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The atrocity these leaders have committed is exactly why women don't have the priesthood. (Totally trolling, don't take me seriously, I myself know of priesthood holders who have done much much worse)

I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be something like this:

I would like to offer a similar perspective in agreement with what others have said but to add to it as well: First lets consider the word virtue: I tend to use the above definition of virtue when thinking about these verses, although the other definitions would just as easily render the same result. It is not possible to maintain power or influence solely by the excellence, value, merit, etc, of the priesthood. Just as @Blackmarch said, it would not be successful for long. As soon as you start saying, "Do it because I am the [insert priesthood role]", how long before no one respects you anymore and no longer honors your demands? It is unrighteous for an individual to even attempt to maintain or exert power over another simply by merit of the priesthood. It is against the heavenly order of things. The simple fact that one would attempt it is wickedness on their part at that moment in time and they ought to repent, else 'amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.' Don't most of those sound like the fruits of the Spirit? If one acts in accordance with the direction of the Spirit and exhibits the fruit of the Spirit in his actions, people will see his fruit and the righteous within his stewardship will obey. By following this principle, he will be perfectly able to maintain his power or influence. A final connection lies in D&C 29:36: The priesthood is not magic. In this verse, God hints at the fact that His power is honor. Everything obeys him because of his attributes and perfections. By following the guidelines of these verses, and learning to act in accordance with them, would one not establish himself to those who seek after righteousness as honorable? Are not most people willing to follow and accept a man of true honor? I believe that he would and that they are. By giving us these principles, the Lord is not only teaching us what not to do (because it can not and will not ever work) but also giving us further light and knowledge about how to become like Him who literally is the embodiment of priesthood perfection, and is able to exercise it and maintain it eternally upon these principles.

For those of us who are going to the celestial kingdom, I'm confident we will know for ourselves far in advance of the resurrection and judgement. For those who enter other kingdoms, I would assume some of them will know far in advance as well based on their gospel knowledge, some may not but will probably come to understand once they receive and accept the fullness of the gospel. I would venture to say that I think no one will be surprised about their eternal destination at the time of judgement. As for me personally, if I were to die today, I am 100% confident I will end up in the celestial kingdom, because I am temple worthy and strive to live up to my covenants. So as you can see, I have my 'hint' already.

Kamehameha, let there be light!!!

Just because even righteous men struggle with keeping a law of God, does not mean, nor even hint at the idea that the law will not apply. If even just 1 righteous priesthood holder were to abide his covenant with 2 spouses then the marriage is eternal in relation to both spouses (the spouses could be at different times due to death). If this happens just once, then plural marriage will be applicable in the Celestial Kingdom (even if only for a righteous few). I tend to believe that there will be more than just a handful of sufficiently righteous practitioners of plural marriage by the time all is said and done. Also, in terms of agency, when we are resurrected to a celestial glory, filled with righteousness and our desires are to the Kingdom of God and to abiding the principles of eternity, who will even care about plural marriage? Will wives bicker and complain about it? No. Will husbands lustfully seek it? No. In every applicable situation will it be entered into and eternal for the right reasons? Yes. I seriously doubt anyone will have an issue with it once we get to that day, and there is more evidence to suggest that it will be applicable eternally than that it wont. Also, in relation to David and Solomon: I would venture to say that it is more likely that the Lord is revealing information line-upon-line when speaking to the Nephites regarding plural marriage. He had not issued a commandment to them to practice polygamy, they still wanted an excuse because of David and Solomon. Even though David and Solomon had initially entered into many marriage covenants righteously, they also did "things which they did not receive of [the Lord]", therefore, He could righteously reveal only this precept to the Nephites because it is what they needed to hear in order to repent since they received no such commandment.

Tonight during family scripture study, we read in Mosiah 11 about how King Noah taxed his people and lived in laziness. One of the taxed metals was Ziff. Immediately my daughter asked, "What is Ziff?" My wife explained that it was a metal and that they could have used it like we use money. My daughter asked, "Like what?" so my wife said, "Like how we use pennies and nickles and quarters and stuff." My daughter responded with an authoritative tone and said, "It will be a quarter." It was basically like this: So now it's official I suppose!

Only until we adequately learn the most correct way in our language. If we have been taught a higher way and purposefully continue an alternative preference then we are being disrespectful. For example in Spanish, and other languages, if you pray without using the most personal forms of communication, people of all denominations will look at you weird, especially if you claim to be a missionary. You are right here. God's language is perfect, and I find it more likely to believe that if we could pray in the Adamic tongue the words used to communicate with deity would be of an even higher order than thee, thy, thou, etc. This is how amazing the language that Christ used was:

'Back in the day' is this not how nearly everyone prayed? Even beside that, shouldn't it be normal to understand how this type of language is used if one reads the scriptures on a regular basis?

