puf_the_majic_dragon

Well the Old Testament Institute manual is a good place to start: http://www.ldsces.org/inst_manuals/full/CESInstitute_OT1Gento2Sam_Student_00__Complete_32489_eng.pdf A quick web search returns this website: God’s Dealings With Joseph (Genesis 37.2b-50.26) - The Book of Genesis - A Commentary which has some interesting insights, but is not LDS. And you can always go to byu.tv, select "Scripture Discussions" and browse to the Old Testament. And of course, you can always (if it's available near you) go to Institute :)

You're absolutely right, I don't know anything about your situation. But I do know mine. My mother was married (sealed) for less than a year and then divorced before marrying my dad, and they had a good marriage for nearly 30 years before she died in 2002. My mother was also abused physically (and possibly worse - it's hard to get details about these things from my dad and uncle) by her parents. Their temple work has been now done (and accepted). My father was physically and emotionally abusive. Now we have a really good relationship. I don't know the details of your experience, but the way you described it seemed (to me) to make a woman's virtue out to be more important than her personality, her faithfulness, and that incredible relationship you can have for all eternity together. Yes, virtue is important (worth dieing before sacrificing!) but when it comes to love and eternal marraige it's icing on the cake, not the cake itself. What you wrote sounded backwards to me, but if I just read it wrong - well I'm sure you'll forgive me :) Now, I'm going back to some research on your other question on EMP attacks :) :edit: Ruthie seems to be more eloquent (and tactful) than me. Here's to the wonderful women!

Ditto. If YOU have emotional scars because your wife isn't perfect, you seriously need a reality check. Nobody's perfect, everybody makes mistakes and if you can't forgive your wife for hers - or her ex's for theirs - IMO you're going to have a hard time reaching exhaltation. And yes, the church does and has always made this point with the youth. But the very young do not always do what they're told. And that, my friend, is where the Atonement comes in.

You can get books rebound, including scriptures. I have an institute teacher who has had his scriptures rebound with pages of notes and talks and other what have yous bound in the back. I've considered buying one of the large quads and having it rebound with a blank sheet between each page of scriptures specifically for writing notes on. Technology is great but it's not always there when we need a note or a reference.

Well I have 3x5 cards cut in half that I use as bookmarks for each reference. Of course this gets real hard on your binding and a pain in the neck to maintain over time. My eventual plan is to someday implement a "wiki" based scripture library where you can post your own notes, comments, and cross references to each scripture. This would initially be something online where you and your friends can share notes, but I'd also like to make an offline version you could have on your PC, laptop, PDA or even your cell phone. Of course this all assumes I ever actually get around to doing it...

Seriously you come to a bunch of strangers on a web site for this kind of advice BEFORE talking to your parents? I don't have that great or close of a relationship with my parents (I heard a radio ad the other day that said dysfunctional families make up 60some percent of american families - that means I'm in the majority) but you can bet I'd ask for their help before asking for anyone's here. Honesty's the best policy. Anything misleading or witheld is going to lead to more trouble later, might as well get it over with and lay everything out on the table now. If you wait to tell your parents everything, they'll wonder why you didn't tell them sooner and it will cause unnecessary strife. Besides, they might be able to offer better (and more personal) advice than any of us can.

That's right - we have to protect our precious bodily fluids :)

Yes, yes it is.My support of so-called "green" initiatives isn't based on some imagined catastrophic destruction of our planet, but more because it's simply the right thing to do - not only because, like others have said, we should be good stewards, but because we're eventually going to run out of fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) and we'll be pretty sorry if we don't have alternatives.

Greenhouse gas : Role of Water Vapor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I know! I'll steal some uranium from the mill outside of my home town and build myself a nuclear car! No more emissions for me :) Unless you count the chilli with beans I ate for dinner.... Speaking of emissions - how come nobody's complaining about the excess methane being released into the atmosphere from the intestinal bacteria of our massive cow population?

Unfortunately, in my opinion, it doesn't include sufficient language to apply proper oversight to the dissolution of the Federal Reserve. But it's better than nothing. Also unfortunately, since many of our legislators get kickbacks from the system the way it is, it is unlikely to ever get passed. - On a side note, if the reserve were audited, I'd find it interesting to learn how many of our legislators are silent investors in its banks -. I believe to be successfull, such a bill would have to be put to a direct election to the people, and it's been so long since I've read the US constitution that I'm not even sure such action is even possible (I'm in the process of going over it but with many distractions).

What I mean by "survival of the fittest" is that in a free market, entities (be they banks, businesses, or people) who mismanage their assets (money) will fail. So banks that give loans to high risk borrowers (who then default on those loans) will go under. Businesses that allow their executives to embezzle funds while ripping off their customers and investors will fail. People who spend more than they make will go bankrupt and be responsible for the money they owe. On the flip side, those who manage their money wisely and make good business decisions will succeed and grow and prosper. What you say about the Federal Reserve is absolutely correct and frightening, however this too could be changed by popular vote if somebody had the wherewithall to get the petition signatures to put the measure on the ballot (and the money to inform the general public about it) - and this is where I become a hypocrite because, like everyone else, I don't like it, but I'm not going to be the one to change it.

Um... let this suffice for my answer to that question: TYVM HAND That's like asking me if my faith influences my gas mileage... Then again maybe I could do a study and find that Mormons tend to drive larger more gas guzzling vehicles? Do I worry about it? Well I live in beautiful Colorado, and after I spent a good 4 days in Salt Lake this January during inversion and my throat is still sore... So yes I suppose I'm a bit worried about it. But I'm no activist... I do use florescant light bulbs and mildly support green power initiatives...

