Rico

I am debating whether I should post this or not. I know many people are going through the same thing and maybe someone can benefit from hearing that they are not alone. First off, I know the Church is true, maybe some of the members and leaders aren't but the Church is true. I am having a very difficult time right now, actually it's been ongoing for many months. It's hard for me to talk about this. As I mentioned in other posts, my wife, two kids and I moved out of the Philippines to a new place in the first week of March. We had been members for just under a year at the time. Part of the reason for our move was my failing health and our finances. It was time for me to get back to the US. When we arrived here, we had enough to get ourselves an apartment and get set up, thanks to Heavenly Father. We talked to the new Branch President when we first arrived here and he stopped by to say hello and because we didnt express any needs, he said it was nice to have new people into the branch who were interested in helping and instead of asking. It kind of put me off. On our first Sunday, I was given a calling and when I was set apart, I was told by the 1st counselor that it was sure nice to have a new family into the branch that instead of asking for things was actually willing to give. Through comments, I didn't feel the spirit at all. I felt like screaming out, we all have needs that don't neccesarily involve money. In other words, I am going through some issues right now and I feel like the Branch Presidency has preemptively told me, don't bring your needs to the Branch, only bring your service. Right now, I am dealing with untreated diabetes and untreated high blood pressure. It's untreated in that it affects my daily living. Some days are good, some days are not. It's untreated because of financial issues. Everything is tight right now, not enough money for much food or even transportation. My wife needs help looking for a job. I am making a little money online, but I have good days and bad days when my health cooperates then I can actually earn some money. I think we would be ok even my wife could even find a part time job. Anyways, our greatest problem isn't the financial issues. It's that we feel like we are left all alone. I know people advise people to just serve more and we certainly are. I have three callings in the Church. I teach a weekly English class for investigators and members and people from the community. I actually got it started by requesting it in PEC. I saw the need and felt that we should be doing something to build up Zion and instead of just saying something, I needed to be doing something. At the first of April, we were asked to talk to our Branch President about going to the temple. He said, I know things are tight financially, but we want to be able to help your family go to the temple, the church will pay part, how much can you contribute to a temple trip? I had to just decline it. I don't have anything to contribute to a temple trip. That meeting hurt me in so many ways. At day 361 as a member, we were a $3 taxi ride away from the temple. But a year is a year. I knew that it would be financially and logistically impossible for us to go to the temple for at least 1 1/2 years if we couldn't go when we were there. No worries. I prayed about it and got the answer back in February. I just didn't like being reminded about things. Anyways, it's tough for us financially to even afford transportation. There is no public transportation here and we don't have a car. We rely on cheap taxis when we have to go anywhere further than walking. In order to hold the English class one evening, I had to walk 2 1/2 miles to the Chapel and with my health, I was sick for two days afterwards. Not only am I doing the English class and my two other callings, I also go out every Friday with the Elders so that they can visit single women, single mothers and others who they can't otherwise teach. I am serving and doing my best to help others. Two weeks ago, I went to the Chapel alone. Someone asked where my wife and kids were and I said at home. Are they sick? Yes. Are you sick also? Yes. Maybe you should go home now. Let me have someone give you a ride. Thanks. My wife and kids weren't there because we didn't have any money for transportation. Last Sunday, we scraped the money together to go and luckily we found a ride home because otherwise we would have had to walk home. Things are extremely tight for my family right now. But that is not why I am talking about this. Times are tough and many, many, many people are having financial problems. I remember when we were in the Philippines, our Bishop passed out questionarires to find out exactly what the needs of his ward members were and he started programs for job training, job information and did a proactive assistance program. We had a ward math class, a ward English class, we had ward skills training classes, we had three ongoing institute classes. Our members learned skills that would help improve them temporally and spiritually. Sure many didn't take advantage of them, but they were available. I felt as though I was part of something important. And despite all of those, there was a underlying feeling among the Bishopric to do even more. Here, nothing is being done, that I can see. It's for that reason that I suggested and pushed for an English class because there are members who can't speak English. That's the problem I see. I don't really think anyone cares about me or my family. I do my callings and I know they are important, but I sometimes think, why? The leadership doesn't care. I asked twice for a home teacher, but we don't have one yet. We could really use a home or visiting teaching visit just to know that someone cares. I frankly don't think the leadership in my branch is reaching out to people in need. It seems like there is nothing being done to help members find jobs. It seems like there is nothing be done to build up education. It seems like there is nothing being done to build up Zion other than getting in front of the branch and telling them how good they are and how good they are doing. All isn't well in Zion, from my vantage point. I know there is fast offering assistance being given out to people in need, but they are giving people fish instead of teaching them how to fish. I think these are times when people need to help others and friends need to help friends over the problems that face them. Instead, we feel no love towards our family. Don't get me wrong, I think our Branch leadership consists of good men and I am just having a hard understanding something. How can another ward, with leadership of very modest means do so much more than a Branch Presidency with a very strong background in the Gospel? But of course everything boils down to this. My family is going through some very tough times right now. It would make a world of difference to know that our Branch leadership genuinely cares about what we are going through. It would be nice to feel the love of the Church family.

