Midwest LDS

It is one of the most effective ways to be a missionary though. I refer you to the story of Ammon teaching King Lamoni. Lamoni had no idea who God was until Ammon referred him to the Lamanite belief in the Great Spirit and tied the two together. Or the numerous times in the Bible where the apostles used their intimate knowledge of Jewish teachings to bring Jews to a knowledge of Christ as their Messiah. Many times when we speak to someone of a different faith than us, we use the same words as them, but are not talking about the same thing (eg. Born Again Christians talking to us about Salvation. We both use the term, but have different meanings for it). Not knowing their beliefs on the subject actively hinders our attempt to teach them the Gospel because we aren't actively understanding each other. I can't tell you the number of times on my mission where knowing a little bit about someone else's beliefs, helped me communicate with them far more effectively. Perhaps knowing little bits of trivia to pass an online quiz is unimportant, but knowing something about other faiths is knowledge worth having.

The world is just too interesting to live in a bubble. I remember when I was tracting on my mission I ran into a Zoroastrian (tiny Iranian religion, maybe 100,000 to 200,000 worldwide). I was thrilled! I actually think I threw him off a lot because I was asking him a whole bunch of questions about his beliefs and he quickly closed the door. I regret causing him any discomfort if I did, but I was probably the only American he had run into since he immigrated from Iran who knew anything about his beliefs lol.

Yep it's true. It's more difficult to live in a bubble these days. Not impossible, you can easily have an electronic bubble too, but it's harder.

Absolutely. It's why I always answer the door when a religious person stops by. A. I'm genuinely curious. B. I bothered a lot of people when I was a missionary so I feel like it's my responsibility to answer the door and hear them out. C. If I want others to listen to the truth of the restored gospel, I need to be willing to extend them the same courtesy.

I'm an exception to this, I've always been fascinated by other religious beliefs, but I think you hit the nail on the head. Most of us (generic) when we feel like we have fpund the truth, become uninterested in ither people's truth. It's unfortunate, because the best way to understand someone else is to understand their belief system, but it's true.

I completely understand why you feel that way. But it's not nearly as hard as you might think☺. My wife and I got married when she was 19 so pretty close to you, and she never had problems making friends and doing all kinds of things with them. Now we were going to BYU, so we were around a ton of Latter-day Saint people who were also either married or trying to get married, but even in a different setting it would not have been hard to make friends. A lot of people think that once you get married, you can't hang out with people or others will act weird around you. We got the occasional comment of surprise from our non member friends when they learned how young we were, but we still were able to hang out, go out to movies, played games, had fun experiences etc we just had them together instead of seperately. Now I obviously can't tell you if you are marrying the right man or not, only you can know that. But assuming you feel the confirmation of the Holy Ghost, have dated this young man long enough to get a good feel for how he responds in different situations, and truly love him go forward in faith. You will have a ton of fun and awesome experiences with a lot of friends.

I'm sorry you are dealing with this @faithful_father. It's extremely distressing to watch loved ones end up with terrible spouses. I've had to go through this several times with 2 of my sisters, my mom, and my aunts so at the very least I empathize with you. I second@Just_A_Guy and @NeedleinA comments. Before you go talking to your parents, first have a talk with your sister, preferably privately where you can voice your concerns. Hopefully she starts paying attention to the red flags you mentioned, but you have to steel yourself for a total rejection of everything you say. My family tried to have a full blown intervention with one of my sisters after she had a baby with her drug using, emotionally abusive boyfriend. He actually screamed at her for being lazy while she was recuperating from childbirth in the hospital (rich coming from him). We seperated them, discussed how awful he was, offered her support and a home etc. And she went right back to him after exactly 24 hours. There is a limit to how much you can help when someone else's agency is involved. It took her months of terror at this individual spending any time alone around their child (she loves her son dearly) before my sister finally admitted her mistake, asked for help to move out, and started her journey of healing. With my second sister, I offered love and support. I voiced my concerns about her abusive, emotionally controlling, and compulsive liar of a fiance but it went in one ear and out the other. So I loved her, listened when slowly but surely the inevitable horribleness of living with this person slowly dawned on her over several years, before she finally woke up and divorced him. It's one of the few times I've celebrated a divorce. Accept right now that she may ignore all reason and stay with this guy. Be loving and open, hope that maybe he has changed, but keep the lines of communication and love open so that when she probably (and hopefully) realizes she has made a terrible mistake, she'll know she can turn to you. Remember, not even God attempts to force people into heaven, so don't try to do something similiar with your sister, I guarantee it won't work and will only drive a wedge into your relationship. Best of luck in this difficult time brother.

What a scary thing to happen. I'm glad you're ok @NeuroTypical!

Oh yeah of course. That goes without saying unless you're a nutjob like this guy.

This story was crazy, but it's examples like this that demonstrate why the Lord has told us that vengeance is his and we are required to forgive all men. We (generic) always go overboard when we try to take the law into our own hands.

It's only a fair and honest vote if your side wins. Otherwise it's obviously a fake, manipulated, mistake that doesn't represent true democracy and you have to vote on it over and over again until you overturn the false result.

Oh agreed I saw what happened to May. But if anyone is going to get it done, Johnson is.

