rayhale

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Everything posted by rayhale

  1. I like any religious help books that goes beyond, read the scriptures, fast-and-pray, kind of answers, for an example, if I'm reading a book about how to get a job, I expect to find in the book things like, how to write a resume, what to say/ask at an interview, not just, "where there's a will, there is a way," type of how-to answers, where there is no real information on the subject.
  2. The main reason that gambling and lotteries are bad is that the only way you can win is if someone else lose, and even raffles, where you pay to play, are not okay according to the Church. The difference between lotteries and companies using promotions like peel of the wrapper to see if you win money (or similar types of promotions), is that when I pay for the product, or service I want, and not win a prize, I still have the product, or service, that I paid for. I have a hard time believing that any rational person would be willing to pay money for a scrap of paper, without a chance of winning money. Now this is what gets confusing, can you honestly say you would pay for some product, or service, if that promotion wasn’t going on? Would you buy far more product than you need, just for more chance to win? Is this your loophole to bypass the no gambling rule of the Church? If so than it is wrong.
  3. I respectfully disagree with you. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was never presented with the missionary rulebook before my mission so I could read, and accept the rules before I went out. I’m sure that there has been more than one missionary that asked, “I can’t (or am forced to) do what?”
  4. When I went on a mission, my parents were very concerned about being able to pay for both my , and my younger brother’s, mission, so much so, that I was 20 before my bishop said to them not to worry about the money and that there were several people in the ward that had our missions covered. I helped pay for all the pre-mission stuff, clothes, luggage, etc… after that we put money into a banking CD savings account. On my mission there was several times that instead of using the missionary credit card, I used my personal credit card. My question is how much are you expected to sacrifice for your mission. As a couple of you asked, are you expected to go into debt, or pay the lion’s-share of the cost, do what something like I did, pay what you could, but also think about yourself, and put some money away so you won’t have nothing when you come back?
  5. Buy seasonal tools/equipment when they are out-of-season, for example, it’s almost October, look for any deals on garden hoses, and other summer tools now, since stores will most likely make huge deals on them, to make room for winter tools.
  6. The door can be Fort Knox quality, but that won’t help any if the wall, that holds the door, is weak.
  7. You can use tags, if you are going to go digital. For an example, tag an article that talks about New Testament baptism, you can tag it, New Testament; Baptism; Baptism in the New Testament. This way you can find an article with multiple topics. This is one reason I love going digital, I’ve heard stories of people (and business) needing to make multiple copies of the same document, since they need to put the same document in several different files. Doing it yourself can be daunting, since there are almost an unlimited amount of topics available, and unless you’re smart in making tags, you can find yourself adding topics midway into making tags, then you will almost need to go back to the start, and retag everything. Lds.org has a topic section; this will help you in studying topics.
  8. According to the audio book of the Book of Mormon, it takes a little over 30 hours to read it, in a normal speaking speed. So if you consider a day, 24 hours, then no, you can't read it without missing a lot of the text. [Edit] Sorry, I was going off a version that quoted the verses, every time, so that would increase the time, so does anyone know the time of a good narration of the Book of Mormon?
  9. One thing to keep in mind, if there are adult aged people with disabilities, like autism, it is recommended to not to treat them like children, on my mission, there were several areas, where there was a 20-30-something mentally disabled adult, still going to young men’s/women’s, since I don’t know anything about these situations, I don’t know if they were right, or wrong, but in my town, I read an obituary of a mentally disabled person, in it, it stated that he went to a ‘special needs’ ward, it was ran by, and taught by mental professionals, with the blessing of the local stake president, I thought that was cool.
  10. I have collected the Student Book of Mormon Institute manuals; I have the 613 page 1981 version, the 184 page 1996 version, and the 439 page 2009 version. I have a Kindle, so I’ve been converting several of my books on that, but the reference books, like commentaries, that are referenced a lot, like Mormon Doctrine, where a book will say, ‘see Mormon Doctrine page 134’, well, I can’t since Kindle doesn’t keep the same page numbering system as the hard (or paper) back book. I also have an impossible time wanting to pay $8-10 for an e-book, when I can go to Amazon, and pay, with shipping and handling included, $4, for a used mass-market paperback book.
  11. I’ve been a member all my life, and there are several different things said in the past, and in the present, that makes me confused, and frustrated, when hearing someone give a talk about what we should, or shouldn’t do, for an example, drinking, soda (or anything else) with caffeine, I keep being told that it is not a sin to drink it, yet, missionaries are required to abstain from caffeinated drinks, and I know that tobacco was a suggestion, before it became a commandment, so making me wonder, is this similar? Is this something that is a suggestion, before it becomes a commandment, so we can wean ourselves off it, so we won’t break a commandment, when it does become a commandment? Or is it something that even though it will never become a commandment, it is still something that I should come to the conclusion, on my own, that it is something that I don’t want to do? I also have questions about the Word of Wisdom, as to what should we abstain from, in the Doctrine of Covenants 89 it lists what we should, and shouldn’t eat, and drink, but these verses have always stumped me: When has there ever been a talk at General Conference, talking about the Word of Wisdom, talk about wheat, or anything outside of not to use tobacco, drink tea, or beer? If there is a talk, is a lone talk, or are there several talks, because as they say, ‘In the mouth of two or three witnesses…’How much of Doctrine and Covenants 89 is based on the time, and technology of 1833, and how much of it is timeless, and is doctrine? These are a few of my questions about the Church, doctrine, and how I should live, questions that, unless there is a direct commandment to do, or not, something, there are a lot of “pray for the answer,” responses, which I need to ask back, “How do I pray about something that I didn’t know I was supposed to know I needed to pray in the first place?”
  12. Response time greatly depends on the individual missionaries. I know that missionaries are being allowed to use the internet more than ever. This may help missionaries with responding to people faster than in the past. The fastest that I know of that I responded was around 5-6 hours, since the person called the 1-800 number sometime around 1-2 A.M. before the Missionary Department faxes all the requests to the Mission Presidents, and we went to the house the first thing in the morning, around 9-10 A.M. Needless to say, the person was surprised to see us.
  13. rayhale

