Meet the Mormons

     Meet the Mormons is a documentary which follows the lives of six incredible LDS members, introducing the world to everyday Mormons and dispelling a lot of rumors or myths about the members of the LDS church.

     I bought this movie for my family for Easter.  As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I may be a bit biased in this review, but I will try to be as objective as possible.

     Anytime I see the truly good works people (and I mean any people from any background) do, I get a little misty-eyed.  There is so much pain and hurt in the world.  The news is full of the most horrific stories you can imagine.  It's good to take a step back and remember that there are incredible people walking on the same soil the terrorists, arsonists, rapists, murderers, and thieves.  the difference is that the news reporters are looking for stories which will shock the reader, not acts of kindness and good deeds.

     In Meet the Mormons, we get an insight into the lives of six people who have done incredible things for the world around them.  Some affected the lives of countless generations, like the candy bomber, and others to just provide for their beloved children, like the single mother at the end.  The film does not preach about the LDS church, rather it follows the lives of a few members.  Anyone, religious or not, would enjoy this film.  It's about people overcoming their environment and circumstances to give something back to the world.

     When I first saw this in the theater I didn't know anything about it other than that it was a film about LDS members.  I actually didn't even know it was a documentary, so I was expecting something totally different than what I saw.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I think you will be, too.

     I give this film

My beliefs

     My beliefs affect everything I do.  I'm sure most of you noticed that I don't swear.  I don't write or read sexually explicit things.  My books have a noticeable amount of violence, but I try to tone even that down.  I think that those things are a part of normal life, especially in today's times, but I try not to make them a part of my life.  I don't think I'm in the minority in this either.  Internet, television, literature, and everyday culture seems to be pushing us to accept these undesirable habits as normal, and in some cases, healthy.  I don't believe they are.

     I think most people are uncomfortable around particularly vulgar language.  Even people that swear regularly feel self-conscious about it around children or the elderly.  I think most people are uncomfortable with nudity in movies and tv shows, especially depending on who else is in the room.  I think most people have good values of family and friends.  Most people want to shelter their children from the harsh realities of the world.  Most people want to live good lives.

     I normally wouldn't bring any of this up, but today is a Bio day for my blog; a day for me to share what is going on in my life, and in my personal life it's a special day.  Every 6 months the leaders of my faith give a general conference for all of the members of the church worldwide.  Today, they had the opening session of this general conference (the first of 4 sessions), and I sat and listened to it with my wife and children via the internet.  The last speaker, Elder L. Tom Perry, spoke about a conference held with most of the major religions of the world.  He spoke of the commonality that we all had in the desire to maintain family as a focal point of our existences.  The talk may have offended a lot of the radicals and minorities out there, but the message I heard was that there are a lot of other people out there that want their kids to have values which the media are constantly trying to undermine.  The media wants us to believe that casual sex, vulgarity, violence, and a general sense of irreverence is the norm in today's society.  In reality, that is the voice of the minority yelling so loudly that most of us are left feeling like we are out-dated in our beliefs, and in the minority.  You are in the majority if you want a spouse and kids, and live a normal, happy life.

     I will remain true to my beliefs.  You will never find vulgarity, sex, or any of those things in my writing.  I will always warn others of those things in the books I review.  I will always recommend good books which hold relatively good values and messages.

     For those of you interested, I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Some refer to us as the "Mormons" because we use a set of scriptures called The Book of Mormon along with the Bible.  Some refer to us as L.D.S. (Latter-day Saints).  Either appellation is acceptable.

     We are a Christian faith.  There have been several religions which have broken off from the church who have sullied the name.  Because of these groups, many think we are a cult, or practice weird things.  We don't.  We a Christians.  We believe in, teach, and follow the principles of the Bible.  We also have a set of scriptures from another group of the tribes of Israel; their writings were compiled by a prophet called Mormon, so we call the book The Book of Mormon.  We also believe that God continues to call prophets today to counsel us with problems we face in today's world.  The first prophet he called since the death of Jesus and His disciples was the prophet Joseph Smith.  We don't worship Joseph Smith anymore than we would worship Moses or Abraham.  He was just a prophet called, like those in the Bible times, to teach people about God.  Joseph gave us prophecies just like the old ones in the Bible or Book of Mormon.  These newer scriptures are found in the Doctrine and Covenants.  Joseph also received scriptures lost to time and multiple translations of the Bible, and these restored scriptures are found in The Pearl of Great Price.  There have been 15 prophets since Joseph Smith, and each one of them has passed down messages from God, just like He has done from the beginning of time.  It always amazes me when people think this is weird.  Why would God suddenly stop speaking to us?  Why would he suddenly stop calling prophets?  At any rate, these general conferences are when these prophets address the world formally.  You can listen to them live online through this link here.  Just click the "watch general conference live" link.

