u/olsh

I was a member of the church until I was about 35 and I don't really know what the Church's response to this question would be.

Let's say a child is in the ICU and going in for a major surgery. The family asks for people to pray. The ward has a special fast.

What does the LDS theology say about whether the number of people who participate in the fast and prayer makes any difference at all?

If 1000 people participate, is the surgery likely to be more successful than if 5 people do?

Don't get me wrong, I can understand why prayer can have benefits to the individual who is doing the praying, and I get how it might feel nice to have a group of people praying for you. But the Church and its scriptures have always talked about faith as a principle of power. Faith can "move mountains" so to speak. But is the amount of participation in prayer going to change whether miracles can or will happen?

This is obviously complicated by real-world situations, where sometimes children surrounded by heathens and atheists recover miraculously and children surrounded by faithful believers have horrible complications or pass away. I get that. But what does the Church actually teach about this?

Does the Church take the position, that it matters how many people engage in prayer for the child?

Hi everyone. You've all been really cool about helping answer my questions as I've moved into the Tesla world. I don't know if this information will be helpful or interesting to anyone, but I figured I'd share.

My prior electric car was an Audi Etron GT that I purchased used with low mileage. I do think the GT is the most beautiful electric car available. The prestige package was loaded with all the bells and whistles. But I got rid of it due to a lot of problems that might have just been my particular vehicle. I will say that, compared to the 2024 Audi Et-ron GT Prestige, I strongly prefer the Model 3 so far. These two cars have different value propositions and different price points, but the tech and overall vibes on the Tesla are so much better that I prefer it even though the Audi's driving dynamics, features, aesthetics, physical buttons, and luxury feel were probably superior (personal preferences).

I also drive a diesel pickup that costs about 43 cents a mile in gas right now. Yeah, 100 miles costs $43 bucks in that thing.

Lease vs. Finance

I went with a lease for my situation, because I have other cars for longer trips and 3 years is actually on the long end for me. I don't know if I made the right decision with the competitive financing. My lease ended up being a few bucks more than I thought it would be based on the estimate, but I also didn't factor in the sales tax on each payment. Oops. Not a big deal, but something to think about. Side note, if you ever want to buy more miles at a discounted rate, you will need to have the lease funded through Tesla Trust, and not one of the other funders. Mine is with a different company so that isn't an option for me.

RWD vs. AWD vs. Performance

I went with with the AWD. I really wanted the premium package either way. I wasn't ever really considering the base model. I had a really hard time deciding between RWD Premium, AWD and Performance. I still don't know if I made the right decision, but I will say that the acceleration in the AWD is still extremely impressive. It doesn't rearrange your insides like the performance does, but the AWD is about as fast as my E-tron GT (not an RS), and it's also as fast to 60 as a V8 Mustang GT. And as you'll see below, I probably wouldn't use the acceleration much. I do think that even in the 2026, the speakers in the AWD are better than the premium by a bit. Either way, the sound system in the 2026 AWD is fantastic. I'm not an audiophile, but I do love good speakers, and these are probably close to the best stock speakers I've had. Also, even though I have a truck when I need it, the AWD will add some benefits in the snow.

Energy Consumption:

Over 200 miles, I'm averaging about 4.2 miles per kWh. Charging at home means that energy costs about $2.38 per 100 miles. For reference, a standard Honda Accord would be about $14.37 in gas per 100 miles. A Honda Accord Hybrid would be about $9.58 in gas per 100 miles. My truck is about $43 in Diesel per 100 miles.

Full Self Driving and Connectivity

I do agree with a lot of people that the monthly subscriptions are pretty annoying. The FSD at $100 a month and the premium connectivity at $10 a month are well worth it to me.

Side note: I do think Tesla should consider a "pay as you go" model for some drivers who just want to use it here and there. Like $10 a day or something.

I absolutely love the tech interface. It's fantastic. I like the connectivity so my kids can watch streaming, and I love the Apple podcast and Music apps. Everything works great.

For me, the full self driving has been a revelation. It might be important to note I'm still on the 14.2 software, and I've heard a lot of people complaining about the new update for FSD. My experience is on the older version.

