Which will end first, the S4 story or the game? Stay tuned to find out!

The Kingdom of Gernveld

Holy Altar

Team Nelicker

Nelicker, Mulan and Islkah enter the Fallen Land. This is where the test were carried out to merge Nelicker and Omega. There is a mural on the wall with a picture of Fina. Flashback Ilskah tells Flashback Nelicker that if she is to hate anyone it's Fina. This explains the plot point in S3 that I completely forgot about Nelicker hating Fina. Also explains to the player that you should hate Fina for S3 in general.
They shove Nelicker into the other penis shaped pod next to Physalis and go about their evil Omega plans.

Episcopacy of Sweonaev

Define Episcopacy : episcopacy, in some Christian churches, the office of a bishop and the concomitant system of church government based on the three orders, or offices, of the ministry: bishops, priests, and deacons

Marguat Wetlands

Team Rain

Rain reminds us that Ihana was carried off by Argent Order knights from the Holy Nation of Sweonaev (fuck that's hard to type).
They arrive at the largest town Vestava, the town is abuzz with the goddess coming back. Apparently the reincarnation of Snovlinka. Roca is regretting not evolving into Dark Fina. Rain tells her he'd rather be traveling with Roca than Dark Fina. Somewhere Dark Fina: "And I took that personally."

Capital of Sherna Rohlestan

Rohlestan Administrative District

Team Lasswell

Lasswell finds a spear that seems familiar to him then just walks off with it.
Yaern is walking in a presumably dream void and calling out to Illmatelle. Nothing of note happens aside from that strange hitting on a previous version of yourself. He is however seriously considering not killing Omega so Ill won't go away.
They fend off yet another Omega attack the source is coming from inside the house waterways.

Rohlestan Underwater Waterway

Rhus wants to go immediately to the Fallen Land to save Nelicker but Chicken Marsala is too uh... chicken to go there as the Omega are very strong.
Turns out the sewers were Mulan's secret research facility. They find a set of notes that say...

Episcopacy of Sweonaev

Siffolk Lake

Team Rain

They meet with the Hierophant who lets them meet Ihana. She however is content staying there doing her training arc so she can take down Mulan and Islkah. So they leave her there. End of Season 4. Oh wait, there's more...

Sweonaev Cathedral

Regrouping they send love interest Metze to go convince Ihana while the rest investigate the country and see what their deal is.
Metze goes back to convince Ihana but fails miserably. Ihana leaves for the "ritual."

Lakeside Storehouse

Team Rain minus Metze enter the forbidden warehouse. However it's more like a factory where they find a Proto-Omega. Ihana and the Hierophant enter and Ihana merges with Proto-Omega. Now called legally distinct Deus-Omega. Turns out the church is a bad guy (JRPG SHOCKER!) and that they don't just worship Snov but Omega as well. Ihana can't control Deus like Proto though and it goes berserk.
Knocked out Metze meets Dream Tulien yet again. Tulien tells him to chill the fuck out. He doesn't listen and runs off to save Ihana.

Capital of Sherna Rohlestan

Hidden Research Facility

Team Rhus

The experiments they did on Ihana were bad, mm'kay. Nii-nii gets a tweet that a Proto-Omega or something similar is in Sweaonaev but a random chimera appears! Rhus dispatches it with his improved Omnibus and convinces Chicken Marsala to not be chicken and go to the Fallen Lands. They find a conveniently placed airship and take off!

TO BE CONTINUED!

Skiparoo Index

Below is from the SLT. When the church states they gave $1.36 billion, is that in actual money or are the volunteer hours included with a price per hour? My dad works at the Bishop's Storehouse and often talks about how much the church is putting out in humanitarian aid. I'm just wondering if his hours are included in the dollar amount.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2024/03/22/how-much-lds-church-spent/

I was listening to a recent episode of mormonish and something occurred to me.
They were talking about the instruction in the handbook to avoid creating dependence and how this is contradictory to what they actually do. When a bishop asks someone to pay tithing in exchange for access to the bishops storehouse or when a bishop asks a member to pay tithing and then he'll pay their rent these things create dependence.
Here's why I think this procedure will never change - the church basically has two big financial buckets and they don't cross much if at all. Tithing goes directly to SLC and goes towards church operations and the stock market and buying warehouses in florida. The other is for welfare purposes and is funded by fast offerings at the local level.
By recommending that members pay their tithing first the church is essentially able to shift money from welfare into operating. If the member is paying rent instead of tithing then the incoming tithing money is decreased. If the member pays tithing first then the burden of paying rent is shifted to the welfare budget. That welfare budget is funded by local ward members. The church also knows that if that budget gets low a bishop will often approach wealthy ward members to donate extra to keep things moving.
Additionally, they are able to report welfare dollars as charitable giving even though it is really just a pass through from local members.
TLDR: When the church pushes members to pay tithing instead of rent it increases dependence on the church, adds funding to church empire building and artifically increases the amount of charitable giving the church can report.

