I've been less frequent in my blogging this past year. A large part of this has been a shift in my spare time to launching the Conference Talk Podcast (if you haven't given it a listen yet, check it out)! Meg, One of my co-hosts ran yesterday's episode. She discussed Elder Hugo Montoya's talk "The Eternal Principle of Love." In that talk, Elder Montoya says "Jesus walked with...

We have observed a new religion seeping into the membership of the Church over the past decade. This religion is a deconstructed imitation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It copies the culture, vocabulary, and standard works of the Gospel, but waters down (and sometimes rejects outright) the foundational truths of the Gospel. If the Gospel is the healthy cows of Pharaoh's dream, then this alternate religion is the sickly...

We have three kids ages 6 and under. Time out as a couple is rare and fleeting. Movie theaters are virtually out of the question. But when the first two episodes of The Chosen hit the box office last month, my wife and I made sure to go. I loved it. Watching those episodes was a wonderful experience.

Until I ruined it.

Spoilers ahead, you've been warned.

I loved the second area of my mission. The Bishop was engaged in missionary work, the ward mission leader was a rock star, and the members were warm and accepting. It was really awesome– definitely one of the highlights of my whole mission. I was there quite a while; I spent 6 months (and 5 companions) in that ward. But no matter how awesome an area is, you can still...

Last month, Elder Uchtdorf announced an overhaul of the Church's pamphlet, "For the Strength of Youth." This pamphlet has long been the standard not just for teenagers, but for adults, in how to speak, dress, and act. The new version is very different from the one you and I grew up with, and in a good way. If sincerely applied, these new guidelines will be an enormous benefit...

Do you know how many doors I knocked during my mission? I did the math. By my estimate, I knocked between 150,000 and 225,000 doors during my two years. I can only remember a handful of them.

One gentleman answered the door, barking, "Who is it? What do you want?" The man didn't give us a chance to respond. He shoved his head out the door and leaned close to...

Today's post has been eating away at me for a while. Several scriptures, thoughts, and connections have been speaking to me recently. But I don't have a nice way to wind it all up. So, like it or not, I'm just gonna throw it at you, stream of consciousness, and hope you get the gist.

Amalickiah's first military campaign against the Nephites failed miserably. The Lamanites approached Ammonihah but found it too heavily fortified to attempt an attack, and they withdrew. The army's pride was smarting from that previous retreat, so they swore an oath to take the next city or die trying. But the next city was even more heavily fortified than the first. So, they went the "die trying" route. A thousand Lamanites...

The converts of Ammon never cease to amaze me. These remarkable converts who "never did fall away" exemplified quiet yet determined discipleship. When the Lamanite armies came to exterminate them, they did the unexpected.

It was a time of social and political upheaval. Some of the population claimed they were born with a certain characteristic that the rest of society either ignored or even disparaged. These individuals chose to let this particular characteristic define their identities and soon insisted that the rest of society acknowledge and even celebrate them for this identity.

Although it started at the fringes, this radical movement was propped up...