We may talk about how the early Christians suffered under the Romans at the time of Christ and thereafter, or the persecutions of those in various Reformations. We may speak about more modern memories of martyrs as we remember Hawn’s Mill, or Joseph and Hyrum, or the hardships of the pioneers. We may relive and retell these stories. We may even build monuments to remember.

And yet: When our reliving, retelling and remembering reinforces our own suffering at the hands of those who created environments of discrimination against us in the past, but we cannot see the environments of discrimination we have created and force upon others in the present, then I begin to wonder if we have learned the lessons Jesus has for us in these recollections.

Jesus warned us about beholding the mote in our brother’s eye while failing to see the beam in our own eye.

I think it's a very obvious reason that the Religious Freedom thing next week is a Fast, and not a Feast (the typical event for celebration). It's because Religious Freedom is on the decline

Religious Freedom isn't merely the Freedom to Practice (although that is an important part), it's the Freedom from Undue Religious Influence

Conventional Christians ask me why I believe that. They tell me that there isn't any point in being Christian if we won't be rewarded for my faith.

Ok guys I know it sounds bad but hear me out.

I (23M) have three brothers, Lemuel (21M), Sam (18M) and Nephi (16M). Recently my father (45M) had a vision that our town was going to be destroyed and he went and preached unto the people. Well they did not like that and threatened to kill him. He says he had a vision where the Lord told him to leave so he wasn't murdered. When we were packing he said to leave everything but the tents??? Which is confusing but whatever I guess. My father is crazy a visionary man. Then when we finally got to the wilderness and pitched our tents, my dad deadass looked me in the eye and told me we needed to go back to jerusalem to get these stupid brass plates "so our posterity would have the commandments." And the real kicker? The brass plates are currently in the possesion of our greedy, blood thirsty relative. Yeah, let's go risk our lives for these brass plates. That makes sense dad. So my brother Lemuel and I were like "dude what? why would we do that?" and he was like "because the Lord hath commanded it." and my younger two brothers were like "yeah stop murmuring come with us to risk our lives for these plates of brass." I went with them so they wouldn't get themselves killed.

When we got to Laban's house, we played rock paper scissors to determine who would go inside and get them. Of course I lost. I went inside to get the plates and Laban was like "no. You're a robber I'm gonna slay you." so I booked it out of there and told my brothers that we tried. He didn't give them back. We can go back to our father's tent now. Then Nephi gave us a little pep talk, saying that the Lord hath commanded this and the Lord will provide a way. It was clear that he was not going to give up so I was like ok, what's the way? And he said (I kid you not) "Let's go back to our house, gather all our riches, and give them to Laban." WHAT? So we went back to our house, gathered literally anything that was even remotely valuble, and brought it to Laban.

Good news is that Laban liked our stuff. Bad news is he took it, didn't give us the plates, and then sent his servant to murder us. Luckily we escaped but I was pissed at Nephi. Lemuel and I said some pretty harsh things to Nephi and Sam that I won't repeat. Eventually it escalated and we smote them with a rod. As we were smiting them with a rod, an angel appeared. The angel said "why are you smiting your little brother with a rod? Don't you know the Lord has chosen him to be a ruler over you because of your iniquities? Go back to Jerusalem and the Lord will deliver Laban into your hands." First of all, rude. Second, how was I supposed to know the Lord chose Nephi over me? I'm literally the eldest and Nephi is so annoying. Third, literally how is he going to deliver Laban into our hands?? We've tried twice already. He is powerful and can command fifty, he can even kill fifty, why not us? But this angel is making me question if I was in the wrong for smiting Nephi and Samuel.

Neal A. Maxwell: When the veil which encloses us is no more, time will also be no more. Even now, time is clearly not our natural dimension. Thus it is that we are never really at home in time. Alternately, we find ourselves impatiently wishing to hasten the passage of time or to hold back the dawn. We can do neither, of course. Whereas the bird is at home in the air, we are clearly not at home in time—because we belong to eternity. Time, as much as any one thing, whispers to us that we are strangers here. If time were natural to us, why is it that we have so many clocks and wear wristwatches?