I watched this talk about 2 months ago and was very impressed by what Elder Jeffrey R. Holland proclaimed. Down to its essence, Elder Holland simply states case after case as to why it makes no sense the claim that God has ceased speaking to us. Quite frankly, I believe him.  With overwhelming evidence given, it's hard not to see the clear...

I just got done watching, listening, and reading the last talk of the morning conference session of Sunday this year, and President Monson is indeed our prophet. Nothing in particular spoke anything specific to me.... Well... That's not true.  The following paragraph hit home a bit, "Mortality is a period of testing, a time to prove o...

I just got done preparing my message for my home-teaching visit tonight, and after reading through the matieral the 2nd time, a thought came to my head, although I'm not sure how I'm gonna get it out.  Here goes nothing. As I was thinking of home-teaching in general, the thought came that "love" is pretty much the strongest power o...

This past Thursday, we finally decided to rip it up.  I mean, literally - rip it up. Then, we decided to take it out the backyard to see what the heck was clogging it all up. It was just as we suspected.  Collin had flushed a freaking toy cell-phone down our toilet! and yes, we took the toilet out in the backyard, twisted it, turned it...

Well... I figured I'd better write about this because I didn't have the sense to take any video of the actual party. I recorded myself going TO the party, but nothing more.  Crud. It was a good LAN party, too.  We played last Friday and Saturday.  We had the usuals there, Me, Shane and Shaun, but there were two people who never had...

The spirit of this talk came to me about 1/3 of the way through reading it. It spoke to me of an immense gratitude which I feel for being a member of this church.  Not only is it this church, but it is His church.  I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the same church which Jesus Christ himself set up when he was ...

I just finished reading the talk "My Soul Delighteth in the Things of the Lord", and it was a good talk. It made me think of my own upbringing, and the upbringing of my children.  I loved the following statement: "I delight that I am a daughter of Heavenly Father, who loves me. I learned of my divine identity in my earliest ...

For some reason, I love the commandment of paying tithing.  It's probably one of the top 10 commandments of which I have a burning testimony. I love this quote (as well as Jacob 2:19) "President Heber J. Grant stated, “I want to say to you, if you will be honest with the Lord, paying your tithing and keeping His commandments, He...

The video above is of a band called "Florez", who really did quite well.  But the real reason for the video above is for the LDSMusicians group to see Art City Park, where the LDSFest will be held this year. I just did a quick panoramic for people to analyze and with which to become informed. That's really all.  We got bored a...

Well...  The video says it all, but for those of you who don't want to watch it, here's the low-down. Woke up Saturday and it rained for about 4 hours, so Plan B only got to play one set.  The set we played absolutely rocked, and I can't wait to get the footage from the videographer who shot the set (I'll be putting up snippets for sur...

 Man... This chapter was brutal.  Wars, wickedness, and death.  Seems to me that this is the result of giving power to Satan, letting him run rampant.  Hating your neighbor and wanting to kill him for the sake of being bloodthirsty.  So terribly sad, and unfortunate. Interesting in verse 5 that Mormon writes that the wick...

The main thing that stuck out in this chapter was obviously the destruction of Ammonihah.  As I've stated in a previous post, I find it so interesting that one of the judges of Ammonihah was the one who mentioned that "even if thou shalt declare this city shall be destroyed in one day, we shall not believe it."  It was as if the...

Ya know...  It's that time again.  I've gotta sit here and see where the keyboard attached to my brain takes me.  I wonder how many people could do this.  I mean, I've always been kind of the weird one of the bunch - and I'm okay with that. When I came up with the idea to have an on-line journal (about the time that the whole...

As I sit here listening to, watching, and reading the talk given by President Uchtdorf, I'm puzzled by my lack of caring of the faith of my fathers. I don't exactly know why it is, but I.....  I've never really looked at what my parents believe being a part of my faith.  I don't know if that is wrong or what... What I believe is what ...

 I should be way more tired than I am. I just got done praying, and a day before that I had just got done sinning.  You know the kind I'm talking about.   It's the kind you really need to rid yourself of.  The kind that always keeps creeping around, finding an idle brain-cell to occupy...  So, yeah...  Hundreds, if n...

