This is HUGE! Temple Prayer Roll


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https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/online-submissions-temple-prayer-roll?cid=email-OCA_TemplePrayerRoll_081720_CTA1c

Its a small step but still a step in the right direction. The blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ here on earth continue to break barriers.

My brother (served a mission and is now inactive) throughout the years would ask us to put his name on the prayer roll of the temple. The tipping point of his inactivity 20yrs ago was the ole "all or nothing" mentality that he felt from the church. Since he wasnt living up to the expectations of becoming a bishop or EQ president he just didnt want to deal with the pressure, long story in and of itself.

He has always loved the Gospel and his testimony was always solid but barriers remain. After sending him this article he replied "I miss the temple and don't know if I will ever return to attend in person, being able to put a name, my name, on the prayer roll directly...not having to go through you or mom, I feel a piece and peace of the temple in me now." 

Edited by priesthoodpower
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I agree, and was pretty excited.   I'm sorry about your brother.  I guess in my stage of faith/conversion I just don't understand his way of thinking.  Shouldn't we all be trying to live up to those expectations?  We all certainly should be aware that we will fail at times, and be thankful for the incredible power of repentance.  But if someone truly believes what we practice, how do we walk away because it's difficult?  I'm not judging, I just don't truly understand.  

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7 hours ago, Grunt said:

I agree, and was pretty excited.   I'm sorry about your brother.  I guess in my stage of faith/conversion I just don't understand his way of thinking.  Shouldn't we all be trying to live up to those expectations?  We all certainly should be aware that we will fail at times, and be thankful for the incredible power of repentance.  But if someone truly believes what we practice, how do we walk away because it's difficult?  I'm not judging, I just don't truly understand.  

I too have never experienced that, but I’ve been around a lot of people that have.

A close friend of mine left the church for the same reason. She explained to me that she knows God loves her and that the church is true, but her mind was so stuck on trying to meet the status quo of the ward and church culture. Every small “infraction” (Like Not doing family history, keeping a journal, attending the temple enough or even walking into church late) ate her alive. She was visiting a counselor for all this but she couldn’t get past the feeling that she was worthless. She cognitively knew her thought process was wrong, but she was just always stuck in a pattern of comparing herself to those around her and seeing others strengths as her weaknesses. It all became too much and she just stopped going.
 

This is not something I have ever dealt with, but there are a ton that experience that to varying degrees.

At its core it is a misplaced understanding of the relationship between grace and discipleship.

Edited by Fether
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Now side note, silly question mostly rooted in cheap philosophy. But if we can submit it electronically now, can we just put a flash drive in the sack that typically contains a name? Or one step forward, a cellphone connected to the internet that is connected to a serve or cloud containing all the names In the entire temple name database?

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My observations:

1. You still need a member account to login and submit names. My brother has an account so he is good but I am excited for the day when non-members can submit names and have access to the higher order of prayer that is performed in the temple.

2. I have heard several times this year from non mormons in various arenas that the "mormons were right about the teachings of food storage and emergency preparedness". Mormons are also famously known for the No coffee/tabacco/pre-marital sex commandments...which again people are recognizing as a true and admirable belief. I feel that the church is gaining credibility in the worlds eyes as an organization that is righteous/good and maybe, could possibly be Gods true church on earth. With world governments and leaders being exposed in scandals and corruption I feel that the building and expansion of "mormon" temples will be a new source of hope and light for the world in the near future.

3. What good is a temple if only a worthy few can enter and participate? Hopefully millions of people will soon be able to enter worthily but untill then the ability to place a name on the prayer roll easily and anonymously from a device will give millions of people instant access to the blessings and holiness of the temple. This is huge!

4. I know that every country/culture/religion has their own manner of prayer and worship, but like I mentioned in #2 satan is penetrating every culture and religion to the point where people are losing confidence. If the mormons have a good track record, if the mormons are Gods true church and the temple is the house of God, how can I participate? Prayer roll for starters!

I still see a day when 90 of 100 random people shopping in a local grocery store will be members of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints but no one will know it because the advancement of technology will allow worship to be anonymous, less church more God. Less judging of your neighbor and more self accountability to God. Blessing and partaking of the sacrament in our own home during the covid lockdown was an anonymous form of church worship.

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13 hours ago, Grunt said:

I agree, and was pretty excited.   I'm sorry about your brother.  I guess in my stage of faith/conversion I just don't understand his way of thinking.  Shouldn't we all be trying to live up to those expectations?  We all certainly should be aware that we will fail at times, and be thankful for the incredible power of repentance.  But if someone truly believes what we practice, how do we walk away because it's difficult?  I'm not judging, I just don't truly understand.  

Fether pretty much explained it well.

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8 minutes ago, priesthoodpower said:

I am excited for the day when non-members can submit names and have access to the higher order of prayer that is performed in the temple.

 

You obviously haven’t heard of boaty Mc Boat face, the never-released mt dew flavor “Hitler did nothing wrong”, the bridge almost named “Stephen Colbert”, me splashy pants the whale, the founder of 4chan was voted worlds most influential person, the time Justin Bieber was voted to tour North Korea, and countless of other times the internet abused a free name submission Service.

