NeuroTypical

Again honestly, I'm driving at nothing. I have no underlying connotation to convey. Just stream of consciousness here. I'm as surprised as you to see an African American spiritual appear in our book of correlated, approved hymns, and I'm reacting to it with various thoughts. I really do want to travel the world and see the similarities and differences in how different cultures worship as Latter-day Saints, having been converted to the same gospel to which I've been converted.

Honestly, I don't disagree. That said, I can find endless bounties of spirituality in music that does not follow the "sacred and solemn" ambiance that's been my sacrament meeting experience since birth. I wonder about the vibe found in sacrament meetings in other areas of the world, like Argentina or South Africa or Japan. Or even a majority black ward in the South somewhere? Do we have those?

Maybe a swivel chair would help?

I'm thinking @mikbone was referring to this sort of clapping: Interestingly enough, I can find this song sung at the tabernacle in 3 different YouTube videos, and the other two don't have clapping. Also interesting is during the entire almost 3 minute song, clapping only happens for 12 seconds. (I believe the front row right balcony people are doing sign language.) Clearly we LDS are going to be a hard sell for such things. Most of us in the US are probably uncomfortable using historically appropriate terms like "negro spiritual". All the public schooled among us have experienced heavy doses of indoctrination and peer pressure against things like 'cultural appropriation', and although nobody knows what it is, nobody wants to be seen as doing it.

Meanwhile, China's new AI:

Daaaaaaaang. I think now I get all his just casual mentions about how the US was just going to stroll in and take over and "run Gaza" and turn it into another French Rivera. Build big, beautiful American-type buildings and make it a diamond next to the ocean. Conjuring images of massive gold Trump towers. He was never talking to me, or America, or our allies. He was speaking directly to the leaders of the Arab nations. Basically forcing them to resist with their own proposal.

In new exciting news: DOGE Website is up!! https://doge.gov/ The "Workforce" section is pretty dang interesting. Measuring the "unconstitutionality" of the federal government is like a dream come true:

Ok yes that's a bit much. Does the UK use the finance tab of the church website to submit expenses? I'm trying hard to go totally paperless. This is the norm here: - Person submits expense through their phone, attaches receipts which are just screen captures of whatever they've ordered. - I review it all, ask for more info if needed, then approve. - A member of the Bishopric also reviews and approves - they can do it remotely from their phones too if they want. Otherwise I have them do it during tithing. - Bishop reviews, also an online process, also whenever he wants. Yeah, two signatures on the slip is necessary for when someone steals the sealed donation package. This has happened once on my watch - after we delivered the package to the mailbox. Signing the additional slip is again out of process. Basically asking you to swear an additional oath that you're not up to no good. There's a scripture about oath swearing: And again it is written, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths; But verily, verily, I say unto you, swear not at all; neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; Nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair black or white; But let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay; for whatsoever cometh of more than these is evil. It's probably overboard to call out the stake auditor on his evil process request, but that's up to you.

Hi Garry73, cool story! I must say that you're hardly alone in struggling to determine whether you're experiencing a brain thing or a spirit thing. Your situation is a bit uncommon, but I think we've all encountered folks who mistake mere feelings for spiritual impression and direction. There surely seems to be no shortage of them in testimony meeting. What a cool thing to have this firm a grip on your own brain, so you know that a bit of discernment is needed before you listen to any old random brain thing.

I think that was the little caption under my high school photo. Finance clerk is the best calling in the whole church! Honestly, I enjoy the audits. I enjoy watching the auditor grow increasingly frustrated as he discovers an issue, only to discover I had already documented it so well that he is forced to check the 'ok' button on the item. It's a simple thing to get a bizarre receipt from sister Tryinhard, full of her inked notes and incorrect calculations, and document in a file how you arrived at the correct total. It's only slightly harder to remember to attach your notes to the expense for the auditor to find.

One note: I had to chuckle at the notion of a member of the bishopric getting excommunicated for a clerical error. This is what happens when you try to issue a church check and leave the "purpose" field blank: It's literally not possible to write a church check and leave the field blank. Probably has been that way for over a decade.

My guess is it will look like: - Deal about no further NATO expansion. Probably including US not sending arms & $$ to Ukraine any more. - Some sort of trade deal about energy/food/etc. - Agreement about where the new lines will be drawn. - Agreement about reparations/rebuilding aid - Killing stops, Trump gets major campaign promise win. Unless Europe wants to pick up and take over sending them aid, it would seem Ukraine is in a pretty weak position here. I can easily see Trump pressuring Zelynski to just accept whatever he and Putin put together. "We can always just stop funding you." The larger issue seems to be America (and others) abandoning the globalist way of doing things that have prevailed since Bush I. Nations going back to good old fashioned protectionism and nationalism. Seemingly as a way to halt China's ascendency. I don't know enough to have a relevant opinion about it. As for 'peace in our time', Russsia's deal seems to be the same centuries-old deal about "we need buffer to protect the Rodina". No desire to dominate the world. Desire to expand driven by NATO's expansion over the last few decades. So that first deal point has to be real.

