Zarahemla Weekly Issue II

Sad news first, A missionary passed away

Donald Trump has asked the MoTab to preform at his inauguration and they said 'sure.'

According to some people, that's a problem.

Other people say they're overreacting.

Also in hot topics this week; Jesus was born! It's kind of a big deal.

Zarahemla Weekly Issue I

     I am so bad about updating, with original content, so I got to thinking, why don't I just post unoriginal content? So I present to you the 'Zarahemla Weekly' a collection of news articles, links, blog posts and what ever other Mormon related things I found lying on the ground throughout the week.

Here's an interesting piece about Utah Mormons.

A guy works on getting Joseph Smith's face right.

You've probably heard, but David Achuleta dropped a new music video on youtube.

Help! I've been trying to #Lighttheworld  but it keeps getting dark again, like every night after the sun goes down.

Have you heard about the guy who wants to make the church pay taxes? No? Well Sam Brunson over at By Common Consent explains why it probably won't go anywhere. 

And to wrap it all up, here's a photo with no context.

The Mormon Vote

So, if you've been following this blog for any amount of time then you know I'm a kind of weird guy with kind of weird thoughts. Recently I had this weird though; It the Church was a person (and a US citizen to boot) who would they vote for in the upcoming election? normally such a thought would have gone wherever all bad ideas go. But before that could happen I realized I had access to the internet, which is a place where bad ideas flourish! So I came up with a plan to answer that very question.

For your consideration, the Deseret Party, now with at least five (5!) more stars on our logo that any other party!

Here's the rules I used.
1. I used the quiz on I Side With to get my answer. Maybe an internet quiz isn't the best way to get an answer, but what ever.
2. I would answer the questions using only official LDS statements. Mainly from LDS.org and mormonnewsroom.org
3. If the Church has not issued a statement regarding the issue in the question then I would leave the question blank.
4. Nobody should take this too seriously, this is an extremely unscientific experiment. So don't get sassy about what turns up, ya walnut.

All set up and ready to go!

Like any good Pseudo-Scientist, I took meticulous notes.
And awaaaaaaay we go!

SOCIAL ISSUES
Abortion- easy
Same Sex marriage- Lot of digging around
planned parenthood- no statement
Gay adoption- looked into LDS family services- Adoption criteria and previous same sex marrage question indicates a no.
Religious freedom-The Church supports Religious freedom, but also encourages fairness for all. A simple yes was the closest answer available.

Capital punishment, death penalty- No stance

Should the military allow women to serve in combat roles?- looked up Language was gender neutral and did not officially say no, so I gave it a simple "yes" for having no objections.


ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Found a whole new website just for this topic, but it's not an official church site so I had to drop it.
Instead I found an LDS.org page which led me to think that the Church wants to encourage "sustainable Energy" That is to say, to use the earth to benefit us, but do so in a way that won't harm it. I answered accordingly.

ECONOMIC ISSUES
Economic was difficult. there's plant of church stances on personal finace soI tried to import those, keeping in mind get out of debt and live within your means But the church is pretty mum on most of these.

DOMESTIC ISSUES
So few statements...

HEALTHCARE ISSUES
Finally! Something! Medical marijuana! The Church made a statement this year. Which seems to only support Mary Jane for medical use.

ELECTORAL ISSUES
Tumble weed goes by....

EDUCATION ISSUES
Tumblr Weed goes by...

FOREIGN POLICY ISSUES
Refugees- The church seems to be pretty gung-ho about this so I put down that they want to accept more refugees.
Should foreign terrorism suspects be given constitutional rights?- I put "Yes, just like U.S. citizens, terrorists should be given a fair trial in federal courts" Going back to the Church's "fairness for all" stance referenced earlier.

Should the military be allowed to use enhanced interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, to gain information from suspected terrorists?--According to a Deseret news article the Church made a statement that said "The church "condemns inhumane treatment of any person under any circumstances," said church spokesman Dale Bills. "The church has not taken a position on any proposed legislative or administrative actions regarding torture.""
So I gave it a simple no

Should the U.S. continue to support Israel?-- an LDS.org article  was sympathetic to both sides, so I chose We should give equal support to Israel and Palestine.

