Honor

Are we twins?
 
I'm 2 months now

More of Vort's opinion:
 
I think we view pregnancy as an illness, and I think that's wrong. Women who are pregnant are not "delicate". Some women are "ordered" by their doctors to bed rest, and in a few situations I expect that's the best way to save the pregnancy. But medical doctors are notoriously conservative, sometimes (often, IMO) absurdly so.
 
I would think that common sense is enough to see one's way through a normal pregnancy. Work as usual. If you think you're getting overworked, then stop. Fast just like normal. If you think the fast is causing undue stress, then stop.
 
Anyway, that's my view. I wish we would quit treating pregnancy as a disease and quit viewing pregnant women as handicapped. (Except women whose pregnancies are genuinely in peril, and the vast majority of women more than eight months along.) I don't think we do pregnant women any favors by telling them, both explicitly and implicitly, that they're in bad shape and must be feeling awful. Our young women's president and our Cubmaster (shouldn't that really be a Cubmistress?) have been full term while doing their callings, and they have soldiered on and done great work. Most women I have seen, my wife included, function well (despite discomfort) right up until delivery. I have loads of admiration for expecting mothers and what they put up with, and I think it's unnecessarily condescending to tell them how fragile they are. In most cases, that really is not even true.
 
There ya go. More opinion than you ever wanted.

THE UNKNOWN PROMISED LAND - All inhabitants of LDS.net/forums are safe after moderator Pam swept through the forum. After surprising forum inhabitants by choosing to hold the annual general meeting of the forum at a small Chinese restaurant in Sandy, Utah, instead of the universally favoured sandy island in the tropics, Pam blew away a discussion on Gun opinions last month and more recently, terminated another discussion on What do you think of WOW. It now appears that moderator Pam has temporarily subsided but is currently gathering strength preparatory to taking on those who plan to disrupt General Conference. Long term resident of the area, Pale Rider, told reporters that moderator Pam is usually a benign force as long as you don’t touch her gummy bears and show proper respect to ginger bread people. 
 
(ps Pam - swallow before reading - thoughtfully noted at the end, rather than the beginning of the post.) 

Got the day off!

Just a prodigal child returning home after a little break from this site. I'm interested to see what old friends are still around and all of the new and exciting things that this website has to offer. Welcome back to me!

I feel quite strongly that many LDS artists/musicians/authors are practicing priestcraft. I won't name names though, as A) I'm sure some of them I think are would be others favorites and B) I don't really know what's in their hearts and so my "judgment" may be mistaken.

Koawinter, I am an attorney and I do a lot of divorce.  I'm not going to presume to give you legal advice, but I would note that I was at a continuing education seminar in the last year hat was held by some family therapists.  One of the points they made was that it usually takes about five years to emotionally recover from a divorce--but that in their experience, the party who files the divorce paperwork is already about three years into that process.
 
Now, I have no way of knowing whether your wife is actually serious about this, or whether this is just some huge drama thing calculated to get your attention.  If the latter--your family's right, that's not healthy; and the drama/threats of divorce are going to have to end before your marriage can be rebuilt. 
 
If the former, be aware that it's very probable that she's already emotionally checked out of the marriage, and has been checked out on some level for quite some time.  I can add my own experience to this and say that in five years of divorce practice, I have had two clients whose divorce proceedings were dismissed due to their reconciliation.  It's very uncommon--certainly possible; but rare.  If you're hoping to reconcile, you need to understand that from her perspective getting back with you would not be "saving" the marriage; it would be building a new one from scratch.  You've got a lot of work to do; and I do wish you all the best as you try to figure out how to move forward.
 
Oh, and the porn addiction?  Addiction recovery groups.

