Mormon Bloggers

BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes. In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the Book of Mormon in the form of letters to someone they know. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures. In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to speak to all of us of the relevance, power and beauty of the Book of Mormon, a second witness of Jesus Christ and complement to the Bible. The Book of Mormon includes the religious history of a group of Israelites who settled in ancient America. (The names they use are those of prophets who taught the Book of Mormon peoples to look forward to the coming... Read the rest of this entry »

Snippets for Relief Society 2012 Use search term George Albert Smith to view more for this week or for other weeks Three little munchkins hiding at the end of my couch.- Tanner (6), Leif (4), and Gretchen (1)  -are staying with us for five days.(My adorable little nephews and niece.) .…continued from Lesson 16 – part one. Yay!!  The stories were found (this morning).  One is purely the sacrament, the other is more about repentance which I related to the sacrament in a talk once upon a time.  My memory was a bit off about the content of the second story, but it’s included because it may be useful and it adds wonderful dimension to the “Sacrament” topic. But first, a couple of thoughts left out from last post. Love this quote from President Smith: “In this marvelous age when people can sit comfortably at home and hear the music of the world and listen to public addresses, and sermons, they will remain at their own fireside... Read the rest of this entry »

Snippets for Relief Society 2012 Use search term George Albert Smith to view more for this week or for other weeks. Wish our chapel looked like this!  We have a really old chapel still. The two main topics from this lesson are: 1) Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy 2) Taking the Sacrament These are two of the most exciting topics we could be assigned as teachers.  Seriously.  No sarcasm here…it’s one of my favorites.  True I’ve heard them taught in mundane, cliche ways.  But I’ve also heard them taught in ways which completely perk my interest.  Hopefully, this’ll help you with a couple suggestions to make this memorable for your class. This post will have to be in two parts because somewhere in my files I have two awesome stories about the Sacrament…two of the best stories I’ve personally heard on the topic.  Pray I find them.  I already tried googling them and no luck.  Update:  They’re... Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t get me wrong. Like many folks who have over active control tendencies, I am not thrilled by silence when I teach. But sometimes, silence in a lesson or in a meeting is great. I remember my home ward in Pittsburgh. There were fast Sundays where it was common for there to be gaps between the testimonies. I don’t know how many people lived in the ward, but in our sacrament meetings, we probably had about 150 or so. During the summer months when BYU kids were home, it was not uncommon for one of them to get up and start a testimony with words like, “I didn’t want this time to go to waste, so…”.When I was a bishop, I discussed more than once in our ward council that I thought it was a good thing to have moments of quiet in a testimony meeting. Part of the value of testimony meeting is allowing members to ponder about their own spiritual experiences, their own testimonies. If there is a steady stream of magical genealogy stories and five-year old memorized catch-phrases,... Read the rest of this entry »

We just received this question from Todd, who writes: Thank you for your wonderful site and effort here. I am a 40 yr. old man away from religion for many years. I’ve been invited for some time to an LDS church service by a friend of many years. She has often asked me to come with her on Sunday mornings, and now I am thinking of finally doing it. Do you have any general advice? I want to be a good guest. Just caring about “being a good guest” is plenty, but I think more of the responsibility goes the other way around! I hope you have a good experience and that you feel welcomed by those around you. Feel free to ask your friend questions about anything that is said or done, or about what each of the meetings is about. Here is some information that we hope might be helpful. This video, Attending a Mormon Church Service – Made Simple explains a lot of details of what you can expect at Mormon Sunday meetings. And here’s another video from Mormon.org: And here is... Read the rest of this entry »

I wrote an essay several years ago on my old blog that still gets a lot of hits even though I retired that blog and transferred everything over here. I’m glad I kept the old blog up because occasionally I get a comment there that inspires me to write something profound. Well, I think it’s at least inspired and uplifting. I felt impressed to share it here. It starts with the comment from Samantha: Hello, I recently started meeting with my Bishop to repent for other sins that I had committed. I was almost ready to get my Temple Recommend when Satan came at me with full-force. I began to engage in watching pornography and masturbation. My Bishop is a wonderful man, but I am far too scared to tell him of the addiction that I am faced with. It is not a daily habit, but it is still a problem. I have prayed, and I have come to realize I cannot overcome this on my own. I feel so awful and depressed after engaging in these behaviors. I want to be clean; I want to go to the temple. Is... Read the rest of this entry »

