Light and Truth

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...

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...

In December 2013, I returned home after serving full-time as a missionary in New York for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for nearly two years. Having served to the best of my ability, I stepped off the plane flight with many new lessons learned through experiences that were (at least to me) clearly orchestrated by the Lord. One of these lessons was, of course, the priceless value of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Prior to missionary service, the continual presence of the Gospel led me to deem it as normal and ordinary rather than of value beyond description. But by seeing, as a missionary, first hand accounts of so many individuals finding joy and purpose in life by coming to a true knowledge of their Savior, all of that permanently changed. Another big take-home lesson for me was that there is no such thing as a convenient conversion. I learned this through seeing the life-changing experiences of so many people, which were always accompanied with great sacrifices and c...

At the time I completed my two years of full-time missionary service in New York I returned home with full determination to continue serving as if I'd only been transferred. I soon learned that this was exactly what the Lord wanted me to do. I was called to serve as a ward missionary, had many missionary experiences on the bus and at the University of Utah, and was later called to serve as a ward mission leader. Overall this resulted in at least four-and-a-half years of unceasing involvement in missionary work, all of which I tried my best to make as effective as possible. And it produced quite an intriguing concoction of exhaustion and joy. In addition, I also served as an ordinance worker in the Bountiful Temple for about six hours each Saturday. Assisting in temple and family history work was another large priority of mine, which brought invaluable blessings into my life as well. With this, combined with my missionary efforts, one could easily say that the work of salvation was...