Not completely on topic with this thread, but does anyone know the name of guy doing joseph smith firesides in utah? first name is Garrett, if I remember...
Not completely on topic with this thread, but does anyone know the name of guy doing joseph smith firesides in utah? first name is Garrett, if I remember...
Went to a bbq at our friends house yesterday, who also had the missionaries over. All were active LDS. All the adults were gathered around the table and the missionaries would ask questions, and the adults would go around the table and offer answers. One of the questions was, "do you feel blessings when you follow the prophet?". I thought I'd offer an honest and complete answer this go-around and said I'm not one to claim I follow the prophet in faith because I carefully pick and choose which commands and counsel I follow. Plus, not only do I feel blessed when I follow the prophet, I also feel blessed when I don't. I guess I just generally feel like I have a blessed life. For example, I said, I attended my son's baseball tournament this weekend and missed church, breaking the sabbath in all its glory. And having done so, I felt blessed. I got to spend 3 days with my son, and connect with him on an activity we both enjoy. In fact, I did the same thing the weekend before, and have the next 3 weekends scheduled for the same. I'm not following the prophets counsel but feel truly blessed. And, when I get the opportunity to return to church, I know I'll feel that attending church for that week was a blessing as well.
As you can imagine, it created quite a bit of discussion on "following the prophet". I couldn't admit I felt greater blessings and joy when following the prophets counsel (in this case), but I enjoyed the discussion a lot, and frankly, was liberating for me to admit out loud I only followed on the things I wanted and disregarded what I wanted. Facts are facts.
“Children and dogs are as necessary to the welfare of the country as Wall Street and the railroads.” -- Harry S. Truman
"You never soar so high as when you stoop down to help a child or an animal." -- Jewish Proverb
"Three-time Pro Bowler Eric Weddle the most versatile, and maybe most intelligent, safety in the game." -- SI, 9/7/15, p. 107.
If you hadn't redirected the conversation and gone with a standard answer, I bet their next question would have started with "Will you . . ."Originally Posted by mUUser
“To me there is no dishonor in being wrong and learning. There is dishonor in willful ignorance and there is dishonor in disrespect.” James Hatch, former Navy Seal and current Yale student.
We had an excellent lesson in EQ today based off of a Neal A. Maxwell talk from several years back called the Hope of the Atonement. It is a talk I'd never read before, but at least to me, it was a pretty powerful lesson on hope in general. Anyway, if you have a few minutes, might be worth the read: https://www.lds.org/general-conferen...+the+atonement
“It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”
Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Thanks, D&F. For some reason I don't remember that talk. Good stuff:
Genuine, ultimate hope helps us to be more loving even while the love of many waxes cold (see Matt. 24:12). We are to be more holy, even as the world ripens in iniquity; more courteous and patient in a coarsening and curt world, and to be of strong hearts even when the hearts of others fail them (see Moro. 10:22).
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
We attended church in the Manhattan First Ward yesterday. One of the speakers touched on how an excessive focus on subgroups we each belong to (political parties, TBMs vs. progmos, etc.) can lead to various type of "ites." He referred to parts of 4th Nephi in that context. I found it to be a valuable insight.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I learned that a member of our bishopric takes No-Doze before church so he doesn't fall asleep on the stand. It's a good thing the church recently clarified that there is no restriction on caffeine.
“To me there is no dishonor in being wrong and learning. There is dishonor in willful ignorance and there is dishonor in disrespect.” James Hatch, former Navy Seal and current Yale student.
Fifth Sunday lesson was on building maintenance. My wife told me to be quiet as soon as they announced what the lesson was.
My ward brings in close to million dollars a year in tithing but we can't pay someone to clean the building?
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"Be a philosopher. A man can compromise to gain a point. It has become apparent that a man can, within limits, follow his inclinations within the arms of the Church if he does so discreetly." - The Walking Drum
"And here’s what life comes down to—not how many years you live, but how many of those years are filled with bullshit that doesn’t amount to anything to satisfy the requirements of some dickhead you’ll never get the pleasure of punching in the face." – Adam Carolla
When I was a kid our bishopric (my dad included) paid out of pocket to replace the carpet throughout our building (it was literally held together with duct tape in the main hallways and foyers). The response was to redivide the wards and reassign people to high counselor sort to be a remote branch president of a little town (my dad). Message sent about doing things outside the church's authority.
"Ve haff vays of dealink vith such behavior!"
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
We had a great Priesthood lesson on social media yesterday. It was taken from Elder Uhctdorfs message that we should embrace and not shy away from Facebook, Twitter, etc. Essentially the lesson was that in order to be a true disciple of Christ, that we should use these tools to bear our testimonies and share eternal truths. Too many of us have shy'd away from these tools because we don't want to get involved in the controversial issues of today.
