NeuroTypical

In my experience, some folks stubbornly cling to their inexact grasp on what they believe, without really understanding even why they believe it. These folks are at high risk of being harmed by critical material. For example, some folks have grown up with the notion that you must always obey our church leaders because they are better than you and always right. When these people run headlong into a fact that says otherwise (like a stake president being convicted of solicitation of a minor, or some such thing), then the only way to reconcile the facts with their stubbornly-clung-to belief, is to dump the whole set of beliefs. This can be incredibly painful and scary, so to fill the hole, often the person will cast about and find some other inexact belief to stubbornly cling to. Other folks can take a step back in a case like that and come to grips with the new understanding that no, church doctrine does NOT say that people in authority are always right, but it does say they're entitled to inspiration but retain their agency to act for good or ill, and the natural man is an enemy to God, and we exist in a fallen and sinful state, etc. Those folks come out the other side of the issue having grown a bit, with a deeper understanding of what the truth claims of the church actually are.

Quite a bit. I spent about a decade seeking out criticisms of my faith, and I came out the other side with a much more thorough understanding of what the gospel was and was not, what the truth claims of the church are and aren't, and what I believe and why I believe it. My faith in the reality and divinity of Jesus Christ, and the truthfulness of the restored gospel has increased a lot. My faith in humanity's ability to screw up a free lunch hasn't really increased or decreased, since I already believed that going in. LM

Yep - things are much easier now. No talking to any Bishops required (unless you are trying to get the church to pay for it). Here's the website - give them a try. Note: If the nearest office isn't close to you, call them anyway. They often have counselors available in other cities, and just do the appointments and billing and whatnot through the main office.

It has been two months since prophetofdoom's prophecy. Today's oil price is $112.29 for WTI crude, $124 for Brentwood.This is an example of why I have a real hard time listening to the average internet doomsayer.

I'm confused - why were you not able to get counseling from LDSSS? You call them up and make an appointment - what's the issue? Is it that the church declined to pay for it?

Well, true in countries like the US, but hardly true for everybody. "Basic human rights" such as free speech is a relatively new notion in humanity, and certainly not universally accepted.

I don't think anyone here is supporting the beating. Does anyone remember the 'whittling and whistling brigade'? Back in Nauvoo some hired toughs had entered the city to make trouble for the Mormons. We heard about it, so when these toughs hit town, they immediately noticed that wherever they went, each one was followed by half a dozen or more young men with knives and sticks. They were just following them around whittling on their sticks and whistling. So the toughs exited the town without accomplishing whatever they had in mind.

Yep - the Kirtland temple dedication was an event marked by a large number of recorded miracles. There was an Ensign article a while back (sorry I've forgotten the name or link), opining that such miraculous outbursts of tongues and healings and angelic ministrations and casting out demons and whatnot tend to come in bursts during special occasions - Adam & Eve getting trained, Christ's birth, the close of His ministry, and the restoration and opening of the last dispensation are all such events marked by lots of people witnessing miraculous things. I thought it was a decent explanation.

Ok everyone - I've always wanted to go to an LDS.NET gettogether, but I live in CO. So we'll have to lucid dream a get together. Here's the deal - Friday night I'll dream myself off to temple square. You know the reflecting pool to the east? Meet me there. We'll have good wholesome hijinks and throw dream water baloons at the dream protestors and whatnot. You'll be able to recognize me - I'll be the fat guy with the goatee in the very loud shirt. Saturday morning come post and tell me what color shirt! LM

Hey there - please note - you opened this thread in the advice forum. That means people will tell you their advice. It's pretty much a waste of time to get offended or upset at getting what you asked for. Yes, I can see you're hurting. I can see you believe you've lost the love of your life, and have incredibly strong feelings for the tragic situation this girl is in. I can see you believe you have some unique ethereal connection to her, allowing you to know when she's in the shower and whatnot - but I don't buy it for a minute. It seems that you want less in the way of advice, and more in the way of getting people to buy the reality of your story. I'm afraid you'll find few people doing that here. Here is a quote from President Kimball that illustrates a lot of what the responding posters in this thread are probably feeling: I hope you are able to find a way to get over her like you want.

Take the elevator up to the roof, hop the big iron grate they put there because it's hard to hop, run off the top of the building, hit the ground, then grab your chute and dive into the get away car and drive the heck away before the cops show up and arrest you. I'd have something more 'shame on you'-esque to say, if I weren't laughing so hard that tears are streaming down my cheeks.

Just a friendly reminder of a pretty hefty fact that is often left out of these discussions: "Raising taxes on the rich and super rich" pretty much always means raising income taxes. Folks born into wealth are pretty much untouched. Because you can't just go pass a "take every third mansion" tax or some such. And death taxes only catch the unprepared - there many sufficient ways to protect 'the family wealth' from the touch of inheritance taxes. So basically, you have to be working at a job that is paying you something, in order to be considered one of the "rich or super rich" in these scenarios. Not that great of a deal for folks motivated by class hatred, because so many of the upper-crust don't really earn a wage.

