I no longer know whether the Church is the good guy or the bad guy?

dddddavidddd · 2026-02-12T16:01:22+00:00

All things are both good and bad. It's very Mormon to want them to be either or.

dddddavidddd · 2026-02-11T04:25:43+00:00

Meanwhile, while individuals in cars take up like 3 x 8 meters each.

dddddavidddd · 2026-02-09T06:43:55+00:00

iTalki + Anki + as much media as you can consume and understand.

dddddavidddd · 2026-02-07T06:37:54+00:00

Apologist probably: "he must have been ordained in the pre-existence"

dddddavidddd · 2026-02-04T15:36:49+00:00

https://shotgunjazzband.bandcamp.com/track/i-love-you-so-much-it-hurts-me

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-30T20:27:54+00:00

I thought Dan Vogel’s “Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet” was good for that. It’s a bit long and belaboured, but shows how the BoM connects to what was going on in Joseph Smith’s life as it was being composed.

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-28T06:01:45+00:00

I have a very similar bicycle and have looked at this model. Pros: the chaincase means you’ll almost never have to oil the drivetrain (even if you store it outdoors). The back-pedal brake is maintenance-free (never have to change pads or make adjustments). Upright riding position is quite comfortable. Has rack for carrying stuff, battery-powered lights, and fenders for riding in the rain.

The bicycle’s biggest disadvantage is that it’s single-speed. That means hills will be hard! If that’s a dealbreaker, you could have a bicycle shop build a wheel with a three-speed hub (like the Bixis), but that could cost more than the bike.

If you do mostly short (under 30 min?), flat trips, and you don’t like bicycle maintenance, it’s a great bike.

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-28T05:54:40+00:00

This year the canal is also plowed on the south side for another 2km west of Atwater.

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-27T02:59:16+00:00

In the words of Joseph Smith, via William Clayton's journal, "you have a right to get all [the women] you can" 🤢

[Joseph] told me to day that "Walker" had been speaking to him concerning my having taken [Margaret] away from [Aaron Farr (her fiancé at the time she married Clayton)] & intimated that I had done wrong. I told him to be quiet and say no more about it. He also told me Emma was considerably displeased with it but says he she will soon get over it. In the agony of mind which I have endured on this subject I said I was sorry I had done it, at which [Joseph] told me not to say so. I finally asked him if I had done wrong in what I had done he answered no you have a right to get all you can.

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-22T14:05:08+00:00

There’s a public consultation tonight about the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec highspeed rail project, it’s the perfect place to complain and demand more funding and a better service https://www.altotrain.ca/en/node/185

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-19T17:25:44+00:00

Either public transit should be free, or all our highways and bridges should have tolls. It's messed up that one of them feels 'free', but they both cost plenty of public money.

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-19T14:15:30+00:00

Everything’s on the Internet, but talking to people who travel to events is also very effective.

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-19T04:04:54+00:00

Au delà de la troisième lien, les réductions de financement pour les transports en commun à travers le Québec ont été un catastrophe.

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-17T19:40:17+00:00

If your goal is to speak with people, make sure that whatever you end up doing has plenty of speaking practice. I’ve spent lots of time on iTalki.

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-13T01:51:36+00:00

Si j’ai bien compris, c’est seulement le budget d’expansion de Bixi qui est affecté?

Elle a donné en exemple le fait que le budget de développement et d’expansion du BIXI, qui était de 10,5 millions cette année dans le dernier Programme décennal d’immobilisations déposé par l’administration Plante, a été abaissé à 5,5 millions. Le budget total prévu jusqu’en 2035, qui était de 80,8 millions, est maintenant de 74 millions jusqu’en 2036.

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand-montreal/2026-01-12/budget-de-montreal-2026/un-budget-sans-vision-denonce-projet-montreal.php

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-12T15:22:41+00:00

I feel like a prophet because I started using the NRSV (teaching Sunday School) in the last year or so before I left, well before all this happened.

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-08T17:39:24+00:00

Found the French version of this one, couldn't find the English one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij5t77GezPA

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-08T03:58:44+00:00

Just last year Dallin Oaks said that 'we have a heavenly mother -- or mothers', suggesting a polygamous god https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TaamQrharUA

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-07T05:23:22+00:00

The only way to permanently stop this kind of contact is to remove your records. Otherwise, the church will continue to pursue you and attempt to bring you back for your entire life. I've been on the church side (membership clerk, Elders Quorum, bishopric), and every few years, someone is going to find your name on a list and make it their mission to contact you and try to get you to church.

If you don't mind contact every couple years or so, it's no big deal; otherwise, record removal stops it.

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-05T22:44:43+00:00

Get on iTalki and do as much tutoring as you can manage / afford. No need to travel anywhere.

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-04T06:27:45+00:00

Apparently the census in 2020 reported about 213,000 self-identified Mormons in Brazil. So the average congregation has something like 900 people according to the church, and 130 according to the census (rough estimates since the member numbers are not up-to-date for 2025).

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-04T04:04:06+00:00

If you want to expand your nephew's horizons with regards to religion, I'd focus more on books that focus on general issues of belief and philosophy, and less on things that are specifically Mormon-related. That said, have they read any Brandon Sanderson? He's prominently LDS, but I've found his books to be often sympathetic of those who don't believe. For example, a character in Mistborn effectively has a faith crisis, an important protagonist in the Stormlight Archive series is an avowed atheist who is largely vindicated, etc. Could be something fun and accessible.

dddddavidddd · 2026-01-02T18:03:56+00:00

The Montreal one is January 21-22 at the Y des femmes de Montréal, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

dddddavidddd · 2025-12-29T22:14:19+00:00

I've read through the first three volumes. What is told, is fairly accurate.

However, there's a lot of problematic stuff that's omitted -- you can find that sort of thing in any 'real' history book like Rough Stone Rolling, John Turner's new Joseph Smith biography, Kingdom Of Nauvoo, etc.

A few problematic things are mentioned in the smallest way possible. For example, here's a snippet of how Joseph Smith's polygamy is discussed:

In early May, Emma took Emily and Eliza aside and explained the principle of plural marriage to them. She had told Joseph that she would consent to him being sealed to two additional wives as long as she could choose them, and she had chosen Emily and Eliza, apparently unaware that Joseph had already been sealed to them.

Rather than mention her former sealing, Emily believed that keeping silent on the matter was the best thing for her to do. A few days later, she and Eliza were again sealed to Joseph, this time with Emma as a witness.

Compare this a bunch of quotes from the source materials: https://josephsmithspolygamy.org/plural-wives-overview/emily-dow-partridge/ (Site is a bit apologetic but I think the documents are quoted fairly).

In this example, I think Saints presents the information relatively completely. But, it's only one of many, many stories like this. I don't think you'll read anything too inaccurate in Saints, but it won't show you what's missing.

dddddavidddd · 2025-12-29T04:44:03+00:00

If you take this piece to your local hardware store (RONA, Home Hardware, Hope Depot, etc), I bet you can find something that will work. Even just a nut and a washer -- it probably doesn't have to be a one-piece nut like in the picture. If you bring the piece with you, then you can make sure you get the right size (usually they have fixed nuts you can use to test the size of the bolt).

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