curious_mormon

I'm attracted to both Man and Woman...there I said it. Now flood my board with hatred. As you know, I am a member of the LDS church....I admit it, I am attracted to both Men and Women. I have had 1 past sexual relationship with a man. I want to change my ways, I've come back to church because I feel really bad! I just acted on my desire! Do I have a chance if I repent?!
 

I think it's one of the great tangible blessings offered to us as members of God's kingdom: The opportunity to contribute a real, tangible part of our work and lives (mostly today in the form of money) to the building up of the kingdom.

Tithing is a wonderful principle that requires faith on the giver. Here is a short statement from the Church regarding what items tithing covers, "Tithing funds are always used for the Lord’s purposes—to build and maintain temples and meetinghouses, to sustain missionary work, to educate Church members, and to carry on the work of the Lord throughout the world." Each stake in the Church receives funds which is distributed to wards. These funds are also from tithing. Each time we send in a receipt from items purchased and then the Church reimburses us -- tithing.
Am I worried about what "Anti-Mormons" say anymore regarding the Church? No. Am I worried that the Church is using tithing for corrupt purposes? No. This is either God's Church/Gospel and God is directing the affairs or it is not. If so, then I have no worries and I pay my tithing and I don't care what it is used for. I pay and I move on. As it is God's Church and gospel I pay. I move along knowing God is directing the affairs of the church.

I've always paid. I always will pay it.
The blessings that come from paying tithing come from our Father in Heaven.
If my Bishop were to steal all my tithing and go play poker, the blessings between myself and our Father in Heaven remain the same.
By not paying tithing, and finding reasons/doubts not to, I'm the only one drawing the short stick in the end.

Well, you'd think if the leaders of our church were in it for the money and power, they'd do more traditional things like live in expensive places, take expensive vacations, wear expensive clothes, drive expensive cars, hire zoos for their grandchildren's birthdays, rooms full of strippers, etc.
Our church leaders, by accounts of those who are most closely associated with them, basically live lives of endless meetings, and travel to meetings, and meetings about meetings.  Saying the same stuff over and over and over again.  Without any hope for a lighter meeting load until old age sets in and they die.  Not exactly the glamorous lifestyle that beckons to people lusting after money and power.

you guys are horrible. If you love the man, then do what it feels like in your heart. THere is no perfect marriage.
 
Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean you can have a fantastic life with everybody. Just because you don’t have to wait for the one doesn’t mean you should settle for just anyone. President David O. McKay taught, "In choosing a companion, it is necessary to study . . . the one with whom you are contemplating making life's journey."

Factors such as money, life goals, mental health, differences in religion, pre-marital cohabitation, relationships with family, and basic personality should all be accounted for. Braithwaite concluded through his graduate work that studies can predict the likelihood of success or failure in a marriage with up to 94 percent accuracy based on many of these sorts of issues.

But no matter whom you pick to date or marry, there will still be troubled times. Braithwaite showed the thinking of many couples as such: “If things start to go wrong in my marriage, it is a sign I married the wrong person. You start to think, ‘I need to get out of my marriage.’”

Not so. If it’s up to us to choose whom we wish to marry, it’s also up to us to make it work. The one person with whom life will be eternal bliss with nary a conflict does not exist except in tween romance novels. Love can conquer all, but only with a healthy dose of compromise, humility, charity, service, and a whole lot more thrown in. Look back at President Kimball’s quote: “Almost any good man and any good woman can have happiness and a successful marriage if both are willing to pay the price.”

No matter where you are in life, you can take this into account and apply it. If you’re married, realize that whatever problems you have don’t mean you can’t be happy, that you weren’t actually meant to be together and someone else would have made you happier. And if you’re single, remind yourself you don’t have to have fireworks exploding in the sky to give you confirmation this is the person you should date. If he (or she) makes you happy, go for it! That’s what I’m doing.

As the book says, Lehi, et al, left Jerusalem and traveled a bit by land before taking to a ship.  Per modern revelation, they ended up in the Americas.  Anything beyond that is speculation.  One explanation for why we don't have evidence of cities everywhere can be derived from Helaman chapter 3, which gives implicit evidence of their preferred building material.
Note: There were also the Jaredites and Mulekites who came separately to the Americas.

The Church doesn't take a stance on supplements. If you live the Word of Wisdom in its simplicity with simple faith, the Lord will lead you in the specific measures you need to take of both spiritually and physically. If you direct your blessings in the service of others, you will progress.

haha, tino-od. daghan ug maid didto. hayahay kaayo. Tinood pod nga sige ra trabaho sa America, pina ka kapoy diri. Pero daghan kwarta...ahaha si Herbert Bautista, ka hinom dom paman ko ani, mga 12 years old pako.

Lami mulang!  Sige lang ug lakwatsa kay daghan ug maid.  Diri sa America, trabaho na, inig-uli mangluto pa ug manglaba!  Haaaay kapoy!
O, kana si Herbert Bautista nga mayor sa Quezon City, usa na siya sa mga bagets!