IMMIGRATION ISSUES
Did my best but I'm just a little guy over here, doin' my best to do my best.


SCIENCE ISSUES
Should the federal government require children to be vaccinated for preventable diseases?--Yes, but with exceptions for those whose religious beliefs forbid use of vaccines
The church has it's own vaccination programs so I assumed they'd support it, but also respect religious liberty

Whew! What an ordeal! Now all to do is wait for the test results.

I can't wait to see which severed politician head is my dream date! This is the second weirdest episode of The Dating Game I've ever seen.

Well now this was a surprise.

Apparently, according to my totally unscientific study, if the Church was a person who could vote they would vote for Donald Trump, but only just barely.
I had to skip a lot of questions, so that probably threw everything out of wack but on the points that the Church has spoken out on it looks like it agrees with both Hillary and Trump at the same rate but favoring the Don by just one percentage point.
Here's the entire page if you want to look at it:

And the Link, I think.
Basically the jist of it is that the Church as a person would probably vote for Trump if they chose to focus just on the issues, but they wouldn't be terribly enthused about it and it would be a close call between him and Hillary.
Interesting stuff, but also likely wildly inaccurate.
If you readers come up with a better answer with better research then by all means let me know in the comments.
Also, don't forget to study the issues, make a choice, and vote for yourself come November. If you don't then I will release a literal swarm of bees into your house.

"The Deseret Party: We don't make threats. We make promises!"

Quotes!

A Quote from Conference.

Any Opposed

Hey, remember when I promised to regularly give you new and interesting content? Yeah, me neither.
Anyways, Since conference I've had one topic keep coming up in my poor little brain, so much so that I had one of those weird half awake/half asleep moments where you're kind of dreaming but not really about it. So I'm going to blog about that.

In conference this year we had the sustaining of church officers. Also this year we had what seems to be becoming a tradition; the opposing vote. The person(s) who decided to shout "opposed" when the asked if any opposed.

Now, I'll all for being kind an considerate towards my fellow man, (or maybe I'm a bitter jerk face, but that's a debate for another time) But I would just like to say that this whole movement is wrong. That is to say they are using the opposing vote wrong. Also I think their reasons for opposing are wrong.
How are they mishandling this, you ask? Well let's start with the obvious. So obvious that it can be condensed into a meme.

It may not always be expressly stated, but the appropriate action for an opposing vote is to simply raise you hand. I'll let this one pass, however, due to the size of the conference center.
Instead let's get to the real problem here, that the opposes seem to be opposing as a matter of protest. I'll get to what they're protesting and all that later, but for now let's talk about what the opposing vote is suppose to be for.
As I understand it, signaling that you oppose a sustaining of a Church officer is only to be done if you are privy to some knowledge that would make said officer unworthy to hold that office. For Example: You get home one night to find that you've been burgled. Some bandit broke into you beautiful bungalow and burgled you beloved Babe Ruth bat! Later you visit your best bud, Brother Brown but before you can begin with the banter and brownies you spot your beloved Babe Ruth Bat in Brother brown's ball room! It's clear that you have been burgled by Brother Brown.

Oh, Brother Brown, I guess it's Burglar Brown, now.

 Later, Brother Brown is called to be bishop. Being that you are the only one who knows about Brother B-excuse me, BURGLAR Brown's bat burgling, you are then expected to oppose the vote and bring that information to the attention of the appropriate people.
From the looks of it, those who are opposing the sustaining in conference have never even met most or even some of the people they are opposing, so how can they say those men are not worthy?

