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Convert Journeys of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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Valerie Fulmer.
My guest writer is Valerie Fulmer who is writing the book “Convert Journeys of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” If you are a convert, eighteen or over, and want to have your story considered for inclusion, contact me using the email in the footer.

Convert Journeys

I am still working on gathering convert stories for my book that will likely be entitled “Convert Journeys of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” This book will give you an opportunity to bear your testimony to many, and to help lifelong members of the church better understand what it is like to be a convert.

I am a lifelong member of the Church. In December 2006 I met a family who took the discussions from the missionaries and who were eventually baptized. To see their journey first hand and up close has been a learning experience for me. I was raised in the Church and it was interesting to see what this amazing family learned and the experiences they went through as converts. This experience has inspired me to compile a book of converts’ stories from members of the Church. A few of the goals of this book are to:

  • Share the gospel of Jesus Christ to those non-members who are willing to read the book.
  • Give converts an opportunity to share their story and their testimony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
  • Help lifelong members of the Church (myself included) better understand what it is like to be a convert.

Elder David J. Barnett has said:

I know that as we do missionary work in whatever capacity we can, we obey the vital commandment to “love one another.” (David J. Barnett, “Messages from the Doctrine and Covenants: A Testimony of Missionary Work,” Ensign, Mar 2005, 22–23)

Understanding Converts

It is my hope that by reading this book, lifelong members can better understand converts, and thereby have more understanding and a better capacity to reach out to those precious souls that have come into the Fold of Christ.

I bear solemn testimony that I believe this is the Lord’s church on earth. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. Because of Him, we are all blessed beyond our comprehension. There is nothing I can say or do that will ever show how much gratitude I have for all He has done, does and will do for each and every one of us.

I do believe there are good and sincere people of many different faiths, and even those who do not have a belief in a Higher Power. Each person is a son or daughter of God. We can learn something from everyone we meet. We believe people should be allowed to believe (or not believe) according to the dictates of their own hearts. This book will be about individuals whose minds and hearts led them to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Although I do not think anyone would knowingly make up stories or stretch the truth, the validity of this book rests upon complete honesty with the information you do provide. And with the information you choose to disclose, I encourage you to do so with humility and prayer. Thank you for considering sharing YOUR story. It is my hope that your stories will inspire, educate and encourage people from around the world.

Missionary Dan Email from the MTC #1

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Daniel enters the MTC

Daniel entered the MTC October 28, 2008


Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s first email from the Missionary Training Center.

Companions

The computers are really handy. They are just in the laundry room so on Thursday, my pday, we do laundry and write email. The MTC is way exciting. I am doing great! I have two companions so we are a three-some. Elder Nelson is from Paradise, Utah near Logan. He is the youngest in his family with 4 brothers and 4 sisters. His parents are going on a mission in a week so we’ll see his parents around in the MTC soon, so that is interesting. Elder Apo is from Samoa. It’s a small island in the ocean. He is great! He is always telling us about his home and culture. Where he lives it is always really humid and hot. He said it has never been below 75 F degrees. He is “enjoying” the cold weather.

Food and Teachers

The food is delicious. I get three meals a day. I usually eat lots of fruit with each meal. My leg is much much better. I can run up stairs, walk around fast, do anything but sprint. I have three teachers, Brother Cannon, Sister Infinger, and Sister Marta. Sister Marta is native to Mongolia so we are blessed to have her. Sister Infinger has tons of energy and if anyone says they can’t learn Mongolian she says she’ll eat our arm off. We believe her. Brother Cannon knows how to throat sing. He is way cool.

On Task

My Branch President is awesome and so is his wife. Elder Nelson, my companion, has the position of district leader. I have seen tons of Elders I know. I have seen Elder Van Weezep, Elder Wiser, Elder Hill, Elder Davenport, Elder Buttars, Elder Jensen and many others. I always say Hi to them. I have been amazed at the spirit here. It is constant and very helpful. It keeps me on task and always wanting to serve my best.
Mongolian is great and is making sense. I can see how greatly blessed missionaries are when learning a language. I am able to focus all day — when at home I had trouble focusing for an hour.  I bore my testimony to a new Elder yesterday and many times before that.

