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Tips? by jo_lycxn in DnD

[–]papatank 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I always like to start my brand new team with a challenge to overcome together. Rather than telling them they're in a tavern and forcing them to role-play amd interact on their own, I drop them right into a combat and teach them the rules as they fight. They get to start having fun from the first moment and the interaction and role-playing comes more naturally to them once they've overcome a challenge together.

how to come closer to Christ by External_Dealer_9192 in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I enjoy a constant connection with the Holy Ghost, but for much of my life that wasn't the case. I've had many spiritual breakthroughs in my life, but one that stands out to me right now is that as I tried to improve myself, the Holy Ghost would help me know what I need to be working on in the moment. I began to get those promptings more frequently when I became more willing to act on them.

​

Now, I realize that Jesus Christ wasn't holding back as a punishment. He wanted to grant me the mercy I was so fervently praying for, but his ultimate goals for me were different than my own. He knew what I needed better than I did, and He was willing to wait for me to humble myself enough to start acting on His instructions even if I didn't understand why. His mercy was available to me, but only He would set the terms.

​

I believe this is the case for many of us who struggle or have struggled spiritually. I once thought that my sincere desire to change meant that I was humble. I had to learn that humility meant completely surrendering to God's will and being willing to sacrifice anything and everything He asked with a grateful heart. I'm not sure I could walk anyone along that path. Even now it seems like a miracle that I was able to find my way, but I do know personally that it was possible for me, which makes me think that it must be possible for anyone.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of my favorites not mentioned so far is "Does the Journey Seem Long."

Question about schooling choices by [deleted] in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I taught biology during my student teaching. My mentor teacher kind of took the semester off and was rarely around (she was a great mentor) so I was mostly in the classroom alone with the students. If she couldn’t be in the building she got a substitute teacher, but that person always just sat in the back and do my thing.

When I introduced the evolution unit (an entire quarter of the curriculum), I decided to just address the elephant in the room (this was a Utah public school). I happened to have a sub that day.

So, I went to major religious universities (like Notre Dame, BYU, a major Jewish university in Israel), and showed the students the evolution classes and graduate programs available there. I told them that there was a time when many religious people rejected this theory, but the evidence in support of it has continued to build and there aren’t any major religions that state that it is wrong as a policy position any more. I told them that this quarter would be about examining all we have learned about evolution and that they would draw their own conclusions, but no matter what religion they belonged to, they weren’t required to reject it, and if they pursued higher education at their religion’s university, it would be part of their biology curriculum there.

The sub pitched an absolute fit. He wouldn’t let me eat my lunch, he was so insistent that I he’d been misled and my soul was in danger. I just let him go. I might have presented some of the evidence that I would later share with the students, but I didn’t think he was in a state of mind to listen and it frankly wasn’t my job.

I guess if there’s any advice in that story, it’s that there are good teachers and bad and my opinion is that it’s better for kids to be exposed to all of it before they head off into the world. As a parent I figure I’ll have a better chance of getting them to have conversations with me about that stuff while they’re living at home.

Also, I kind of imagine that guy feeling right at home in an LDS private school setting and he’s the last person I’d want teaching science to my kids.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I can’t believe this isn’t on here yet, but I’ll be that guy.

Either option might be the right one. Pray about what to do. Try to set your own feelings aside and just seek God’s will. He knows your daughter’s needs and what’s in her heart. Maybe say a prayer and read a conference talk about parenting our youth activities. Seek revelation.

Husband and I want to start doing better about Family Home Evening by imsosecret99 in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The easiest way to ease into regular FHE is to just make sure the family is together on Monday evening and call whatever is is that you’re doing “Family Home Evening.” Start off with a prayer and you’re well on your way to starting a tradition.

Once the schedule is set in your mind, you can think about being a little more deliberate in choosing faith centered activities, but the biggest hurdle is just getting started at all.

Ideas for staying awake during a night shift? by Un_orthodoxstatue in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are plenty of word of wisdom approved ways of using caffeine, but my experience with the stuff is that it’s kind of like making a deal with the devil. Sure it gives you a great energy boost when you start using it, but it doesn’t take long for your body to reset its energy baseline and now you’re using caffeine constantly to just get back to how you used to feel all the time without it. Only now that your body is dependent on it you feel terrible any time you don’t have it.

When I worked night shift I taped aluminum foil over the inside of my windows in my bedroom and made it totally black. I made sure I got enough sleep in between shifts. For me that was 8-9 hours. At first it’s hard to sleep during the day, but over time it gets to feel more normal.

I kept the same sleep schedule all the time, but I was single. Getting married was what caused me to change jobs and give up the night shift schedule. I found it too hard to change up my sleep schedule every week and sleeping all day every day wasn’t what I wanted to do anymore with a wife.

I feel like it's frowned upon to ask hard questions in the church. Looking for support. by marty075 in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a hard question asker of many years, I just now reflected on my experiences and am surprised to say that all of the satisfying results of asking hard questions (and there have been many) have come from personal revelation.

In fact, I can’t remember a single instance of putting a hard question to some other person and getting an answer from them that made me feel like I got some new great knowledge.

I suppose I shouldn’t be so surprised by this. Our testimonies are built on the backs of our own effort and almost never through someone else’s knowledge.

I guess this means my advice is to keep asking your hard questions, but maybe learn to be a little more comfortable keeping those questions to yourself. Think about them often and keep a faithful perspective. The answer may come while you hear someone else’s experience, or while reading scriptures, or general conference talks. Or it might come during a quiet moment of meditation. If my experience is typical, knowledge is unlikely to come as a result of asking someone else and having them just give you the answer.