Yep, they don't last long on a mission. I know of one girl who lasted 8 months. Her mission ended in the delivery room. It's a no-no to wear your mission tag when you are giving birth. :)

I am only reading this original post and not the rest of the thread because I have something to say and what others have said has no bearing on what I have to say. I was a "born again Christian" and I was the guy who said, the Bible is the only word of God. I used to be the person who said if the bible didn't deal with it, then it wasn't true. I used to be a missionary for an evangelical church. There is no new Gospel. Paul is completely correct. Do beware of ANYONE bringing you a NEW gospel. Paul's words should be heeded always. Don't let anyone tell you that there is a new gospel. The gospel of the CJLDS is about the restored gospel. It's about the restoring of that which was lost. It's not anything new, it's returning it to its former state because others in the past didn't heed Paul's admonition and instead chased other paths to the point of changing the gospel. In effect, many of the Churches out there are following the new gospels that Paul is warning you about. For me, I long had questions concerning the Bible. The Bible didn't quite answer all of my questions, but I was told to be content about it. I still don't know the reason why, but I requested a book of Mormon and I read it. I remember closing it several times with a tear in my eye because a question of mine had been answers. Still that was no proof that it was true. That truth came first through realization and then praying. I say realization because I needed to get to a certain point before I could even pray as to whether it was true or not. I know where you are coming from, aj4u. I was able to make it through the realization thinking about these things(and realize that I wasn't talking to any missionaries at the time) 1) Could the word of God be altered over time by men? 2) Could the Gospel have been changed over time by men? 3) Could and should their still be prophets of God? I sat and pondered these questions for many days and even weeks. I studied history and studied the Bible, but most importantly, I prayed. Here is what I realized: 1) Yes, the word of God could be altered, just look at the different translations of the Bible and how they alter things based on who is doing the translation. 2) If the word of God, meaning the bible, could be altered by men, then the Gospel could be as well and in fact since there are many conflicting Gospels, it 's certain that most of the gospels out there have been changed and corrupted. 3) I believe that God would always send us prophets to warn us and direct us. I see nothing in the bible to tell us that it wasn't true. These realizations helped me to get the point where I could honestly say that there was a reasonable chance that the Book of Mormon could be true and that Joseph Smith could have been a prophet of God. Then, I started looking at the fruit of Gospel as revealed in the BOM and seeing if it met the test that Christ gives us. Is the fruit good? It certainly is a good fruit. I read the Book of Mormon with this honest possibility and I prayed to ask about the truth. And do you know what? I got the answer, time and again, that the Book of Mormon was true. But I just didn't stop there, I read the Book of Mormon and compared it to the Bible and all that I knew in the Bible. If there was a problem in agreement, I reread both books and then prayed for direction in how they agreed. Guess what? After praying, I received wisdom on the fact that yes those passages did agree. Nowadays, I see the Bible as a perfect companion to the Book of Mormon and they both fully support each other. The Book of Mormon is a key to help understand the Bible. I would even go so far as to say, that if you properly understand the Bible, then you can live the Gospel without the Book of Mormon. (But that is extremely difficult since it's extremely difficult to properly understand the Bible without the help of the Book of Mormon.) My advice is not to look at the Book of Mormon supporting the Bible. You'll never come to any the truth and you'll be ever seeking. Anyways, this is what I had to say. I hope that you take it in and you can use and benefit from it.

thanks, at least I know I'm not the only person who has children who know what happens when they leave the chapel after being bad, hahahaha

In our stake, we are the only ward with sister missionaries. We have lowest rate of members going along for lessons and the lowest rate of missionaries referrals. But guess what? We have the highest number of baptisms. Because of the unique dynamics of our ward(transient area, some of the highest and lowest income people in the entire city, etc), sister missionaries are able to reach out and touch investigators in a special way. We've had some amazing sister missionaries come through our ward over the last year.

