BLOG

Aug 7, 2018
2 min

IS GOD PUNISHING ME?!!

IS GOD PUNISHING ME?!! Why did it have to happen to me and not them? Did I do something wrong??? It isn’t fair, it wasn’t supposed to be this way. Why would God bring me to this just for it not to work out? What am I supposed to be learning? What is the hidden blessing from this? What tragic thing could I be avoiding from this falling through? Was it taken away because I wasn’t grateful enough? Is there even divine meaning behind this, or is just life just being life? How

Jul 10, 2018
2 min

How 'All is Well' Can Be True DURING Trials

I went to bed a few Saturday’s ago trying to think of an excuse so I wouldn’t have to go to church the next day. I don’t know why, either. I just didn’t wanna go, ya know? Ever get like that? Where you know it’s important to pray and to read, but it doesn’t take away from feeling that you just…don’t want to. I told that to God as I fell asleep. It was just Gracie and I at church the following day, (Christian had a cold), and I woke up surprisingly anxious to take the sacrame

Jun 9, 2018
2 min

When Promised Blessings Don’t Come

I JUST got baptized, and I still didn’t know much about anything as far as the gospel and how things worked: like prayer, I still didn’t even know if I was praying “right,” haha. And I heard an experience from another member which actively confused me up until recently – ya know, 8 years later. She said a lady and her husband went to the temple and separately, they both received the same revelation that they were pregnant with a boy and they were supposed to name him a specif

Feb 9, 2018
3 min

Judging is NOT an LDS Thing

I just released a new video this past week called LOVE EVERYONE, that talks about how everyone is welcome to partake of the love and blessings of Christ and this gospel. And that it’s never ok to teach hate. It is never ok to belittle and judge without even a glimmer of chance or fellowship shown. It’s never ok to turn someone away. Everyone is welcome and invited to partake of forgiveness, of salvation, of change, of real happiness, of the indescribable feeling of Christ’s l

Jan 5, 2018
2 min

I Forgot We Could Do This…!

😞AHHHHH man, I had a LONG day the other day where–one thing after another, it seemed– went wrong or got worst. I, myself, didn’t do a single thing to try and make it better, I just let it happen and even expected more things to go wrong. I watched the clock, sloowwwlllyyy counting down until the day ended. 8:30 pm, I was sitting at the kitchen table typing some thoughts. Ben grabbed my arm to try and pull me up. I fought against his attempt to make me do anything than what I

Dec 29, 2017
3 min

Maybe It's Not Them…Maybe It's Me…?

I GET IT. I totally, 100% get it. It’s easy to feel on the verge of losing our mind b/c OH MY GOSH, if ONE MORE PERSON posts that they are going to Disneyland for the ump-teenth time— or WHAT ON EARTH, seriously? How are they going out of the country again?….Must be nice, huh. …😒 Seems like everyone else is always out exploring or renovating or up-sizing or accomplishing & you just look at yourself…sitting in your home… with things going very differently than what you’re see

Sep 6, 2017
4 min

I Wrote a NEW BOOK!

I WROTE A BOOK WITH MY HUSBAND! Quick Links: Amazon| Deseret Book | Audio | eBook Everything we learned was poured into this thing. It’s a whole lot of the funny, the embarrassing, the honest, and the uplifting. We wrote this with the intention of it being for singles and newlyweds, but we are so completely surprised that almost all of our feedback, reviews, and comments are from marriage veterans of 20+ years, and wow has it been overwhelmingly amazing to read their respons

Jul 23, 2017
4 min

DO WE REALLY KNOW WHAT WE'RE A PART OF?!

After baptism, I (naively) was surprised that there were people who had the gospel their whole life and didn’t care, or didn’t do anything about it. I was heartbroken after sacrificing and losing and changing so much to join this church— I guess just the contrast of living so long without it and seeing how much better everything became because of it, it literally just didn’t cross my mind that could even happen among people. You mean to tell me people had the Book of Mormon t

Jul 7, 2017
5 min

Is the Church of Jesus Christ for You?

When I was living in Arizona, missionaries invited me to join in on a lesson they were having with an investigator through video chat. This man’s journey started a bit ago with the desire to know what to do with his life, what to do with God and what church he should attend. I felt the spirit so strongly and my testimony strengthen this whole lesson as I saw the elders teach with the spirit with such perfect responses to this man’s questions. Yet regardless of our best effort

Mar 22, 2017
2 min

I Hope You Feel Empowered

I hope you feel empowered with exactly who you are. Because with God, you have ALL the power. Absolutely never forget who you are & Whose you are. Absolutely never forget that you have divinity inside of you. Your God, a perfect creator who crafted worlds without number felt the need to create & perfectly craft YOU. Needed. Wanted. Essential. Our perfect creator created you perfectly. That is the reality. That is power. You have a God— who is yours, who never leaves yo