Warning: LONG POST (Also, apologies in advance for LDS church jargon and terminology)
I have a unique perspective that I thought maybe some on this sub would find interesting. I am LDS and for those of you who are unfamiliar with the church but are just interested in this case, just know that life as members of our church can be a VERY small world, even across state lines. So I personally knew Julie Rowe when she lived in Arizona, and I now live in Rexburg and my husband and his family are local so I have a LOT of personal connections to Chad and his kids.
That said, here's my experience with these individuals. First- Julie Rowe. I was in her ward in Oro Valley (northern suburb of Tucson) Arizona in 2011 and 2012. She lived in our neighborhood and was my sister's Activity Days leader. I was a senior in high school and babysat her kids 2-3 times. My mom was nice to her because my mom is the sweetest, and felt bad for Julie. One day she asked my mom to go on a walk with her and she did. On that walk, Julie started talking to my mom about her out of body experience and said a few things that made her uncomfortable. My mom distanced herself from Julie pretty immediately. Soon thereafter, Julie was asked by the bishopric to not speak in church, comment in classes, or give prayers anymore because she had begun saying some wacko stuff in testimony meetings and comments in class. Everyone kinda started noticing how weird she was after that. Around that time was the last time I babysat her kids. She dropped them off at my house and when she came to pick them up I DISTINCTLY remember this strange encounter: She was talking to me about college because I had recently gotten accepted to BYU-Idaho and would be moving there in the fall. She went on a rant with my mom, sister, and I telling us how one day we would all need to move to Rexburg because it would be protected. She was talking so crazy and we couldn't get out of the conversation so I called our home phone with my cell phone to have an excuse to make her leave. Shortly after that, her family and her disappeared. Like, overnight they moved and house was empty. Super weird.
Fast forward a few years and I meet my husband who is from the area but also lived in Springville as a kid. Chad is friends with his dad and was in the process of helping him publish a book about mental health when all of this came out. Tammy worked as a librarian in my little brother in law's elementary school. Emma even went on a double date with me and a family friend on the night I got engaged and was literally there, in some of our pictures. When all of this came out, I realized I lived down the street from Lori and their townhouses. Also, Rob Wood was my bishop for about two years before he took the case (and don't quote me, but I believe was released as bishop because of it).
PHEW I know that was a lot. But I just have a lot of strange connections and this case has just hit SO close to home for me. Way too close for comfort. And I have a theory:
My theory is that Julie Rowe and Chad were going to be the "it" couple in Chad's mind originally. I see Chad as a guy who grew up kind of a loser, always wanting attention and the limelight, but being boring and not the greatest looking guy, he ended up with a woman like Tammy who has many amazing qualities but who wasn't necessarily the "beautiful blonde bombshell" type that he saw Lori as. (nothing against Tammy!) He always secretly wanted attention and praise, which is why I think he was so tempted by manipulating other women to get what he wanted. Julie Rowe was perfect for that. Julie already had the theology and following, and Chad was both looking for women to manipulate and had his own religious weirdness as well.
Here's why I think they were flirting with an affair before he met Lori: I was talking to my husband’s family member who knows the Daybells well. We were just casually talking about the story I told above about Julie Rowe. She told me that she and her husband went to a farm of a friend of theirs. When they got there, it was later in the evening and Chad and Julie were alone walking around the farm property very close. They ended up running into each other and having to speak and Chad seemed very uncomfortable (this family member is in Chad’s ward so they knew he was married etc). He introduced the woman as Julie Rowe. They quickly got in Chad’s car and drove away. The family member talked later to the owner of the farm and she said that they had been there for a while just looking at areas to keep animals or whatever. That experience plus the claims Julie made.... yeah... I think Chad was trying to manipulate her in the beginning and it didn't work out. He probably assaulted her which is terrible, but she was putting herself with him alone wayy to much for a married woman and I think she got spooked and distanced herself. Just a theory.
Anyway. I know this was extremely long. I just had to dump all of this somewhere and this was the right audience!! I have so many more thoughts on this case that I'd love to discuss too, and I have even more connections to this case than I have shared here but out of concern for privacy I omitted them. Please feel free to ask any questions.

After all, the Pioneers paid much of their tithing with the “fruits of their labor” which filled many Bishop’s storehouses. Many members have time or talent which could be given as a partial tithe. Carpentry and other trades, business managers, seamstresses, and farmers of many types?

My favorite time of the month is here today: fast and testimony meeting, AND Sunday School!

• Brother Balding - Testified that he knows God calls people because he’s an introvert who got called into the bishopric and it’s been just what he needed.
  
• Sister Short Hair: (speaking of a recent community interfaith conference that we were invited to), “It’s amazing to see people who believe in God or Mohammad or whoever their supreme being is.” The ignorance on how other religions work among members in the church is staggering.
  
• Little Bishop’s daughter: Gave a cute little “testimony” about being happy that her family was here (her baby sister was blessed today).
  
• Brother Sun (I’ll call him that because he believes the ward revolves around him): Talked (once again) about how much his life has changed since he and his wife started fostering a baby. Good on them for doing that, I guess, but they’re in their mid-50’s and I don’t know that I will be able to hear about how special and blessed they are for fostering EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. (They always get up for testimonies and comment in Sunday School, so there is no avoiding it.)
  
