Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

And it should be "surprising" if even one person who is preaching the truth of a book hasn't actually read the book. So, to me, a surprising number could be 1.

mic0 wrote:And it should be "surprising" if even one person who is preaching the truth of a book hasn't actually read the book. So, to me, a surprising number could be 1.

Agreed. My face would look like this --->

I agree to some extent. I think almost every missionary has read a a lot of the Book of Mormon. I think many haven't read the entire Book of Mormon. The fact that they testify of its truth without having read the whole thing shouldn't be too surprising. I would venture to say that of the many people who could testify of the Bible's (or even just the New Testament's) truth, a strong majority haven't read the entire thing. For members of our church, I would say that number is even higher.

I really want to see this in person (have the album), but I wouldn't take my mother. That's where I stand on it.

Every dinner needs a side dish, on a slightly smaller plaaaaate!

... for a new iPhone at the Apple store

I think it's okay that you're having gay THOUGHTS, Elder, as long as you don't ACT on them (slide-splittingly accurate and hilarious )

wired wrote:I agree to some extent. I think almost every missionary has read a a lot of the Book of Mormon. I think many haven't read the entire Book of Mormon. The fact that they testify of its truth without having read the whole thing shouldn't be too surprising. I would venture to say that of the many people who could testify of the Bible's (or even just the New Testament's) truth, a strong majority haven't read the entire thing. For members of our church, I would say that number is even higher.

If you're a missionary, and haven't read the Book of Mormon yet, there's no excuse to not do it on the spot. It's not really that long of a book. Reading 30 minutes a day I could finish it in maybe a month, or six weeks. If you have a mission call in your hands and haven't read the Book of Mormon cover to cover, do it before you leave.

P.S. If you can read any given Harry Potter book in 24 hours or less, it shouldn't be that hard...
P.P.S. Yes I can (and have) done the above.
P.P.P.S. The Bible is a lot longer, but I think it's worth it for anyone to give the New Testament a complete reading.

Architect wrote:

wired wrote:I agree to some extent. I think almost every missionary has read a a lot of the Book of Mormon. I think many haven't read the entire Book of Mormon. The fact that they testify of its truth without having read the whole thing shouldn't be too surprising. I would venture to say that of the many people who could testify of the Bible's (or even just the New Testament's) truth, a strong majority haven't read the entire thing. For members of our church, I would say that number is even higher.

If you're a missionary, and haven't read the Book of Mormon yet, there's no excuse to not do it on the spot. It's not really that long of a book. Reading 30 minutes a day I could finish it in maybe a month, or six weeks. If you have a mission call in your hands and haven't read the Book of Mormon cover to cover, do it before you leave.

P.S. If you can read any given Harry Potter book in 24 hours or less, it shouldn't be that hard...
P.P.S. Yes I can (and have) done the above.
P.P.P.S. The Bible is a lot longer, but I think it's worth it for anyone to give the New Testament a complete reading.

Agreed all missionaries should read the BOM cover-to-cover (I'm looking at you, name pronunciation guide...). But, I think you're PPPS kind of underscores my point - we structure our opinions of what should be read and use that as a minimum bar, anything else is kind of shocking. That you don't want consider the OT necessary for someone to testify about the Bible demonstrates that there's nothing really magical about having read the entire thing; it's the process of sincere study and the principles learned that are critical to the Spirit's confirmation. I'm just not concerned when a missionary hasn't read the whole thing and still testifies it is true.

Portia wrote:I really want to see this in person (have the album), but I wouldn't take my mother. That's where I stand on it.

Every dinner needs a side dish, on a slightly smaller plaaaaate!

... for a new iPhone at the Apple store

I think it's okay that you're having gay THOUGHTS, Elder, as long as you don't ACT on them (slide-splittingly accurate and hilarious )

You and me, but mostly me, are gonna change the world togetheeeeer!

(personal favorite lyric): ORLANDO I love you! Sea World, and Disney, and putt putt golfiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.

I just saw this today! I quite liked it. Four years ago when this topic came up, I said I had no interest in seeing it, then I went through a time where I even turned it off (haha...) if it came up on Pandora. Then a few months ago I finally heard "Hello!". It was hilarious. Then I found out the musical would be in Austin, so I got tickets and we went. I had a lot of emotions throughout, but yeah, like I said, overall good stuff. I didn't know how the issues with the Ugandans would be resolved and was pleasantly surprised ("IT'S A METAPHOR!").

Marduk wrote above: "What [satire] actually is, is something that incisively and sagaciously cuts past appearances in order to expose human vice and folly." I felt like in a lot of ways the musical did this. Definitely with, like Imogen said, rich white people visiting Africa to "save" people. Definitely with how people like to "lead" or "save" others in general even when they have no clue what they're doing. I liked how the story came full religious circle with Elder Cunningham filling a Joseph Smith/prophet role. It made me uncomfortable with how I live my life in certain ways, and I like that about satire. I didn't think it was offensive to Mormons paritcularly, but it did get crude in ways that I didn't enjoy, but that was entirely expected from the creators of South Park. The biggest thing it said about Mormons is "you're being naive" ("I believe" and Elder Price singing it to a warlord being the most obvious example), but that can apply to pretty much anyone jumping out of their comfort zone and trying to change other people, which is a pretty good lesson really.

It was also fun that sitting behind me were some ~30-year-old dudes discussing technical and creative decisions of the musical. They were clearly big into Broadway and movies and it was great to listen to them during intermission and afterwards.

Now I've been wondering what a female-driven equivalent would be. Sister missionaries? Or a young woman going from Girl's Camp to getting married over the course of the summer (I'm envisioning an extreme, like, being 18 and going to the last girl's camp, then meeting your future husband during orientation week at BYU). There doesn't seem to be a defining moment that is as strong as going on a mission and as widespread (because obviously going on a mission is pretty equivalent).

Wow, I need to calm down. I'm embarrassed for myself.

Haha! The posts of the past show no mercy. Raw stuff back there.