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I looked it up on lds.org and this was the first thing that popped up when I searched ‘priestcraft’. https://www.lds.org/manual/teaching-seminary-preservice-readings-religion-370-471-and-475/the-dangers-of-priestcraft?lang=eng I would skip down to the part titled The Dangers of Priestcraft, as the beginning doesn’t cover priestcraft specifically until that part.
I found it interesting and it explains it in a way that makes prophets not look bad for being paid
I know for me, since deciding that the prophets are no different than regular members and can make mistakes, it’s made it easier for me to forgive them when they say something that seems wrong to me (the new policy for instance). I just tell myself that they heard God wrong because people can easily misunderstand God. So that’s how I personally deal with it. Idk why it was easy for me to just accept that when I’ve been told all my life they were perfect. Probably because them having flaws makes more sense to me. As far as God getting rid of them for being wrong, I’ve come to my own conclusion that God will let them make mistakes sometimes, as long as His main plan isn’t thrown completely off by something they do. If His plan will still turn out fine, I think He lets them have their agency and make mistakes sometimes. As for the sabbatical, it may help. I know I skipped several Sundays because I had an excuse (morning sickness). I was probably gone from church for 2-3 months. After a while I actually found myself wanting to go, mainly for the socializing and to support my husband as well.
As for what I’ll tell my kids, I’m not sure on that yet. It worries me sometimes
I’m farther from God than I have ever been, and I don’t feel entitled, at least not to help from Him. I don’t expect him to answer my prayers at all anymore because of not being a loyal member for a while, and am thoroughly surprised and grateful when He answers me anyway. I actually think i’m more grateful for it than I used to be. I was telling my dh this and he is really close with God and communicates with Him quite often, and he told me that he actually does feel entitled to answers from God. He thinks it’s because he’s been getting answers so easily, so when he can tell God is ignoring him, he gets kind of huffy about it because he’s used to being answered. So to me, it makes more sense that entitlement comes from the frequency of the gift. If your grandma never brought you presents, you wouldn’t expect them. Or if she only sometimes brought gifts, you would kind of expect them, but not too much. If she always brought you gifts and then one time didn’t bring anything, you’d think you did something wrong, or may even get annoyed that she forgot to bring you something.
I stay because: – imo, the revelation that was received could have easily been incorrect. Our human minds sometimes let our own opinions, biases, or feelings get in the way of revelation and so sometimes it’s not quite accurate. So the fact that it was revelation didn’t mean they were right, because I see prophets as people who are fallible just like everyone else. Basically, I don’t believe it was an accurate revelation, but I’m sure they think it was.
– there are many reasons that leaving the church has crossed my mind, this policy being one of them, but I feel it would negatively affect my family if I left the church. My husband is still going, and we have a young child so he would have a difficult time going if he had to deal with our son at church by himself. And my son loves church so I want to be there to support my son and my husband since they enjoy it.
– I also really enjoy socializing at church. I stay home with our son and so church is one of the few places I get to socialize with adults.
So those are the main reasons I stay at the moment. I always feel myself tense up when the subject of homosexuality comes up, though, because the majority of what is said about it at church, I disagree with.
In the bible there are many parts where it says the HG, HF, and JC are one. That could mean they are equal. I couldn’t find the scripture where it says the Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead, I know I’ve heard it before, but is it possible it simply means it’s one of the three, and not that its rank is 3rd place? It could be a mistranslation. Even if the HG isn’t Heavenly Mother, it’s gotta up there in its importance to the Godhead if it’s the way we communicate with God. It is interesting that God can’t communicate to us if not through the HG. I wonder why that is if He’s all powerful. And I know somewhere in the thread someone mentioned that our church says that the holy ghost had to be a spirit to be with so many people at once. But isn’t God said to always be with us? And isn’t He able to answer many many prayers at once through the HG? So why can’t the HG have a body if God has one and can do.all of those things? Who decided that was how it had to work? Anyways, just some thoughts I had on the subject. Is that true about garment sleeves and bottoms getting longer for women? I was planning to buy new ones sometime and try wearing them again. Idk if I could handle them being longer. I’ve already had such a hard time finding clothes in the past with the length they are. Sometimes I feel selfish for the fact that I don’t wear garments at the moment because of how ugly they make me feel, and how uncomfortable they are. But I haven’t worn them in 6 months and I feel like someday I want to wear them again because I really do enjoy the temple, but I feel so much more comfortable and pretty in regular underwear. Whenever I think about someday going back to wearing them, I feel very unhappy about it. I feel so free without all that extra fabric. And trying to put a bra on with garments, over or under, is really not fun. Wearing them under the bra is the worst, but even over the bra, then you have to worry about the garments sliding and the symbols showing through your shirts. This is reminding me about all the resentment I had built up against garments over the years. I really wish they weren’t required to go into the temple. So I talked to my husband who is currently a priesthood teacher. He was saying for him, feedback wouldn’t do much because he said as the teacher, you can usually feel when the class isn’t into your lessons. You get the awkward silences, and not much participation, people falling asleep/playing on phones, etc. So for him personally, he said feedback wouldn’t be needed. A couple things he suggested were maybe all the teachers (or anyone who has taught in the past few months) get together maybe on a Saturday afternoon or something and someone provides donuts and they all share ideas for ways that they prepare lessons, what things have worked for their classes, what things they liked that past teachers did, etc. Just to have a fun get together where they all can share their ideas and eat food. He liked that idea because he said he’d rather talk to other teachers and hear their experiences rather than hear people say things like ‘I once had a teacher who would study all week for their lessons’. He wants more realistic stories and tips from people who have recently taught. Another idea he didn’t quite form, was something where they could all meet during one of the three hour blocks so that they don’t have to use their time during the week to go talk about teaching. Our ward also recently started a teaching class, that’s apparently just about teaching, and it’s not every week. My husband hasn’t been to one yet because we were gone a few weeks but he wants to check it out because he likes the idea. So just a few more thoughts for you.
