Penlady

Wow. Thanks a-train! I wonder why the Muslims do it, if this was started only about 800 A.D.? Islam was created about 500 A.D., so it could not have been passed on from Abraham to both sons, which then became Israel and Islam, like would be the logical explanation. So according to the information above, if I rock back and forth while learning math or memorizing, it will sink in faster? Hmmm...I am forever the cynic and the "why" asker, I guess. I really do appreciate that information, I have wanted to know for years. HAPPY NEW YEAR! Penlady

I have been searching and searching, but I can not find the true explanation of why the Jews and the Muslims rock back and forth when reciting the Torah and the Quran. Would love to know! I love studying all religions/cultures. THANKS! Blessings, Penlady

THANKS SO MUCH! I think I got stuck on the Forums home page that just is an index of all the topics, and I didn't see anything there like "new topic" but now I see you have to go into the section that you are interested in, then you see "new topic" at the top. Happy new year! Penlady

have you always been here as Penlady??? there are several of us that have been here for a long time....perhaps they have chatted with you before??? Yes Palerider, it's just the same ole me, I have other posts under Penlady. Had a number of terminally ill family members to take care of, Dad passed away a few weeks ago, so I didn't have time for LDStalk, but I'm back now, and there have been a few changes so I couldn't figure out how to get into the forums. Happy new year! Penlady

I am trying to let the moderators of this site know that it is almost impossible to figure out how to contact a moderator, or how to figure out how to start a new topic in Forums. I have been coming here since about 93, but with this last change, I can't see anywhere how to start a new topic. All I can figure out is how to reply to comments. It would be nice if this information was listed clearly and visibly on the home page, preferably in the top line where it has ?LDS chat rules, Blog, Search, help, etc. Help did not tell me how to reach a moderator or how to start a new topic. Netiher did search. I'm lost. Would love to come back and talk to everyone. Oh so now I read below that you can PM any moderator. HOW? Instead of just saying 'You can PM any moderator you wish", maybe some instructions on how to do it would be helpful. THANKS! Penlady

Hi Dearest Elphaba I LOVE the way you think, and yup, I get it! And I love the concept of how pitiful it is that we have to decide between a "safe" Muslim and a "dangerous" Muslim. I can't tell you much about what the people are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in my line of work (proofreading translations from Muslim languages for UK legal system), I can tell you that there are HUGE organizations growing daily in UK and USA and Canada and Pakistan and other Muslim countries that are doing exactly what you say...teaching why the extermists are wrong, and backing it up with words from their own books to make it stick. These groups hate violence because it makes them look like the extremists, but yes, they ARE fighting with the taliban losing their lives, to save the world from wanting to drestroy all Muslims. We tanslate ID cards almost daily for people who have joined these new groups, I read the rules and the vows written on the memberhip cards, and there is now a war between the extemists and moderates in Pakistan, and in UK these groups are taking over whole mosques, proselyting young Muslims, asking them to come to these mosques to teach them the REAL Islam, not the violent, angry stuff. You don't see the groups of Muslims in the US teaching against extremism, because you don't attend their mosques and bigger meetings. They have HUGE, sports stadiums fiilled with Muslims, then have speakers come to speak to them about how to get rid of these cockroaches who are ruining the name of Islam. If you want to hear what they are being taught, I can lead you to youtube to my husband's favorite Islamic speaker, who travels the world speaking about how to live as a good Muslim should...his name is Zakir Naik, and he is just one of thousands who are trying to make a revolution of good. He also has his own website at www.drzakirnaik.com. Be assured that the Muslim people are not just hiding in their homes letting all this happen. They are VERY much activists, and they know they have to heal the organization from within. There has never been a world-wide set of standardized teachings for most of what Islam believes, just a small part of it. Each separate little area seems to develop their own beliefs, and now they are seeing that they need a more standardized method of teaching, just like a country's educational system, or like any other church. They all have a world-wide standard of what should be taught in their religion. This lack of unified opinions and teaching has let corruption slip in and often in villages, the only literate person is the Imam (priest), and they declare what is God's law, and the people can't read the Quran enough to prove him wrong, so they believe him and obey him, and that power leads to corruption. These are problems they are working on, along with re-inforcing the other Islamic traits of taking care of your fellow man, courtesy, charity, and the other positive parts of their teachings. Maybe those in Iraq and Afghanistan are too shell shocked and overwhelmed to even think, much less change things, I don't know. I don't know the psychology of people who have lived in a war zone and I hope to never experience it. I'm reading a book by a man who lived through the holocaust, and he explains a lot about how people's thinking changes in long term crisises like war, so I know they are not in a position to be judged. They are overwhelmed and can barely think through the current hour's survival, much less form peace societies. I have heard that the Christian groups in Iraq have had an amazing amount of converts daily, because so many don't know how to change things, but they know there needs to be a big change, so that is what some of them are doing. Blessings to you Elphaba. I love your genius mind. Penlady

