Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

You have a good point there, Katya. I get very excited when people use the word "fewer" appropriately.

I'm on my phone right now so i cant say much, butoh my gosh there were a lot of great answers today! Specifically i am thinking of the Dumbledore one, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches one, and the 'would you stay in the church' one.

Dumbledore: http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/69344/
PB&J: http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/69193/
Would you stay in the Church: http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/69051/

Thanks, GA!

From yayfulness' answer to http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/69341/:

yayfulness wrote:As a missionary, you work with everybody. Everybody. Even the people you'd never associate with right now, the ones you may consciously or unconsciously judge or shun. You have to be able to love them and understand them in order to help them. ... Learn to love them and help them, in that order.

Developing this capacity is what makes RMs so awesome!

Genuine Article wrote:Dumbledore: http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/69344/
PB&J: http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/69193/
Would you stay in the Church: http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/69051/

Seconded. All of these were great. (And they happen to be a good cross section of the very different types of questions and answers we handle.)

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/69521/

First of all, thank you, Laser Jock. I am quite moved and very flattered.

Second of all, thank you to everyone who answered, or who has ever answered a question like this one. These types of questions are so, so hard to address in any way that approaches adequacy, and I appreciate the willingness to step up to the plate. I also feel that these questions are one of the things that the Board can do that really makes a difference to people. It seems weird and sometimes inappropriate to write this sort of stuff on an anonymous forum, but I think that the type of people who are sending these questions to an anonymous forum are the people who need support the most. I continue to be humbled by emails from people who tell me that the inadequate, incomplete advice pellets I gave them affected their lives. Because of this I am personally moved when Board writers are willing to try to address these sorts of questions in a personal, loving, sensitive way.

TheBlackSheep wrote:First of all, thank you, Laser Jock. I am quite moved and very flattered.

Second of all, thank you to everyone who answered, or who has ever answered a question like this one. These types of questions are so, so hard to address in any way that approaches adequacy, and I appreciate the willingness to step up to the plate. I also feel that these questions are one of the things that the Board can do that really makes a difference to people. It seems weird and sometimes inappropriate to write this sort of stuff on an anonymous forum, but I think that the type of people who are sending these questions to an anonymous forum are the people who need support the most. I continue to be humbled by emails from people who tell me that the inadequate, incomplete advice pellets I gave them affected their lives. Because of this I am personally moved when Board writers are willing to try to address these sorts of questions in a personal, loving, sensitive way.

You're very welcome. And I agree with you; these types of questions are among the hardest, and also the ones that I think can make the biggest difference. (Not that there's anything wrong with less personal/painful questions, too.)

I think I used to struggle with similar things when I was a few years younger (sorry that sounds so patronizing). Realizing that everyone has things they struggle with helped a lot though.

Question about birth control. Good answers! I especially liked when Eirene said, "Back in the real world, nobody should be surprised to find that access to contraceptives reduces abortions." Something about "Back in the real world" was just too funny. And I liked that she included legit reasons/answered the question. And I liked GA's smack-down of the man who wouldn't let his wife use birth control, cause yes, that's ridiculous.

mic0 wrote:Question about birth control. Good answers! I especially liked when Eirene said, "Back in the real world, nobody should be surprised to find that access to contraceptives reduces abortions." Something about "Back in the real world" was just too funny. And I liked that she included legit reasons/answered the question. And I liked GA's smack-down of the man who wouldn't let his wife use birth control, cause yes, that's ridiculous.

Ditto'd.

A note about the IUD and abortions comment the questioner mentioned - do people really think that? So, a woman with an IUD, to them, has an abortion approximately once every 28 days (for 5+ years)?

I hope Eirene's definition of pregnancy sunk in, because that's just... sad.

Thanks guys! I thought about expanding that section to talk about people who think that life starts at conception, but that's really a theological/philosophical issue, not a scientific one. (Not to mention that I'm pretty sure that life starting at conception isn't really compatible with current Church policies of allowing abortion in cases of rape, incest, or fatal fetal anomalies.)

Eirene wrote: (Not to mention that I'm pretty sure that life starting at conception isn't really compatible with current Church policies of allowing abortion in cases of rape, incest, or fatal fetal anomalies.)

I... don't know that you can really make this leap.

Yay Noir for the win. Geography nerds are adorable.

I went and gave a thumbs-up AND favorited Gim's Stephen Hawking answer, and I NEVER do that, having grown up with the Board 1.0.

Considering my pseudonym this question makes me laugh.

Link.

I really liked these answers from Eirene and Yog about telling the full family history and not leaving out unsavory parts. I would also add that future generations (and the current generation) can learn from past mistakes. What effect did that abusive man have on his spouse and children? Did they strive to be better? Did it cause repercussions even today? History has a way of affecting the present, so yeah, I think it's a good idea not to ignore the negative things. Not only that, but if that was a big part of the family dynamics back then, then it might be important to know to understand other things that happened (if they are interested).

Lots of strong answers today: Zed, Midwesternfulness, and Sky Bones stand out. I'll have to follow up when I'm on a computer.

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/69118/

You may not know this, but President Uchtdorf likes planes.

Ha!