Pres Hinckley passed away tonight. My family received a phone call about two hours after it happened. I immediately sent text messages to many people. I was on my way to a fireside with Elder Joe J. Christensen. They announced the passing at the fireside and Elder Christensen spoke on the passing. We all stood to sing "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet" and we watched a video of some of Pres. Hinckley's counsel. A large portion of the church membership knew within hours. This was a unifying experience for many and I'm glad that I could spend it with the Saints. I'm also glad for the blessings of technology and what it has done for our lives to enable such communication.

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I've updated the online resources section of both LDSTeenHelp and HelpforGuys. Some of the changes include adding the "Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts" pamphlet that the Church has put out for those struggling with pornography. Also, if you go to Audio Downloads and follow the link through from the Purifying Power of Gethsemane talk to the video, the video is posted for download and you can download it through the end of January. I'll be removing it next week. If there are any other changes you'd like to see, let me know.

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I am posting the video of the talk by Elder McConkie "The Purifying Power of Gethsemane" on two webstites through the end of the month. I'll take them down after that because of bandwidth issues. There are two versions of the talk. There is the original, which is just him talking and it is a lower quality recording. There is also the video that I have posted on my youtube account, which includes some music and scenes from the Lamb of God video with his voice dubbed over. This is a much larger file and will take awhile to download.

Again, these will only be up through the end of January. If you know someone with a DVD burner, they can take this file, author it, and then burn a DVD.

You can find the files at:
http://www.helpforguys.com/purifyingpowervideo.html
http://www.ldsteenhelp.com/purifyingpowervideo.html

Thanks,

Dan

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I have been reading Clean Hands, Pure Heart, by Phil Harrison. So far, it is one of the best books I have ever read on leaving behind sin and changing as we turn to God. Dr. Harrison gave us permission to post his first three chapters on our website. I am very excited about that. The first three chapters deal with his story, undoing the lies about God, and undoing the lies about ourselves. After that, he launches into the 12 step program with an LDS perspective. I would recommend it to anyone, whether or not you struggle with addiction.

Reading this book has opened my eyes in many cases to a new understanding of some scriptures. One that was mentioned today was Alma 5:26. "And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?"

I had always read this scripture as a great invitation at the end of a series of soul-searching questions that Alma asks the people of Zarahemla, right before launching into another series of soul-searching questions. I thought that he was telling the people, "You've felt this before, feel it again now." It had never occurred to me that this was just another one very long series of soul-searching questions which are designed to help the people see accurately their current state before God. It had never occurred to me that he was saying, "Even if you have felt to sing the song of redeeming love in the past, the real question before God is can ye feel so now? It doesn't matter if you have had an amazing spiritual experience while kneeling down and praying for help. Can ye feel so now? It doesn't matter if you have felt the love of the Savior reaching down and helping you out of temptation and strengthening you beyond your natural comprehension. Can ye feel so now? Every day, we need to be able to answer honestly, I can feel so now. Every day, we need to keep our sins in remission by making sure that we can feel so now. Every day, we need to make sure that we can face temptation with that same spiritual experience in our hearts, with that same love of the Savior reaching down and helping us out of temptation and strengthening beyond our natural comprehension. This cannot be a one-time experience we have. This needs be something that we can feel so now.

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I made a video, which I expect to drum up some controversial comments. That isn't necessarily why I did it, but I expect it. The basic point of the video is that there are a lot of young men who want non-sexual male affection but have very few places to turn to in order to explore that world unless they are willing to deal with the sexual aspect in order to receive male affection, mainly from the gay community. This isn't just my theory. There are quotes from young men in the video that some of you may know from our websites. Simply put, some men enter the gay community and are willing to be sexual with other men, even if they realize (and many probably don't realize), that what they really want is non-sexual affection from other guys. They want to be part of manliness but don't know how to explore it. That is all the video is saying. No doubt, others will read further into the message and extrapolate different ideas. They may be right or they may be wrong, but either way, the point of the video is fairly simple. Boys need non-sexual affection, a lot of young men still yearn for it, but don't know where to get it. That's all. Here it is:

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