Hi, I'm Jeanette

I'm a high school teacher, a dancer, a wife, and a mother. I'm a Mormon.

About Me

I am the mother of three girls, my youngest is five, and my eldest is thirteen. I am a high school teacher. I am a dancer in a professional modern dance company. I have a masters in technology, and a bachelors in English and dance education. I love animals, and have dogs, cats, toads, chickens, a macaw, and a 7 foot snake. I love to cook, but hate to clean up after.

Why I am a Mormon

My grandfather is a Baptist preacher, so I grew up with a strong belief in Jesus Christ. During adolescents I became interested in religion in general and began investigating many different faiths. I ended up believing in the similarities and not the small differences, I decided I didn't need an organized church or religion in order to show my faith. This worked for me for many years, however I do not think I was a spiritual person, if anything I started losing faith as time went on.
In high school I met a wonderful man who later became my husband, he was a member of the LDS church. Before we got married I was very clear that I would never join the church. I was far to strong a woman and everything I knew about the church was that it held woman down. I am also a very stubborn person so I held on to not joining the church for ten years just because I said I wouldn't. My wonderful husband was so great it was never an issue in our marriage he would invite me to go to church activities but never pushed it as an issue.
During those ten years I learned that most of my previous knowledge of the church and the women's place in it was incorrect. I met so many strong and independent women and I learned the difference between church doctrine and church culture. I found that the LDS faith is so misunderstood, and there is so much false information out there.
Despite feeling the spirit strongly pulling me toward joining the church I was very stubborn and fought the feelings inside myself because somehow I had created in my head the idea of me joining the church being akin to me losing. Eventually I realized I was losing more and missing out on so much by fighting the spirit. I started taking lessons from the missionaries, after two lessons I knew the truth and needed to strengthen my faith by being baptized. I was baptized two weeks later and I have been so blessed since then.

Personal Stories

Which of the Savior’s teachings have influenced you in your life?

Before becoming a member we did not pay tithing regularly. Sometimes we would put a few dollars in the offering plate at my grandfathers Baptist church or my husband would donate a small amount for his tithing, but we were in no way paying a full 10% tithing. We were usually short on money and barely scraping by, deciding what bills needed to be paid and which we could put off till next paycheck. It was very trying on both our pocket book and our marriage.
After I was baptized I prayed long and hard about tithing, how could we possibly afford to have 10% less in our bank to pay the bills. However it also seemed like one of the lords teachings that would be easy for me to keep track of and be sure I was following. So I immediately became a full tithe payer. The minute a paycheck cleared into our account I would pay our tithing. Despite my fears and the fact that the numbers didn't seem to work when I tried to figure out our budget on paper, it always worked out in real life, I was able to pay all our bills and have enough.
After a while my husband and I started to recognize what we called "tithing blessings." Sometimes these "tithing blessings" were an unexpected refund check from our escrow, or a hail storm that allowed us to have our insurance put on a new roof that would have needed to be replaced in a year or two anyway, or having my purse that was left in a shopping cart returned to the courtesy desk with everything still inside. These blessings always came at the perfect moment and helped us to make ends meet. For the last 3 years we have always had enough. We have prospered and are doing so much better than we ever were before and I know that paying our tithing has been so much more of a blessing than a hardship as I originally thought it would be.

Please explain the part prayer plays in your life?

One example of how prayers have really influenced my life is a specific prayer that I asked last year. After praying and following the Lords guidance my husband and I decided to move, we found a perfect house in a great neighborhood and started the process of purchasing the house. While we were going though all the months of closing on a short sale I started to question if I should try to find a job closer to our new house. The move would add a significant commute if I stayed at the High School I was teaching at, which would mean I would have less time for both my students and my own children, however with this economy and the way that education politics have gone in the past few years, jobs are hard to come by and I had a good paying job. I prayed really hard about it and felt like I should go ahead and submit my application to the districts closer to our new house, if I didn't get any hits I could always just keep my current job. As the end of the year came closer I discovered that the districts would not start hiring new teachers till a month after I had to submit my contract if I wanted to keep my current job, so I either needed to stay where I was or jump in with both feet and see what would happen. This really started to stress me out, I did not know what to do, so I kept praying to know what was the best decision for my family.
One morning, a week before my contract was due, I woke up knowing I should resign and I had a complete feeling of peace at not knowing if I would have a job the following year. This was such a contrast to the stress that I had been feeling over this decision for months, I turned in my letter of resignation that day. A month later I got the only dance teacher position that opened up in the district that I was looking at, and the school is under 10 minutes drive from my new house. I truly believe that because I listened to the answer that I received through the Holy Ghost I was blessed.

How I live my faith

My first "job" I took on in the church was as a cub scout leader. I was shocked when the bishop asked, I have no brothers and no sons, also being a dance teacher most of my students are girls, why would I be asked to work with boys when I have no experience with them. I accepted the challenge, and it was a challenge at first, but after the first couple of months I really started to love it. The boys were great and I had a blast, I learned so much more from those boys then I could have learned on my own.
As a visiting teacher I meet with three women from my church building once a month and talk about the gospel as well as make sure she is doing okay and offer any assistance they might need. I also now work with 8-9year old girls in "Achievement Days." Wichita is similar to the cub scouts but for girls.
On my free time I volunteer with my husband and kids to clean our local park, school and church building. I have tutored students in English. I help with the high schools annual musical.

Why is family so important to Mormons?

Jeanette answered...

We believe that families are the center of God's plan for us. We believe that families can be together not just in this life but for eternity. In the temple families can be sealed together for time and all eternity. Because of this the bonds that we make with our family here on earth are the foundation for our eternal happiness.
While family relationships are not always perfect, or easy when we work toward strengthening those relationships and loving each other unconditionally it makes our lives so much better.
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Kevin answered...

We believe that our families are the basic unit of any society, and that failure in the home means that we've failed as a nation and a people. We've heard that it takes a village to raise a child, and that's true enough. But our leaders have told us that the most important work we can do in life, even more than any professional pursuits, is to raise our children in righteousness.

Think about it. If each father and mother were just a little more engaged in their family's lives i'm not talking about controlling their family, helping their sons and daughters with the challenges they constantly face, the crises we find ourselves in as a nation would become much less. We'd more good in the world as a result. You may think that naive or unrealistic, but I know how much good one family can cause, and how much pain another can cause. We want to change the world, and to do that we need to change ourselves and help our families become better too.

Why do some call Mormonism a cult?

Suzanne answered...

I don't know. Quite honestly when labels are used I think this comes from someone's desire to quickly explain away something that they don't understand. If they really took a hard look at the church it would be easy to tell that Mormons do not blindly follow any human being. I think maybe someone who might use that label could look at the level of commitment and obedience found among the members of this church and casually explain this away as blind obedience. They certainly do not see the personal struggles and the effort that maintaining a personal relationship with God requires. Like most Mormons I think, I do what I do out of devotion and love. It may start out as duty and habit, but as I have come to know God and His mercy and love (the big picture) I can't help but want to keep the commandments. I don't follow a person, I follow God and His Son and they help me every step of the way.