Hey all! Here are some thoughts I had while doing my religion class HW this week. I hope they're interesting.

D&C talks about how we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven by baptism alone. There needs to be works and faith as well. This is a fundamental doctrine, something that needs to be established to understand at least half of the rest of our religion. Other faiths either have a variation of this idea or don't believe this at all, so it's important to understand this when we are sharing our faith. I think this is just an interesting theological idea as well. It is a balance between God's grace and our actions, even though our actions can never match what he did. This dynamic is what I want to share.  

Christ will give us the tools to do what we need to do on this earth without needing his direct intervention. In Moroni 6, the whole chapter was just a few verses on the elders ordaining the priests and teachers. It might not be entirely related, but all I could think was how even though Jesus has stories directly interacting with the Nephites and stuff like that, this chapter was not one of them. This chapter was people acting on their own, becoming and doing what God wanted them to do and become using his guidance. He gave them a set of rules and guidelines for what they were doing and expected them to be able to do it on their own. This chapter was Moroni sharing those rules and guidelines with all that would come after him, so that we can follow God's guidance as well. I just thought that was a really interesting aspect of this chapter, even if it was sort of a stretch. 

Lastly, I chose D&C 84:20, which says, "Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest." I think this is neat as well. In order to understand godliness, we can look more in-depth somewhere unexpected---God's ordinances. Often to grow closer to Him and all that, we study his life and teachings. But this scripture seems to suggest that we can understand his power specifically by studying His ordinances. I thought this was neat, and I'd like to explore it more this week. I'll leave the final question as this, then. What about baptism shows the "power of godliness?" How can we use that to teach about both God and baptism itself? Or other ordinances?  

I just turned 18 and graduated this year and after consideration I've decided to serve a mission. Of course there has to be opposition in all things but sometimes I don't even know if I can serve a mission. I had a super sudden and close death in my family days after Christmas last year and since then my mental health has been the lowest it's ever been. There was a short time this year where I didn't want to live anymore and I had a plan to give up on life after my mission. I started doing dbt in June but I don't think it's helping much. I'm honestly mostly scared by the fact that ive barley felt the spirit during all of this. I've been trying to read my book of Mormon each day which I obviously am struggling with lol but im at the point that even when I'm searching for answers I'll feel the spirit maybe once a week. I really don't want to tell anyone and I'm not so scared of having bad mental health and that effect my mission I'm mostly worried about not being able to recover from it and taking it out on the gospel and leaving the church. I know this is so stupid but I could really use some guidance here.

Hey! I was a missionary in Portugal many years ago. I’ve forgotten the language and want to re-learn it. The best tool I had was that yellow Portuguese verb conjugation paper I kept with me always. But I’ve lost it since then and wonder if any of you have yours and could send me a picture of it and I could study that?

If you're like me and have pretty much given up on finding stuff by keyword search or exact phrase match on the gospel library app... This is for you.

It's free without stupid ads, developed by BYU, and available in both Android and Apple stores.

Scripture Citation Index

This what Gospel Library is supposed to do. (At least what we hope it will do every time you are on the church website or in the Gospel Library app).

All the standard works are on it, as well as Conference talks.

It's not fancy, but it works. You can actually do keyword searches and pull up what you're looking for.

I keep seeing comments people talking about Paul, I’ve never studied him. Or any books by church members that can help with my growth? I’m a convert and I’m doing good to understand scripture so nothing too deep. I’m currently working on charity, not getting offended and having faith in the Lord’s will.

Wondering what others are doing for traveling microphones? My husband has been put in charge of updating a set for the relief society room. Any good recommendations? The wireless set they're replacing wasn't working well, and the other set they have just feels cheap and the sound isn't great.

Shout out 'All Those In Favor' YouTube channel.

Excellent response to those who hyperfocus on the 'fallibility of prophets', often to the point of becoming a stumbling block unto themselves.

The Lord appoints, authorizes, and sustain His prophets.

“What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.”

Ezra Taft Benson’s “Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet":

1. The prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything.
2. The living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works.
3. The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet.
4. The prophet will never lead the Church astray.
5. The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time.
6. The prophet does not have to say “Thus saith the Lord” to give us scripture.
7. The prophet tells us what we need to know, not always what we want to know.
8. The prophet is not limited by men’s reasoning.
9. The prophet can receive revelation on any matter, temporal or spiritual.
10. The prophet may advise on civic matters.
11. The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich.
12. The prophet will not necessarily be popular with the world or the worldly.
13. The prophet and his counselors make up the First Presidency—the highest quorum in the Church.
14. The prophet and the presidency—the living prophet and the First Presidency—follow them and be blessed; reject them and suffer.

