Fether

One’s job is not eternally important. I get a sense that you are treating his being laid off was a sin. A soft or hard heart would not change the fact that he was going to be laid off or not. Pharaoh’s heart was hard when he would not let the Istaelites go, as was Amulon’s when he put tasks on Alma’s people. But were the handcart company leaders hard hearted when they cut rations? Or were owners if Beneficial life hard hearted when they let my dad go after their company went under? Or were the managers of your dad’s company hard hearted when they fired your dad? In all cases I would argue no, they were not hard hearted, it just business survival. Though I don’t know the context of your dad’s experience, I don’t think we can say one person was hard hearted and another wasn’t. It’s just business survival

Quite frankly... the studies. I taught and baptized a good number of people, but I learned and mastered the art of loving and studying scripture. The first years of my mission was very difficult as I had mostly difficult companions and I was trying to figure out how to get along with them but also be obedient. It was highly stressful and spoke with the mission counselor quite often. I always enjoyed the gospel, but it wasn’t till the mission that I became truly converted and loved it. Ya... though I didn’t see it as a sacrifice... it was something I was always ganna do. If you choose not to serve, don’t justify your choice. Don’t tell yourself “The mission just wasn’t for me”, “God didn’t want me to serve”, “God needs me to serve my mission at home”, “if I served my mission then I wouldn’t have met my wife”, or any of the other often used excuses to justify and make one’s self feel better about breaking a commandment. It is only destructive to yourself and everyone else who is in the decision making process of whether to serve a mission or not. Be grown up enough to recognize your weakness in the gospel and make necessary changes to become the man that would serve a mission, then go serve (note: I am not saying wait till you are “ready to serve”. I’m saying that if you have decided to not serve, then repent and serve.)

Found it! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/373460.David_O_McKay_and_the_Rise_of_Modern_Mormonism

My natural response to when someone begins their response with “there is a story of...” is What is the source? Brigham young has been quoted saying many things... some of the most popular are fabrications.

Makes sense. I smoke cigars through my nose to avoid breaking the word of wisdom

Thanks for the correction. I admittedly was regurgitating what I had heard in the past. Do you have any sources where he makes comments on it?

There is this fallacy that many saints have (often times it is just subconscious) that puts the church on a higher standard than it really is. This fallacy is what cause most confusion and frustration... and in extreme cases apostasy. In the January Young Adult conference, Elder and Sister Reblund gave the following analogy: __________ Elder Dale G. Renlund: Imagine having capsized in a boat while sailing in the ocean. You’re wearing a life preserver and have been swimming for hours toward what you believe is the nearest shore, but you can’t be sure. You’ve become extremely dehydrated, so that every time you start swimming, you become light-headed and fatigued. By your best estimates the shore is 30 kilometers, or 18 miles, away. You fear for your life because you can’t swim that far. In the distance you hear a small engine. The sound seems to be coming toward you; your hope of rescue soars. As you look, you see a small fishing boat approaching. Sister Ruth L. Renlund: “Oh, thank heavens,” you think, “the captain sees me!” The boat stops and a kindly, weather-beaten fisherman helps you on board. Gratefully you crawl to a seat in the boat, breathing a sigh of relief. The fisherman gives you a canteen of water and some soda crackers. You consume them greedily. The water and soda crackers provide enough nourishment for you to recover. You are so relieved and so happy. You are on your way home. As you begin to revive and start feeling better, you start paying attention to some things you hadn’t really noticed before. The water from the canteen is a bit stale and not what you would have preferred, like Evian or Perrier. The crackers tasted good, but what you really wanted was some delicatessen meat followed by a chocolate croissant. You also notice that the kindly fisherman wears worn boots and blue jeans. The sweatband on his hat is stained, and he seems to be hard of hearing. Elder Dale G. Renlund: You note that the boat is well-used and that there are dents in the right side of the bow. Some of the paint is chipped and peeling. You see that when the fisherman relaxes his grip on the rudder, the boat pulls to the right. You begin to worry that this boat and this captain cannot provide the rescue you need. You ask the fisherman about the dents and the rudder. He says he hasn’t worried much about those things because he has steered the boat to and from the fishing grounds, over the same route, day in and day out, for decades. The boat has always gotten him safely and reliably where he wanted to go. You are stunned! How could he not worry about the dents and the steering? And why could the nourishment have not been more to your liking? The more you focus on the boat and the fisherman, the more concerned you become. You question your decision to get on board in the first place. Your anxiety begins to grow. Finally, you demand that the fisherman stop the boat and let you back into the water. Even though you are still more than 20 kilometers, or 12 miles, away from shore, you can’t stand the idea of being in the boat. With sadness, the fisherman stops the boat and helps you back into the ocean. You are on your own again __________ Symbolism Capsized boat: Fall of Adam Person: Us Dinky beatup Fishing boat: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints note the description of the boat, I find it interesting but highly informative. The church is not a glorious perfect running cruise ship, but rather an old shipping vessel. Yet it is still our only way to live. Additionally, Bruce R McConkie had been staunch on his belief that blacks would never get the priesthood. Yet while he was an Apostle the priesthood ban lifted. In a talk at BYU following this change, he said: “Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world.” Truth is being restored every day. Just like how work for the dead didn’t come till years after the start of the Restoration, these changes don’t come till God decides to make them.

