NeuroTypical

I'd say "Surely, throughout history people have made up stuff and been fraudulent in their claims. Surely, if you put twenty people who make claims like Joseph Smith made, maybe 19.8 of them would be crazy or liars or whatever. But my belief in the truth claims of Joseph Smith and the BoM don't come from just reading what they had to say. My belief comes from a personal witness of the Holy Ghost, which confirmed to me that this particular sensational hard to believe story, happened to be the truth."

Horse hockey. If I ever found myself in the position of this HR lady, I'd refuse to interact with parents in such settings completely. Wouldn't take the call, would end it quickly if it came. If I couldn't avoid the parents, that would be a mark against the job applicant, and I'd be more likely to give someone else the job.If I was trying to employ people with disabilities, things would be different. But grown mature adults? Please.

Yay! Happy Birthday!

I just dunked my girl on Saturday. No special baptismal dresses for any of the girls in the stake baptism here.

Yeah, in my experience, whether you're right or you're wrong, sentences that start that way tend to never lead anywhere happy. If it's your wife's money, she's free to do whatever she wants with it - even if it is enabling her brother's bad behavior. If it's family money, then you should have a say in it, and this issue is more about your relationship with your wife than about her brother.

Just a thought, but dirty thoughts can become clean wholesome fun when there's a spouse involved...I can't help you with coffee though. I grew up in a house where my mom would put her cigarettes out in her coffee grounds. I'd have to clean everything up after it had been cold for half a day. I just don't associate that smell with "fun" - sorry.

Hey LDSCubsFan, you actually know any military folks? Like, personally? I know many. Lots of military members in my ward. Lots of coworkers with kids in the military. My wife is friends with many. In my actual numerous examples of firsthand experience, my experience is different than yours. So how about it - how many do you know personally? Let's compare actual experience vs. crap we read on the internet.

Thanks for the kind words everyone! Girl has short hair, and we started family swimming years ago to get the other daughter over her fear of water, so I think we're good there.

Oh, and here are the race results: LDS.net - scriptural citation 9:17 AM, full answer 9:38 AM Bishop - 9:29 AM Nauvoo.com - 9:32 AM

Oh - it WAS in the Duties manual - I just missed it. Thanks Estradling! (The only thing I know how to do instinctively is argue.)

Thanks Estradling, but I seem to remember a set of instructions going along with this. Something about hair and toes, and holding noses, and which arm to hold up in the air, and all that. Anyone?

Hi there, I'm baptizing and confirming my daughter tomorrow, and it dawns on me that I don't know the words, or where to find them. So, um, help? Where are the instructions on the proper procedure to baptize (and confirm)? I can get as far as "Having been commissioned", but then my memory is too fuzzy. (I'm asking lds.net and also sending an email to my bishop. It's a race to see who answers first!)

I'm in total agreement with HoosierGuy. Guns should not be allowed in any church. Ever. (As soon as we have a way to enforce that with bad guys, this won't be an issue for anybody.)

With a bunch of bases around us, including the Air Force Academy, we've got a lot of military in our ward. I see full dress uniforms often - especially when there are lots of deployments starting or ending. One ward member got 1st presidency approval to get sealed in the temple a month early, because he was heading to Iraq. The church offers Olive Drab garments to temple worthy military folks. I don't know of any particular policy about uniforms at church, the fact that we'll dye garments green if necessary gives me an inkling.

This is always a hotly debated subject in LDS conceal-carry circles. Two sides - those who see the policy and don't carry, and those who see the policy and don't mind being "inappropriate". The one side uses phrases like "the priesthood is more powerful than a pistol". The other side mentions news items like Tyler90AZ mentioned. And yes, I know several members who carry at church with the express consent of their bishops and stake presidents. Heck, I once had a bishop who had his permit. I've been on both sides of the subject. Currently on the "don't bring it to church" side, but I may flip back in a few months here, after a felon I helped put behind bars is released.

In God's eyes, absolutely. But there are some sins that leave scars and bring consequences that will burden the sinner and others until the end of their mortal probation.

My wife grew up in an abusive household that was uberly-observant-LDS on the outside. Yeah, Families Can be Together Forever holds a special place in her thoughts. She takes a lot of comfort in that word "if". And she also looks at her family as me and our kids. But hey, when you let your moral compass get so unbridledly pointed by your feelings, you often end up as melodramatically upset as this blog and commentor #8.