HOWEVER! I want to point out that in their minds this is part of the problem, that they've never met most of these men. On the Any Opposed website (which appears to be made by the people who orchestrate all of this) they state "Layers of bureaucracy keep higher LDS leadership insulated from hearing authentic concerns and feedback of their members. Correspondence and petitions by lay members directed toward the Church’s General Authorities are almost always returned and delegated to local stake presidents and bishops for further handling ..."
This is a very real concern. As the church grows is gets harder and harder for the prophet and apostles to be fully aware of all the unique challenges of the members. This is exactly the problem that Moses while leading the children of Israel through the wilderness. The people continued to come to Moses with their problems and between that and just dealing with the day to day task of keeping everyone organized Moses was wearing a little thin.
But there is a solution found in Numbers 11:16-17, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone." The answer is delegation Which is exactly how the church is run in the Latter Days. Frankly speaking it would be impractical for the Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve to deal with every little problem that comes up when they are already swamped just with keeping things up and running. That is why they refer anyone with issues to their local leadership.
That being said, I don't believe that the Brethren are unaware of what problems are facing the average members of the Church. They regularly talk and visit with the average members and get regular reports from local leaders.

In addition as cliche as it sounds the Brethren are not ordained to be your friend. Their job is to see to it that the priesthood, the doctrine and the ordinances are distributed properly. A faithful member should only oppose the Brethren if they are distributing any of those things improperly, For example, if the Brethren decided to only print the scriptures in the Deseret Alphabet. Though the Deseret Alphabet is superior in every way to the clunky old Latin Alphabet having all our holy writ only available in an obscure script would definitely hinder the work.
Now, there are people who are specifically called to be your friend, being your bishop, your EQ/RS President, your Home/Visiting teachers and so on.

So, is short this Any Opposed movement is using the wrong tool to protest a problem that's largely already been dealt with, with out offering any real solutions.
Still, we should try to listen to their concerns. Perhaps there are better ways of keeping the membership cared for and in touch with the Brethren.

Namaste, y'all,
Michael

General Conference Saturday Evening Session April 2016

Home stretch, guys! Let's rock this.

Robert D Hales
The Holy Ghost provides us with personal revelation for our lives. Personal Revelation is essential for major life choices. But the holy ghost honors our right to agency and may not help us with the smaller choices in our lives, allowing us to learn to make those choices. Also we will not receive revelation for others.

Gerrit W. Gong
We are to always remember Him 1. By having confidence in his covenants promises and assurances 2. By gratefully acknowledging his hand in out lives. 3.By trusting when the Lord Assures us. 4.he invites us to remember that he always welcomes us home 5. Remember the sacrament 6. always remember Him as he remembers us.
To be worthy does not mean to be perfect.
Know what to hold on to and what to let go of. attachment to the wrong things leads to suffering, letting go of the things that drag you down sets you free.

Patrick Kearon
There are many in need around the world. We as Mormons were not long ago refugees, and should seek to help those who are suffering. This reminds me of a thought I heard in a devotional a wile back. That we, as Christians are commanded to respond to violence by refusing to accept it and extending kindness. The thought was based around the 'Turn the Other Cheek" thing. Basically in old times you would slap someone with your right hand. Back handing them on their right cheek sent the message that they were beneath you socially, but using an open palm on their left cheek ment they saw you as a equal. By turning the other cheek you tell the person hitting you that you see them as an equal and demand that they treat you as one.

Dalin H. Oaks
We progress by making choices. Think of a video game. If you never make any choices, how can you level up?
We need an opposition in all things to allow us to make choices. By facing problems and difficulties head on we can grow and, most importantly, be human.
We face many challenges of varied difficulty, nature and duration, and nobody is excused. Oaks seems to be touching on the idea that there are some sorrows that are avoidable and some that are completely unavoidable. I differentiate these two by calling the unavoidable 'pain' and the avoidable 'suffering'
Somethings can only be learned by faith.

Kent F Richards
The real power of the temple is in it's ordinances. Just being in the temple or near a temple is like being near food. If you don't DO something you get nothing.

Paul V. Johnson
Someday we will be healed and whole. The resurrection will restore us to life and purity. There is no salvation without our soul and body. We are basically two creatures crammed into one. A spirit that doesn't remember where it came from and a body with no idea where it's going.
The resurrection proves to us that God can do other miracles, both big and small.