Why do you ask? If you speak of your husband's country, does that mean you are supposed to live in that country? Did I do something wrong or something I need to defend by talking about that? I talk about his home because I worry about his situation and find his background interesting. I'm trying to get him here to my country. Tough to do if I leave my country. Penlady Penlady, Just FYI...of ANYONE on this board, PC would be the last to mock you. Just so you know. He may not believe as we do, but he does ask the questions very respectfully, and I have yet to see him put anyone down... Good to know. Its hard to know a person's tone or intention when on the internet where you can't see their face or hear their voice intonation, which is why I answered PC respectfully. Yes, I am sure everyone who posts anywhere online will be mocked, but that's life. People have different ways of thinking. I'm used to being mocked, after being married for years to the most misunderstood group of people on the planet at this time. Thanks sixpacktr. Penlady

hi Prisonchaplain; I know your question was in a mocking tone, since you think the celestial kingdom is a joke, but still I will give you a respectful reply. Not everyone in this life has the same mission. You can go through the Bible and find that many people were told they needed to do something out of the norm in order to fulfill the reason they were sent to earth, that they were chosen for a specific job. I am very close to my Savior, and through a near death experience, have become more sure than anything that this is my mission. Others can mock it, but I will follow the Lord's promptings. Those who don't follow the "still small voice" pay dearly for disobeying. The spirit world is more real than this world. Its as if that is the real world, THIS is the dream world. I am sure of my position in the next world and of the love the Lord has for me. I don't see the future, only God does, and there are many things that could happen in the future that could make my husband learn all of the truth about God as well. This man loves God more than any of the MANY men I have gotten to know before, and that's what I wanted, a man who loved God. I was married to a Mormon for 20 years, but it was empty spiritually, because he did not love the gospel or the Lord the way I did. God knew I needed to be equally yoked with someone who loves God, and someone whom I could do something important for the Lord with. He found this man for me. He arranged this , and convinced me that there is a purpose for us to be together, no matter how scary it is to break all the social fads to be together. Social fads change. A few years ago it was illegal for a black person to marry a white in the USA. Now its commonplace. I'm sure people will gawk at a white girl with an arabic man, but still I have to obey what I believe I have been told I am supposed to do, despite the hardships of mixing cultures. Also, I love to study all religions and to learn about other cultures, so there will be a lot of exciting, joyful experiences together. Blessings to you Chaplain, Penlady

Didn't have time to scan all the scriptures about guardian angels but here's 1 1 Ne 11:30 .. and I saw aangels descending upon the children of men; and they did minister unto them. And I never believed in them until i had a Near Death Experience and was introduced to 2 of mine. Penlady.

