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I see a need for humility, faith, repentance, and forgiveness all around. IMO, a sealing is only a sealing if one chooses to make it so. Both you and your ex have chosen to make it not so. Your second wife is failing to trust you or the Lord. She is giving up the blessings of the temple (for herself, for you, for the two of you as a couple, and delaying blessings by proxy to others) because she thinks they aren't exclusively hers. Guess who else wanted exclusive blessings. That's not to say the situation isn't difficult or her feelings aren't natural, but we're meant to rise above the natural. I see a need to work on humility, faith, repentance, and forgiveness all around. Don't know if this will help, but here's a quote from the article "An Act of Religious Conviction: Mormon Women and Nineteenth-Century Polygamy":

Very happy to see you, PC!

Welcome to ThirdHour, @Zooman009! IMO, as long as you don't let anything lead you away from Christ, or weaken your testimony of the truthfulness of his Church and gospel, then you're OK. The danger is always that you begin to place more importance on some practice than on Christ. E.g. you decide meditation or listening to the Buddhist monks is more enriching than attending your Sunday meetings, or you let them take the place of daily time in the scriptures, or you decide to go to a Buddhist retreat rather than General Conference, or Buddhist practice X is "better" than Church teaching Y, etc. As long as you adapt the Buddhist principle to fit within the gospel rather than the other way around, I expect you'll be fine.

All women owe a debt of gratitude to Riley Gaines for having the courage to take the lead on this issue. But I don't believe for a minute that it will get better - and if it does, it will be like in 3 Nephi - better very briefly before a massive descent into hell on earth.

I noticed that last week. It makes more sense to remove it from the endowment than from the baptismal ceremony (where really, before their baptism, they are dead - cut off, in prison - and after, they are (if they choose to be) alive). No idea why the change. Possibly a case of "why state the obvious". Given how much temple work is done, if you aggregate all of it, dropping the phrase might save a bit of time (though I seriously doubt anyone is interested in doing that - at least, not at the expense of anything even slightly important).

IMO, Satan will be the accuser, there ranting and raving about how we don't deserve mercy due to all our sins. Meanwhile, a search of the Church website for the phrase "judge in Israel" yields a lot of results. Some may be helpful.

Klaw has been studying up on Dungeons & Dragons and in this morning's play time practiced his "leap on Meowmy's back" attack. Of course, I was sitting on the floor at the time, so it had little effect other than to make me laugh, but it was a good attack - arms spread wide, almost perfect to bite through my neck - if only his jaws were larger... Here's a picture of my kitty's D&D character:

Mormon? See, for example, Helaman 6 (~30 years before the Lord came - I read this recently and wondered if we wouldn't have something similar before the Second Coming - converts having to teach life-long members who had fallen into wickedness). See also 3 Nephi 1 - massive conversion followed by wickedness 2-3 years later (signs are not a good foundation for conversion). I figure in the age of "smart" phones, where people have a 2-second attention span, it might take 2 hours to turn back to wickedness (if that)... Whatever the case, these seem to me like types that will be repeated before the Second Coming. The whole world in commotion (including conversions and falling away).

Yeah, sadly, this is true. In my current ward, over the last 3-5 years, there have been times when the teacher didn't show. Sometimes we went to the other gospel doctrine class, but other times, we just agreed to have the class without a teacher - and we discussed what we had learned from our own study - they were some of the best classes we had (not that we didn't have a good teacher, just that this type of discussion was what usually ensued anyway).

I'm not sure how a threat from a prophet would be worded differently than a warning from a prophet. I think they might sound the same, unless they actually used the word "threat" or "warning". I expect "threaten" was Jarom's interpretation of what he heard - perhaps he didn't believe in mollycoddling...

Yes, that's what Sacrament Meeting, Stake Conference, and General Conference are for. Well, that's not what it's supposed to be. I hope I'm not the only one who is regularly in a Spirit-guided discussion of the doctrine and how to apply it in our lives. Perhaps the issue is that there are few in the Church who could give a good 40-minute lecture (every other week). And perhaps it is that this (Spirit-led discussion) is more likely to encourage the home-centered, Church-supported learning and worship we're supposed to be engaging in. So, I would agree, lecture isn't necessarily bad, but it would encourage too many people to do nothing at home and just come and spend 40 minutes basking in the glow of a gospel orator and then go home and wait for next Sunday. It would also deny the opportunity to ask questions, or share personal experiences in learning and living the gospel - which should help us to be one, to bear one another's burdens, to minister, etc. - I think the class discussion (when done right) can encourage even those who don't verbally enter the discussion to engage in home study, and help them in living the gospel.

