Painting...I didn't used to enjoy it, especially when we did my house, but now I'm having fun. It probably has to do with the amount of painting and the environment. The past two days I've been helping paint a mural on the wall of my choir room. It's been fun hanging out with friends and, as I said, I've enjoyed the painting part. ...this is a boring topic.

Making a stand...Being with friends has been fun, but it's a little weird being back with people who think so differently from me. For most of the summer, when I've gone camping and on trips and stuff, I've been surrounded by fellow Mormons. They all have the same belief and though each of us have varying opinions on things, we all pretty much agree on the basics of what's right or wrong, such as seeing rated R movies or homosexuality. I've had that in common with all these people. Now, being back with friends from school who come from either a variety of religions or no religion, I have to deal with people who have no qualms going to see movies like American Wedding and who don't see anything immoral about homosexuality. It's interesting to hear their thoughts and opinions. I think I'm going to learn a lot this year. Now, I'm never going to think seeing R movies or being homosexual is ok, but I think I'll learn to deal better with people of the opposite persuasion.

Homosexuality...I figure I broached the subject, so I better persue it and explain my ideas on this extremely controversial subject. Just to make sure, I am stating my own opinion on the matter. I do not speak for the church. I use church doctrine for the basis of my answer, but my answer is my understanding of the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I first have to say that the Lord has commanded us to love all men. And I do my best. I am just as willing to be friends with a homosexual as I am to be with a hetero. But I will never accept their sexual preferences. God ordained marriage between a man and a woman. Within a marriage, we have been commanded to multiply and replenish the earth. This is the purpose of sex. Not pleasure, though that is part of this wonderful gift of God, but the giving of life. Misusing of this gift of life is up there with murder, the taking away of life. So, performing homosexual acts, or in other words, misusing our sexual organs purely for pleasure, is going against the commandments of God.
"The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God's commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife." -The Family: A Proclamation to the World