Your parents were probably grateful to you for coming in time to qualify to be a tax-deductible dependent that year.
My Sister-In-Law was born on New Year’s… at 12:30 AM.
My dad always teased/complained that I didn’t make the cutoff date. He even remembered the amount I cost him.
My birthday wasn’t as close to Christmas as some here, but close enough that I remember hearing, “this present is for your birthday AND Christmas,” many, many times as a kid.
But I had a high specific gravity (pretty dense) as a kid, and thought nothing of it. I always did at least get a separate party, even if it was sometimes a small one. And the present count - while it sure as heck would’ve been important if I had ever thought about it - never really occurred to me.
It occurred to my parents, though. They made up for it by holding a Half Birthday party for me each June. I hate to admit how old I got before I realized that most people don’t get Half Birthday gifts or parties. Like I said: pretty dense.
I probably was making my dad nervous. I’m told my time of birth was 10:16 PM.
I have a death pool list of folks born on NYE. Two of them were born on ths same day I was, not just the same date.
So you were the neutron star of your parties.
My half birthday is Christmas so my gift occasions have always been precisely evenly spaced.
My correction.
Factually incorrect.
When I came on my mission to Japan in the early 80s, about 10% were sister missionaries.
At the time, boys had to be 19 or older and served for 24 months, while the sisters were 21 or older (their primary purpose was to get married early and if they failed that, they could go on a mission).
Now the age has been lowered to 18 for the boys and 19 for the sisters.
The men who do this are called “home teachers” and the women who do this are called “visiting teachers”.
Mormons believe that all males 12 and older are elegible for the priesthood (not just the clergy) and those 18 and older are elegible for the higher pristhood. The higher priesthood allows the person to give people “blessings” which invokes God’s power to heal people. Most priesthood holders don’t come right out and say “You are healed in the name of the Lord” although there isn’t anything stopping them.
Conservative colors for suits, pants and ties, but no requirement for them to be all in black.
Not true. It’s both, to convert and to reinforce the faith of the missionary.
People who have served missions, are “returned missionaries” are many more times likely to remain “active” than those men who choose not to go. However, even then many do not remain in the faith.
Like other religions in the West, Mormonism is also suffering stagnating numbers, something which would be worse if not for the missionaries. Many of the converts come from Africa, the Philippines and some countries in South America.
Recently a high percentage of missionaries are choosing to come home early, somthing which almost never happened 40 years ago.
In various missions or regions of missions around the world, there have been times when the leaders have gotten overly zealous and pushed baptism too much.
One of the most famous cases was what became known as “baseball baptisms”
It happened while I was in Japan, something I wrote about in this post.
That’s a long post, but it goes through all of the problems that happened. The ends with:
A couple/few years ago, that terminology was changed. They’re now ministering brothers and ministering sisters.
oh yeah. I think my mom said something about that a while ago.
It was announced in the April 2018 General Conference.
Is there any functional difference? Or just a name change? (Asks the ex-Mormon who did his last home teaching 38ish years ago.)
Thank you for the corrections @TokyoBayer. I was rather hoping an actual Mormon would come along, and let me know where I could be wrong. I honestly thought women weren’t allowed to be missionaries. I swear my mil told me that. They also referred to the people that come to the door as “the Elders” even though everyone I’d ever seen was a kid … to me. MIL, was not all that observant though she was a believer. Her mother on the other hand was quite observant. Maybe this area was behind the times?
That was a really sweet and thoughtful thing for your parents to do for you.
Ex-Mormon, but I come from sixth generation pioneer stock, with polygamous ancestors.
“Elders” is a priesthood calling and all of the male missionaries are ordained with that rank. In early Mormon history, it was a relatively higher rank, but priesthood inflation occurred and it less important.
As missionaries, they are given that rank as a title. They are typically called on their mission at age 18 or 19, so they are kids to me as well.
As far as not having sister missionaries? That would not be the case. It’s a controlled from Salt Lake, including the missionary president (typically a man in his 50s-ish give or take a few years and the assignment of missionaries comes from HQ. There is no local control at all.
To add some context, many Protestant denominations have the doctrine of “priesthood of all believers”. Meaning that individuals do not need anyone else to directly access God, and that any believer may intercede on behalf of another. This is also why denominations use the terms “minister” and “pastor”.
Actually, Mormonism believes there is a strict org chart, but that all males (12 and older) can receive the priesthood.
They can do certain things such as give blessings, but also the directions from God flow along only the direct lines of authority.
The leaders have a higher rank in the priesthood.
I’m just going to drop this here. It seems the appropriate place to understand the hypocrisy of Freedom from/of Religion.
Although, that article does say that even some local Republican politicians are defending the right of the Satanic Temple to put up that display. They’re all clear that they don’t like it, but they don’t need to like it.
From the article,
Outrage, I (kinda) get. Disgust? Why? If you look at the display, there is no single item that wouldn’t be rated “G” - no sex, no violence. It ain’t the Devil torturing souls; it ain’t nudes wailing in the firey pits of Hell - it’s two tables, some candles, a goat’s head, and some flowers. Oh, and the 7 fundamental tenets of The Satanic Temple:
Sorry, don’t see anything in that list that would elicit either outrage or disgust. Oh, and I’m a good Catholic boy - sing in the choir, go to church (almost) every Sunday. Oh, and obviously a rational human being who understands that The Satanic Temple has nothing to do with actually worshiping Christianity’s fallen angel.