Light and Truth

In the early spring of 2019 I was in the midst of my second year at Yale University pursuing a Ph.D. in Statistics & Data Science. With my wonderful wife, Bethany, and our newborn son, Aaron, things were going very well for us in many aspects. But fatherhood and graduate school can certainly require a large amount of energy and time. Consequently, I attended the local Institute of Religion class on Tuesday evenings for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which I found to help me relax and focus on things that matter most. At one such class the teacher, Randy LaRose, shared a quote from one of his friends who served as secretary to the  First Presidency  of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Paraphrasing the quote, I remember it indicating that the mindset of the members of the First Presidency is much like the advice given by the professional American entrepreneur Jim Rohn: "Focus on the solution, not on the problem." The moment Brother LaRose s...

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...