LDSVALLEY

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About LDSVALLEY

  • Birthday October 9

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Berwick Nova Scotia Canada
  • Interests
    History, reading, writing, family, model railroading
  • Religion
    Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

LDSVALLEY's Achievements

  1. I'm a Sunday School President The Gospel Principle book changed a couple of years ago. I just got the 2015 curriculum order in and it is a new President of church book of course, that is the only change this year. The Sunday School Youth Classes changed 2 years ago as well. What is changing is how we teach classes. We've done 2 training sessions in the Ward so far and I've had a couple from the stake. A focus more on bringing the spirit into the room and less on the facts and figures. As an example it is more important to feel the spirit and believe that young Joseph Smith went into the sacred grove and spoke with God. His age and the date it happened is nice to know but not as important. And yes the church is encouraging us to make more use of multi-media and to use more of those resources where we can. For example we ordered less President of the Church Manuals and are encouraging members who use electronic means to NOT take a manual. Manuals for other classes will change at some point but nothing has been said as of yet.
  2. I came from an abuse family, Father was an alcoholic, mostly it was verbal but occasionally physical toward my Mother. Remember that your children are being effected by this behavior and will have to find a way to deal with it. They might accept it and become the same, believe it and be negative about themselves when they get older, or rise above it but will still have to deal with it. I won't tell you to leave him because I don't know him or you or the situation to offer that kind of advise. Others are correct in that it is abuse and the Lord does not expect us to accept it. How we deal with it can make a big difference. In my old Ward there was a family parents, and a daughter who were wonderful examples of the gospel, the kids of the Ward loved him, he would bring treats every Sunday. The mother and daughter took my wife under their wing and helped her out a great deal and she continues to stay in touch. One day during fasting testimony he went up and gave his testimony of the changing power of the Lord and my jaw hit the floor. This wonderful man and model family was not what once was. He had physically and verbally abused his wife until she fled into another mans arms. He ended up going to jail over it, while in there she had a baby from the other man. While in jail he found the church. I can not imagine the pain and trials it must have taken for this family to bind their wounds, heal the past and become the shinning example they were. Two reasons I tell you this, one people can change IF they really want to. And when I talked to him about it a few months later he explained the problem was the pressures he was under dealing with life, job, health, his past with abusive parents undermined his attempts to rise above how he acted. He did not use this to excuse his horrible behavior, he just explained that at that stage of his life he couldn't get out of the circle he was trapped into and it was only by going to jail and forcing a change in perspective that he was able to deal with fixing himself. Protect yourself and your children first and foremost. Do not accept the situation as normal. Do not jump to any options. Talk to professionals and Church Leaders about what is going on. And take the time to try and see into his perception. Is he lashing out at you because he has medical issues, employment issues, personalty issues, or continuing a cycle from his childhood. Non of these are acceptable excuses for such behavior but neither you or he can deal with this if you don't understand where it is coming from. Seek guidance from the Lord only you and the Lord truly understand your situation.
  3. Odd, in our Ward when a Bishop is released he reverts back to Brother so and so. We had been told by the Stake once that this was the appropriate thing to do when I was in another Ward but don't know if it was official direction or not from higher up. Our Last Bishop was a friend I told him during church or anything church related he was the Bishop, outside of that he was still Brad. As a rule and we were read a letter about this from the Stake a year or so ago. In church we are to refer to each other as Brother or Sister wherever possible. For me I have always divided it as this. Official church business I use either brother or sister or title, ie President, councilor etc. Church related, teaching or emails etc Brother or Sister. Outside church and not connected to church topics I use first names. I do this so there is no misunderstandings about official business, gospel items or just being me. I have seen where at an activity or non church gathering someone took something a Leader said when they would be considered 'off duty' as official and caused all kinds of issues.
  4. We each join the church because we believe the Gospel to be true and want to walk in the path of Heavenly Father. That is the ONLY thing that counts. In our Ward I have spoken out many times about the people who walk away from the gospel because they were offended which most of the time fit one of these categories: I started to give a list from my experience why people leave the church but I don't have that much time and it boils down to something simple anyway. We determine how things are by our own experiences and how we view things. If we think we are being singled out because we think we are different then that is all that we will see. If we set our goal as returning to the Lord as all that matters and we approach each situation from that viewpoint than we will never see the differences that we might believe are there. What I hate the most is when you ask someone why they are not coming to church and you get: I don't come because this [person or leader or group] did this [ ignored me, offended me, chastised me, gossiped about me, hurt my feelings, taught false doctrine] so I don't go. Lets look at that from the spiritual perspective. I deny my place in heaven because I think someone did something to me that I didn't like so to get even with them I deny myself the gospel by not attending church. Does that make sense to anyone??? I put this in because if you are concerned about it now it will be on your mind if you decide to join and from your perspective that is what you will see. Focus on the Lord and he will take care of the rest. We are still humans after we are baptized, we have good and bad members as well as Leaders but none of that changes the truth of the Gospel or our need for it.