Yeah, been there, done that. Five times. Now we are enjoying the point of our lives where the FOMLs will reverently sit through sacrament meeting, only interrupted by the sound of fingernails on the backs of white shirts.  It was a long road. Mind you, our kids were really quite good, so I have no room to complain. I am grateful that the Lord sent relatively peaceful kids to our union. Unlike some of the kids at church today. Yikes! Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a tyrant about crying kids. I completely understand that it happens. What I don’t understand is why the parent doesn’t eventually take the kid out of the meeting. Do they keep thinking “almost there, almost there”? Let me reassure you: You are not “almost there”. You have lost this one. Go out, regroup, and try again later. I don’t say this out of harsh judgement, or out of spite. Which is how I would have said it in my younger years. As I have grown older, and much,... Read the rest of this entry »

I have remarkable children and grandchildren. This evening we had a video chat, then a story followed in an e-mail I eagerly share with all of you: My children have a mild obsession with the reenactment of ordinances. They can be found almost daily, filling their tool boxes with little bits of bread to gingerly pass to each member of the family. Then last week I found them “baptizing” each other on the front lawn. I don’t know where the fixation started, but I’ll take it over playing war or any other number of less-desirable make-believe games, so I have yet to discourage their rituals. This week has been hard on me. Last week I was an unshakable pillar of strength and patience. It seemed that nothing could get me down in the midst of lots of circumstances that could have. I don’t know what changed, but this week my patience and coping are nil. I don’t understand why sometimes we cope so much better than other times, but whatever the reasons, I have been... Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve enjoyed watching the deacons pass the sacrament in our ward. My youngest son is 14 now, so he often does not pass anymore. On a good week, the deacons quorum can do all the passing themselves without help from the teachers’ quorum. Our deacons are deacon-reverent: they aren’t particularly quiet on the bench, but they are pretty serious about passing efficiently and reverently. Occasionally there’s an issue of whether that half-row of congregants should pass the tray to the other end or pass it back to the deacon, but the boys take those things in stride. Our deacons are not overly formal. Some wear jackets, all wear white shirts and ties. Some sleeves are rolled up, most shirt-tales are tucked in. And only a few of the shirts look the deacons themselves are doing the ironing. (My son irons his white shirt each week, by the way.) They do line up and wait for the priests to stand before returning to the sacrament table. We have tall and short deacons; interestingly our... Read the rest of this entry »

Willing Sanctification ~by Marsha I am one of those women who never feels ‘good enough.’ It seems like no matter how much I try, no matter how many things I accomplish; it is never ‘enough.’ I always seem to see the flaws, the places I could and should have done better. That makes it difficult to receive compliments, and to be content with any accomplishment. When I was teaching Seminary [an LDS youth scripture study class for teens 14-18], we had the lesson on the sacrament. I knew all the typical Mormon answers about it. I was well aware of the lists of why and how and what. Suddenly however, as I was reading the prayers on the bread and water** aloud, I was struck by two words. 1) “sanctify” and 2) “willing.” Deep into my heart that first word settled. I heard myself telling the students what ‘sanctify’ meant: to ‘make holy.’ I could literally hear my voice, watch my hand writing on the chalkboard and feel the word like a tangible thing settle... Read the rest of this entry »

What a wonderful day it is to consider together our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.  I’m grateful to partake of the sacrament with you and to renew my covenant to remember him and to follow him.  I’m not sure that I really understood the significance of that covenant when I first took it upon myself at age eight. I’m still trying to understand what it means to really keep that covenant each day.  Some days I do better than others.  Sundays are a joy to me because I spend them in activities that are centered on the mission of the church – to invite all to come unto Christ.  It’s during the week that I sometimes struggle to remember Him. I suppose it’s a life-long pursuit, isn’t it? – To figure out how to really come unto Christ as we have been commanded to do. As Moroni taught, “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness … love God with all your might, mind and strength …” – Moroni 10:32 Another Book of... Read the rest of this entry »

Matthew 3:11  ”I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthyto bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire“ One of the reasons we don’t baptize infants is because, as the Bible says in both Matthew and Mark 1:4, we are to “baptize…unto repentance.”  Infants are not capable of the recognition required for the process of repentance.  Eight is the youngest a person may be for baptism in the LDS Church. Recently I was asked “why eight”?  For Mormons baptism is just a beginning, it’s the first ordinance and the first step.  It is the gateway for progression in the gospel.  Right after baptism comes the even more important ordinance, the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands.  And from my own experiences, as well as those of my six children, 8-year olds are very... Read the rest of this entry »