THANK YOU! I was going to say it but I was going to get myself banned the way I had it worded... Well it IS America we're talking about so I figured it was a good example. Right. Survival of the fittest is a key principle in a free market, and it is so for a reason.

I own and operate a business without any such regulations or paperwork.... No permits or licensing fees either.... In fact I'm doing it right under my government's nose and there's nothing they can do about it... Huh....The same thing generally applies to everything else you said, but it all being so ridiculous I feel no need to reply to each point individually. I'd love to see objective third party research that supports any of your claims. And where have you lived that you know "true liberty"? I lived in Saudi Arabia for a year, if you like I can compare and contrast freedom vs oppression for you on a line item basis. Amen. A true "free market" is pure anarchy and yes, it's been tried before and it's failed. SOME regulation is necessary to maintain a stable economy. The real question is how much regulation is too much? Also, we Americans tend to forget that our government is still a government "Of the people" and "by the people". If we have any problem with those regulations and interventions, we can start a petition and put a bill before congress to change it. Or are we those who just want to complain about the world but are too lazy to do anything to change it?

I think the reason "the talk" is such an uncomfortable topic is because parents are uncomfortable with sex and sexuality in general. As Elgama said, arming yourself with information is the only way to go - and that means spending some time educating yourself before you sit down with your kids. I recomend getting a good grasp of the subject "scientifically" including the biological processes and various organs involved until you're an expert, and then use your LDS (or other faith) grounding to put all that scientific knowledge in the proper perspective. Get comfortable with it yourself, and it's easier to talk about it. As far as when to tell them, I taught primary a while back and it amazed me how smart those kids were. Kids of 7 or 8 years old CAN understand what you tell them and you can tell it to them like they're adults (a lot of that teenage angst stuff is parents trying to talk to they're kids like they're kids when those "kids" are young adults). If 8 years old is old enough to be responsible for your sins, then it's old enough to understand what those sins are. Just a thought - how sad is it that we're afraid of telling our children about one of the most sacred and beautiful gifts God has given us (sex), but we're ok with them finding out about death and murder when they're playing "war" at 5?

First, let me qualify my response by saying that I grew up in the church and that I'm an active and faithful member. While I've always enjoyed that tune (which has been around a LONG while), I have mixed feelings about the song "Praise to the Man". Back when I was a kid I thought it was about Jesus and I loved it, then one day it clicked in my head that the entire song was about Joseph Smith and it made me quite sad. I personally get the feeling that we as a church, but even more so the members themselves, tend to place way too much emphasis on Joseph Smith and not enough on the Savior - yes, even as some of our detractors say, almost to the point of worshiping him. That's just my observation. But yes, that is a beautiful rendition, thanks for sharing :)

Doctrine and Covenants 98 I think you've already gone above and beyond the call of duty (I personally would have changed the caption so it WAS derogatory - no sense in making my in-laws out to be liars ). You have already tried to make amends and cleanse the way between you, if she doesn't repent, it's on her head. It can be hard to accept that, especially if you're used to a close knit family, but all you can really do now is pray for her.

So here's some food for thought. The following list is a composite of the top 10 "LDS Dating Sites" from About.com and the results of a search for "LDS Dating site" on MetaCrawlerWeb Search Home Page LDSPlanet LDSSinglesOnline LDSMingle LDSPals LDSDateMate LDSFusion LDSDates LDSSinglesNetwork LDSPromise LDSLinkUp LDSRomances LDSSingles LDSHearts LDSDatingWorld and (as I said before) my personal favorite: CTRMatch There are many more as well. I think the LAST thing we need is ANOTHER LDS dating site. They're all pretty much the same anyway. I think before we go looking for another site to try when the old ones don't work, we should sit down and figure out WHY the old ones don't work.

So wrong but sooo funny! I think the revolution is coming - ours not theirs. But it'll be a lot more like theirs than our last one....

As if socialism were a BAD thing.... 99% of people who hate it only misunderstand it (and fall prey to all that cold war propaganda). The fact of the matter is limited socialism has its place within a free market economy (a TRUE free market would fail faster than stocks fell in 1929). Another fact is that complete socialism WORKS - when coupled with true democracy, and there are numerous European nations that demonstrate this. Socialism does not limit your freedom. Tyrants do that and tyrants can pop up under any economy. The government intervention into our economy (bailouts etc) doesn't qualify as socialism. It does qualify as economic stupidity, but that's another discussion for another time. Ditto. It isn't socialist and it isn't going to become socialist.

Rights and responsibilities of marriages in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia has an extensive list of the benefits of a civil union. As long as these benefits are denied to any particular group, the government is arguably involved. While I believe that homosexuality is a sin, to have any legislation affecting that lifestyle, including existing legislation, without a non-religious justification violates the First Amendment clause regarding establishment of religion. Personally, I think I could come up with one or two non-religious justifications. But of course nobody on either side of the debate would care, unless some famous bigwig quoted them on national television I think the intention of the OP was exactly that - to promote the positive ideals that PC believes and holds to be true(hence the link). The execution may not have been quite as ideal as the plan My personal feelings on the (legal) matter are rather complex and not entirely concrete, so I'll refrain from spelling them out unless asked.

The real question isn't whether or not homosexuals are a "minority", but whether government should have the right to legislate their behavior.

Ramen noodles go bad? You're kidding :| I think you're talking about cup-o-soups or something cause the regular Maruchan Ramen I buy will last forever.

So you're dressing up as a woman who's total screen time is a whole 2 verses, whose culture is extinct and left zero remnants of a fashion magazine, and whose sole description is "she having been converted unto the Lord for many years,".... I say you should be good in a prom dress and a name tag that says "Hello, my name is ABISH". You might try this artist's impression: