Mormon Bloggers

Sometimes when I visit the temple, I seek a specific blessing – confirmation of a decision I’m considering, help with an issue I’m confronting, or peace for my troubled heart. This past weekend was one of those times. And the blessing came, at least in part. I went this time with specific questions, looking for guidance and comfort regarding something going on in my life. As I sat in the endowment room prior to the beginning of the session, I reflected on my questions, saying a silent prayer that I might be tuned in to listen for help that might come. In fact, I was so preoccupied with my concerns at one point that others must have thought I had fallen asleep, but I tuned in soon enough. Part of the endowment session is a prayer, offered normally for those whose names are on the prayer roll of the temple. Patrons may include names on the prayer roll, and members can even phone in names to be included. While the prayers follow a specific pattern, they are not prescribed;... Read the rest of this entry »

Why is it that we can never seem to prepare ourselves for difficult events that happen in our lives?  Even when we strive to be more on guard from what we faced before, I think that we are still taken aback when we have to face something newly difficult.  I have faced something like this the past week that I hoped never to have to deal with, and I won’t go into too many details but I find myself asking questions such as “If I had been more prepared spiritually and relying more on God, would things have happened like this?” or “If I had made different choices, would this thing not have happened to me?”  I’m thinking that these probably aren’t the best questions to ask myself, especially since they highly focus on what has already come and gone—things that I cannot change no matter how much I stew over them and wish that things had turned out differently. I have always thought that I faced some difficulties in my life that would prepare me for most things... Read the rest of this entry »

Why is it that we can never seem to prepare ourselves for difficult events that happen in our lives?  Even when we strive to be more on guard from what we faced before, I think that we are still taken aback when we have to face something newly difficult.  I have faced something like this the past week that I hoped never to have to deal with, and I won’t go into too many details but I find myself asking questions such as “If I had been more prepared spiritually and relying more on God, would things have happened like this?” or “If I had made different choices, would this thing not have happened to me?”  I’m thinking that these probably aren’t the best questions to ask myself, especially since they highly focus on what has already come and gone—things that I cannot change no matter how much I stew over them and wish that things had turned out differently. I have always thought that I faced some difficulties in my life that would prepare me for most things... Read the rest of this entry »

I know that you will be shocked to see that I have written a blog post two days in a row . . . something that I haven’t done for a while.  Well, I hope to get back into the swing of writing here more frequently for those of you that do read it.  Things have just been quite busy the last month with my becoming one of the district leaders here in the Referral Center and with everything going on during the Christmas season.  However, that is one thing that I love about my mission: being busy and always having something to do to further the work that Christ has given us.  As I have strived to do my best in every task and opportunity that I am given, I have seen how Heavenly Father has blessed me to accomplish these things in at time and a manner that I know I wouldn’t be able to do without His help.  I have definitely seen that over the past month with everything that I have been doing. I thought I would go ahead and write about my Christmas experience before... Read the rest of this entry »

I know that you will be shocked to see that I have written a blog post two days in a row . . . something that I haven’t done for a while.  Well, I hope to get back into the swing of writing here more frequently for those of you that do read it.  Things have just been quite busy the last month with my becoming one of the district leaders here in the Referral Center and with everything going on during the Christmas season.  However, that is one thing that I love about my mission: being busy and always having something to do to further the work that Christ has given us.  As I have strived to do my best in every task and opportunity that I am given, I have seen how Heavenly Father has blessed me to accomplish these things in at time and a manner that I know I wouldn’t be able to do without His help.  I have definitely seen that over the past month with everything that I have been doing. I thought I would go ahead and write about my Christmas experience before... Read the rest of this entry »

So I haven’t written a post for about a week now, and it has been largely because quite a number of changes filled this past week up so that I was quite busy.  We had transfers here in the Referral Center mission this past weekend since Elder Edmons went home on Monday and Elder Baird is heading home this upcoming Friday, so that was one of our changes.   I am now serving with a new companion Elder Sabin, and with this companionship change, I am now one of the co-district leaders for my mission.  The typical mission has various districts with 4-6 missionaries, and then there is a zone with usually 2-3 districts.  To go along with these different groups of missionaries that receive different types of training from various leaders, there are usually two missionaries that are assistants to the President and help oversee the other zones and districts.  So since our mission only consists of 10 missionaries right now, we only have one district with two co-district... Read the rest of this entry »

