Emergency Preparedness Supplies

Just as Ezra Taft Benson said in October 1973, “The revelation to store food may be as essential to our temporal salvation today as boarding...

Emergency Preparedness Supplies

Hollywood Edited Movies at Low Prices

Everyone loves good clean movies. Now there is a place to get good movies online so that you can get an edited version of a movie that may...

Hollywood Edited Movies at Low Prices

Classy Dream Wear - Modest Sleepwear

Here is a modest clothing website with a lot of class: classydreamwear.com They have excellent service, great prices, prompt shipping, and even...

Classy Dream Wear - Modest Sleepwear

Effectively Keeping a Journal

This article tells you the “how,” but Why Write a Journal tells you the “why.” “The subject of keeping a journal, log,...

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Drawing Heaven Into Your Marriage

H. Wallace Goddard, PhD, a renowned marriage and family expert has recently written a new book, Drawing Heaven Into Your Marriage (ISBN: 978-1-934537-02-2)....

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Airline Movies NOT Edited

inflight entertainment Airline Movies NOT Edited

I recently got back from a trip to Europe, and I was appalled at the fact that the movies were not edited to remove vulgar and obscene content. The last flight I had been a few years. It has been standard practice in the airline industry for the past few decades to edit in-flight movies. However, with Hollywood’s big fuss over edited movie companies the past few years, it appears that in-flight movies are no longer edited.

So, my 7-hour flight on the Boeing 767 aircraft had these awesome LCD touch screens. They not only control your seat’s reading light and headphone volume, but it is an on-demand digital entertainment system. There are dozens of TV shoes, a couple dozen recent movies, a few thousand MP3s, and also games as well as see in-flight GPS updates. You pick and choose your in-flight entertainment. While I applaud the advanced entertainment technology on airplanes, I am disappointed that the movies were not edited. Half of the movies were rated R. How would you like your child sitting in the seat next to someone watching an R rated movie that shows graphic sex scenes? So are the eye covers they distribute so you can get sleep or are they to be used as blinders?

Despite popular belief, movies shown on airlines are NOT edited to remove vulgar and obscene content.

Solution: Take your own portable DVD player and bring along movies that are edited for content. Not only will your DVD player have better video and audio quality, but you will have the enjoyment of watching movies that do not have vulgar language and do not have nudity.

There is only one edited movie company remaining, Family Edited DVDs. They are liquidating their inventory and going out of business; thus the reason for the massive half-price liquidation sale. Here’s a great opportunity to get some edited movies before they are gone!

Catholic Roots Mormon Harvest

catholicrootsmormonharvest Catholic Roots Mormon HarvestI’m always intrigued at the conversion of others. Many years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Marvin Goldstein and hear his conversion story as being a Jew who converted not only to Christianity, but to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What an uplifting spiritual experience it was to hear his testimony.

Converting from Catholicism could be considered just as big when considering the doctrine of the Great Apostasy. I had the opportunity to review a book (released only a few weeks ago), Catholic Roots Mormon Harvest by Eric Shuster (Director of Foundation for Christian Studies). Eric shares his remarkable conversion story in an easy conversational flow with bits of humor here and there. I was filled with joy as a read of the spiritual experiences that Eric shares with us all. Eric puts forth the most complete comparison of Catholicism and Mormonism that I have ever seen, providing ample references as well as his thoughts and commentary on 40 doctrines and practices. An excellent resource for all honest truth seekers.

I enjoy listening to the testimonies of others and how they discover truth in their lives. It is amazing how the Spirit reveals truth and how people act upon the knowledge revealed to them. While for some people, their conversion requires drastic changes in both doctrine and personal habits, and others only require minor changes, the end result is the same: they are brought closer to Christ. While serving my mission many years ago, I had come across a passage in LeGrand Richards’ book, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, pg 3, that clearly illustrates how understanding the Restoration is an essential part of the conversion process:

In a pamphlet entitled The Strength of the Mormon Position, the late Elder Orson F. Whitney, of the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, related the following incident under the heading “A Catholic Utterance”:

“Many years ago a learned man, a member of the Roman Catholic Church, came to Utah and spoke from the stand of the Salt Lake Tabernacle. I became well-acquainted with him, and we conversed freely and frankly. A great scholar, with perhaps a dozen languages at his tongue’s end, he seemed to know all about theology, law, literature, science and philosophy. One day he said to me: “You Mormons are all ignoramuses. You don’t even know the strength of your own position. It is so strong that there is only one other tenable in the whole Christian world, and that is the position of the Catholic Church. The issue is between Catholicism and Mormonism. If we are right, you are wrong; if you are right, we are wrong; and that’s all there is to it. The Protestants haven’t a leg to stand on. For, if we are wrong, they are wrong with us, since they were a part of us and went out from us; while if we are right, they are apostates whom we cut off long ago. If we have the apostolic succession from St. Peter, as we claim, there is no need of Joseph Smith and Mormonism; but if we have not that succession, then such a man as Joseph Smith was necessary, and Mormonism’s attitude is the only consistent one. It is either the perpetuation of the gospel from ancient times, or the restoration of the gospel in latter days.”



Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

Does God Play Favorites?

Will all people be able to return to God, or does He pick and choose? Many people have the false assumption that they can go through their mortal life and they are saved by the grace of God without any sincerity on their part. It is true that we are saved by grace; but if we have no desire or intent to obey, then we can likewise assume that God has no desire or intent to save us. God does pick and choose those who will be “saved.” It is very simple to be favored of God; simply, obey His commandments and you will be blessed. Here are a few observations:

1. Obedience - This is essential to our salvation. We receive blessings via our obedience. When we almost keep the commandments, we almost receive the blessing.

D&C 130:20-21 “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated, and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.”

2. Black and White - Everything is black and white, right or wrong. Some people try to claim there are shades of gray regarding sin. However, God takes a different view: either you sin or you do not. There are no shades of gray, or degrees of sin.

Alma 45:16 “…for the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.”

D&C 1:31 “For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.”


3. Like Father, Like Son - When raising children, I have often found that as a father I favor some of my children above others. Looking back, I see that it was actually their obedience that I favored. I love all my children equally, but I give more “blessings” to children that are more obedient. As we are all children of our Heavenly Father, I can better understand why He favors obedience.

Some additional scripture to ponder:

1 Nephi 17:35 “Behold, the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one; he that is righteous is favored of God.”

Colossians 3:25 “But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.”

Acts 10:34-35 “Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.


So finally, the answer to the question, “Does God play favorites with people?” is YES. God favors those who love Him and obey His commandments.

Over 50 Free LDS Word Search Puzzles

free word search puzzles 249x300 Over 50 Free LDS Word Search PuzzlesIf you are looking for some fun stuff to do, try our LDS themed word search puzzles available on our downloads page. With over 50 puzzles with answer keys, this should be a great way to have some fun, use in a family home evening activity, or even on a Summer road trip. To download directly:

LDS Word Search Puzzles

Enjoy the fun with the whole family, or do them in your spare time.

Homeland Security Targeting Christians

A Department of Homeland Security intelligence assessment equates Christians who believe in “end times prophecies” with violent terrorists and states that radical extremists are “stockpiling” food in fear of Obama administration regulations that may facilitate the occurrence of prophesied events.

This newly uncovered document is just the latest in a long sordid line of training manuals in which the federal government characterizes tens of millions of American citizens as potentially violent terrorists who are a threat to law enforcement. The document is titled: Right Wing Extremism. It states, in part:

“Antigovernment conspiracy theories and “end times” prophecies could motivate extremist individuals and groups to stockpile food, ammunition, and weapons.”

Simply put, any Christian who believes in the end times prophecy of the Second Coming of Christ would be labeled as a terrorist. In addition, anyone who has a food storage is now labeled as a terrorist.

This is among the first of many attacks to come against Christians by the Socialist Obama Administration! Perhaps this might be why the General Authorities have stopped telling people to get a food storage?

Voice of Warning on Preparation

Here are a few thought provoking quotes I ran across that should help us realize we have been admonished to be prepared and it is our chance to listen and follow the prophets.

“Should the Lord decide at this time to cleanse the Church–and the need for that cleansing seems to be increasing–a famine in this land of one year’s duration could wipe out a large percentage of slothful members, including some ward and stake officers. Yet we cannot say we have not been warned.” (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p.265)

“Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they somehow will be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion.” (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p.265)

Roger K. Young said, “The Lord has warned and forewarned us against a day of great tribulation and given us counsel, through His servants, on how we can be prepared for these difficult times. Have we heeded His counsel? It is hard for me to understand why or how so many good and wonderful people can discount what the prophets have said, again, and again, and concerning what will suddenly happen to the world in the future. President Benson said: “The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah.” (CR October 1980, Ensign 10 [November 1980]: 33.) Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p.266)

Teaching with Edited Movies

Teaching with movies is great, and teaching with edited movies is even better. Recently I encountered a website, Teach With Movies, that provides a way to use movies as an effective teaching method. This is a great way for teachers to supplement lesson plans for students K-12:

TeachWithMovies.org offers Movie Lesson Plans and Learning Guides to 285 movies. “Learning Guides” are flexible tools for teachers providing background, discussion questions, links to the Internet, projects, and vocabulary lists. They allow teachers to quickly and easily create lesson plans suitable for their particular classes. “Movie Lesson Plans” are more formal and add lectures, student handouts, comprehension tests and answer keys. TeachWithMovies.org Learning Guides cover most areas of the K - 12 curriculum. Use the storytelling power of Hollywood to motivate, inspire, and educate students. Each recommended film contains lessons on life and positive moral messages.

Why use just movies? Let’s go one step further and use edited movies, which are movies where the vulgar language, sexual content, and gory violence has been removed. Family Edited DVDs (the once leading provider of edited movies), has recently stopped producing edited movies. Their website shows that they are closed. However, apparently you can still order the CD-ROM eBook on How to Make Edited Movies. Obviously, they still have some left over inventory that you can also order that may not be available much longer.

