Light and Truth

 One of many experiences I've had that confirm Moroni's declaration that faith must precede miracles ( Ether 12:6,12 ) occurred in October, 2022. At the time my family and I were just short of one year living in our newly bought house in Layton, Utah. I had a great job at Spiff and everything was going very well for us. Our daily routine consisted of me working a few hours in my office, taking a lunch break around noon, and then working four more hours before dinner. After my lunch break it was time for Isaac's nap, and my wife Bethany certainly needed a nap as well due to being in the midst of pregnancy. So it was normal for Aaron to get a half hour or so to watch some toddler shows that we checked out from the library (so as to avoid the risk of inappropriate commercials and an unending flow of shows). In the middle of October, we discovered that Aaron was really interested in watching recordings of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. But since that was so old, the library didn'...

After returning home from serving two years as a full-time missionary in New York for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was a very new 21-year old. It was December 2013 and my life had just been changed through 24-7 service in spreading the news of the restored gospel since December 2011. Of course, stepping off the plane in Salt Lake City was an obvious transition point from one chapter of life to another. But what was the next chapter of life going to entail? What did the future have in store for me? While I didn't know the specifics of what would occur in the upcoming years as my early-20s unfolded, I at least knew some of the things that should be part of the answer to these questions. I would be going to college at the University of Utah as a double-major in mathematics and physics. I needed to find a way to utilize what I'd learned on my mission to make missionary work an everyday lifestyle. And most importantly, I needed to work towards an eternal marria...

Beginning with the Black Friday store rush, each year's Christmas season seems to almost always contain the word 'busy'. This year, 2018, was certainly no exception for me. However, through unexpected and divinely inspired events, the Lord taught me that Christmas is meant to be much more of a time of miracles and wonders than being busy. As Thanksgiving in late November passed, a busy schedule commenced for my wife and I. The due date of our first child's birth was nearly a month away (December 28th). And since this child was an answer to year's worth of sincere prayers, as detailed in  this previous blogpost , we wanted to do everything within our ability to prepare for full success. Anyone who's been through pregnancy knows how much work goes into doctor's appointments and insurance in the last month before delivery. Alongside this, the semester at Yale University was nearing the end. With a graduate-level course on statistical inference, another course...

From the earliest of years in my life, I've been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This membership has brought so many blessings into my life, particularly a knowledge of the fatherhood of God, that my life has a purpose, that there is life after death, and that decisions truly do determine our destiny. So many priceless treasures! But, like many church members, I came to learn rather quickly that there were some aspects of being actively involved in The Church that were not what I classified as obviously positive. In my young youthful years, I was involved in the young men's organization. And, seemingly unlike everyone else, I did not have any close friends in that organization besides my older brother Tayson. As a matter of fact, the large majority of the other young men with whom I was compelled to associate were, in my eyes, justifiably classified as enemies! They treated me with anything but respect. Why was this? Looking back with now-adult ey...

From before the time of my earliest memories in life, my family has been actively involved in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Of course, one of the (very positive) consequences of this is that many of the teachings and commandments became normal to me relatively quickly. But even with the religious beliefs and way of life being rather normal, I still needed to gain a personal testimony of everything through experience before I knew it to be true. Often times these learning experiences were initiated by simply living according to the commandments without requiring a knowledge of why. For some of the beliefs and commandments, my testimony process was relatively short term. Others took a much longer, extended time. An example of one such commandment that took many years for me to learn the "why" behind it was the Lord's law of tithing. From the day of my baptism until now, I have always been 100% obedient to this law and payed one-tenth of my income back t...

In the early parts of 2014, one of the strongest desires of my life began to swell within me. Although I was only 21 years of age and single, a yearning to be a father one day took root in my heart and mind. Even though I cannot pinpoint the initiation of this desire to a specific event, I am quite confident that it was the cumulative effect of multiple heaven-designed experiences: seeing the light in the eyes of young children, learning of God's commandment to multiply and replenish the earth, and the Holy Ghost prompting me towards a more complete understanding of my duties in life. While it certainly did not occur overnight, I gradually came to desire the opportunity to raise children. After about two years, I was privileged to find and marry my beautiful wife Bethany in the early months of 2016, bringing my hope for being a father much closer towards reality. Knowing that all people are children of God, I knew from the beginning that if I so desired to raise children I needed...

From a young age, I anticipated the time when I would serve as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. With many close family members and friends having previously served as full-time missionaries, I had many opportunities to prepare for my own experience. Among the many aspects of this preparation was a desire to know what the hard questions might be, and how to answer them. Listening to many stories from returned missionaries, combined with pretty simple reasoning, I concluded that religious questions (both sincere and intentionally-confounding) were unavoidable as a missionary. One of the most common intentionally-confounding questions involved in the stories shared by my fellow returned missionaries was how any of The Church's modern-day scripture (and particularly The Book of Mormon) could remain valid within the presence of the warning at the very end of the Bible, Revelation 22:18-19. "For I testify unto every man that heareth th...

