In the day of Nephi, son of Helaman, many had given up on the prophecy of Samuel the Lamanite coming to pass. His prophecy said that in 5 years the sign of the Messiah’s birth would be given. I’m sure…

I know that some of what I have to say here is controversial. I’m not an authority on anything except my own opinions. This is a massive topic and I do not address all of the views and perspectives. This…

In a recent news story, the Church announced that they are canceling public attendance at the Conference Center in Salt Lake for this upcoming General Conference. There are also restrictions at the MTC and other large gatherings like stake and…

Well, here goes nothing, going to try to do a vlog post for something different. I feel compelled to write a little more here below but then that kind of defeats the purpose of having a video.

Source: Fulton J. Sheen, Old Errors and New Labels (New York, NY: The Century Company, 1931) America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance. It is not. It is suffering from tolerance: tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil,…

For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an…

This question or a form of it has come to my attention many times. People usually wonder about this when they learn that witnesses described Joseph translating by using the Interpreters or seer stone in a hat which was used…

I created this for our first Activity Days class. It was a bunch of 7 to 8-year-old rowdy boys and I realized all too late that I had over-prepared. Feel free to use it for your own study or any…

Joseph Smith once wrote that we believe in the Bible (and any other scripture, I’d imagine) as far as it is translated correctly. For years, I have enjoyed the Isaiah Institute Translation of Isaiah which was created by Avraham Gileadi….

Joseph Smith’s use of a seer stone was described in a trial, it was said that when he used the stone, “all intervening obstacles were removed, and that he possessed one of the attributes of Deity, an All-Seeing-Eye.”  (Purple account, Joseph…

I’ve noticed that pop culture has influenced us at church where we feel more inclined to walk on eggshells, afraid to offend others. True, we value kindness, but I think we err in thinking that it means that we must…

In the vision of the tree of life that Lehi and Nephi witnessed, a “great and spacious building,” prominently juxtaposed the righteous seeking to find their way to the tree of life. The tree had a path and an iron…

In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we find an account of Jesus being tempted by the devil while fasting in the wilderness. The scene parallels, in at least two significant ways, Nephi’s vision of the tree of life….

This was the best comment on the church’s new video The Christ Child which I highly recommend. The characters are speaking Aramaic, the inn situation is more historically accurate and the wise men show up at the right time! The…

I listened to this podcast several weeks ago because, like most people, I felt like I would get distracted often. Nir Eyal, the author of Indistractable explains that distraction starts from within. When we feel like indulging in a distraction…

Recently I listened to the Stages of Faith presentation again but this time with my wife and daughters and it was a wonderful experience. I wanted my wife and kids to hear these ideas to see how we can help…

This past week, I turned 40 years old; wow, that’s how long the Israelites wandered in the desert. The number 40 is tied to the themes of “probation, trial, and chastisement.” [1] Hopefully I am on the other side of the…

The priesthood is a big topic and much has been said and written about it throughout time. It seems to me that there are a lot of misunderstandings out there about what the priesthood is. I think there is some…

This is a thought I had today as we were discussing the topic of temptation in church. I was thinking again along the lines of another recent post about the source of ideas. Intelligence alone cannot progress without ideas. Ideas…