Hi, I'm Jillian

I am a daughter of God.

About Me

As I have come to know my Father in Heaven I have come to know myself. I used to believe I was defined by my professional achievements, by the letters after my name and my successes. I am grateful for a Heavenly Father who loves me and has shown me my eternal worth. I am a wife. My husband is my eternal companion, my teammate on the quest for eternal happiness and my best friend. I am a daughter both of earthy and spiritual parents all of which have loved me and have taught me so much by their examples. I am a sister, with four younger siblings who have taught me about compromise and patience among other things. I love my family, and hope to someday be able to expand it. As far as activities I love to garden and together with my husband I hope to someday have our own homestead. We keep honeybees, compost worms, and have loved renovating our 100 year old farm house. I love studying my family history, it is like solving a puzzle as I track down all my ancestors. I enjoying teaching, as long as it isn't crafty. I enjoy sewing but am not a crafter at all. I am an extravert, and strong type A personality, and love being involved in things and helping out. I am silly, and funny at times, perhaps more often than necessary. At the end of the day, despite the ups and downs, I am a daughter of God and I hope that is what defines me.

Why I am a Mormon

I was raised in the Catholic Church, and as a result had been taught to believe in God since childhood. I am so grateful to my family for teaching me what they knew of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was this up bringing that planted the seed in my heart, a love for my Heavenly Father and a desire to understand the world I live in from an eternal perspective. Despite the many wonderful teachers I had I always had questions that could not be answered and there were never answers that satisfied me. This was probably why I latter pursued science as a career, my endless need for logical answers.

As a scientist I found that many of my colleagues did not believe in a higher power. Without measurable evidence of a God they had concluded He does not exist. For me science cemented by beliefs. As learned about the complexities of life there was no denying a master architect. How could all life be a result of a cosmic accident? It’s all too complex and perfect.

As I was finishing my Masters I met a Latter-Day Saint. After talking to him, I found myself buying a copy of the Book of Mormon and reading every free moment in my day and meeting with missionaries (people who teach non-members about the Gospel and the Church). I was baptized not to long after that. My scientific mind was finally at ease. I had logical answers to all the questions I had struggled with. The Gospel for the first time reflected the God I had believed in, one who knew me, loved me, and wanted me to be happy. As I have continued to study the Gospel and grow in the Church I have come to be closer with my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. I know who I am, I am a daughter of God and he loves me. I know why I am here alive today, to learn so that I can reach my eternal potential and be with my Father in Heaven again. And I know what I want, I want to be with my family forever reunited in the presence of God. This is why I am a Mormon.

Personal Stories

Could you talk about your baptism?

I was baptized at 24 years old. It was the happiest day of my life, and the most important. I felt aglow. I was the first member of my family to be baptized and I was so happy have my mother attend my baptism. I was baptized by immersion in water, and as I came up out of the water I felt a sense a peace like never before. I prayed I would never sin again, that I would remain clean forever. Of course, I have made mistakes, but I have had the gift of the holy spirit with me since then to guide me and comfort me.

How has The Book of Mormon helped you understand the purpose of life?

The Book of Mormon helped me to understand my agency. After reading the book of mormon I better understood why I was born and the purpose of my life. I know understand that I have been given an opportunity, like everyone else, to choose to follow the example of Jesus of Christ and to love my father in heaven so that I can someday return him. I am so grateful for this knowledge.

How I live my faith

I live my faith by living according to the teachings in the scriptures to the best of my ability. I'm not perfect, but as I continue to try to improve I feel the love of my father in heaven encouraging me to succeed and blessing me. I try to take the time to be grateful to him for all the many blessings in my life, for the beauty of the world, for family and friends, and for the knowledge that he has given me.

Living my faith means having a gospel centered home. With just my husband and I this means studying the scriptures together and praying together. This sometimes requires work on our part to be committed and to make time. I am always grateful when my husband turns the lights back on just as I was abut to fall asleep because we forgot to pray.

Living my faith means serving in the Church. Since no one in the church is paid to work for the church we all have to do our part. Currently I am the secretary for the woman's organization (The relief society) in our area. This means being mindful of the needs of the woman in the church, some record keeping, and an extra weekly meeting. It also means supporting my husband in his calling (church job) as he teaches the high school ages youth a gospel study class week day mornings before school.

Living my faith means sometimes missing BBQ's and other fun things that our non-LDS friends and family do on Sundays, because Sunday is God's day and we reserve it for going to church and worshiping as a family.

I have found that as I live my faith I am happier and want to share it with others.

What is the Mormon lifestyle like? How do Mormons live?

Jillian answered...

There is not a cookie cutter mormon. The mormon lifestyle is one that includes prayer, and scripture study, church and meetings, but most of all it is family centered. We may seem very busy, and we are but all of our activities support and uplift the family. When choosing what types of activities to participate in or what kind of movies to watch/music to listen to we ask ourselves whether or not it will strengthen our family, and if not we avoid it.
Serge answered...

Family is everything to us. Our family spends lots of our free time together because we like each other. Life gets crazy with teenagers, dance practice, after school academic decathlon, usually with a toddler in tow, but no matter what, every Monday night is Family Night.

The kids know that every Monday we spend time together and nothing gets in the way of it. It's our commitment to each other. We bake cookies, have lessons about the Savior, work on personal goals, go to the park, go geocaching, play board games or just go out for ice cream.

We do lots of things together. The point is that at least once a week we spend an hour or two together, just for the sake of being together, just because we love being together as a family. It's not as perfect as it may sound, with all the poking and "she's in my spot," and all the other crazy things family members do to each other when scrambling for a spot in the living room, but we try real hard. It takes effort to make sure we don't miss, but it's worth it.

I'm not sure the kids will remember all the games we played, the places we went or what we did, but I hope they always remember that we loved each other enough to dedicate one night a week to be with each other. And that we spent every Monday night together for as many Mondays as they can remember because family is everything to us, and every member of our family is important.

What is a “testimony” that Mormons speak of?

Megan! answered...

A testimony is the knowledge that a certain principle is true, right, or good. For example, I have a testimony that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He did truly atone for our sins. In order to gain that knowledge, I have studied, reflected on what I learned in my study, and prayed to have that knowledge confirmed in my heart. As an answer to those prayers, (for there were many--building a testimony is an ongoing process) I have felt the truth in my heart.
We can gain testimonies of many principles. Another way is to put that principle into action, as sort of a test. In order to gain a testimony of prayer, we might try praying. To gain a testimony of the principle of tithing, we might try paying a full tithe. (10% of our income.) As we strive to live these principles, the Holy Ghost will confirm the truthfulness of them to our hearts. We will know that they are right; we will have a testimony of them.

Mormons also talk about "bearing testimony." This simply means to share the testimony we have gained with other people, either in a formal setting (like in church) or in a more informal setting (like in a conversation with a friend.)