Hi, I'm Ethan

I'm a new dad & husband aspiring to become the head of a revolutionary business intelligence company to transform modern commerce

About Me

I am an aspiring Renaissance Man/Polymath.

I'm married to an amazing woman and we have a newborn son that amazes us each day with his intensity and how much he just looks like a mini-man rather than a baby.

I'm a political junkie. I like to think, imagine, joke around occasionally and when I get spare time try and design a board game.

Presently I'm trying to survive a run-of-the-mill retail job whilst using my nascent self-taught data-base/application programming skills to make a database that's kinda pipe dream, kinda hope for the future, kinda really cool. I also recently decided to go back to school to study programming.

I think relational database theory holds some of the deepest secrets of the universe.

I'm an aspiring hacker/tech innovator/start-up founder

Why I am a Mormon

Because God has communicated to me, very directly through his Holy Spirit, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the same Church that Christ established when he was on the earth in ancient Israel.

All the good in my life has been magnified through what I've gained from the teachings of Jesus and from feeling his grace in my life from day to day.

I want to share that with as many people as I can. I know that everyone, even the middle manager who everyone gripes about at my present job, are literal children of God. That knowledge keeps me in awe. In awe of God and of humanity.

Personal Stories

Please explain the part prayer plays in your life?

Being an aspiring computer wiz hacker prayer has gained a dimension and meaning in my life I never imagined possible previously.

Computer programming is all about sending off commands or queries or running lines of code. All these processes are, at their core, the same thing. One is sending out a call with the hope and expectation that something comes back. Hopefully it is what the programmer is trying to get back.

Prayer is the perfect programming paradigm as I see it.

If I need or want something I need to ask for it, to seek it out. Part of that process that has proved indispensable is prayer.

Just as it is with my programming if I don't do it right, that is if I don't do it with the right intentions or if I don't do my part, then the response I get back is less than optimal. But if I'm willing to put my best into it then I get far more as a result of my petitions.

The most important aspect I've found to prayer is to always bee in some kind of condition of prayer.

For example most people think of prayer as being something you do with just your mind and your mouth, but just as a computer is not limited in it's input to a couple of keys or to one or two modes of input or means of input neither is the act of praying limited to just mental or vocal pleas. Actions speak louder than words to. Doing something, not just saying something, is to pray. If you do stuff that shows an underlying belief or hope or expectation then the stuff you do, not just what you say, I believe, act as prayer. If I want my computer to execute a video call I can have all the connections available, the software and hardware connected, everything can be ready but if I have all that and never actually make that video call then all the preparations were for nothing. In my life it's the same way with prayer. If I say all the things I want or need but then do not really act as though I want or need those things then my prayer is not complete, it's like partially written or executed code.

How I live my faith

Well I try to do the best I know how. I try to listen best I can to the same voice that witnessed to me that this is the Church of Christ. This has been what has brought me the most peace in life to this moment and what I intend to try to do all my life.

I find much of what God seeks is for us to learn balance. Balance seems to demand versatility and adaptability in some things and an immovable spirit in others.

I try to love as purely and sincerely as I can. When I do something, or think something, or want something I try to look at the why. Then I take that why and figure out it's why. I keep doing that until I determine, best I can

What is the priesthood?

Ethan answered...

I like to approach questions by looking at the words of things

"priest" has reference to either the concept of one who leads, one who is elder, or one who is holy I like to remember that the words 'holy' and 'whole' are linked by a common ancestry. When something is 'holy' it's essentially saying that it's complete, that it's healthy..

And "-hood" makes reference to the state of being, and not just any state of being but a state of being that's worthy or correct for it's placement. That is, that it's done properly.

So one could say the priesthood is leadership or a point of reference that's completely suited to the position in which it's been placed.

Another way to look at it is to say it's God's perfect order. That is, it's God's perfect arrangement.

In our Church we often give a definition of priesthood as being "the authority to act in God's name" and that's exactly what it means to be a part of God's perfect order. If God commands something to be done by you, and you do it, then you are acting under, and with that portion of God's authority that he's permitted you to exercise within his perfect order.

Just as with any instance where someone tries to act in the name of someone else there are bound to be those who try and do so falsely. That's why God has things ordered in such a way that one can know for certain if someone has His God's authority, or not.

What is the Relief Society?

Karen answered...

To me, Relief Society means friendship. It's an opportunity to know and love and learn from other women from so many different backgrounds and situations and ways of looking at life and yet they are truly my sisters! I can't tell you how many times I have been wrestling with an issue in my own life and there, during the course of our class or other conversation, comes the answer. I know that Heavenly Father so often works through others to answer our prayers, and to me Relief Society is a huge example of that. I'm grateful not only for those who reach out to me, but for the opportunies to reach out to others through Relief Society. It is an inspired program and a wonderful asset to my life!