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Meet Some Mormons Website

Some local folks and I are working on a website for people who aren’t familiar with LDS/Mormon beliefs. It’s called Meet Some Mormons and it will grow with time to include more information regarding practices and beliefs, but there is already a bit of content out there if you want to take a look. The latest post is called, “What Mormons believe in” and it’s just a short summary if you want to take a look at it. There’s also some great video clips on the site with members sharing their conversion stories. My parents are converts to the LDS church and their short story is on the site. However, there’s a really great story I encourage everyone to watch. It’s the video clip from Marty Curtis and I think it’s a powerful story about the conversion that can take place within someone when they are born again and experience their own “mighty change of heart.” Marty is a great guy and his story is great. I hope you’ll watch it. No matter your beliefs, you can’t help but feel the power of Marty’s message.

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Do you believe in prophecy or do you believe prophecy?

***This post is not to create panic or worry, I’m just offering a reminder that these things are coming, and even if you don’t believe in prophesy, it’s not a bad idea to have some food and water and supplies stored up just in case of a natural disaster.***

Are you a member of the camp that reads the scriptures and thinks, “yep, that’ll happen someday” or are you actively preparing for the things that the scriptures have said would come to pass? If you’re in the first camp, please start preparing. The rest of us can’t carry all of you in spite of our desire to not see anyone suffer. It’s not like we haven’t been warned what is coming. We need to get our homes in order and be ready for these events that will come to pass. For the benefit of the readers who may not have studied scriptural prophesy, here’s a few things that are coming our way.

-Wars and rumors of wars (Matt 24:6)
-Famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places (Matt 24:7)
-A hailstorm with hailstones that weigh 75 pounds (Rev. 16:21)
-The hailstorm will destroy the crops of the earth (D&C 29:16)
-A plague of flesh-eating flies & flesh falling from people’s bones (D&C 29:19) (ala Raiders of the Lost Ark?)
-An overflowing scourge and desolating sickness shall cover the land (D&C 45:31)
-The earth shall tremble and reel to and fro as a drunken man (D&C 88:87)

I believe these things are real but whether or not you do, the rate of disasters in the world has increased and it would just be a good idea for everyone to prepare for any disaster that might impact you.

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon something that mentioned a Twilight Zone episode called “The Shelter.” I never watched the show when I was a youth because I thought it would freak me out, not really knowing what the show was about. So I watched this episode with my wife and oldest children and it was a look at the panic that ensues when a disaster is about to strike and people are not prepared. You can watch it in 3 parts here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aSXDxB3EdY (part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV8LpfQHOhA (part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LXShL69Li4 (part 3)

The main impetus for this post is that some time ago, someone sent me this video and I’ve been toying with posting it because I’m not trying to create a panic, or shout the sky is falling, but just trying to share a warning with people that prophecy is real and will come to pass. I also don’t know if this video is accurate in what it predicts for a massive earthquake this September and possibly November, but I did vet the information in this video about the tool being on NASA’s website and the dates of the major earthquakes in the last year and a half and it checks out. This makes me sufficiently intrigued to forward this on as an FYI in case you decide that now is a good time to stock up on a few extra supplies.

Earthquake dates (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/historical.php/)

JPL tool shown in the video (http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=elenin&orb=1).

On the other side of this coin is this post by a senior researcher at JPL saying nothing is happening. However, it was posted in November 2009 so this “comet” entering our solar system would have been farther away and perhaps not on anyone’s mind the way it is now that this video has pointed out three major earthquakes tied into conjunctions with it since this researcher’s post.

http://blogs.jpl.nasa.gov/2009/11/2012-%E2%80%93-a-scientific-realty-check/

Some LDS people ask, “why isn’t the church talking about this if stuff like this is about to happen?” The answer is simple. They’ve been saying it for decades, warning people to prepare a year’s supply of food, water, and fuel where possible. I recently received an email from a friend that pointed out an important fact related to this. I will end with this email and my hope that you will take seriously the need to prepare for those things needed in this time of trial that lies ahead. Our preparation must be both temporal and spiritual. I don’t know when these events will take place, whether it’s this year or 50 years from now, but they will happen. This is not a cause for fear (unless you haven’t prepared), but for greater faith because as these things happen, so also can we take confidence that the great promises of the Lord will also be fulfilled.

Subject: Fw: Why the Church Leaders are talking about Faith, Hope, and Charity

Dear friends:  (be sure to watch the 4 min. youtube clip at the bottom)

General Conference continues to resonate through my heart and mind as I ponder the whisperings of the Spirit that accompanied the music, talks and testimonies.

For the past couple of years, I have wondered why in General Conference, the Brethren have been relatively silent in warning, giving counsel in preparing for the last days etc. I have prayed and yearned for Samuel the Lamanite-like talks, or President Benson’s or Bruce R. McConkie’s talks… yet instead we have been getting talks on Faith, on Hope.. on Charity/Service etc.. Every conference that we have we seem to hear more on hope, on charity. President Monson’s talk on the mother that needed hope despite having to bury her children in frozen ground with a spoon was almost more than I could bare. Why these talks on the big 3 (Faith, Hope, and Charity) instead of one year’s supply of food, emergency preparedness, preparing for eminent catastrophes?

On my knees asking my Father [:] here  the world is crumbling, disasters are eminent, people are not prepared and need to be. I was very frustrated and wondered WHY ARE WE NOT GETTING THE WARNINGS…

Well ask and you shall receive.

I then had a wonderful phone conversation with my mother-in-law, and she felt impressed to tell me one thing in particular. She said things are so very close to all of the “prophesied” things to begin happening. We talked about the “cycle” (talked about in the Boyd K Packer’s Priesthood Talk in given in conference in April 2009) .We noticed that just before things completely fall apart and collapse with utter destruction, the Lord’s anointed stop warning, and start speaking about faith, hope and charity. IT IS THE LAST STAGE IN THE CYCLE.

