Kenngo1969

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n26rdLl3qLiWc3rsw5W93MHSruHG3zJK1FxtJhIybWA/edit?tab=t.0

I've posted this on the forum before, but I was just thinking about it again, and with Easter coming up, if I can be forgiven for the duplication, I thought it would be appropriate to repost. Happy Easter, 2026, Everyone! An Easter Post 2019: Lisa and the Lessons She Taught Me About The Resurrection By Ken K. Gourdin Happy Easter, everyone! I thought, perhaps, that I had shared everything I could relating to Easter on the Blog in previous years, and I felt that it was likely that this Easter would come and go without any new inspiration. Then, since one of the central themes of Easter is the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I thought that perhaps it would be appropriate for me to share one of the most profound experiences I had while serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wherein I was reminded of some profound truths about the resurrection. If you happen to follow another religious tradition, or even if you are not particularly religious at all, I hope our common high regard for Jesus of Nazareth, notwithstanding any differences in the details of our respective beliefs, will carry the day. The Book of Mormon prophet, Alma the younger, testified of the resurrection this way: As I’ve written elsewhere on the Blog, given my physical (and other) limitations, I must confess no small degree of anticipation of experiencing what, exactly, it will be like, first to be a spirit and then to be a resurrected being whose spirit has been united with a glorified, immortal, perfect, resurrected physical body. I was taught a powerful lesson about the resurrection by a young lady who left an indelible impact on me which continues to this day. I quote from my autobiography, Lots of Good, Some Bad, and a Little Ugly in the First 32 Years (Collierville TN: Instantpublisher.com [2003]), pages 140-145: As Christ rose, triumphantly, from the tomb on the third day following His crucifixion, so we, too, because of His death and resurrection, will rise from the grave. At the resurrection, our spirits will be united with glorified, immortal, resurrected, perfected physical bodies which are free from all of the limitations inherent to mortality—whether disability, illness, deformity, weakness, or any other such limitation. In no small part because of my indelible relationship with this incredible young lady, this I know. About kenngo1969 Just as others must breathe to live, I must write. I have been writing creatively almost ever since I learned to write, period! I have written fiction, book- and article-length nonfiction, award-winning poetry, news, sports, features, and op-eds. I hope, one day, to write some motivational nonfiction, a decent-selling novel, a stage play, and a screen play. View all posts by kenngo1969 → This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

You betcha!

I asked the font of all knowledge, Google Gemini , the following question: In relevant part, here is its response: The core of the teaching is that while the Savior's government will be the only political authority, individuals will retain their agency to worship—or not worship—as they choose. He further explained that while everyone must acknowledge Christ’s civil authority, conversion to His Church is a separate, voluntary matter: "When all nations are so subdued to Jesus that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess, there will still be millions on the earth who will not believe in him; but they will be obliged to acknowledge his kingly government." (Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 115) Clarifying the Doctrine Later leaders, such as Joseph Fielding Smith, expanded on this by explaining who would be allowed to remain on the earth to practice these other faiths: Terrestrial Law: Those who remain will be the "honorable men of the earth" who lived a clean and virtuous life, even if they did not accept the restored Gospel. ... A word of caution: Gemini can pull from various sources, both official and not. If "Joe Schmoe's Latter-day Saint Site" says that [x] is official teaching, that is, of course, different from ChurchofJesusChrist[dot org], saying that it's official teaching, and Gemini may conflate the two. But, for what it's worth ...

I realize this is like me attempting to "play tennis with the net down" to suggest this to one of my non-Latter-day-Saint friends, but, to your parting point, spending time in one of the Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does much the same thing for [many, and hopefully most/all] of us.

Fair enough. I'm glad I'll never be a Bishop. [Among myriad other things, no doubt, it's that "husband-of-one-wife" thingy that always has hung me up, and it ain't because I would need to divorce at least one plural wife even to be eligible. Just sayin'! It's like I always say: "Ya hafta monog before ya kin polyg!" ] It would be fairly simple for my Bishop, though, to determine that I am a full tithe payer from my history.

I'm late to the party, but I thought I might as well throw this in, as well: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol16/iss1/5/

Done, and will do!

It's been my personal experience in a couple of organizations (though, admittedly, perhaps my perception is skewing the reality) that people who think they understand the concept of "disruptive innovation" have been long on disruption, and short on innovation. Just one man's opinion ... your mileage may vary, not valid in all areas, void where prohibited, see retailer for details.

With due respect to the OP (indeed, with absolutely NO DIS-respect intended toward the OP) while I hope no one gets the idea that I am a "cafeteria Latter-day Saint" (a little of this, because I don't particularly care for it; a lot of that, because I love it; none of that, because I don't care for it— at all; and so on), and while, certainly, "liv(ing) by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God" is a worthy long-term goal (as in, as much of Eternity as it takes), neither I nor my life matches "ideal Latter-day-Saint-ism" in most respects. I don't question the inspiration and revelation underlying most all of what the Brethren teach (and even if, for some reason, I were to question it, I would be apt to take a "my-ways-are-not-Thy-ways," "I-know-not-save-the-Lord-commanded-me" approach to anything I did question). That said, much of it doesn't apply in my life in the ideal way that, perhaps, they envision. What to do? The only thing I can say is that fortunately for me: (1) He's not finished with me yet; (2) I am [to be] judged, not only by what I do, but also based on the thoughts and intents of my heart; and (3) Eternity is a very long time. I simply don't have it in me to demand that the Church (or the Lord; Ay, there's the rub!) jettison the ideal simply because, at least at present, it doesn't conform to my reality. My $0.02, actual value, as always, much less. Others' mileage may, and likely does, vary.