As a young boy, raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by righteous parents who provided a gospel-centered home, I remember coming to a conclusion that certainly reflected my very young mind. This conclusion was that, since I had learned the importance of avoiding addictive substances such as alcohol, smoking, drugs, pornography, and gambling, I would never experience any form of addiction in my life. While I successfully avoided everything I - at that time - thought could become an addiction, I eventually met with disappointment in my later teenage years and early 20's. Through various circumstances and choices that are far too complex for me to recall entirely, I found myself struggling so largely with God's commandment of honesty. While I knew it to be true, this knowledge had not yet grown large enough to translate directly into action. While I knew dishonesty was sin, it seemed as if no matter how oft I repented that I always cycled back around sooner ...

Sooner than later, most of us find out that life has overwhelming challenges that are seemingly beyond our capacity to endure. As a young teenager with epilepsy, this was the situation I faced for many years. There were many reasons of why this challenge felt unbearable at times. Among the smallest of these challenges was the mere presence of seizures in my life. While it certainly was not fun to have unpredictable seizures, I was at least unconscious during them and therefore didn't remember them as well as my family members. Challenges of greater magnitude included not being allowed to drive, get a job, or participate in various other activities that could trigger a seizure. Perhaps the greatest challenges I faced, though, were the side-effects of my medication. These side-effects did not involve obvious reactions such as a rash, sneezing, or any feeling that might be considered "medical". Rather, the effect was deep inside my brain; my personality shifted towards pes...

At the beginning of my full-time mission while at the MTC (Missionary Training Center), I nearly got sent home for medical reasons beyond my control. Fortunately, I was not sent home. But I was also not allowed to go out to New York as I had been called to, at least not immediately. This was obviously quite a trial for my faith and hope. (Further details can be found in the two prior blog posts:  1st  ,  2nd  .) Instead of getting sent home, a minor exception was made for me to stay at the MTC and work as an online missionary in the Referral Center. Here I would stay until I got doctoral permission to serve in New York. This was not exactly what I wanted to happen, but by this time I had accepted the fact that my plans of going to New York in January 2012 were not to be. But at least I didn't get sent home completely from serving a mission. While serving in the Referral Center, teaching people via skype and chatting with people who came on to  mormon.org ...

While at the Provo MTC (Missionary Training Center), preparing to go and serve in New York as a full-time missionary, I was informed that due to my past epileptic condition I would not be allowed to serve as called and would be sent home. This of course challenged my faith and, from my perspective, diminished it (on a scale of 0 to 20) from 19 to 1 in every aspect of the gospel. But thankfully, due to inspired missionaries guiding me to the scriptures, I was able to put a halt on the evaporation of my faith. (See  previous blog post  for a more detailed story.) At the time of being informed of the cancellation of my mission call, I was able to summon enough courage to be persistent with them of having any possible exception made for me. Their response to this was that they would look into it, but that the probability of obtaining such an exception was extremely minimal. In the mean time they would have me wait at the MTC with another district of missionaries. The day of gett...

When I was about the age of 23 years old, married to my wonderful wife Bethany and attending the University of Utah as an undergraduate student, there came a window of time that I remember quite well. Having bought my first car a year or so earlier, the day came when an oncoming driver ran a stop sign and my car was totaled. Thankfully nobody was hurt. But now I no longer had a car, which was certainly something that took time to get used to. Then only a couple weeks later, my phone began having problems and began losing many of its capabilities. And during all of this, my laptop had many problems, specifically related to the built-in wifi card. It seemed as if many of the valuable items I possessed were fading away into the past. At the same time I had a couple friends who chose to disassociate themselves from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the church that we together had been a part of for many previous years. It was heart-breaking for me to see individuals, who I...

When I was around the age of about six or seven a great challenge was added into my life. I began to have seizures periodically but unpredictably, and therefore had epilepsy. Little did I know at first that there would not be a single aspect of my life that would avoid being influenced by this challenge. The limited reading ability, personality side-effects of medication, feelings of being a burden to parents and siblings, reduced public privileges (such as driving), and feeling like the black sheep in school were only a few of the many challenges brought about directly by my epilepsy. While I never came to doubt the existence of God, I did ask the questions that nearly everyone asks in times like this: Why me? What did I do to deserve such a trial? Initially, all I could do was press forward through this tribulation of life, trying to not let my faith falter. And after nearly a decade of keeping my faith, wondering if I would ever find out why God allowed me to have epilepsy, the an...