Some statements from Pres. Biden's Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: 2022: "So FEMA regional administrators have been meeting with city officials on site to coordinate to coordinate available federal support from FEMA and other federal agencies. Funding is also available through FEMA's emergency food and shelter program to eligible local governments and non-for-profit organizations upon request to support humanitarian relief for migrants." 2024: "No, Biden did not take FEMA relief money to use to use on migrants." (video can be watched here: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/10/07/watch_karine_jean-pierre_in_2022_vs_this_month_on_fema_money_for_illegal_immigrants.html ) Feb 10, 2025: Elon Musk claims DOGE discovered "FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants." https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1888891512303263815 Feb 11, 2025: FEMA's CFO, two program analysts, and a grant specialist have been fired. The Division of Homeland Services released a statement calling them "deep state activists" News story: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fema-officials-fired-after-musk-claims-paid-house/story?id=118692963 DHS statement: https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/02/11/statement-dhs-spokesperson-termination-4-fema-employees-who-made-payments-luxury Note for this thread: This is the most recent of dozens and dozens of stories about the under-the-table fraudulent crap DOGE is revealing. Posting all the news on this thread could be a full time job for me. The total discovered and stopped is in the hundreds of billions of dollars so far. Never forget how corrupt and wasteful the United States Federal Government had become.

Indeed. Whenever I'm researching some breaking news story, I always look for the local media reporting. But honestly though, TikTok has been my main source for breaking news. Nothing beats an algorithm that brings live on scene reporting from various random viewpoints.

I'm content watching the entire civilized world, including the UN, finally start to realize that men/boys don't belong in womens/girls sports/showers/prisons/locker rooms. That's some returning sanity worth celebrating. And absolutely zero disrespecting transgender people needed.

Yeesh. GiveSendGo huh? Seems a little like crowdsourcing a hitman to me. I predict this bit of news isn't done being made.

Imma need a source on that one. Places like Gofundme have policies against raising funds because of criminal actions. Last news I saw was in December, when all the fundraising sites were working overtime to slap them down as they popped up.

One of the funnier boring 18 minute videos I've ever watched: New bucket list item: I wanna meet that security guard guy and shake his hand. It's harder than it sounds to sit there for 18 minutes and not do anything.

Is the food in your personal bags? If not, add food. We try hard to keep food in our bags that we eat in real life. Every General Conference I go through the bags and we rotate out the food. We call it "the feast of the perishables". Pretty sure that's found in Leviticus somewhere.

Hi @Milluw! It's been a minute - good to see you!

The official statement is even shorter: https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church-reaffirms-immigration-principles-love-law-family-unity The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has reiterated principles and communicated guidelines to local leaders in the United States regarding immigration issues. As disciples of Jesus Christ, the following principles guide the Church’s approach: * The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints obeys the law. * We follow Jesus Christ by loving our neighbors. The Savior taught that the meaning of “neighbor” includes all of God’s children. * We seek to provide basic food and clothing, as our capacity allows, to those in need, regardless of their immigration status. We are especially concerned about keeping families together. The guidance closely follows statements made previously on these issues, which are available on the Church website. The Office of General Counsel (OGC) has created guidelines to help local leaders comply with federal laws that criminalize harboring, transporting, or encouraging undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States. OGC also carefully tracks legal developments to ensure local outreach and area-initiated humanitarian activities are appropriate. Local leaders should be in contact with the Office of General Counsel for further information.

Pretty basic principles, but still a lot to read here: https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2025/01/30/church-statement-principles-guidelines-immigration-law-love-family/

It does, but what about my doppleganger in the UK who has registered [email protected]? One would think that he did, and that it happened several years ago. So there are two users using two "different" gmail addresses... I mean, if he wasn't able to register [email protected], why does he keep giving that address to vendors?

Oh that's funny. My wife and I did probably 80% of our marital arguing across email back in the day. So he's been getting all of my stuff too? Now I know why dude needs his wine and vacations. I wonder how many epic arguments about the nature of trust he sat through?

I no longer have the link (or maybe audiocassette if that's where I heard it), but Hugh Nibley had things to say about the gift of speaking in tongues. Going off of memory here, but I think he proposed a test to determine if valid or not. There had to be information/truth communicated, and someone hearing would be given the ability to hear that information/truth. Apparently there was quite a bit of this during the dedication of the Kirtland temple. 4 members scattered about the congregation rising at the same time and singing a hymn in 4 part harmony in a language nobody spoke? Does that ring a bell with anyone?