Ok, the rest of us may not post as often, but it isn’t just HIS. As he keeps trying to tell everyone (yes, literally everyone, there are places where Our Thoughts is listed as “Kim’s Thoughts”.)

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Traditional culture among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seems to encourage people to get married quickly. Of course, often people seem not to do such for a number of reasons (finish school, everyone’s ugly, don’t have a car, etc).

Unfortunately, there are times when such individuals, though not all, seem to stay single for extended periods of time. The following ten steps are designed to help those who feel trapped in such a situation to get out.

It has never been tested on bachelorettes.

1. Write down EVERY SINGLE thing you are looking for in an eternal companion. Everything from how active in the Church she should be to the colour of hair to her clothing styles to whether she likes olives or not. EVERY THING.

Do NOT proceed to the next steps without fully completing this step.

2. Set a goal date by which you will be engaged. Be realistic. Don’t make it too short and don’t make it too far away. Post this goal somewhere, or make it easy to remember (six months from Christmas as an example).

3. Set a goal date by which you will be married. Same conditions as above.

4. Write up a list of EVERYONE who is interested in you. Start with those who live closest. List them in order by the degree they like you (the most at the top). Do not pay attention to whether you like them or not.

5. Phone up the first person on your list and ask her on a date as soon as possible. Act like a gentleman on your date but be yourself. At the end of your date, compare her characteristics, personality and qualities to the list you made in step one.

6. Repeat steps 5 & 6 with everyone in your list, starting next with the second one, then the third one, etc.

7. When you have dated everyone on the list, compare each one’s characteristics, personalities and qualities with those of the others. Select the one which most closely meet the elements of the list you created in step 1.

8. Date her a few more time to make sure your first impressions were correct. If they weren’t, go on to the second person.

9. Ask her to go steady. Continue dating her to strengthen whatever relationship you have developed by this point.

10. On or before the goal date you set in step 2, ask her to marry you before or on the goal date you set in step 3.

There you go. Ten easy steps to get married. Follow EACH of them as outlined, and you will be married for sure.

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How do you “explain” to an elderly man (lifetime member although inactive for many years) that God is not to blame for his wife being literally on death’s door? What do you say when he asks why is God doing this to us? Is He punishing us for not going to church all these years? Is this His way of repaying us back for coming back to church these last few months?

Hubby has been at the hospital almost nonstop for last 24 hours with a member as they sit with the wife. He is having a hard time talking to this man who is watching his wife of over 50 years slip through his fingers and doesn’t know what to say. I said don’t say anything at all… just let him grieve and let him talk. I told him to ask this man if he wanted a blessing of comfort.

I’ve run out of ideas..

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I don’t know how to just post a link on here for some reason it doesn’t allow me to do it so I have to cut and paste an article my Bishop just sent me and other leaders in our ward.

It’s a sad sad day when we no longer can celebrate Christmas in public without having to worry whether or not it is politically correct or if we will be taken to court.

[UPDATE: Here's the link to the "'Twelve Rules of Christmas' Guidelines for Public Holiday Celebrations" article at Meridian Magazine, Mum. --Kim]

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There are some who consider themselves Catholic despite having never stepped in a Catholic church and may not even have been baptised Catholic. But his ancestors were Catholic, so he is.

Some call themselves Jewish despite the fact that she’s never had a Bat Mitzvah, never stepped in a synagogue and even eat pork. But her ancestors were Jewish, so she is.

Has Mormonism arrived at the point yet where being Mormon is more than just being baptised? Can someone rightly claim to being Mormon even if s/he has never been baptised, but her/his parents and grandparents were?

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I decided to go through the reports of the April general conferences since 1974 and track the number of converts reported each year. I noticed some interesting things.

First of all, there was a huge amount of growth from 1974-1990. The bulk of this time was under President Kimball’s administration and five years of it was under President Benson’s.

Second, there appear to be small pockets of growth decline every few years.

Third, from 1978 to 1982, the reported number of converts was rounded to the thousands place (152,000, 193,000, etc).

Finally, and perhaps most notably, the number of converts has been on a general decline since 1990, when it had reached a record 330,877 converts. In fact, last year, the number of converts reported was at the lowest it has been in 16 years.

UPDATE (02 April 2006): Added 2005 stats. Annual growth for 2003?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú2005 has been stable at roughly 240,000. I could not find stability trends in other years.

UPDATE (31 March 2007): Added 2006 stats. Convert growth is back on the rise.

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Boyd K. Packer once gave This Speech excepts from it are:

“We’ve always counseled in the Church for our Mexican members to marry Mexicans, our Japanese members to marry Japanese, our Caucasians to marry Caucasians, our Polynesian members to marry Polynesians.”

“For every exception we can show you tens and hundreds, and I suppose thousands, who were not happy. Plan, young people, to marry into your own race.”

Do these kinds of comments embarrass you as a member?
Do you think these kinds of attitudes have a place in our society?

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If we were sent here to learn and to follow Heavenly Father’s plan, and He sent us His Son to guide us I would think we had to follow His footsteps as well and if Christ was given to us as an example and part of our “counsel” has been to go forth and multiply does that not mean that Christ also had a wife and child/ren? Or can you be perfected without going through that process? Is that two different trains of thoughts?

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Mormons believe in degrees of glory (see D&C 76 and 131). So, why do we describe eveything as good or bad, or view obedience as black and white?

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Apparently, some people confuse me with Kaimi of Times and Seasons. Is this common? Are there others in the bloggernacle who are confused for each other (Bannergate notwithstanding)?

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