Kyra Moon

One of Sister Hinckley's most famous (and incorrectly attributed) quotes is “I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.” Well, maybe it's just that I haven't lived as long as she did, but I can't quite say I fully agree with her. Sticky cheeks? Peanut buttery shirts? No thank you. A bit of spit-up on my shirt might be okay. And if there's dried f...

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the commandments and why we focus on them so much. Some may argue that every second spent talking about family history or tithing or (heaven forbid) food storage is one less second we spend talking about Christ and His Atonement. Thus, they continue, we should rarely talk about commandments. And for that matter, why worry about them at all? Can't we just accept Christ and be a nice person, and that's enough? As I've thought about why we focus so much on commandments, I've come up with various reasons as to why they're important. "In this there is safety and peace." If you keep the commandments, you are protected in a myriad of ways. Your life will be free of so much filth, addiction, and heartache. They change us to become more Christlike. As we try to keep them, we must be continually repenting and striving to be better, relying on the merits of Christ. This process humbles us and transforms us to become mor...

There's been something on my mind for the past little while that I've wanted to blog about. I think the best way to introduce it is to start at the beginning. When I was 7, I went straight from 1st grade to 3rd grade with only a summer in between. I skipped 2nd grade entirely. It wasn't really that uncommon in our district, come to think of it. I remember off the top of my head that Jessame, Dani, Leslie, Brooke, Mandy, Becca, and Ishmaal also skipped a grade. Possibly other kids as well. My mom and at least one of her siblings did, too. When there's no gifted and talented program, and not even Accelerated Reader at your school, that's kind of what you have to do to keep the smart kids from getting bored out of their minds. I think the possibility of me skipping a grade had been open for a while. I was an early reader and loved to learn about pretty much everything. But I feel like what had cemented it was what I brought for show and tell  one day in 1st grade. Lesl...

After a bit of deliberation, I've decided to share my talk from Sunday. Why? Cuz I kinda like it. I promise that the next few posts will be shorter since this one is rather long. We’ve been asked to introduce the theme for the youth curriculum next month. My remarks will be directed at the youth, though everyone else is welcome to listen in. The question that the youth will be discussing this month is, “Why do the choices I make matter?” I have felt impressed to answer this question in the context of grace. Thus, my talk will be about the principles of agency and grace. First off, what are agency and grace? In his General Conference address in October 2010, Elder Robert D. Hales said, “We teach that agency is the ability and privilege God gives us to choose and “to act for [ourselves] and not to be acted upon.”  Agency is to act with accountability and responsibility for our actions.” In other words, agency is the ability to make choices. Most importantly, it is the ability to choo...

I've been feeling rather alphabetical lately. Perhaps it's because Kevin's 26th birthday is coming up, and there are 26 letters in the alphabet (incidentally, does anyone know any alphabet-themed games which are age-appropriate for 26-year-olds?). Perhaps it's because I've been trying to find picture books to add to our library using this link  from my sister-in-law Margaret, and the first page is all alphabet books (though I didn't see one of my favorites on there . . . does anyone remember the alphabet book where animals are the main characters and a carpenter makes all the letters in the school playground, but he runs out of lumber and takes apart his house for the final letters?). At any rate, the alphabet has been on my mind to the extent that something that should have been eternally suppressed has now re-entered my memory. Uncle Shelby's ABZ's. Why did we own that book? Why was it with our other picture books? There were so many problems with that...

Note: this is a continuation of my Proclamation series. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. -Family Proclamation, 7th paragraph Things operated a little differently when Mom was gone. Suddenly, lists in her handwriting would show up on the fridge, detailing all the activities we needed to be at. Meals would either be tacos, waffles and scrambled eggs, or pizza pockets -- if we had home-cooked meals at all. (Okay, we kids probably could have cooked, too, but why not let Dad run the whole show?) Normal chores would take lesser priority, replaced by making sure every wooden surface in the home was covered in Orange-glo. "It will be so nice for Mom to come back to this shine," Dad would say as we scrubbed chairs and cupboards. And he would always have us go do something fun. Matinees, swimming at the USU pool, or miniature golfing. One time ...

Note: This is a continuation of my proclamation series. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. Proclamation, 7th paragraph Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun growing up. We went to Bear Lake a lot. We floated down rivers and canals a lot. We would go mini golfing and sledding and cross-country skiing and see the occasional matinee. But there were lots of wholesome recreational activities my parents put us through which focused a lot more on the "wholesome" than the "recreational." Like the death marches we went on, bushwhacking through the mountains behind our house, or the terribly long car rides we went on where my parents would choose the "scenic" route on the way to southern Utah. But what first came to mind when I thought of "wholesome recreational activities" was the games we woul...