Of they opened it to the public, there would  likely be thousands of adolf hitlers, Barneys, Satans, and other undesirables submitted. Granted we won’t see them, but the sacredness of what is offered would be lost

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38 minutes ago, priesthoodpower said:

I am excited for the day when non-members can submit names and have access to the higher order of prayer that is performed in the temple.

 

13 hours ago, Just_A_Guy said:

It has always (well, maybe not *always*; but for quite a while, anyways) been possible to call the temple and have them add a name to the prayer roll.  But yes, this is a nice development. 

Before I received my own endowment, I would call and put names on the prayer roll as needed.  My dad would do the same, since it was a three hour drive one way to his temple.  When I worked Tuesday nights as an ordinance worker, the office workers that night arrived earlier than they did on other weeks to transcribe the names for the prayer roll left on voicemail.

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On 8/26/2020 at 4:01 PM, Fether said:

You obviously haven’t heard of boaty Mc Boat face, the never-released mt dew flavor “Hitler did nothing wrong”, the bridge almost named “Stephen Colbert”, me splashy pants the whale, the founder of 4chan was voted worlds most influential person, the time Justin Bieber was voted to tour North Korea, and countless of other times the internet abused a free name submission Service.

In case you didn't know man can do anything....yes, even filter spam. Obviously the church would'nt use google ads to get the word out. If you cant think beyond that I dont know what to tell you.

 

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On 8/26/2020 at 4:24 PM, seashmore said:

 

Before I received my own endowment, I would call and put names on the prayer roll as needed.  My dad would do the same, since it was a three hour drive one way to his temple.  When I worked Tuesday nights as an ordinance worker, the office workers that night arrived earlier than they did on other weeks to transcribe the names for the prayer roll left on voicemail.

I first heard of the prayer roll when I received my endowments at 19 before serving a mission 20+ yrs ago. My children who left the church a few years ago with their mother will most likely never serve a mission and therefore never know what the prayer roll is....

...that is, until this past weekend when I did a FHE lesson around caring for loved ones. I then explained the true order of prayer that takes place in the temples and I logged into my LDS account and we submitted those names. Thank you Lord for allowing resources available to bless the world and plant seeds. Thank you temple attendees that have prepared spiritually and prayed around the names in the circle, your service is immeasurable.  

Edited by priesthoodpower
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1 hour ago, priesthoodpower said:

In case you didn't know man can do anything....yes, even filter spam. Obviously the church would'nt use google ads to get the word out. If you cant think beyond that I dont know what to tell you.

 

Word would reach those that the the church quickly, and if it gets to 4chan, there will be an influx of hullabaloo. 
 

I have grown up in The internet age long enough to know that no filtering system is perfect. It either will go too far and block 12 year old Adolfo Heimler who is dying of cancer or not go far enough and let in Mao Zedong, Ted Bundy, and Sarah Kerrigan

Edited by Fether
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1 minute ago, Fether said:

Word would reach those that the the church quickly, and if it gets to 4chan, there will be an influx of hullabaloo. 
 

I have grown up in The internet age long enough to know that no filtering system is perfect. It either will go too far and block 12 year old Adolfo Heimler who is dying of cancer or not go far enough and let in Mao Zedong, Ted Bundy, and Sarah Kerrigan

And the simple fact is that the first, easiest step, in filtering spam is... to have people sign in.

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The church seems to draw a fine balance between having powerful automated IT processes, and giving little old ladies callings doing stuff like taking a look at genealogy submissions to "make sure they're ok".  

I'm not worried about nefariousness taking away the sacredness of the temple prayer roll.

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14 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

The church seems to draw a fine balance between having powerful automated IT processes, and giving little old ladies callings doing stuff like taking a look at genealogy submissions to "make sure they're ok".  

I'm not worried about nefariousness taking away the sacredness of the temple prayer roll.

I think we see examples of both in this very thread.

The powerful automated IT process is in the app itself which includes account login which allows, if needed, the church to block spamming or rouge accounts without shutting down the whole system.

The very first human filter is the member.  They get a chance to share the gospel to those that think might be interested this aspect of it (as described by the OP) and they can and should judge the quality intuitively based on their knowledge and understanding.  Honestly very little should get pass this human filter.  And on accounts where it does, that is where the little old ladies would catch it and possibly trigger the suspension of the account.  If said account is submitting things like "Boaty McBoatFace"  

However removing that first human filter makes it increasingly difficult to properly judge the quality of the names. 

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The world is going through so much trials right now not only because the wickedness of the people but because of the slow response of the church adapting to market and spread the gospel. We have a 1950s mindset in the 2000s, limited by our cultural traditions and not by Gods desires. Has any of our leaders ever thought to ask the Lord if baptism could be done by reading the fine print of a website, checking a box and then hitting submit? Okay thats a little far out there but you get my point....and yes I do believe the President Nelson is that prophet that is throwing all sorts of ideas at the Lord.

Edited by priesthoodpower
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18 hours ago, priesthoodpower said:

We need an app on the same scale of Instagram or twitter that does one thing, Prayer roll submittion!
Need a ride? Download the uber app!
Need to pray for someone? Download prayer roll app!

18 hours ago, priesthoodpower said:

The world is going through so much trials right now not only because the wickedness of the people but because of the slow response of the church adapting to market and spread the gospel.

The answer to the world's problems does not have anything at all to do with the Church improving its use of technology.

Edited by Vort
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