My son has sent some amazing emails home while on his mission in Italy. Thought I would share one which is his final one:
 
Ciao tutti per l'ultima volta! 
 Wow. Just wow. 2 years have come and gone so quickly. It's incredibile. I want to keep this brief but sincere. First of all though, Marco Morcioni was baptized on Saturday night and confirmed the following morning. He asked me to confirm him and I did. The Spirit was so powerful. Marco stood up and everyone could see that he was a completely different person. He hugged one of the brothers who stood in the circle and came away crying. He's so sensitive to the Spirit that it's incredibile. One of God's children has just started his journey on the straight and narrow path that leads to salvation and I was able to be a part of it. 
 I love being a missionary. More than anything else. This work, these experiences, the lifestyle of living the gospel to the very highest has shaped and even created pathways in God's plan for me. I am so grateful for that. I love this mission. I love every single aspect of it. It pains me to think that Friday night I'm going to have to remove the nametag and be released from having that unique power and authority that only full time missionaries can have. It saddens me. I'm not worried about the future though. God has promised to always light the way before us. I put all of my trust and faith in Him and I know He's going to lead the events of my life. 
 I am very tired. I've given everything I possibly could to the Lord. I've given Him my whole heart and done every single little thing I could and He has blessed me more than I can possibly imagine. I have fought the good fight. Atleast this one. I imagine there will be many more ahead, but I'm much more prepared now. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and this mission have changed my life. But more importantly than any of that, they have changed my eternity. I believe that we are all born with a natural hole in our heart that can only be filled by the Gospel. Nothing else fills it perfectly. The Gospel of Jesus Christ - His love, His example, His teachings, His perfect and infinite atonement - is what brings us salvation and the promise of eternal life. I love Him. And I am forever grateful for Him. The atonement is real. I've seen it in the lives of others and in my own life. I love this gospel. I love the Lord and I love my Savior who will always lift me up when I fall. No matter what.

"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God
And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot."
 
My invite is the same as that. Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him. He's doing that with me and I know and bear my testimony that He can do that and will with anyone and everyone who will simply come unto Him. 
Vi voglio un mondo di bene. Non vedo l'ora di vedervi. Sono davvero contento per questa missione e per tutte le benedizioni che ricevo dal mio Padre nei cieli. 
 
"Sì, io so che non sono nulla; quanto alla mia forza, sono debole; dunque non mi vanterò di me stesso, ma mi vanterò del mio Dio, poiché nella sua forza io posso fare ogni cosa; sì, ecco, ho operato in questo paese molti grandi miracoli, per i quali loderò il suo nome per sempre" 
 
Alma 26:12
Ci vediamo fra poco :)
"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him..." Moroni 10:32Anziano Matthew Gainer#HastenTheWork 

How often has a sincerely held belief, or strong opinion that you held been changed as a result of discussions on this site? What was belief or opinion and what was the posting that changed it? Do some posters have a greater impact on our understandings and beliefs than other posters? I'm just curious.
 
To answer part of my own question, I can't say that I've had a sincerely held belief changed yet as a result of my participation on this site, but then I'm only a relatively new user. I think for me the main benefit that I have gained from using this site is an increasing awareness of the need to be very specific in how to word a post, the inadequacy of language, and the examples shown of the sometimes impressive depth of knowledge and ability to structure an argument that some of the users of this site display. I'm continuing to watch the lessons that occasionally take place on how to disagree without being disagreeable as how to deal with strongly opposing views is something that I think I will be able to learn from this site.  

Good point. Let's make sure to discuss feelings about pictures being posted from the gathering as well.

First off, make sure at least one of you is not crazy.

We could Skype you in on one of our phones!  The staff will love our group for sure!

This might be fun! I wish I could get Elphaba to come, she won't even answer my calls! If she doesn't come I'll try to come stag? It's been many years since I've been.
Two questions.
When did everything including the layout change?
Who is doing all of the cute quotes and the FB page?
One more thing... Is Pale coming? LOL

Seriously Pam, I can’t believe you’ve rejected my suggestion. You’re choosing this
 

 
 
  over this?
 

 
 
Seems like a pretty telestial choice to me. J
 
Well, if you’re going to hold it in a place where electricity is available, might as well make use of it – any chance of doing a live streaming of the event, or posting some short video clips on the forum site afterwards? I’m sure that with all the technological know-how that exists between the users of this site it wouldn’t be too hard to do. Would anybody else be interested in viewing some live streaming of the get together?