     I've  personally read the Bible (both old and new testaments), The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, The Pearl of Great Price, the Torah, and the Qur'an.  I've been to the worship meetings of literally hundreds of different religions and sects.  I love learning about God.  I love teaching what I've learned.  The links I've shared have all the answers, but I'd be glad to answer any questions anyone might have.  I am not, however, interested in fighting with people who want to attack any religion.  I believe that most are good, and I gained that belief through personal study and visits.  Chances are, I've been to your church/religion.  Don't judge mine, or anyone else's until you can say the same.

     People are good.  Don't feel like your beliefs are out-dated.  Don't feel like you are in the minority.  The media represents the minority, but speaks loud enough for everyone to hear, and then shames those who speak out against it.  There are over 7 billion people on the planet, and almost all of them are trying to live good, chaste, virtuous, happy lives.  The horrible things you see on the news, and read in the paper, are the most horrific things the newspapers can find.  They want to shock you so that you'll read/watch.  If those things were truly commonplace, they wouldn't get your attention, and get you to buy the paper/watch the news.

     God has a plan for us.  It is centered around the family.  If you are unhappy, scared, confused, lost, lonely, or just feel like something is missing in your life there are answers.  My life has trials,  everyone's does, but I know where I came from.  I know why I'm here.  I know where I'm going after this life.  I even know why we suffer some of the horrible things we have to pass through in this life.  There is a very simple plan which God has laid out for all of his children.  You have a purpose.  Your life holds meaning.  Your suffering is not in vain, nor does it go unnoticed.   Look around on the church's website and you'll find the answers to most of your questions.  There are also missionaries who can come and talk to you personally, no matter where you live, if you want answers.  I would also be glad to help anyone out who feels like something is missing in life.  My beliefs have carried me through many life-threatening moments.  They've also helped me through challenges I haven't begun to share on this, or any other, forum.  There is great comfort in knowing the "why" in life.

Fantasy Landscapes

I love fantasy landscapes to get the creative juices flowing.  Here's a few from the web

How to beat writer's block

     All writers get stuck.  It's an inevitability in the creative process.  It doesn't matter if you've run out of ideas, the story has gotten out of control, or you have personal issues which are distracting you from doing your job, the end result is the same: no words on the page.  The longer the page stays blank, the worse the writer's block tends to take hold.

     I recently had some health issues, and did not write for almost two months.  Sitting back down in front of my laptop gave me anxiety.  I needed help to get over myself, and get back into the groove, so I looked up how other people get through it.  There are a lot of lists and steps out  there to overcome writer's block.  I thought I'd share some tips which helped me.

1.     Write something!  Don't make a plan, or think about characters or plots.  You need to sit down and start to type/write.  It doesn't even matter what you write.  You can sit down and write a bio for one of your characters.  You can write a plot outline.  You can write your thoughts.  You just need to write.
        For me, when I was trying to start writing in my novel again, I felt anxious.  It was like a big, scary monster was lurking behind the laptop.  I don't know where these feelings come from.  I love writing, it calms me, but when I was trying to get back to work it had the opposite effect.  The feelings of inadequacies and self-doubt seemed to have built a wall between me and my keyboard.  The only way to break that wall was to start typing.  Eventually, the crippling doubt lifted, and my fingers were free to dance around the keyboard.
2.      Keep writing.  You'll finally get over yourself and get a few sentences or paragraphs on the page, but don't stop.  You don't want the block to come back.  You need to spend a good, long time writing to truly get over the block.  Don't make things harder on yourself by stopping for lunch, or anything, because then you give the writer's block monster a chance to slip back in.  
3.      Don't be afraid to write garbage.  Chances are, if you've got writer's block, you aren't going to write your best work.  The words on the page might not even make any sense the next day.  Don't worry about quality at this point, worry about quantity.  I've found, and a lot of the sites I visited agree, that it's easier to edit bad work than to write with writer's block.  If you can break down that wall of whatever is causing the block, and push forward with your story, you will find that you've gotten to a stopping point which you can easily pick up and continue the next time you write.  You can easily edit out any plot holes or mistakes when the work is done.  The work never gets done if you obsess about chapter 5 and never make it to chapter 6.
4.      Free write.  This helped me yesterday.  I didn't read the previous chapter.  I didn't think about where I wanted the story to go.  I just started writing about my character; one of his days.  I may not ever put it in the book, but it got me into the character's head again so that I could continue the story.  I wrote almost 15 pages before I actually attempted to continue the story in my novel.  Last night, I dreamed about my character.  I'm writing this post at 7:00 AM so that I can get it out of the way, and get back to my story.  It's amazing how much just getting back into the swing of things gets the creative juices flowing.
5.      Have fun!  You write because at some point in time you liked it.  I think every artist hates their work at some point through the process.  It becomes... work.   Remember, this is part of who you are.  You have a story to share.  If you've published before, remember that awesome feeling you got the first time you saw your work in print.  If you haven't published before, imagine how great it would be to be able to say, "I'm an author" instead of, "I write", or, "I'm writing a book."  There is power in what you do.  You create dreams for people.  You have the power to inspire others.  I love this job because it gives me satisfaction to know that somewhere out there people are living in my fantasy world.  What we do is AMAZING!  Have fun with your work.