John and Steph's Houston Mission

Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. ( Matt 22:37-39 ) People - among the best things about being on a mission. People - among the hardest things about being on a mission. People - endearing and exasperating, funny and frightening, uplifting and depressing, warm and aloof, often within the same person and within a few minutes, depending on what they are experiencing in their lives. And that is key. What is happening with someone at any given time? We are often so focused on what is happening in our own lives that we don't consider what might be happening in the lives of those with whom we are interacting.  I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of people in my life from different backgrounds, different ages, different careers, different countrie...

Original Post on September 10, 2025                                      Last Update on September 17, 2025 I plan to update this post from time to time as things come to mind. Feel free to check back now and again to see what's been added.

If you have not seen the streaming series The Chosen , you might consider watching it. I'be really enjoyed watching it. It presents many of the events recorded in the New Testament Gospels, and the people involved in those events, in a way that makes them relatable. There is admittedly a significant amount of artistic and interpretive license taken in the storytelling, so, of course, you should always return to the scriptures themselves, and read, study, ponder and pray about the actual accounts and give those the higher precedence. I bring up the series because there are two scenes that I find to be particularly interesting and have wondered if they would, or rather hoped that they would, cause people to stop and reflect on the assumptions and approach they often take toward scripture in general. In Season 2, Episode 1, Thunder,   Jesus and his followers have been in Samaria, successfully preaching the Gospel. The priest of the Samaritan town invites Jesus to teach in their s...

There are many ways and approaches to discuss the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For this post, I will simply provide the summary of our beliefs penned by Joseph Smith, Jr. (the first President and Prophet of the Church) in a letter response to one John Wentworth, the editor and proprietor of the Chicago Democrat  paper, who, in 1842 asked Joseph what the Church believed. The summary, now known as The Articles of Faith , and canonized in one of the Church's books of scripture called The Pearl of Great Price , is as follows: 1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. 2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression. 3. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. 4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Chris...

I'm going to wax a bit philosophical with this post and I invite you to stay with me. I'll do my best to elucidate my thoughts but if I miss, please try to understand the underlying ideas. I don't blame anyone for doubting that God exists (agnostic) or not believing that God exists (atheist), although I think that the agnostic is more honest than the atheist¹. The concepts for and descriptions of God, a god, or the gods usually put forth can be confusing, contradictory, or superficial. How can an intelligent being honestly accept things that are clouded in chaos? I get that. I felt it as a young man, enamored with science and the beauties of the universe, the elegance of mathematics, the logic and consistency of physics and the laws of nature. I have not lost my love or appreciation for these things. They are what brought joy to my career as an engineer, thrilling me to the core when new connections were made and insights obtained. What I also found, though, is that there w...

A day of light Houston traffic The image above is of a casual Saturday morning in Houston, Texas. Light traffic on the highway a little before lunch. In no way were we dodging drivers who were finding ways to cut across multiple lanes of traffic to make last minute exits that they were warned about miles before!  OK, perhaps the tone there is not fully appropriate with my current responsibilities, but I find humans both humorous and frustrating. We really are strange, often silly, creatures at times. Stephanie and I are driving much more as missionaries than we were previously. About eighteen months ago, I struggled a bit with a decision on whether to stick with my Kia Sportage, which was a good car that I was quite happy with, or get a hybrid vehicle. I was not, and am still not, ready for an all-electric vehicle. But I decided that I was OK with the thought of a hybrid. So, I traded in my Kia for a Toyota RAV 4 hybrid. I am happy that I did, but I must emphasize I don't endorse p...

  Houston, Texas Skyline A colleague of mine, Ulf (he's originally from Sweden), once told me that on any project you can expect four stages: Forming , Storming , Norming , and Performing . After you have established the overall project goals and purposes, and pulled together a project team (forming) there will be a period when the team fits and fights and stumbles on how to accomplish those objectives (storming), but they will eventually settle into a working routine that allows them to grow more comfortable with their roles and efforts (norming), until, finally, the team is able to function well and succeed (performing). I think I’m currently storming through and trying not to be a tornado!  We have been working to better understand what our mission will look like while here in the Melbourne Ward. That may be a surprising statement to some because as a young missionary there tended to be a fair amount of clarity on the general direction and purpose you had each day, includin...