 
 

You are welcome. and Thanks too. Overcoming social anxiety surely is a learning process.

Dear Sisters and Bros,
i am teaching a lesson in a few weeks about welcoming others into the church. I was considering drawing a scale on the board and having one end of scale represent an unfriendly person and the opposiate end of the scale be Jesus Christ. Jesus would be very friendly to a new person in the church. He would introduce himself, learn the newcomers name, smile and wave on future meetings, take an interest in the person, have a conversation wth that person from time to time, nod to that person if they passed in the hall and so on. An unfriendly person would do none of those things. I was thinking of asking the sisters to place themselves on that scale and to write a brief description about what they do now for new members at church, do they
1) frown, say 'oh no not another person! I hope they leave soon and never come back!'
2) ignore the person and hope they go away
3) smile and wave but otherwise make no contact
4) smile and introduce yourself and immediately forget the new persons name
5) smile, introduce yourself, remember persons name, thereafter smile and wave
6) smile, wave, introduce yourself, introduce others to the person, on next meeting have a brief conversation
7) introduce self, ask person to sit with you in church, try to become friends
the idea is to teach that at the very least, we need people to smile and wave and if you are doing this to do one step more.
My question is, what about those with social anxiety, what is reasonable to expect these people to do in terms of welcoming others to church?
is social anxiety the same as shyness? Can we expect these people to be friendly to others? What are your thoughts?
 
 

I think it's more a matter of exposure than of racial or ethnic preference.  A lot of places in the US are not that integrated, ethnically speaking.  People marry someone they've spent time with.  People spend time with those who are near by.  Return to the start of this paragraph.

I know a few. However, I have heard from some non-Caucasian folks they too prefer to date their own race, as a general rule.
I just don't think interracial dating is as common as we might like it to be.

Nope, I see interracial couples all the time. 

Mark me down as being in an interracial marriage too. No one has ever said a peep to my knowledge.  It just depends where you live.  Lived in Alabama and southern California, highly diverse interracial mormon couples.  Being around military families most of my life diverse couples are all over. 

Several decades ago it was discouraged on the basis that such marriages frequently ended in divorce due to outside pressures of society (now pretty much non-existant) and cultural differences creating friction.  Also, back when blacks were banned from the priesthood that was a discouraging factor for getting into an inter-racial marriage, but neither the priesthood ban or discouraging inter-racial marriages were based on the idea of one race being superior to another.  Even outside the church it is more common to see marriage of couples of the same race than mixed race, it's just easier to relate to somebody with a similar background.
These days it is no big deal.  We have a couple interracial marriages in my ward, My niece is married to a Mexican, my sister in law (less active) married an Arab (and that one did at least partly end due to cultural differences).

My wife loves that movie.

In a group of 40 adults in my ward, we have 3 interracial couples.

My foster brother is African American and he is married to a caucasian. They have been in the church for 20 years at least, and I know of other bi-racial couples as well, I do not feel it is all that rare here, can't speak for all areas but there is nothing against dating outside your race I am aware of, its a matter of who you meet and are exposed to. I suppose in large cities it would be more common than rural areas but I really don't know. 

You forgot the only reason that matters... God commanded it and the guy is going to do the best he can to follow God's commands
 
 

no idea if something else tempted him... however i find that once your pride gets to a point one doesn't really need an outside source for temptation.

Who tempted Satan... nobody.  He had perfect knowledge.  He chose to defy the Father in his own free will.  He is, then, the father of all lies and he is actively trying to win us to his own kingdom of darkness.

I googled "who tempted Satan," and one of the results was an old discussion on this. Maybe there's some wisdom in here from eight years ago, maybe not.

 

Official answer: We have no idea.
Speculation: By another angel - probably not, but possible, and clearly he had is followers who no doubt encouraged him.  We had knowledge and intelligence.  We had agency (see below).  I think Satan thought it out for himself and let his arrogance take over from there.  Were there examples (e.g. already-existing worlds and/or people and/or records) he could have known about and used to influence his choices?  Perhaps (certainly they existed; what exposure we had to them is unknown).  In the end, good and evil (as possibilities) must exist wherever there is sufficient knowledge to understand opposition.  Once you understand, you have a choice.  Satan clearly understood enough to choose, and his choice led to consequences.  Were he ignorant (like a child), God would surely not have punished him for what he did in ignorance (i.e. that he was punished indicates he understood what he as doing and had agency (see below)).
(Not sure who "he" is in "if he was perfect" - if you mean Satan, clearly he wasn't perfect, nor do we have reason to believe any of us were perfect - I think perfection requires an exalted immortal body - though certainly Christ and the Holy Ghost were perfect enough to be part of the Godhead (just not complete yet?).)
See:
"had" - past tense - we already had agency.  (How else could we have chosen which plan to support and suffered / enjoyed the consequences of our choice?)