The year is 2025. Joe Biden, barely able to speak, has been in assisted living since 2022. Kamala Harris, who took over for Biden in 2022 after he resigned, is celebrating the 2024 elections. Harris had a 35 percent approval rating in November 2024 but somehow was elected after 15 million absentee and mail-in votes poured into precincts in 15 key states at 3 a.m. the morning after election day.

The unvaccinated for COVID have been forced to wear green armbands since 2022. That was one of the first measures Harris introduced upon taking office. Harris also instituted a new “Health Force” made up of Antifa, BLM and other left-wing activists who are paid a government salary to check the vaccination status of every person they encounter. If somebody does not have proof of vaccination, they are forced to wear the arm band, and if they resist they are beaten up and then sent to new camps for the unvaccinated that have been built near every city. There are reliable reports that more than 50,000 people have been killed in by the “Health Force” goons, but the media does not report these deaths so it is impossible to know for sure. Most of the news in 2025 is a repeat of government press releases and stories about how clean the cities are now that the population is 99 percent vaccinated. (The real number is more like 75 percent, but everybody knows the media stopped reporting facts many years ago).

The unvaccinated live either in the government camps or in special government housing that has been set aside in the poorest part of every U.S. city. It is impossible for the unvaccinated to find jobs since the Biden executive orders announced on Sept. 9, 2021, so most of them work odd jobs or perform illegal services for the vaccinated. It has been really difficult for the privileged vaccinated people to find plumbers, carpenters and electricians in the last few years, so there is a huge demand for illegal unvaccinated workers.

President Harris is excited because she is about to announce a new “vaccine” for the theta variant of SARS-CoV3. In total, there have been 14 rounds of vaccines announced since 2021, and all Americans are required to get all 14 rounds of shots. The VAERS database (the system for reporting adverse reactions to vaccines) was shut down soon after Harris took office in 2022, so it is impossible to know for sure how many people have been negatively affected by the vaccines. The hospital morgues have been overflowing with dead bodies and in many cities the bodies are just left outside in massive piles with tags on their toes. One foreign human rights organization has estimated that more than five million people in the U.S. — and more than 20 million worldwide — have been killed by the vaccines since 2020, but of course that is not reported by the media, and people who are rumored to believe the number are soon visited by the Health Force black shirts. The government claims that every dead body is a victim of one of the COVID variants.

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My blog on Come Follow Me: D&C 98-101

Excerpt:

D&C 98
This revelation was given for the saints in Missouri, who were going through severe persecutions.
In the first verses the Lord is commending them for their faithfulness and prayers, promising to fulfill all their prayers. Yet, we see that not all those promises were fulfilled in the way we would expect. Many prayed to keep their homes in Jackson County and to build Zion. Often, the straightest path to the Celestial Kingdom and Zion is a crooked dirt road, or sometimes just a direction in which to blaze one’s own trail. These saints would gain Zion, but it would be in a stake elsewhere. Some would receive their promised blessings after this life.
In verse three, we learn that all of our afflictions are for our good and God’s glory. For this reason, in verse one, the Lord encourages us to give thanks in “all things.” It is an interesting concept that we see pop up occasionally in scripture. It isn’t a call to solely be grateful for our blessings and good fortune, but also for the trials, pains, and tribulations. How easy it is to complain when things are tough. How hard it is to give thanks for those struggles.
We can see the importance of having an eternal perspective, when it comes to both good times and heavy trials. We look forward to eternal life with hope, which is an “anchor to the soul” (Ether 12), and helps us make it through the difficult times. We struggle with modern trials: Covid pandemic, wild fires, hurricanes, flooding, climate change, failed wars, etc. Yet, consider the struggles of the early saints:

https://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2021/09/come-follow-me-d-98-101.html

I write today to the orthodox, believing members of the Church who, facing the increasingly insane world of vaccine mandates, lockdowns and mask mandates over a virus with a 99 percent-plus survival rate for most people, are upset at the Church’s endorsement of vaccines and masks.

There have been two very large Church developments over the last month, one regarding vaccines and masks, and the other President Holland’s pleading with BYU faculty and staff to support the Church’s policies on social issues.

I think it is fair to say that a very large number of Church members, at least in the United States and Canada, have been tested by these two events.

Here is my message to the orthodox, believing members of the Church: cling to the rod of iron so you can partake of the fruit of the tree of life.

What does this mean in practical terms? Ezra Taft Benson said it best in 1980:

“There will be times when you will have to choose between the revelations of God and the reasoning of men—between the prophet and the politician or professor. Said the Prophet Joseph Smith, “Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof until long after the events transpire” (Scrapbook of Mormon Literature, vol. 2, p. 173).”