• Bishop’s mom: “I love living among the Saints (in Utah)”, as if those who don’t live there are not saints (we’re in the Midwest, where there’s a sentiment among wealthier members that you HAVE to move to Utah when you retire). Of her son, the bishop, she also said “He’s always been a good boy and I’m glad you get to love him.”
  
• Bishop’s relative (aka your reminder that this is a fear-based cult): “If we don’t choose eternity l, it doesn’t really matter what we choose.” Wow, someone’s drinking the kool-aid of the recent conference. Everyone was in tears, though, which tells you they are too.
  
• Brother Idaho: (talking about that interfaith conference) “I feel grateful that we have the restored truth” aka “I completely missed the point of having a community interfaith conference.”
  

Now onto Sunday School…
Sister Sunday School: - Went the first 30 minutes giving a summary of the chapters, during which time she did not ask a single question to be answered.

• Bashed inactives (once again, as she tends to do) by mocking those who ask “why did this happen?” or “Why didn’t the Lord do this or that?”etc. She said, (and this is a no joke verbatim quote): “There are so many things we can question, but God is in control and we have a limited understanding. Just because things didn’t happen the way you would’ve wanted, with imperfect people, doesn’t mean that God didn’t restore the church through Joseph Smith, and (blabbering)….(if we don’t question it) everything will work out in the end.” Big yikes. It’s one thing to believe that things will work out with faith in God, but to vilify those that ask genuine questions about church history and then say it doesn’t matter if you question things anyway because this is how it happened is unbelievable. It is fair to ask why black people were not given the same opportunities to perform and partake in ordinances for the first 150 years of the church. It is fair to ask why Joseph Smith had to rape underage girls or have sex with married women or multiple women at all in his capacity as “prophet”. It is fair to ask why teachings and history are covered up by the church. It is fair to ask about anachronisms in the Book of Mormon or why Joseph Smith completely stopped teaching from the book at all once his church started taking off. You can live in your ignorance all you want, Sister Sunday School, but you should not expect that we all do.

(Update: 1 total question 45 minutes in, answered in one sentence by a member before she moved on the blabbering on from her notes.)

• Said “We have to try not to exhaust ourselves in the work, and not give more than you have.” (Obviously expect with tithing, right? Because Mormon God would rather us go hungry than hang on to that money with our greedy peasant fingers.)
  
• Quoted some general authority: “We are always expected to help ourselves before we ask for help from others.” Says a leader of a church sitting on $250+ billion that guilts poor people into asking for money from their family and friends before asking the church for their crappy bishop’s storehouse food.
  

(I had to walk out with about 15 min. left because I’m literally falling asleep.)

Hey y'all, first time posting here. I need help. I'm in my 20s and working on getting disability, my dad (a TBM to his core) has been letting me live with him and we've been getting help via food for a awhile now. Unfortunately someone new was called and he has been "prompted" to cut us off from all assistance. (Still expects my dad to pay tithing though) Does anyone know any food banks or any food assistance programs I can look into in Orem Utah? My dad's stress crying at this moment and boy howdy do I feel like a burden.
Update: Someone left a good 200$ worth of groceries at our door this morning. No one knew the situation, if someone here somehow tracked me down by my profile and helped I just want to say thank you. If the big man is up there you did him proud and I hope you are rightfully rewarded.

