“Let me give you a definition in brief. Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the house of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell.” (Discourses of Brigham Young [Deseret Book Co., 1941], p. 416.)

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I had my first garage sale this morning. It was definitely an interesting experience, one that I will not repeat any time soon. Oh, it wasn’t that bad, I think I just went into the experience a little naïve.

Anytime I’ve made noises about having a garage sale in the past my husband has made grumbling noises and mumbled that he thought we should just give our stuff to the needy and not try to sell it at some dumb sale. Most of the time I agreed with him and so the garage sale has always been shelved. Not today, it was a neighborhood sale and I had to get in on it. (more…)

I know, I know, I’m having a really crass week but I thought I would add one more post to the list. Here goes…

I hate snot and boogers. I am not a weak stomached person normally. Barf, pooh, blood, and guts usually don’t bother me, but not snot. Nothing gets my gagging faster than boogers. I’ve always been this way. I can remember watching kids picking their noses in elementary school and being completely grossed out. (more…)

Over at BCC Kris posted on the subject of women healing. She focused on the ritual of healing through the laying on of hands in the post. She writes:

Most members would agree that women are not precluded from receiving or seeking any of the spiritual gifts outlined in Doctrine & Covenants Section 46, “And again, to some it is given to have faith to be healed, and to others it is given to heal.” This is not a gendered statement. Yet while it seems that Mormon women are not officially forbidden to heal, they are prohibited from engaging in the rituals of healing. The current Handbook states that, “only brethren who hold the necessary priesthood and are worthy may perform an ordinance or blessing or stand in the circle.” In this system, women become “hidden healers”; often the gift of healing that literally lies at their fingertips is unused, accidentally discovered and sometimes serves as the source of confusion or guilt.

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Marriage has turned me into an Uber Nerd. The fact that I’m using the word uber is proof in itself. My transformation began right at the start of my journey into marital bliss. (more…)

I must warn you that this post is not for the faint of heart. I plan on using the words fart, poop, and belch a lot in this post so if these words bother you than you should stop reading now! (more…)

Buckle up amigos. I’ve been a thinkin’ again…

A few recent doctrinal discussions I’ve had raised a question in my mind: Are we participating in a “Council in Heaven” right this moment? I figured this would be a good place to explore the idea. (more…)

The comments in a recent post at BCC reminded me of all of the unsubstantiated beliefs that float around this church regarding the afterlife. In the following series of posts I will talk about some of them.

In this first post I want to discuss the following assumption that many Mormons make: The Kingdoms of Glory described in section 76 are separate physical places. (more…)

So Clark and I were discussing superheroes and Mormonism briefly the other day. He already put up a post on it (but in true super villain form failed to mention me – he shall hereafter be known as Dr. FailsToGiveProps). Anyway, I always thought the Mormon super power (if we had one) would be closest to the powers of an obscure former X-Man named Longshot.

Longshot was actually neither a human nor a mutant, but somehow he made it into the X-Men for a while. His super powers included things that have nothing to do with Mormonism like agility, knife throwing accuracy, etc. But his best super power was this: Good Luck. (more…)

It’s late, I’m hunkered down in my studio/closet making jewelry and listening to music on my computer. Normally I listen on headphones but tonight something makes me let the music flow freely out into the night air. (more…)

So I was listening to the song Monkey Man by The Specials this afternoon and it dawned on me that I haven’t written a single post on Mormons and evolution here at the Thang. That changes today. (I’m always thinking of how to tie posts in with radio.blog anyway…) (more…)