I saw the reverse - white and gold when I saw it out of the corner of my eye on Facebook, but since then all I can see is blue and black.  An overexposed blue and black, but still...
 
 
"At least we can all agree on one thing: The people who see the dress as white are utterly, completely wrong."
Doesn't this quote sound like something we'd see posted on one of these threads.  I won't go into exactly who I could picture saying it, but I'm sure you might be able to guess a few... :) 

Hear that?  Bytor is gonna spring for plane tickets for all of us!  You're the best!

I saw the reverse - white and gold when I saw it out of the corner of my eye on Facebook, but since then all I can see is blue and black.  An overexposed blue and black, but still...
 
 
"At least we can all agree on one thing: The people who see the dress as white are utterly, completely wrong."
Doesn't this quote sound like something we'd see posted on one of these threads.  I won't go into exactly who I could picture saying it, but I'm sure you might be able to guess a few... :) 

This has been on Facebook.  When I first saw it on Facebook I saw blue and black.  Now when I see it here I see white and gold.

Forget it.  You aren't there you don't get to know.  

You now know the drill...Stingy Gingy

You have to tell us who aren't there what all the fortunes are from the cookies. :)

We are all imperfect beings, dealing with other imperfect beings, and we're doing it imperfectly.
Realizing this, cut each other some slack, don't jump to conclusions, and don't assume.
Communication is key.

Just a quick word on expectations. Your spouse (whether you like it or not) still retains their agency. As you have probably seen threads, they might even leave the Church. 
 
When you look for a spouse you need to expect them to change and give them the room to do so. They may fall (hopefully not too far) and just like our Heavenly Father doesn't give up on us, we shouldn't give up on our spouses. I think it's reasonable not to expect or tolerate the 3 A's (Abuse, Adultery, Addiction). 
 
For me looking back the things that are important to me in looking for a partner as the following 
 
1. Healthy emotional relationship with their Parents and Siblings.
2. Realistic understanding of the Gospel (I don't have time to elaborate, but I'll just say not glassyeyed and completely "out of the world", and overzealous in being perfect but able to put the gospel into context that we all sin, that we all have weaknesses, willing to forgive, able to be in the "world and not of the world")
3. Honest and Courageous and not afraid to speak their mind, 
4. Independence. Content to be by themselves. (Opposite of Co-Dependent). Have their own hobbies independent of whether or you participate or not. 
5. Mostly positive (Glass half full). 
6. Sense of Humor and ability to laugh about set-backs.
 
those are just a few things off the top of my head. 

Kayvex, one thing I would suggest is that you try to avoid looking at church discipline as a traditional penal code where punishments are supposed to "fit" some sort of "crime". 
 
The words discipline and disciple share the same Latin root, which means "instruction" or "knowledge".  Discipline is the process by which we make people into better disciples.  Church discipline is not retributive in nature and therefore looks primarily to the future, not the past.  So, while there are certainly specific offenses in the Church that will "trigger" a formal disciplinary process; once the wheels are set in motion the decision won't be geared towards "doing justice" based on the gravity of the offense.  Rather, it will be tailored towards rehabilitating the transgressor's soul, along with--as necessary--protecting the innocent and safeguarding the Church's doctrinal integrity and/or good name.  That's inevitably going to yield inconsistent results, because not everyone who undergoes Church discipline is in the same state of penitence and/or poses the same threat to the Church or to individuals. 
 
A more formal and legalistic system might yield greater outward consistency; but one needs to bear in mind that legal codes are usually developed--and always applied--as the result of an interaction between a governing authority that wants to know just how much it can control before its subjects revolt, and a subject that wants to know just how much it can get away with before the governing authority takes action against it.  That's a necessary dynamic in civil governance; but it is anathema to the ideals of agency, accountability, and Christian liberty that are core tenets of LDS teaching.

I will be there if I can get the day off work......