I (32M) have been out of the church for 4 years now. I am the second youngest of 7 kids. Parents divorced and I've been 3 years no contact with my dad and stepmom. My older and younger sister have left and my oldest brother is in a mixed-faith marriage of 8-9 years after his wife left. The believers range from 100% brainwashed to I-don't-like-to-wear-garments casual.
Since leaving, there have been a lot of hard conversations and a lot of judgement. We've been and to get through most of it (we had to switch from a Google chat to Marco Polo because a couple fights were blamed on communicating over text) but we're in this conflict-avoidant, fake feeling stage where I just don't know if we bring any value to each other or care what the other thinks. I think it's come from both sides but probably feels more like the exmos have driven this wedge because we have been pushing topics that aren't normal to our family (not just the church either, one time I stretch up a conversation on the abuse we received from our parents and an older sister likened all those participating in the conversation to ungrateful children).
I've always believed that as long as they weren't toxic, there was no reason to back away; but it's just so draining to put effort out and be met with superficial responses or only talk about superficial things. It's also hard that I don't know how to compartmentalize the relationships. One brother fought me on my decision to leave I've lost all respect for (he's also racist which doesn't help). My oldest sister has been more open and I'd genuinely want to continue a relationship with.
I've been doing a lot more talking in private chats than the group chat with everyone but I almost backed out of family reunion because I didn't want to see the few siblings I can't stand. I also hate hiding my feelings. Do I tell me siblings what I don't like about them so they at least have something to respond to? I feel like the instigator because I'm the only one that brings up the shit in the family, church, world, etc. So I feel like I'd just burn that brand on me even more and harm the relationships that I do care about. As one of the three exmos in the siblings, I also feel like harm I do also damages relationships with the other two and the family. I just hate this and it's weight on my shoulders that I don't want anymore. If you've got advice or anything please let me know listing some big events below to give context.
Notable events that have impacted the family dynamic:
Oldest's sister in law left the church 8-9 years ago
Me and my older sister left 4 years ago which normalized it for my youngest sister to not go (I hate playing the you didn't really believe card but she admits that she was the least "in")
Older sister creates exmos tik tok account that garners ~50k followers, family doesn't like that for multiple reasons
That sister's husband leaves the family group chat after arguing with that racist brother about Joseph Smith marrying 14 year olds (this was when the pic of Joe came out)
Multiple conversations with racist brother and his wife with exmos where they "wanted to know our story" but then just debated us
I sent personal message to racist brother wanting to talk things out because I felt like our relationship was hurt the most since me leaving and how we could find a middle ground. Was ignored.
Church fund scandal in the AP comes out. We talk about it and I blew up a little because people were discussing without actually reading the article. Not my best moment but led to a let's not talk about the church consensus
Next year was kinda meh but we did have ok conversations about parenting, racism, and a couple other deeper things
Right before family reunion there was a positive little scuffle on whether alcohol would be allowed.
Separate occasion oldest brother talked about how a family in his ward received bishops storehouse aid and then when on vacation and how wrong this was. Little did he know I had gone to my bishop and gotten aid a few months ago (I left mentally 2 years before but left physically only 1.25 years before). We had high risk twins and had to pay two full out of pocket maximums so I was willing to humble myself to get a fraction of my 10's of thousands of dollars of tithing money back, whatever form I could.
Family reunion went alright. Better for the kids than parents. Still that superficial feeling.
Discussion on LGBTQ didn't go great. Oldest brother was uncomfortable and said he never really thought about the issue even though it was a BIG reason his wife left 8 years ago. I told family that I didn't know if I'd continue relationships if I found out either of my kids were LGBTQ cause I don't want them to ever have to justify their existence to people that are supposed to love them (or worse question themselves because the people that love them believe it's ok for the world to treat them as less than or other)
October 6th attack and I've been depressed as hell since. Family uninterested

2,220 total lapis.

The Kingdom of Gernveld

Holy Altar

Team Nelicker

Nelicker, Mulan and Islkah enter the Fallen Land. This is where the test were carried out to merge Nelicker and Omega. There is a mural on the wall with a picture of Fina. Flashback Ilskah tells Flashback Nelicker that if she it to hate anyone it's Fina. This explains the plot point in S3 that I completely forgot about Nelicker hating Fina.
They shove Nelicker into the other penis shaped pod next to Physalis and go about their evil Omega plans.

Episcopacy of Sweonaev

Define Episcopacy : episcopacy, in some Christian churches, the office of a bishop and the concomitant system of church government based on the three orders, or offices, of the ministry: bishops, priests, and deacons

Marguat Wetlands

Team Rain

Rain reminds us that Ihana was carried off by Argent Order knights from the Holy Nation of Sweonaev (fuck that's hard to type).
They arrive at the largest town Vestava, they town is abuzz with the goddess coming back. Apparently the reincarnation of Snovlinka. Roca is regretting not evolving into Dark Fina. Rain tells her he'd rather be traveling with Roca than Dark Fina. Somewhere Dark Fina: "And I took that personally."

Capital of Sherna Rohlestan

Rohlestan Administrative District

Team Lasswell

Lasswell finds a spear that seems familiar to him then just walks off with it.
Yaern is walking in a presumably dream void and calling out to Illmatelle. Nothing of note happens aside from that strange hitting on a previous version of yourself. He is however seriously considering not killing Omega so Ill won't go away.
They fend off yet another Omega attack the source is coming from inside the house waterways.

Rohlestan Underwater Waterway

Rhus wants to go immediately to the Fallen Land to save Nelicker but Chicken Marsala is too uh... chicken to go there as the Omega are very strong.
Turns out the sewers was Mulan's secret research facility. They find a set of notes that say...

Episcopacy of Sweonaev

Siffolk Lake

Team Rain

They meet with the Hierophant who lets them meet Ihana. She however is content staying there doing her training arc so she can take down Mulan and Islkah. So they leave her there. End of Season 4. Oh wait, there's more...

Sweonaev Cathedral

Regrouping they send love interest Metze to go convince Ihana while the rest investigate the country and see what their deal is.
Metze goes back to convince Ihana but fails miserably. Ihana leaves for the "ritual."

Lakeside Storehouse

Team Rain minus Metze enter the forbidden warehouse. However it's more like a factory where they find a Proto-Omega. Ihana and the Hierophant enter and Ihana merges with Proto-Omega. Now called legally distinct Deus-Omega. Turns out the church is a bad guy (JRPG SHOCKER!) and that they don't just worship Snov but Omega as well. Ihana can't control Deus like Proto though and it goes berserk.
Knocked out Metze meets Dream Tulien yet again. Tulien tells him to chill the fuck out. He doesn't listen and runs off to save Ihana.

