FIRST MISSONARY

I remember the first Missionary I ever met. 

It was on a bus and he was so excited to tell me about the Gospel. Back then I was an agnostic. We had the same mothertounge; Swedish. He was suprised that I red The Book of Mormon in a week. Back then I red it as a fairytale. Now as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

One week ago we met for a soda. Fredrik means alot to me and with hope he will become a pilot some day. That is his ambition and dream.

”Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” Eccelatis 7:29.

Tack Fredrik fast det inte blev du som döpte mej.

Just some pics I wanna share

So many shades of gold

Autumn

Another miracle we take for granted

Another expression of the artist's vision

The blending of the autumn hues 

with the setting sun

Warm

Comforting

Perfect

Thank you for autumn, Lord

We must devote our time to the things that matter most.

My General Conference

So I have watched and listened to the October 2014 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first session I watched in the Vasa chapel and it was great meeting members in my old hometown. Then I followed it on the net. And here my brothers and sisters are five personal thoughts from the Conference.

I loved when Sister Cheryl Esplin was talking about the sacrament, “The sacrament gives us an opportunity for introspection and an opportunity to turn our heart and will to God,” she said. “Obedience to the commandments brings the power of the gospel into our lives and greater peace and spirituality.” I hope that when I am blind and deaf, unable to hear any testimonies, that I den still will have the power to attend the sacrament meeting promising to think and act, to be, as Christ.

President Henry Eyring said logic isn't enough for humanity traversing turmoil. He's right. In its most vital moments,. I also like what his father, the chemist Henry Eyring has said "Is there any conflict between science and religion? There is no conflict in the mind of God, but often there is conflict in the minds of men." He never got the Noble Prize and some thinks that it was because of his religion and I do not know how The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was thinking but they apparently awarded him the Berzelius Medal in 1977 as partial compensation.

Elder Oak had a refreshing talk focusing on the key question why it is so diffuclt to have Christlike love for one another?


And he said: “When our positions do not prevail, we should accept unfavorable results graciously and practice civility with our adversaries. In any event, we should be persons of goodwill toward all, rejecting persecution of any kind, including persecution based on race, ethnicity, religious belief or nonbelief, and differences in sexual orientation “


Futher Fox news:

Fox news

But that said; why did Elder Oaks chose the polarizing term “adversaries,” instead of repeating the phrase “those with whom we disagree.” This type of emotionally-fraught labeling is in all liklihood not the best way to raise the level of civility. Me myself connect the term with Satan and his minions. I have respect for Elder Oaks as an Apostle and a special witness of Jesus Christ, I respect his calling and what it entails. He is a great man but still there where som things in his talk that I didn´t get. I am trying to be a good member of Our Church and a caring brother to my friends and when I am a person experiening same-sex attraction I do want toseek and receive personal revelation of the purpose of it.



The missionary choir was singing "Called to Serve" and it reminded me that I am also called to serve in my everyday life.

Elder Carlos Godoy said that above scriptures and prophets, we have personal revelation to guide us. True and sometimes demanding.

can’t do gay

We don’t talk about sexuality very well in the church, much less same sex attraction.

“Mormons can be gay, they just can’t do gay”, was the title when Ty Mansfield spoked at the Fair Mormon Congress in August. 

I was there and it has been I while since but I thought it is better that I really think about Ty´s speach before I write about it here in my blog.

Mansfield came out in 2004, when he co-wrote ”In Quiet Desperation: Understanding the Challenge of Same-Gender Attraction.” The book began with the story of Stuart Matis, who shot himself on the steps of his LDS chapel after struggling with same-sex attraction. Ty is also the cofounder of the support organization North Star for LDS individuals affected by homosexuality. He has said that he, because of his same-sex-attractions was ready to live a life of celibacy. However in 2010 he met Danielle and they fell in love, got married in the temple and are now proud parents of two childrens.

In his speach he said: ”While I still occasionally experience attraction to men, my desires are such that I can’t tell you the last time I desired a same-sex relationship. I desire only to be with my wife and family. ” and later: ”If others refer to me as gay, I typically tolerate it for practical purposes, but it’s not how I see myself, and occasionally it can feel particularly oppressive when others seem to insist on projecting and LGBT identity construct on me even after I’ve specified that that is not how I see myself.”

Well, for me that is just fine. If Ty is happy with his wife and his kids and if they are happy then it is just awesome.

But I had a problem listening to him. The subtitle of his speach was: ”Deconstructing Sexuality and Identity from an LDS Perspective” but brother Mansfield wasn’t deconstructing sexuality. He was deconstructing homosexuality and left heterosexuality intact.

To deconstruct something can be very evaporable and in my opinion you have to use it all the way if you want to use it.