Anyone who knows what Helaman 12 is all about is probably wondering how in the world I could label this chapter as "Happiness".  hehe... Yesterday, I was having a very interesting conversation about happiness with a dear friend of mine, and oddly enough, today's chapter was Helaman 12, which of course, talks all about the frailties...

Today, I woke up to about 6-10 inches of fresh powdery snow all over the place.   It's actually beginning to feel like Christmas time, now! Now, most normal people would say within themselves, "Man, I hate snow on the roads.", but not me. I'm not entirely sure why I'm this way, but it's been this way ever since I can remem...

For those of you who don't know, in addition to running ILoveMyJournal.com, I also run an inspirational website called LDSCompanion.org. Today when I arrived at work, I had an email from someone who had pressed the "contact us" button. The message I recieved encapsulates the entire reason I created that site, and caused tears to well ...

I've just gotta say....  Man alive, I love open source.  I've also gotta pay my dues. ILMJ uses a wonderful open source editor called fckeditor.  It is simply amazing.  I haven't done much with it, but without it - this website wouldn't even be close to being usable yet. I just got done configuring the image-upload process, an...

"Yielding Our Hearts to God"  or   "Change of Heart" - Man, I love this talk. I wish I could tell you all how much this talk means to me.  When I heard it the first time, I was with noisy kids, so I didn't get much out of it, but the next time I listened to it was during lunch, and I was alone.  I...

Ya know...  This time around with this chapter was filled with little tid-bits of inspiration.  I don't remember this chapter being so filled with doctrine, but I'll do my best to write down what I thought about as I read the chapter. The first verse which caught my attention was verse 4.  The people of Limhi were, by and large, a ...

Oh wow.  Man, life just keeps getting more and more interesting...  along with frustrating, slightly scary, and faith-promoting.  I won't get into the details here, though, because I want to talk about something else. One thing which came at me as quite intriguing today during church was the concept of "Doctrine of Gratitude&...

Before I even begin reading this one, I've gotta say that 2nd Nephi 2 is one of the power-doctrine chapters.  I'll be surprised if I can get through reading this today. Verse 2 contains an interesting phrase:  Consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.  This brings to mind quite a few cross-references, but can you imagine how much...

While reading this chapter, the first thing that stood out to me was a misconception I've had about Zeniff going back to the land of Nephi. I thought, until about 10 minutes ago, that Zeniff tried to go inhabit the land twice, when in reality, the first time he was by the Lamanites, he was spying on them.  Nothing too earth shattering, just ...

I haven't written in awhile, so I thought I'd just kind of ramble and see where my mind goes. Lately, I've been working on a new layout for ILoveMyJournal, as well as quite a few structural changes.  The desire to make this site better came when my little bro. wrote a pretty personal and inspiring entry, and about the same time, my posted we...

Ya know...  Today was a good Sunday.  In church, we learned about trials, and the nature of them - why God gives them to us, and why we need them.  D&C 58 1-4 is a great reference if you're looking for some good stuff on trials.  We talked a lot about Zion's Camp, and the general tendency the early saints had toward generati...

It is quite refreshing to note the surety with which President Eyring states the following: "First, the very fact that you have been offered the oath and covenant is evidence that God has chosen you, knowing your power and capacity. He has known you since you were with Him in the spirit world. With His foreknowledge of your strength, He has ...

The first thing I noticed this time reading this was that even though the Nephites under Zeniff were at a time of peace, after the war, Zeniff was diligent in continuing his building of weaponry.  Not sure why that struck me this time, but the very first verse jumped out. Maybe it's because they didn't make any assumptions about their enemy....

Ya know...  The first verses of this chapter brought back some well-known stories of Mormon culture.  The most potent one being the experience Joseph Smith had in a Missouri jail surrounded by a mob of people cursing and glorying in their raping, murdering, and wickedness against the Mormon people. Parley P. Pratt said the following in ...

 So... I don't even know where to begin. Honestly, my life is so full right now, I feel as though I might decide to curl up into a remote corner of the world somewhere and hide for a few months. That said, each day I seem to manage to get up with a renewed strength to attack the day's duties with a renewed vigor.  Even though it's cl...