I agree completely, and what the Apostle seemed to say, agrees with you completely up until the last two sentences. This was a Q&A Devotional with A Member of the Quorum of the Twelve. (I could say who it is, but I don't think it's right to quote them when I don't have the exact quotes and it might have been more limited in scope). Anyways, a question was raised about having the passing of the sacrament passed by the deacons then later finding out that one of the boys passing the sacrament hadn't been ordained as a deacon yet. What happens to those who partook of the sacrament and what should the ward leadership do? His answer was straight, ordain the boy. He explained that the people received it in faith, but it just wasn't administered right. The sin isn't on the people who partook of the sacrament, rather it was on those who didn't ensure that it was properly administered. The focus now should be on ensuring it doesn't happen in the future so ordain the boy right now. "Ordain them" has taken on significance in our stake after that talk because our records are not very good. Even those who have been ordained as high priest do not show any ordination at all in the records. The priesthood holders can't remember who ordained them or when they were ordained. The fix? Reordain them based on the Apostle's advice. Another question was raised about blessing. What happens in our ward and stake is that those in need of a blessing so seek out the most worthy people they can find to give them a blessing. This means trying to find the Bishop or Stake Presidency instead of their home teacher. The raised the question, what happens if you get a blessing from someone who isn't worthy? As the Apostle said, you'll get the blessing because you received it in faith, but the person who did the blessing when he wasn't worthy is the one who has a problem. That person who does the blessings needs to be worthy and get worthy. I can't remember his exact words concerning the state of the person giving the blessing, but Islander, it's pretty much goes along with what you wrote above. The result of that has been a bigger push to have blessings done by home teachers and by priesthood holders who live nearby. We were all equipped with very small plastic droppers with consecrated oil and we were all taught how to give a blessing. I can only comment on what the Apostle said. Maybe the healing power isn't coming from the blessing, but completely from the faith of the person receiving blessing? I don't know. Whatever the explanation is, it does make sense. Judging from the talks at the Priesthood session, it seems like the advice is that we need to give more priesthood blessings and call on the Power of the Priesthood more often in our lives. Maybe? Or maybe the Apostle's talk to us at the Q&A Devotional was specifically targeted for the problems in our wards and stake and have no relevance for other stakes.

all I can say is whoa, hold up. I am under the impression that the blessing effectiveness isn't dependent upon the worthiness of the person giving it and is more dependent on the faith of the person receiving it. Is this not true? From the posts I am reading here, it seems like people are saying that blessings don't work if the person giving them is not worthy. As it was explained by a member of the Quroum of the Twelve, if an unworthy person gives you a blessing, you will still receive the blessing, despite the fact that the priesthood holder was unworthy. (this was at a devotional held in the last 6 months) I cant remember what exactly was said about those who aren't worthy who give blessings, but I don't think it was good. The general gist of it was that you need to get worthy, if you aren't already.

CCM is all platitudes and no substance. Nothing about the work of Lord, just about being lazy.

We need to have the laugh button for this one.

Well, from what I understand, a woman can be sealed to only man but a man can be sealed to more than one woman.

Thanks for all the answers, at least I know that i am not alone in what I have come across.

Romans is a truly powerful book of the Bible. It's from Romans that I got further proof that the Church is true, that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God. The Book of Mormon and the Bible go hand in hand, it's impossible to fully understand one without understanding the other. You do owe everything you have to Grace. But just don't fall into the trap that says that all you need is Grace. :) I have a friend who says that it's all 100% grace and 0% works. He says there is absolutely nothing we can do to deserve salvation. When I ask him if it's possible to have salvation without going through the act of asking for salvation, he says you can't. He can never think of a reply when I tell him that asking for salvation is a work so therefore we MUST have works in order to be saved.

VirtualDub Just do a search for it. It's a very simple program with no unneeded bells and whistles. You are technically inclined a little bit so you will appreciate the frame by frame editing capability of it. You will also appreciate being able to save it in just about any format, including Divx. I love the filters that it has. I can make a very dark webcam recording very bright without a lot of hassles. The program is completely free and open source and best of all, it's a very small download. (Nothing to install, it just comes in a zip file). If you need to edit videos then you need to have VirtualDub on your computer.

When you do any kind of research on the history of the Church, you definitely run across a lot of information about plural marriages. Most of it seems to be either pushing it under the rug or else it is attacking it. I don't know if I am alone, but the more I study it, the more I see that it is just another doctrine that we could not properly handle such as the United Order and the Law of Consecration. The purpose seems to be a good one. I know there are many more righteous woman than there are righteous men in the church. An example might be the new member single mother with two kids from two different boyfriends who are now long gone. The boyfriends are gone and don't even care. She needs someone to be supportive of her and help her raise her kids, but it might be hard to find an existing single male member who can provide that. She can follow everything, but she won't be married and able to be exalted. I know Heavenly Father has a solution to that and I know that some have suggested(and I dont know how correct that they are) that Heavenly Father will provide wives and husbands to those without. I've also heard that He will seal(again I am not sure if its right or wrong) some single women to men who do have other wives that they are sealed to. If that's the case then it seems that plural marriage is sanctioned in the celestial kingdom and has a definite purpose. Looking at history though, there were definitely problems in the application of it. While I am sure some followed it as intended, some didn't and twisted it in their own way. I have no problem accepting that Heavenly Father decided that people weren't ready for it and withdrew it, maybe as a good lesson to learn. In my opinion, from looking at it, plural marriages is not the evil thing some have suggested, just something that we don't have the wisdom, strength or knowledge to properly handle at this stage. And yes my opinion, before I studied things, was that plural marriages were bad. I would appreciate any pushes in the right direction to understanding things.

