Elgama

for something religious Just to cheer you up: YouTube - Rick Astley Lights Out Official Video

Of course its not irrelevant or silly, is your mortal Grandfather, Uncle etc irrelevant and silly? even if they are dead you still wonder and some of the stories you know will be wrong as they carry further down the line, but children brought up with even a false family tradition are believed to be more grounded The First Presidency ask us to learn, be educated and enquire. Its something earlier prophets themselves discussed. For you it maybe irrelevant and silly but for another LDS at a different stage it maybe important. There are clues and impressions all around us, and each of us has the gift of the Holy Ghost Maybe at your stage you know enough but you can;t dictate that for another person who has a different education, different upbringing, different relationship with God There is no such thing as secular learning everything we learn outside of church informs our beliefs and helps us grow as Latter Day Saints. So someone who has studied physics will muse on different things, someone who has studied biology or chemistry will have differnet understandings to a psychologist, historian or archaeologist. Someone who has studied law will read the scriptures differently. And this is why discussions are important someone may read one post and use it to tweak their own personal beliefs and understandings

unusually I disagree with you FT lol its not pseudo doctrine its generally a search for answers, and wonder, natural inquisitiveness is good. I love that Latter Day Saints can have these discussions and I know as many converts that the freedom of the Latter Day Saints to learn and grow has attracted them and helped them grow closer to God as long as we state first this is my personal understanding that is fine and as long as it doesn't contradict doctrine Each of us is at a different stage in our development, I go through swings and roundabouts myself, sometimes I wonder, sometimes I am happy with the answer because God says so. The discussion of personal understandings of doctrine is how we grow. Also as LDS we are entitled to personal revelation as we read the scriptures even with personal revelation I find my understanding of an issue changes over time

i've just finished my first draft of my novel, one piece of advice is don't publish it in any form until you are finished never print more than a small paragraph on a board etc because then a publisher won't touch it.

I think if spoons were energy, in the long run you use up more spoons doing things wrong in the short term doing the right can use up more

OK Entirely personal way of seeing it there is only one God, just like Jesus is one with the Father, the Father will be one with any other god. As a result there is no greater God and there was nothing before God because all that make up God is God., Does any of that make the remotest sense lol?

who wants to live to over 100 anyway? ultimately the goal of life is to return to our Heavenly Father, like Cardinal Basil Hume's friend said when he told him he was terminal - congratulations:) Whilst it is a good possibility I might (all sides of my family despite high bp, smoking like chimnies, drinking alcohol like it was going out of fashion etc and living at one point in a city where thier life expectancy was in their 20s, have produced loads of people who lived into their mid to late 90s), not all together sure its a blessing

I have many bibles - I think its great to have standardization of the Bible's for church its irritating to me when I am in a non LDS church and you have to 'translate' on the hoof. I love reading the JB Phillips New Testament and I have a New English Bible with an Apocrypha in it. I have seen some LDS use the NIV in the books they write so I got a copy so I could cross reference/ Plus nothing beats the Topical Guide and our bible dictionary for a hand held concordance

I actually think it has its place, I love the older modern English version, but I also love to sit and read my scriptures like a book sometimes and this works better for that. Sometimes I find some Latter Day Saints and mainstream Christians are so intent on the minutae of each verse they forget the beauty of the stories. Whilst the Book of Mormon Stories has its place I like this idea (and by the way until I read Moksha's post i had a completely different view then I went back to it and read it with that in mind

Thanks everyone I am feeling better a lot of it was I had raised my hopes up there might be a way back to church, and it was dashed, I actually have a date on my calender by which I fully intended to return to church and we are many months away from the 16th October (I went and checked it lol) that was the day I got the blessing asking us to step aside. Suzie Branch President has put it down to me being vindictive towards the woman concerened for what she had done to me at an earlier time, or I mistake her motives. I honestly have no clue about the Stake President I have never met him, I don't know who he is

Thats the problem its been more than clear I am not welcome in primary and when I go in the Sister goes out of her way to humilate me which didn't help Ellie. I also have the issue that Ellie's seizures have been discovered to be severe panic attacks mere mention of going back to church and they come back. It happened yesterday. In order to for me to keep Ellie safe she will have to be kept with me the whole time we are there, she will need to watch the other chldren play on the field afterwards etc, she cannot go to the toilet on her own etc,,,, plus she gets to see that the person abused her was right, she appears to have told her that if she told her Mummy, noone would believe her Mummy and her Mummy would get into trouble Heavenly Father is right if we want to get Ellie through eternity we are not going to do it at that branch right now, her church experience from 3-5 has turned out to have been one of fear, I won't have that continue. I am beginning to think all we can do is work out how on earth to move. My basic testimony isn't affected I am just upset and hurt, I'll probably be over that soon enough but right now I feel like I have been forced out of church and noone wants me back which I also know is stupid I shouldn't feel that way, its not true and I am being silly. I also know it will all be made well Heavenly Father has promised that, just right now with everything else in my life and being in so much pain and fatigue I am at a stage I don't want to cope but I have too. I am not looking for a way to stay out, I am desperate to go back, Heavenly Father has promised my testimony would grow through all of this and it has but that has been a double edged sword, as it makes me ache for church more