Jeffery R Holland
None of us want tomorrow to chase away what we feel today. We all have to come down from peak experiences in order to deal with the daily normality of life. Don't give up, don't get dragged down.
The Lord blesses those who want to improve. If you stumble, so does everyone. If you fall, ask for help. We get credit for trying.
The first great truth of eternity is that God loves us. That is the foundation of everything. God will never desert us. It is not in His nature.
Keep loving, keep trying, keep trusting, keep growing.
Heaven is cheering you on, tomorrow and every day.
Now go have Ice Cream

General Conference Sunday Morning Session April 2016

Part 3 of 4

President Monson
Small choices make big changes.
Choose the harder right over the easier wrong.

Bonnie L Oscarson
You may know it, but do you believe it? Knowledge and belief are two different things. Strive for belief.
Do we become so accustom to the blessings we get that we forget what it takes to get those blessing? This is how the pride cycle starts. People focus on all the sideline good things like the lifestyle, the culture, and the like of the church but overlook their own salvation and thus fall.
To believe we need to get the gospel form our heads into our hearts.

W. Christopher Waddell
Sometimes it's just hard for me to think about Jesus! Pain and sorrow is unavoidable. But our ability to face those trials with faith is what counts. Peace of mind is not avoiding the storms but in enduring them. Learn, Listen, Walk. Gain the information you need, Take it into your life (see believe vs knowledge above), ACT on what you know.
The peace we seek requires more than desire, it requires action. If you want peace you need to DO something.

D. Todd Christoferson
Fathers are unique and irreplaceable. Fatherhood is not merely supplementary to Motherhood, they are equal.
Prepare now for fatherhood, (assuming you're, y'know, a dude)

Quinten L Cook
See yourself in the temple. Get a goal to go there. For me the temple is a special place of meditation, where I can make sense of the world, or rather were I can step back from the world and understand it.

Dieter F Uchtdoft
If mad can rebuild a city then God can rebuild us. Healing can happen. Healing DOES happen. "There is no life so shattered that it cannot be restored". We don't need to know all things to be saved. We only need to be loved by Christ and have faith enough to follow him.
But nobody will be forced into heaven. If we want it, we can get it. If you cannot muster faith, you can hope. Start from where you are.
Obedience is not a popular word these days, but it is needed in the Gospel. It is the life blood of faith.
Obedience is a means to an end. It unleashes the true, divine, powerful version of yourself.

General Conference Saturday Evening Session April 2016

Letz Do dis! My 'notes' for General Conference Saturday Evening Session April 2016

Ronald A. Rasband
Questions are an indication of a further desire to learn to add to the truths we already know. Some of my most effective meditation sessions and prayers have been when I have actively had a question I wanted to answer. I received the answers through what I have already learned or, sometimes I have been lead to realize that the question I came up with is not the question I need to ask.
Are you standing with the leaders of the church in this darkening world? When I have trouble meditating I need to chose just one thing that is steady and solid to focus on. Wen we are being distracted and troubled in life we need to focus on something steady.

Ronald A. Anderson
Children have believing hearts and spiritual gifts. In particular they have a tenderness and humility that can grow in even the least ideal situations. That is how we should all be. Our spiritual success is not based on our circumstances. It is based entirely on you, independent of whatever goes on around you.
We need to be kind and reach out to those who need help, or even those who don't need help. Just reach out.

Mervy B. Arnold
Going to the rescue, You can do it. 1. Do not delay going to the rescue. We must have a sense of urgency. 2.Take the time. We must have patience. Urgency and patience are not mutually exclusive and there is a middle path available. 3. How great must be your joy if you bring only one soul unto Christ. This is knowing the true worth of a soul. A soul has infinite potential. Even when it is held in a crude mortal body. "Nameste" means 'The divine in me recognizes the divine in you"
4. No matter our age we are all called to go to the rescue.

Jarrio Mazzagardi
If you have questions, do not give up. Follow Joseph Smith's example. Ask for wisdom from God. While listening to the testimonies of other is great, you need to build up your own.

David A. Bednar
Retain a remission of our sins. In  the Gospel it doesn't really matter if you fall down, but what does matter is getting up.
Ordinations are sacred acts that have spiritual power. We should approach them mindfully and meditatively. Bednar talks about the baptismal covenant which is renewed in the sacrament. Think about your sacrament meeting. The passing and partaking of the sacrament is meant to be a time to meditate and contemplate this covenant and increase it's power to give you peace.

