My wife was working out in the yard a recent morning when I neighbor walked by and they starting talking. This neighbor was the YW President when my daughter was in YW's. They talked about a lot of things, but one thing they talked about was people making a difference. This neighbors sister had recently gone through a divorce and has stopped affiliating with the church. She mentioned how the bishop treated her and mentioned that he really could have been such an influence on her if he had done such and such. My wife then said, yes that our daughter could have used such support, any suppo ..read more

 So this isn't post isn't about situations my kids have gone through, this is about me. In person church was cancelled starting in March for our area and then a form was started again in June. However, because of different situations, I still have not been back yet. We have been blessed with the changes that have allowed us to participate from home and listen in to the Sacrament meeting portion as well as join into Sunday School, Relief Society and Elders quorums ever week. While we have participated with the Ward this way, I am still blown away that nobody really has checked in to see if ..read more

What a year it has been; earthquakes, coronavirus, black lives matter, killer bees, killer mosquitos, etc. Wow, I don’t want to know what comes next. But let’s just say with all of these things, anxieties have increased, and hatred/anger has appeared. Let’s just focus for now on COVID 19. I was impressed how the Church reacted quickly to the virus. They closed temples and then local church meetings as well as limited missionaries and actually brought some missionaries home. These steps were necessary to make sure “we” weren’t part of the virus spread. However, after 3 months, what do we do now ..read more

I thought I was done with experiences. I only have two children; how many things like these will they go through. My daughter started dating a young man about a year ago. He was nice and respectful.  Once they had been dating for a bit, he let her know that he had problems with porn and was working through these issues with his bishop. We thought that must have been very hard for him to come out and tell and we felt sorry for this young man and what he must be going through. My daughter still decided to date him and wanted to be friends. After high school my daughter decided to move away to a ..read more

It has been nearly a full year since my son last attended his Ward. He lives in an apartment on the campus of a university that he is attending.  A few months ago, at the beginning of this school year, he changed apartments and roommates.  My question is; how is it that no one from the Ward has reached out to him? His address changed and isn’t correct in the Church’s system; but he still lives in the same building and has the same phone number. One of his new roommates is a member. I don’t know if this new roommate goes to this Ward or not. But he very well could. My son has gone a few times ..read more

I have 2 nieces who are both single mothers. They both have or are having a child out of wedlock. This wasn't the plan they had set their sights on; however, they are both strong and will be fantastic mothers. My thoughts today turn to an issue one of my nieces went through a couple weeks ago.  We all know that being pregnant and not married is a very hard thing to go through and for some reason even more difficult in The Church.  You will always feel that you are being judged by those around you. The conversations with Ward members seem to be difficult. They are wondering what to say to you a ..read more

Late last week, the Church announced that is was doing away with EFY. They will be rolling out EFY type conferences which will take place in the Stake every other year. Both of my kids were able to attend EFY for multiple years. This gave them an opportunity to meet and socialize with other kids, learn about the gospel and be "on their own" for a week. I felt it was a great opportunity they were able to experience. There are others throughout the world, country and area that are not able to attend these and because of this, I can see why the Church would want to roll out something that would g ..read more

What is does it mean to truly love your neighbor? Are we, as Christians, really following Christ’s example? I discussed Seminary Graduation earlier and how difficult it was. That night after we were home, a woman from our Ward and her daughter stopped by to see my daughter. They let her know that what happened wasn’t right and shouldn’t have gone that way. They spent a few minutes catching up and seeing what else was going on a life and what the future held. This mother was teaching her daughter how to care for those around you. She was teaching by example. While my daughter didn’t really want ..read more

What a great time in a young person’s life; finishing high school and completing seminary. Well it should be. But just like so many times before over the last couple years, my daughter comes home from church crying and feeling terrible. We arrived at the church early tonight and they had rows set aside for each Ward. They wanted the Wards to have the youth sit alphabetically so it would be in the order listed on the program. When we got there, there was one other girl from our ward. She would be close to the end and my daughter would be at the first; so, they had the whole row in between them ..read more

Are there really true friends today? In elementary school, I was friends with some of the kids in the neighborhood as well as a few more that we always seemed to have the same teacher. This wasn't maybe the best crowd, but we still did ok. In middle school, things changed. It started by just eating lunch with some kids that I knew from my elementary school and some of their friends from their ward. Some how one of these other kids and I became good friends. Even though we went to the same elementary school and lived in the same stake, we really didn't know each other before. We both had a kid ..read more