I've never had a Facebook account, but it definitely made me think that I probably should have one and use it to share my beliefs and feelings.
Last edited by Scorcho; 09-01-2014 at 12:32 PM.
I'm planning to work this one into the next lesson I teach in about a month:
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
very nice, I might have to steal this idea.
humble brag. It was a good day.
I home teach a new family in our ward that moved in from Georgia. They have a 17 year old girl that hasn't been on a date before. I've been bugging one of the Priests in my SS class for the last couple of months to ask her out. I found out today that he asked her to Homecoming.
At church today, I talked to the dad and told him I'd heard they were going out together, his eyes watered a little bit as he told me how he had asked her and how excited his daughter was.
Bravo, scorch.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I never figured Scorcho would cotton to the Pimp lifestyle...
I probably had less to do with it than my ego wants me to believe, but anyway.
That's awesome. As the father of three very geeky but awesome daughters, we've already had to think about someone not getting asked to prom. My oldest is nearly 6 feet tall!
Saw a mother with a young child with down's syndrome at SLC airport. I don't know how I would deal with that but I did yhink: God bless the mothers of children who they know will never leave their care.
Downs syndrome children can present some severe logistical problem for the parents, for 30-60 years, but they make up for it in many ways because they are love monsters. They are entirely without guile.
But that is still a difficult life for the parents. Chances are very high that the child will outlive at least one parent, leaving the surviving parent with a constant companion who is an adult but with the reasoning capacity of a grade school child (or younger).
I do not know whether I could do it.
Our bishop was talking tonight about how we get "programmed" in the church to do things certain ways. He said he heard this in a talk and was a good illustration:
A primary teacher teaching asked a question to her class of 5 year olds:
"What is small, brown, furry, has a bushy tail, runs up and down trees, and hides nuts to eat during the winter?
The kids were silent. Little Johnny had a confused look on his face. He finally spoke and said:
"I know the answer is supposed to be Jesus, but it sure sounds a lot like a squirrel"!
“To me there is no dishonor in being wrong and learning. There is dishonor in willful ignorance and there is dishonor in disrespect.” James Hatch, former Navy Seal and current Yale student.
I learned (again) how the lds church wants to take advantage of their members. We signed up to feed the missionaries tonight. That is fine as people fed me while I was on my mission. I take umbrage with them calling this afternoon requesting that I come pick them up. Mind you they have a car (if they didnt that would be different). They really just have to watch their miles due to some cheapskate mission president. They are lucky they talked to my wife as I would told them how rude they sounded.
"Be a philosopher. A man can compromise to gain a point. It has become apparent that a man can, within limits, follow his inclinations within the arms of the Church if he does so discreetly." - The Walking Drum
"And here’s what life comes down to—not how many years you live, but how many of those years are filled with bullshit that doesn’t amount to anything to satisfy the requirements of some dickhead you’ll never get the pleasure of punching in the face." – Adam Carolla
I'm pretty sure they weren't too busy to walk or take public transit if they couldn't drive their car. But more importantly, you provide a car but they can't use it to drive over to a member's house? Isn't that fellow shipping and isn't that what they are supposed to be doing out there on a mission? The church has a bunch of empty, audacious temples that they have to maintain around the world and yet the missionaries can't spend gas money getting to their free dinner? (since the missionaries mostly pay their own way anyway, I find that even more incredible).
If I wasn't certain that this story was true based upon my own experience, I would tell you that no organization could possibly behave this way.
Call the MP and complain. Stupid rule.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
You do that and he will just rip the elders telling them they needed to find a way to dinner. They will feel bad and guilty. No offense LA, but IMO that would only harm the poor Elders.
In our area, we are told from the beginning that picking up the elders and getting them to your home and then back again is part of the dinner appointment. (Think of it as picking up your date, I guess.)
The nice thing is, when they then call to tell you that they don't need a ride it seems like you're responsibility has been reduced instead of added to in having them to dinner.
I think it is all about how those expectations are set up from the beginning. When expectations change or are violated, that is when people get frustrated.
Ok. I'm in a better mood now and feel chastened by you and Eddie. I'd just pick them up and murmur softly to myself.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
This one belongs in that jokes thread that LA started. I laughed harder at it than the other jokes there.
I have a pretty interesting neighbor. A very good guy who is very devout LDS but open-minded, and he had a good line recently:
"We Mormons sometimes think that, just because we know how to take care of a goldfish, we somehow know everything about the ocean."
JiC knows him - he's a hospital administrator that lives close to me.
Obviously, this applies to all religions, and to all sorts of contexts, secular & sacred alike.
I just thought it was a nicely turned phrase.
σοφῷ ἀνδρὶ Ἑλλὰς πάντα.
-- Flavius Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 1.35.2.
Brilliant.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
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