Mormon Bloggers

My fifth child (second daughter) is the first of my children to choose to serve a mission. We received a call last night from the stake president that he had just pressed “Send” and her mission application is on its way to Salt Lake City. The combination of emotions I have today is something else. On the one hand, I’m remarkably proud of my daughter for her choices. She has talked about serving a mission since she was four, when she and my lovely wife hosted sister missionaries for lunch in our home one day each week when we lived in Venezuela. And she has spent the last 17 years since then preparing to serve. Her choice to serve was not without some trepidation. More than once in the last few years at BYU she has wavered. She’s wondered if she would be better to stay and finish her degree, if she should pursue certain romantic endeavors, if there was some other way she would better serve. But more than once along the way she has received what she knows to be divine guidance... Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve written couple of posts on gospel teaching (for instance, here, here and here). It’s a subject I care a lot about and have for many years. Just before my mission (I think the telephone had been invented by then – and by telephone I mean the one that was connected to a wall…) I took the teacher improvement course and I really enjoyed it. Early in my marriage, I served as a Sunday School president. I approached my calling very seriously (even though by then SS presidents were about as useful as the human appendix) and my counselors and I worked hard to try to improve teaching in our ward. I’ve really enjoyed teaching over the years, and have taught in Sunday School, Primary, Young Men’s and in my Melchizedek PH quorums. I even taught one Relief Society lesson when I was a bishop. (Ok, it wasn’t a whole lesson, but I was in the room and I got to teach!) I’ve never taught in Young Women’s, but I have taught Young Women in seminary and in youth firesides. And... Read the rest of this entry »

Brotha Mitt Romney takes the charge “Every Member a Missionary” quite seriously. First he got Martin Bashir to read the Book a Mormon. Now this just in from the peeps at Cheezburger: Give God the Glory, Sista Beehive & Sista Laurel  Read More →

Some BYU boys set out to prank some of their female peers. Good clean fun! (Well actually it was probably quite a mess, but we’re sure they were chivalrous and helped with the clean up.) God is Great,Sista Beehive & Sista Laurel  Read More →

A while ago I posted about sitting on my hands — in church classes, that it. I thought I’d let you know know that’s going. I’m relieved that not every idea I have is bad. (One bad one here…) I have tried to be more measured in my participation in class. I am happy to read, and volunteer to do so. And I’m trying (for now) to limit myself to just one comment. My reasons: 1. To avoid “teaching from the fourth row” — I want to respect that the instructor has a point of view, a message he or she has prepared, and I want to hear what that is. If I keep interrupting with my great ideas, neither the rest of the class nor I get to hear what the instructor has planned. 2. To avoid monopolizing the conversaton — more than once I’ve been in a class where someone comments so much that others kind of shut down and let the instructor and the verbose commenter carry on their dialog. Recently I’ve realized that sometimes I’m... Read the rest of this entry »

Sistas in Zion Radio! Every Sunday 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. (Mountain Time) Listen live here! Call in at (646) 478-3671. Sunday, April 22, 2012 – Topics: BYU Women’s Conference is coming up on April 26-27 and the Sistas will be there and hope to see ya’ll too! The LDS Relief Society is celebrating it’s 170th Anniversary this year. Special Guest: Melissa Puente Melissa Puente is an Emmy-winning television editor who lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sets of twin boys. As the mother of 4 boys Melissa shares the challenges and joys of parenting on her site Learning Mommy. She’ll be talking with the Sistas and listeners about how her career, faith and the Relief Society have intertwined, her Emmy-award-winning work on the television show “Starting Over,” and her recent work for BYU Women’s Conference. Listen to internet radio with As Sistas In Zion on Blog Talk Radio  Read More →

View from my 2nd story, childhood bedroom. Here I am, writing this post from the bedroom I grew up in as a teenager.  It’s been 30 years since I’ve slept here.  I’m’ having a good time with my parents in the Bay Area (California). I just finished reading Acts, chapter 17 in the New Testament. Paul had a heck of a time throughout his travels.  Although he was the most awesome missionary, and converted many souls to Christ…so many more rejected him. He was chased, stoned, rebuffed, banished, imprisoned, ridiculed, and largely discounted. They called Paul a babbler. It appears the accolades of the world are not the true believers’ prize.  This morning it hit me how truth is never popular. Every day I try to comment on five different newspaper articles about Mormons online.  There is so much chasing and condemning the LDS with words, particularly in the comment section.  So many hecklers who readily defame... Read the rest of this entry »

The headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes inadvertently called the “Mormon Church” by the media, is located in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States. If you visit there, you will see a strikingly beautiful statue of Jesus Christ. The statue, which is nearly two stories tall, is visible through a large plate-glass window that looks out upon Temple Square, where the Salt Lake Mormon Temple and the Mormon Tabernacle are. The statue is carved from white marble. In it, the Savior is depicted in the attitude of stretching forth His hands and looking down in love on the visitors who gather below. His hands and feet bear the marks of the nails of His crucifixion; the mark of the sword can be seen in His side. Behind Him, a large mural depicts the creation of the universe. Mormons are Christians Mormons are Christians. They worship the Lord Jesus Christ; He is the center of their lives and their religion. Unlike other... Read the rest of this entry »

I blogged last week about e-scriptures and their use in classes. I was so motivated by a post at Middle-Aged Mormon Man (who has a WAY bigger readership than mine). In my post, I spoke in favor of e-scriptures (mine are on a Kindle Fire, and I love them that way, thanks, very much). And I wrote about the kids in the Sunday School class where I sometimes substitute (including last Sunday). And here’s the dumb idea: I’ve actually had an idea while writing this post that I’ll try when I substitute next Sunday. I think I’ll put a table in the room where we have class, and ask all the student to put their scriptures (electronic and otherwise) flat on the table in front of them. That way I’ll be able to see whether they are staying in the scriptures or not. Of course, whether their minds are in their scriptures or not is another matter, and I won’t be able to see that… What I did was I finally let sink in what MMM was saying in his post, and I stopped by the library and... Read the rest of this entry »

Sneak peek from my favorite pregnancy outfit thus far. More to come later So. For clarification’s sake, even though we just kind of announced it, I will actually be 6 months pregnant on Sunday. We’ve taken some pictures over the last few months (I will be sharing some btw), but I’ve felt too weird to make them public. We actually haven’t even really formally announced that we are expecting. So why the radio silence, you may ask? This is suppose to be a good thing right? And yes it is. Now on to the verbal montage: Most who know me well, will know that since I was a teenager, I’ve known that it would be very, very hard for me to have kids.  Most of the time I have been told that if I was able to get pregnant, it would most likely end in miscarriage. Infertility is something I have dealt with most of my adult life. And I’ve been fine with it. For me, adoption has always been, and still is in my mind just as special a way to... Read the rest of this entry »

Yep, I read the comments of Hilary Rosen, and the counter-comments from Ann Romney, Michelle Obama and many others. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Google it.) And even before all the excitement, it was clear that Rosen’s comment might have been more about Romney’s wealth and less about her stay-at-home-ness (as the serious back-pedaling suggests), but for someone who’s paid to communicate, it is hard to imagine how Rosen could have done worse than she did. I am a huge fan of stay-at-home moms. My mom stayed home, and pinched pennies in order to do so. Of course in those days MANY women were doing what she was doing, and so they pinched pennies together. Two stories I remember from my Mom’s telling: First, there was the time she took a shoebox (or was it a bag?) of change to the A&P to pay for groceries, and after the cashier informed her she’d have to roll the coins before she could spend them there, the box broke, sending the coins scattering... Read the rest of this entry »

Listen live here! Today’s topics: The “It Get’s Better at BYU” video from the LGBT students and members of the LDS faith at Brigham Young University. Special Guest: Brandon Román He’s a BYU graduate, former LDS missionary, current law student, 2028 potential presidential candidate and openly gay. Learn more about Brandon here. Recent comments by Hilary Rosen regarding Ann Romney’s “work history,” sparking the debate of what does a stay-at-home mother bring to the table as a potential First Lady. Listen to Sistas in Zion Radio! Listen to internet radio with As Sistas In Zion on Blog Talk Radio  Read More →