You see, there was this local Guatemalan girl who… (more…)

I had a friend of mine approach recently.  He wasn’t comfortable talking to the Bishop or Stake President, but had a question for me and thought I could help him. (more…)

So I finally got sick enough of Typepad that I’ve decided to drop it and make the inevitable move to WordPress. I’m sure we’ll be here for another five years or so (oh wait, that’s what we say about New York). I like WordPress even if it doesn’t have any outdoor space. (more…)

Members of our family had the opportunity to go to Magrath Alberta Canada to bury my dad’s ashes.  Pothole creek seperates the town from the cemetary with a quaint small park in between.  The family had a brief graveside service and dedicated the grave.  We then went on a trip back in time…what a trip!

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As you’ve probably noticed my (writing) blogging has fallen off the last, oh, six months or so. I’d say part of that is due to the fact that we’ve been through selling/buying/renovating our apartment(s) but the other part is that I think I’m getting worn out. I’ve been blogging for two years now. While I certainly haven’t explored every single nuance of the Mormon faith, I’ve hit most of the major points. And I’m pretty sure I’ve heard pretty much every single argument against it. And I still keep hearing them over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. And I’m over it.
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The Stake Young Men’s president asked me to jot down a few funny missionary experiences so that he could read them (along with stories from other RM’s in the stake) to the youth at our stake youth conference that is going on today and tomorrow (missionary theme). So I obliged and figured I may as well put them on the blog for others to read as well. Keep in mind these were written for an audience of youth.
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We were all silly teenagers. We were all at least relatively rebellious. And I would imagine most of us had some issues with our parents/the Church/authority in some way or another during that time in our lives. The odds of you (9M blog reader) being a now-active member of the LDS Church is pretty good. That means you’re probably not still rebellious/apathetic/too-cool (even if you think you are).

What I want to know is what helped you get through it all to become the psychologically healthy, socially normal, spiritual powerhouse that you are today? In other words, if you didn’t go to church, didn’t talk with your parents, didn’t care to do all that well in school, didn’t wake up before noon, and loved video games, what would/did motivate you to grow up, to communicate with your (very caring and faithful) parents, to perhaps go to church, to care?

I was reviewing my material for this week’s S.S. lesson and realized our temples aren’t anything like Solomon’s Temple.  We tend to think our temples and our temple worship can be traced back to the ancient temples.  We talk about the Holy of Holies and the Veil of the temple in Solomon’s time and think they relate to our modern temples….I don’t see it.

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Is this the solution to the Mormon’s Word of Wisdom problem?

It’s come to my attention that maybe we are TEACHING our members to live off the dole.  We hear the opposite preached all the time: how important it is for us to become self-reliant…spend less…use up…wear out…do without etc.  The message is clear we rely first on ourselves, then our own family, then the church and then maybe the government.  So why does it keep happening?

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Maybe my title should have read "Is it the student or the teacher’s fault?"  My previous post produced some comments that got me thinking about the responsibility of the teacher and the responsibility of the student.  Who should we blame?

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