Mongolian

My companions and I like to walk around after lunch and speak Mongolian to the other elders. It’s helping to get over the fear of talking to everyone. It’s really easy at the MTC to talk to people though. This Friday we’ll be doing the lessons in Mongolian. Tomorrow we have special permission to teach in Mongolian early since there isn’t many resources for Mongolians here to speak Mongolian. Our lesson last Friday in English went well. Mongolians have no background at all so we are taught to always start from scratch when teaching. We emphasize that God loves them and they are his children. My teacher, Sister Marta, said when the missionaries told her that God loved her she had never heard it before. She always thought of God as someone who punishes. I have learned so much so fast and I am working my hardest everyday. My district has seven elders including me and three sisters. They are great. I am extremely busy but I am enjoying every minute.

Sounds like everyone else is enjoying life. I hope my room was clean enough. The candy in my suitcase was yummy. Bryson has grown a lot of hair! The grayish color he has must come from Rickety. Well my time is up. I enjoy hearing what is going on at home.

Love Elder Willoughby
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Birthday Celebration: Steven

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Steven entertains Bryson

Steven entertains Bryson


On Monday we celebrated Steven’s birthday at our Family Home Evening. Jill, Paul, Jake, Steven, Adelaide, Sarah, Derek, Bryson, and myself were there. After the Family Home Evening we blew up balloons, tossed them in the air, and then burst them. It sounds a little pointless but it was a lot of fun. We gave Steven his presents and then ate cake and ice-cream.
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Yes on Proposition 8 Response to Lawsuit

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Yes on 8

Lawsuit Lacking Merit

Of course Equality California would head for the courts after the votes counted are not in their favor. I think it is a rickety course to pursue. Andrew Pugno, General Counsel of ProtectMarriage.com, said:

The ACLU/Equality California lawsuit is completely lacking in merit. It is as if their campaign just spent $40 million on a losing campaign opposing something they now say is a legal nullity.

Mr. Pugno further states:

The lawsuit filed today by the ACLU and Equality California seeking to invalidate the decision of California voters to enshrine traditional marriage in California’s constitution is frivolous and regrettable. These same groups filed an identical case with the California Supreme Court months ago, which was summarily dismissed. We will vigorously defend the People’s decision to enact Proposition 8. (ProtectMarriage.com News, Statement By Andrew Pugno, General Counsel of ProtectMarriage.com)

Right to Amend Constitution Reserved by the People

Most people know that the right to amend California’s Constitution is not granted to the People, it is reserved by the People. The People’s exercise of their sovereign power has reversed an interpretation of their Constitution through the initiative-amendment process. Mr. Pugno cites two cases in his statement to explain how the process works.

In a way, one wonders what all the fuss is about. Consider Elton John:

I don’t want to be married. I’m very happy with a civil partnership. If gay people want to get married, or get together, they should have a civil partnership,” said John. “The word marriage, I think, puts a lot of people off. You get the same equal rights that we do when we have a civil partnership. Heterosexual people get married. We can have civil partnerships. (USA Today, “Elton John: Where Prop 8 went wrong“)

Back to the lawsuit. Ron Prentice stated:

ProtectMarriage.com also wants you to know that a strong legal defense of Proposition 8 is being prepared. We anticipated that Prop 8’s passage would result in advocates of same-sex marriage turning to the courts to attempt to overturn the People’s affirmation of traditional marriage as a societal good. We will be announcing our legal strategy next week, but rest assured that we will vigorously defend the People’s will to enshrine traditional marriage in the state Constitution. (ProtectMarriage.com News, Statement of Ron Prentice, Chairman, ProtectMarriage.com — Yes on 8)

Phenomenal Effort

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. If the lawsuit passes then the final say on what becomes constitutional will be in the hands of a few judges for every future proposition. It will effectively leave the people of California with no recourse. Every proposition result will be subject to judicial review. But for now my congratulations to the historic campaign to pass Proposition 8, a phenomenal effort. Said Mr. Prentice, “This victory would not have been possible without the support of our 70,000 contributors and over 100,000 dedicated volunteers. It was accomplished with the strong participation of about 80% of California voters, or nearly 14 million people participating in this expression of the People’s will.”

Related Articles

Same-Sex Marriage and Proposition 8. Includes LDS documents, interviews, video, and links to websites.
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Veterans Day: Remembering a Korean War Veteran

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Guns In Korea

Guns In Korea


On this Veteran’s Day my guest writer is my father-in-law, Robert Holst. This is his story of his service during the Korean War.
Robert aboard the A. E. Andersen bound for Korea.

