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 […]

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, […]

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. […]

October 2016 General Conference thoughts

6 minute readWhile trying to listen to the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from home this weekend, I’m taking notes on things that strike me as important. Yes I can read all the talks online too, which is handy, but it’s nice to have my own list of important teachings. What’s […]

Why do we get into family history anyway?

3 minute readI’m not sure if I’ve quite caught the bug, but I do feel some desire to know about my ancestors. But that feeling is certainly not shared globally, and I hadn’t always felt that way. What motivates me to do it: I can visualize my own descendants, and think of myself as an ancestor. I […]

Humility thoughts

< 1 minute readToday at church, someone gave a talk about humility which got me thinking.Humility, at the type we are encouraged to have, is not timidity, lack of confidence, or false modesty. I think as a youth, I was shy, timid, and probably had a lack of confidence. I’m not sure how I became like that. Maybe […]

Church lesson that inspired this blog

2 minute readAt church today, I gave a lesson in Elders Quorum, mostly based off President Eyring’s talk “O Remember, Remember” from October 2007 general conference. After we read a bit of his talk (especially the part that reads “…I heard in my mind ‘I’m not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down’…find ways to […]

Better Motivation than Caffeine and Heavy Metal

< 1 minute read“As you keep these standards [from For the Strength of Youth] and live by the truth in the scriptures, you will be able to do your life’s work with greater wisdom and skill and bear trials with greater courage” (For the Strength of Youth, page 2). Those words meant very little to me when I […]

Technology and Perdition

< 1 minute readWhy do we fight against integrating technology into the Church? Brother Cannon’s 1984 statement that “too much dependence on computers can cause a person to be less receptive to the promptings of the Spirit” is an almost humoristic example; how could technology possibly dampen my receptiveness to the Spirit? Perhaps if I ignore people, or […]