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So, since I live in the future (aka, a time zone far from the US 
I talked about how a past bishopric member of mine said to make the temple personal for you. I brought up how I knew of some women who had applied their own symbolism to the markings on the garments, which helped them find personal meaning in the temple. The group seemed to like the “make it personal part” and then some seemed unsure about the symbolism of the garments example. I kind of wish I’d said that some of these women would have struggled a lot with the temple otherwise, but I didn’t .
I also had a thought during the lesson, which I never got a chance to bring up. I’m not sure if I would have had the courage to say it, but I’ll share it here.
The temple recommend interview questions. I think it’s very important that we remember that those are not to be deviated from or added onto. Although the bishop and stake president are asking the questions, I feel like the one answering the questions is supposed to be their own judge in these moments. I feel this is in harmony with the lessons we are taught about judgement of others and worthiness. Deviating from the questions, as well, can be dangerously close to unrighteous dominion.
This could potentially be beneficial to the interviewing process, as it places responsibility on the interviewee rather than the bishop or stake president, who I’ve begun to view as mainly advisers rather than an infallible authority.
I’m not in the US, so we didn’t have Father’s Day talks. They’re really pushing the subject of tithing in our ward, partly because that’s what’s keeping us from getting a new building. Something might be lost in translation, but one speaker used the story of the talents to explain why we needed to pay tithing. I’ve never heard that story used for tithing. He also used the story in 1 Kings 17 as a reason to pay tithing (even if it means starving to death). Looking at that story, I can see how we’ve gotten this idea of paying tithing even if it means not paying your bills, and that paying your tithing comes with blessings. But, then we’re also told not to go into debt, so… I have a big issue with speakers telling us to pay tithing no matter what.
In between classes a group of us discussed a number of things, including tithing and I brought up one speaker recently in SM who had said tithing was fire insurance. We talked about how, at least in the US, we’ve moved away from referring to tithing as fire insurance since that’s a misinterpretation of the scripture it comes from. Plus, we discussed how we shouldn’t looked at tithing as a way to receive blessings.
I said I liked to look at it as, “I am able to pay tithing because of the blessings in my life.” They liked how I looked at it, even though I also think my tithing shouldn’t go completely to a church that isn’t transparent with funds (not that I said that part).
Then, another member around my age had to say something completely opposite to what I had said, which totally messed with the direction we were going with how to view tithing.
Church was a little weird. In RS we were on the “True Greatness” lesson. This resulted in mainly discussing how elders weren’t respected by the youth anymore and making fun of celebrities who try to step into politics. As one of the “youth” who happens to have some respect for celebrities who do something with their fame (to an extent, there are some crazies out there), this was a really uncomfortable lesson.
Reading the article, it seems more like the title isn’t appropriate. He had an unhealthy sexual history. At the core of it, he had an addiction. He was broken before he slept at that boys house, and if he’d been introduced to drugs instead of sex there, there’s a chance this article would be about overcoming drug abuse instead. I think it should be titled something like “Ex-sex Addict”.
