e-eye

The new plan seems to be that there is no plan. 
 

We finished taking the first step in our preparations about 20 minutes ago. Instead of following the usual Come Follow Me lesson for this week, we focussed on aspects of the restoration. We started with watching again President Nelson's closing remarks during the Sunday afternoon session, starting the talk at the 7:30 mark where he begins to talk about the 2020 Conference. Then we started to do one of the things he specifically asked us to do - we read together about 40 verses from Joseph Smith History. Next we used Google Earth to look at some of the historical sites in and around Palmyra where the events President Nelson spoke about happened. Then we looked at some of the photos and videos that I took there last month, especially the videas of the tours where the Visitor Centre missionaries provide a lot of information. Finally, I finished by sharing my testimony of the truthfulness of the restoration of the gospel and of the events recorded in Joseph Smith - History. It took a little over an hour and a quarter and I think it was the best home gospel discussion we've had this year.
We've had a few brief family discussions about whether some or all of us should attend the next Conference, but I haven't finished paying for some overseas travel I'm planning in February, so I'm not sure yet if the family budget can sustain a US trip in April.  

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Is his name Ephraim, or Joseph, or Jacob, or Isaac, or Abraham by any chance?

I’m betting yes on a civil war in our lifetime. Lots of difficult things will happen before the 2nd coming. 

One observation:
1) Someone always complains about people making “conference rumors” every 6 months when the topic comes up
I mean that in the most light hearted way possible of course
but an honest response to this. Correct me if I’m wrong... but God doesn’t really wait for the unfaithful to catch up (Matthew 25:1-13), he just goes forward with his plans and the faithful follow. Additionally, Pres Nelson did say a lot of changes are coming.
I see nothing wrong with speculation of things to come, but I do see something wrong with people getting excited about future changes when they haven’t applied recent changes into their lives (I’m looking at you @Fether).

Okay... so Joseph Smith did not say "the gates of hell had overcome the Church" because we don't have that same understanding of what the gates of hell is.  But yes, the Church (not just the Catholic Church) went into a period of apostasy.
If you interpret "the rock of Peter" as the Catholic Church, then you'd interpret that Christ guaranteed that wouldn't happen.  But if you interpret "the rock of Peter" as "Revelation from the Father that Jesus is the Christ" (read Matthew 16:17 with Matthew 16:18), then Jesus did not guarantee that the Catholic Church will not lose the authority of revelation but that the Revelation that Jesus is the Christ can be received even by people who died without it being revealed to them.

In situations like these, take the spitefully faithful approach.
Say “those girls are doomed, they can’t run the YW program without me. I AM the YW program!” then Wash your hands of the calling, pop open a cold can of Diet Coke, turn on the most recent episode of ‘Brooklyn 99’, and await your next calling (all the while fulfilling your other duties as a member of course).

Man, if I had a nickel for every time someone stayed on to help me with the calling I just vacated, I, well, I wouldn't have any nickles at all.  Kind of you to do it.

Oh my gosh!  I knew it!

One of my favorite hymns.  I am sure it will stay. 

I think I'm going to give @Vort an infraction for saying BYU is awesome.

The problem is that our culture is drifting toward the idea that the only way to show compassion and love toward someone is to support every single thing they do.  "Love the sinner, hate the sin" is an idea that people are forgetting in alarming numbers.
What makes it worse in the case of LGBT issues is that instead of someone's sexuality being an aspect of their personality, it's  treated as the core of their being... so if you disapprove of homosexual behavior, our culture interprets that as hating the person himself/herself.  "It's who I AM!!!!"
It's a completely illogical notion, but one that has taken in a LOT of people.

In the Restored Church of Jesus Christ, a man who has the Melchizedek Priesthood conferred on him is usually ordained to the Priesthood office of elder. A "high priest" is a man who holds the Melchizedek Priesthood and has been ordained to the Priesthood office of high priest. Priesthood offices appear to be related to the specific duties we have within the kingdom of God at this time. For example, stake presidents ordain a man to the Priesthood office of patriarch so that he can act as the stake's Patriarch in giving Patriarchal blessings, and men who are called as Seventies or other General Authorities are ordained to the Priesthood office of seventy or apostle, as required by their calling. Similarly, men who are called to certain leadership positions (into a bishopric or as a member of a stake presidency or the stake high council) must be ordained to the Priesthood office of high priest.
Within the family and in the eternities, I know of no difference between elders and high priests (or patriarchs, or seventies, or apostles). When you hold the Melchizedek Priesthood, you hold the authority of Jesus Christ. The office under which you use your Priesthood authority appears to have meaning only within the context of Church service.
So to answer your question briefly: In the eternal sense, I don't think there is any difference between being a high priest and being in any other Priesthood office; if you hold the Priesthood and are worthy to exercise it, that's all that matters. Within the structure of the Church, your Priesthood office determines what sort of Priesthood leadership calling you can fulfill, so that if you are called to a certain leadership position, you may need to be ordained to a specific Priesthood office.

