Midwest LDS

Hi @gracie238 I'm sorry this is so confusing for you. We aren't lying to anyone because we are very open that we worship the entire Godhead. In the First Article of Faith it states that "We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost." We worship God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost uses His power to testify of both of Them. Remember Christ himself considers Heavenly Father his God. In John 20:17 right after his resurrection he states "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." But you shouldn't forget that Jesus Christ is also God. He is the Jehovah of the Old Testament and he says that "All things that the Father hath are mine;". After all, were it not for Christ's Divinity, he would never have accomplished His great Atoning Sacrifice for us all. Without Him we could never be brought into the Father's presence. We worship the Father and the Son and while we will, if exalted, one day become joint heirs with Christ, our Father in Heaven will always be our God, and Jesus Christ will always be our Savior. The Holy Ghost makes up the third member of the Godhead and while they are seperate in body, as @Jane_Doe says they are one in purpose. You cannot worship one without worshiping the others so there is no need to fret☺.

I'm sorry you didn't like his book, but of course everyone has a right to their opinion. However I'm as confused as @zil and @Carborendumabout what aspect of his writing you find dirty or innapropriate? I've read a lot of his books, and he doesn't have explicit love scens in any of the ones I've read. This isn't an accusation by the way, I'm genuinly curious what you found disturbing?

@Danny Phantom that is a tough problem to deal with, but it can be dealt with. God can fix this, he really can. The fact that she was open and honest about it to you right from the start is a great sign. That shows me that she wants to be open and honest with you no matter how painful or embarrassing the subject, a good quality in a wife. She had to know it might affect your relationship, yet she told you anyways. As far as your initial question, that's between her and her bishop, but generally it's more like weeks or months than years in my experience, just as a general rule. Go in with your eyes open, she may struggle with this from time to time in her life. But if you receive the confirmation of the Holy Spirit, I say go for it she sounds like the type who does not want this to be a part of her life. Just my two cents☺.

That's an excellent question @Noel T. Batac! Remember 2 Nephi 25:23 "For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." I think sometimes we as members get overly focused on the second half of that scripture and forget the comma seperating the two thoughts. You are saved by the grace of Jesus Christ! He has done the heavy lifting that we cannot do, and this is a message of joy and hope. All we can do is endure to the end. That doesn't mean you have to meet some invisible line of goodness before Grace kicks in. It means that if we are trying, and getting up when we fall down, something we will do often, Christ will bring us into the Celestial Kingdom. So if you are doing that, and have faith in Our Lord and Savior don't fret. You will be exalted in the Celestial Kingdom of God.

That is strange, I haven't run into one like that before, but I've never been on our near a military base when I was looking for a church.

Yep go to Mormon.org worship with us, put in the address of where you'll be, and it'll show you the nearest Ward and it's meeting times.

I always found the alienation of family and friends for political differences to be sad. I had a cousin move to California who decided he doesn't want to associate with the family anymore because we are all ignorant, backwards Christians (I'm using far nicer terms than he did). It was sad because he was a really great guy, and I honestly didn't care that we disagreed before he got personal. I'd probably label myself a Reagan Conservative, but I have friends and family who run the whole range of political and religious thought and I like that. I have no problem discussing religious and political differences, as long as the person remembers that despite our differences, we are friends and family first.

He's a really good author. I've kind of bounced around. My wife bought me Elantris for my birthday or Christmas years ago, and I enjoyed it. Then I read Warbreaker (excellent book) sometime afterwards. Now, I'm working my way through the Stormlight Archive and the Mistborn series. I love how every world he creates is so different from fantasy norms, and he is really good at surprising you. I'm most of the way through Wheel of Time (I'm on book 10) so I'm excited to see how he finished everything up there too. Definitely one of my favorite authors.

As a former member of a branch presidency I can assure everyone that there is absolutely nothing surprising about what's in handbook 1 it just gives specific instructions to leadership. Now if you want to know about proper goat sacrificing techniques you need to go to Handbook 0...but I've said too much?

Actually @JoCa people freezing up when they are in danger is a very common reaction. Here is an article about it if you are interested http://www.stressstop.com/stress-tips/articles/fight-flight-or-freeze-response-to-stress.php. As a historian, I can tell you that there are countless stories of soldiers freezing in combat, especially new soldiers, even though that reaction would be considered deadly in that situation. Rape victims frequently have this response, and everyone won't be able to fight back. There are people with medical degrees who can explain this more thourougly than I can, but the freeze reaction is so well documented that I know it exists. There are plenty of women who will show no physical signs of being raped when they have been because of this reaction. Are there false accusations of rape? Undoubtedly, but you can't just dismiss an accusation due to lack of physical evidence because of this. Fear is a powerful and real emotion.

