MaeLyn's Musings

Once upon a time, a father had three ignorant, illiterate sons. When his sons reached a certain age, he sent them away to learn what they could and return. The eldest boy left his father and set off on his journey. After many days he came to a large building. As he got closer, he saw a man standing at the entrance. "What is this place?" the boy asked him. "This is the repository of all the learning of the wise ones," the man told him. "Who are you?" he asked. "I am the librarian, the keeper of knowledge," the librarian responded, and led him inside. The inside of the library was filled with shelves which were themselves filled with papers and scrolls and collections of paper. "What are these?" the boy asked. "These are books," came the response. The boy took one from the shelf and opened it. Inside were markings the boy had never seen before. "What is this?" the boy asked. "This is writing,&q

Last Friday and Saturday, Northglenn High School Fine Arts Department presented the play "Bus Stop" by William Inge.  Joshua was the Shop Foreman, and spent many, many hours working on the sets. The final result looked really nice!  Peter also spent some time helping with the tech crew and managed to get his name into the program as well. He spent the last half of the performance we watched in the lights and sound booth, watching the folks there push buttons and stuff. Maybe for the next play he will take a more active role.

During General Conference in October of 2018, President Nelson invited the sisters of the church to read the Book of Mormon. He said:   "I invite you to read the Book of Mormon between now and the end of the year. As impossible as that may seem with all you are trying to manage in your life, if you will accept this invitation with full purpose of heart, the Lord will help you find a way to achieve it. And, as you prayerfully study, I promise that the heavens will open for you. The Lord will bless you with increased inspiration and revelation.  As you read, I would encourage you to mark each verse that speaks of or refers to the Savior. Then, be intentional about talking of Christ, rejoicing in Christ, and preaching of Christ with your families and friends. You and they will be drawn closer to the Savior through this process. And changes, even miracles, will begin to happen." (See entire talk) I accepted his invitation. I figured out how many pages a day I would need to

(Disclaimer: The things I write in my "Searching for Truth" series are not intended to be doctrine. They are only my personal thoughts from my own perspective as I resolve my personal questions. I post them here in case someone else might find them interesting or gain insights for themselves - in agreement or not. If you have a comment that relates, something I may not have considered - in favor or against, please feel free to leave a respectful comment.) I recently had someone who I love and trust tell me "If your current views are really correct, you shouldn’t be afraid to have them challenged. They should be able to stand against any test. If your views are not correct though, but you still want to hold onto them anyway, then new ideas ... can indeed be dangerous."  This person also appears to value uncertainty: "No matter what it is, you could be wrong, so let go of your pride and be brave enough to face the possibilities." While this might be t

Josh has been a theater technician for the last couple years. This year he is serving as the foreman, and that means that he has a lot of say when it comes to the sets for this year's high school plays. This week, his high school is performing "Bus Stop" by William Enge . (Performances are this Friday and Saturday at 6:30pm.) This activity gives him lots of experience using power tools (which is fun) and telling people what to do (which can be frustrating at times.) The Spring Musical early next year is going to be "Little Shop of Horrors" and Josh is already gathering his ideas of what the set design for that will look like. He drew a top view of the rotating set piece he is envisioning, but then he was asked to show a front view. Finding it a challenge to get the perspective and angles right, he decided to instead make a 3D model. Yesterday Josh made himself a chair out of scrap wood he found in the playroom. The legs need some reinforcing, and he made it to

I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all my life. At first, I believed because that was what I was raised to believe. My parents believed it and taught it, and that was what I was used to. Last week , I wrote about personal experiences that I had which helped me to come to know for myself that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. Is it important for people to figure out for themselves about what is true? If we just blindly obey what we are told is right, will we end up in the same place as those who search and struggle to learn for themselves? I don't believe so. I believe we must each find out for ourselves what is truth and right. In the Beginning... Before we came to this earth, we lived with our Heavenly Father and all our spiritual siblings. Our Father presented a plan that would give us experiences that would help us to progress and become more like him. He knew that we would make mistakes while we were learning, so he called for a volun

I have a couple family members who have lost their faith in God. I love them dearly, and I greatly enjoy the time that I am able to spend with them, though it is rare because of distance and other factors. And yet I qualm when it comes to talking to them about things of religion. This morning I was pondering why that is. I think for me it comes down to fear. I'm not afraid of them, but I am afraid of what effect talking with them will have on my own hard won faith. What if I lose the answers that I have prayed, studied, pondered, and prayed some more to achieve? Both of them are powerful writers. They ask a lot of questions, and I don't have all the answers. Some times the only answer I have is that I don't know why, and yet, I have a firm testimony that it is so... and they don't accept a heart felt testimony as an answer - and I don't blame them. Like the five wise virgins in the Savior's parable, I can't give them my oil of testimony. They have to go

Dear Hannah and John, How are things going? John - I forgot to ask last week, but did you manage to finish reading the Book of Mormon by your deadline? How are you enjoying Osasco? How do you like teaching the gospel in the real world? Hannah - how are Adriano and Sueli doing? Any new investigators? I looked up everywhere that you served on the map, and discovered that your areas form a line that points almost directly toward Osasco, where John is. This week started out with snow. Seminary was cancelled on Monday, and school was delayed by two hours. It was nice to be able to sleep in a bit, and by 9, the streets weren't too bad and the boys got to school okay. Tuesday morning, Seminary was held as usual, even though it was actively snowing pretty hard. We made it there safely. During seminary, I stayed in the car, turning on the wipers occasionally to clear the quickly accumulating snow off the windows. When seminary let out though, I went to turn on the engine, and nothing happ