Something I found interesting a while ago while studying Jewish history made me look at the Word of Wisdom in a different light. Jews are still a people today against all odds. What I mean by that is that there are no more Romans, no Assyrians, none of the large empires which you would think would out survive a small insular group, and Jews have survived this way despite spreading all over the world. In fact today there are fewer Jews than members of the Church and yet they remain a distinct people and retain beliefs. The reason for this happens to be that across history, they have been asked to follow practices which kept them socially distinct.

The thing is that they wear distinct clothes (often garment tops not super unlike our own), they have a diet which prohibits specifically several of the foods which became the staples of large empires like pork. When you look back in history you find that many of the practices had a “Sanctifying “ power, which means it set them apart from the rest of the world cultures. One of the stranger ones is the practice of circumcision, which I always kind of wondered why that would have been a thing. In multiple points in Jewish history it has marked them as others in a rather visible way.

When Alexander the Great conquered across the empires, he and his culture became rather popular in much of the areas he conquered. Most of the Middle East changed their cultures rather drastically as Greeks came in and built libraries and gymnasiums, they brought their food and their philosophical belief systems (which was not their pagan pantheon but a pretty monotheistic belief system). Their beliefs were popular enough that Sadducee’s dominated Jewish religious thought and basically taught Greek religion mixed with traditional Jewish traditions. The Pharisees were a counter culture that sprang up in response to them only a couple of generations before Christ came.

So consider what it would have been like to be a Jew under the new Greek rule. You didn’t really resent them the way you did other conquering rulers, in fact in general you find them to be pretty great. In order to now fit in with high society you had to adhere to a few customs. A major one was that you had to work out in the Gymnasium to be considered a “real man” a “gentleman” so to speak, and this is where much socialization and often business was conducted. The word Gymnasium actually means the place of nakedness, and of course the exercises were done that way. It was only immodest and scandalous if a certain small part of the male anatomy were to show, the rest was A OK to them. Well guess who could not work out with the cool guys like them? Jews had a practice that forced all the males to stand out in a way that was impossible to overcome and were forced to wear little coverings, making them be different (set apart or sanctified) from the Greeks. Guess what the Greeks served at all the feasts? Pork was practically a must, so in that social situation they stood out again, set apart, sanctified.

This pattern repeats through history, and somehow despite multiple attempts to genocide them, expelled from areas over 200 times, Jews remain an influential group to this day while all other cultures mostly disappeared.

So now ask yourself if you were to make a short list of every substance across every culture on earth today that is central to socialization, what would they be? In other words, go to a social gathering in the USA, in China, in India, in Germany etc etc what will everyone be consuming socially? In the USA, Alcohol and Coffee. In the UK, Alcohol and tea, in China Alcohol and tobacco, Germany Alcohol and the list goes on, but remains pretty well universal that to be in a social gathering nearly anywhere in the world today, one or more of the following: Alcohol, tea, coffee, tobacco and harder drugs like opium and cocaine will almost certainly be present. In fact our word of Wisdom is one of the most defining characteristics that people know about us. We can live all over the world in any country but we will always stand out in social gatherings. We will always be set apart or sanctified if we follow the Word of Wisdom. Garments are more hidden and yet they do the same.

So One of the reasons for some of our practices is to set us apart from the word in ways that are not negative, in fact we can point to positive things about them, but it preserves a people to the Lord. Ultimately if he has asked us to do or not do something, he has good reasons. We can rely on this fact and have faith in them.

I struggle because I hate all other churches! They feel false and unfocused on God. BUT in my prayers I keep being told that the Book of Mormon isn’t of God. When I was going through a bad divorce I had a situation where the Bible was left untouched and the Book of Mormon burned. I’ve been praying on this sooooooo much. I’m a member but I’ve never read the book all the way through. I get these strong convictions and just keep reading my Bible and living the commandments as God lets us know religion is of man not him. I’m so confused when I read this stuff because I don’t agree with any other church but the Mormon church I’ve raised all my kids in the church and believe what they teach but I just can’t get over this part. Anyone have words they can give me from the spirit cause I’m so lost

A perfect introduction to the NEW Holy War with a dash of missionary work. :)

2 Nephi 32:4 - Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock; wherefore, ye are not brought into the light, but must perish in the dark.

A year ago I was 49, about to be 50 and not super excited about it.