12th [sic] what? 12th [sic] who? Does this mean we can ignore the other 11 apostles? (Sorry. Couldn't resist! )

It was one of those "big" little things.

For what it's worth [and I make absolutely no claim that this is, in any way, representative: In fact, I'm quite sure that it's not] currently, I volunteer for the Utah Developmental Disabilities Council and for the Advisory Council for the Utah Institute for Disability Research Policy and Practice [yes, the acronym/initialism is I-DRIPP ]. The total time commitment isn't all that impressive: A couple of hours [at most, a few] per month.

"[O]ften get the chance to serve in ways you would otherwise never (in a million years) volunteer for"? You mean, like, Ward Technology "Specialist"? I joke than when I got the calling, i said, "Understand, the only thing I know about computers is that if you try to turn them on and nothing happens, Yep! Sure enough, somethings wrong!" And then I started laughing and didn't stop for fifteen minutes, before finally, I told the Brother who extended the call. "Oh, wait. You were serious, weren't you." And then, I breathed a sigh of relief when my ward was dissolved ... before a suspiciously-similar conversation with another Bishopric Counselor in my new ward ... [Sigh!]

Artwork? (Hey, stranger things have happened!)

@JVW Not necessarily. Some people [even not a few, perhaps] do eat when they are "sad or stressed." Surely, you've heard the old saying that DESSERTS is just STRESSED spelled backward? And there are other scriptures that, while they don't necessarily associate joy with fasting, imply that we're not supposed to be "sad sacks" about it. Cf. Matthew 6:16-18.

Wait ... There's a pornographic magazine article on the Book of Mormon?! Oh. Wait. Sorry. My bad. Never mind![1] And before you excoriate me too bad for this bit of "blue" humor, I'm reminded of the conversation between a young J. Reuben Clark and a customs agent. When the agent asked the young Brother Clark if he had any pornography in his luggage, youthful, guileless, innocent Reuben replied earnestly, "Sir, we don't even own a pornograph." __________________________ END NOTE I can't see anything about the book ever making it into the pages of a skinmag, but the play? That's a different story.

Likewise!

I'm just about as pro-police and pro-prosecution a person as you will [n]ever meet, or that you will ever meet in Cyberspace, but if all I know about the person is that he or she entered the country illegally or that the person remained illegally (by, for example, overstaying a visa), and if my only contact with the person to speak of is at church, no, I can't see myself reporting the person. Presumably, the person comes to church for the same reasons I do: To draw nearer to Christ, to renew my covenants with Him, to be knit together in love with my fellow Saints and children of God, to serve God and to serve each other, and so on. As much of a "hard-line law-and-order" type as I am, one's immigration status is irrelevant to all of those goals and purposes. I haven't done much traveling outside the country, but even what little time I have spent outside U.S. borders and what I have observed of third-world conditions has convinced me that if I lived in such conditions, I very likely might very well conclude that I, myself, didn't have all that much to lose and, in fact, had a considerable amount [potentially] to gain by emigrating/immigrating, even if I had to do so illegally. in any event, immigrating illegally and overstaying a visa are mala prohibita violations, not mala in se violations.

God isn't going to save or to exalt anyone against that person's will. I'm not exactly sure what's newsworthy or particularly controversial about that.

I just stumbled across this in my "Cyber travels." It may as well be an open letter to the James Huntsmans of the world and others of like mind ( ). It's from the Church's General Handbook:

Nope. Not sure why you would ask.

Is there any real difference between, "Yew Marminz ain't Christiunz 'cuz ya believe in the wrong Jeezuss!" and "Yew Marminz is atheists 'cuz ya believe in the wrong Jeezuss!"?

I don't think it is possible to do any of those things without Christ's grace to begin with.

I'm in charge of "Zoom"-ing my ward's Sacrament meeting. (I'll hasten to add that I'm not techno-savvy ... at all. I joke that when I first got the call, I busted out laughing for 15 minutes straight before finally stopping, looking the counselor who issued the call in the eye, and saying, "Oh. You're actually serious, aren't you? Umm ... ... Okay." There isn't much I can do when people are having connection problems because I'm not in charge of the software, like @Nemesis is here. Occasionally, people will message me with the equivalent of "You're doing [x], which is creating problems on my end." I simply shrug and message them back: "I'm sorry you're having technical difficulties. Insofar as I am able to determine, things are functioning normally on my end." (I'm scared to tell them to try rebooting, because if their connection sucks that bad and they try to reboot, they might not be able to get back in. ) Whaddayagonnado? All I can say is, Good luck and God Bless to our "Cyber-congregation" every week!