The Cutest Thing!

If this isn't the cutest thing- I don't know what is!!!! He's like a little person! Australia is my dream trip. When I go I want it to be for a month! It is a huge island with so much diversity with the land and animals! The Zoo's are a must! Perhaps someday.

Encouraging respect for religious diversity

Let us as latter-day Saints reach out to others not of our faith. Let us never act in a spirit of arrogance or with a holier-than-thou attitude. Rather, may we show love and respect and helpfulness toward them. We are greatly misunderstood, and I fear that much of it is of our own making. We can mbe more tolerant, more neighborly, more friendly, more of an expample than we have been in the past. Let us teach our children to treat others with friendship, respect, love and admiration. That will yeild a far better result than will an at titude of egotism and arrogance.

April 2000 President Gordon B. Hinckley

Our Muslim Neighbors

Next to the Bellevue Stake Center on Main Street and 148th, where Jason and I attend church is a Muslim place of worship. It's nothing fancy, but we let them use our parking lot as there's is so small. Last week was Stake Conference where all congregations (about 10) called 'wards' of the 'stake' (geographical area) meet twice a year.

A brother of our ward shared what he saw happen last week with us in Fast and Testimony meeting. He sat near the double doors that were open and watch as a woman with a scarf around her head in Muslim like fashion come in. She looked at the picture of the Savior with his 12 apostles for about 2.5 minutes and then prostrated herself on the floor in the state of Muslim worship. She got up, looked at the picture again and did the same thing. She did this a total of 3 times. At the end, this brother came to her and invited her into listen to conference. There was a language barrier, but she came and sat and listened probably not understanding much, but had tears streaming down her face often. At the end, he again tried to communicate with her, to no avail. He brought over the missionaries, again a language barrier. The only thing he could think of to do was to give her a picture of the Savior with the 13 articles of faith on the opposite side of a card he always carries with him in his wallet.

While listening to this story, my mouth dropped open! I can only speculate about why she was there and what she felt and what she knows or does not know.

I've heard of Muslim's being converted to Mormonism and explaining it to their people as Joseph Smith is the new Muhammad. I've heard of Muslims having dreams in which they were told that Muhammad is not a true prophet. I know of the similarities of our religions, such as a food code, the need for a prophet to restore doctrine, etc. Someday they will all be brought to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and we will all be under one King: The King of Kings.

For more information read this: A Latter-day Saint Perspective on Muhammad.

From the Wikipedia: (red words, created by me, are similar beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)

According to Islamic tradition, each prophet conveyed the same basic ideas of Islam (defined as submission to God, to his words and to his orders). They brought the belief in a single God and in the avoidance of idolatry and sin. Each came to preach Islam and told of the coming of the final law-bearing prophet and messenger of God: Muhammad. Each prophet directed a message to a different group and each prophet taught minor variations in sharia (or the practice of religion) to a different target audience. These variations constitute applications of Islam: mainstream Muslims do not consider them discrete versions of Islam.

Islamic tradition holds that God sent messengers to every nation. Muslims believe that God finally sent Muhammad to "seal" and to convey the divine message to the whole world (to sum up and to finalize the word of God), whereas he had previously sent the other messengers (rusul) to convey their messages to a specific group of people or to an individual nation.

Muslims regard Adam as the first prophet and Muhammad as the last prophet; (from the traditional interpretation of Muhammad's title Seal of the Prophets). Islam regards Jesus as a rasul (and sometimes as a nabi) because he received wahy (revelation) from God, through which God revealed the Injil (Gospel) to him.^[1] Muslims have great respect for Jesus (known by the Arabic form of his given name as Eesa or Isa) and for his mother Maryam. They do not, however, regard Jesus as the son of God.

Islamic theology recognises as many as 224,000 prophets.^[2] According to Wheeler, the Qur'an identifies 25 prophets by name, starting with Adam and ending with Muhammad.^[3]

Woodrow Wilson

1916: Woodrow Wilson Quote: "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world.No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."

Conspiracy Theories

Yes, I'm reading this book.

Yes, I'm dabbling in the idea of "conspiracy theories."

Do I believe them? YES.

In what areas do I think secret combinations are happening?

History- how we specifically got into wars.
Education- how socialism is taught and the Founding Fathers are given a bad rap.
Government- how the banks, the people with the money are really in control of congress and Washington DC.
Foundations- how they support socialism, communism and a new world order.
Secret groups of the rich that help create organizations that are unconstitutional and support their causes and deny the righteous ones.

You should read it! you should check it out! I've decided that I am no longer Republican- I'm a constitutionalists and will check every idea against that inspired document.

If you'd like to learn more, you can go to this web sight: www.whatreallyhappened.com to learn about Pearl Harbor, the war in Iraq and many others. While I have not read all of the topic's, I TOTALLY DISAGREE with atheism.

My Mission Comp Laurel

My mission companion Laurel Christensen is SOMEBODY. Were all somebody's, but she's SOMEBODY capitalized. She works under Sheri L. Dew, she knows Ardeth Kapp, She puts on "Time out for Women", She has 3 talk CD's for young women, goes to girls camps to speak and inspire, and this is her second book. You can get it here: http://deseretbook.com/He-Loves-Us-We-Love-Him-Youve-Memorized-Now-Live-Laurel-Christensen/i/5046911

Following the Prophet

1. Will require Sacrifice
2. Will require me to change
3. May be unpopular
4. May mean not knowing "why"
5. Will require my service
6. Will require the little things as well as the dramatic ones
7. Will require me to stand as a witness at all times and in all places