Why Faith, Family, and Science
I’m going to tell you why I am starting this blog. That’s not because I think you need to know, but because I think it will help you know what to expect.
Let me start by telling you what a typical Sunday has looked like for me recently. After researching until just before midnight I don’t work on Sundays as part of my personal efforts to keep the Sabbath day holy.1 on Saturday night, I watch a few episodes of Japanese anime to relax. I don’t have many opportunities to speak Japanese, and so watching anime helps me think in Japanese more often and connect me back to a people and culture that I love I served as a representative of Jesus Christ as a full-time missionary for two years in Japan from 2013 to 2015. 2. In the morning, we study scriptures Scriptures are inspired texts recorded by ancient prophets as directed by God. I study from the Bible (Old and New Testaments), The Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.3 together as a family. My wife, V, and I each read one column of a page, and do some wrangling/entertainment for our daughter, N, while the other is reading. After reading (and discussing depending on how we’re all doing), we pray Prayer is a conversation with God, during which we can express gratitude and ask for help and guidance in our lives. See page 303 of the The Book of Mormon, Alma 37:37: “Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good”4,5 together. I head back to sleep until it’s time to get ready for church Each Sunday, we go to church for a two hour meeting that usually consists of prayer, singing, sermons followed by breaking out into age-specific lessons and discussions. The most important part of Sunday is the Sacrament which helps us to remember Jesus Christ and renew promises we’ve made to follow Him.6,7. Sometimes we leave together as a family and sometimes V leaves earlier, in which case I meet up with V and N at our church building nearby.
At church, we listen to inspiring messages and discuss and learn how to become more like Jesus Christ - by serving, loving, forgiving, and improving each day. Our daughter likes to crawl up to where our bishop A bishop is the leader of a congregration who makes sure that people’s needs are met. A bishop serves on a volunteer basis, and the assignment to be bishop, as with other assignments in the church, rotates periodically. 8 sits and say hi, after which we retrieve her and start again. Today, we heard from two speakers from our congregation that spoke about messages that impressed or inspired each of them from a recent general conference General conference is a global, bi-annual broadcast of “talks from religious leaders and performances of sacred music” where we “hear from modern-day prophets about God’s message for us today”. 9 One of the speakers at church today, an engineering student attending University of Utah, talked about how President Nelson’s President Nelson is the prophet and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (2018-present). 10 recent general conference address on The Power of Spiritual Momentum resonated with him. This talk stuck out to me as well, as I considered the “direction” and “speed” with which I (the “mass”) am headed spiritually. An encouraging thought came to mind - if I set my direction correctly, no matter how fast or slowly I am progressing, eventually I will reach my “mokuteki” (目的 goal) and “ikisaki” (行先 destination).
As I listened to the talks of the most recent general conference (held April 2-3, 2022), I felt inspired to start a blog; as I considered further what I might write about, I realized that there are three distinct aspects of my life that are of utmost importance to me: my faith in Jesus Christ, my family, and my goal to make a positive impact on the world through scientific innovation. Hence the name: “Faith, Family, and Science”.