National Guard

I joined the National Guard for three years. I was in it awhile before I graduated in 1949. We used to have fun at summer camps. We’d go down there for two weeks and drive a big truck. I drove a big six-wheel drive truck into Salt Lake once. One day I went with a friend to Ogden to join the Army. A newspaper boy came by and said that the 204th had been called into active duty. We went back to Brigham and reported to the armory where doctors came and gave us a physical. Every day we reported to the Armory to train and get our equipment ready to be sent to Fort Lewis. Each day we marched down to the Hower Hotel to eat.

Fort Lewis

When it was time to go we got on a train that took us to Fort Lewis. I was there about one month while we trained and I got my GI driver’s license. Then they sent me on a train to mechanics school in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. There I passed a test so they put me in a Master Sergeant class where I was the only Private First Class they had ever had. When I was done I went home for a visit and my Mom, Dad and Janet took me to Fort Lewis. There we got our equipment ready to be sent overseas.

Pusan and Inchon

At night we boarded the A. E. Andersen and by the next morning we were in rough seas and were all sick.  When we got to Pusan we trained and waited for our equipment and then trained for another month. They loaded us and all our equipment on a ship and took us to Inchon. There we drove our equipment across a pontoon bridge into Seoul. From there we crossed the 38th parallel. I was put on guard duty on an outpost above a Korean cemetery. There was a place that was dug out and it was pitch, pitch black, no moon out. They put three of us up there and we didn’t know what to expect. All three of us sat there and stared all night wondering what the crud was going to happen, scared to death. That was the first night I was up on the front.

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YadYap Peer-to-Peer Payday Loans

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YadYap website.
YadYap, payday spelled backward (how’s that for a rickety but innovative name), is the first people-to-people lending platform specifically for the payday loan industry. YadYap is looking forward to an official launch soon. It is interesting that I should hear about YadYap (thank you Jared) so soon after I wrote that “there will be many peer to peer lending websites.”

The Inspiration for YadYap

According to their website, YadYap was inspired by three characteristics of the payday loan industry:

  1. The significant need for short term loans.
  2. The controversy over lending rates charged.
  3. The lack of borrower representation in the market.

How do Borrowers Benefit from YadYap?

  • Instant loan approvals.
  • Funds quickly deposited to their bank account.
  • Lending rates determined by the free market through a competitive auction.
  • Good repayment performance is rewarded with lower interest rates and loan fees.

How do Lenders Benefit from YadYap?

  • Provided with pre-screened loan applicants.
  • Credit / payment history is tracked resulting in a YadYap risk rating.
  • YadYap handles all documentation, fund transfers and loan administration.
  • Lenders benefit from both monetary and social returns on their capital.
  • YadYap takes the inefficiencies out of the market.

The biggest advantage of YadYap is the almost instant liquidity that comes from offering short term 2-4 week payday loans. Unlike Prosper and Lending Club, no secondary market is needed to achieve liquidity for lenders. When YadYap opens, this may prove to be a significant advantage for them. And maybe there will be a few less “Payday Loans Here” signs on main street as business migrates to the web.

Updates

5 Mar 2009 I removed my instant liquidity link to YadYap’s blog. All it returns is a WordPress message that reads:

This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service.

Not a good sign. I wonder if they need a payday loan to tide them over?

12 Mar 2009 Restored my instant liquidity link to YadYap’s blog, which has changed location and is now called [link no longer works]. Set aside money for a payday loan to YadYap through their platform once they launch.
19 Oct 2010 Yadyap launched. In this first phase, all lending will be done by YadYap LLC, their affiliates, and other institutional lenders.
25 Feb 2012 ConnectFund link no longer works, replaced all references to it with this bracketeted phrase: [link to longer works].

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Kaysville Utah South Stake Conference

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Kaysville Utah South Stake Center.

Saturday Session

My wife and I enjoy the Saturday evening session of stake conference. Last night we attended with our two sons which made it even more special. The truth be told it was one of our sons, Jake, who reminded us of the meeting, which was very timely because with my rickety memory I had forgotten about it. Those 18 and over are invited to attend and the stake president mentioned at the start of his talk that many members tell him it is their favorite meeting of stake conference. He thought that maybe it was because the children are with baby sitters. My favorite part is when President Thredgold fires up his laptop and runs through his State of the Stake presentation. This is where he projects the stake’s statistics onto the chapel wall, using it as a screen. It might be interesting for you to see these numbers and compare them to your own stake. The figures shown here are not unusual for Davis County.