What are we setting up a betting pool? How much money to get in on the pool?

I am going to be honest. I have a huge disdain for so called evangelical Christians. In my opinion they are neither. Unfortunately, our church tells me that I shouldn't feel this way and while I know it's wrong, I am still working on it. Through the Church, I have learned to be more accepting and loving towards our Muslim brothers, our Buddhist brothers, our Catholic brothers, but I am just not in a stage in my development where I can be accepting and loving towards by Evangelical br...sorry I can't even call them that. Anyways, it's good to hear that bridges are being developed and dialogue is ensuing.

I can see where AnthonyB is coming from when he says that the church seems very mono-cultural. It is. I have no doubt in my mind that there is but one culture in the church. It's called the Gospel Culture. I go to church in the Philippines. I am an American, but I have never been inside a Chapel in the US(ok, not ture, once when I was 2 but I can't remember it). That said, LDS chapels don't look like any other church here. How so? The buildings are in good repair, the grounds are kept up nicely. Inside the chapel, things are kept clean. On Sunday, people are dressed up modestly, in their best clothes. In fact, it does start to look pretty standardized. The men wear short sleeve white shirts, tie, shoes, and long slacks. It looks and feels like a house of order. On a side note, it's always nice to see how people progress as they join the church and grow in the church. They might come to church first wearing t shirt, shorts and flip-flops. Soon, they wear long pants, tshirt and flip-flops. Next they progress to shoes, long pants and tshirt and then they reach long pants, dress shirt, tie and shoes.

We have a problem with home teaching in our ward. I could never get any home teaching done until I took the advice of another member and that was to just get out and do it. It's hard when you are a new member to take the initiative when the older companion isn't getting it done. How to get out and do it? Take your wife along. If you aren't married, take along an Aaronic Priesthood member(at least Teacher). Either way, get it done. Make a schedule with your companion by saying, look, I am visiting the so-and-so family next Thursday at 7pm. I can pick you up at your house or you can meet me there. Take along your extra companion in case he doesn't show. If he doesn't show, make it a point to let him know that you took someone along to do it, but you'd like to teach with him for the next family. No need to rat him out to the EQ President, you just need to fulfill your calling. These families need your visit. They need the message that you are delivering.

Complicated situation that over the last few weeks has become a lot more uncomplicated. My Bishop suggested that he ask about us going earlier, but I told some of the advice I got in private messages here. He said he'd ask for advice anyways from the Stake President. Before we got any word back, an opportunity to take the whole family back to US soil became possible. Heavenly Father knew what options were going to be available to us before we knew and we will be going to the Temple in probably 6 to 9 months. I think that's good and gives us time to grow some more. Now we must deal with a whole new set of issues, including being back in the US on March 2nd with no job, little money, but a lot of faith. Any prayers would be appreciated. I have been gone from the states since 2005, and I have spent a total of about 1 year in the states since 1997 so I am bracing for major culture shock.

Well, not for me. I have found a way to reduce, yes reduce my power bill. Instead of turning off my air conditioner when I am not using it, I just use it all the time on the lowest setting possible. I keep every light in my house on. Just how effective has this new energy use policy been for me? My energy usage is down 25%! Every says it's still too high, but I can't find anything to turn on to get it to go down more. Does it make sense? Nope, but I went to the power company to complain months ago about a faulty meter and they can't be bothered to come out and check it.

I was surprised that no one mentioned two interesting facts about the whole manmade global warming thing. 1) In the last 10 years, global temperatures have leveled off and actually decreased somewhat. If it was manmade, then temperatures would have continued to increase. 2) Much of the rise in global temperatures occurred alongside a rise in solar activity. Now for a no duh statement. Scientific evidence seems to agree that higher temperatures accompany high solar activity and lower temperatures accompany lower solar activity. Not a year to year scale, but reduction in solar for longer periods of time can affect temperatures. 3) Let's toss in a third one. We are in period extremely low solar activity.

You need to read your scriptures and read the General Conference Priesthood talks. Then talk to your Bishop, not about giving up a priesthood, but asking for guidance in understanding the power of the Priesthood. I have seen miracles brought about through the Power of the Priesthood. There's one important scripture scripture about holding to a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof. For me, it's talking about the power of the Priesthood.

No worries, by friend, they've got churches today that don't believe in anything but eat, drink and be merry. Those are easy churches to belong to. Hahaha, kind of ridiculous I know, but I was like that. At the time, I figured I knew what was right and many ministers didn't so I didn't want to get stuck with one who was wrong.

Thanks everyone, I will go and talk to the bishop in the next day or so and I will approach the issue with him.