  5. If they are not baptized they have no covenants attached to the Sacrament. For them to take it is eating a piece of bread and drinking some water. If it makes them more comfortable to take it let them. It happens all the time in our Ward. The only time anything is said about it is the occasional long term investigator who begins to act like a member then the Bishop has met with them and asked them to abstain. The only time I have seen a real issue is when the Bishopric made a mistake and gave a very long term investigator a talk assignment when I was Mission Leader. No one stopped the person but many members were unhappy about it and a couple complained to the Investigator. You might find a few members are bent out of shape over them taking the sacrament but really it is none of their business who takes or doesn't take it. Just take the time to explain the entire issue to your family so if someone does complain they are not caught of guard. But anyone as far as I know is allowed to take the sacrament unless specifically told not to by a Church Leader. It just doesn't carry the same importance.
  6. I am in the Kentville Ward for the last 12 years, I joined in the Halifax Ward 18 years ago. While Kentville is a town name it is not where I live, up here we are spread out and our Ward covers 5 towns. However I don't worry about letting people know where I live so: I live outside Berwick Nova Scotia, Canada. The closest weapon I have to pack would be a novelty sword a friend from Pakistan gave me as a wedding gift. (It was a gag.) All of our Wards Branches and Twigs are named after a nearby town. The only odd exception is our temple. It is located in Cole Harbour but is called the Halifax Temple. Don't know if it is because Halifax was the Largest city (only 20 min. drive.) or because it is in the Halifax-Dartmouth Stake. Although shortly after the temple was built the province amalgamated Cole Harbour, Dartmouth, Halifax, Bedford and Sackville into the Halifax Regional Municipality in order to make the name of the temple correct!! Just kidding about why they amalgamated but perhaps the Temple name was divine intervention as the Lord knew it would fit better in a couple of years.
  7. Greetings, hope you enjoy it here.
  8. In Nova Scotia only 1 requirement ...... breathing!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously we have a doctor shortage many can't get a family doctor. When we moved 1 1/2 hours away from our family doctor we were going to still keep him but got lucky. We moved back to the area my wife was from and because she was a former patient as a child we were able to get back with her local doctor.
  9. I am a cleaner in a college and it is a matter of safety. The first thing after sweeping a floor is to put cleaner in all the toilets and hard surfaces to let them soak. I know what is in those chemicals and you do not want to sit or lay on them. They need to sit for about 15 minutes to disinfect the surface. To let someone use the area would mean to clean the surface, wait until they are done then start over. To let them use the washroom without making sure the chemical is cleaned up is indeed a lawsuit. The second consideration is you only need in the washroom for 2 min. That should not be a big deal you think. Neither does the person after you, and after them and so on. Employees are on a time limit and can't keep stopping for every person who needs in. I know I clean a 5 stall, 3 urinal washroom top to bottom in 15 minutes. And by waiting you get a nice clean washroom to use! What bothers me more is due to staff cutbacks we only clean the washrooms once per day in a school with 500 students. ( I do cheat and usually do them twice.)
  10. Don't worry about it here in Nova Scotia they are going to gender neutral washrooms anyway. At the college I work at they are taking out men and women washrooms and building single toilet washrooms in place of them. They are doing this in part to get around issues that have come up over cross dressing youth in schools who believe they should be the opposite sex from going into the wrong washroom. It's happened in a couple of different schools and every time a school takes a stand they get hit with being accused of not recognizing the persons rights. Although no one seems to say much about the rights of the other students of the proper sex trying to use a washroom with the person in it. One school even tried to solve it by letting the cross dressing student use the staff washroom but that still wasn't good enough. A decade ago many places were putting in family friendly washrooms to address the issue you mentioned but that seems to have died out. A few more years and there will not be separate washrooms anymore.
  11. I take med's that need food. I can go without the med's but it makes me not the most pleasant person to be around from the withdrawl. I can take them without food in my system but it is hard on my system. The Lord knows our intent, those who fast to simply be seen as being better Mormons then others gain nothing from the fast. Those who can not fast for legit reasons will still be blessed by the Lord for what ever they can do. Don't worry about it too much, if you can do a full fast or a part fast that is great. But NEVER put your life in harms way to try. Health issues, pregnancy and other real issues are legit reasons not to fast. The only one you have to worry about is the Lord, and he knows our intent and desire.
