Pain

The other day I banged my knee against a bed frame so hard that I almost threw up. The pain was excruciating. Then I realized, why am I fine? I’m fine because I know the pain will end in the next couple minutes, then I’ll be fine. I haven’t experienced tons of physical pain in

Agency and Mistakes: Was Brigham Young Wrong?

Let’s start with an assumption. What if Brigham Young incorrectly instituted the practice of the priesthood ban for black people? We always think in this way that God can do anything, however He wants to. Why didn’t He fix the priesthood ban for blacks issue immediately after Brigham Young if it was in fact a

Infant baptisms, Salvation, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ

One of the great fallacies of Christian belief is what happens to people who die without being baptized, especially those who never, in mortal life, had an opportunity to be baptized. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is sometimes accused of diminishing God through the beliefs He has revealed to us. For example,

Thomas Edison and the Unimaginable

How do you imagine something unimaginable? This thought is motivated by an awesome podcast called “How to Take Over the World.” I highly recommend it. When Thomas Edison discovered the ability to replay the voice using an invention that would become the phonograph, people couldn’t begin to fathom what they were hearing. When Edison started

Are Women more Faithful than Men?

Why are women more faithful than men? I’ve often wondered this. Others may disagree, but in my experience, generally, it is true. Why is it that women are more faithful than men? There are countless examples of faithful men in the scriptures. There are also examples of faithful women in the scriptures, though less countless.

Sage Laura Quackenbush 9/3/22

I’ve long anticipated this moment. I didn’t know what it would be like to have my heart split into another section. I talked about when Ivy was born, how my world flipped upside down. I’ve heard that the feeling of having a second child is incommensurable. How can you describe loving two things so much?

Be Ye Therefore Perfect

There is a message recently brought to my attention in Matthew chapters 5-7. We all know the sermon on the mount. Don’t just not kill, also don’t even be angry. Don’t just not commit adultery, don’t even lust. Be ye therefore perfect. What comes next though? I haven’t before considered how the next chapters lead

Share Your Light

In Teaching in Heaven I talked about the struggle of sharing the gospel with friends and loved ones who have such a different starting point in religious background and understanding from what I have. I talked about how this can be frustrating at times. This is a follow up to that post. This is more

TRUTH about Heaven

On November 19, 1823, a young man named Alvin Smith died.  The Smith family asked a Presbyterian minister to officiate at Alvin’s funeral.  “As Alvin had not been a member of the minister’s congregation, the clergyman asserted in his sermon that Alvin could not be saved.  William Smith…recalled: ‘[The minister]… intimated very strongly that [Alvin]

We are Scripture

As I read the historical background of Section 136 of the Doctrine and Covenants, I’m struck by the realization of how much the pioneers of the 1840s parallel the children of Israel leaving Egypt. The pioneers were leaving persecution, and in many ways bondage, just as the children of Israel. The pioneers had a humble