On 08 June I attended a training session for teachers and presidencies. Brother Milton Camargo, First Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency did most of the training. He said some things that may help: 1. When the current SSGP was called, President Nelson told him that his focus should be: Help people study the gospel and scriptures in their own homes Improve the quality of teaching in the home and Church 2. Bro. Camargo told us that the first question we should discuss in our classes is: "What has the Holy Ghost (that being the key part of this question) taught you during your study this week?" (Or you could say over the past 2 weeks.) My notes say: invite people to practice learning from the Holy Ghost. (I think that was part of the discussion of how to help people do this, since seminary stats suggest that the majority of the active members are not having scripture study in their home.) 3. The teachers and presidencies should be asking themselves: What can I do to help members do those two bullet items under #1 above. There was a good bit of discussion about that. Related to this, invite people to consider, "What does the Lord want to teach me (as I study this material)?" And I'll try to create a chart that was presented (hard to do without fixed-width font. Foo, I'll just go make a graphic... Personally, if I'm teaching, I only go into info/history if I think it's absolutely necessary, and then I lecture very briefly (like less than a minute, if I can) and I tell them what I'm doing - setting the background, reminding them of the characters or plot of the story. I do my best to stay in that "best" quadrant - and have since I first was called to be a teacher - what, in my 20s?

So really, they're varified reports?

And they are known to the state of California to cause cancer.

Pfff. Your existence is probably illegal. And it causes cancer.

Every animal has its own personality. But apparently dogs are the only animals that understand human gestures like pointing - even our closest relatives (chimps) don't understand that one. Evidence dogs were made for mankind.

Kitty kept him company in his dying minutes. Good kitty.

Funny, or not so funny, thought... I'm an extreme introvert. Church attendance and the occasional ministering visit are sufficient human interaction for me. (Now that I understand what introversion is and how to manage it, I can push that limit a lot farther, but it's still sufficient.) So, after I decided to get a kitty, I asked Heavenly Father to help me find the right one for me (leaving it up to Him what that meant, just mentioning what I hoped to do with kitty). All the timing and such fell into place for Klaw and I was quite certain he was the one I was supposed to adopt. Turns out, he doesn't much like other people. He finds them scary and just wants to hang in our nice quiet house with mom. Oh, and car rides are OK, so are walks outside - as long as we don't go to far and don't encounter other people. Make of it what you will...

Klaw has discovered that he can use my eyeglasses to pull me close enough to lick my nose. And then he discovered that he can pull them (the eyeglasses) off and chew on the earpieces...

Erm. There was this dude. In the beginning. Telling lots of lies.....

I agree. I was suggesting it as an after-the-fact analysis of the pattern - perhaps despite the seeming failures, there was something good happening after all...?

If I noticed this pattern in my life, I think I would be inclined to take away the following lessons: I have bad timing. Perhaps with practice I'll improve. I don't recognize the need soon enough, or I take too long to figure out what I should do, or I take too long to act. Perhaps with practice I'll improve. God wants me to see the variety of ways by which He blesses people. Perhaps you are missing the effect on you: (In other words, sometimes the service you offer is as much to change you as it is to bless the one(s) you're serving.) Or, So, rather than lamenting that you never manage to be the one saving the starfish, look for other lessons and for ways to improve. Also, celebrate the goodness of others - pray in gratitude for their abilities and actions, ask for them to be blessed, thank them for their service and example to you - lift them so that they don't get tired of tossing starfish.

Well, that explains it. Apparently I bought Klaw an AR-15: That explains why he still finds it a bit scary. I'm sure when he's a teenager he'll like it better...

Crazy people. Very sad. I think @Vort explained it very clearly.

Not sure why the bold part would be there if "endless" was just another way of saying "no end". Of course, I'm also pretty sure this is academic, unless one is thinking, "I can handle temporary Endless punishment, but I'm not willing to endure torment with no end, so I need to know which it is so I can make up my mind whether to repent."