I heard the "water" thing a few times growing up, but it was always understood as being one of those "Mormon Urban Myths" and not actual doctrine. My DH wasn't allowed to swim while on his mission though, and the reason his Mission President gave was "Missionaries who don't swim don't drown!" It was a safety issue. :)

Wow! My grandparents' home backed up to a lake (literally, their backdoor opened onto a deck that hung out over the water, and you walked down a ramp to the dock) and we would go there for Sunday dinners and swim in the lake all.the.time. Later they moved to a house with a pool, and we did the same thing. It's not something I ever considered someone would get all twisted up over. :lol:

Emma Smith (the person) is absolutely fascinating. I hope the movie does her justice! (I haven't seen it yet)

The Sunday observance is a family-by-family thing. I had one friend growing up who wasn't even allowed to do laundry on Sundays (that was "work" and therefore breaking the Sabbath), but my family did laundry and other housework often on Sundays. Sometimes my dad would even mow the lawn in the winter if it was going to be his last chance to do it before the weather went sour. We also often had family parties, although not friend parties. Many LDS families don't shop on Sundays as we don't want to contribute to other people's need to go to work on Sundays (presumably if they didn't have to work they could go to church :tongue_smilie:), but in Utah, where the population is majority LDS, you see a lot of full parking lots at the malls and grocery stores. ;) There are also many LDS members in careers where working on Sunday is *necessary*, whether or not people are out shopping (Doctors, police officers, emergency responders, etc.) and I've never seen any of them criticized for their work, and many members of church leadership have been involved in these careers (one of our current apostles is a retired heart surgeon). Mainly though it's about keeping the day's focus on the Lord. Attending church, spending time with our families, taking advantage of the "day of rest" to feed our Spiritual selves and rest our physical selves for the week ahead. Sometimes work is necessary, but we're strongly encouraged to not work if it isn't. And the candy thing? I didn't realize that was something unique to Mormonism. ;) I've seen some Mormons who eat a lot of candy, and I've also seen some (many in my ward) who are very much into a "whole foods" lifestyle. There's even 3 women in my ward who make their own soy milk! Most of us don't miss coffee. :)

That's a good website. :) I should also add that it doesn't typically bother most Mormons that there isn't a whole lot of science or official history that verifies the Book of Mormon account. Our knowledge of history changes every day, as does science, so who knows what may be discovered in the future, and it's not in the knowledge of men that our Testimony lies. The Witness of the Holy Spirit is where we learn the Truth. :)

Ew. :001_huh:

I Know that My Redeemer Lives http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAJYMK0dy8M I Stand All Amazed ETA: Can't believe I forgot this one!!! Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbzPUjabIb0

A question that was asked many many (I don't know HOW many) pages ago, about the possibility of "historical inaccuracies" in the Book of Mormon. The answer to that one is "We don't know". Because the people who kept the records that eventually becaome the Book of Mormon were completely wipped out, we don't know where they lived or who exactly their most likely decendents are, although it's assumed that (given a few centuries for blood lines to get all mixed up) that Native Americans (both North and South) likely have some Nephite and/or Lamanite blood in them. All we know is that Lehi's family came from Jerusalem and settled in the Americas. North? South? Central? We don't know. They gave places names, and described "lands of many waters" and penninsulas and the like, but the names died with the people and were given new names by their new settlers. Also, lots and lots of ancient records from those lands were lost or destroyed either by the deterioration of age (it's not mostly dry desert like the Holy Land in the east!), or destroyed by the European Settlers who came many centuries later. We don't know if the remnants of the Book of Mormon peoples were absorbed in the Mayans or the Incas or what have you. It's a mystery that we don't know will ever be fully solved.

To add on to the bolded, a family can choose to hold FHE any night of the week works best for them, but the "standard" is Monday. Meaning, it's the night most every one chooses, and it's the one night of the week that church leadership says absolutely NO church-related meetings or activities are to be planned. We're to be home with our families. Some church buildings that have electrical locking systems are even set up so that you cannot get into the building on Monday nights. So basically, if anything is going to interfere with an LDS family having FHE on Monday night, it's not going to be something from the church.

Well, for one, he IS our Father, and the "Heavenly" part of the title makes it clear that we're not talking about our earthly father. But mainly I believe it's just tradition. I've heard Him referred to as God, God the Father, Father in Heaven, Eloheim, and other names I can't quiet remember just now.

On my mother's side I'm related to John Allen, who was at Sutter's Mill when gold was discovered. His name is on the monument there. :D

How much room do you need to do P90X? And do you NEED a chin-up bar? We have no suitable door frames that could handle one.

I'm such a nerd in that I LOVE those kinds of lessons, where we share how to make our homes more Spiritual. I want my home so much to be a place where you just KNOW that it's a godly home, with people striving to draw closer to Him, and who love eachother -and will love you- just the way you are. It's something I really want to be able to achieve. Some days I do, and it's WONDERFUL, and some days I think my home looks more like it's travelling in a handbasket to somewhere, and taking the carpool lane. :tongue_smilie:

I was filling in for someone in Primary today and taught the 8-9 year old class. The lesson was familiarizing them with the New Testament (since that is the book of Scripture we'll be focusing on this year), helping them understand what is contained in it (epistles, or letters, of the apostles to members of the ancient Church), why it's important that we read it (it's Christ's earthly ministry!) and then getting them started on memorizing the names of the books, and making sure they understood that when someone writes or says "Matt. 11:2" they're talking about the book of Matthew, chapter 11, verse 2. In Sacrament meeting a widowed mother of 9 got up and shared how she'd learned that sometimes, the greatest miracle the Savior will perform in our lives is helping us to get through another day, when we feel like we just want to stop. She shared more than that, but I can't remember her exact wording, and I'd doubt I'd do it justice. It was a very moving Testimony.

