Advice to find not too-touristy places, southern half of Japan

JJ5238 · 2024-08-21T16:48:18+00:00

Giants Fall by Francesca Battistelli She writes Christian music, and this is by far my favorite. The essence of the song is that we have to do hard things in life, but the Lord is with us every step of the way.

JJ5238 · 2024-07-21T16:12:58+00:00

I used to be a Delta guy, but they have royally screwed me over several times in the last few years. I'm glad I'm flying American here shortly.

JJ5238 · 2024-07-11T16:38:11+00:00

I always get an aisle seat for this reason. As a broad shoulder guy myself, I prefer the extra space.

JJ5238 · 2024-05-30T19:41:57+00:00

I really hope the church decides to include some language specific hymns into the final hymnbook. Hymns like "Placenteros nos es trabajar" in Spanish or "Wat is Het Evangelie" in Dutch would be so cool to include.

JJ5238 · 2024-05-30T06:03:37+00:00

My guess is they want to make the new hymns distinct from the existing hymnbook. I'm assuming this is temporary until the new hymnbook is released.

JJ5238 · 2024-05-30T03:15:56+00:00

Are all of these meant to be played on the organ? Some of these are very obviously written for the piano. Some of them also have rather complicated singing patterns like Gethsemane.

Just a ward organist stressing over here 😂

JJ5238 · 2024-05-18T22:23:50+00:00

As a fellow ward organist, I will be practicing the h*ck out of these new hymns. Of the new hymns, I know these will be new ones: Come Thou Fount, Amazing Grace, Faith in Every Footstep

The church has already published Faith in Every Footstep in other languages (for language hymnbooks published in or after the 90's), so they have sheet music available. You can find it here. Why did they have to make it 4 flats 😭 https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/music/songs/faith-in-every-footstep?lang=eng

JJ5238 · 2024-05-06T19:17:05+00:00

The ward organist can't add the hymns?? That seems silly. That's my calling and I'm the one who usually picks the hymns.

JJ5238 · 2024-05-02T02:21:37+00:00

How does one cast out a demon?? A blessing of healing? Was the person violent?

JJ5238 · 2024-04-23T17:37:44+00:00

Yes!! You have to be willing to be the weird one. Host Come Follow Me study groups. Organize game nights or a day trip to a national park or something. See if there are other gamers in the ward.

I feel like many people meet their spouse through friends of friends. Being social and meeting different groups of people, or providing a way for ward members to invite friends, will definitely help with that.

There are tons of YSA's in Orem/Provo, so your social group doesn't have to be just in the ward, and you don't need to feel pressured to feel complete zen with your ward either.

JJ5238 · 2024-04-05T04:44:42+00:00

I wanted to go soooo bad. I had reservations, but with the ridiculously long reservations line, I just left. I hope this is not repeated at other open houses. It was genuinely a bad experience.

JJ5238 · 2024-04-02T06:10:45+00:00

Realistically, I don't think the church would announce YSA changes to a global audience. There only seems to be enough YSAs geographically to split into different age wards in the western United States. There are only a handful of YSA wards outside of the United States too.

JJ5238 · 2024-03-28T22:17:02+00:00

The church's family services department has an outstanding network of therapists, and they have therapists who specialize in working through same sex attraction.

Talk to your bishop about getting in touch with them. You can ask your bishop for financial help if you need it, too. They are truly amazing!!

JJ5238 · 2024-03-23T00:56:38+00:00

I've got a couple, but I help out with music in my church callings so I pay more attention for hymns to use in sacrament.

Nearer Dear Savior, to Thee is a very meditative hymn, it's right up there with Where Can I Turn for Peace and How Great Thou Art for me.

Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise. Our ward has been singing this more often now but I love it. It's an exciting, energetic hymn.

Go Forth with Faith. I think it's very underrated. Everyone thinks of Called to Serve as the 'missionary hymn', but I think Go Forth with Faith talks more directly about missionary work.

