I learned in church today

[Parrot Head]

I don't know if this belongs here, but I don't know where else it would go, and it doesn't deserve its own thread.

My bishop does something that I really like. He never makes the Priests bless the sacrament more than twice. Today one of the Priests was struggling on the prayer for the water. He said "body" instead of blood, caught it himself (or maybe was nudged by the Priest next to him) and started over. After the restart, he made a couple of mistakes, and at the end the bishop gave him the sign to do it again. The next time through was his worst yet, with two or three mistakes, including a repeat of the fairly obvious "body" instead of "blood". Nevertheless, at the end, the bishop gave him the thumbs up, and we all proceeded to drink damnation to our souls, if I interpret the scriptures correctly.

I have actually had a bishop previously who had this same policy, but he was one of those laid-back liberal bishops who probably grew a beard as soon as he was released. My current bishop is very conservative and strict. There are several points on which I disagree with him on (one of which I will probably be sharing soon), but he has a good heart and is a much better bishop than I would be (although in all humility I think I am a much better choir director than I think he would be).

I would like to disagree on this slightly. Because his ward meets later I suggested CA have his choir do a tribute to Whitney Houston today and he refused. I'm sure some of the choir would have gladly joined in because I was with a couple of them when we heard the news and the group broke into a spontaneous 10-dude rendition of "Greatest Love of All." I think the bishop would have heeded such an inspired suggestion.

(CA, way off topic but last night a certain basketball player admitted that you made the right call of a block instead of a charge Thursday night. So kudos to you.)

[Jeff Lebowski]

I guess this would make more sense here rather than in a new thread:

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Elder Uchtdorf gave a very nice talk yesterday in the worldwide training session. Some excerpts:

Some may be tempted to say, “Just tell us what to do, and we’ll do it.” While we commend a righteous desire to be obedient, there is more to leadership in the Church (and more to life) than simply checking items off an assigned to-do list.

Brothers and sisters, as good as our previous experience may be, if we stop asking questions, stop thinking, stop pondering, we can thwart the revelations of the Spirit. Remember, it was the questions young Joseph asked that opened the door for the restoration of all things. We can block the growth and knowledge our Heavenly Father intends for us. How often has the Holy Spirit tried to tell us something we needed to know but couldn’t get past the massive iron gate of what we thought we already knew?

In some areas of the Church we have dramatic growth in new members, yet active membership remains stagnant or grows only a little. We have some measurable ways to indicate activity in the Church, such as sacrament meeting attendance, ordination to the priesthood at the right age, missionary service, and possession of a current temple recommend. Perhaps the more accurate indicators of real growth in the gospel of Jesus Christ are those that we can’t measure as easily, such as daily prayer, scripture study, family home evening, love at home and for our neighbor, and personal experiences with Christ’s Atonement. These are recorded not by a clerk in Church records but in our hearts and in heaven.

http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/articl...hrist?lang=eng

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

(CA, way off topic but last night a certain basketball player admitted that you made the right call of a block instead of a charge Thursday night. So kudos to you.)

I have commented on CA's officiating skills before.

[mUUser]

John Lennon, an atheist, wrote Imagine to juxtapose McCartney's Let It Be with its christian overtones.

I like the Beatles so this was cool info.

[pellegrino]

John Lennon, an atheist, wrote Imagine to juxtapose McCartney's Let It Be with its christian overtones.

I like the Beatles so this was cool info.

whaaa? Imagine came out after the Beatles broke up, they aren't even on the same album, at least a year a part.

[TripletDaddy]

John Lennon, an atheist, wrote Imagine to juxtapose McCartney's Let It Be with its christian overtones.

I like the Beatles so this was cool info.

I didn't think Let It Be was a Christian themed song. It is a reference to his mom, not the virgin Mary. Anyone weigh in on this? Creekster or other Beatles aficionados?

[creekster]

I didn't think Let It Be was a Christian themed song. It is a reference to his mom, not the virgin Mary. Anyone weigh in on this? Creekster or other Beatles aficionados?

The Mary reference is about his mom, I think. She died when he was young, I believe. OTOH, it certainly feels pretty christiany to me.

[hostile]

Elder Uchtdorf gave a very nice talk yesterday in the worldwide training session. Some excerpts:

I really liked the last one. Overall I enjoyed the entire talk.

[TripletDaddy]

The Mary reference is about his mom, I think. She died when he was young, I believe. OTOH, it certainly feels pretty christiany to me.

Sure, but in the same general sense as Lennon's utopian vision of peace, love, brotherhood, and co-existence in "Imagine." (his plea for no religion notwithstanding)

I don't think Let it Be was written as a Christian anthem therefore I doubtful that Imagine was a response piece. Ultimately, who knows?

[pellegrino]

The Mary reference is about his mom, I think. She died when he was young, I believe. OTOH, it certainly feels pretty christiany to me.

oh yeah, that's for sure.

[The_Tick]

Beatles still suck.

[mUUser]

McCartney just did a nice job with my all-time fave Beatles tune -- Golden Slumbers. Not bad for a bunch of geezers. :rockon2:

[Donuthole]

Once a month we combine all the YM for a lesson taught by our Duty to God advisor. He is given free reign to pick a topic addressing a DTG area. This week the lesson was on, well, I'm kinda still trying to figure out what it was on, actually. We spent the majority of the time taking a 6-question quiz from Superfreakonomics about sharing or keeping $20 with a stranger. By the time we finished discussing out answers and the study findings, we had about 3 mins left. He closed by bearing a strong testimony that there are people in the world who are our spiritual soul mates, and will only accept the gospel if it is presented to them by us. He served his mission and lives his life with that in mind, because he can't imagine the pain he would feel if someone were to come up to him in the hereafter and say "where we're you? I was ready and you never came!".

I had a few snarky comments running through my mind, but i kept them to myself He brought raspberry-lemon cupcakes to share, so all in all it was a pretty good lesson.

[smokymountainrain]

I guess this would make more sense here rather than in a new thread:

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Elder Uchtdorf gave a very nice talk yesterday in the worldwide training session. Some excerpts:

http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/articl...hrist?lang=eng

Excellent. You can almost always count on Dieter to bring it.

[wuapinmon]

My Sunday School class turned into a jingoism fest about this "land" in the Book of Mormon being choice above all others. My class seemed to believe that this was one in the same as the United States of America.

I've been taking some cough syrup all weekend that's left me, ummm, loose-tongued, and I should've stayed quiet, but I simply raised my hand and said, "We need to be careful to remember that "land" here doesn't mean just the USA, but all of the Americas."

The class did not like that response. Several people disagreed immediately. One person pointed out that "The scriptures prophesying the American Revolution and Columbus coming to America are 'obviously' talking about the United States."

It was at that point, that I counted to ten; I got to seven before both the Latinas' hands shot up simultaneously on opposite sides of the room.

"Ex-coose me, boot, Crease-tow-fair Co-loom-boose nay-bear comb to dee Jew-knighted Ess-states."