According to brother Mansfield sexuality goes into four tiers — attraction and desire, orientation, behavior, and identity. And at the congress he went through each to deconstruct them. For example, for sexual orientation Ty quoted a researcher known for her research on female sexual fluidity who claims that because sexual fluidity is a general feature of human sexuality we have to talk about homosexualities rather than “homosexuality”. Ty noted that the idea that gender preference is the primary component of our sexual orientation is a current social construct, but still there are many factors required to make someone desirable — after all, we are only generally attracted to a few people of the sex to which we are attracted.

Well I agree. We aren’t attracted to everyone of the sex we desire. I am not attracted to every man that I stumble upon. So what is my problem listening to Ty? Well as I said: if you want to use deconstruction use it all the way. Heterosexuality is also a construct.

“Mormons can be gay, they just can’t do gay- Deconstructing Sexuality and Identity from an LDS Perspective” The title is a pejorative statement that is a caricature of doctrine and practices; it oversimplifies. is a flawed construction. It seems to me that Ty is using deconstructionism when it suits him, showing that being gay is not that wiered but the tools can´t be used elswhere when we are talking about gender and identity.

Furthermore I have never ever in the church heard something about our intersexual members. The term intersex covers bodily variations in regard to culturally established standards of maleness and femaleness, including variations at the level of chromosomes, gonads and genitals. how do you pick a child’s gender if she or he is intersex?

The child is assigned a gender as boy or girl after tests have been done and the parents have consulted with the doctors on which gender the child is more likely to feel as she or he grows up. The parents are deciding. And what if they are not asking the Lord? The vast majority of children with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome grow up to feel female, and that many children with cloacal exstrophy and XY chromosomes will grow up to feel male.

Why shouldn’t children with intersex be raised in a “third gender”? I do not know and Ty didn´t give me an answer. Deconstruction.

I want to be humble. I think that one could certainly develop a well-intentioned white picket fence homonormativity in the Law of Chastity.

My Mormon pragdim is a social pragdim and we can get back to that.

Sexual identities are socially constructed, and are tied with competing and sometimes incompatible social narratives and paradigms.

Be who you are.

Heavenly mother

As a new member of our church it was ideal for me to be at the FairMormon Conference in Utah.

I am a thinking person and if somebody say ”this is true” then I am always trying to see the other side of the coin.

So I really liked when Sharon Eubank, whose lecture was called ”This is a womens church”, started out by talking about the doctrine of intelligences. She stated that this is unique to Mormonism and how the doctrine talks about how we always have existed as intelligences. But then we chose to ally ourselves with our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother.

Sharon Eubank is the Director of LDS Charities

This was intresting. I have a Lutheran friend here in Finland and she introduced, at hbt-services, the tradition to pray both to our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly mother.

I know in our church that LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley has said that Mormons should not pray to the Heavenly Mother because Christ instructed his disciples to address the Heavenly Father in their prayers And I am not talking about prayers here. I am saying that it was intresting because this was the first time I have heard anybody in our churc talking about our Heavenly Mother (besides the missionaries once, briefly)

Sister Eubank said that we define ourselves in different roles and for her the first role is that she is a woman and she believes womanhood has roles related to binding, connecting and bridging. From her own experience, being in an image of the divine feminine, this is what she feels responsible for.

And one role for women is to establish the house described in D&C.

”Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God; ” (D&C 88:119)

For her that is not a literal house or even necessarily the temple. It is a generation of life, of community

One way of bulding is going on a mission an sister Eubank was asked if she was excited about young women going serving missions. Sister Eubank herself served as a missonary here in Finland

and said that her mission taught her how to articulate before people.- If we can deepen people’s understanding of doctrine and help them learn to be articulate, it is fantastic, she said.

She was also asked about women and the priesthood and said she belives that anyone who is endowed holds certain aspects of the priesthood and the church is just on the verge of understanding what that means.

I have heard a lot of criticism from non members about womens role in the church and sometimes I, as a man, haven`t been able to answer. For sister Eubank our doctrine is the most moderate and enlightening and empowering doctrine that exists for women.

For me it is a church for all children to our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Mother.

To sister Eubank I replied: Kiitos valaisit minua (Thank You You enlighted me)

UTAH AND BACK

Here are some pics from my trip to Utah and the Fair Mormon Congress in Provo. I am back in Finland with a little bit of jet lag so my readers for now just pics. I will tell ya more later

In Utah are wonderful gardens. Red Butte Garden was amazing

There are mountains in Utah

The conference center in Provo.

Due to some missunderstandings and my timetable I didn´t catch up with a friend of mine but I saw the Temple Scuare Salt Lake City. Gary my brother next time.

nice view

Pink wildflower....

Settlers

from Salt Lake City....

.. to Helsinki

FAIR MORMON

A new day, a great day.

Tomorrow it is tuesday. I will be in Salt Lake City. In Provo for the Fair Mormon Conference. I am looking forward to meet friends and thursday: 

Ty Mansfield; “Mormons can be gay, they just can’t do gay”?: Deconstructing Sexuality and Identity From an LDS Perspective.

Hugs my friends.

Johan