Capital of Sherna Rohlestan

Hidden Research Facility

Team Rhus

The experiments they did on Ihana were bad, mm'kay. Nii-nii gets a tweet that a Proto-Omega or something similar is in Sweaonaev but a random chimera appears! Rhus dispatches it with his improved Omnibus and convinces Chicken Marsala to not be chicken and go to the Fallen Lands. They find a conveniently place airship and take off!

TO BE CONTINUED!

From Vlog to Ivins
?? Can someone tell me the chronological order as well as clarify/negate these events:
1) Ruby at one time had 2.5M+ subscribers to the vlog.
2) The Frankes lost most of their Vlog revenue and subscribers due to accusations of abuse stemming from the E lunch fiasco, Chad sleeps on beanbag, and a myriad of other issues.
3) Chad was made to move out of his room after playing a prank on R about a family trip to Disney
4) The church recommended Jodi as a therapist for Beau and his wife.
5) The Frankes hired Jodi as a therapist for Chad.
6) Jodi believed that she had to work with the parents before she could address the child. She started talking to Ruby ever.single.day.
7) It was 6-months from being hired and talking to Ruby daily before Jodi ever spoke to Chad - it was a zoom call while they were on vacation.
8) Chad was sent to Anasazi Camp because he was suspended from school
9) The Frankes hired Jodi as a marriage counselor.
10) Jodi and Ruby became very tight
11) Ruby considered merging her vlog to Connexions so that Connexions would have her subscribers.
12) Ruby quit the vlog altogether and started to make videos with Jodi and independently for Connexions
13) Shari left for college and then was told not to come back to house or have contact with her siblings
14) In 2021, Jodi had demons so the Frankes went to Ivins and hung out at her house where plates flew off shelf’s, etc
15) A bishop was coming to Jodi’s house and exorcising her practically every night
16) The bishop quit and Ruby talked Kevin into letting Jodi stay with them in Springville
17) Kevin slid into complete submission of Jodi & Ruby; totally trusting everything they said
18) Chad was made to move out (at age 17) - but was still in counseling with Jodi for which he had to pay $900 per month
19) At the end of July 2022 Ruby ordered Kevin out of the house and said the only way he could ever get her and his family back together was to stay completely out of their lives until Jodi said he was ready to come back
20) In May 2023 Ruby took all her kids down to Ivins to do spring cleaning on Jodi’s house. At some point A went back to Springville and Pam was helping her with getting her ACTs done. J stayed with Ruby, E & R at Jodi’s and often took road trips with Jodi to look for land.
21) Ruby & Jody told E & R that to be right with God they would have to repent and then go to jail. In July, R left in the middle of the night while sleeping outside and left note he was going to jail & would call. Ruby freaked out because she knew if anyone else found him she would go to jail ‘for the rest of my life’.
22) After Rs first attempt to leave, Ruby and Jodi started tying him with rope, handcuffing him or hogtying him.
23) Punishments got worse and Jodi made more efforts to find suitable lands taking J and starting to purchase RV
24) On Aug 30, 2023 Ruby left early in morning to take J for a dr appt in Springville. While gone, R got handcuffs off and went to neighbor to ask for ride to jail. When Jodi realized he was gone she jumped in car to try to find him and ran into police who said they were looking for a little boy too. She went straight home, made sure E was safe in a closet, and called Ruby - who dropped J off at an Ace Hardware (and called Pam to pick J up). Then Jodi called her attorney and had him on phone when cops arrive at Jodi’s while Ruby is on her way back to Ivins. Ruby calls Kevin to go to Ivins police to get the kids (she doesn’t tell him she’s to be arrested for abuse though she knew at that time). Then she first goes to copshop then to hospital trying to get R - they wouldn’t let her see him.

President Nelson has complete control to be known throughout the entire world if he made the effort. Two options:

1. Donate billions in charity–that alone would do more missionary work than the last 100 years of missionaries were ever able to do and that would increase President Nelson's fame by multiples of any outreach accomplished now.
2. Like Abinadi, President Nelson could have stood up for the values I grew up with in the Church and openly fought against the King Noah of our times, the then President Trump. Some of the former President's actions so completely conflicted with what we learned to be ethical and honest behavior in our Church lessons that I was shocked that the most interaction Church leaders had with Trump was letting him push a shopping cart around the Bishop's Storehouse during a presidential visit to SLC. If Nelson had gone at it as a Prophet who truly believes that he has God on his side, that it's truly the last days, and he went with purpose to do battle with a president who was flirting with the destruction of US democracy solely to feed his own ego, well, that seemed like a pretty good opportunity for the Prophet of the Church. If he had done that, his name would be known in every city in the United States and every last country on this planet. Every crappy newspaper and television station in the most remote cities in Asia, Africa, and every other continent would know the name Russell M. Nelson, self-declared Prophet of God. He would actually appear in history books of the United States. Sheesh, maybe he'd even be a question on the AP History exam!

So, why couldn't President Nelson claim his Abinadi moment? Because he doesn't believe in himself nor have sufficient faith to make it happen. He's too scared. One of the most massive egos of any prophet since Joseph Smith or Brigham Young and he still doesn't have the cajones to do what I assumed a Prophet of God would do in that situation. That was a pretty heavy weight on my shelf when I realized that the Prophet doesn't seem to want to do the necessary battles in preparation for the Second Coming. He wants to look inward and preach to the TBMs and give them impression that he matters outside of the Church.
Of course, now I don't expect any Second Coming or anything supernatural or magical, but that doesn't mean that a Prophet who really believes in himself couldn't still go to battle with a King Noah if the Church truly believes in the values it has preached over the last 50–100 years.