And what did your bishop say?

Here's something to think about. In your post, you referred to yourself ("I", "I'm", "I'll") a total of 61 times. A whopping 12 times per paragraph. Here's everything you have to say about your daughter: You only manage to mention your daughter 5 times - and 4 of those times she takes a back seat to your pain and troubles. I suggest you re-write your tale of woe, but from her viewpoint instead. Take you out of it, put her into it. Then write the tale according to what's best for her.Because that's basically what you signed up to do when you had kids - do what's best for her. LM

Yeah, I second the vote for having your wife there to help.

Welcome temerson. From what standpoint do you wish to conduct these discussions and research? I ask, because we have this site rule: "1. Do not post, upload, or otherwise submit anything to the site that is derogatory towards The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its teachers, or its leaders." So, if your chosen issues don't cross that line, you'll be fine here. Happy discussing! LM

Just to be clear - I don't disagree with ryanh or Pam. Yes indeed, there are people who go on a mission and discover their testimonies. But also yes indeed, there are people who go on missions and become convinced that they're pretending to be something they are not, and they sometimes become bitter at the mormons who pushed them to act on faith and taught them the commitment pattern and varyous ways to urge people to look into something the missionary ends up deciding is not true. These people are often known as 'bitter exmormons'. So yeah, I'm always hesitant to tell someone 'fake it 'til you make it' in regards to a mission.

I've met enough bitter ex-mormons who went on missions without having a testimony, to make me very hesitant to tell anyone "just go - you'll come to believe as you go". From where I'm standing, training kids to go "door to door selling religion", finding "new creative and attractive ways to get people interested", without actually believing in what they're doing, is a horrible thing to do to a kid. Fraught with all sorts of negative consequences should they ever decide to have truth do battle with their upbringing.

Yep, I enjoyed Lights Out. But I wonder if organizing a neighborhood to work like a military base, will actually work as well as it tends to in such stories. Maybe in suburbanite Texas, but probably not where I live...

I'd say yes, because there's nothing in the WoW about "eating sparingly". "Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;" See, it's just talking about meat. Not partially hydrolized soybean oil, or ice cream, or any of the other nonmeat things we eat that make us fat. If you want to think about the WoW as a diet plan, you need to go up one verse: "Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving." I suppose one could make the argument that intentional overeating is not using food with "prudence". But again, intentional overeating isn't the only thing that makes us fat either. LM

Good advice for both of us. I see you are unwilling to make a specific prediction. So, it's just general vague doomsaying then? That's ok, but I'll keep contributing to my work's 401k plan if that's fine with you. Because from where I'm standing, the future looks far rosier than it does to you.

I always have to giggle when I hear stuff like that. I don't think you know what a depression from a hole in the ground. My dad's stories of living through the depression are so far removed from the reality for America today, it might have well been another world. Anyway, let's have some firm dates and specific predictions so we can figure out if you're full of it or not. Gas will be $6/gal by what date? What price will silver be by July 4? Unemployment will hit 20% by the govt measure by when? Are you up to the challenge? LM

Go eBay or amazon.com. You can usually trust someone with higher than 95 or 97% positive feedback. (To be specific, you can expect a 95% chance of a positive experience with someone with 95% positive feedback :))

Hi swampgeek,First of all, thank you for your service in the corps. Secondly, I would guess that you and I probably see eye to eye on more things related to self-defense than we'd disagree about. But thirdly, I wasn't making an observation, I was stating a fact. Google around a bit for numbers. You'll see things like a violent crime rate of 430 per 100k, but a property crime rate of 3036 per. Yeah, violent home invasions have been going up. But they've been going up from triple digits to slightly higher triple digits. Burglars who just want your stuff and no encounter with you are still quadruple digits. There are just more drug addicts wanting their next fix, than there are gang banger initiates wanting into the club or whatever. Of course yes, we live in a dangerous country, and yes, there are people looking to do you harm, and yes, it's every American's right to protect yourself from such (unless you live in Vermont or other places where the 'duty to retreat' doctrine has it's claws in people's souls). So yes, be prepared for whatever might come your way. But again, odds are, if you're sitting there quietly in your home and a back window breaks, a loud firm statement that they're not alone in the house is usually all it takes. I mean, if you have some sort of desire to make life more complicated than it has to be, then by all means, exercise your castle doctrine right and ventilate the 16 yr old punk trying to get quick cash for his next fix. I'm just saying that I'm happy to scare him off so he doesn't come back. LM

It will house 48 wards, but only has one chapel? How does that work?