Hi, I'm Bob

I'm a musician, I'm a teacher, I'm a husband, I'm a Dad, I'm a Mormon.

About Me

I'm a musician. I play the trumpet. I still play in a 40's style Jazz band with my brother and my father-in-law. We play for weddings and dances. It's a lot of fun to play. I teach trumpet and trombone lessons as well. It's fun to watch the students get better.

I also am a teacher. I taught instrumental music at the middle school level for four years. Now I teach teachers how to use Smartboards in their classroom. I love technology in any form and enjoy teaching others how to use it. I really like helping the teachers to use it better to help students.

I am a husband and father. I get a lot of joy out of my three children. I love playing with them, seeing them get excited when I get home, and watching them grow up.

Why I am a Mormon

I know that it is true. This is something that I have learned over my whole life, through personal experiences, through reading the scriptures, and through a lot of prayer. There is not one specific large event that told me it is true, but many, many small assurances from God's Spirit that let me know that this is His Church. This is where I should be serving Him through serving others.

Personal Stories

What are you doing to help strengthen your family and make it successful?

A couple things that we do in our family to help make it successful have to do with bringing the Spirit in our home. We read scriptures as a family each night. This can be difficult to do with young children. They get excited to read their verse, even though they don't read so well. It takes a long time to read through even a few verses, but I know it brings the Spirit into our home. After we read scriptures we kneel in prayer as a family. We take turns praying each evening after scripture reading as well as over each meal. We eat each meal we are at home together as a family. We pray before we eat as well. This has been most helpful with the kids getting along and learning reverence for spiritual things.

How I live my faith

I try to serve others the best I can. I attend church each Sunday. Beyond that I try to visit with others and uplift them and serve them anyway I can. Whether that be just talk with them or help them. I try to be happy and positive and outgoing. To help others feel included and special like I know that they are, since they are children of our Heavenly Father. I try to see others as He does and treat them the way He would.

Are there restrictions based on race or color concerning who can join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and have the priesthood?

Bob answered...

No. In our priesthood meeting each week we have a great mix. We have a man who was born in Africa, another who was born in South America, another who is Italian, and a bunch of other white guys too. We are all God's children, and he wants each of his Sons to accept the gospel and the priesthood to serve His other children.
Blake answered...

There are absolutely no race or color restrictions in the church. When Jesus was here in the earth, he said that he came here to save the sinners. The last time I checked, all the people in the world, it doesn't matter color or race, are sinners. The church is a place where people can come closer to Christ. There are no restrictions to who can come in. Anybody that has a desire to come closer to Christ, has the right to come closer to Him.

What do Mormons believe concerning the doctrine of grace?

Bryant answered...

Grace is the enable power of Christ to be cleansed of our sins. When I think of grace I like to think of a dam. Now the purpose of a dam is to create energy for a city, but how does it do that? The dam holds back the water and creates a huge amount of pressure. A portion of that pressure is released into a very large duct that flows down and spins large turbines. The spinning of these turbines is what creates the energy that we all use every day. Now without that water, could we spin these turbines by ourselves? No, manpower alone is not nearly enough to create the energy needed. There is just no possible way that a human being by themselves could turn those massive turbines. In this analogy Christ is the strong current created by the water from the dam. Without him we would be unable to turn the turbine to cleanse our lives, only he can do it! None the less we do have control of one part of this process, we can interfere. Sometimes in our lives we sin to a point that we have created so much filth to clog up the duct and not allow Christ's flow into our lives. We must be continually watching to make sure that we do not inhibit this process. Thus, "faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." see James 15 Turbines without the pressure from the water is completely useless. Our lives without Christ? "For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." see Romans 623