I think I like #2 the most. Giving them the choice to do it would help them not feel pressured to be measured when they’re volunteering, but give them the opportunity to get feedback if they are curious about how they are doing as a teacher. Something that also came to mind was an unorganized reward system. Basically, encourage the ward to let the teacher know if they especially enjoyed the lesson. Tell them how it would really help the teachers feel appreciated and it would give them a nice pat on the back for trying hard and giving especially good lessons. That’s one of the few rewards they get for their volunteer work. Some wards kind of do this already without being asked, but it may be a good reminder anyways. It would give the teacher positive feedback, and they may try to do better to get more positive feedback. Then even if they didn’t do as well, they won’t get negative feedback, but i’m sure they’ll notice the less positive feedback and may try better the next week.
Has this all been in the same stake or has this all happened over many stakes? My first thought was maybe you just have a bad stake. I haven’t personally had a bad stake before but many people I know have experienced bad wards or stakes and once they moved elsewhere, they found better wards or stakes. So I know sometimes it just has to do with the location. http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/2003361.html I found this article very interesting about whether or not homosexual people are born that way. It’s very hard to find articles nowadays that are balanced and not so biased one way or the other. I liked this one because while the author is rooting for gays, he also shows research for the other side as well so it feels fairly balanced. One thing I did not agree with in the article was a part about how saying ‘they can’t help that they’re gay so we should accept them’ is laced with homophobia and a way of saying that they would be straight if they could, but they can’t. Which I don’t think is the case with that phrase. Most straight people also say that they can’t change the way they are either so I think it’s pretty common for both sides to feel like they can’t switch to a different sexuality because in many cases, they can’t. I figure though, whether it was nature or nurture, it’s still something that the majority feel like they can’t change and so it doesn’t really matter how it happened, the fact is it’s there and most people gay or straight feel like they can’t change the way they are.
My life is definitely different than I ever expected when it comes to my faith. Ever since I was young I’ve easily had faith in the church and the things I was taught. I never had one big conversion, but I had a few very spiritual experiences that strengthened my testimony and convinced me I was on the right track. I felt like I’d never leave the church or even doubt things because I had such a strong testimony and prayer was my strongest part of my testimony. I had many prayers answered by God and never doubted. I was a super TBM Mormon girl and even got called goody two shoes and molly Mormon from time to time. Well then I had a prayer answer that was wrong and that changed everything. Suddenly I didn’t know if I could trust my answers to prayers and I used to thrive on being able to ask God what was and wasn’t good. But then my trust in prayer was very shaken. I don’t trust my reception of prayer answers anymore and idk how to gain it back.
So, spiritually, I would have never guessed I was here. I haven’t been to the temple in about a year and have stopped wearing my garments. And I’m struggling with lots of other aspects of the church, and not being able to trust prayers makes it even harder for me to know what to believe anymore
Ooookay thanks for the clarification 
I’m not familiar with the word initiatory patron so I may be reading this incorrectly, but if the patrons are the people giving the initiatory, I’ve never had the person giving the initiatory wearing the shield. They have always had their regular temple dress on and I have been the one with the shield thing. So if i’m correct and the patron is the one giving the initiatory, has it been a mandatory thing for them to wear the shields? Or has it been up to each individual temple and now none of them have to wear the shield? Sorry for my ignorance on this subject It doesn’t make sense to me that if a wife dies, the husband can be sealed to multiple women but if a woman’s husband dies, the temple won’t seal her to anyone else so she has to get a civil wedding if she wants to get married again. I’ve heard this but not sure how accurate it is. If it’s accurate though, it makes me kind of mad. There was a post on this quite while ago that you may enjoy reading through. http://forum.staylds.com/viewtopic.php?t=7247
