Meet This Mormon

I haven't been able to blog for quite a while. Life has been keeping this little family of mine on overdrive and something had to give! I've missed blogging quite a bit. It is sort of therapeutic for me to sit down and type something out.

One of the things that has kept me so busy is that I finally went back to school to finish the degree I started forever ago! It's been so fun and incredibly hard all at the same time. Definitely harder than I thought. I'm glad I didn't know how hard or I may not have decided to go back! Haha! My degree will be in Web Development and Design with an emphasis in design. I'm really excited and I'm learning so, so much that would have been useful to know back when I started blogging! It'll be fun to share some of that with all of you!

Anyway, enough rambling, back to the point of the post...life has a funny way of pointing me in the right direction. And when I say life, I really mean God. His hand is so apparent to me in every direction my life takes. Even for small things. Here's an example. My husband and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary last weekend. We always plan a little weekend getaway for just the two of us. We love our marriage and our anniversary is a way for us to celebrate it in a big way. We save up for months for our little getaway. And we both look forward to it all year. Well, while we were driving in the car last weekend I was telling my husband that one of my old Halloween posts on this blog was getting a lot of traffic since Halloween is getting close. One thing led to another in the conversation and I thought....why don't I blog anymore? How did that fall off my list of things I love to do? I decided right then and there to pick it back up in my life - even if it is just a small thing. I know some of the reason that I backed off is the overwhelming pressure I felt to always post. If I take that pressure away, then I shouldn't feel overwhelmed. When I got home, there was an email from one of my favorite bloggy friends, Andie, about a project that she wanted to do. The more I read, the more I knew that the Halloween post picking up traffic and the feelings and conversation I had on the way home from our getaway were not a coincidence and that I needed to participate in this project.God's hand was in all of that - just like with all of the other aspects of my life. He was opening up my heart so that I knew what I was supposed to do next.

So, without further ado....here's what Andie wanted everyone to participate in and what we're all so excited to share with all of you!

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We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints otherwise known as "The Mormons". We are proud of this part of who we are! We are excited to team up with over 65+ of us strong... to extend an invitation to see a film. A film entitled "Meet The Mormons". This film is not meant to be an "in your face" - you must join our church film. It is simply designed and produced to uplift and inspire you through six stories of those of our faith who have followed promptings to follow Christ more fully in their lives. We hope you take the opportunity to enjoy this film. We hope your hearts are made light as you feel the goodness that comes from following our Christ and Savior. All proceeds from the film will be donated to The American Red Cross. So not only will you be uplifted and inspired, your money will be going to an amazing charity!!

We also would like to take a moment and share our personal testimonies, stories of our own personal conversions, and our own stories of how following our Savior, Jesus Christ has changed our lives. The light of the gospel of Jesus Christ offers a joy and hope that only following him can provide. We hope as you click through and read our stories and testimonies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, you will feel uplifted and encouraged. We are by you! We love connecting with our readers, that is why many of us do what we do! Please be kind and considerate in your comments. It takes great bravery for us to open our hearts and our mouths to share with you such a tender and personal part of who we are. We share because we feel strongly the need to share the peace and the hope that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Isn't it amazing to look at all of those strong women?!?

I want to introduce you to myself. I want you to meet THIS mormon!

My name is Shatzi. I am a wife, a mom, a (sometimes) blogger, a student, dabbler in creativity, and a lover of life. I am a Mormon. I was born and raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And I'm so happy that I was! I come from lots of generations of strong Mormons who have left me a wonderful legacy to follow.

I know that a lot of you are probably already familiar with what it means to be a Mormon, but in case you aren't, here's what it means to me. It's really, really simple. It means love. One of my favorite quotes comes from one of my favorite people - Thomas S. Monson (here's the link if you want to read the whole thing). He said "love is the very essence of the gospel, and Jesus Christ is our Exemplar. His life was a legacy of love." To me being a Mormon is about that same kind of love that Jesus had and that I hope to emulate. Pure love.

It means that first and most important, I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I love my husband and my family. They are my everything. Part of the reason that my husband and I celebrate or marriage so much is because we were married in one of our Temples and that means our marriage will last throughout eternity. We make sure to build our marriage and love for each other now because of that. Being Mormon to me also means love of everyone else. And I mean everyone. All people all over the world. Because we are all brothers and sisters. It means being kind and serving others unconditionally. And I don't just say I believe that. I actually live it. A big part of my time is spent serving other people. A lot of that is at church. Right now, I publish and print our weekly service folder for our ward. I also work with the Cub Scouts - and I have for a few years. Even before I had any boys as Cub Scouts. I also help with lots of odd and end things that my husband needs. He is currently serving as the Bishop of our ward - which is sort of like being a Pastor. He is the caretaker of over 400 people that live in our area. He spends at least 20 hours a week - completely voluntary - serving the members of our area. And the only reason we do it is because we truly love Jesus Christ. And we hope that by serving others we can help them feel His love for them.

I love being a Mormon and I absolutely know that I wouldn't be the person I am without it. It has helped me be a better person. Be more patient with my kids. Love others easier. Serve more. And find rich joy in my life. I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world!

If you want to hear more about why I'm Mormon or get a copy of the Book of Mormon, email me at shatziweb (at) gmail (dot) com and I'll send you more information.

If you want to hear what others think of being Mormon, there are a whole bunch of us excited to talk about it! Just click on any of the blog links below and you can learn more!