Grunt

EXECUTIVE (ESTJ-T)

We round-tabled improving home teaching and setting a regularly scheduled day for service. No homework. I think it's going to take a bit to get a rhythm.

I JUST had this talk with a missionary this week. It really humbled me. It stemmed from a woman at church (long time member) who just had a child with the man she lives with, and is always giving parenting advice I was in a GE class with her when we were discussing being an example for our children How do we know what is happening in someone’s life? They clearly know they are living in sin. They clearly know the ward judges them for it. Yet every Sunday they come to church, accept a calling, and serve Christ the best they can with whatever hand they were dealt. How embarrassing it must be trying to be active in a ward knowing you are openly not perfect. I don’t know if I would have the strength to do all that I can as I try to make myself better knowing what people were thinking. How much easier it would be to just fall away. Yet she doesn’t.

Who cares? Really. What difference does it make? You're looking too far down the road. Right now, you need to look at following the Law of Chastity TODAY. Then wake up in the morning, and worry about following the Law of Chastity THAT DAY. Wash, rinse, repeat. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. You're in public with your family. Your children are expecting to watch a movie when they get home. They act poorly, so you say "if you keep acting like this, there will be no movie". Will they be perfect for the rest of the day? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But at the end of the day YOU, their father, will judge their effort and reward them if they are worthy. I firmly believe Heavenly Father will judge OUR effort, not our perfection.

I refuse to live in a world where someone like @pam can have problems.

Ahhhh, sorry. Stopping is simple, not easy. I was quoting Elder Ballard.

We could replace "watching porn" with "sinning". I'm not quite sure what you're getting at, but as I understand this post it doesn't seem to be at odds with what you quoted.

You're making excuses to continue your bad behavior, as I alluded to previously. You KNOW what you need to do. You've been TOLD what you need to do. You have agency, you make choices. Because you've made bad choices and won't (to quote Elder Ballard) "just get over it", you've instead chosen to listen to Satan and condemn yourself because wallowing in the mire with like-minded people is MUCH easier than Choosing the Right, which is MUCH harder. I've said it before and I'll say it again, even though you don't want to hear it. 1. Stop watching porn. Get over it. 2. Start going to church. Just go. 3. Pray all the time. Feel like watching porn? Pray. Don't want to go to church? Pray. Driving to work? Pray. 4. Talk to your Bishop or others in the church. Stop making excuses that you aren't worthy, there is no hope, you can't get into Celestial. Just do it. Why? Because God wants you to. You don't have all the answers to the afterlife. If you're running in a foot race and it looks like you'll only come in second, do you quit? What if it looks like you'll come in last? Quit then? Nobody expects you to be perfect. They expect you to try. If not for you, then because the decisions you make today will affect your children for the rest of their lives. 5. Be humble. Have humility and grace. Soften your heart. Develop a relationship with Christ. Develop a home worthy of the Holy Spirit and allow Him to help you. 6. Focus on the issues that will help you get better. Stop side-stepping the solutions you need and arguing yourself deeper into the pit of despair on topics that really shouldn't matter to you right now. Believe it or not, we don't want you to fail. We'd love you to succeed, and I'm willing to bet anyone here would help you. You are your own worst enemy at this point, likely through no fault of your own. You're listening to Satan. Stop. It's frustrating, to me at least, to see you argue and make excuses, choosing to focus on matters that won't help you at this point when the ANSWER is so blatantly obvious to us all. The path is not easy, but it is THE path. We can't make you follow it. Personally, I believe answering all these questions you have is a waste of time and actually hurts more than it helps. It's why I won't participate. It's why you obviously don't like me. You're asking us for the solution to an advanced algebra problem and others are trying to answer it for you. It's senseless because you can't even add and subtract right now. Read the Scripture. Pray Go to church Call your Bishop. Not tomorrow. Not talk to him in church Sunday. Call him, or anyone else in a position to help you, today.

WHAT?!?! Are you suggesting the Army cares more about a dollar than my safety? Malarkey.

Maybe I'm just here to bring a little class to the joint. After all, I'm thankful to the Army for confirming my bias.

I love Sig. My favorite is the P220. Oddly, my favorite carry is the G30. I LOVE that firearm, and I typically despise Glock.

This is EXACTLY what I was getting at.

I recognize that. I enjoy this discussion not because I accept it as fact, but because my knowledge is so limited it gives me a starting point for my own research. Without that point it all looks overwhelming to me.

Dupe

Fitting

I’m fairly confident that is your goal.

