Hi, I'm Don

I have a loving wife, and two wonderful sons. I'm an IT consultant in Washington State. I'm a Mormon.

About Me

I'm a second generation Korean American from Washington State. I lived in Boston for 6 years while attending school for my undergraduate and graduate studies. I love doing fun things with my wife and children. Fun for them lately has meant fishing, camping, pine wood derby car making, and bug hunting. I'm an engineer by training, and currently I work as an IT consultant.

Why I am a Mormon

I was an atheist before I became a Christian in my late twenties. I was challenged by a colleague to investigate the historicity of the New Testament. After much investigation, I found that it took more faith not to believe in the Bible, than to believe. Shortly thereafter, I met members of the LDS church. They were different, and the things they did were a clear reflection of the conviction of their faith. After several years of investigation, I found that the LDS doctrines were consistent with my reading of the scriptures and joined the church. But, it wasn't until I prayed, and received answers that I truly believed with all my heart in our living God, and that he knows me, and cares for me. Through the LDS church, I've learned to hear our Savior's voice, and act upon his commands to serve each other. It has brought immeasurable joy in my life, and that is why I am a Mormon.

Personal Stories

What have you done successfully to shield your family from unwanted influences?

1. We try our best to keep a single standard in the home. Often we ask ourselves if some type of media movie, show, music is not good for our children, if it is good for us, the adults.
2. We try to steer clear of the gray area. If there are activities that seem like it's border line inappropriate, then we stay far away from the border lest it tempt us and continue desensitizing us.

How I live my faith

One of my favorite church responsibilities is called Home Teaching. It is like an "assigned friend" program. I am assigned a partner, and we go visit 2 or 3 family every month together to see how they are doing. Typically, we bring some goodies, prepare a spiritual message, and chat about how things are going in their lives. I have had the privilege of getting to know numerous people and their children through this program. They share their joys and sorrows. There is an expectation that we serve them to the best of our ability if they are ever in need, and rendering service or sometimes being the recipient of service has brought me closer to these families than any other group of people in my life my own family excluded. It is a lot of hard work being a faithful member of the church and much is expected of us home teaching being just one responsibility. But, it is sweet work that yields joy and lasting friendship as its fruit, and I can not imagine time better spent than in the service obeying Christ.

What is faith?

Don answered...

Faith is taking action because of a hope in something. Often the Savior asks of us to do certain things or live in certain ways. When we see a stranger in distress, we stop and help them as Jesus commanded us to in the Good Samaritan Luke 10:25. The act of helping is the evidence of our Faith in Christ. We are asked to tithe. Tithing is evidence of our faith. We tithe in hopes of the promises in Malachi 3:10 that the floodgates of Heaven are open to us.
Faith is when we put our beliefs and hope into action.
Cary answered...

Faith is a huge topic, rarely fully understood even by people who talk about it a lot. In the Mormon conception, it's a step of confidence between mere belief and full knowledge. It's perhaps best described by contrast with these two extremes on the continuum on which they all lie. First, faith is not that passive thing we call belief because it's a principle of action. So for someone to have faith, they have to be motivated to put a belief into practice, not merely be content with keeping it in their mind. For example, we believe that Christ is the Savior, but because we have faith we ACT as if this were true, and follow His example as best we can. In fact, "acting as if..." is a fairly good phrase to define faith. On the other hand, faith is not "perfect knowledge" either. There is enough of an element of uncertainty about the thing we have faith in, that it takes an effort of conscious decision-making to test our faith's hypothesis. If we had a full knowledge of a thing, that whole test, and the faith to find out if it's true, wouldn't be necessary. Atheists will argue that faith is mere belief (and baseless, at that), but what I have described for faith here leads to a more "scientific" approach that Atheists would like to admit is operable in the minds of the faithful. The proper response to a scriptural assertion, then, becomes not blind obedience, but rather careful thought, hypothesis forming, and testing. As tests come back proven or unproven, faith will grow in the right direction until it approaches "perfect knowledge".

Why do Mormons perform baptisms for the dead?

Vinson answered...

As a temple ordinance worker for the Mesa Temple for the past 5 years, I have grown in appreciation for the temple and the ordinances that are preformed. I believe that those who have passed-on are given the opportunity to accept the work that is performed in their behalf as if they were here - physically. The initial ordinance of accepting Jesus Christ is baptism. The ordinance of baptism is performed as it was originally by John the Baptist for Jesus in the temple by emersion. The temple gives those that have passed-on the opportunity to accept the mission of Jesus Christ and all the ordinances that he performed.