I just laugh it off these days when people ask me how many wives I want to have. . . either that or I tell them 'at least 7'! In all sincerity though I agree with you to an extent, it is better to remain focused on God, and to have a positive spiritual influence in your life (assuming one actually does it). In my experience, as in yours though, seldom is the case that someone leaves a faith and yet determines to adhere to the true moral principles that are common across most faiths. I would have to admit though, I could never leave the Church unless I was completely convinced that it wasn't true. Even if I were convinced it wasn't true, I would then have to be convinced that Christianity in general was not true before I would leave. This is because, regardless of what people say about us, based on my personal research and studies, if you look at the actual doctrines that mainstream Christianity requires one to believe in order to be saved in heaven, Latter-Day Saints fit the bill. If the Church isn't true, but Christ is, I still have no reason to go anywhere else, although I may not participate to the same extent. If I were to decide that the Church wasn't true, then since the Book of Mormon is so clearly scriptural in nature when compared to the Bible, it could lead me to decide at some point that Christianity in general were not true, and if that happened, I would then become agnostic. So as much as I agree a heaven centered approach would still be best upon leaving, it just couldn't happen for me the way my mind works (of course, I'm not new though). Side Anecdote: I once submitted a question to a popular mainstream Christian organization/website to ask them if failure to believe in the doctrine of trinity would bar someone from entering into heaven so long as they maintained their faith in Christ as Savior, and as the only way to be saved. After much back and forth where they tried to convince me of the doctrine, and I pointed out why I didn't feel that the many scriptures they used would necessarily establish it, they said the following: When I read that from them I literally did this: !!!!! Followed by: .

It sucked . . . and everyone kept using gnome or switched to LinuxMint, etc, cause they like the gnome or Mate interface better. Also, they realized that making a mobile/desktop/tablet interface wasn't really worth it in the end (just like how Microsoft learned with Modern UI).

Well, that's probably the best reason of them all! Does she invite you to the mega barbecues? I would love to go sit in the back row of that great and spacious building for a couple hours every Sunday and be preached at and be saved!

I thought about posting many of the different reasons but in reality I would presume that as sins are numberless, likewise there are numberless reasons for leaving the church or going inactive. I will say, however, the number one method to prevent going inactive or leaving the church is easy is gaining a deep personal testimony of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and His true Church.

I actually had a personal experience similar to this on my mission. I was on exchanges with a missionary who had set up to provide a tour of the church building and teach about the first vision. The way we alternated back and forth I was the one who recited the account from Joseph Smith. When I recited it, It was literally the most botched and incorrectly worded recitation I had ever done, and have ever done to this day. However, regardless of my slow tongue, the spirit was very strong and bore powerful witness of the truth of Joseph Smith's Vision, and the investigators recognized the spirit and accepted our message as truth. The other missionary told me he believed an evil spirit had tried to prevent me from sharing the message but that the spirit prevailed regardless of my words. I do not know either way for sure, but I do know that the spirit bore witness and conveyed the truth regardless of my failure to communicate.

The gift to discern spirits is not so much related to communicating with them as to being able to distinguish by revelation from the Holy Ghost if someone is teaching, performing miracles, etc, by the true Spirit of God, or if it is by an evil spirit of the devil. This gift can be given to anyone for an extended time or one time use, however, an individual who possess this gift continually would use it to warn others of dangers concerning groups or individuals in the world who would cause them either temporal or spiritual harm. A real life example/application was given by Niel L. Anderson as follows: You also asked: The spiritual gift applicable to this question would be, “The beholding of angels and ministering spirits” (Spiritual Gifts - Moroni 10:14) This gift would presumably not be something upon which the individual could call upon to use, but rather that the Lord could use on a regular basis to bless the individual and/or others. On my mission, an individual who was baptized, had become a very faithful member of the church but often had difficulty changing certain behaviors. He told us of many occasions when he had visions and was visited by Moroni and others, usually to encourage him to change a behavior. In one specific case he didn't feel the need to clean up his language, and recounted how he was visited by a ministering spirit who told him to read Matt. 15:18 which says "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man." He immediately repented and made the applicable changes to his habits. These two gifts come hand in hand, If you personally had the gift of discerning of spirits, and spoke with this individual who claimed experience through the gift of beholding of spirits, your gift to discern would be able to indicate to you if he was visited by a true spirit from God, or was deceived by a lying spirit of the devil.

I am 1st Assistant to the HP Group Leader. Side Note - I love teaching so my ideal calling: Youth Sunday School Teacher. You teach on Sunday, and have 0 additional responsibility (aside from Home Teaching). They are old enough to ask good questions, and often ask and participate with more excitement than adults because most youth don't already think they know everything (at least about the gospel anyway).