Hopefully to include a training module for abuse prevention and identification, safety principles for activities with children and youth, and a requirement that all leaders and teacher of youth and children be required to take the training.
Not really a change in doctrine, but certainly a change to the Doctrine and Covenants.
 
We had a member of the stake presidency come to our ward on Sunday and ask all of the youth and the Bishop's family to stand up.  He then said, "all of you may call the bishop whenever you like.  The rest of you should call somebody else." 
But we've been peeling back just about everything off of our bishop's plate for a while.  To the point that I'm almost single handedly managing all the financial decisions (with weekly check ins).

I hope for weekly being that I am a couple miles away, but it usually ends up about 3x per month.  
Last Saturday I awoke at 5:20 and the song "I Love to See The Temples" popped into my head.  I was like... I guess that means I need to get up and hit the 6:00 session.  It's a blessing to live close.  

I agree with many of e-eye's points.  I would include a couple of additional ones to the list:
-Word of Wisdom clarifications
-more leadership opportunities for women in the different areas of the church
The reason I think that there might be some updates to the way that the Word of Wisdom is defined is that it was never originally intended to be elevated to 'commandment' level, and wasn't lived as such until the early-mid 20th century.  Also, there is too much loose interpretation on what an appropriate vs. inappropriate 'hot drink' means.  Around the world, a lot of different hot drinks besides coffee and tea are consumed (kava, matte, etc) and they aren't expressly forbidden by the church.  However, often members in those parts of the world use that as a way of defining a more robust level of faithfulness (those who don't drink kava vs. those who do), and it causes a lot of judgment, misconceptions, etc.  After all, we have other prophetic counsel (staying out of debt, food storage, etc), that aren't given the same 'commandment/temple recommend question' status.  I can just see that the modern day interpretation of the Word of Wisdom is steeped in a lot of the 'Utah' church tradition and not really in what it was originally intended to be.  Anyway, my prediction is that in the globalization and de-centralization of the church that is happening now under President Nelson's leadership, I can see this Word of Wisdom clarification/update as being one of the changes.  My two cents...

With colored shirts? 

It is a surefire way, though I am not sure it is the "most."  It is hard to beat man buns (particularly when worn with a kilt) for repelling higher callings.

Thanks, -Wade Englund-

After President Russell M. Nelson announced that the Church would gravitate away from using the word 'Mormon' to identify ourselves, we at ThirdHour.org began to brainstorm a new name for our website, which was then called MormonHub.com. The possibility that the Sunday schedule would be shortened had not become a reality yet. It was just in the rumor mill. We loved the name Third Hour, however, and just as we were about to make it so, the Sunday meeting schedule was indeed shortened. True to our new name, we want to help make your third hour of study at home a great success. So we are launching a section of our website dedicated to Come Follow Me resources. These resources are being created by our design and content departments and are absolutely free. You can access these resources from our homepage. The portal can be found at the upper right corner of the page, or you can use the drop-down menu under the Resources tab. When you click on the Come Follow...
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Years ago an apostle visited my ward.  I was a returned missionary and my brother was there with his soon to be wife.  After the meeting we were able to say a quick hi to the apostle.  The apostle said to my brother...  "You are not taking her to the temple with that thing on your face are you."  It wasn't a question.  My brother was clean-shaven the day of his marriage.   
As for changes.  It seems like we don't have to wait for conference anymore.  Seems as though it's a steady trickle of changes these days.  

Which confuses me.  Everyone knows that the most surefire way to not get called as bishop is to actively campaign to be called as bishop. Still works for me!
 

It is disappointing that so many are being deceived into thinking there is something inappropriate in the interviews by Bishops and Branch Presidents. Why do so many assume that all priesthood leaders are potential deviants? If you suspect every man of evil you will reach a point where you will begin accusing everyone and you will lose the Spirit and be consumed by the world. I think President Uchtdorf said it best, 
 

If you are concerned you can request to be present. Parents have always been allowed to attend their children's interviews, and that has been reiterated recently. Maybe if you explain how important this is to you, your ex-wife will attend the meeting? Oh and FYI, on a seperate note because you should be able to attend the meeting if you want to, I never would have fixed things that were seriously wrong when I was a teenager if my parents had been required to sit in my interviews with me. I believe parents should be allowed to attend meetings and they are, but I also believe kids, especially teens, should be able to request private meetings with their bishops as well.

This article was originally published on maisfe.org by Inaê Leandro on December 4, 2018. It was then translated into Spanish. This is a translation of the Spanish iteration. The entire world knows her face. Many know her name, but few know that she's a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Did you know? https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq3IZWfhJz1/?utm_source=ig_embed Last Sunday, December 1, Chloe was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ. She lives in the United States, but her meme is famous throughout the world. It was a special and important day for Chloe, and you can see pictures of it on the joint Instagram account she shares with her sister. Their Instagram account has more than 600 thousand followers. Chloe and her older sister, Lily, have had plenty of internet success. It all started thanks to one video that was published online of their mother surprising them with a trip to Disneyland. If you haven't seen it, here it is: https://youtu.be/NGhuLkjl4iI Congratulations to Chloe for making such an important life decision! From Latter-day Saints and fans from...
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