We Thank Thee O God for a Corona Prophet!

[_consiglieri]

Just got this email from the local bishop.

On the one hand, I am glad the church is taking the Coronavirus seriously and taking steps to avoid transmission.

On the other hand, I am glad that the bishop's testimony is strengthened in President Russell M. Nelson because of it.

Good afternoon *** **** ward family,

I'm sure most of you are aware of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and the effect it is having on our region, our country in general, and the Church. I wanted to take a moment to address some of the precautions the Church is taking to support public health officials in their efforts to slow the spread of the virus.

As was discussed on Sunday by President *****, the Church's position is always to exercise an abundance of caution. The Seattle and Vancouver Temples are currently closed, as is the family history center at the stake center. They hope to be open again by mid-April.

The Church previously announced that the leadership meetings that accompany General Conference have been postponed until the fall. It was announced today that all 5 sessions of General Conference will be broadcast to homes only- there will not be attendees allowed at the conference center and the broadcast will not be shown at stake centers.

Regionally, many stakes have already either shortened Sunday meetings or cancelled them altogether. The decision to alter or cancel our Sunday schedule on a local level is up to the stake presidency. President ***** and his counselors are closely monitoring the situation, and asked me to relay two notices. First, they have decided that youth activities tonight can proceed as planned. If your child is sick, however, please keep them home. The second notice is that the situation is certainly still evolving, but the stake presidency anticipates being able to offer more direction relating to our Sunday schedule in the near future.

We appreciate your patience as complex and difficult choices are prayerfully considered. Sometimes answers are not as readily available as we would like.

As President ***** relayed in Ward Conference- if you are not feeling well or even if you just have anxiety relating to the Coronavirus, don't feel guilty about staying away from meetings for the time being. The Lord through his Church has helped us prepare for times such as these by instituting a home-centered church-supported curriculum. This has strengthened my testimony that this is His church and it is let by a prophet!

Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns. Take care of yourselves (and others!) and I'll do my best to provide updates as they are available.

With love,

Bishop *******

[_Philo Sofee]

As President ***** relayed in Ward Conference- if you are not feeling well or even if you just have anxiety relating to the Coronavirus, don't feel guilty about staying away from meetings for the time being. The Lord through his Church has helped us prepare for times such as these by instituting a home-centered church-supported curriculum. This has strengthened my testimony that this is His church and it is let by a prophet!

Gag me with a spoon already!!! So much for the priesthood. You know, Joseph Smith and the faith promoting story of his "healing hanky." Gee, too bad our current prophet didn't have one of those....

[_DarkHelmet]

My gawd. Mormons are so good at reverse engineering prophecies.

[_I have a question]

Have you noticed how gambling addicts only tell people about their winning bets?

[_Dr Moore]

Fascinating! RFM, you've got a real life miracle staring you in the face. Time to come back?

Funny enough, I wrote another thread about this based on something I saw on a social media feed.

It's everywhere! We have a fulfilled and directly attributed prophecy, in which the prophet who gave the prophecy is alive, and yet has not claimed such a direct link. I mean, Pres Nelson has no compunction about claiming relevation. Why not put it straight out there on COVID-19?

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Is there anything that doesn’t increase a TBM’s testimonkey of the Church?

[_DarkHelmet]

Whatever makes them feel good, but I don't see how eliminating 1 Sunday meeting out of 3 would prepare the members for this. They still have to figure out how to get the sacrament to every member. That's the most important part of sunday service, and there was no preparation or planning for that until now. And I assume the 2 hour block was intended to be a permanent change, while staying home on sunday because of Covid 19 is a temporary situation (I hope).

Also, there was no hint at the time that this change had anything to do with a future event that would necessitate sunday service in the home. If it was, they would have tied it to an increased focus on food storage, but I haven't heard an emphasis on food storage in years. I could be wrong on both these points, I just don't remember hearing anything at the time.

[_Jason Bourne]

Confirmation bias is alive and well.

[_Dr Exiled]

Whatever makes them feel good, but I don't see how eliminating 1 Sunday meeting out of 3 would prepare the members for this. They still have to figure out how to get the sacrament to every member. That's the most important part of sunday service, and there was no preparation or planning for that until now. And I assume the 2 hour block was intended to be a permanent change, while staying home on sunday because of Covid 19 is a temporary situation (I hope).

Also, there was no hint at the time that this change had anything to do with a future event that would necessitate sunday service in the home. If it was, they would have tied it to an increased focus on food storage, but I haven't heard an emphasis on food storage in years. I could be wrong on both these points, I just don't remember hearing anything at the time.

This will ease the transition to remote sunday services. Members will get water and bread and it will be remotely blessed by "priesthood power" (said in a Utah twang a la treasures and pleasures) on the other side of facetime or perhaps an LDS app. I think the brethren are working on a plan right now to prevent certain members from using whiskey instead of water in these remote sessions. Further light and knowledge is needed, of course.

[_Gadianton]

"LB" -- a junior-tier apologist -- responded to Dr. Exiled, who called for the church to spend money on medical supplies. The example was masks, and LB goes on a rant about how masks (or presumably medical supplies) aren't what's needed but practices that don't cost money.

A couple months ago, old Rusty the Tin Man broke out a million dollars for medical supplies to send to china:

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/01/29/ ... h-sending/

"The relief will include 220,000 respirator masks, 870 protective goggles and more than 6,500 protective coveralls to Shanghai."

Hopefully Exiled will have time to complete the fork. Either LB, a junior's junior must admit that Rusty did this only for show and personal publicity, or that the masks were needed and helped in the efforts, which implies more good of this kind can be done with money.

Money that the Church hordes like toilet paper.