw sunflower. Am looking for onions, just got broccoli and of course the 20 pounds of black chia that I don't grow - but add to dishes that will be cooked. The water I use to soak them in gets used to water my house plants, then as I add water that drain off gets put into ice cube trays then added to soups, sauces, gravies. By learning and doing now before a shtf scenario, we are better prepared. I make my own powdered laundry detergent and auto-dishwashing detergent, body lotions made with coconut oil, tea tree oil, and other essential oils. Also on the very top shelf in the guest closet (which is on the wall where the cathedral ceiling is) are all the styrofoam ice chests that are to use when the power goes off for a day or two and not just a couple of hours. I just bought a new, never out of the box StoveTec Biomass Cook Stove from a sister at church for $50.00. Now to learn about it and practice cooking on it. Now to be on the lookout to purchase a good power generator that can power the microwave and my electric roasters.

Hi Berry, you will be in my prayers too.

Hmmm, salt is salt. It is local - buy it at my local Walmart store. I buy quite a bit of Augason Farms products from Walmart. Oh - youse is winking at me???? Hubby doesn't like it when fellers flirt with me, ( 😲 )

Shortly after I left my first husband and before I married hubby #2 I built my food storage. I was on food stamps and getting some assistance from the church (hygiene, etc & items that food stamps won't pay for. I had already bought a dehydrator and was getting to be quite good at drying foods. Frozen vegetables are already blanched so all you need to do is dump a 16 oz bag into a colander, run hot tap water over it to thaw, then drain well. I dumped it out on a cotton towel & patted dry. Then put one 16 oz bag per dehydrator sheet. I would take advantage of the Ugly Vegetable's sale. From mushrooms, sweet red/green/yellow/orange bell peppers, and many of the fruits. Once they were done, they got vacuum sealed. 1/2 of a sheet per vacuum bag. In the last 8 years, I have been sprouting seeds, dry beans, lentils, etc. I buy my sprouting seeds from a local organic, GMO-free co-op, in bulk. Keep them in airtight containers, away from direct sunlight AND kitchen lights. I had my Handy-Gal make shelves to go over my kitchen sink - in front of the window (it is tinted and no ultraviolet rays get in) -between the cupboard on either side. The wood is 3/4" plywood, and someday it may even get painted. The containers are square plastic, clear - but I put foil wrapping paper around the outside, then labeled them. Each winter the fresh salad greens are bitter. So I sprout a lot of greens (alfalfa, mung beans, radish, broccoli, etc.) and eat them instead of the bitter fresh spinach, romaine, leafy red & green lettuce. Store a lot of dry beans & legumes. Pinto, black, great northern, lentils, green pea, chickpea, etc. In airtight containers. Sprout them 24 hours before you cook them. In doing so you reduce the flatulence power by 75% and increase nutrition by 75%. Now, these will go stale over time. They will never tender up when you cook them, so by sprouting them, you can see if they will tender up during cooking. I had some great northern beans for nearly 10 years. Those babies would NOT cook tender. I took the remainder of the 15 pounds and ground them up in my flour mill. I use that Bean flour when I make gravy or my savory breadsticks. I went crazy buying long term food storage with a $1,500.00 windfall that 2nd Hubby and I got. The #10 cans of muffin mix bulged after 2 years in storage. The manufacturer told me that all I needed to do was add some more baking powder. They never said how much more, but that can only make 3.5 batches of muffins. In hindsight, it wasn't a profitable purchase. If you can get Marie Callendar's muffin mix in one batch foil envelopes that DON'T have fat or eggs in them for under $3.00 - THAT is the better buy. Same with Betty Crocker Cookie & Brownie mix. Or boxed cake mixes (but vacuum seal the boxes). Just make sure they don't already have oil &/or eggs in the mix. Don't buy large containers of baking powder either. Once opened, it goes flat fast. Unless you are a Bakery, only buy the small containers. Or better yet make your own on an as needed basis. To Make 1 Tablespoon of Baking Powder Measure 1 teaspoon baking soda and 2 teaspoons cream of tartar into a bowl. Mix until thoroughly combined and use right away. My non-LDS parents lived through the Depression, and learned to store foods when they could. Mom and Grandma canned & preserved. Mom baked 17 loaves of bread every Monday and we ran out on Saturday evening. Even then we wouldn't eat store bought bread - Balloon bread. So they made baking powder biscuits and cornbread. Mom also bought a few extra cans of whatever was on sale to add to our Grocery Store Pantry. She only bought elbow macaroni and spaghetti noodles. All other pasta she made from scratch. Only buy extra of the foods you eat all the time. Remember the Use By, Sell Buy, Best By dates were intended for the retailer so that they would rotate the foods. Old to the front, new to the back. If you have a can or cans of corn with the date stamped on it that expired 3 to 9 months ago, and there are no bulges, chances are it is still good and nutritous. When you buy boxes of foods such as Rice-A-Roni, vacuum seal it as soon as you bring it home. Just stop the vacuuming once the bag is snug to the box. Now, these bagged boxes won't stand up, so store them in plastic totes that fit your shelf. Same for bagged pasta - vacuum seal it without removing it from its packaging. Stop the vacuuming once it has snugged up or else you are going to end up with pasta dust when you finally open it up. IF that happens, use the pasta dust to make gravy with or to thicken stews & soups and savory sauces. Neither my 1st husband, myself or Hubby #2 like boxed instant Mac & Cheese. I bought Velveeta Shells and Cheese for a while. Love that stuff. BUT when the cheese in the foil pouch goes bad, it goes REALLY bad. Believe their dating on that one. So I now just buy the mini shells and the Velveeta 3 pack cheese sauce. Also - it does NOT take 6+ quarts of water to cook 2 cups of pasta. I cook 2 cups of pasta in a 3 qt saucepan. If you are in a situation where water needs to be rationed - then IF you are going to have canned vegetables with your pasta dinner, drain the liquid from your canned veggie into the pasta saucepan, add water & cook. You can nuke your veggie without all that canned liquid, just do it for 2.30 min in a 1250 W oven, or 3 min in a 1000 W overn. Hubby and I love canned beets. Add that liquid to the pasta water and you get red pasta! Then add the Velveeta cheese and you get a deep ornage-red dish. Or if you decide to use Alfredo sauce you get a pink to magenta pasta dish.

Any cook will tell you that salt will lose it's flavor if it gets wet or tainted, like with moisture from boiling water, water, oil or any non-food stuff like soap, or perfume. The large salt shaker I keep near the stove I put rice in to absorb any moisture. I do this with the black pepper shaker too. When I fill the shaker, I dump the rice and put in fresh. I buy salt in the 6 lb 8oz can by Augason Farms. Once opened I keep some in a Tupperware container, the rest I vacuum seal in bags.

@Grunt you need to contact your Ward Temple & Family History Consultant and ask him/her these questions. They can either have you meet at your Meetinghouse with your laptop, so they can walk you through the steps. Or, you can call them and they will talk you through the steps after they Invite you via FamilySearch. This enables them to see and work with you on your computer in real time via the internet.