  12. tell him When my wife and I joined we had months of family telling us all the anti Mormon stuff. I joked about it and explained and didn't take it personal. None of our family has the slightest interest 17 years later but they have attended our 3 children's baptism's. Been to LDS Nativity many times. Some have fed Missionaries. And all now respect our choice. If you don't come forth and talk to your Father man to man he will feel you are ashamed of it. And that it is something secretive or cult like. Pick a time, sit down and talk to him. Then deal with the results as they come. 95% of the time the negative stuff is from not understanding what is truth and what is lies. When you explain it and it makes sense then it is easier. Remember if he has negativity it is likely over concern for you not an attack on you or your ability to decide your own life. Be prepared for a period of distrust of the church, but if you are forth coming about your LDS life your own example will show how good your choice is. Invite him to activities explain Home Teaching and ask permission for them to visit you etc. It's okay if he says no but always offer. You never know when they will say yes.
  13. Sit down and talk with the EQ President. Ask him what his goals are for his Presidency. Many jump in and don't take the time to stop and think about what they want to achieve during their time as president. What plans if any are there? What specific help or duties does he expect from the secretary. In my experience you will find that they do not have a clear understanding of the secretary roll. They usually think it is taking attendance and minutes and that is about it. The most effective Presidencies work together to reduce everyone's load. A good secretary reduces the load on the President by guiding and directing issues to the appropriate person. Does an issue require the President to step in or can it go to a councilor. Does the Councillors have clearly defined rolls and responsibilities? A good secretary working with a good President can deal with the structure and organization allowing the Leadership to deal with the issues. The EQ President can be a very consuming calling at it gets worse if they are not well organized or do not delegate rolls and duties to others. I have found and had the Stake agree with me that one of the biggest issues we have is not taking time to train people when giving callings and Leaders not understanding what the real duties of callings are. If you call um but don't train um and don't use um you lose um. A secretary can have a major impact on how well any unit functions. For example one thing I learned to do is to sit so I can watch the people in the group. Often I have been able to tell someone is upset by either someone or something in a class by watching their body language. Talking to them after class I have been able to defuse several situations before someone has stormed away. Remember you do not get released when a President does, you are not a particular President's secretary you are the Elder Quorum secretary, you are responsible for the continuation of the Quorum between Leaders. Any EQ can survive a bad Presidency but you have a major impact on how well a Quorum makes the transition between Leaders. It is a foolish new President who calls a new secretary as soon as there is a Leadership change and a worse Bishopric who lets it happen. Learn your role, you might have to ask several times for information, research it on church sites, read the online handbook of instruction 2. Decide what goals you have for your calling and find out the President's goals. Do everything you can to help the Leaders. I get angry when I hear Leaders telling people it's okay the secretary position is an easy calling. They do it to not intimidate the person. I know the opposite. A good secretary is more important to a President then Good Councilors. You have a solid President and Secretary and the Quorum is in good hands no matter how dedicated the Councilors. Remember you are responsible to the President but also to the Quorum. Do what you can to help the Quorum progress no matter how good or long the President is there. When I have had the calling I have had to sometimes fight uphill battles to keep the Presidency from straying off the guidelines laid out by the Handbook. They get focused on individual issues and it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. And to not see that a solution to one problem they come up with actually create new problems in other areas. As Ward Clerk I found out I was supposed to instruct new secretaries in their role outside of their auxiliaries. I got the backing of the Bishop and we had a meeting with all the secretaries, President's and Councilors. When I was done most of the people realized the importance of secretaries and how under used they were. For the next year until Bishops changed and a cascade of calling and releases followed we found things worked easier, more focus was put on issues quicker and the Leadership load was more distributed and everyone worked together easier. I am not a super teacher it was just getting everyone to understand everyone else's role and the interconnection between them. I wish you every success in your calling. Never think of it or yourself as unimportant. Even if the Leaders in your Ward don't get it the Lord does. He knows the importance of your calling. Learn your role according to the church, find out the President's expectations, think of your own goals, study the Quorum's needs then keeping within the church guidelines work to blend them together. Thank you for caring enough about your new calling to ask and research it.
  14. ....there were only 1, 2, or 3 sets of 70's ..... you kissed wife and kids goodbye and went on a mission. .... your family history was on microfiche. .... your baptism certificate was from a typewriter. .... you had to go to salt lake to see general conference. ..... you had to wait for a magazine to come to get the home or visit teaching message for the month. .... you could not get answers to this question via computer.