Mar 17, 2017
2 min

Remembering Your WHY — [video]

<img src="https://i0.wp.com/i.ytimg.com/vi/70CfZh2gj2c/hqdefault.jpg?w=723&ssl=1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt="YouTube Poster"> Fall of last year, I came together with Stiry videos (“stories that stir’), and rambled on camera for about 2 hours about any & everything. Loved the message they pulled out of all my rambling to make this video because I think it’s totally important for everyone to remember our WHY and let that always be our drive. the ‘why’ of how we g

Jan 29, 2017
4 min

The Best Advice to Respond to Mean Members

January 2017 Just recently I had a member email me telling me I should end my life because of how I looked. He said I’m a bad person and God could never love someone that looked like me. [Don’t feel like reading? Click HERE for the audio version of me reading it. Free downloads available, too] And this wasn’t the first or last email I received from someone telling me I should take my life because of who I am or what I’m trying to do. (Now to be fair, even though I was treated

Jan 22, 2017
2 min

In Times of Doubt..

I think it’s common for us to all to have doubts creep in. Either from a trial, or from lack of efforts on our end, or maybe just silly fleeting ones that come when you’re vacuuming your living room. I totally have random and fleeting doubts sometimes. [Don’t feel like reading? Click HEREfor the audio version of me reading it. Free downloads available, too] But then you have these moments in your life…where you feel and experience…so deeply…that you have no words to describe

Jan 3, 2017
4 min

What God Told Me About Setting & Missing Goals

As most of you know I’m kind of a freak about my priesthood blessings I get. Ever since I became a member I would have a journal in my lap and write down everything that was said in them as soon as it ended. Just baptized, to me it doesn’t make sense to find out that God Himself speaks directly to us with specific, custom counsel, and not write it down to remember it. How crazy! I have every priesthood blessing ever given to me in a journal so I can go back and read them when

Nov 17, 2016
3 min

Something I Really Want You to Know!

First off, YOU GUYS, YOU CAN DO NEW & SCARY THINGS! YOU CAN REACH AMAZING GOALS. YOU REALLY CAN ACCOMPLISH THE INCREDIBLE! WEAKNESSES REALLY WILL BECOME STRENGTHS. GOD REALLY WILL HELP YOU! That's one of my favorite things about the gospel— is doing things you never thought you could do! And progressing into someone better than you thought you ever could be. Today is my 1-year anniversary of my book and it's the perfect example of stretching yourself to accomplish the crazy a

Sep 19, 2016
4 min

A Trick For Trials I learned When My Engagement Failed

I don’t tell anyone this, but I was engaged to a boy that I didn’t end up marrying. We had a date set in the temple and everything. He broke it off. He told me that he usually dates, “really skinny brunettes,” and that he, “knew he could find someone much better.” Yepp. Brutal, right? I had never been crushed so low in my entire life.Reasonably so, right? My self-esteem completely shattered. Even that is an understatement. I’m not skinny enough, pretty enough, I am easily re

Sep 11, 2016
3 min

Sacrifices We Make For God

I think it’s funny there are so many people that didn’t realize I’m from New York, haha. I grew up in Rochester and stayed there up until I prayed about going on a mission shortly after baptism when I was 21—but got the answer to move to Utah instead. I would have lessons with the missionaries in the Sacred Grove, that’s where I said my very first prayer and where I eventually got my testimony. I haven’t been back in years. Long enough to where no one in my family has met eit

Jul 31, 2016
4 min

Answers About Animals in the Afterlife

Almost 2 months ago we had to unexpectedly put down our dog, Lucas. We woke up to him randomly having seizures consistently throughout the day, 6 within just an hour. Each one getting longer and more violent leaving him more and more unable to functional until he couldn’t at all. Any animal owner knows the pain and loss that comes from losing a pet, and Ben and I were absolutely devastated—laying on the floor crying, just aching at the sudden void we felt. I’ve had this dog

May 25, 2016
5 min

What God Told Me About My Unborn Son

Don't feel like reading? Click HERE to listen to my voice recording of this post & even Download the MP3 for free. 2016: We’re expecting our second child any day now! I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t counting down the days looking forward to this pregnancy being over. I can’t count all the different parts of my body that ache so badly, I’ve lost count how many nights it’s been that I have barely slept at all and had to force myself to function at work the next day—exhausted, p

Apr 20, 2016
5 min

What We Don’t Talk About Enough

I think people are surprised when they hear I work full time and Ben stays home with our daughter (and soon to be son). Ben is a hard working, multitasking, full time student who choose to finish his degree online when our first child was born to be home with her and have the freedom of more time together as a family. Though I know he is anxious for the day that those roles are reversed, it wont be quite yet, he embraces and loves how things are now, too. I think it’s awesome