What is my unfounded bias? I already responded that I don’t have an unfounded bias. I do, however, believe you don’t answer the queations because those answers are the answers to your questions.

No. They asked if I had read the Proclamation and I replied that the missionaries gave it to me, but I spilled beer on it. The phrase "silence was deafening" comes to mind.

You're mistaken, but that's OK. Read my posts again. Maybe answer the questions I've asked.

Ha! I think that's the longest thing I've ever written here. I feel like a real Mormon.

Welcome! I don't even know where to begin, and I'm a crappy writer anyway. I'm much better on the phone/in person, so please bear with my scattered thoughts and ask questions about my blathering. For you, the whole church rests on whether Joseph Smith was a prophet. Does it really, though? I assume you've read the Book of Mormon. Do you believe the Book of Mormon to be gospel? If so, then it doesn't matter if you believe Joseph Smith was a prophet. At the very least, if the Book of Mormon is true, the Joseph Smith was an instrument of God, prophet or not. That doesn't change the restoration of the true Church. Also, doubts are normal. You will ALWAYS have doubts. Right now, you doubt Joseph Smith was a prophet. Through study and prayer, I'm confident you'll come to once again know that he is. It won't stop there, though. Next week you may doubt that the Word of Wisdom is accurate. The week after that you may question the Proclamation on the Family. It is our nature to question and doubt. That's why God gives us THREE methods for determining the truth. When you have doubts with one, turn to the other two. Those three things are: 1. Scripture: God gives us answers, lessons, and commandments through scripture. The scriptures complement each other. If you are having trouble with something, prayer and scripture will bring you closer to Christ and the Great Comforter, where you will find your answers. 2. Prophets and modern revelation: When you struggle with scripture, turn to the Apostles. The Church does an incredible job documenting everything. Literally, everything. Having trouble with how to discipline your children? LDS.org has an article on it. Having an issue with the Atonement? Yep. LDS.org. 3. Personal revelation. I feel this one is one of the best, but it often needs one of the other two to help it along. If you have trouble with something, pray on it. Ask God to help you. If He brought me to the answers, He's obviously willing to help ANYONE. There you have three points to a pyramid, all of which compliment each other. Having trouble with Joseph Smith as a Prophet? Study and Pray. Have trouble with the Book of Mormon? Read the Prophets and pray. Having trouble with prayer? Get in the scripture and listen to the prophets. Now, if you're anything like me, there will be things that are faith shattering that you just CAN'T find the answers to. That doesn't mean there aren't answers, it just means you haven't found them. Maybe you aren't ready. Maybe it's too big of an issue for you to swallow whole. I have several of these things. The best piece of advice I was ever given came from a chance meeting with a young missionary while I was killing time. We were discussing a few things that were keeping me from baptism. She said she couldn't really help me with them, but I should pray to be at peace with those issues. Not to understand them. Just pray to accept them for now, so I can move past them and come back to them later. Within a week I was committed to baptism. Talk to everyone. In person, if possible. Don't be afraid to ask blunt questions. Listen to their answers. If you are sincere, I'm confident God will put you in touch with the right person to help you. On the morning of my baptism, the wife in the family that helped me the most gave a talk. She said when the family was prompted a few short months before, while she was 7 months pregnant, to sell their house and move from Utah to New England with no understanding of why, she was nervous. She went on to say that within a week of meeting my family, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was sent here to meet my family. I believe that. Also, when I had turned away from every missionary I met (7), I reached out to the online missionaries on mormon.org. I spoke to a young lady who started her mission that week. Over the coming months, the Spirit spoke to me very strongly through her. She led me to baptism. I had a connection to her so strong, I believe I knew her in my premortal life. The day I decided to be baptized, she told me she was being sent home. She had previously battled cancer, and came on her mission a year before she should have. She was constantly sick in the MTC, so they were sending her home. I know in my heart that she was put there, at that time, because I needed her. Do I understand everything about the restoration? I don't. I still have questions about some things. But I believe what the church teaches is true. I believe the Book of Mormon is scripture. I hope this helps you. I hope you start your journey again, and this time start a journal. When God helps you, write it down. When the times get tough, it will help you remember how you got where you are.

I'm gone before him. I NEED a filter between brain and my mouth. I'm surprised I didn't get tossed from Principles class this week. Being a Mormon is harder than I thought.

Not that I live in Utah, but I would never vote for Romney.

Is that a rule? Must you be related to names you submit? Is the only method of submission the genealogy app?