I was too ill to attend otherwise I would have done but by Saturday night it was obvious I wasn't go anywhere except the sofa on Sunday, so my husband phoned Saturday night, and the Counsellor arranged to come round afterwards, this is the second time he has come round and ONLY spoken to my husband, I cannot sustain a Primary President who I believe has abused my child and I cannot sustain a branch president that continues after a year to not take the basic precautions laid down in the church handbook of instructions. That is all I have at this stage asked for is the children to be moved back in the rooms with glass in the doors and for there to be teachers without any question in there. Getting people to serve in primary in my branch is not an issue/. When I first asked for this it would have merely involved the children going back into the rooms where they have been for the past 10+ years and the class teachers swapping round that would have kept my daughter safe at least. I am not going to any authorities my daughter is dealing with techniques through a psychologist and is moving on really well, its been so nice lately the tantrums have all gone, the attitude is dropping, she is no longer having nightmares. I will not at this stage even let a church leader speak to her, as Ellie has been through enough. There are no unaware parents right now however the branch president has two foster children one of which is in the class I am concerned about

we can't really move for two years after that we will be able too, I am trying to get the Stake President to move my details to another church unit so we can attend another ward properly, we can get our recommends etc, however it will be involving a 60-70 mile round trip every week, something that is going to be hard for us, I am prepared to do it, but its frustrating as I live only 5 minutes walk from my branch. I'm not really blaming the church but do feel fed up right now. And even if we do move on children are left in a vulnerable situation as are several adults. I just don't want to hear that a child has been hurt I guess.

Just an entirely off the wall way of looking at it: Around the world there are Jesus type legends and gods all predating Christ, between them they cover an awful lot of detail. From that I have presumed that from Adam onwards we have a lot of prophecies that are not in the Bible that ancient peoples had, otherwise aspects of Mithras, Krishna even Buddha's life would make Christianity a bit difficult to take at least for me. As Latter Day Saints we believe the Bible is not correctly translated and has gone through changes in its long history. We do not know if people had the name of Jesus before

thats what I think and I am not sure how I can be an hysterical nag when no one has spoken to me about it. Have decided the gentlemen concerned will be getting another email, letting him know under any other circumstances I think he is a great guy, but what he did on Sunday did offend me, as a result of yet again not being listened too I feel like the church has rejected me I know in my head it hasn't but thats how it. Ifeels.. I don't need to be believed but I do need to be listened too

I didn't realise it was until my daughter had started to move on, I am concerned we will take steps backwards if we do, Ellie is doing so well now.

It looks like we may be moved units, and things will remain the same in my branch. I am finding it very difficult to understand that someone can bully and as long as they are a church member we are expected to take it, I am also finding it very difficult to understand that the children even after a year are still in a dangerous position. Its made worse by the fact for the second time a member of the Stake Presidency has spoken to my husband because he is head of the family, yet no one has spoken to me. It was ME who sent the email refusing to sustain people, it was ME that was present at most of the events and ME it happened too. My husband says if I continue to push I am going to look like a raving nut case, but so far the only priesthood local leader to communicate with me has chosen to shout and disrespect and humiliate me at every opportunity. I really feel like no one who should give a damn does and I am struggling right now not to get too angry. Is it such a crime for me to ask my priesthood leaders to just spend ten minutes out of a year listening to me? I am right now seriously regretting not involving the authorities. It feels very unjust all of this/

Funky Town also raises a good point that as a new member maybe he isn't ready to go through what a missionary goes throu. I know I live in a branch where for a long time the mission president only sent his strongest missionaries because even they went away disillusioned and down hearted. I don't know how many missionaries I have had spend a day in my home because they couldn't face our mission area that day, at one point the mission president told one pair of amazing missionaries he didn't care what they did as long as they stayed sane. I am willing to bet many mission fields have units like mine and maybe his faith isn't ready for that testing, The Lord knows what is best for each of us. I have been commanded and received revelation for the time being not to attend church in order to keep my daughter safe, I see the wisdom in the decision and its the right one eternally for my family. My testimony is not affected because of the preparation the Lord gave me leading upto it. Let your friend and the Lord decide what is best for him ultimately the Lord knows what is in his future and what is the right decision Also I think I can share this, my husband's patriarchal blessing talks about his mission, it is not the one he served at 19, so just guessing its either one in spirit world or a senior one we will do together.