My wife occasionally works with young girls from other countries who ended up where they are through no fault of their own. They're kidnapped from, or sold by, their parents (sometimes as young as 6 or 7) and smuggled into this country (among others) for use as prostitues. They are often forcibly injected with illicit drugs to create a dependence and reliance on their handlers/pimps. Uneducated, many can't read or even think above a 3rd grade level. Betrayed by their parents, sold into slavery, forcibly addicted, and seriously damaged by some of the most horrifying abuses man has devised. By the time my wife encounters them, they've either been taken by police or have managed to escape and collapse somewhere around people that call the police. Often they don't speak english. Often they don't know which country they should be deported to. Sometimes they remember uniforms from their home country, so they fear the police and fight them as if their lives were at stake. From where I'm standing, there are two kinds of people who lose their agency. One kind goes into the dark forest against their mom's wishes, leaves the path against their friend's protests, hops over the "danger" sign against their own common sense, and ends up stuck in the tar pit. The other kind (maybe less than a half a percent of the total), are skipping along picking flowers when a bag goes over their head, and they wake up half submerged in the tar pit and sinking quickly. Of course, it all comes down to what you do after you finally wake up.

Absolutely. Conclusions:* The word of wisdom is important. Following it helps avoid many adverse conditions that come from breaking it, from addictions to alcoholism to diet-related diabetes to bad hearts to weak knees. * Clean and righteous living is important, in that it avoids stress-related disorders that can become debilitating medical conditions over time. * Exercise and physical fitness is important for the same reasons as the first two. * The last 20 years has seen dramatic drops in infant mortality, leading to lots and lots of medically fragile people who live entire lives dependent on lots and lots of abundant medical care. These folks don't exist in 2nd or 3rd world countries, and should horrible times arrive here, they won't exist here either. * Everybody dies. Walking through scenarios that lead one to grapple with the chance that a loved one may die, can be useful in helping us remember that. We're supposed to be living our lives like the 2nd coming was going to happen tomorrow anyway, right?

Hi Tom. Prepare for some pretty depressing news. If you'll remember back to hurricane Katrina, there were stories of valor and lots of effort to evacuate the hospitals and nursing homes and whatnot. It was a massive effort incurring a lot of expense and taking a lot of effort to handle these frail folks with special requirements for machines and uninterrupted power and whatnot. It worked pretty well, because the thing was a localized disaster, and we had an entire rich country to pull abundant resources from. The terrifying final truth, is that if "modern society goes wacky and we have to run for the hills or stay barricaded in our home", you - TomK - the father - the head of the house - you have to answer your own question. There won't be all these resources to pull from, or services available. So, if you don't have a way to feed your daughter or she can't survive without her medicines, well, complete this sentence yourself. Yes, God works miracles sometimes. But yes, lots of folk died on the Pioneer trek. I recommend the book One Second After by William R. Forstchen. It describes a scenario where the power goes out to the whole country one day. That's a pretty low-risk scenario, but it sets up pretty realistically what will happen to communities and counties and states if there's a melodramatic change to our economy or power grid. To answer your question - yes, I've thought about this quite a bit. The health and wellbeing of my family currently depends on quite a large number of prescriptions and access to medical services.

The history of warfare isn't exactly a study of people showing restraint. Although again, recent generations have only post WWII memories of US actions to go by.Nope - still voting not silly.

Yeah, for people who are fascinated by mental illnesses and addictions, you haven't seen interesting stories until you've read some multiple personality stories (called Dissociative Identity Disorder these days). Thanks for sharing Iggy. Kudos on breaking the destructive cycles, and keeping or obtaining the good ones.

I've heard it said that the issues dividing left and right today, are wider and more divisive than those dividing north and south back then. We've enjoyed a handful of generations of US citizens not going to war against each other. It's easy to forget that we've done it at least twice in the past, and it is always happening in some country in the world. Here's one vote for Traveler's notion being "not silly".

Some people, absolutely yes. My wife endured years of abuse as a child, became an alcoholic at age 14, and stopped drinking around age 18. She not only is one of the most pragmatically grounded, strongest people I know, but she also works miracles in helping others who are in (or approaching) the situation she was in.She tells me that she would not be who she is today, had the garbage in her past not happened. She figures she'd be a "much more superficial, much more ignorant, much happier twit of a woman" if she'd just been allowed to grow up normally. But for the love of pete - don't anybody go off and get themselves into dark places because you want to be cool like my wife. She goes to waay more funerals than college graduations.

Actually, I was only aware of the headlines from two or three years ago, and the other headlines from five or six years ago. It seems like this happens every few years. Step 1: Some well-intentioned mormon somewhere on Earth gets a bright idea about doing temple work for holocaust victims. Step 2: Somehow word gets around to survivors groups or Jewish folk, some of whom occasionally look for this sort of thing coming from us Mormons. Step 3: A big kerfuffle happens, media reports are written, well-intentioned member is educated, temple ordinances are removed. Step 4: Start at step 1 with a new well-intentioned Mormon