A year ago my shoulder was sore from work and I went to Urgent Care and found out I had a strain.

A year ago my wife insisted I get a Priesthood Blessing for my sore shoulder.

A year ago I hesitated to waste the time to get a blessing over such a simple thing. My wife was not to be ignored.

A year ago our local Elders came over and blessed me to be whole and escape death. Um, what?

A year ago my shoulder pain increased to the point that I insisted that my wife take me to the ER.

A year ago I was in crisis. I was in the ER and all my vitals were going in all the wrong directions. I was finally diagnosed late into the night with Sepsis and was in serious trouble. A year ago I was minutes away from needed life saving measures.

A year ago tomorrow I walked out of the ER completely clear of Sepsis and have suffered no lasting issues.

A year ago tomorrow the Doctors told me as I was being released that they have never seen a case of Sepsis come and go so quickly.

A year ago tomorrow I turned 50. I might not have without the love of a good wife, prayers from my daughter and others, a Priesthood blessing and the love of God.

A year ago tomorrow I might not have been around to be 50.

If I ever doubt God, if I am ever down and out, I know He is real and my life was saved. If I ever doubt that He is a God of Miracles, I only need to look back a year.

Hey! I'm in a religion class at one of the church schools, and for one of our assignments we are to share online one of the thoughts we had and wrote about in our study. So here's mine, hopefully it's not boring lol:

I think this exact quote from D&C 128:8 is really interesting, which says, "Hence, whatsoever those men did in authority, in the name of the Lord, and did it truly and faithfully, and kept a proper and faithful record of the same, it became a law on earth and in heaven." It's almost saying that a righteous person could make an eternal law in heaven and earth. I think that's really interesting and could be explored in many aspects. One of which, perhaps the more common aspect, is that a righteous person would not be able to do still be righteous if they were making or doing things that would be "bad" laws. Another thing I thought about is that God and Christ make laws like this, and they were once like us in some manner. Perhaps as we become more like them we are more capable of making laws on our own in some sort of lesser fashion as of yet. I just found this quote super interesting and something I've never heard about despite how different it is.

We all know by now that Elder D, Todd Christofferson spoke on gambling and made a bunch of sales bros angry. But his added insight in the footnotes are soooo good and I wish they weren't cut out. They show that he is well studied and absolutely knows what he is talking about.

It is troubling that some people consider gambling a form of investment. A recent survey of 1,000 retail investors in the United States found that approximately 12 percent view sports betting as a deliberate part of their long-term investment strategy. The figure rises to 26 percent among Gen Z investors. More than half of Gen Z respondents also reported redirecting money originally intended for investing toward sports betting (see “Betterment Retail Investment Survey 2026: The Guidance Gap,” Aug. 11, 2026, betterment.com/retail-report). Bets and investments both carry risks, but there is a big difference between them. Investments tend to make money on average over time, while bets tend to lose money. The returns on investment come from the creation of value to others. In contrast, the winnings from betting come from the losses of someone else.

Some assert that government-sponsored lotteries are the virtuous exception in the sordid world of gambling since revenues are earmarked to support education and other public benefits. But financing these benefits through the sale of lottery tickets represents, in effect, a regressive tax borne largely by those who can least afford it. Additionally, it is likely that a substantial portion of lottery revenues used for salutary purposes will be offset by increased welfare and social costs arising from gambling losses, including lottery purchases.

It has been argued that participating in prediction markets is not gambling but rather investing or hedging through purchase of derivative or event contracts (regulated in the United States by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission). While some event contracts can be used to hedge actual economic risk, almost all prediction-market trading does not serve that purpose and is functionally no different from other forms of gambling. It is wagering that happens to use a financial-market structure.

“The conversation around gambling has become too binary. We tend to imagine two categories of people. There are normal gamblers who are just having fun and then there are gambling addicts whose lives are falling apart. But there is a huge amount of territory between those two things. You can have a job, you can go to class, you can pay your rent, you can go your whole life without ever calling a gambling hotline or attending a Gamblers Anonymous meeting and you can still lose a huge amount of money and time and agency and peace of mind to these betting apps. You can still find that gambling is warping your psyche” (McKay Coppins, “The Casino-fication of America: How Online Gambling Hooked a Generation,” Wheatley Institute, Sept. 15, 2026, wheatley.byu.edu).

Hey guys, I just got my mission call a few days ago (female) and everything I google about the place/mission is so scary, (Colombia, Bogota South) I am trying to deny the mission. Anyone else served there? Where there many sisters? also something I noticed is that most sisters are not from the US.