The Price Family: Being "Mormon"

If your social media has looked anything like mine this week, or if you have many friends that belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you've probably seen a lot of things like this:

I know my newsfeed and instagram have absolutely blown up.

I love it, because it's the church that I belong to. It's what I personally believe and practice. If you're not like me, you might have been getting slightly irritated with the huge influx of religious posts, especially if you claim no specific religion or don't believe in a God.

Many people who aren't of my faith ask, "Why are you Mormons so eager to share what you believe? Don't you understand that some of us don't want religion in our lives?"

And yes, I do understand. The only way I can really describe it is like finding the most delicious, smooth, triple chocolate "give-yourself-diabetes" cake. And guess what? IT'S FREE! Now if you find this piece of delicious cake that you completely devoured... you want to share your discovery... RIGHT?!?!?!

Trust me. When I discovered the Cocoa Bean in Rexburg, I had to tell all my roommates about it, and we would make trips quite often to go get an italian soda or a Snickerdoodle cupcake. It was THAT good, how could I NOT share?

It's kind of like that and we want to share, we just aren't always the best at it. We have this gospel that brings so much peace, happiness, and hope. If you don't want that in your life, you can probably just stop reading and continue on with life. But if you DO... hear me out.

When I lost my brother in 2009, things were REALLY hard for me and my family. It was almost easy to say "there is no God, because He would prevent this from happening." But you know what? Instead of turning bitter, we chose to get better. Our faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ increased, because one of the things we believe in is the Plan of Happiness- who am I, where did I come from, and where am I going? We knew, through lots of prayer and study, EXACTLY where my brother was. We knew that God had a plan for Josh. It may not have been what we wanted, but we knew he was needed somewhere else, more than he was here. Can I stop and tell you HOW INCREDIBLY HARD THAT WAS TO ACCEPT AND UNDERSTAND? But I know it's true. I know it's true just like I know tomorrow morning at 6 am the sun will pop up behind the palm trees through my kitchen window. There was a point I was convinced I would never be happy again. I now know the opposite is true. My faith truly carried me through those incredibly dark times. I want you to know there's something that can help YOU, too.

Twice a year we have what is called General Conference, which is what took place this past weekend. Many members watch live at the conference center, and they travel from all over the world. We watched it live on the internet. There prophets and apostles called by God deliver messages for us to hear because we believe and read:

D&C 1:38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.

Paisley listening to the Saturday morning session

Sunday afternoon was a great session of conference, and I was so touched by many of the talks. One of my favorites, given by Elder David A. Bednar, was directed to people who are not members but have the question I listed above..."Why are members so eager to share?" or even "Why do the missionaries want to share a message?" It's not about numbers. It's not about a lot of things. It's about so much more.

If you do anything, just listen to this talk. It may answer so many questions you have and may put into perspective why you see so many LDS things across the web. It will put into perspective why we want to share what we have... just like that chocolate cake.

I love being a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints. It brings me so much peace and joy. I love that through this church and the temple, I have a FOREVER family.