seashmore

I certainly hope so!

Anyone else's Relief Society send out group texts asking for reports on that month's visiting teaching? I do, and I have opinions! Group texts in general are a lousy way to have a conversation. They're great for announcements ("the activity is cancelled due to weather") but not correspondence ("who all is going to the activity?"). There are too many people who manage to "reply all." I don't think some people realize they are doing this, and/or can't figure out how to turn it off. Or maybe they've upgraded and didn't realize they needed to do it again. Should I ever find it necessary to respond to the sender, I open a brand new text and address it to the individual. My YW complain about group texts and chats from their peers so often that I've stuck to my promise to not send them, and I prove it by addressing them individually. At any rate, there is currently no possible way (on my phone, anyway) to block the receipt of messages sent to multiple numbers. Oh, that there were! So, I don't like group texts in general. But I have particular beef with using them to obtain VT reports, mostly because reporting VT can sometimes involve sensitive information, they very kind that should NOT be sent through group texts.

Callister, Hallstrom, Soares, and Nash round out my top 4. Bishop Causse is my long shot. He's got the goods, but hasn't even been presiding bishop for a full three years.

Amen! I just had one of my Laurel's over to my apt because she wanted to make a cake for our activity tomorrow. Her family just moved into a new place and she was nervous about their oven burning the cake, so I volunteered my oven. It was a good experience. This new mandate to go two adults deep on everything involving women and minors will take a GREAT deal for me to get used to. Mostly because I just got my YW adjusted to splitting up for 3rd hour, which we can no longer do unless we count the 18 year old Laurels as adults for this purpose. On the plus side, I'll probably get asked to sit in on more Primary lessons and our branch won't have to find a Gospel Doctrine teacher because there won't be anyone left in class. My heart goes out to those in districts so light on leadership that they rely on full time missionaries for it.

@NeuroTypical my grandmothers didn't take jobs outside of the home until after their children were graduated. Even then, I suspect one worked at the dimestore because it offered her a bit of opportunity to spread her social butterfly wings now that she didn't have any more track meets to attend. The other took jobs as a crossing guard near her home and a playground supervisor at the Catholic school one of my cousins attended (even though I'm pretty sure Grandma was Lutheran if anything). I have a mom friend who, when the Hobby Lobby opened here a few years ago, mentioned she considered going to work there part time. Just something to do during the day since her youngest would be starting full day school in the fall. She ended up not doing it and staying home. This allowed her to become a caretaker when one of our families was unexpectedly blessed with an infant. Both parents need to work full time outside of the home, and it is a rare form of torture trying to find infant daycare. (I don't know the particular details of their arrangement, but I see it going along with what was mentioned earlier about volunteering. There may be an elderly person or 80 in your area who needs a bit of companionship or help tidying up or rides to the eye doctor.) My own mother chose to work outside of the home, which I honestly think would have been okay, but she made her job a priority. Our family became dependent on her income to pay for things like Girl Scouts, babysitters, and cable. I honestly and intensely believe her obsession with her job was an underlying factor in my parent's divorce. Because she managed a fast food restaurant near my high school, my mom would often talk to my locker neighbor before she had spoken to either of her children that day. I had friends who, because they worked for her, would see her more than I did over the course of a week. And I lived with her. This is probably why, if I were a wife/mother, I would fight tooth and nail to create a supportive and welcoming atmosphere for my husband and children. Even if it meant giving up the employment I don't hate....most days.

@Hello I second the advice given by @Carborendum and @Jane_Doe. If you really feel a need to plant a bug, play the LDS Kevin Bacon game with one of them. Do nothing more than name drop. "Oh, you're from Timbuktu? My husband's brother lives there." Or drop a line to your BIL, "Hey, I just found out one of our missionaries here is from Timbuktu! Do you know Sister Lastname?" If either are interested in making a connection at any point, they will.