You show your own prejudice in your verbiage. Yeah, I'm the one with a problem... Because he is trying to immigrate to be with me, and the WHO is advising all tourists to stay out of that area until further notice, and I don't want to live anywhere else, and a few other reasons. Blessings, Penlady

I'm new to ldstalk. I am really happy to see that people of all beliefs are here! Since I am married to a Muslim, Mahdi's name stood out to me. Soon I hope to find all his/her posts and read them. My husband lives in Swat, up int the Northern secluded mountains of the Himalayas, and thats also a place of peace, often called "Shangri-la" or "shamabala" in the past. Its where Buddha was born. They were independent country until 1979. Last month Taliban moved into this secluded city and started bombing and killing innocent people, and the people don't even know what they are doing there and are freaked out! One thing I want to get through to the world is that the extremist Muslims are not just attacking Westerners. They are also attacking Muslims who they think are not living perfectly enough. 2 weeks ago they murdered my husband's aunt for owning a shop in her home. 2 days ago they bombed 48 shops for selling music. Today they destroyed all the Barber's shops so men would grow a beard. 3 days ago, they beheaded 2 ladies heads becuase they were walking home alone at night so Taliban figured they were prostitutes. They are killing as many police as they can so people will no longer want to be policemen, then there will be no stabiity, then the Taliban/al-qaeda will do like they are doing in Afghanistan, and act as if they are giving protection and security to the area in place of the police, so the people start to trust them and support them. This all happened within 1-3 blocks of my husband's home. There is an amazing amount of Islamic beliefs that are the same as LDS, so my husband and I can speak about our beliefs very comfortably. Please see www.mormonmuslim.com . Can we help Americans get rid of the prejudice that this presidency has caused? The Muslims are being treated the way the blacks were treated in the 1950s and before. You know how when a crime is reported, and someone wants to give a description but they aren't really sure, many times they just say it was a black person? Well for the first time, I saw this done with a Muslim! The deescription was "a Muslim"! How could a victim tell a person's religion by his looks???? The Muslim religion, as Mohammad taught it, is only peace and obedience to God. Anything else you see Muslim groups doing is just extremists making up their own rules, or rules that were changed later, according to customs and tradtions and wrong interpretations. All 3 major religions came from God through all the prophets, then to Abraham, who taught both his sons the same gospel, then the 2 brothers were separated. One broter's group became Islam, the other brother's group became Jewish and Christian. The very Christ that we worship has declared TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER! The very commandments from our God, listed in order of importance, say 1) To love God with all your heart, 2) to love your neighbor as yourself. and Bible says UPON THESE TWO COMMANDMENTS HANG ALL THE REST OF THE LAW. So there is NO PLACE for hatred of any group. So my dear readers, hatred is as bad a sin as the worst of other sins. People fear what they don't understand. So learn about those things that you fear, and you will find the fear is gone. THe more we communicate and mingle with each other, the more we will understand each other. Segregation causes the unknown, the fear. I was happy to see some people of other faiths posting here, but wondered why they would want to post on an LDS site. Hope to get to know you all better. Blessings, Penlady

Elphaba, you have answered your own question about whether women ever held the priesthood, but I can add that I have relatives who have received their second endowment, and when one relative (female) lived out in an area where she had no access to the priesthood, and needed it badly, she was given the priesthood by men in the bishopric, but was told not to make it common knowledge because it was frowned upon, but not forbidden. She did use that priesthood very effectively in healing others and making other things happen with that power. The Bishop that ordained her said something like "I don't know if this will work (for him to endow her with the priesthood), but its worth a try, and I deeply feel the need for you to have the priesthood in your life, and the worst effect it can cause, is like putting oil on a person's head, no damage. Its up to God whether he honors our request to let you have the priesthood or not, but women in the past did have the gift of healing, because they were the ones home with the women and children and the sick. Men were not usually very accessible." Blessings, Penlady ********** It is in this theological context of priesthood that Young declared: “Now, brethren, the man that honors his Priesthood, the woman that honors her Priesthood, will receive an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of God.” So, what did he mean by that? Elphaba