My answers in blue.

I wanted to bold this part of Amira's post. (sorry Amira. :tongue_smilie:) All we know about God is what He's chosen to reveal to us in his words to us via Scriptures and the Prophets. The part of Amira's post that I put in blue is not something I've ever heard taught in church, and I feel confident in saying that it's not doctrine, but rather speculation. I'm sorry Amira, if this is this embarasses you, but I just had to say that there's no official doctrine on where God lived, or if he lived on another planet as a man, or anything at all like that. We only know that His Works are One Eternal Round. Time is a man-made construct, so I can't imagine explaining how God came to be God is anything our mortal minds could ever grasp. (and really really REALLY I'm not saying this to embarass or chastize you! just wanted to make it clear to the other posters here when some of us [and I'm guilty of it too] go off into speculation rather than straight doctrine)

:lol: I was thinking more Michelle Duggar (except she'd make funeral potatoes instead of tater-tot casserole ;) )

Posting at the same time. :001_smile: Yes, most of the articles in the church's magazines that relate to parenting seem to have a strong focus on gentle discipline. I read "Unconditional Parenting" by Alfie Kohn (who is not LDS) a few years ago, and a lot of the advice in there was very similar to the advice given in talks and addresses from church leaders.

No. Infact, our previous Prophet, Gordon B. Hinkley, spoke a lot about being careful about even raising our voices with our children. We should teach them right from wrong, and discipline them certainly, but that our children should never have reason to doubt our love for them. I even recall him saying that we should never have any reason to raise our hands to our children (and I think he even came out rather clearly against spanking, but that may just have been how I "heard" the "no raising your hand" bit, as I'm rather anti-spanking, personally :tongue_smilie:)

Mamasheep, I don't know what thread it was in, but you had an excellent post a month or so ago about God allowing us to experience trials from a place of "ultimate safety" (because Christ would make up for our falling short of His Glory). I thought it was such a great summary of LDS belief of "Why are we here?" We're here to learn and grow. "For behold, this is my work and my glory - to bring to pass the immortality and eternal Life of man." (Moses 1:39) Heavenly Father didn't create us on a whim, or because He wanted a bunch of worshipers. He is all loving, and wants to share His joy with others. Part of that involves passing through sorrow and facing temptation so that we can learn to recognize the Good from the Evil. We cannot truely appreciate how good God is and wonderful being in His presense will be unless we've seen the alternative. We glorify Him for His wonderful Plan, and the evidence of His Infinate love for us in sending His Son to redeem us from the sin we would inevitably fall into in this world. I am so grateful for all that he has done, is doing, and will do for me and my family and all the people of the world. He is both Just and Merciful and I glory in His Grace.

A real page-turner for me was "Angry Housewives Eating Bon-bons" (I forget the author's name, sorry) It's not so much a page-turner because it's thrilling or suspenseful, but the author does such a good job at getting you to really LOVE her characters and want to learn more about them and how they move through the decades of their lives that the book covers. I felt like a best friend had moved away when I finished the book, I was so sad to not be able to read more about the characters!

Yes, Brigham Young was a prophet. I really don't know what your friend meant about his "taking the church in a direction Joseph Smith would not recognize". :confused: The only difference I can see with the polygamy thing is that it's pretty well established that he actually had sexual relations with his wives (he fathered children with them and shared a home with them), whereas there's no conclusive evidence, other than heresay, that Joseph Smith ever consumated his plural marriages (DNA tests on some of the decendents of his supposed plural-wife children hasn't shown a family link yet). I've read biographies of both men, and don't really see how BY did anything that JS wouldn't have liked. And yes, we do fold our arms across our chests when we pray. I have no clue why, but I know it's no big deal if you fold your arms any other way. I see lots of pictures in church publications of people praying with their hands clasped in front of them, and some LDS families who I've prayed with have clasped eachother's hands during prayer, as I see many other Christian families do.

An abortion for convenience is considered a sin, but there are exceptions. From the church website:

An anology a great Sunday School teacher once shared with me about the whole faith vs. works thing in the LDS faith goes as follows: We're all drowning at sea. We're in over our heads, and too far from shore and too weak to possibly swim back, so someone (the Savior) throws us a life ring. Some of us can do no more than hang on and allow ourselves to be pulled in. Others will be able to swim, and get to the shore faster, building muscle strength and endurance along the way. Some will get to shore quicker than others. But reguardless of how quickly you got to shore, or whether you helped or not, nobody would say you saved yourself. It was all due to the lifering (Atonement) thrown to us by the Savior. The Lord said "If ye love me, keep my commandments". We show our love for Him by obeying the commandments as revealed to us in Scripture. None of us are perfect at it, of course, but the Lord knows our hearts. He knows when we're sorry, and when we're in rebellion. He knows when we're trying and struggling, and when we just don't care what He thinks, we're going to have our fun anyway. We don't need to be 100% perfect 100% of the time. But He wants to know that we love Him, and He'll help us achieve greater things than we could possibly achieve on our own.

That's our new time slot. I'm actually thrilled. :tongue_smilie:My almost 2 year old goes to sleep at a more reasonable hour (7 instead of 9-10) on days when he doesn't have a nap, and the 1-4 meeting block is right during his nap time. He'll be too distracted by all the toys in Nursery to try and take a nap, and we're only a block from the chapel, so there'll be no time for him to fall asleep on the way home. :D