Choose the prophets. They have spoken regarding masks, vaccines and also regarding social issues like same-sex attraction and the situation at BYU.

Let me tell you who you do NOT want to be like: the left-wing woman I know about who left the Church noisily more than a year ago and was given nothing but love and support by nearly everybody in the ward. And there she was last Sunday crouched on the ground in front of the chapel writing anti-Church propaganda on the sidewalk in chalk for four hours. She was not friendly to any of the people who had been so kind to her for so many years. Her eyes were filled with hate and spite. In her mind she was so much more righteous than all of the people going to honor Jesus by taking the Sacrament, an ordinance she now refuses. In her mind the prophets hate gay people, and she is filled with love. In her mind she is some kind of hero, when the truth is she appeared to most people like Ophelia. It was a very sad scene indeed.

I have to say this to my orthodox, believing friends: some of you have reacted very poorly to the Church’s recommendations on masks and vaccines. Don’t go down that road. I have written before on this, and I feel a need to write about it again and add some additional thoughts. Two things can be true at the same time. It can be true that there has been a massive, unscientific overreaction to a virus that is relatively harmless to most people, but it can also be true that the Church has decided that the time is not right to challenge society’s response.

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Come Follow Me: D&C 94-97

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 Kirtland Temple – author’s photo

 D&C 94

A few important concepts come from this section. First, the Lord commands building an office building for the First Presidency. In giving the direction, we read,

“And ye shall not suffer any unclean thing to come in unto it; and my glory shall be there, and my presence shall be there.

“But if there shall come into it any unclean thing, my glory shall not be there; and my presence shall not come into it.” (vs 8-9)

The office of the First Presidency would be set apart as a sacred space, a temple. Whereas Latter-day Saints today think that temples are for sacred ordinances, because that is what our temples today are dedicated to, in Joseph Smith’s day they could be dedicated for a variety of activities. Here, we see two sacred edifices directed to be built: one for the management of the work, and the other as a printing office:

“And again, verily I say unto you, the second lot on the south shall be dedicated unto me for the building of a house unto me, for the work of the printing of the translation of my scriptures, and all things whatsoever I shall command you.

“And it shall be fifty-five by sixty-five feet in the width thereof and the length thereof, in the inner court; and there shall be a lower and a higher court.

“And this house shall be wholly dedicated unto the Lord from the foundation thereof, for the work of the printing, in all things whatsoever I shall command you, to be holy, undefiled, according to the pattern in all things as it shall be given unto you.” (vs 8-10)

We may not always think about how the sacred work outside our modern temples are as important and sacred as what’s inside our temples today. The work of God, guided by prophets and sent forth in print and multimedia, must be “wholly dedicated unto the Lord,” holy and undefiled.

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This is a guest post by Nicholas Applegate.

I am a gay man married to a wonderful wife, and I openly support The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its doctrines, and its leaders. As a result, I support the BYU honor code and their decision to require their students to keep the law of chastity (see link at bottom). This is because I have a testimony that this church is truly Christ’s church and that its leaders are called of God and divinely inspired.

However, at the core of myself, I am not a gay man; I am a child of God, a priesthood holder, a husband, and a father. I am not denying my true self by living the tenets of the Church. I would be denying my true self by not living the Gospel and leaving the Church to life a gay lifestyle.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a man we believe to be an apostle of God, spoke to BYU faculty a couple days ago (see link at bottom) reaffirming our beliefs in the sacred nature of marriage between a man and a woman, the right of BYU as a private, church school to support and institute doctrinal policies, and the need of disciples of Christ to defend and support our church leaders and the doctrine we believe in. I have seen lots of posts and messages opposing Elder Holland’s remarks, and while I respect their right to share their thoughts and while I also have some reservations about Elder Holland’s choice of words, I believe that he is a divinely inspired apostle of Jesus Christ and that his message is true. He asked for more to defend The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to be a voice in its support, so I have decided to do just that. Being a gay man in a mixed-orientation marriage, I think I am in a unique position to share my thoughts on the matter.

I have known from a young age that I was attracted to men. It was an emotional roller-coaster, something I mentioned to almost no one before I became an adult, and which still was told to very few individuals after. It made me feel different, gross, and mostly embarrassed, and it was hard for me to talk about. It took years for me to process this and accept myself for who I was. However, unlike many that I have heard about in my situation, I had little doubt about my future standing in the Church.

The Church has always been clear, in my lifetime anyway, that it is not attraction to men that is sinful, but acting on those desires. I always understood that if I chose to either live a celibate or a heterosexual life, my standing within the Church would never be in question. I decided essentially as soon as I realized I was gay that I would follow the law of chastity and not engage in a relationship with a man.

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