I have actually begun to wonder and right now is a just musing as a result of all these threads if heterosexuality is as much a deviation from where we should be as homosexuality. Personally I find both men and women beautiful and for me love comes from who they are not what they are if that makes sense. Like I have inherited my parents addictive genes, my Father's addiction is too sex, my Mother's to alcohol, mine does not manifest itself in a way that keeps me from the Temple, I can bite my nails and still go etc, so the heterosexual's desire does not mean they need to deviate from the Temple Covenants, but nor do they have their agency or a choice in the matter. I think it also explains the intolerance and misunderstandings. My best friend is gay and the idea of a relationship with a woman makes him physically sick, and I should imagine someone who is entirely heterosexual feels the same revulsion at the idea of a relationship with someone of the same sex equally repulsive. And then you have those of us in the middle that don't understand why you can't just love a person for who they are. And hen you have those like my Dad who don't seem to have a switch off button when he see's a woman of a certain type, whereas I find that repulsive. Because it goes to the very heart of who we are its easy to see where repulsion and fear comes from because unlike with say racisum where its fear of the unknown it is really sick and revulsion coming from within for many people. And lack of complete understanding on the part of those that just plain don't get those feelings. I personally struggle to understand why someone can't just focus on their partners goodness etc and use that to create the attraction. Think about how you felt when it was suggested that paedophiles were wired that way. Having watched a lot of documentaries, as repulsed as I am at the idea I do believe it is down to their wiring, but they do need to fight against it because their actions remove innocence and real agency. I see homosexuality is wrong because in order to reach our full potential male and female need to be one, worlds cannot be created without it. However I have also seen the heartache extreme sexual desires on either side can cause in life, I also don't condemn my Father for his running around with many women because at 70 he has finally learned to be honest and tells any woman he is involved with he is not capable of being faithful. Its something we all have to sort out with Heavenly Father in the end. And concerning the original post no its not wrong to be gay and celibate or chaste.

I know that I am Sister but I had revelation concerning the fact I shouldn't serve a mission. I know plenty of honourable men who haven't for various reasons

you didn't:) my admiration for Mark Thomas gives me an understanding and respect for your position. I don't know many people with his respect for the law we have, he is a peace activist and last time he was arrested he received damages from the police for illegal detention. He works with the law we have to produce his results. I don't agree entirely with his position but think he is an honourable man worthy of great respect for his work.

Personally the only value I teach my children to search for in a friend is a friend who respects and loves you for who you are, they respect your values and will help you to keep them. They don't have to hold your values to do that, in fact sometimes someone who holds the same values, does not always mean they value you holding those values and if they don't hold them and one day decide to break them they might be very happy to take you with them. I have certainly seen the latter happen with church members Of my bestfriends from highschool, one is gay, one is in an open relationship, one had her daughter before being married, one quite happilly had interesting escapades with a girl and a chocolate cake. Some drink alcohol, one or two love tea and coffee, one or two have experimented with various illegal substances, I could go on, but each and everyone of them when we went out together knew I would not be drinking, I would not be going home with someone that night, and would have had words to say to me if I had. My college friends included pagans, a S&M Dungeon owning Madam, most drunk too much and slept around. They all supported me, they would take it in turns to stay sober when we went out, or make sure one of them came home with me at the end of the night so I was not walking home alone. Again not one of them expected or wanted me to compromise my values. I was much more likely to compromise my values slightly in a group of YSA not in anyway drastic, but there wasn't the same pressure to be a missionary

I also bought a Temple Dress and I still love it, its allowed me to wear an extra pretty dress to the temple ever since. I just dressed it up for the civil ceremony (required in the UK) and you could do the same for any photos, I put a gold shawl and wore a pretty headband with it. Mine was the melody, I did however change the buttons Women::Temple Dresses - White Elegance - Makers of LDS Temple Clothes, Temple Dresses, Pioneer Costumes and more

I am struggling with this right now something has happened, I sent an email the other day explaining why I, me Elgama not my husband Gabelpa, would not be sustaining certain people at the branch conference. I was unable to get there and for the second time since this all began a priesthood holder has come iinto my home as a result of me trying to get something sorted, and spolken only to my husband because he is the head of the home. Despite it being about things that happened to my daughter for which I was the one involved and things that happened to ME not my husband ME. I know its isolated but since I have always said the church was good about the way it treated women its been a bit of an eye opener. I have been trying for 7 years to get a priesthood local leader to listen to me about things