The post about Mormon charity reminded me of just how many people seem to be getting called as service missionaries these days.
My wife is still very TBM and she insists that our two kids be as Mormon as she can make them.
So, our adult special needs son was recently called on a service mission and one of his duties is to help pass out bishop's storehouse food at the stake center every other Saturday morning. The one morning I went and participated because he didn't have his usual ride and my wife couldn't do it, it was nearly impossible to find anything to help with because there were so many volunteers. The volunteer sign in sheet was two pages long and so completely full there was not even a place for my son to sign, except on the back.
Lots and lots of services hours there for the Mormon church to monetize and claim as part of its charitable giving.
If there's a Jesus and a hell, there should be a special place in hell for people that claim to represent Jesus, yet consistently behave in such a selfish and un-Christlike manner.

Ah that day of days, dreaded by all, but only slightly less dreaded than Dry Sunday. That day when the kids are angry because they didn't get breakfast and so too are Mom and Dad, and the only people that are happy are the ones smart enough to eat and then pretend to go along with it...
I wanted to stand before you today, either at the podium or in the congregation with a really gross microphone some poor Teacher just handed me and bear my Testimony about "The Church".
You see, I never liked going to church but my parents made me do it and that was that. Tough Love... the alternative was scary and painful so off to church you went. I had no friends and that was fine with me, I'm autistic (Asperger's) you see and that means I was branded a problem child, or just plain weird.
My Mom was the Primary president and my Dad was the guy who came with us most of the time but was disfellowshipped... Later excommunicated, lucky guy!
I can remember sitting in primary listening to people sing "I want to be a missionary" and "I want to see the temple" and thinking to myself... No I don't. Why would I want to do that? It sounded like brainwashing to me. Yeah, I was an odd kid, started playing D&D when I was 4... that was in 1979.
Anyhow. I can also remember this giant Frankenstein Monster looking guy that used to prowl the halls looking for kids out of class. My Grandma was our primary teacher but she was out that day, so I and my entire class sat in our classroom with the lights off because it was better than being in Primary.
Forward fast a few years and I am in Scouts. I had already been branded a Satanist by the entire troop because I liked to draw monsters and played D&D... The Troop leader ran things like the military, standing at attention, no speaking, etc. He and the Bishop were really angry when they realized I snuck my D&D books and dice to Camp Merriweather!
It really wasn't until I became an adult that I really was able to find the cracks in their armor, what more was that I found it wasn't even armor, just painted cardboard.
First off, my family was extremely poor when I was a kid and often survived off of the church storehouse. I will give the church credit, they have one amazing welfare system... when it's allowed to work.
We ended up with a new bishop who was quite wealthy who told my dad to sell some bonds or to cash out some of his investments if he needed money... My dad cut firewood for a living and had the occasional construction gig. What investments? So, because this bishop had his head up his butt. The family was hungry but we made it.
After I was in college, I ran into the issue of only getting about 12 hours per paycheck and still needing to find a way to pay for food and rent etc. because I lived in my own place and not the dorms. I went to the bishop for help and was told to cancel my internet (Free), my phone (He also told me to call my family for help... kinda hard to do with no phone, and this was a landline at the time) and my TV (provided by the apartment). When I pointed this out to him, He said "If you can't work with me, I can't work with you" and I got to play homeless for a while.
I got married a year or so later, tried again for assistance, got the finger from the church and turned to the Catholic church for help. They didn't ask any questions, just gave us a big box of food and told us it was a one time deal. Gotta love it!
Anyhow, we had kids and I never bothered with church. My wife had stressed that I was not to try to convert her and I let her know that she was in no danger from me! The rest of my family however...
You see, I have always had an open door policy when it comes to missionaries. They're just stupid teenagers and so I don't hold it against them. Besides, it gives me a chance to goof off and them a chance to be stupid teenagers. There's not been a single missionary that hasn't let with a picture of them holding swords etc. lol
Anyhow, she did eventually join the church and those twits gave me the callings of Ward Mission Leader, Finance Clerk, Membership Clerk, Nursery Leader, Sunday School President, Ward Webmaster, and Elders Quorum teacher... all at the same time!
They really should have paid attention to just who I was. You see, I refused to participate in anything because it's just too stupid. Sunday School is just Parrot Training Day. If one person says "Nephi was a great prophet" then everyone is going to say the same thing just worded slightly differently... and one person will try to be edgy and disagree while actually saying the same bloody thing... oh, and someone has to cry.
Hanging out with the kids was awesome, I'm totally on their level and that alone could have kept me in the church. Hours of playtime with crazy toddlers every Sunday, cool!
Me as a Sunday School President, not a good idea. Me as an Elders Quorum Teacher, horrible idea! You see, I like to think and unlike many people, I've actually read the scriptures and so I have a rather unique perspective. My goal was to get people talking, and thinking for themselves.
Here's a sample or two. God and Satan aren't at war, they're just doing their jobs. They're actually pretty good friends! Just read the Bible. Every time those two interact, it's pretty amusing and they often join forces to mess with people. Take Job. God and Satan made bets and made his life hell just to prove a point... between themselves, Job just got the crap end of it. Hilarious!
Or how about the fact the Jesus doesn't love you? You see, he didn't die for you or your sins. He died because his Dad told him to. "If thou wilt, take this cup from me. But not my will but thine be done" pretty much says it all. He didn't want to do it, he asked his Dad to take that burden away from him. Basically he said, Screw these people. I don't want to do it... but Dad didn't let him off the hook so he was a good boy and did as Dad said. So basically, he doesn't love you. He loves his Dad.