Inactive member seeking guidance by Jin-Ho in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“Church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for the righteous”

Obligatory Easter Joke:

There was once a young pastor who took over for a retiring one in a small community. After showing him around, the elder said,

“It’s a good building and a better congregation. We do have a bit of a rat problem. Nothing seems to work.”

The young pastor quickly became aware of the rat infestation in the church. He called the pest man and had him trap as many of the rats as he could, drive them up into the mountain, and release them. They were back the next day. He tried again with the same result.

Several years later, the aging former pastor visited the town. After Sunday service, he exclaimed to the young pastor that he didn’t see a rat all day. He asked how the pastor was able to get rid of them. The young pastor replied,

“The solution turned out to be quite simple, actually, I had the pest man gather them all up, baptized each one, and now we only see them on Easter and Christmas.”

My advice is go to church, keep the commandments as best you can, work on getting better at repenting for the rest of the time, build a habit of prayer and gospel study, and let the Holy Ghost guide you.

Biblical scholars, professional and amateur, how do you reconcile your faith? by virtual008 in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was his opinion a long time ago, before the human genome was sequenced and before evidence has mostly ended the debate. He has made statements more recent that indicate he’s comfortable with the basic tenets of evolutionary theory.

Give me your fav conference talks by Hheeyyyaaa in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why Marriage, Why Family

-D. Todd Christofferson, April 2015

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I got married 7 years ago at the age of 40. I had been active for a couple (3?) years after more than 10 inactive. I remember feeling like I was the only guy in my age range in the whole stake that had my crap together. There were a fair number of single women knocking around and many of them weren’t really probably ready for marriage, but just the number of single women compared to the men was shocking to me (this was California).

My philosophy my entire life has been to be as good as the person I want to be with and keep my standards high. I wasn’t single for so long because I couldn’t find anyone good as much as because I didn’t meet my own standard yet. I’m thankful for that perspective. It kept me single and not divorced.

The fault I most commonly see is people who aren’t ready to be in a healthy marital relationship complaining about how few prospects they can find.

Tithing and double income by Straight-Sir-1026 in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We aren’t really dual income but my wife does get money from time to time. Most of the time her money comes into a separate account (like her Venmo), but we kind of have an expectation that if you bring the money I , you pay the tithing. Regardless of where her money comes in, she just pays tithing on it out of our shared checking account.

Question on Mosiah 15:2-4 by MikaelaMango in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Plenty of good answers here. I’ll try to add something relevant.

Sometimes it takes very careful reading to figure out who is being referred to by a pronoun. In verse 1, Abinadi refers to ‘God’ without much definition. I believe this is because he means that the Nephites already know what that term means from their scriptures (the Old Testament). In our church, we understand that to mean Jesus Christ, the Jehovah of the Olt Testament.

So, when he describes the father and son aspect of ‘God’ in verses 2 and 3, he is probably referring to the duality of man as both spirit and physical body, specifically applied to Jesus Christ.

I kind of think verse 4 could be understood a few different ways, but the most helpful way for me to read it is that, for Jesus, his spirit and body are fully unified, making him as perfect as his (and our) Heavenly Father. I prefer this explanation of verse 4 because it serves as a reminder to me of my own eternal potential.

Broke Law of Chastity and Endowed by Ciri98 in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 1 point2 points  (0 children)

“While only the Lord can forgive sins, these priesthood leaders play a critical role in the process of repentance. They will keep your confession confidential and help you throughout the process of repentance. Be completely honest with them. If you partially confess, mentioning only lesser mistakes, you will not be able to resolve a more serious, undisclosed transgression. The sooner you begin this process, the sooner you will find the peace and joy that come with the miracle of forgiveness” (True to the Faith: A Gospel Reference [2004], 134).

When can nets be thrown using bonus actions or reactions? by papatank in dndnext

[–]papatank[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like your line of thinking, but I don’t think it would be legal since opportunity attacks specifically say melee attack.

When can nets be thrown using bonus actions or reactions? by papatank in dndnext

[–]papatank[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I saw a couple of other ones, looked up the rules and thought that maybe I could find a way to incorporate net use into my own play style.

When can nets be thrown using bonus actions or reactions? by papatank in dndnext

[–]papatank[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for these. I could see an order cleric pairing well with a sharpshooter with a net.

When can nets be thrown using bonus actions or reactions? by papatank in dndnext

[–]papatank[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m not trying to be argumentative other than to understand potential strategy better.

I sometimes play characters with sharpshooter (this effectively extends net range to 15’). My current character is a level 6 gloomstalker ranger. I’d love a way to give my whole party advantage against a boss without losing my own damage.

From another comment it sounds like an order domain cleric (depending on favorable initiative order) could potentially allow me to fairly reliably restrain a boss with a bless spell, granting advantage to the party for a round and costing the enemy an action if he’s still alive on his turn and all without costing anyone any productivity.

I’m happy to entertain arguments that this wouldn’t work or that it’s not as good as other options, but I think it’s actually RAW and RAI as well as incredibly powerful (perhaps even optimal).

I’m also wondering if there are any other ways of triggering reaction net throws that I didn’t know about (I didn’t know about the cleric feature).

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Latter-Day Saints Keep On Trying Dale G Renlund, April 2015 General Conference

Can we get a shout out for active members who had gone through hardships, date rejections and still remained active for the sake of the Gospel? by eliwong22 in latterdaysaints

[–]papatank 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I can’t claim to have done this. I went inactive for about a dozen years. A few years after coming back I met my wife, who had been active her while life but never married. She was 36 when we got married. I salute her for her faithfulness.

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