M Russel Ballard
Family Councils. Even in families personalities can vary. This is a great opportunity to use a family council to help solve problems. Just because two or more people have different approaches to life doesn't mean that they have nothing to offer each other or that they need to be opposed to each other. I've always thought that it is better to have allies rather than enemies.
But a Family council is really just group meditation on a topic. Just as individuals need to take time to figure things out, so do family groups.

General Conference Saturday Morning Session April 2016

General Conference Saturday Morning!

President Eyering
"Faith is like a Little Seed"

We fear that our love for God and the Church may be overcome by our trials. The answer is to have our hearts soften and to create a fertile ground in our hears for faith.

Mary R. Duraham
"Just keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming"

Life can be heavy the noise of this world can drown out God. If we listen to the Holy Ghost we can overcome the world. Slow down and listen to to Lord.

How do Parents teach their children listen to the Spirit? 1. Point out when they are feeling the spirit. 2. Prepare our homes to be a place the spirit is had. 3. Help the children understand how the spirit speaks to them, specifically.

Donald Hallstrom

A correct understanding our our heavenly heritage is essential. Do we know that we are Children of God? Is that how we define ourselves? There is Pain in this life There is suffering in life there is doubt in life. What is our immediate response in these times? We can choose our response. That is the point of Meditation. we can chose to act on the Knowledge of our devise heritage.

We live in a world that can distract us and make us forget our true nature

Human weakness and worldly distractions makes is so easy to treat casually our relationship with God

Gary E. Stevenson

"Where are the Keys?"

With our the proper keys we cannot preform our intended functions. Never again do we have to ask where the keys are, in relation to the keys of the Gospel. Keys unlock our potential. I'm starting to see some kind of theme of achieving our devise potential. We are not left out in the cold without the keys for long.

Kevin R. Duncan

There is nobody who will not be a 'victim' at some point. We can forgive and not me a victim twice. We can forgive and be free. Lack of forgiveness causes unnecessary pain. Every injustice will be compensated, so we have no need to worry about punishment and our own anger.

We all have in our lives Saul-like individuals, who have Paul-like potential. You don't know all their lives, take that into account and be merciful in your judgement. 

To forgive is not to condone. but nobody should be defined only by the worst thing we have ever done. 

Elder Snow

Be thou Humble

If we humble ourselves our prayers are answered and we have peace of mine. Humility increases our abilities. Simply living live can be a humbling experience.

Dale G. Renlund

The greater the distance between the giver and receiver the more the receiver gains a sense of entitlement. The closer we are to God the more thankful we are for what blessings we receive. 

"Murmuring is the scriptural equivalent of whining" I've always had a theory about whining and complaining; If it bothers you enough to complain, is should bother you enough to do something about it, also, If there's something you can do about, stop complaining and do that thing. If there's nothing you can do about it, then complaining is a waste of time.

If life were truly fair, we would never be resurrected and would basically burn forever for our sins. Be grateful that life isn't fair.

Easter Sunday

       

I'm baaaaaaaaaack!

          Happy Easter Sunday, all y'alls! For today I thought I'd go head and talk about my thoughts on the Church's other Easter video "Follow Him—An Easter Message about Jesus Christ" Go on and watch it, I'll just be here, waiting.

What? No, I'm not loading anything, this is just my waiting gif.

          Done? Good. Let's jam about it, my groovy cats

          I'm just going to dive right in, okay? In order to go along with someone's request to "follow me" it requires, as the video said, trust, belief and action. But how do we get those three things? I'd say action is the best place to start. As we act on Jesus's call to follow him we build trust in Him. From trust comes belief that He can help up and with trust and belief we then are better equipped to act than before. 

          Now at about the 40 second mark the narrator makes a point I would like to touch on. They mention that Jesus's invitation to follow Him will show us how to love others and how to love ourselves. Loving others is relatively easy, mostly because most people go to great lengths to put their most lovable attributes at the forefront. But loving ourselves is a little more complicated because we can see behind the facade. It can be hard to love yourself because you know all your dirty secrets. But it is part of God's plan that we learn to love ourselves. That may seem contrary ,though. God asks us to look beyond ourselves but also wants us to love ourselves? Crazy, right? WRONG.

