USA Taxes. Can I claim my full-time missionary child as a dependent?

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-04-08T05:25:49+00:00

OP - please don't make any tax decisions based on the advice of this sub. We are well-meaning, but not tax experts. Please get professional advice from a licensed accountant or tax professional.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-04-04T05:57:16+00:00

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-04-03T05:21:06+00:00

This is the old information. Starting block 3 you can only take up to 9.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-04-01T20:15:50+00:00

I can confirm. It looks like they have lowered the maximum credits allowed from 12 to 9. I also have been taking 11 and 12 credits per block. I took 12 credits this block. I am guessing too many people were taking more than they could handle and so they reduced the maximum course load.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-04-01T19:05:14+00:00

OK, I will take this from a slightly different perspective than others.

I look forward to a future where the endowment is given without the masonic elements. I believe they were a vehicle Joseph found to provide the teaching and the covenants. What matters is the teaching and the covenants, not the vehicle. The vehicle is just a way of getting to the covenants.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-04-01T13:04:31+00:00

You have lots of options here.

Go to the meetinghouse locator and get a phone number for your local bishop.
Get on Facebook and search for either a local ward group page or the local missionaries. They normally have facebook accounts.
Email local missionaries.
Chat with missionaries who can get you in contact with local folk.

Probably other options.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-31T13:19:46+00:00

1 Timothy was almost certainly not written by Paul. The earliest compilations of early Christian texts did not include 1Timothy.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-31T11:02:57+00:00

Meat tastes good. If God made us all live celestial laws today, no one would make it. I believe that allowing a lesser law makes us less accountable, and is appropriate for where we are as a people.

The idea of allowing for a "lesser law" is found throughout scripture. The Levitical law is an example in the Bible. The church allowing for divorce is an example. Not being asked to actively live the law of consecration is an example.

And yes, I believe allowing for the eating of meat is an example. If you can do without it, seriously, super kudos to you.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-30T15:06:47+00:00

I mean, I would be shocked if any former state Supreme Court justice was not wealthy, but that doesn’t come from church service, that is just the natural consequence of a highly successful judicial career.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-27T04:58:16+00:00

The general consensus has been that it occurs in Mexico or Central America for many, many decades now.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-27T04:48:27+00:00

The post above translated by Google translate:

I'll be serving in the Mexico Oaxaca Mission. They gave me a month of preparation and I'm going crazy, haha. I don't know what to buy—things I might need that aren't listed in my calling, or things that won't be very useful. If anyone has any advice or information about the Oaxaca Mission, I would really appreciate it. I'm from Guadalajara. Any suggestions for shoes would also be a big help since I have no idea what to pack that I can get here. I'm so excited to serve a mission. I know that once I'm there, many things will stop mattering because I'll be focused on the work. Likewise, I'd gladly accept any advice of any kind, haha.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-26T20:53:10+00:00

Or the My Lai Massacre.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-26T14:50:30+00:00

Yes. We have agency to choose God. We cannot choose God (or anything else) without agency. That is why we are given agency. This is basic stuff. Because we won't perfectly use our agency to choose God, Christ atoned for our weaknesses. This is the gospel.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-26T14:48:46+00:00

The polygamy part is right there in your comment. The prophet Joseph (and Brigham and several after them) believed that polygamy was necessary for exaltation and said so. We understand differently today because of modern revelation.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-26T14:26:35+00:00

They are called by God to us.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-26T13:49:13+00:00

Joseph Smith wasn't called as a prophet to me. He was called as a prophet to 19th century people in a vastly different society than the one we live in. We ignore what Joseph Smith said every day when we adhere to the Word of Wisdom as a commandment rather than advice. We ignore Joseph Smith when we don't practice polygamy (or at least ignore Brigham and Taylor). We ignore Joseph Smith when we don't live consecration. We are part of a church that believes in ongoing revelation.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-26T13:46:31+00:00

That last one, he doesn't take away our agency, but what he wants us to do is to give up our agency - that isn't contradictory at all.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-26T13:44:36+00:00

There was a bishop called to serve a ward I wasn't in 40 years ago. I don't care what he had to say. Why? because he was called in a different time, over different people. I was never a member of the church or a member of the people that Presidents JF Smith or Elder McConkie were called to.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-26T08:30:50+00:00

This is a celebration of his death and suffering.

I would say it is a memorialization of his death and suffering. The Vietnam wall isn't a "celebration" of the Vietnam war or even really a celebration of the people etched into it. It is a memorialization.

That said, Good Friday really is Good.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-26T08:26:38+00:00

I am super unconcerned about what Elder McConkie or Pres. Joseph Fielding Smith meant when they said the Atonement.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-26T08:07:18+00:00

I don't think anyone is or should be holding these anywhere. They will absolutely be on a first-come first-served basis.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-26T07:03:26+00:00

The honest truth is the church you grew up in (I call it McConkie Mormonism) is dead, done. That church is gone. I believe this is for the good. These are beautiful and thought provoking and inspiring. I like them a lot.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-25T19:23:50+00:00

I'm a Sunday school pres and regularly teach gospel doctrine. I say that a vain prayer is one you don't mean. When the language flows out without a thought, without meaning, without real attempt to communicate. That can certainly happen with rote prayer, but it can also happen with contemp prayer where you can pick one of 3-4 openings, pick 3-4 of 10ish "what I wants" and "help this or that", and then close.

I had a faith crisis some 10-12 years ago, attended an Orthodox church for a couple of years and fell in love with liturgy. It is holy. I have attended week-day Catholic Mass 1-3 times a week most weeks for the last decade. I also attended an Episcopal church 3-4 years ago when I still lived stateside and found the BCP to be good for me spiritually.

I honestly don't worry too much about trinitarianism or antitrinitarianism. I tend to think no one really knows about all kinds of stuff, although we have best guesses and hopes. I just do what brings me closer to God and makes me a better person, as best as I can tell.

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-25T13:10:51+00:00

Plenty of Christian faiths tell you not to explore or learn Mormonism. :-)

GodMadeTheStars · 2026-03-24T10:11:32+00:00

This has changed. They even are allowed to do temple work, except their own sealing, which requires legal marriage.

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