So I haven’t written a post for about a week now, and it has been largely because quite a number of changes filled this past week up so that I was quite busy.  We had transfers here in the Referral Center mission this past weekend since Elder Edmons went home on Monday and Elder Baird is heading home this upcoming Friday, so that was one of our changes.   I am now serving with a new companion Elder Sabin, and with this companionship change, I am now one of the co-district leaders for my mission.  The typical mission has various districts with 4-6 missionaries, and then there is a zone with usually 2-3 districts.  To go along with these different groups of missionaries that receive different types of training from various leaders, there are usually two missionaries that are assistants to the President and help oversee the other zones and districts.  So since our mission only consists of 10 missionaries right now, we only have one district with two co-district... Read the rest of this entry »

About one year ago, I was preparing to fly out to Canada in a couple of days.  I was very excited be able to continue serving my mission after I had to return home from the Ivory Coast.  I had served there for four months, and upon getting sick and not being able to determine what was wrong with me, I had to return home for several tests before I was reassigned to serve in the Canada Halifax Mission.  However, just one short week in Canada, I got sick again and had to be sent home from the mission field for a second time.  Needless to say, I was quite disparaging about my situation, and I thought that would be the end of my mission.  However, Heavenly Father had something else planned for my life.  My name is Elder Andrew Howden, and I am a 20-year old missionary that serves in the Provo MTC Referral Center mission. Serving in the Referral Center (RC) was something that I never expected since I had never heard of such a thing before I returned from the Ivory... Read the rest of this entry »

Now in reading my title, many of you probably are thinking that I am really crazy for what I am about to be thankful for today on the second-to-last day of my Thanksgiving, but I have come to see how many blessings come to my life as a result of various trials that I have had to face.  I think we all have a tendency to complain and ask “Why me?” when we face difficulties, and that is because the word used to describe is just accurate.  We face many things in our lives that are very hard, and as these hard things push us and stretch us, we are uncomfortable.  Thus we complain and search for way to get out of these difficulties, but after we have finished enduring a certain trial, we can look back and see something that made it all worthwhile.  This something would be our growth.  As we are pulled, stretched, pushed, and, in short, run through the rigmarole, we come out better and more prepared for our future.  I know that the only reason that I am here... Read the rest of this entry »

Today, I wanted to express my gratitude for this world we have to live on and the different things that happen here.  By that, I mean I am grateful for nature and all of the different seasons that we have.  And this is a funny thing for me to be grateful for today because here in Utah there is a warning that has been going on for quite some time about a winter storm that is supposed to be pretty bad.  Several major places here in just Provo have been closed down and people were sent home early from school and work.  The storm is not very bad here yet, but I don’t think that it will make my gratitude lessen any if it gets a bit worse. I grew up in Utah, so I grew accustomed to having four seasons each year-spring, summer, fall, and winter.  I really love all of these seasons, and sometimes I am quite surprised when people don’t even though I know that the whole world doesn’t have four seasons like we do here.  When I was in the Ivory Coast, we had hot,... Read the rest of this entry »

So in continuing the second day of the Thanksgiving countdown, I wanted to talk about how I am grateful for the gospel in my life.  And in being grateful for the gospel, this includes being grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ because without Him there would be no gospel.  I am so grateful for the wonderful blessing the gospel has been in my life.  The incredible thing about the gospel is that it affects everything for the better.  I cannot think of a single aspect of my life that has not been improved by my living the gospel. Sometimes I wonder why I was blessed to be born into a family that already accepted and lived the gospel of Jesus Christ and was part of His Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, whatever the reason was, I don’t think I could ever thank Heavenly Father enough for this blessing in my life.  Looking back on my life, I know I would not be the person I am today without the gospel of Jesus Christ, and thus I wouldn’t... Read the rest of this entry »

I wanted to continue my posts today by looking at and commenting on another talk from General Conference.  This talk actually comes from the last session of Conference, and it wasn’t one talk that I was originally planning to talk about.  But after seeing this short video about a talk that Elder Robert D. Hales gave in a General Conference this past April, I felt that I needed to comment on both of these things.  Here is the Mormon Messages video of Elder Hales’ talk, and I think that this introduces the subject matter of this blog post quite nicely. Elder Hales’ talk ties in perfectly with Elder Larry R. Lawrence’s talk from the most recent General Conference where he talks about parenting as well.  His talk is entitled “Courageous Parenting,” and he focuses on the idea of parents being their children’s parents and not their children’s friends as I like to put it.  He says, “What the world really needs is courageous parenting from mothers and... Read the rest of this entry »