           We are suppose to be like Christ, right? Well, you know what? Jesus likes you, and if you want to be like Jesus you have to like you, too. Jesus suffered for you, died for you, literally went to Hell and back for you, face it, weather you like it or not, you're worthy of being loved.

I guess that's all I have for you guy's today, so.

Namaste, y'all,

Michael

          

Easter Saturday

          I said I'd be back so here I am! Saturday post!

          No! Come on, get back here!

          It'll be short, I promise.


          In thinking on what to share for today I realized that the Saturday after the Crucifixion was probably the second most uneventful day recorded in scripture. (The first was when back in Genesis when God took the day off ). At least it would have appeared so from the perspective of the early Christians. On this day all the action happened behind the scenes, and the followers of Christ were left to just think.
          Why did he do that? Simple. Because boy-oh-boy did those people have a lot to think about. Their leader who they believed to be the Son of God, who preformed many miracles right in front of them, who time and again escaped death had just been killed. They were feeling lost and confused and sad and probably a million other emotions that I will never know. So they were given time and space to feel those things.
          Sometimes people get the misconception that we need to suppress our feeling in order to master them. This makes our feelings far more complicated than they need to be. It makes our emotions out to be invaders or conquerors who want to take over and make us do all sorts of things. This is false. Feeling only want one thing; to be felt. Let them do that and they will pass. They may be strong feelings and long lasting ones, but they will pass. So much suffering is caused from people refusing to accept how they feel. Accept how you feel and you can realized why you feel that way. Once you realize the origin of those feelings you can then act on them.
          So for today I would like to challenge you to slowdown for a second and just process your life, your feelings, who you really are. Then you can figure out where you're going.

Namaste, y'all,
Michael

Good Friday

          Forgive me readers for I have sinned. The sin that is most abominable among all the sins of a blogger; I have failed to offer up interesting content.
         In my defense, though, I just couldn't think of anything interesting. BUT something just came up to help me out; Easter.

Embed from Getty Images

         So for the Easter weekend I'm going to give you some content. Aren't I generous? "But where oh where are you going to find such content?" I hear someone ask. Oddly specific and useful question, guy standing outside my window. I think a good place to start would be with the Church's Easter video for this year; "#Hallelujah" Go ahead and click that link to watch it. Go on, I'll wait.

          Done? Good. Let's get down to it.
          First off, let me get this off my chest; I'm not a fan of the title. #Hallelujah just sound kind of weird to me. Maybe it's the juxtaposition of an ancient and meaningful word like 'Hallelujah' with a fresh new word like 'Hashtag'. Maybe I just hate the alliteration. Maybe it hits a little too close to #blessed for me. But I can see why the Church would do that. After all, in today's world if it doesn't have a hashtag it doesn't exist. So I'll set that aside for now.

          Assuming you really did watch the video, you'll know that it basically talked about Christ's death and resurrection and what that means for us. Specifically, it touched on how death is conquered through Christ. "For as in Adam all die, Even so, in Christ shall all be made alive."
          Now this got me thinking, What does that even mean? What is death, anyways? Now before you call me an idiot for questioning something so basic-

          -Wow, hurtful. Let me explain. Death is basically the loss of the ability to function. When a battery loses power, it's dead, when a pen runs out of ink, it's dead, Generally speaking, when something dies, that's it, it's done, kaput, no more, game over, man, game over. But, as the video points out, Christ's resurrection from death means that all death can be overcome. This included the big, obvious deaths, like death of the body and the death of the spirit though sin. But it also includes the little things, like the death of a social life, the death of love, the death of passion for a job, the death of peace in your life, The death of a blog (You know who you are!). If you feel like there's something in your life that just doesn't work anymore, the atonement can help you resurrect that, bring it back better than ever.
          And I think we should use it for these little things. How can we expect to use the atonement to it's full effect for the big things if we are afraid to use it for the little things?
          Resurrection is possible for all things and it will always be an improvement on what came before.
Namaste, y'all,
Michael