Personal

There is a joke in my family about our skin. More specifically, my siblings and I berate our mother for a promise she made to us when we hit puberty. “By the time you go to college, your skin will clear up,” she told us. “I promise.” Needless to say, it was an empty promise and we never let her …

Have you ever heard the saying that the rain falls on both the good and the bad? Or maybe you have read in the scriptures that God “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). In other words, bad things happen to everyone. We …

 The following is a letter from my good friend Kristan Whitney. Kristan was called to serve in the Marshall Islands mission and was given an honorable medical release before her expected eighteen months were up. I asked her to share her thoughts about her experience and what she would like others to know about life as an early-returned missionary. Here …

My favorite time to run is when its snowing. This may seem crazy to some, but when it snows I feel a closeness to God that I cannot describe. His presence seems to envelope my soul as I run through the tiny tender mercies that shower the ground. Whenever I run, no matter the season I find running to be …

Hi, I’m Mercedes. I am a lover of elephants, a sister to 6 siblings, a violinist, a music teacher, an auntie to 13 beautiful nieces and nephews, an avid reader, a Volvo driver, an aspiring pianist/guitarist, a DIY-er, a roommate, and I am an Alcoholic. Before you read any further, I want you to know that what you find here …

Originally posted by Kara Huntinghouse of LDS Smile.  Trials. Why do they have to happen? Why is this a part of every single person’s life? They come when no one is expecting them and they come with a vengeance. March 10th started out like any other day for the Beames family but quickly turned into a day that has changed their …

My composure had broken. After twelve hours of standing in a terminal, sleeping on a cot, and wanting to cry, I decided to sit on the floor. I’d been avoiding it. Somehow, refusing to sit on the floor had become one last way to hold onto my role as a missionary. But now, with exhaustion setting in, and feeling helpless …

“You just need to have more faith.”  “All it takes is a little faith.”  “Faith is the key!”  How many of us have had questions, concerns, frustrations, or doubts and every time we expressed those feelings to someone, we were told we simply needed to develop or work on our faith? How did it make you feel when that was …

Every last one of us on earth has demon’s. Every last one of us has our favorite sins to commit. Every last one of us has experienced negative emotions that rob the mind of its clarity. When I talk of demons I am talking about sins, I am talking about emotions that paralyze the soul. When I talk of demons …