I know that was tough, but you did the right thing. Keep pushing forward brother!

@MariDemure I'm so sorry that you've been through so much pain. My wife and I also struggled with infertility for years, and I know what it feels like to look in the mirror and blame myself and think maybe it's because of my sins. But it's just not true! God is not punishing you. He loves you with all of his heart. Remember John 3:16-17, "For God so loved the world that he sent his only Begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved." Now remember that God tells us in Doctrine and Covenants 82:5 "Therefore, what I say unto one I say unto all...". Read through John 3:16-17 again and replace world with your name. God sent His Son to bring you home, not to punish you for your short comings. Too often because we strive to follow the commandments we forget about the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will save us if we endure to the end. We live in a fallen world. Horrible things happen to good people all the time because of that. But it does not mean God is punishing you when something bad happens! Sister you need God now more than ever, as you have a very overwhelming trial you are dealing with. He loves you with all of his heart. He sent His Son for you as much as for me don't forget that and think you have to do this on your own. Ignore the counselor who told you to stop going to church. You need Christ to get through this now more than ever. I absolutely reccomend finding a counselor through LDS services as it really helped my wife when we were going through a very similiar trial, and they won't give you advice contrary to the Gospel. God bless you. I will pray for you, and I hope you find the peace you are looking for.

@workingonit First of all, thank you for sharing with us. Please take this from someone who knows, but a relapse does not erase the good you've done to this point! It may delay things, that's up to your bishop and the direction of the Holy Ghost, but that still means you went 8 months without looking at pornography. That is a great accomplishment! The Lord is much more interested in where we are headed than where we are and according to what you said you are on your way up. Don't let Satan convince you that your relapse means you've failed completely. He likes to do that, because if he can convince you that you are lost it's much easier for him to convince you to go right back into your addictions. Tell your wife as soon as you can. Addiction thrives in darkness, and darkness is banished by the light. She may well be dissapointed, but how much more disappointed would she be if you didn't tell her and she found out on her own? She stuck with you through your affairs, so she sees something in you worth fighting for. I'm going to echo Elder Holland and say "Don't you quit!" You fell down on your journey upward. But our Savior is standing over you with an outstretched hand waiting to pull you back up again and continue your journey to salvation. With His help brother, don't go backward, keep going forward. I know you will find the salvation you seek if you do.

Ugh that's awful @Latter-Day Marriage. I'm glad the moderators run a tighter ship here, I can't believe you would find mass encouragement to sin on an LDS specific site.

1. Simple, you stop yourself from acting on your impulses. All of us have impulses to sin from time to time, you ignore it, recognize you are wrong, and move on. If you are struggling to ignore it, ask Christ to help you ignore it. As 1 Corinthians 10:13 says God won't allow you too be tempted above what you are able. 2. Once again this is easy. It's all about intent. If you are talking to women with the intent to attract them to you, your flirting. If you're just being friendly then you aren't. Like everything in life we control our thoughts and impulses, asking for help from God when we feel overwhelmed. 3. This is also something you can do. You married your wife and had kids with her. Love is a choice. Serve her, do things she likes or you both like, compliment her and spend your time treating her as the wonderful woman you claim she is. As long as you keep taking these trips through fantasy land you won't be able to love her. You married her. Your reasons are irrelevant at this point. Can you imagine going before God and explaining to him "Well gosh Lord I left my wife and abandoned my children because she wasn't exciting enough for me and I don't think we were soul mates". Of course you can't. Marriage should only be terminated in cases of abuse or adultery and right now, from your description, you're the only one flirting with adultery. 4. DON'T! It's irrelevant to you. Your sister in law could have the beauty of Aphrodite and the purity of Joan of Arc and to you it would be irrelevant. You are flirting with adultery, even if only in fantasy and abstractly. Why would you continue to pursue that path? I have sisters in law that are beautiful and awesome as well and yet I never feel the need to tell them that. To me that's like an Alcoholic asking if it's ok to sniff the wine and talk about it's aromatic qualities. You are not an animal. You are a son of God. Act like one, treat your wife like the wonderful woman you said she is in an earlier post, and leave your Sister in law alone before you say or do something both stupid and evil. I'm being blunt with you, because you don't seem to realize how close to the edge you are. Stop and turn to Christ before you hurt yourself, your wife, your children, your sister in law and a whole bunch of other people. Marriage is not just until we get bored. It's for eternity! The Savior wants you to work on strengthening your marriage. See a counselor if you need to, but stop trying to find excuses to sin.

