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Folks, however suspicious you are of strangers who call, text, or email you, it's not enough. For the record: The sheriff, your insurance company, the bank, the IRS, and everyone else is a stranger! Even if you've known the person for years and think you recognize their voice - the minute money, accounts, addresses, etc. get involved - they're a stranger!

One thing is absolutely certain: if the Church had gone to Texas and made that its headquarters, it would be BIGGER.

Did you watch the video? It's not anti-trans. The doctor is a psychiatrist who specializes in gender dysphoria. He isn't opposed to gender transition of any sort (for adults), but is opposed to people going into that without someone like him to help them work through it. He is opposed to merging all forms of "trans" into one indistinguishable mass (e.g. transvestite, transsexual, transgender), which has led to confusion among his patients. He's explaining what he's learned from his practice and it explains things like rigid insistence on using the individual's pronouns and demands that everyone think the same way. In short, it's an informative video if you want to have a better understanding of trans people, which should give a person more compassion. This with eyes to see and ears to hear will also recognize Satan's hand working for decades (at least) to create the conflicts we now have on this issue.

Welcome to ThirdHour, @Tman88!

Yes, this was my understanding as some ward members described the process they continued to go through for years and years - both absurd and corrupt come to mind. I absolutely agree!

Well, this video sheds some light...

Did you miss this part? Not only are Utahns jerks, they consider the speed limit a starting point, think tailgating constitutes good communication, and wouldn't know a turn signal if it smacked them upside the head. I was just pointing out that once you start down the road, you start running into the issue of "there are plenty of sins that are violating that covenant to obey God" - whether they're enough to prevent you from going to the temple is another matter. That would be an individual matter to be discussed under whether you keep the covenants you made in the temple, and addressed in that final question of whether you consider yourself to be worthy of attending the temple. (Current official wording of questions. The five laws we covenant to obey in the endowment.) It's interesting to me which questions include "striving" and which don't. At the end of the day, we all get to make something of a judgement call on whether we're worthy and what exactly we should say in answer to each question. (And yes, we judge ourselves, not each other.)

Next time, take a child's bubble blowing wand and solution (or just use water with dishsoap). Blow bubbles in the freezing air - they (can) turn out gorgeous!

I started down this path with links to the questions and the 5 laws specifically mentioned in the endowment, but it didn't take longer than typing a paragraph to realize that yes, illegally entering a country is contrary to the gospel just as breaking any other law (until they make a law that requires violating God's law, which overrules man's). One of our covenants is to obey God, and I can find several places where God tells us to obey the law. I can imagine folks justifying themselves in this just as many justify only keeping the [what not to consume] portions of the Word of Wisdom (as opposed to the [eat only this healthy stuff] portion), and every Utahn doesn't think twice about how unChristlike they are while driving... So, yeah, we're all works in progress. I have less concern with an illegal being in the temple than I have with them being in the country. And I have less concern with an illegal who is otherwise temple-worthy being in the country than with the types of criminals who came in under Biden. (Any who aren't concerned about those haven't done enough research about them - these were criminals before coming, and some of the behaviors described sound exactly like the days leading up to the final destruction of the Nephites.)

Are you sure the "prophets" in question are the Biblical (OT) prophets?

Long time, no see, @Backroads! Nice to have you back.

Verse 9 seems important to this discussion: D&C 98 includes an interesting use of the same and similar phrasing: FWIW.

Welcome, @vanzantfrynd! I fear you won't like my answer, but I'll give it anyway. 99% of engaged people could not exercise the discipline you and your fiance are managing. I don't say that to suggest you aren't being honest - I believe you - I'm just saying that it's a very rare thing. Once people are to the point where they're ready to commit to marriage, staying apart becomes more and more difficult (for most people). Knowing that, and knowing the experience of many a person who has "caved" in a moment of weakness, and knowing that the sin will be worse once you have made the baptismal covenant, the Church is "playing it safe". The following is meant in the most loving way: Perhaps the Lord is giving you an opportunity to practice humility and patience. Neither of those is very popular, neither is an easy virtue to develop. The Lord often asks us to do things we don't understand or don't want to do. Humility is one of the virtues that lets us obey. Leaders in the Church (and fellow Church members) are mere mortals, as we are, which means sometimes they will try our patience and we will have to humble ourselves in order to do as they direct or minister to them (or even just tolerate being in the same room as them ). Choose to humble yourself, to respect the rule that you don't understand, to acknowledge that perhaps those who made the rule were doing as the Lord wished (or at least acting based on many decades of experience - probably multiple lifetimes - I expect that rule is almost as old as the Church). The Lord will bless you for it: Trust God to help you through this.