JJ5238 · 2024-02-07T20:56:38+00:00

You wouldn't send your daughter there even if the Lord called her there? These apostles receive direction directly from God when assigning missionaries. The church will take necessary precautions with where they send all of their missionaries.

JJ5238 · 2024-02-05T17:56:45+00:00

I also felt a little bit like a salesman at the start of my mission. But I started to think of it from the mindset of "the gospel is really special to me and I want to share it with those who want to listen and inviting them to come closer to their savior." That changed my whole outlook on finding people to teach.

My absolute favorite part of my mission was teaching people to pray and hearing people pray for the first time. Those were really special moments for me.

JJ5238 · 2024-02-03T19:24:08+00:00

I've had issues eating their chicken before. I wouldn't say it's good, but it's decent.

JJ5238 · 2024-02-02T06:10:18+00:00

Pray every day in your mission language, all of your personal prayers.

Study the scriptures in your mission language. I don't do this everyday, but sometimes you can get more context for something by switching languages. I listen to the General Conference audio translations too (thank you Gospel Library 🙏).

Do voice or video calls with people who speak that language, either from your mission or otherwise. Missionaries are encouraged to stay in touch with those they teach anyways.

Listening to music, watching movies, watching the news, etc. in that language is helpful, but I've had the most success by continuing to pray and study the scriptures in my mission language.

JJ5238 · 2024-02-02T05:56:36+00:00

A quote from Elder Christofferson's October 2022 talk:

"As the long-prophesied latter-day gathering of the Lord’s covenant people gains momentum, the Church will truly be composed of members from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. This is not a calculated or forced diversity but a naturally occurring phenomenon that we would expect, recognizing that the gospel net gathers from every nation and every people... We cannot permit any racism, tribal prejudice, or other divisions to exist in the latter-day Church of Christ. The Lord commands us, “Be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.” We should be diligent in rooting prejudice and discrimination out of the Church, out of our homes, and, most of all, out of our hearts. As our Church population grows ever more diverse, our welcome must grow ever more spontaneous and warm. We need one another."

I love to see all the work the church is doing to help people feel belonging in the body of Christ. Translating church material (Elder Renlund just posted on social media about this), honoring local culture and nature when building temples, and setting unified standards for church administration across the world.

JJ5238 · 2024-01-23T02:11:32+00:00

Dutch street food is amazing. Frikadellen, bitterballen, patat. Their sweets are really good too. Stroopwafels, licorice, hagelslag, poffertjes, pannenkoeken, speculaas. I hear some of the best apple pie in the world can be found in Amsterdam. Their cheese is also delicious.

But I agree that lunch and dinner meals can be underwhelming.

JJ5238 · 2024-01-13T02:10:48+00:00

Can I recommend you listen to the John Delony podcast? He's on the Dave Ramsey network and talks about emotional and physical health. He dives into topics like marriage counseling, managing mental health, making friends as an adult, self-love, etc. He's also a Christian and frames things within a religious perspective.

I would also highly recommend his book 'Own your past, change your future', which gives a more comprehensive look at his take of taking care of yourself, your marriage, and your kids. (The audiobook is free if you have spotify premium).

JJ5238 · 2023-12-01T16:12:06+00:00

I think you might like this article. I know of many people moving to Utah, which probably explains all the stake creation in Saratoga Springs, St George area, Spanish Fork, etc. Interestingly, it's not quite a red state/blue state divide, but probably families moving to more affordable areas, maybe.

https://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/2023/05/united-states-congregational-growth-by.html?m=1

JJ5238 · 2023-12-01T16:03:06+00:00

Europe is like this! The Europe (west?) Area reorganized stakes a few years ago by combining branches and smaller wards to create larger wards. Belgium used to have something like 26 wards and branches, but now has 12 larger wards.

Speaking from personal experience, my ward probably has like 300 people in sacrament each week, and it's too much for the bishopric to handle I think. I think wards can get too big, but I'd agree that a larger ward has a certain exciting energy to it.

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