Things like this really gets on peoples nerves and I liked to make them think.
It was during this time that I was to give a talk in front of the congregation that my Autistic son was born. He did not understand why I suddenly left the foyer (we always stayed out there because the noise in the chapel was too much for him) and started screaming. I cut things short because he was more important than some stupid talk and went out to find this old asshole yelling at my then pregnant wife who was also trying to deal with a screaming autistic child. It was by sheer force of will that I didn't put that old codgers head through the painted cinderblock wall. No one treats my wife and my kid like that, He was telling her that she had no right to be there and not letting her get a word in edgewise.
I took that to the bishop, of course he did jack squat about it.
We moved to another ward where I was made a Scoutmaster, (oh the irony) and the Financial Clerk, the Membership Clerk, Ward Webmaster all at the same time... When I was released from those calling (all but webmaster) I was made a primary teacher. That was awesome, I taught the kiddos the lesson material but I taught them my way! Nothing says fun like extremely powerful neodymium magnets and 8 year olds!
My son was the same age but in a different class. I heard him scream so I left class immediately and went across the hall where I found he had just left the classroom. He had bright red welts on his arm where his Primary teacher had grabbed him so hard it bruised him, all because my son was autistic and did not appear to be paying attention.
I brought this to this new bishop.
The person who hurt my son was moved to the high council. I was removed from my Primary Teacher calling and blacklisted from any callings ever again. They wouldn't even use me as a substitute when they were short teachers.
Punished for reporting abuse and the abuser rewarded for abusing.
I eventually had to move out of state. I asked the elders quorum for help, they were well known for being the go-to guys when it came to moving people into and out of the ward. When it came to the day before we had to be out of the house... no one came. The bishop showed up late in the day with his kid (he destroyed a $5000 couch because he couldn't follow instructions) and then left me to load the whole thing myself.
I'd like to point out at this point that I am a disabled veteran with a severely damaged back who walks with a cane.
I had to load up a 24 foot moving truck on my own, as well as pack up two cars full of stuff. The church was supposed to collect everything I could not take and either put it into a storage facility for me ('d pay to keep it of course) or take it to be donated. Instead they did nothing and I got a $480 bill from the new home owners for calling a trash company to take it away. This was a good chunk of my furniture and pretty much everything that I had that used to be my grandfathers.
During this time, We had a member of the family who was sent to prison for child "touchy of no touchy place". They did not lose their priesthood over it. The Stake President called this person a good man before he passed away. This person used to beat his children because their shoes were not polished to his standards and worse... a good man. A temple worker.
Here's where things get a little personal, you see, I'm a girl. Yeah, I started off as a guy but hey, if they can can renovate a temple and if my body is a temple, then I can renovate it too. I see what I started out with as a suggestion, a hurdle to be overcome. Some people, like myself, needed glasses. Other people have cleft pallets or a club foot. If you want to argue that you were made the way God intended, then I put before you that the cleft pallet should not be corrected. The club footed child should not walk and the person with vision issues should not see. However, these suggestions are cruel, so to is it cruel to make someone who is diagnosed with gender dysphoria to have to struggle with their identity and mental well being, when it's correctable.
Anyhow, the church puts out it's ridiculous memo about gender being essential. Sure, I can get behind that. Gender is essential. They never bothered to note that Gender and Sex are two different things. Sex you can't really argue with, that's genetics. Gender however is how you see yourself. So yeah, Gender is a spectrum, it's how one identifies themselves and thus essential. In short, it was a waste of paper meant to do nothing more than hurt people which did nothing more than make them look silly.
When you learn that even Jesus recognized multiple genders (Male, Female, eunuch) and did not condemn the eunuch for what they were, despite the change of gender and the surgery required to become such. He said to be kind to them, Umm guys, a transgender Male to Female person is basically a eunuch that dresses better and has a better surgeon!
When the church which is supposed to be Perfect changes the "First Vision" story to make it more palpable and thus in essence trick people into joining by omitting the scary bit, that's just a bit shady to me. This isn't stuff you have to dig up or be a scholar for, they bloody well announced it.
When people like those who run WWASPS are not only allowed to stay members... When the Beaver Creek Oregon Bishopric goes to jail for selling drugs. And when all of this if covered up, I could care less if Matthew in the Book of Mormon doesn't match the Joseph Smith Translation (which is pretty funny). The religion could have Gods autograph on every copy of the Doctrine and Covenant and I'd still set fire to the damned thing and sing my praises to the Goddess Eris for showing me her chaos ridden work!
Oh yeah, I've not been excommunicated yet nor disfellowshipped. So if you need a blessing, let this woman know and I'll be happy to use my Church given "Authority" for ya.
I've not bothered with writing to cancel my membership, why bother? Do you call to cancel your membership to a grocery store you don't visit anymore? No? Well, my membership in that church is about as important to me as my Bi-Mart card is when you don't live in the Pacific North West. It's not worth the postage it takes to send it. And to be honest, I'd rather wright this up for your entertainment and my... well, my something.
Oh yeah, I forgot. This is Fast and Testimony meeting and thus, my obligatory 6 year old testimony meeting standard: "I'm thankful for my parents, I'm thankful for the bishop. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet and I know this church is true... amen!"