The Numbers

Figures are as of the third quarter of 2008.

Total Members — 3,506. Even though we have a very large Stake Center, Stake Conference on Sunday is divided into two sessions to accommodate the large numbers that want to attend.

Sacrament Meeting Attendance — 70% average.

Ward Size — The average size of the stake’s ten wards are from 285 to 500 members. Note that the Davis Park (YSA) Ward has 175 members. President Thredgold said that the number is dropping, which is good, for it is because of a number of marriages.

Families per Ward — 110.

Youth — 600 which is 17% of the stake (12 years of age to 18).

Children — 695 which is 20% of the stake (0 years of age to 11).

Missionaries — 100. Daniel is one of these.

Seminary Enrollment — 92%.

Institute Enrollment — The largest of any stake in Davis County.

Operating Expenses — A goal for 2009 is to save enough money from operating expenses to send a member from Africa on a mission. We should be able to save enough money from cutting back on our electricity consumption to pay the $400 a month cost of the mission.

Distress, Talks, and Memories

President Thredgold went on to talk about the current distressing situation with demonstrations, retirement money gone, and a change in government. He mentioned President Packer’s talk that was circulated on blogs and that we need not be concerned about it. He finished with his memories of 2008, particularly mentioning the change in the stake relief society presidency now that Sister Staples is a member of the Relief Society General Board.

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Trading Loans on Lending Club

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Map of Lending Club fully funded loans in Utah.

Getting Ready To Trade Notes

I previously wrote about my experience with Lending Club. None of my loans have turned rickety and I have even signed up for FOLIOfn’s Note Trading Platform. Here is what Lending Club has to say about trading:

If you are a Lending Club lender and wish to sell some of your Notes, or buy Notes currently held by other lenders, you can now use the Note Trading Platform operated by FOLIOfn, member FINRA/SIPC. You will need to open an account with FOLIOfn, but you can use the funds available in your Lending Club account to buy Notes through the Trading Platform, and receive the proceeds of any sale of Notes (minus a 1% trading fee) directly into your Lending Club account. Only Notes that were issued after October 12, 2008 can be traded on the Trading Platform.

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Top Ten Open Source Applications

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Blender screenshot.
For years I labored with Microsoft Windows while my son Steven had long since adopted Linux. Now that Ubuntu has won me over, I was curious as to what Steven’s choice in open source software would be. Recently I sent him this email:

What would be your top ten open source software picks? Not including the ones that are already pre-loaded on Ubuntu.

He responded with the names of ten software applications. I list them below in alphabetical order.

Amarok

Amarok is the music player for Linux and Unix with an intuitive interface. Amarok makes playing the music you love easier than ever before — and looks good doing it. Amarok serves many functions rather than just playing music files. For example, Amarok can be used to organize a library of music into folders according to genre, artist, and album, can edit tags attached to most music formats, associate album art, attach lyrics, and automatically “score” music as it is played.

Blender

Blender is a 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems. It can be used for modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging, water simulations, skinning, animating, rendering, particle and other simulations, non-linear editing, compositing, and creating interactive 3D applications.

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Five Missionaries, Five Flags, Five Countries

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Steven, Jake, Daniel, Paul, and Derek.

Five Flags

As you know, last week Daniel entered the MTC. Earlier that day my wife suggested that I take a photograph of all our missionaries together. No rickety young men here, all strong priesthood holders. These are my four sons and son-in-law (far right) and the flags of the countries where they served. Proceeding left to right in the photograph:

Steven
Chile Santiago North Mission, December 2001 to December 2003.

Jake
Mexico Mexico City North Mission, August 2006 to August 2008.

Daniel
Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission, Oct 2008.

Paul
California Oakland (Spanish Speaking) Mission, June 2004 to June 2006.

Derek
Guatemala Guatemala City Central Mission, July 2003 to May 2005.

Preach My Gospel

I am sure that numerous families could post a similar photograph. All these missionaries have worked hard to bring the truth to the world, making it a better place for all to live in. Now they are beginning to raise children of their own, who will in turn follow the Savior’s admonition to “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Matthew 28:19)

Update 24 Jan 2009

One of my commenters suggested that I have a photograph with the flags in the horizontal position as that would make a better picture. Good idea, I can do that.
Steven, Jake, Daniel, Paul, and Derek.
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