No, no, no. Dip your fountain pen in the ink bottle!

Great! I printed chapters 2, 3, and 5, and appendix 1 so I can work with it on paper. I may not get more done today, but as I fit stuff in, I'll post my thoughts back here. Please do the same. I figure initially, I'll just do some reading - the author of the PDF seems to cover phonetics well and I noticed in passing that he mentioned different pronunciations (apparently there are a couple of characters that are only needed for British pronunciations). Anywho, once I get to anything I feel like discussing, I'll reply here.

It's one of the reasons I resumed doing puzzles - I thought maybe they'd be good for my brain. (Though I confess, it's mostly so I have things to do with my pens. ) I got myself a puzzle board and several jigsaw puzzles on Black Friday (they had ridiculously good prices, otherwise it would not be worth it), because those are supposed to be good for the right brain, too... I used to see getting stupider as a good thing - the more you learn, the more aware you are of how much you don't know. But yeah, age seems to slow the brain a bit, too. Must work to exercise it. I'm tempted to bring the Nintendo Switch out of storage (apparently video games on these are also good for aging brains, keeping them more malleable), but I tend to get obsessive and play far too long - binge is an understatement.

I love watching these. SBMowing is good, too. And Midlife Stockman. There are lots of folks out there doing this kind of thing - usually in the Bible belt - go figure.

Exactly. They have a single character that's used for "the", which doesn't make phonetic sense to me - but I've only just begun - and I have no idea whether there are any materials outlining rules for these situations... Since I couldn't find any extant online community that appears to be active (unless it's on facebook, but I decline to go back there), I thought I'd see if anyone here was interested in the challenge.

This. This is what I have observed. (Too many) LGBTQ+ people don't want to live their lives in peace and leave everyone else to do the same. They want revenge and they want to be the dictators of what we're allowed to think, say, believe, and do. They think the ends justify the means and there's no such thing as going too far - right down to calling for violence against a family of four (a couple and two minor children) as an appropriate response to the couple's pastor saying homosexuality is a sin and Christians ought not to participate in "Pride celebrations". (I witnessed this. The mob contained about 800 people.) Sorry, but you're (generic "you") going to have a hard time convincing me these folk just want to live in peace with the rest of us when 800 of them ganged up to say otherwise.

