Mormon Bloggers

How many of us students have nightmares and severe anxiety about buying text books?  I dread it at the beginning of every semester.  It infuriates me how they suck the life out of students who have no choice but to fork over the big bucks.  This semester, Ben got 4 books and paid over $600!!!!  Nearly giving me a heart attack!  Not only do they raise tuition every year by a large margin, but books go up and up and up.  Seriously, if the government wants more people to get educated they should take a look at text book industries and cutting some costs there. Then after they ream you at the beginning of the semester, they assure you that you can sell them back at the end and get some money back.  Emphasis on “some”.  ”Oh, I am sorry you spent $300 on this book… here’s $3 back!  Have a nice summer!”  Then there’s this: “Oh, it bites you paid $250 dollars on this book, we aren’t... Read the rest of this entry »

A lot has gone on for my friend Mary. Here is the latest update about Mary and her struggles with the impossible: Sanguine.blogspot.com    Read More →

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the industrious out of it. You don’t multiply wealth by dividing it. Government cannot give anything to anybody that it doesn’t first take from somebody else. Whenever somebody receives something without working for it, somebody else has to work for it without receiving. The worst thing that can happen to a nation is for half of the people to get the idea they don’t have to work because somebody else will work for them, and the other half to get the idea that it does no good to work because they don’t get to enjoy the fruits of their labor.” Adrian Rogers (1931-2005)  Read More →

Finals are done. My capstone class is done, my capstone paper is done, my capstone presentation is done. I ran to the Kimball Tower because I could not turn my paper in soon enough. I was so excited to have it all done that I could not wait for the elevator back down: I ran the seven flights of stairs. I have huge bags under my eyes and people keep staring and asking why I have two black eyes. But finals are done! Hallelujah. I am now going to sleep for the next two weeks. Wake me when Santa comes. Enjoy:  Read More →

I’ve been home from Japan for over three years now. I know, long time. (I know I’m not married, too, but thanks for the reminder.) It wasn’t until late last night as I zombie-walked home from the library that I remembered one of the best lessons the Assistants to the President in my mission taught me. No matter how dogged, exhausted, dead-like, and thoroughly worn through they looked, once you walked up to them and said hi they would smile huge and show the enthusiasm of the world solely to you. It was good to remember that small, little attribute they had. It wasn’t out of any prerogative or advice someone gave them. It was just a by-product of working as hard as they can and not letting it chance-affect anybody around them. They were good leaders in our mission.  Read More →

This prayer was quoted by Bishop Edgley of the Presiding Bishopric in a special Stake Conference we had this past Sunday in the Tabernacle. This event happened in the Kansas House in Topeka on January 23, 1996. Joe Wright is the pastor of Central Christian Church in Wichita and was guest chaplain that day. He prayed a prayer of repentance that was written by Bob Russell, pastor of  Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. According to an article in the Kansas City Star from January 24, 1996, his prayer stirred controversy and one member of the legislative body walked out. Others criticized the prayer. The controversy didn’t end there. Later that year in the Colorado House, Republican representative Mark Paschall angered lawmakers by using Joe Wright’s prayer as the invocation. Some members there also walked out in protest. Citation Heavenly Father, We come before You today to ask Your Forgiveness and seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your word says, “Woe... Read the rest of this entry »

If you haven’t seen it, although 76 minutes, well worth your time. Watch this first: Or, if you just want to enjoy what this post was meant for (it just makes you happy!): What the heck, I’ll throw up another one!  Read More →

  Arthur Henry King by Nathan Florence   Wow! The new semester starts, with new classes and a new calling, and my blogging goes down the drain! I made a goal this week with some wonderful new friends that I would blog, though, so I planned all week to get here. I met with a member of our Stake Presidency a month ago, and we got talking about our common interests in philosophy and education. He pointed me towards a book, Arm the Children, by Arthur Henry King. It is a book of speeches and papers Brother King wrote on teaching and having faith in the contemporary world. From what I understand, Arthur Henry King converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was later in his life. He was raised Quaker (which I assume led to his unique perspective on some of our cultural habits), in England, where he learned to love the hundred books or so that his home held. From the love of reading those few books he went on to become the predominant scholar of Shakespeare... Read the rest of this entry »

“I don’t divide the world into the weak and strong, or the success and the failures; I divide the world into the learners and the non learners.”                                                                                                               – Benjamin Barber “As a man thinketh . . . , so is he”                                                                                                           – Proverbs 23:7 I randomly saw an article on BYU’s homepage a bit ago and was instantly pulled into it. I read the entire article and then read the connecting links to newsletters and research that other schools have done on the subject and read all of them. It was one of those, “Oh my gosh, it IS something real!” moments that you appreciate and learn everything you can. I just wish I could have figured this out about myself six... Read the rest of this entry »

Why do we serve? ­Everything in this life, within the gospel, the church, and all the creations of the earth are provided for one reason. And that reason is to have infinite happiness by becoming increasingly like our Heavenly Father. We see this in the scriptures: 2 Ne. 2:25, “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy,” That’s the infinite happiness part. Moses 1:39, “For behold this is my work and my glory – to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” What does that mean, eternal life of man? John 17:3, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Eternal life is more than just living forever; it is the kind of life God has and He wants us to have it. He wants us to become like Him, to think as He thinks, to act as He does, to know what He knows, and be able to do many things He can do. We find that eternal life is to live like Heavenly Father. We are to become like... Read the rest of this entry »

With the finale of LOST still fresh in everyone’s mind, we all wonder where we will invest our critical analysis skills next. Luckily, Jer3miah is going to start their second season soon. If you haven’t ever heard of Jer3miah then you should check out their website Jer3miah.com. Watch the trailer for Season 1, and then watch the entire season (the episodes are all under 10 minutes each). It’s pretty awesome what these film students are producing. There has been a TON of praise for it (i.e. The New York Times covered it!). I’m terribly excited for the second season. And today I found the teaser for it was posted online 7 months ago! What’s funny is I ran into Jared, aka “Jeremiah”, on campus very recently and I asked him what he knew about a second season. I thought it was pretty suspicious how he deflected with complete ignorance on the matter and spoke of how complicated it is to coordinate producers, directors, writers and the like. Of course,... Read the rest of this entry »

Rights go to BuzzParadise apparently (Cue The Final Countdown) It’s all over! I meant to write this post about my internship a week and a half ago, but I got caught up writing research papers and hitting the town for my final two weeks. It’s been a fun ride! I’m not too excited to head back home and go into Microeconomics . . . but this has been a huge influencing experience in my life and I’m very grateful to have had it.  For now I want to at least share some of the praise that my AWESOME school received from various people at my internship. These are all things coworkers told me throughout the semester and on my last day: “We have had a long line of GREAT BYU interns here so the bar is high for you.” “I don’t know what it is about you guys, something they have in the water at BYU or something, but the guys I’ve met from BYU are always really good guys.” “The BYU academic system does it right with you guys. You all... Read the rest of this entry »