Then it hit me… The Book of Mormon is a template for this as well. Case in point. We read in Ether… we get all the warnings about secret combinations etc. and how the wickedness is abounding and that the people will be destroyed if they don’t repent.. then just before the entire civilization gets destroyed we get the 12th chapter on FAITH, HOPE and CHARITY.. then the destructions in the following chapter to the complete destruction of that civilization.

Another example we find in Moroni chapter 8 just before telling us that the people will perish and the prophecies will be fulfilled, Mormon teaches his son Moroni (and us), about Faith, Hope and Charity.
(Note also, the Apostle Paul speaking to the Early Christian in I Corinthians 13 on Faith, Hope and Charity before the fall of Roman and the Christian persecution)

Okay… fast forward to [recent] conferences.. what messages are we hearing… FAITH, HOPE, and CHARITY!!!!!

WOW.. it hit me like a ton of bricks.. It was the answer that I needed to hear about why we aren’t receiving the voice of warning like I wanted.

Here is how I see the cycle now: As a people we move from being Humble to Obedient to Blessed. to Living Righteously. to Ease to Laziness to Prideful. to Selfishness to Immorality/Sin. to Having the prophets warn us to repent.. to Wickedness. to Ripening to the Point of no return.. to No more on Warnings, but teaching the humble followers to have Faith, Hope, and Charity.. -THEN DESTRUCTION, CALAMITIES for the wicked, etc.- and purifying the righteous and unfortunately compelling us back to being HUMBLE…..

So, we probably won’t see the prophets speaking to us to warn us.. we are past that time, we are in the final stage. This is the Lord’s way, just as He has done with the 2 prior civilizations (Jaredites, and the Nephites).. It is my opinion, the more we hear about HOPE, don’t DESPAIR, etc. .. THE CLOSER WE ARE!

Just as a side note that just hit me, In one of my last videos, “Great
Trials Lie Ahead”.. Please watch if you haven’t already. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTVECvTYpN0

I started out with all of the warnings of  Elder McConkie, President Benson, President Eyring…. and felt very strongly to end the video with the statements of HOPE by President Uchtdorf… This is a pattern, it is pattern seen in the Book of  Mormon and we are following that same pattern today… NEXT STEP for ALL OF US: The Destruction of the Wicked and the Saints being Humbled.. Which especially here in Salt Lake is needed. and by the way….the Book of Mormon is true.

One more time…I don’t know when things are going to happen or if this video is accurate, but I do know the prophecies contained in scripture are real and they will happen and we’ve been warned to prepare for a long time so we have no excuse if we are caught unprepared.

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My Parents LDS Conversion Story

This is the story of how my parents came to join the LDS church. That act naturally was the greatest effect on my life and I am eternally grateful they joined. If you are not LDS and you have questions about the faith, feel free to email me for a friendly and non-pushy answer to your question, or get more information about the church at www.mormon.org.

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Socialism: Kingdom of God or Chains on Freedom

Last week Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan dictator, said, “Every day I am more convinced that socialism is the kingdom of God here on earth. Every day I’m more revolutionary, more socialist every day. I’m taking Venezuela toward socialism, the people and workers.”

I suppose if you’re the dictator, socialism must feel like heaven.

Contrast that with what a modern prophet has said.

Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, April 1966, 95-101 —

No, brethren, socialism is not the United Order. However, notwithstanding my abhorrence of it, I am persuaded that socialism is the wave of the present and of the foreseeable future. It has already taken over or is contending for control in most nations. . . .

We have also gone a long way on the road to public ownership and management of the vital means of production. In both of these areas the free agency of Americans has been greatly abridged. Some argue that we have voluntarily surrendered this power to government. Be this as it may, the fact remains that the loss of freedom with the consent of the enslaved, or even at their request, is nonetheless slavery.

As to the fruits of socialism, we all have our opinions. I myself have watched its growth in our own country and observed it in operation in many other lands. But I have yet to see or hear of its freeing the hearts of men of selfishness and greed or of its bringing peace, plenty, or freedom. These things it will never bring, nor will it do away with idleness and promote “industry, thrift and self-respect,” for it is founded, in theory and practice, on force, the principle of the evil one. . . .

Now, not forgetting our duty to eschew [shun, abstain from] socialism and support the just and holy principles of the Constitution, as directed by the Lord, I shall conclude these remarks with a few comments concerning what we should do about the United Order. . . . If, in the meantime, socialism takes over in America, it will have to be displaced, if need be, by the power of God, because the United Order can never function under socialism or the “welfare state,” for the good and sufficient reason that the principles upon which socialism and the United Order are conceived and operated are inimical [hostile; enemies]. . . .

That we will develop the understanding, the desire, and the courage, born of the Spirit, to eschew socialism and to support and sustain, in the manner revealed and as interpreted by the Lord, those just and holy principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States for the protection of all flesh, in the exercise of their God-given agency. . . .

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Book of Mormon Geography

This is one of the coolest sites I’ve seen on Book of Mormon geography. It tries to take a bunch of the various theories that have been espoused by people over time and fit them onto comparison grids and maps. The site author’s theory that everything took place in Panama gets the best ratings on his comparison chart (naturally), but it’s interesting to see how he’s lined up a dozen theories and tried to evaluate them. To see the comparison chart, hover over the first menu item “Book of Mormon Lands” and a dropdown will appear and at the bottom is the comparison link.

http://www.wherewasmormon.com/

Also, if you’ve never heard of the white Indians that were found years ago, he’s got a brief report on it here:

http://www.wherewasmormon.com/page71.html