I’m just processing some stuff that happened and one of the things that has bothered me for 4 years now, is that I was relief society president during Covid. Grocery store shelves were empty. And bishop’s storehouses closed. There was no way to help my families get food. I always believed that there was a plan in case of emergency. But there was no plan. No distribution lines, no extra resources, nothing. I found formula for a family on Facebook. Not from the church. I felt so lied to. And at the end of the day, it was social media that helped me care for people. Not the church.

I've heard multiple times over the past 4 years that Malachi 3 was written to the levites, not to tell regular people to pay tithing, so recently I decided to read it again just to see if that was true. I xan see how you could assume its written only to the levites and i can see how you can assume its written to everyone. What stood out to me was that verse 10 says "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house," I don't think I had ever realized before that this verse seems to be saying that the purpose of tithing is to feed people. In all my years at church and in conference I've only been under the impression tithing was used to run the church. So paying salaries, running the BYUs, funding the EPA (only learned that 4 years ago), subsidizing missions, building and operating churches and temples. Why isn't the church using tithing to feed people? Is the some other doctrinal foundation for ignoring malachi or Jesus when he said to sell all and give to the poor? Of course it's possible the church uses some tithing for charity or the bishops storehouse but it's also true they don't tell us what they do, so I can assume they don't with just as much evidence as someone else can assume they do.

Content warning Superbowl Sunday I had a phone call with my mom. Part 1. She was telling me about a coworker who turned her in for saying "when do I get my white card". She can't understand how that is offensive bc she was talking about herself AND she's white! "No one in their right mind would see this offensive " she told me. I could reason with her. Part 2. For 7 years she was a single mom, no longer having the Hallmark picture perfect family... And for those 7 years the men in authority of the church were racist and sexist. They wouldn't help pay bills. They wouldn't give her food from the bishop's storehouse. For 7 years they mistreated her for being white AND single. "The brown people in the neighborhood don't even have to be members to get help from the church and where I'm single, (the church hates singles-they have no idea what to do with us-we aren't the perfect Mormon family), for 7 years I didn't get help." (I know they didn't make sense) Part 3. The church isn't just racist with white single people, but whites in general. My brother lives in a really old, run down house and in mid winter his heating bill was $500, being young, married, with kids and in school he went to the bishop and asked for help covering that cost. Bishop turned him down (brother hasn't paid tithing since) bc he was white. If my brother was brown my brother would have everything from the church. Part 4. My mom is not racist, she just doesn't like them. She has friends with brown skin and that's proof that she's not racist. If that doesn't convince you, her 3rd marriage was to one eighth of an Indian. This proves there's no racism. Part 5. She is a good person bc she's LDS. LDS makes you a good person. Everyone that is LDS is a trustworthy child of God bc being LDS makes you a good person. There are no bad LDS people. (Mentally I'm thinking of all the members and bishops she's hated on). Part 6. My mom doesn't know that my family and I have left the church, but she's aware that I have my doubts and have deconstructed a bit. She describes it as "believing in the gospel and not the 4 walls of the church" 🤦 but, she knows I'm a good person bc I'm LDS. And I'm LDS bc she taught me to be LDS. And she raised me to be LDS, therefore I am LDS, and that makes me a good person. Part 7. She taught me and raised me to believe in God, therefore I have to believe in God. And if I believe in God then I am LDS and is in LDS then I'm a good person. Part 8. My dad died young, a couple years back. Him and my mom were sealed together. Long story short, he got terminally ill and she jumped in the deep end. The really, really feel end. 2 marriages later she wants to be sealed to this man. For one, he is going through the temple for the first time. Two, he's not sealed to anyone. Her current husband won't make it to heaven if she doesn't become sealed to him. But my dad's sealing with her is far more important. If men can have multiple wives then she can have multiple men... She asked me to help her find the loop hole. She knows it can be done and it must be don't for the salvation of her husband. Part 9. Her grandma taught her when she was a kid that the church would become so corrupt that people would be teaching the church gospel in our homes to make up for what the church brought to the table. The way they treat whites now is evidence that this is not the time and place. Part 10. I can't even write more about this. I've been sick to my stomach since the phone call with her. Thanks for listening, I really needed that.