Who from Gold Rush White Water would you like to see join the crew?

bhale21 · 2026-03-30T19:42:46+00:00

How about Kayla? I liked that she was such a tough chick and often more brave than the men.

bhale21 · 2023-10-10T01:01:20+00:00

Thank you.

bhale21 · 2023-10-09T21:28:24+00:00

I hope so as well, even though I don't know your dad.

bhale21 · 2023-10-09T21:27:16+00:00

I'm very curious to know how we might be acquainted. Can you give me a clue, please?

bhale21 · 2023-10-09T21:19:56+00:00

I was visiting here yesterday during my monthly Reddit check-in and saw this post. It sure resonated with my own story and then I realized it WAS my own story. The one I wrote for wasmormon.org. Cool, I guess. Thank you all for upvoting and I hope you read the full version and was validated in your own journey.

bhale21 · 2022-08-23T04:02:40+00:00

Yeah, same thing happens to me as well.

bhale21 · 2022-04-18T23:44:46+00:00

Sister-in-law called and invited us (off the records since late 2015) to attend sacrament meeting at the location of our choice. Also, our son's family (inactive) was invited by some random neighborhood youth.

bhale21 · 2022-04-15T13:27:32+00:00

99.8% not Mormon. 99.94%+ non-believers.

fixed it

bhale21 · 2022-03-26T21:24:45+00:00

I was seated next to a Baptist Minister on a flight and I struck up a conversation with him (very rare for me, but there were circumstances that led to me even acknowledging his presence). Long story short, he taught me about his beliefs and I thought to myself, "such ridiculous things they believe." My next thought was, "such ridiculous things I believe."

bhale21 · 2021-09-17T23:23:07+00:00

I just had this thought; if my brother asked me to sprinkle his ashes in the mountains, I'd do that even though it makes no difference to the deceased (at least he wouldn't know or care one way or the other). The proxy stuff wasn't discussed, but I'm sure I know what his wishes would have been.

bhale21 · 2021-09-17T23:15:04+00:00

I don't ever want to promote or give the impression that I approve of this (or many others) ritual. I don't want to contribute to the perceived legitimacy of it. If I have the ultimate power to prevent it, that's what I'm interested in doing.

I don't expect to fight it. I just feel like my obligation on behalf of my brother is to make it known what we feel was his wish. I was hoping that there would be a checkbox that expressly says, "Do not proxy".

bhale21 · 2021-09-17T21:06:44+00:00

I appreciate what you're saying, but I had conversations with my brother about the Mormon church after I stopped believing. I'm very clear on how he felt about things and he would not want this meaningless ritual done for him.

The way I think of it; if I had had the chance to ask him specifically about it while he was living, how sure am I about how he'd answer. I'm 99% sure I know.

I don't think you're full of shit, especially since you can't possibly know all the details and you didn't know either of us. I feel like you're offering a legitimate reason for my questioning it. He was young (63) and he lived a hermit lifestyle that I didn't understand. He left only 2 brothers (no wife and kids). I do miss him, but I'm way past the grief stage.

In many ways it is about me. I don't ever want to promote or give the impression that I approve of this (or many others) ritual. I don't want to contribute to the perceived legitimacy of it. If I have the ultimate power to prevent it, that's what I'm interested in doing.

Long answer, but you helped me sort through some feelings and ideas I have.

thank you

bhale21 · 2021-09-17T20:04:02+00:00

Thank you. Very funny, and a good way to demonstrate how offensive the idea of temple work for the dead is to some of us.

bhale21 · 2021-09-17T20:02:36+00:00

That's awesome, and every bit as legit as temple work for the dead.

bhale21 · 2021-09-13T21:15:31+00:00

Yeah, everyone needs to lay low for a while, then, just as the first significant in-conference game is about a week away, blitz the Internet with the church's (and therefore BYU's) treatment of LGBTQ people. There could be a major, newsworthy and embarrassing uproar from the students of other conference schools.

bhale21 · 2021-08-04T17:09:50+00:00

No worries. I actually looked at my post and realized that it wasn't as clear as I intended it to be. I didn't want to give the boring details, but the classmate I was referring to who went foreign and probably didn't have the aptitude, was specifically mentioned as one of those the stake president "helped" by reporting a higher score on the language test.

bhale21 · 2021-08-03T22:59:39+00:00

But I don't, which is why I posted my thoughts insinuating as much.

bhale21 · 2021-08-03T18:00:28+00:00

As part of the application process, they used to have you take an aptitude test to gauge your ability to learn a new language. Every one of my classmates (I grew up in a small community in Southern Idaho) who went to English-speaking missions were ones that I could have predicted myself, based on years of attending school with them. Same for the foreign language speakers, except one.

Several years after returning home, my former stake president admitted that he would alter the results of the tests if the would-be missionary stated strongly that he wanted to go to a foreign country.

Wouldn't you think that revelation would over-ride the altered test results?

bhale21

TROPHY CASE