@Carborendum, I will be responding to the points in your post out of order. I haven't started this project yet beyond obtaining the PDF and noting that it says not everything in it is necessary, depending on one's interests. I think I didn't do a good job of explaining my intent. I do not necessarily intend that we communicate with each other (here on the forum or elsewhere) using these characters. I intend to learn the characters such that if I want to, I can read, write, or type the characters. In essence, like a child, I must learn to recognize the symbols of the alphabet and what they represent. Note that the Deseret Alphabet is not just an alternate set of 26 symbols, like some sort of cypher. There are 38 characters in the alphabet and it is phonetic. Thus, too, to, and two would all be written in the same way in Deseret. There, their, and they're would all be written in the same way. One, won - same. You get the idea. My intent was to discuss the alphabet and phonetics here on the forum. I've seen some character explanations that leave me unsure what sound the symbol represents (perhaps the PDF is clearer). I figured having folks to discuss this with would allow us to help each other learn the symbols and resolve concerns. For example, the article "a" is pronounced two ways: "uh" (ə) (e.g. "This is a book.") and "ay" or "ey" (ā) (as in "hay" or "hey") - usually when emphasized or before certain sounds. So when writing the article "a" in Deseret, do we write it differently depending on context or always the same way, like we would in English? Given that the alphabet never really took off, I'm not sure there are materials covering stuff like this, hence my desire to discuss it. Also, some sounds might be hard for someone to distinguish and discussing examples might help clarify. (Phonetics is not as easy as it sounds. ) There are fonts for it, and apparently apps to support it on mobile phones (though I'm having a hard time finding evidence of the latter). Many of the posts in the now (all but?) abandoned r/Deseret are written (typed) in the Deseret alphabet. Just for you, I went and got the font off the website I linked and installed it. The 38 characters in the Deseret alphabet are accomplished by mapping some of the characters onto punctuation keys, so you lose some of those (e.g. #, $, %, etc.). I haven't checked the mapping of every character, just some of them to satisfy my suspicion as to how they were managing to get all 38 characters in with only a font (as opposed to an application). IMO, it would be harder to learn two things at the same time: 1. The symbols and what they represent 2. Where to find the symbol on a keyboard (especially when the keyboard doesn't have them marked) I figure if I learn #1 first and well, #2 will be easier. And all research shows that learning to write the characters by hand will significantly improve memory and speed the learning process. Again, my immediate goal is not to communicate with anyone, but to learn the symbols and what they represent, as well as develop the skill to decide what phonetic sounds make up the words I'm using. (I mean, if you think about it, the spelling of many words would differ in the south vs the northeast vs Boston, etc. I'm not sure whoever came up with the brilliant idea of a phonetic alphabet considered different accents... I'm quite certain he didn't consider sounds that aren't part of the English language, or his alphabet would be bigger. )

SPOILER - anyone who wants to do the puzzle without additional help, STOP READING!! So, I had already figured out that the first three clues identified each of the two people on each of the three sides of the table. I had also figured out that Kara was in seat B. What I had not yet attempted was looking for which of the six people she did / did not match. The clue smacked me upside the head and said to check her against each of the six people, and it turned out there was only one possible match... As to bright - I do 2 or 3 logic puzzles every day. My brain is well trained to think in "logic puzzle". Most of the puzzles I do are far too easy, but I find they clear my head and after completing them, I can move on to some other task. This one was unusual, and I like that aspect of it. It also included something I'm not that good at - a geometric element. My imagination can make up scenes of fictional events (e.g. when reading or writing fiction), but I struggle with puzzles that require spacial relationships or turning a 2D drawing into a 3D shape. (My brother is exceptional at this, designing 3D objects in his head and porting them in a CAD program, but my brain just does not want to do this kind of thing.) Your posts make it clear that you are "bright" in ways that surpass me - e.g. physics - I'm clueless there and struggle with what little I'm exposed to. In other words - we all have our talents and one of my useless ones is completing logic grid puzzles.

Anybody else interested in learning the Deseret Alphabet? The reddit sub for it is basically dead, and I think it would be helpful (and motivating) to be able to discuss it with another person. While in a way it looks simple enough, after a little review, I don't think it will be easy. I downloaded this PDF from DeseretAlphabet.org, as it seems like the most comprehensive tool for learning said alphabet. I don't think one needs to study all of it (unless desired) - the author even says so and tells you which parts you can skip over. Anywho, if you're interested, let me know and we can make a plan. And if anyone has a better document for learning to write this alphabet, please let me know. I looked for practice sheets - you know, the things they give little children with dashed lines and arrows of how to draw letters - but couldn't find any.

I should not be allowed to start puzzles near the end of my day! I caved and looked at the clue, which promptly made me feel like an idiot. From there the puzzle solved itself like cascading dominoes. It was still good fun and most unique. Thanks, @Vort!

And thus, a new symbol and a new conspiracy are born: (People in the know call them the "25-letterers")

A) Putting myself in the place you describe for yourself: I would rather be called anything and everything than live in a world where speech was compelled or banned. B) I would get a new job before submitting to compelled speech. C) If you think you can't get a new job, work harder, better, more honestly, with more integrity. You'll have no problem finding new work. The word "having", by definition, includes a willingness to use force, which means, by definition, taking away rights.