By using their how-to guide to editing movies, you can turn those PG movies with vulgar content into movies that can safely be viewed by the whole family.

If you think that a PG movie is harmless, try watching the PG-rated movie, Top Gun, and count the vulgar words [way over 100 vulgarities and still counting].

Quorum of Twelve Apostates?

quorum of twelve apostates byu newspaper Quorum of Twelve Apostates?

The photo above appeared in the Monday April 6th copy of BYU’s newspaper, The Daily Universe, the day following General Conference. A caption below the photo read, in part, “… the Quorum of the Twelve Apostates…” instead of Apostles. Apparently, they didn’t catch it in time.

The paper apologized for the mistake and gathered up as many of the 18,000 copies that it could. It attributes the mistake to a spell-check error made by a copy editor who was under the pressures of a deadline.

The typographical error that sent the department scrambling to recycle 259,000 pages of newsprint was actually an innocent mistake on the part of a student editor under deadline pressure, said Rich Evans, editorial manager of the university’s newspaper, The Daily Universe.

“Her intentions were good,” Evans said. “It was an honest mistake and one that two other people should have caught, too.”

In referring to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apostleship in a front-page photo, the caption read, “Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostates and other general authorities raise their hands in a sustaining vote…”

Once the mistake was noticed, all available copies of the newspaper were removed from the racks and replaced with a sign directing students to view the paper online, said Brad Rawlins, chair of the Department of Communications. Daryl Gibson, director of NewsNet IT, said this is the first time the paper has been pulled because of a news error in his more than 30 years of working at BYU.

After a day of student interviews and reviewing audit trails, Evans said he believes the gaffe ironically occurred during a spell check. The Daily Universe was using Adobe software called InDesign, which, when it found the word apostle misspelled as “apsotale,” suggested “apostate” at the top of its correction list.

“She quickly clicked on the first (suggestion) and moved on,” Evans said. “A real unfortunate mistake.”

It is interesting that the InDesign software by Adobe suggests “apostate” before “apostle,” but the Microsoft Word software suggests “apostle” before “apostate.”

Activities of Jesus Christ’s Last Week

easter 215x300 Activities of Jesus Christs Last WeekSunday
Goes to Bethphage, mounts donkey, descends Mount of Olives, makes “Triumphal entry” into Jerusalem, returns to Bethany. (Mt. 21:1-14; Mk. 11:1-11; Lk. 19:29-47; Jn 12:12-19.)

Monday
Leaves Bethany for Jerusalem, curses fig tree, heals blind and lame, cleanses the temple, returns to Bethany. (Mt. 21:12-19; Mk. 11:12-19; Lk. 19:45-48; Jn 21:37.)

Tuesday
Saw withered fig tree on way to Jerusalem, enters temple, answers questions on authority, tribute money, marriage after resurrection, great commandment, whose Son He is. Condemns Pharisees, laments over Jerusalem, talks of widow’s mite, sought by Greeks. Voice from heaven is heard. Discourse on Mount of Olives, tells of final judgment, chief priests plot to take him, anointed by Mary. Judas arranges betrayal. (Mt. 21:20-26:13; Mk. 11:20-14:9; Lk 20:1-22:2; Jn 12:1-50.)

Wednesday
May have been in Bethany, then at temple during daytime. In the evening, he goes to “upper room” in Jerusalem for last supper. Washes disciple’s feet, eats Passover meal, reveals his betrayer, foretells his death, institutes sacrament, tells Peter he will deny him, gives dissertation about the Comforter, goes to Mount of Olives where he continues teaching his disciples, prays in the Garden of Gethsemane; is betrayed, arrested and bound. (Mt. 26:17-56; Mk. 14:12-52; Lk 22:7-54; Jn. 13:2-18:14.) About midnight, he is taken into Jerusalem, first to Annas, then to Caiaphas and tried by the Sanhedrin. He is mocked and maltreated, denied by Peter.

Thursday
In the morning, Jesus is tried and condemned by Jews, taken before Pilate, then Herod, returned to Pilate. Pilate condemns and delivers him up to be crucified. He goes to Calvary and is crucified, then buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea. (Mt. 26:57-27:66; Mk. 14:53-15:47; Lk. 22:54-23:56; Jn 18:15-19:42.). This day is the Passover and a preparation day before the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is a high sabbath day. (Mk 15:42). Burial before sundown.

Friday
First day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is a high sabbath day (Jn 19:31). Body lies in tomb. Roman guard set.

Saturday
Weekly sabbath day. Body lies in tomb. Roman guard continues.

Sunday
Resurrection before sunrise. Tomb discovered to be empty before dawn. The Lord is resurrected (Mt. 28: Mk. 16; Lk. 24; Jn. 20) Christ has risen on the third day (Mt. 12:40, Lk 24:21).