Congrats to the new Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Hopefully he can finish implementing Brexit. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-49084605

Thanks, you're welcome. I appreciate you asking about the lesson today it definitely got me thinking.

If I could only have member friends I wouldn't have very many. It's not difficult, you find individuals with similar interests who are good people. Heck my best friend is a fundamentalist Baptist minister, he's hardcore trust me, and we get along great. As long as you mutually respect one another, and don't try to befriend people for the sole sake of conversion you'll be fine and you'll have lots of opportunities to share your beliefs.

To me the lesson we are supposed to learn from these conversion stories is how to act after we've been converted. Paul, Alma the Younger, Zeezrom etc. all strove to strengthen their faith following their experiences. While miraculous conversions are by no means common, actively seeking to strengthen your faith after conversion is something we all must do. My conversion story is very ordinary. I just knew the missionaries were teaching me truth, I was 8 at the time, and I accepted it. I never heard trumpets, felt an overpowering spiritual experience, or saw something miraculous, I just knew it was true. But that knowledge was sure. I remember when I was in the MTC, praying to receive a sure testimony of the restored gospel of Christ because our teachers asked us too, and only receiving the feeling that I already knew it was true so why was I asking? Now I've had some sacred, spirtual experiences since then, including one so special I've only told my wife about it, but all of those came after my conversion while I was striving (and continuing to strive it's not a one and done process) to strengthen my faith. Paul and the others all sought to become true disciples of Christ for the rest of their lives, and I think that is the most important lesson we can learn from their experiences.

The short answer is yes. In my mission the shortest amount of time you could get baptized in was two weeks. Generally that's someone who meets the missionaries, is immediately interested and gung ho, attends church at least twice etc. I had one baptism that happened after three weeks of teaching myself. However, I would say the average baptism took longer than that. Most people need time to gain a testimony, work through personal struggles, study up on what they are doing and so forth. So while the basic baptismal questions could be answered truthfully by someone right away (many of our early leaders were baptized after listening to one sermon), most people take longer.

Not as long as the guys defending Area 51 have access to B-52's😉.

Also possibly the July 1980 New Era. President Kimball again: "We say to you, as we recently said to the adult sisters in the Church, that the Lord is delighted when we have sisters in the Church who are good scriptorians."

Hey I think I found it. It was given by President Spencer W. Kimball at a fireside in 1979. You can find the whole talk in the Novemeber 1979 ensign in the Gospel Library under the title "The role of righteous women" Here is the excerpt I think you are thinking of: "Even though the eternal roles of men and women differ, as we indicated to you a year ago, this leaves much to be done by way of parallel personal development —for both men and women. In this connection, I stress again the deep need each woman has to study the scriptures. We want our homes to be blessed with sister scriptorians —whether you are single or married, young or old, widowed or living in a family."

Living at home is not neccessarily the problem per the examples mentioned above. I (and I'm sure you as well) am far more concerned with her lack of learning adult skills. God forbid, but what if something happens to your parents? I assume they are getting up there in years, and if she has never really learned to live on her own your sister could be in serious trouble if that happens. However, at the end of the day, this is your parents problem, not yours. If they wanted too fix this problem, they could do so (charging rent, asking her to move out, etc.) Since they have not, they must be either content with the situation or unsure of how to fix it. I think you and your other siblings should elect someone to go talk to your parents about your concerns (privately no need to cause contention). Accept that things may not change, it is your parents house after all and they can do what they want with it, but at least you can discuss your concerns with them.

I understand not wanting to think about an earlier period of your life when you weren't living the commandments. But you can't move on from having a son. He always will be yours, no matter how much you try to distance yourself from him. Because of that, you owe him love and support. As @Just_A_Guy states as well, one of the temple reccomend questions is about being current on child support obligations. The Lord expects you to care for him to the best of your ability. You may not be ready to be a dad, but you are one and you need to do the best you can for him. You can do it, most of us aren't fully ready when we have a child ( I have a toddler myself) and it involves a lot of on the job training, but start with what you can do (if you aren't all ready) by sending money, clothing, etc. to your ex to help support your son. Trust me you will be glad you did.

Welcome to the forum brother! Firstly, the answer to every question about whether or not you should share something with the bishop is yes! It sounds like you have been working on turning your life around, which is great. Would you truly feel comfortable if you hid something from the Lord's servant in order to obtain a temple recommend? Of course not. Talk to him and be honest about your life so when you get your reccomend your conscience will be free and clear. Secondly, do right by your son. You may not have a lot to do with him at the moment, but he's your son. Whether you had him intentionally or not, it's your responsibility to do what you can for him. Maybe all that is right now is phone calls or some money sent for his support, but you need to do everything you can to help him out. God expects us to care for our children, and if you want to show him that you have truly changed you need to do everything you can to take care of and nurture your son. Best of luck on your journey back to Christ brother.

I think if it bothers you, you are fine to bring it up with him. It's been my experience that it's far better to always be 100% open and honest with your spouse when you have any concerns, then to not say anything and keep it bottled up inside. Communication is one of the most important pillars of a successful marriage. I like that he took your concerns seriously when you brought it up. It sounds like you are marrying a good man☺.

I really enjoyed that movie, and I can honestly say I was surprised by the twist.