I grew up in an active LDS family. My Parents were very involved in the church as I grew up. My mother has had many callings but I particularly remember her involvement in Relief Society. She was passionate for visiting teaching and helping care for other sisters in the ward. My father has had many callings but I particularly remember his time in the bishopric and his involvement in Boy Scouts. He also was passionate for home teaching and service projects within the ward. Both my parents are even to this day that way and taught me and my siblings to serve other. My parents never sat us down to say “you ought to serve others” but showed us by being there for others in need and every service project that caught the ear. I have always been impressed that they would volunteer for things not part of their callings.
Being Raised in Boise, Idaho, I was filled with excitement for the growing church. The Boise and Meridian area were growing so fast that from the time I was baptized to the time that I left for BYU-Idaho the ward that we moved into when I was ten went from non-existent to an entire stake. When I was ten we moved to the edge of the Boise city limits in a developing neighborhood. When we arrived only a few homes were built which meant there were tons of dirt hills and vacant lots for myself and some of the neighbor boys to play on. It was about this time that my testimony began to grow. Though my parents had taught me well I really didn’t have a full understanding or maybe care for the things of God. It was then, new in this neighborhood, that I learned about our savior Jesus Christ. One day after a rough game of ball I accidentally knocked out one of my friends. I remember him dropping like a rag doll to the ground and panicking. We gathered around him, poked and prodded him, and tried to see if he was breathing. Mountains of guilt poured upon me thinking he was dead but suddenly he came to and got up. I tried to apologize but before I could say anything inteligible he forgave me and said lets play ball. I may not remember all the details about that story anymore but I will never forget the power of that forgiveness that day. It was that day and the following weeks that I began to place Jesus Christ into his roll as my Savior and I began to realize why he was so important. Jesus Christ became the principal stone of my foundation that day and my love for the church was born.
I went to school at BYU-Idaho for one year before my mission. I then served my mission in southern Brazil. I loved my mission and worked my companions to the bone. They taught me to be considerate of others and let them sleep more than six hours a night (A lesson that my wife is appreciative that I learned). After those two marvelous years I returned to BYU-Idaho and majored in Studio Arts and minored Plant Sciences. Right before graduating I did something that BYU-Idaho hates and changed my major during my final semester to Education. I graduated with 178 credits which is just 2 credits shy of their credit limit.
While at BYU-Idaho I began to notice that there were many beliefs in the church that I did not know about. Some were drastically different from that which I believed and others were only slightly different. I began to study at that time to try to understand all of these different views. I had a fascination with misconceptions. As a teacher today my favorite lessons to teach are ones that help overcome misconceptions that I have discovered. I graduated from BYU-Idaho in 2015 and have been studying many of these things that I noted while there. For the following two years, I was the Gospel Principles teacher in our ward and enjoyed searching for misconceptions there and trying to understand how to overcome them. I also during that time had a faith crisis and had the privilege to closely examine the scriptures and principles to help reestablish and fortify my beliefs.
In October of 2018 during a family scripture reading we read 2 Nephi 3. When my wife was reading verse 12 my jaw dropped. I realized in that second that the answers I had been looking at were primarily in the Book of Mormon and Bible. I have sat down and began to go through my studies and put together what I have called the Book of Mormon Scripture Challenge. I have broken down my few main topics into over two dozen sub topics. As I go through my notes and make an intelligible presentation, I will record them and share them with those that I can. I hope that my work can be an inspiration that strengthens others’ testimonies in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.