I personally always give the standard, 'it's between you and the Lord' (because if I don't someone will inevitably come in and say, 'hey it's between them and the Lord! ). However, I always follow after that with exactly how I would personally pay tithing in that situation. Interestingly on this topic, ". . .'interest annually' which is understood to mean income" is not always accurate. If you review the historical interpretation even in the Latter-Days, tithing was initially assumed to be on a person's surplus. In the 1828 Dictionary with definitions as would have been understood in Joseph Smith's time interest is listed as profit, or surplus advantage (Webster 1828). Even the early brethren expressed that tithing was to be paid on surplus (sources provided if requested). That is also the revelation Joseph Smith received regarding Abraham in the inspired translation of the Bible: That being said, I personally pay on my gross rather than net or surplus, but I subtract what I pay into my 401K and retirement accounts and Social Security because it will be easier to pay tithing on it as I receive/withdraw it than to calculate how much I put in vs how much I'm taking out when I retire and start withdrawing. I think we should share with others how we pay it while also ensuring they understand that after they take the information that they receive from many sources they should still evaluate for themselves thoughtfully and prayerfully.

I did clearly point out in my post that hypnotism is based in truth. The church also has not outright condemned or forbidden medical hypnotism as posted by @zil. The intent of my post was not to say that the true principles behind hypnotism are evil, but that the distortion or degradation of those true principles is the basis for the power Satan uses to accomplish 'miracles' which lead people astray.

This is really long, but hopefully you find it super cool, or at least very intriguing. In relation to hypnotism, I will first lay out many premises and then summarize with a conclusion. Spirit is matter Spirits have intelligence The earth is a living entity and everything thereon is comprised of both spirit and element Spirit/Intelligence is able to act for itself as designated by God Satan is able to perform miracles God creates, Satan is unable to create, but simply destroys or re-purposes true creation Anything that is of the earth in its fallen state is controllable by Satan's power Hypnotism is based on truth Hypnotism is the power by which Satan performs miracles I think most of the premises I presented speak for themselves, however, while I remain open to other theories, I want to make a connection between them that I believe to be logical and reasonable: Hypnotism is based on true principles, and is used by Satan in order to mesmerize the elements of the earth in order to perform miracles. However, the question remains, how does he accomplish this? I will borrow some secular perspectives of hypnosis to help solidify an answer this question: We can understand from the established premises that the earth in its entirety, as well as the plants and animals thereon is a combination of spirit and element which exist as living souls. We also can understand that intelligence 'is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself'. If a righteous priesthood holder commands water to become wine, or leprosy to be healed, the blind to see, a mountain to be moved, etc, then in theory the intelligent spirit connected to the elements will obey as if the command came from God, and will act as instructed. We have no reason to believe that the elements of the earth would naturally obey Satan, or any command he gives. However, if those elements were hypnotized, then, even though they would not normally obey Satan, moving, healing, re-arranging, etc, is something they would normally be prepared to do if commanded, it is not unacceptable to their natural behavior. Even if we accept the premise that hypnosis cannot cause action contrary to core values, hypnotism prepares the elements for the change, and they enact it regardless of the one giving the command. I personally believe this is how the magicians of Egypt were able to mimic many of the miracles God used Moses to perform including water to blood, staff to snake, etc.

@Mike I personally was never hypnotized, however, my boss was and to test it out she requested the hypnotist make her not like pretzels anymore. She claims that she did used to like them but ever since then she has not liked them and cringes if she accidentally eats or bites into one. Also, ever since I saw your OP earlier today I have had the intention of posting some really interesting information about hypnotism because I have done some research on it and come to some conclusions that I think are fascinating and enlightening. I will do my best to post it when I get home from work tonight.

In your situation, I would personally remove the factory restore image. It was not updated or replaced. If you want a restore image then create your own from within W10. Now that you are on W10, Microsoft has a special algorithm to determine, pc's and hard drives that have a valid W10 copy so even if you reformat and reinstall W10 from scratch on the same pc, it will be activated. Windows 10 also has a function to 'manage hard disk partitions', although I personally prefer using Linux tools (GParted), you should be able to type that in from the Start menu and remove the unessential partition and have it merged with your existing partition from within W10. Do not delete any of the small system partitions as those are used by the EUFI/BIOS and Windows for other important functions. If you need more info or step by step I would be happy to oblige but here is a link that might be helpful.

I agree with what @anatess2 said. That being said, a little humor to lighten the mood:

If you are concerned it will affect his decision making process, I would consider not telling him. If you must tell him, perhaps wait until he has already been serving his mission for a few months, had some great experiences, and then tell him. I would also recommend doing it in a passive nonchalant way. Something along the lines of, "Hey, I really like you, I know you feel the same from what you said before, if I am still single when you get back we should go out again ". If you know he's dedicated and he's serving no matter what then you can immediately proceed to follow the steps I have previously outlined here.

I thought my sarcasm was obvious, with the winky face and all. My bad, sarcasm fail!

Instead of wasting money renovating those temples, they should give the renovation money to the poor . And they should probably just open up the temples as homeless shelters too! Who needs a temple anyway, you can pray at home! Edit: Sarcasm