Gratitude journal after 2017 Oregon RV trip

2 minute readThis was mostly written while heading to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Stuff I’m grateful for: • no rv troubles • no car accidents (although there have been a number of other accidents for the children) • no arguments; and loud chewing and smelly foods have mostly been kept out of the rv (or at least those sensitive to […]

Protected: Malcolm's Fake Dog

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Protected: Amanda's Rat Can

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Reconciling How the "Lord's Annointed" Are Still Imperfect

8 minute readToday at church a sister was talking about how it was her testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, he was still imperfect. From my understanding, he became an excellent individual who underwent many heart-wrenching difficulties (like the deaths of many children, being harrassed by mobs, and repeatedly tried by unjust courst, and […]

Public Key Cryptography for 3 Year Olds (Part 2 of 3)

4 minute readOr: the knight of Esprenevestos and the magic keys, part 2. Continued from part 1. So the kingdoms of Esprenevestos and Ios happily sent the “packets” (hollowed-out logs probably created by mermaids) to each other across the great ocean. Whenever someone from Esprenevestos locked the packet using Ios’ green key, they were sure that no […]

Church Combined Priesthood Lesson, March 5 2017

5 minute readThis is the lesson outline for what we talked about today at church. For non-LDS, it’s about hometeaching: a church program where pairs of adult or teen men visit with and help other church members to whom they are assigned (the more-or-less female equivalent is called Visiting Teaching. I didn’t make up the names). Anyways, […]

Public Key Cryptography for 3 Year Olds (Part 1 of 3)

3 minute readOr: The Knight of Esprenevestos and the Magic Keys Once there two countries, Esprenevestos and Ios, which were separated by a great ocean. In this ocean there were small hollowed-out logs adrift, called packets, with lids on them that floated back and forth from one land to the other with the tide. Some folks said […]

Celeste's first temple trip

3 minute readHere’s a point-form synopsis of this last weekend’s trip to Vancouver, primarily to visit the LDS temple in Langley. Amanda, Danielle (3 years old), Celeste (9 months old) and me went. We could have tried to do a day trip and left the girls with grandparents, but Celeste is still nursing and the last time […]

Plan of Salvation Talk

8 minute readIntroduction Good morning brothers and sisters, I’m Mike Nelson. I’m Chantal Ficquet’s son, and son-in-law in Malcolm and Rose Saunders. My beautiful wife Amanda and I have been in the ward for nearly 4 years now, and we have two girls Danielle and Celeste. I have been asked to talk about the Plan of Salvation. […]

My Experience of Parenthood

8 minute readI’m not sure if I really knew what to expect before becoming a parent. I’m the youngest sibling, and didn’t have much experience with kids otherwise (I babysat once or twice). I mostly become a parent because Amanda and I mostly felt good about it, and were given the impression from church that it’s one of […]