Another man piped up and suggested, why bother when you can keep track of all your movies on your PDA and not have to be tied down to the internet. They argued for a bit about the pros & cons of each. I thought it was funny, because little do they know that the creator of DVD Anthology is also the owner of Shilbon Software and LDS PDA!

I wanted to join the conversation, but it required that I pay for membership. Since I’m already married I couldn’t see the value in it.

[tags]LDS, DVDs, PDA, PDAS, Palm, Clie, DVD Collection, Mormons[/tags]

I feel that if you are single and looking for a mate, you’re more likely to find your mate while attending the home ward in which you live rather than attending a singles ward.

First of all, I understand the desire to want to go where there are more singles to choose from to increase your odds of finding your mate. This logic makes sense but it is flawed. I was going to launch in to a parable about dogs and such but I changed my mind.

Instead, I think I’ll just put it out there… This is my feelings about singles wards from my experiences. Keep in mind that this was 8 years ago and things may have changed since then, but I doubt it.

First and foremost, if you are going to college and live in a dorm or apartment filled with college students, you don’t have much choice. A singles ward is most likely your ward and is the best place for you.

On the other hand, if you are not going to college, or have graduated from college and you are not living in a singles apartment or such, but rather living in an area with a “normal” home ward, I think this is your place – even if you are living with your parents. You may feel that you have more options of finding “the one” in a singles ward. This may or may not be true, but let me tell you the benefits of attending a “home ward”.

• The Church is all about service. There are not nearly as many callings to go around in singles wards, and home wards would love to have more people to fill callings. Often young men and women are called to teach Sunday School or Primary. This is an excellent opportunity for anyone as there is no greater calling in the church that that of a teacher. To some, such a call may sound scary, but it will provide some of your greatest memories and experiences in life.
• On the above note, take this example. Suppose you are a young man and you want to find a young woman who likes children. Would you be more apt to dating a girl who says how much she loves kids, or would you rather date a girl who is preparing lessons and teaching children every week. Saturday night dates will be much cheaper as it often involds laminating cardstock at Kinkos and cutting out object lessons
• All bishops are busy men, but bishops of singles wards seem even more busy than most – often dealing with common young adult issues such as word of wisdom issues, immorality and pornography. You may get more time and attention in a home ward.
• Relief Society women just love to play match-maker. It’s in their blood. When they notice a nice young man or woman in their ward that is actively serving, they immediately start thinking who else they know or are related to that they could set you up with. Sometimes it even works out.
• Now while there may be a lot more options for you in a singles ward, there is even more competition! This is probably the most overlooked fact when someone chooses to attend a singles ward. Just as you have so many more options, so do the opposite sex you are looking at. On the other hand, in a home ward, you may have one or two potentials to consider dating. Your odds of actually being noticed by that person are greatly increased!
• I’m sorry but I just have to make an observation on this last point. To me, singles wards were spiritually shallow. While you find that there is always a long line of people waiting to bear their testimony in fast and testimony meeting, it seems most are speaking to be heard and noticed by the opposite sex. Whether this is conscious or subconscious I don’t know, nor do I care. Lessons tend to go the same way. I don’t think it is so much pride that makes a young person want to be heard and noticed, but rather the longing for companionship – and it just tends to show in a singles ward.

So now it’s your turn. Bring on the arguments. Share your success stories. Tell me I’m wrong!

Now I’m happily married so I don’t visit dating sites, but this one caught my attention when I noticed a Google Adsense Ad with the Title “Latter Day Blog.” I’m guessing that their ad has appeared on this site before and they saw the name of my site in their traffic reports and they are trying to milk it for all its worth.

Just out of curiosity I googled LDS Planet and found this rather humorous spam complaint against them. Apparently they are creating fake profiles and spamming people to convince them to join.

I went to the site itself and notice the footer explains that it is owned by “Zencon Technologies.” It simple Google Search of this term shows what kind of wolves are running this site. The two results contain the terms “scam alert” and “ripoff report”. Then you may notice the various other dot com dating sites they have running such as BlackPeopleMeet, DivorcedPeopleMeet, LoveAndSeek, BlackChristianPeopleMeet, PeopleMeet, SingleParentMeet, GamerPeopleMeet, … yada, yada, yada. I didn’t take the time to see how long their list ran.

Needless to say these people are low class idiots trying to milk their dating web script for all its worth.

I’ve blocked their ads from my site, but I encourage you to click their ad whenever you see it to run up their advertising bill. Hopefully if they start spending more on ads than they are making it may drive them away. Unfortunately, with so many clueless people on the internet I doubt that will happen anytime soon.

In any case, it seems in the past two weeks I’ve heard something said in prayers that I find interesting. It is this phrase: “We thank Thee for Thy Savior…”

Now, in my mind it would seem more appropriate to say “Thy Son” or “Our Savior”. It would seem to me that since we are addressing our Heavenly Father, the term “Thy Savior” would imply that Jesus was the Savior of God the Father, which is not the case. For what is a savior? According to Dictionary.com, a savior is “a person who saves, rescues, or delivers.” Certainly our Heavenly Father does not need to be saved, rescued, or delivered as he is God and is perfect.

As long as I’m on the topic, I might also point out something I hear much more often over the pulpit. When a person closes a talk or testimony I often hear: “I say these things in the name of thy Son…” This works well in prayers when you are addressing your Heavenly Father, but when you are addressing a congregation, I think it is better to leave out “thy Son” and simply close in the name of Jesus Christ. Even changing one letter might be appropriate: “the Son.”

I hope I don’t offend anyone by my comments. My hopes are instead that we might be more conscious in how we speak of our Savior.

Now that I have been called to be an elders quorum president, I find it awkward to call myself “President Davis.” I never have done so. When I make calls and I will normally say, “Hi this is Dustin Davis.” The person on the other end will normally respond with “Hello President!”

I wonder though, should I refer to myself as president as I am doing work as the president (such as making phone calls)? I think I use my own name because I don’t want to appear arrogant. I also sometimes feel the calling is bigger than myself – as if I don’t measure up to elders quorum presidents that I have had in the past.

I try to remember when I get calls from leaders. Do they say, “This is Bishop So-and-so” or “This is President So-and-so”? I can’t really remember.

Is this topic trivial and totally unimportant? I’d like to hear your thoughts.

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Deseret News has an interesting article on the background of this website.