Agreed he really needs to step back from an abyss here.

I can't imagine a worse thing you could do to your wife then follow through with that plan of yours. You mentioned, briefly, that your wife is a wonderful woman. Why would you even consider hurting her so much? Who cares that you think your sister in law is cute? It's wrong! Would you destroy your wife and your children just to follow some dumb fantasy you've had in your head? That's all it is, a fantasy. Even worse its a fantasy straight from the mouth of Hell. Can you even begin to imagine what would happen if you went through with this? How many family relationships it would severely damage or destroy? Turn to Christ brother. Recognize where this fantasy comes from and the next time you feel it running around your head tell Satan to get back to Hell.

That's what always got me. In 95% of moral arguments we would be on the same dang side, but they were more afraid of us than people diametrically opposed to their way of life. I just never got it and I never will.

Such a thing is possible and I'm glad you want to get that work done for them! @zil and @Jane_Doe really explained how to do so well so I won't repeat them but your request is not odd. My grandmother, who has little interest in the church personally, has insisted I complete her work for her after she passes on. I think she's just covering her bases lol, but I told her I absolutely would and she was very happy about it.

It's this exact reason I struggled for so many years to like Evangelicals. I know it's wrong to dislike a class of people, but growing up the ones I knew always were the loudest and most vocal in their condemnation of me to hell, the quickest to point out that I didn't believe in Christ and when I would correct them they would sneer and say I didn't believe in the same Christ. They were the ones who would forbid their daughters from being friends with my sisters, and who would invite us to their church groups just to yell and scream at us about our church in the most ignorant way possible. As I have a deep and personal relationship with Christ this always hurt. Sometimes I was the better man and walked away. Others I would return railing for railing. But I think it took me till I reached adulthood before I ran into any Evangelicals who broke that mold. I was glad to learn that my experiences did not apply universally to that faith. But even though I've run into ones that are normal now, and actually believe me when I tell them I love my Savior, these earlier experiences mean I'm still always a little on edge when someone tells me they are an Evangelical. Because of that I have to agree with @Carborendum. I could never be one. The willful ignorance and vitriol I witnessed has permanently stained my perception of them. I'd like to say I'm man enough to look past those experiences and judge each new person I meet based on their merits and not my past experiences with others, but I completely understand the frustration.

This example is one where I would say something, but it's all about how you say it. I had a non-member friend use that quote by Joseph Fielding Smith about man never landing on the moon. I took it as an opportunity to explain to him how a prophet is only a prophet when he is acting as such and that we are all, even prophets, allowed to have personal opinions. He understood what I was trying say, even though he disagreed, because I tried to correct him out of love rather than attacking his post in anger. I think defending the gospel is all about how you say it.

Agreed, I've found it's very easy to be misinterpreted online (I've got some stories thanks to my naturally loveable and agreeable nature lol?). Generally I try to assume a person isn't trying to be insulting, something I really hope people do for me, but if it starts to get heated I try to step back and leave it alone. That's easier said than done, I still struggle to actually live up to that ideal, but it is the best course of action in my opinion.

Lol probably just an earlier time zone @Jane_Doe.

I think the answer depends on what you mean by defending. I suppose on a macro sense it doesn't, it's true and everyone who fights against it will one day find out their wrong and will take a knee before the Savior. But I would argue on a micro level, in our day to day interactions, it can and should be defended. There is no need to allow falsehoods to be spread in our presense, and I always looked at defending the Gospel as standing up for what's right. I would even argue that it's a form of testifying of the Gospel to defend it's truthfullness before others. I do believe we need to be careful how we do it though. I remember being a young and foolish missionary getting into a shouting match with someone on their doorstep because they said I was going to hell. After 15 minutes or so of screaming at each other, and him slamming the door in my face, (over one of my scintillating ripostes of logic I'm sure☺), I felt miserable. I realized I had invited the spirit of contention in by taking his offensive comment and throwing it back at him and had done both of us little good in the process. After that, if I felt myself reacting in anger rather than boldness I would take a step back and leave. I believe it's the spirit in which we are defending the Gospel that matters most in whether we should do it or not in any given situation.

My heart is broken for these people. It's not that much smaller than my church. I can't imagine losing that many of my friends and family at once. My prayers are with the survivors and the families.