Hi, I'm Laura

I'm a transplanted southerner. I'm a dental hygienist on extended hiatus. I'm a Mormon.

About Me

I'm a wife and a mom of 5 kids. I love reading, catching up on my tv shows, visiting my family, and traveling anywhere and everywhere. I have a degree in dental hygiene and worked as a dental hygienist for 5 years before taking a hiatus to raise our children.

Why I am a Mormon

Around age 15 I realized that if I were to continued living the standards that I had been taught as a mormon, it would be a very different life then the sex, drugs, and alcohol that the other kids at school were getting involved in. I decided to talk to the missionaries and take the lessons that they offer in order to figure out if this church was really God's true church. I had decided that if the church was true, then I would live the standards of the gospel. Being different would be worth it to be with God. As I listened to the missionaries, read my scriptures, and prayed, I felt the warm feelings inside that are the whisperings of the Holy Spirit telling me that these things were true. One day in my prayer I asked if this church was really true, and was completely filled with that warming peace. It felt like I swallowed sunshine. I know that God wants all of his children to know this peace. I have felt it in my life and I know that if you read the scriptures and ask Him, He will tell you it is true.

Personal Stories

Can you think of a specific challenge in your family that Gospel Principles helped overcome?

There was some abuse in my home growing up. Verbal, physical, and sexual. I believed that I wasn't worth much and I acted that way. For a long time I made choices that were against what I had been taught in church partly because I didn't believe that I was worthy of God's love and forgiveness. One day I got really mad that I was being treated so badly. I realized that the reason it made me mad was because I didn't deserve to be treated that way. I realized that I matter. As flawed and imperfect as I am I knew that I deserved to be treated with respect. I knew that I mattered to God. I am his daughter and he loves me unconditionally. We are all his children and nothing can change that. He will always love us and want us to come to him, no matter what. I changed my ways and through repentance, scripture study, and prayer I forgave myself for my poor choices and forgave those that abused or mistreated me. I came to accept and 'own' my true identity as a child of God.

How I live my faith

I'm a teacher for the childrens class at church. I love seeing the childrens eyes light up as they learn about our Savior. I also visit with others who are struggling, are sick, or just want to talk. I attend a christian moms group in the community. We visit and share experiences and advice on being a woman, wife, and mother.

Why don’t women hold the priesthood in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? How do Mormon women lead in the Church?

Laura answered...

Women don't hold the priesthood because we don't need it. The purpose of the priesthood is to serve others as Christ served us. Women, regardless of marriage or children, already spend much of their life serving and helping others. Most men don't provide the selfless, christlike service that women naturally perform. The priesthood is a way for men to perform that service and become closer to God through acting in His name through service. Women lead in the church as strong, confident wives, mothers, teachers, and leaders of children, youth, and in leading the Relief Society, the oldest and largest womens organization in the world.
Kathryn answered...

As a primary president in my ward, I share in the direction and leadership of our ward. I don't feel secondary in any way. Whether you have the priesthood or not, you are still responsible to listen to the direction of the Savior. The priesthood is a tool and power that is the same power of the Savior. It allows the human authority to do work on earth, particularly perform ordinances, and bless others. As if the Savior was here in person during His ministry accounted for in the New Testament. I would use an analogy to compare the priesthood as a car. A car is an amazing tool allowing you to get you from here to there. I don't mind my husband driving and I can offer some navigation or work the radio, as long as we and our children get there.

Why do some call Mormonism a cult?

Kevin answered...

I suppose that new and different things have always been a challenge for some. It seems possible that the New Testament Christians might also have been called a cult: they were few in number, taught new, or at least different, doctrines and were lead by strong, charismatic leaders (a study of the early apostles like Peter or Paul bears this out).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often called the Mormon church) follows the teachings of Jesus Christ as contained in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. We do not worship our founding prophet (Joseph Smith) or our current prophet (Thomas S. Monson). We teach that men are saved by the grace of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrice on the cross and that as we strive to follow Him and keep His commandments, that redemption becomes personal.

If others persist in defining the Church as a cult, in spite of our rather obvious Christian beliefs and doctrines, then we will simply have to agree to disagree.

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Joseph Smith

As is the case throughout history God has communicated to His children through prophets. God used a humble man as a prophet to restore His Church on earth who ultimately died defending His faith.

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