webbles

The 2018 letter kind of says that - https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/shared/english/service-missionary/Service-Missions-for-Young-Missionaries-Leaders.pdf?lang=eng Also, later on, it does give an indication that a service mission calling could be a surprise: It could be that the girl or the family or even the stake president don't know what triggered her to be assigned to the service mission. Since it isn't an option to choose (news to me since I thought it was an option) and since the stake president can't determine it, none of them might know what was the deciding factor. She could have been just barely over the tipping point, what ever it is.

@Pyreaux could correct me, but I understood his statement "I think Doctrines of Salvation is an unfortunate title since it is not scripture, nor a book of binding church doctrine. It contains Joseph Fielding Smith’s personal views, speculations, and opinions on subjects that are not required for salvation" as saying that the "personal views, speculations and opinions" aren't required for salvation. Not that the subjects aren't required. The book "Doctrines of Salvation" is a compilation of sermons and writings that Joseph Field Smith gave across a wide variety of subjects. There are 3 volumes and his son-in-law, Bruce R. McConkie, compiled it while Joseph Fielding Smith was an apostle (1954-1956). The books cover a wide range of subjects. There are definitely subjects in there that I think most would accept are required for salvation, such as God and Christ. There is even an entire section in the second book called "Salvation".

On my mission, my passport was left at the mission house. I had my visa with me and that was it (and even then, it was rarely refreshed). And I felt like that was a good idea since I was robbed once in my house. I would prefer having my passport somewhere safe. I never tried to leave early without permission, so I don't know if he would have prevented me from leaving. I only know of one missionary that wasn't allowed to go home but he didn't need a passport as he was a citizen of the country and had his regular id with him. And his father was involved and wouldn't let him so it wasn't just the mission president saying no.

I'm a bit frustrated with sltrib's reporting - https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2025/11/25/wade-christofferson-brother-top/ They mention that he looked up whether not clergy in Ohio are required to report and they say "yes" Except they link to the law about privileges (which includes clergy) and it says that the penitent has the privilege and the clergy may only be compelled to testify if the penitent waived it. They link to the wrong law and should have instead linked to https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2151.421 which is about child abuse reporting and it says that the priests are not mandatory reporters (unless the penitent is another clergy member). So, both Utah and Ohio are similar in this regard.

Looks like there are news reports now. KSL - https://www.ksl.com/article/51410662/ohio-man-arrested-in-utah-on-child-sex-abuse-charges FBI - https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdoh/pr/dublin-man-arrested-utah-federal-child-exploitation-charges

I'm a little confused. Are you saying that the only valid way that a human can be born is if the sperm was created through spermatogenesis? And if the sperm is created in any other manner, then the offspring is "trans human"? What if someone mimics spermatogenisis perfectly in a lab (using a germ cell from another human), is that acceptable? And if so, what if someone creates the germ cell from a stem cell (again from another human), is that acceptable? And if someone created the stem cell by taking a female stem cell, pulling out the x chromosomes and modifying it into a y chromosome (by removing things, not by adding anything), is that acceptable?

Yeah, "saying no" is probably not the correct way to say it. But something like a "dishonorable discharge". I don't think missions do that anymore, though. I would hope, though, that if they are planning on serving a shortened mission, they give the mission department a heads up so that the mission can get a replacement after they leave.

sltrib has an article about Ryder Lions and Brock Harris who are both going to BYU and to a mission. It has several quotes from Brock and his dad saying that he will be doing a 1 year mission. It sounds like he will just ask to be released early. https://www.sltrib.com/sports/byu-cougars/2025/11/22/byu-football-recruits-ryder-lyons/ So it does look like they are planning on doing a shortened mission. They are still being called to a full 24 month mission but will ask to leave after only a year. I would hope the Mission President says no to that. Coming home just so you can make a million dollars playing football (or any sport) feels like a bad reason to leave early. I guess the other argument is, is it better that they serve a partial mission vs none at all? The article also talks about how Brock originally didn't think about going on a mission and it wasn't until Ryder told him about his older brother who only served 16 months that he felt like he could fit a mission in.

Apparently the lost 116 pages indicated that Ishmael was of Ephraim. And so all the wives of the sons of Lehi would be from Ephraim and so all their descendants would be from both Ephraim and Manasseh. https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Source:Book_of_Mormon_as_Stick_of_Ephraim:Joseph_Fielding_Smith_statement

The original intent was for them to be global. Here is the original announcement: https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2024/10/17/first-presidency-redesign-temple-garments-humid-areas/ It says:

The Bible shows Abraham had at least 3 (Sarah, Hagar, and Keturah) and Jacob had 4 (Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah). Moses, per the Bible, may or may not have had multiple wives. It names Zipporah and also a Cushite woman in 1 Numbers 12:1. There's debate on whether they are the same woman or 2 different women. If the later, there is debate on whether Zipporah had died by that time or if it was polygamous. And outside of the Bible, Josephus mentioned a story that Moses had married an Ethopian woman before his exile.