I really can't believe how good it is. It blows me away. It behaves so much like a human (who is a good driver). For example, turning right out of a parking lot on to a busy street where I need to cross four lanes to get into the left lane to get on the freeway, and it executed it perfectly. I'm really pleased at how it will go with the flow of traffic and exceed the speed limit by a reasonable amount, though I'm a little surprised regulators don't do something about this. I find myself

The acceleration is smooth and the overall experience is fantastic. It hasn't nagged me too much either.

If I had to add some nitpicks, they would be:

Roundabouts. It has sucked at roundabouts. Even when the exit is clearly indicated on the map, it wants to go around again.

Pot holes. It doesn't seem to ever want to avoid potholes or puddles, construction covers or sewer lids. The most common reason I exit FSD is to go around a pot hole.

Stop signs. Tesla has programmed this really well to be safe, but sometimes, the full stop, then the gradual pull up, then the right turn takes longer than I want and people behind me get pissed about it.

Dips and gutters: Sometimes the Tesla just wants to send it full speed over a speed bump, dip, or gutter. It will turn into a parking lot pretty fast and hit the gutter hard in FSD, which isn't great because the clearance isn't that tall.

Climate Control

This is still taking time to get used to. I think the preconditioning and the automatic functions are fantastic, but I really do need to figure out the best way to use voice commands because going through the buttons on the screen can be annoying. But, it's much easier in FSD. I do miss having a few physical buttons, but it's not the end of the world so far.

Navigation

So far, Navigation hasn't been that great compared to google maps and car play. I'll put in an address and it won't recognize it or it will insist on a different location. If I'm navigating to a business, it will fail to find one close by and only find one in another city. Once it's locked in on the right location, it's fine.

Seats

I'm really happy with the white seats I chose. We'll see how the cleaning and maintenance goes. So far there aren't any issues with my jeans turning them blue. The cooled seats work very well compared to Ford or Audi or GMC.

One warning for bigger guys out there, the seats are a tiny bit narrow. They aren't bad and the side supports have some give, but it's a little snug. It's hard to notice in a few test drives, but on longer drives the outside of my thigh gets a bit uncomfortable. But, the seats are much more comfortable than the Audi Etron GT Prestige (unless you want the massage function).

Grok and voice commands

It's taking some time to get used to when to use Grok and when to just tap once for voice commands. I do strongly prefer apple car play's approach to texting with people. I've found voice-to-text to be frustrating because a lot of times older messages don't show up at all on a new drive and I have to click the button to send the message. Maybe there are settings to make this better.

I do like having Grok available though so I can ask basic questions that come to mind while I'm driving. It's helpful

Screen Protector

I decided to add the $40 matte screen protector from Spigen. I really like the way it looks and the glare reduction is nice. It's not quite as sharp now, but it still looks great and the sensitivity and speed seem unaffected. I did leave one little speck of dust somehow and now it's eternally trapped. I'll have to decide whether it's worth $40 to try again. Not yet.

All in all I'm simply blown away by this car. I know it gets a lot of hate and a lot of people have their qualms, but I really think it's amazing. And I've had a lot of cars over the last 10 years. The technology is still way ahead of Ford, Honda, Audi, VW, GMC, Chevy, and Toyota, at least for my preferences.

I went through the process to lease a 2026 AWD model 3. There were RWD options available “today”, but I decided to go with the AWD and I was ok to wait. After I chose my configuration, it gave me the estimated price (about $70 a month low) and then indicated there were other similar builds available sooner. One of those was a different color ($1000 more), and indicated it was available immediately, but I was on the fence on the color so I figured getting it 2-3 weeks earlier would be great.
After I finalized things, the delivery estimate changed to “2-3 weeks.”

No big deal, but it’s a little strange.

So in summary, the cash down goes up by a lot due to additional fees beyond the $3,000 down. The lease price goes up (mostly due to sales tax), and if you choose a different and more expensive configuration to get it sooner, it might not happen.

But I’m still very excited.