Rickie

I don't see any scenario where anyone will be without God in satisfactory. The plan of salvation set out in the council is something we all agreed on and everyone will have the opportunity to reach their eternal happiness with God and their family. James 1:12, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”.

We are commanded to love our neighbors, no matter what happens. If someone is nasty and makes assumptions against someone who says they're atheist, then they're judging and clearly don't understand the principle of following Jesus Christ's example.

I like the amount of times we're using try... I think that's key in this. Sometimes it's all we're asked to do.

Thank you for this! I sometimes feel like I want to share something but don't know what to say or how to do it and this will be helpful. Infact I just shared one on Facebook.

I'm somewhat confused haha, are you saying I'm silly for thinking we do? Because I know we certainly do not. However, I do think we are taught to try to do so, but we will never be perfect enough in this life to do so.

Here's my 2 pence worth for this topic. It is important to go by what the Bible teaches too. You have to remember that it is still of God in a way that he wants it to be. It does not teach 10 commandments to men and 10 commandments to women, or 8 commandments to good looking people and 3 commands to ugly people. It's 10 commandments that need to be lived by by everybody, equally with no bypass. Hebrews 13:4 - Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. It is NOT saying - Let marriage be held in honor among select few, and let the married bed be undefiled on 39% of my people, for I God will judge the sexually imoral and adulerous to who I choose! Genesis 9:7 - And you, be fruitful and multiply, teem on the earth and multiply in it. It is NOT saying - And you, be fruitful and multiply, but women who're poor and weak, you only multiply when demanded! 1 Corinthians 7:2 - But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. It is not saying - But because of the temptation women have with sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each women must not. I hope I got my point across lol - All I'm trying to say is, what we are taught from God is that we are all unique, and should be treated equally. But we are also given our own responsibilities, our own tasks... How so? Well he gave his own begotton son the task of dying for our sins! He gave all the apostles and prophets their own unique tasks, Mary also had a task which played a huge part in our salvation! We must study the scriptures, treat everybody like Jesus would, forgive 70 and try to be who God asks YOU to be.

I think the pressure is only there if you allow the pressure to be there. You have to remember that you're a member of this church, you're a disciple and the only pressure on your head is your salvation, not the world's opinion. I'm a recent convert and at the start, there was a certain person I didn't get on with and it made me not want to go to church. However, overtime I learned that the church is not their church, not their doctrine, it's the Lords and that's all that matters. I think the same goes here, people have their opinion, but the only time that opinion affects you is when it affects your relationship with God. All societies around the world have their unique culture pressures, but at the end of the day, we learn to not be of the world. https://www.lds.org/ensign/1974/01/to-be-in-the-world-but-not-of-the-world?lang=eng It's easier said then done, but so is everything else in the Gospel but that's the marvelous plan.

Thanks I've browsed these forums for awhile now, just didn't know where to start posting.

That's wonderful! I just read through your thread and I'm so pleased for you that you've accepted to be baptized. I just want to share my brief testimony with you. Before I joined the church I had no belief in God. I actually spent some time debating with people on how much I think God isn't true. Everything make complete sense to me as to why there was no God. I won't give you assays on what led to my conversion (unless you want to know, just ask and I'll give the longer version) but I'll give you the short version. I was baptized on the 5th of September, 2014. Before and a few months after my baptism, I was in a very lonely place. I was working part-time in a job that I was struggling with, my relationship with my parents weren't going well and I locked away in my room hiding from the world. No ambition, no self-esteem and no friends. So much had happened that it came to the point where I wanted to hide away, and then the hiding spot came too comfortable. I was addicted to some nasty stuff online which has ended up scaring me. Now after my conversion, everything started to change. In the 1st year I was married, and in the 2nd year (now) I am now married, a 10 month baby girl, a full-time good pay job and so much more. The lord really did rescue me form the mires of the world, he pulled me out of that room and now I know who I am and who he wants me to be. Isn't this funny coming from someone who didn't believe in God? The short version of this is that God only makes sense when faith comes first. We have so much influance all around us on a day to day basis, and our minds can sometimes think it's right too much of the time. Faith steps your mind out of your own thinking process, and allows you to see the bigger picture. Faith honestly sounded like the most stupidest thing ever, but now it's the purpose of who I am, and I live my life loving the power of faith. My build up to joining this church is another story, but I just want you to know that you have made the right decision. If something in this church does not make sense to you, then know that it's only because YOU don't make sense of it, and one day you will be able to make sense of it through your faithfulness in studying the scriptures given to us by God.