Grunt

Another interview? Uh oh.

As well they should.

I don't view this as a "conditional testimony" as much as I do the habit members seem to have of speculating. I had to endure a one-sided conversation on why there are dinosaur bones recently. Why try to guess about what the Lord may reveal? Why worry about how you'll react to what's to come? You have instructions. You make covenants. You follow them. Through that, you grow faith. With that faith you'll face what's to come.

As an adult convert, I was ordained Priest shortly after baptism. I received a limited use recommend pretty soon after, which granted me access to the baptistry. I went on youth night to assist in baptisms. Shortly after receiving the higher priesthood I continued to attend on youth night with a limited use recommend. I was able to participate in baptisms and confirmations. 13 months after baptism I had a full use recommend.

Mrs Grunt is starting Temple Prep classes

I know you aren't optimistic. That doesn't mean I can't be.

Or baptisms will increase dramatically.

7-11 😁

I'm not even close to being convinced that Trump has a chance this election. It's way too early to tell.

No it doesn't. They call out Clinton because it is now safe. He's an outsider. It's rare to see them do that with any of the debauchery that is uncovered today.

Regardless, their failure to push this to the senate confirms it was simply political grandstanding.

I disagree with this statement, I suppose, but I don't think we're far off from each other. We may even be on the same page but it's the wording I have issue with? I believe character absolutely matters. I believe keeping the oath of office matters. I believe personal views on economics, world policy, religion, and individual liberty matter. I rank all of these with varied levels of importance, but they all come into play when I'm casting a vote.

Character still matters. However, it isn't the ONLY thing that matters.

Yes. I've since found those online. Our Primary leadership didn't know anything about them. I'm going to talk to the secretary this weekend about ordering them.

We had that combined meeting and video as well, only they didn't hand out books.

For me, it comes down to obligation and a logic chain is the best way for me to come to personal answers. I know God loves me, individually. I know this is Christ's restored Church. Then the other decisions I make, whether or not I have a testimony of them, stem from what I know. For example, since I know this is Christ's Church, if the Church says I shouldn't drink coffee then it doesn't matter if I have a personal testimony on that. I just don't drink coffee. It isn't "limiting". It isn't something to get depressed over. It's relatively minor. You aren't going to die or be miserable if you don't have coffee in your life. The same applies to harmful media. You may want those things, but you don't need them. You aren't submitting yourself to "rules". You ARE submitting yourself to God. It's important to follow ALL of our obligations to God, but that's fairly impossible in our mortal bodies. That's why we have repentance and time to grow and become better. My suggestion to you is to try each thing you are struggling with and see how you feel about it after. Commit to not doing one thing for 30 days. Go into it with an open mind. Pray on it. See if the Spirt speaks to you about your actions. That worked for me. Most things I received confirmation of.

This is every day at work for me.

Probably because you aren't the Prophet.

So far they've all been meeting together, which has been a little bit of a problem. 7 year olds and 11 year olds are very different, more so when they mix boys and girls.

I have been obedient as well.

This. So much this.

So, my kids never got anything to take home to work on with us. Were they supposed to? As I'm researching what we're going to do next week and putting together a plan for the year, I'm finding booklets and things online for certain groups. My REALLY stupid question is: What do they consider primary? I see books for "Children" and other books for "Youth", but nothing for Primary. Does it fall into one of those categories?

It's up to each state's Grand Lodge. Many states have said "holy crap, we'd better start recruiting". Massachusetts even runs radio ads I believe.

It's weird. The "lodge in every town" has gone away. Many small town lodges have closed or merged. My lodge is small. We'll get 15 or so members (about 10-15% of our total current membership) at the monthly meetings and half that (plus townsfolk) at the Saturday pancake breakfasts. I really like Freemasonry, but you get out of it what you put into it. Probably 40% of our active members are under 50 years old. The age of the members doesn't necessarily bother me, though it is trending older. People with families are just busy. After retirement, they look for things to do and a group of men bettering themselves is a great past time. Many members join younger in life, disappear, then come back later in life. With many lodges, money isn't the issue (they have old money that has been left to them) it's getting members to actual show up so they can perform the rituals. Freemasonry will be around for many years to come, in my humble opinion, but it's going to shrink WAY back to a sustainable size. Some of your appendant bodies may shrink to almost nothing. Someone from the Royal Arch chapter the next town over was asking for members of that body to transfer.

You can get some eastern star.