Mormon Bloggers

All my life in the church I have heard the promises of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  These are held out as motivating ideas that are intended to help us resist the pull and attraction of worldly pleasures.  In this short essay, I would like to consider just one of those promises and the power for good that it should have in our lives. Of course, the attraction of promises pre-supposes that you are the kind of person that is motivated by the “moving-toward” model.  If you’re not familiar with the idea, it comes from the book Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins.  He states, “All human behavior revolves around the urge to gain pleasure or avoid pain.” Tony’s shorthand for this is “pain or gain.”  Which one drives you?  Of course the concept is not original with Tony but he made it a focus of his seminars and books.  The idea has been around forever and stated in different ways by various thinkers.  The process is not absolute.  We move toward some things and away from... Read the rest of this entry »

My roommates and I spoke for two hours last night about the Holy Ghost and ended on one last question we could not answer. So I offer it to anyone who maybe has heard the insight we are missing: What is the true purpose of the Holy Ghost within the Godhead? Why can’t Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ fill all the needs the Holy Ghost has?  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 »

Gordon B. Hinckley: Prophet of God. (If you would like to hear the talk without any of the music, which I would rather post, then go here and these remarks start at 9:48)  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 »

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 »

Thought-case: A stranger walks up to the missionaries, states that he is moving to a place for the rest of his life where the church will never be. He wants to get baptized but doesn’t have a testimony of the church. Do you baptize him or not? If he is baptized what benefits/blessings would he receive for being baptized? What is the intrinsic value of being baptized? Without testimony, without passing D&C 20:37 or batismal interview questions, as if they don’t exist, what effect would being baptized have on a person? They will receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and (those who are within church contact) get connected to the church. End question: Is it better for a person to be baptized than not?  Read More →

Japanese members of the church believe that much of the religion in Japan, mainly Buddhism, was influenced by Judaism carried over from Israel, long before the Portuguese came to the islands. This is a general story the majority of members believe in. In fact, it is so prevalent that in Japan I went to a priesthood leadership meeting one Saturday night where they compared and contrasted information about the Ark of the Covenant with Japanese artifacts, religious ritual pieces, and common knowledge. I also had one of my teachers in the Missionary Training Center, a Japanese convert, teach us a little about this myth. I even watched Japanese news reports/documentaries about this myth in one of my Japanese classes since being home. This little article I found is a good summary about some of the general beliefs the Japanese hold concerning this myth. I find it very interesting; especially the end, where the government stopped anyone from excavating. That is a normal response in  Japan. There... Read the rest of this entry »

Tourist Season in DC The next stop comes. An old lady, a Hispanic, and an Indian are last getting on a packed metro car. The Indian yells at the Hispanic for not moving to the center of the car quicker. The Hispanic retorts there is an elderly lady he was letting get to a seat first. The Indian man gets angrier for being proven wrong. Everyone packed around the two are now angry at the Indian. The next stop comes. Two white guys are already on the crammed car with a muslim woman getting on. One white guy starts to ask if the lady would like the open seat (trying to fight the negativity that built from the last station’s episode). Mid-sentence the second white guy busts through the first white guy’s arms claiming he is 63 years old and completely legitimate for the right to sit in the elderly/handicapped seat next to the door. The first white guy responds patiently, which the second guy snaps at asking what had been said. The first responds politely and honestly that he thought... Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been reading the arguments on MormonThink.com off and on for several years now.  I have a lot of respect for the individuals behind the site, even though most of them choose to be anonymous.  I am confident that I have been visited by several of the contributors there or at least by those who read their site and others like it such as Ex Mormon and Post Mormon. I am by no means a scholar or intellectual.  I think I’m pretty smart and that I’m pretty good with logic.  After all, I have made a living for thirty years demystifying computers for others.  But I know there are a lot of people out there who are smarter than I am and who have the academic credentials to prove it.  I like to think that I’m just a regular, average, typical Latter-day Saint. I like smart, thinking people and especially people who present logical conclusions well, either in writing or verbally.  Critical thinking is a skill that I am constantly striving to improve.  I confess that I am impressed... Read the rest of this entry »

I’m home. What a refreshing, relaxing feeling it is to be home in D.C. again! I went to NEW YORK CITY!! How awesome was that trip! As hard as it was to go non-stop from eight in the morning until past midnight every night, it was all SO worth it! I saw so much that the days all blur together. I can’t remember when one day started or ended, nor what happened at any given moment. I just have the sights, sounds, smells and feelings that flash through my mind. New York is such an interesting city! I can’t pin it down. You feel claustrophobic, yet  fulfilled. The city is out of control, yet inspiring. It’s everything you don’t want to see humanity become, yet you end up falling in love and respect it. Our group had quite a few discussions on it, comparing NYC with D.C. We came to the conclusion that only a few of us would rather live in NYC than D.C. But, most all of us could handle living there for at least one year. NYC is so big, though, that it... Read the rest of this entry »

The Final Season . . . Supper (Oh, how I love LOST's symbolism) So I did something tonight that I never thought I would. Anybody who knows me knows how much I love the TV show LOST. I love everything about it and I love hooking people on it as well. Well, tonight was the season premiere of the final season of the show . . . so kinda a big deal for a die-hard fan. I’ve advertised for the past month, and tonight did a huge blitzkrieg in our building to make sure everyone knew about it. The show had a recap from 8 to 9 and then the two episode premiere from 9 to 11. I was planning on going to Institute (since I love our institute here) until 8:45 or so (it can sometimes go until 9:30) and then heading down. In Institute I had the chance to give the opening prayer where I remember asking for the Lord to inspire Elder and Sister Ellsworth with the words that we, the students, needed to hear that night. I then sat down and started counting the minutes until I got to go downstairs... Read the rest of this entry »