I’m pretty sure section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants says “and the Bishop’s duty is to punish, belittle, and ostrosize those that so much as steal a snickers from the local 7-11” but in al honesty... there are a lot of buts, Caveats, and justifications you could throw in, but if the question “should I tell the bishop” comes up, it’s pretty much a trump card for “yes, tell the bishop”

If a temple marriage is important to you, then you would much rather go through it later and be worthy rather than lie your way through it now. Definitly make the necessary steps now to make sure you are worthy when you do this 👍. Confess everything to your bishop.

I think the more we understand the harder it becomes to “wow” us. For example, I don’t know or care to know about the techniques of movie making and story telling. Because of this, I find the new Star Wars movies fantastic (except perhaps “Solo”) On top of this, I am deeply interested in the gospel and all such oriented things. So for me when I watch church produced movies or movies with saints as their target audience... I’m mildly entertained. I enjoy the story they tell, but disbelieving ofnthe way they portray the early church leaders. I don’t believe Joseph Smith was a perfectly innocent being that only spoke joyful things and spent everyday playing with children and receiving revelation. Though that may be key points of his personality, history and journals tell of a few other less desirable attributes unfit for a movie aimed at saints and potential converts. To me, those short comings We read about in journals are far more faith promoting than the cinamatic portrayal of a perfectly innocent man void of all sins and ill temper. But then you look at my wife (who is far more righteous than I will ever be) , who can watch Ephraim’s Rescue and Prophet of the Restoration every Sabbath and still enjoy it. She loves the gospel, but finds less interest in discussing and studying the gospel in “depth” (depth meaning the pointless, non-salvation effecting portions of the church) I honestly believe that my love of studying has brought upon me a bit of pride and has made it difficult for me to enjoy simple faith filled stories produced by the church. I can’t watch movies like Priphet of the Restoration without deep skepticism. I see that as a weakness and not a strength, but in my heat of hearts, I still get pride from disliking such movies.

I think I found my next dog’s name

Check out Stansbury Park. Probably about 45 minutes to SLC, safe and clean and it is a relatively new and fast growing community. It’s a small town but close to Tooele and SLC

I would belief that too

Divine visitations have a purpose and the majority of the ones JSjr had dealt with the passing of keys and the introduction of restored principles/doctrines of the gospel. But other than that I am not sure. Perhaps it is because people back the. Treated such visitations more sacred my than would today so it is just to protect us from taking lightly sacred things???

@Madam_Mim I second Anatess’s response

So here is the deal with intermittent fasting. One big benefit of it is the fact that your body is not trying to make insulin all day. Some current fad diets push for small meals throughout the day. This is great for some purposes, but when you do this your body is making insulin all day long and your insulin resistance increases during this. Which increases weight gain and problems with diabetes. If you put any food in your body, calories or mo calories, your body will begin making insulin (partly why diet soda doesn’t help that much with weight gain). I am not diabetic so I don’t deal with the same issues you do. But when I fast for health purposes, I only consume water. Anything else would create insulin and negate the purpose of me doing the fast.

Everything we got for our kid is second hand. He is the happiest stinking kid in the world, super healthy, and sleeps through the night. If anything, second hand is better

@Gallant Pioneer I was born in it. Why did I stay? It all made sense, no contradictions, no difficult moral questions, happy/good people.

Saints are the same everywhere. However, there is one thing that I did observe. Being raised in Utah, you have to learn to be obedient to the commandments while active members of your own faith are not. I’ve found that Sinners of your own faith will try to tear down the righteous more than the sinners outside your faith will.

Nothing to reconcile. I suppose if there was no God and that this was just a club then maybe there would be stuff to reconcile. But like people said above, just because we disagree doesn’t mean we hate you. No one seems to understand that.

I actually do agree with you. There are so many young men out there that are looking for any way to get out of missionary service or justify their past decision do not serve. A better distinction that the author was female would have made this article fantastic. But I don’t have much of an issue with the article or the author. I feel like I read it in context I enjoyed it in a very surface level.

A good article 👍 I know about 3-4 years ago young woman were feeling pressured by the culture to serve missions. Hope it still isn’t as bad today as it was then.

I’m going to point out that the writer of this article is a female. I was part way through a patronizing and sarcastic comment when I decided I should probably check that first.

Oh good! I got 2 years to figure out how to provide for my wife and 1.5 kids 😅 Dude! Date around!! I don’t know why we have this discussion haha. Go around date everyone you can and challenge the world “is there no better woman than she!?” Either you find someone you are more attracted to... or you don’t. I’m not saying this out if any bitterness of my own, but when she gets back she will probably date others. Literally what I would do: 1) date everyone I can 2) keep writing her and encouraging her as a friend and nothing more. The fact that she chose a mission means I am not a obliged to treat her as a girlfriend anymore and she hasn’t no claim to me. 3) When she gets back and I am not serious about anyone. Take her on a fantastic date and end it with “If we start dating again then we are getting married. I am done messing around” all while the last part of the song “paradise by the dash board” by Meatloaf is playing (Minus the clear innuendos and the unfortunate close to the song). Then depending on how she responds, I either take her to the ring shop or text Stacy asking for the second date. Seriously dude. No dating is serious until you have both decided that marriage is not just a possibility... but a plan. If I could go back to high school, college, or any time when I was single again, I would just date and flirt with every girl I saw (which I kinda already did... I would just do it more). Not because I’m some loose guy... but because until you are able to say “I’m ready to get married now” and able to find someone to say the same thing... it’s all just for fun. So if she can’t say it back, take that as “well i guess we were just having fun” and go call up Stacy.