If you know what time you'll be available, call ahead and see if they have a baptistry group you can join. Otherwise, definitely visit the grounds. If you have time, go inside and enjoy the waiting room. Most have scriptures, church magazines and really comfy couches. It's incredible how much of the Spirit you can feel just being close to the temple.

An emphasis on continuous learning and self-improvement.

Now I want to find and rewatch "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain." But I thought about mountains v. molehills a little today. In my work, we have very few concerns that qualify as mountains. Yet, a couple of my coworkers seem to be so interested in mountain climbing that they will turn anything into a mountain. And they seem almost offended when I don't. Our manager is of the molehill mindset and it's because she takes a step back and looks at the bigger picture. The two mountaineers almost always have a very narrow focus on everything. I suppose if you were to look at anthill through a magnifying glass, it may look like a mountain.

Whenever I'm tempted to or realize I am making a mountain out of a molehill, I take a step back and ask myself, "Is this issue going to have any effect on which kingdom I enter into come Judgement Day?" If the honest answer is no, I let it go. If the honest answer is yes or maybe, I do what I can to change what I can. To help with letting go of the molehills, one of my sayings is, "Fix it and forget about it. And if you can't fix it, just forget about it." Even if I'm alone and thinking about whatever molehill, I'll physically shrug my shoulders as a way to signify to myself that I've shrugged it off, once I've done all that I can. Some things that I get upset about are under my control, and some are not. It's okay to feel angry (or any other negative emotion) about something, but it's not a good idea to stay that way. The first lesson I taught in Primary (as a sub) was to the Sunbeam class (of one that day) and was titled: I Have Feelings https://www.lds.org/manual/primary-1/lesson-21?lang=eng

Same. I've been in this branch almost four years, and our numbers fluctuate. I once heard that we could get the numbers to make us a ward, but we could never sustain them long enough for that process to happen. We're on the outer edge of our stake's boundaries, and jut up against the largest geographical stake in the continental US. All of our stake visitors (and regular out of towners) all say they love the feeling they get when they come to our branch. There are only four active members (maybe five or six) who have been in the boundaries for more than twenty years. When I hear people lament over our branch status or lack of activity, I'm quick to remind them that we live in rural America, a place where there are towns that, even if every person was an active LDS, it still wouldn't be a ward. Yeah, we don't have that. No HPG leadership (I honestly think all of our high priests are accounted for in the above stats) and no SS Presidency. Right now, we don't even have a Gospel Doctrine teacher. Our ward clerk/executive secretary taught two weeks ago and after class, asked me to teach last week. Which I did, and then he asked me right after sacrament if I had passed the buck to someone else. I hadn't because my invitation to teach hadn't included the instruction to ask someone else to teach the next lesson. I couldn't tell you how it went because I had to run home and get some things for a YW camp meeting that I wasn't fully expecting. I had asked for it to be put in the bulletin two weeks ago. The email was never replied to and I didn't see it in the announcements last week, so I internally cancelled it since I figured no one would be there. Then they announced it from the pulpit, so I skipped out on GD to make copies needed for the meeting.

I have always loved the SMELL of coffee. No joke, if my mom lost track of me in the grocery store as a kid, she'd either find me standing underneath the coffee bean/ground dispensers just inhaling the aroma or reading the greeting cards. (My favorite had both in the same aisle at one point!) I experimented a little in college, but never grew to like the taste unless it was in one of those fancy coffee drinks, most of which can be made deliciously without coffee, anyway. After college, I worked for a few years at a fast casual restaurant that had tons of coffee. I became a Mormon barista and made gallons upon gallons of coffee, in addition to the coffee equivalent of cocktails. Steamed soy milk is nectar from the gods, and it still bugs me when people say "expresso" instead of "espresso." And if someone could explain to me how a Keurig can provide a cappuccino, that'd be great. The whole point of a cappuccino is that there is a CAP of foam (from either milk or cream) at the top!

