Good Days Last

The gay-alternative community will continue to gain sympathizers as this drags on. The name of equality will drown out the cries for morality. It's time to gather those closest to you and prop them up. It's only beginning.

What does the church say about living with a girlfriend/boyfriend? I know it's extremely frowned upon, but is there anything more?

*Hopefully a clearer and condensed version is at the bottom :) Back in December, I enlisted to join the Army. At the time I was working a full time courier job and making decent money. I quickly realized the Army was not the right decision and I did not ship out. Due to me thinking I was leaving, I had to give up my full time shift and was relegated to working part time until I left. After I made the decision to stay, I was thankfully able to hop back on with the courier service as part time. I was okay with this while living at home and waiting for something full time to open up again. A couple months ago, my mom informed me that her and my dad would be splitting up. They got married in the temple at least 20 years ago, and it's a pretty devastating thing to go through. From the sound of it, my dad will be making his way back home to Arizona and my mom might be heading to a different town to settle down in. This leaves me in a particular situation. I'm 21 years old. I have a girlfriend in California (5 hours away) that is currently taking the missionary lessons and whom I love. The kicker with her is that I met her online and I've only been down to see her three times but we've been dating since March and have been talking regularly since last fall. I'm debating whether to marry this girl and possibly trying the military again with another service. If that were to be the case, it wouldn't be in the temple and she would most likely move here to a slightly better economy, but with no jobs in sight. I don't want to move with either parent. That would entail me having to completely uproot, find a new job and cope with being even further away from a girl that I hardly see enough as it is. I don't know what to do anymore. The company I work for has an office in Salt Lake. I've been debating whether to apply for their full time openings (and if I should be fortunate enough to get a full time position) finding someone to bum off of for a month while I get my footing. The condensed version: Parents are splitting up.Debating on marrying a girl I don't see enoughIf I do marry her, I would most likely look into joining the Coast Guard to ease the financial problems we would face.Working part time and looking for more workThinking about moving to Salt Lake if there is work to be hadI'm just lost and I think the jumble of words that's in this post reflects that.Any advice to those that understood would be greatly appreciated, especially coming from the LDS background.

That's what bugs me the most about these "Concerned Christians" and those "Christians" that tear down others. Is that what Jesus would have done? It's sad to see the guys scrape to cause conflict. My Jesus Christ that I believe in is a Prince of Peace and understanding. A God of love and the savior of my soul. This hate mongering is the antithesis of Christ.

I was training on my job today, when me and my co-worker (an RM) got into a pretty solid discussion about the church and missions, as I am a prospective missionary. He was telling me that there was a talk or maybe a local address to the MTC that Jeffery R. Holland gave about missions. A couple highlights were that he said something about missionaries wanting to come home early. He said that coming home was not an option. That you were called of God, and offered this great opportunity to serve and that if it's meant for you to come home, he will find a way to do that. Otherwise you are required to serve out your time as you covenanted with him. You put in a request and accepted a call (of your own free will up to this point) to serve the Lord in all your might mind and strength. The Lord accepted your plea to serve by calling you as a missionary to his great cause and at the point that you enter the MTC you are accepting this assignment and you are officially on his terms. I'm sure that isn't exactly what he said as I injected a lot of my opinion, but that was the gist of it. Does anyone know of such a talk? I'm interested in this topic of missionaries coming home, because I've had a friend very recently return from the MTC after giving up.

In life, there are so many paths we can choose and it's exactly that. A choice. I believe the LDS church to be the true church. And so do many others. I don't find it hard to believe that a church leader would say the things he did. I tend to group the people of this church in two categories. "Utah Mormons" who haven't once stepped foot out of their comfort zone or the state of Utah in their lives and think that everything outside of Provo is of the world and evil. Then there are the "Tolerant Mormons" as I categorize myself here. I too grew up in Southern California. I am currently living in Utah so I have seen things first hand. The more tolerant of our faith, usually outside of Utah, have a better understanding of other cultures and religions. It seems the "Utah Mormons" have a starker vision of reality and follow "in all good intentions" what they think the Lord might want for us. But the only one that can truly know that is the Lord Himself. As someone else said, all of our leaders here on this earth are human. Just because they are called of God doesn't mean they are instantly "perfected" and everything they say is golden. God called them for a specific purpose, either to help and understand their congregations. Sometimes they're called to learn something for themselves. In either case, I've heard stories about "power-crazy" leaders but I think they do it in the right heart, but not the right attitude. Writing with the right pencil but writing the wrong words in a sense. And just because BYU is "The Lord's University" and is privately funded by the church, doesn't mean you MUST attend there or go to hell. That's my two cents.