    Audio Books

    There is also http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/ which has classics, read by volunteers. Outside of the computerized voice text-to-speech feature, there will be copyright concerns about any new book read by volunteers.
  14. One thing to remember, when the power goes out, make sure to turn off all non-essential power draining electronics, things like the TV, AC, fridge etc.… this way, when the power does come back on, all your things, and everyone in your towns things turning on at the same time, won’t overload the power-grid, forcing the power to stay off longer than necessary.
  15. That looks like what I’m talking about, I wish the video was still available. Reading it, it does look more like, ‘I’m sorry your offended,’ type of an apology, if anything. This is why I love the internet, so I can read, or watch the original, than go on memory alone.
  16. I can’t find the video, but one of the General Authorities made a long interview talking about the gay issue, this was before mormonandgays.org. He did mention that the Church has, in the past, encouraged gays, to marry, and now, they don’t encourage it. Does anyone know what I’m talking about? I think it was ether Elder Bednar, or Oaks (?).
  17. Didn’t the Church apologize about how it handled the issue of homosexuality on mormonsandgays.org? Like apologizing for telling people to marry, even though they really don't love their spouse, as a husband, and wife should. They also did an ‘I’m sorry, but that was the conventional wisdom of the medical professionals,’ form of an apology, when talking about some of the techniques used, by medical professionals, to try to make someone not gay.
  18. My parents are like most of you, they think a temple wedding/sealing, should be a private, family only, affair. When my brother was marrying his now-wife, her parents were sealed just before the wedding, they gave an open, everyone’s going to be there, type of an invitation to their sealing, but my parents said no, since my parents thought that it should be private, it wasn’t until they got an official invitation from my brothers soon-to-be wife, that they felt comfortable attending her parents sealing.
  19. The real question is, what is the definition of joy, as used in this ‘commandment’? The Jews believed that to serve for G-d was joy, even if you didn’t like it.
  20. This brings up the question of, what is ‘petting’, I’m sure people that use that term for humans, don’t mean the same way as petting an animal, so, let’s be clear on its definition.
  21. In a Time article in August 2, 2010, ‘The Case Against Summer Vacation’ by David Von Drehle, points out that the whole point of summer vacation was to allow children to work on their family farms, now days, its so that parents, and kids, can have vacation time, with little, to no ‘work’, and it’s hurting the children’s education. I know it hurt mine, since I’m a slow learner, do you really expect me the formula for how E=MC2 works out? And, as the article points out, there is a whole industry that profits off of summer vacation, like day/summer camps, amusement parks, and in Virginia there is a statute that prevents Virginia from reconvening early in August known as the Kings Dominion Law, in honor of an amusement park north of Richmond. I can’t find the article online L, and it’s too long to record here, but I feel the sub-title, of the article, tells it all, ‘It’s an outdated legacy of the farm economy. Adults still romanticize it. But those months out of school do the most damage to the kids who can least afford it.’
  22. This is one confusing aspect of our faith, we believe in a spirit world, where we, and they, can interact with each other, yet we don’t really believe in things like haunted houses, possession (well, this is both yes, and no), and some other supernatural things that some other faiths do. Is this a case of having your cake, and eat it too?
  23. To know whether or not someone is psychic, crazy, has the power of discernment, or is just really observant, is difficult, if not impossible to determine. This is my personal opinion, if a person has the ability to ‘see’ other people’s emotions, there are numerous other professions other than being a psychic, like being a: psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor, or even a ‘life coach’ (whatever that is). I don’t know if it’s like this for all psychics, but it seems like they’ll say anything that their client wants them to, to keep the money flowing in. I feel like I need to point out that the scriptures that Martain quoted from, the prophet observed what was going on, this is especially true in Alma 10:17 where Amulek questioned the lawyers, and the lawyer questioned Amulek, meaning what? I guess this is a chicken or the egg type of question, of which came first, did Amulek get his answer from God, or from the dialog he had from the lawyers, for which I don’t know there is an answer.
  24. Do some research on High fructose corn syrup , it is linked to obesity, and it is additive. If you think that the cigarette and beer companies have a monopoly on purposely adding addicting additives in their products, you would be wrong. And let’s not get started on grocery store layouts, where the milk, eggs, and essential food items, are ALWAYS in the back of the store. Phrases like, multi-grain, low-calorie, low-fat, light, [or a host of other phrases] does NOT mean that they are healthy, good for you or anything else, since there is little to no regulation on what they legally mean, or how low they need to be to be called “low”. I always laugh when a new diet fad comes out, like when it was the fad to have low(to no)-fat foods, that snack foods are almost(if not) always the first to adopt that diet fad.
  25. I sometimes feel like the good son in the parable of the Prodigal Son when he saw his father welcoming home his brother, who had wasted his inheritance. I keep hearing all these stories of suffering, ether physically, financially, or spiritually, and can’t help but think, “what about people like me, who had little, to no, suffering, to do? Do I go to the same heaven?” I guess I can then think of what the father said: Luke 15:31-32