You have my prayers and sympathies @JohnsonJones. My dad (who I suspect is around your age, as he just retired this summer) experienced the flu a couple of years ago. His job required a lot of physical labor, so he was unable to do much resting and this probably contributed to his taking 6-8 weeks to fully recover and get back to 100%. As someone who gets their medical knowledge from hanging out with nurses, I recommend fluids and rest. Literally flush the sickness right out of you. Vitamin C and garlic are good for the immune system and it's pretty easy to increase your uptake. Also, follow any orders that come from a licensed medical professional.

I think this is a good place to start. Do some soul searching, possibly with a person or therapist your trust, and see if you can't figure out how to deal with the unwanted emotion. Allow resolving the sex addiction to take lower priority (for now). Focus on addressing whatever it is you're suppressing. I've found that I'm more tempted to break the law of chastity if I'm depressed or my bladder is full. (Which is a hard line to walk when dehydration increases my depression.) Practice setting and achieving goals, any goal will do. Try to see a new place every week for a year (new restaurant or gas station, take a new way home, any setting you haven't seen before) or read fifty books in a year, or run 100 miles in three months, whatever. Involve/inform the Lord of your plans. In prayer/pondering time, tell Him what you plan to do and how you plan to do it. Once you've proven to yourself that God can/will help you do whatever good thing you set your mind to, set a goal to keep the Law of Chastity for an extended amount of time (month, year, etc.), and start over as many times as it takes. Odds are, this is something that is going to require a concerted effort from you for the majority of your life on this earth. And that's ok. You will struggle with this, and that's ok, too. It's ok to fall, and even better to get back up and try again. A few years ago, I was sitting in sacrament meeting in front of a family who had a daughter about Sunbeam age. She wanted her dad to draw her a frog, and he must not have taken enough drawing classes in high school, because I kept hearing her emphatically whispering, "No. You have to try again!" Changed my outlook on the repentance process. (It's more a motivator than a metaphor.) Listen to anything by Elder Holland. His words are likely to give you some hope, friend.

We had a YSA group on a church history tour invade our Sunday meetings (they literally doubled our numbers). Afterwards, the girl I sat next to and I started talking to the two visitors in front of us. The other two had some connection over the Lagoon, but the girl I was talking with mentioned she had cousins in the same stake I grew up in. She talked about having gone to our girl's camp one year, the year that her cousin put the whole camp into a panic because she disappeared for a couple of hours. I remembered that. She also mentioned remembering how someone's tent had flooded. I didn't remember that, so when I went home I pulled out my camp journals and....turns out it had been my tent that flooded!! A few years ago, I had a good online friend get sealed in SLC. Her HT in the YSA ward out there had been in my Omaha ward while in law school, and he was gracious enough to pick me up from the train station. Oddly enough, we were both skipping his old roommate's wedding in favor of the SLC one. (I was only acquainted with the roommate, and he had a new family of his own.)

My grandfather said funerals are for the living and my survivors can do what they feel is best (likely cheapest and easiest, which is what I'd choose, anyhow). I know my dad was upset about his mother being cremated; I guess he likes open casket because it gives him a sense of closure. I will say her being cremated allowed a postponing of the funeral, which allowed those of us from farther away to attend. Her eulogy was delivered by her oldest son, who pretty much read memories of her that one of my aunts had put together for her 80th birthday. But speaking of organ donation...

No one here (Nebraska) cares. We had a female Gospel Doctrine teacher who wore dress pants for about a year. I never heard anyone say anything to her about it, although she has been wearing dresses the past few months. Two of our last three branch presidents have worn cowboy boots with their suits and we've had young men pass the sacrament in blue dress shirts or black denim pants. No one cares. Well, Brother Jones might, but we all know better than to care what Brother Jones thinks about such things. My advice: dress like you're going to meet Jesus for brunch, wherever you think it is He would take you to eat. I had a non LDS friend tell me she went to church with one of our coworkers and was very uncomfortable when she showed up and was the only female wearing pants. (There's a religious group in my area (I don't know what) where all the women wear skirts all the time, even at work.) Its my guess that the dress code guidelines were put out there so people coming for the first time might not feel out of place for dressing differently from the majority. Sort of like "we wear pink on Fridays" for people who are concerned about that sort of thing. OP seems not to, which is perfectly fine.