Yes. More were sealed to others than Joseph Smith. I think the total was around 200.

He is talking about the "Law of Adoption" which was a specific type of sealing that occurred between 1840s and 1894. A really brief rundown can be read at wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_adoption_(Mormonism). Sealings with wives is not the same thing. There were very few women who were sealed through the "Law of Adoption" and I believe all of them were done as a couple, where the husband and wife were adopted by another man. I don't think any single women were adopted. @ZealouslyStriving, I don't think Joseph Smith had many men sealed to him. I believe those type of sealings only occurred after his death and only in temples. And it looks like only one man was sealed to him in the Nauvoo temple by proxy (John Bernhisel from https://archive.org/details/nauvoo-sealings-adoptions-and-anointings/page/280/mode/2up). I don't know if there were any done in the other temples before 1894.

Ballard is suing Anderson? Where do you see that? And by using the Pace memo, that really hurts his image. He should know better than that.

Quick note, this video is mostly discussing three different presentations: The first is William's Schryver's presentation from 2010 dealing with the idea that the Egyptian Alphabet was an attempt to come up with a cipher. That was discussed on this board back then and he was involved. You can read an old posting from him at The second is Tim Barker's presentation in 2020 showing that Fascimile 2 includes characters from the papyrus that are also used to fill in gaps and that Joseph said that no translation was available. You can read his full presentation at https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/conference_home/2020-fairmormon-conference/the-answer-under-our-heads The third is a clip from an interview with Kerry Muhlestein where he discusses how the meaning of Egyptian images has changed over the 2000 years of its usage. He also talks about how Jewish ideas (such as the name of Abraham) do show up in Egyptian documents. I know this has been discussed here as well, such as

Ah, yeah, they believe that Benjamin had been adopted by Joseph Smith and so received a special "inheritable" authority. And this was then passed down. It is definitely a lot different from Wooley's claims. How accurate would you say https://mormonfundamentalism.com/polygamous-groups/the-lebarons/ is in discussing their early beliefs?

Compared to exaltation and salvation, yeah, it would not be very much. And compared to other Christians, it is probably a lot less. But it does show up. Here's a 2020 Book of Mormon less which has a section titled "Sanctification comes from yielding our hearts to God." - https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/come-follow-me-for-sunday-school-book-of-mormon-2020/33?lang=eng

You probably still would have had an issue. D&C 22 (the one that says that you would need to be rebaptized because your previous baptism is "dead works") was also printed in that same paper that Benjamin McGuire linked to. It is immediately after the Articles and Covenants. This link - https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-16-april-1830-dc-22/1 - will give you the text in easy to read format but you can find it in the scanned image from the previous link. And the Articles and Covenants still exists in D&C. It is section 20, though there have been several changes to it during Joseph's life time. I don't think there were any after his death. And I'm surprised you think "sanctification" is dropped from LDS vocabulary. There's usually several lessons a year (especially during the Book of Mormon year) that discuss sanctification.

Why are miracles a problem? If God has limited divine powers, wouldn't He still be able to perform miracles?

That does appear to have happened. I found the church news article about the new stake - https://www.thechurchnews.com/1991/9/21/23260256/elder-l-lionel-kendrick-of-the-seventy/ The Fort Smith Arkansas stake also got a new stake president at the same time and it is in the same article.

Russia is the one. This site https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/temples/chronology/ has a section at the very bottom that shows all the temples that are announced but haven't yet had any movement. It is ordered by the announcement date.

Joseph had light brown hair, so if he did get grey hair, it might have blended in nicely. That's one reason why the portrait (and this photo of it) is not accurate.

That's not a photo of Joseph Smith. That's a photo of the portrait that the Community of Christ has. And we know that it isn't perfectly accurate because it doesn't match the death mask and the profile that was done.

The Big-12 made a rule change this year and banned throwing things on the field. If fans do that, they get two warnings and then will get a 15 yard penalty. The rule change had 15 voters for it and 1 voter against it. That one voter was from Texas Tech. They have a tradition of throwing tortillas on the field. And even with the rule change, they are still throwing tortillas. It isn't as much as it used to be, but it didn't stop them - https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/texas-tech-tortilla-toss/. So I wouldn't expect a penalty to change it that much. Sport games are really easy to get caught up in the moment.

Saying "F BYU" at a football game is acceptable. For a lot of people, BYU = mormons. So, "F BYU" and "F mormons" is the same thing to them. If you are a BYU fan, then you also must be a mormon (this irritates BYU fans who are not mormons, especially those that have left the church). But it is not fine to curse a religion, so "F mormons" is wrong but "F BYU" is ok. So Colorado was fined for the "F mormons". If the fans had just said "F BYU", no fines would have occurred.