I'm going to weigh in on this. I don't think God's plan is that fickle. First off, no one is going to be denied entrance to the celestial kingdom because they weren't introduced to the plan while on earth (which is what you're suggesting here). The Lord will provide a way. Secondly, I'm not sure that guilting someone into serving a mission is entirely Christlike. Seems a little manipulative to me. To me, mission calls aren't much different than other calls: if the teacher is acting under the direction of the Spirit, it doesn't really matter whose face is at the front of the room. Which means serving a mission is self-beneficial. Sure, you (generic) bless the lives of others along the way, but who's to say the Lord wouldn't have sent someone else on that errand? To my incredibly limited understanding, serving a mission is as close as one gets in this life to living the law of consecration to the fullest extent. Those months served prepare one for life in the celestial kingdom better than most anything else. This is why I think military service is considered an acceptable substitute for mission service: here also you make a commitment to give up your everything and do whatever is asked of you in the name of serving others. ETA: I think this is also why there is such a strong emphasis from the GAs on serving a mission, circumstances allowing. (They've started stoking the fires of senior and service missions in the last few years.)

I, too, love a good screwball comedy. Some of my favorites are Bringing Up Baby, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, and I Was a Male War Bride.

I, too, love a good screwball comedy. Some of my favorites are Bringing Up Baby, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, and I Was a Male War Bride.

Callings are a great gateway to Gospel discussions! Just this week, we had New Beginnings on Wednesday night. On Friday, a coworker was chatting with me, and knowing that she's a Lutheran (our small office is open about our various personal religious affiliations) I told her how the musical number they did made me feel because it was a song about being the light of Christ. It provided a nice contrast to earlier, when she gawked at three hours of church with no snacks!

@Auzylee I've had a few bishops that didn't understand me as well as I might have liked, and one that even said something from the pulpit that I brought up with a counselor in the stake or presidency because it had made me feel discouraged about attending church. (What he said was not meant maliciously, and I knew that, but it was an insensitive remark at a time when I was feeling ultra sensitive.) But I know my Savior understands me. My Heavenly Father knows me and loves me deeper than anyone else does. I have had moments in my life where I have keenly felt that, and I assume you have, too. I recommend reflecting on those moments just prior to meeting with your current bishop again.

I like what the psychologist said in that second video, about how porn is used as a coping mechanism for negative emotions. That's something I was thinking about during sacrament meeting today, about how kids are taught that they ought not to express any emotion. This can lead to a self-numbing state in their teens/young adult years, where they get into all sorts of things (drugs, porn self-harm) just because they're looking to feel something. Not as much of a fan about FTND purposefully normalizing the reaction and behavior. I get what they're saying, and believe their intentions are good, but if we don't also stress the importance of bridling our passions, I think that normalizing the natural reaction does more harm than good. My favorite porn anecdote is when I was serving in Primary, they did a Sharing Time lesson with Sr. Primary that touched on the topic. I don't remember much about the lesson, but I do remember the leader defining it as "bad pictures of other people," and one of the ten year old boys' instant reaction was to physically recoil about half way through her sentence. To me, that is exactly the reaction we ought to have. As the old saying goes, you can't stop a bird from flying overhead, but you can stop it from building a nest.

Have a bookmark in this now. My first exposure to it was a book on cd from the library that I listened to while at work. Took me almost the whole two-week lending period to get through it, but I enjoyed it enough to want to pick it up and actually read it. I'm a slow reader, so it'll take me a year to finish it, but I enjoy it. I'm almost finished with this season's reread of Willa Cather's "O! Pioneers." Always enlightening and quoteable.

As YWP I thank you.