Latter-day Saint Commentary from the Pacific Northwest - Rocky Mountain Sunshine Podcast

https://anchor.fm/goyeforth

Hello friends!

I just wanted to give an update to our last episode where I asked you to stick around and that I would not hang up my podcasting hat just yet. I took some time to think about the show and what I wanted to do. I consulted my good friend I prayed a lot about it, I consulted with my wife, and also my good friend Shawn Rapier, multiple times. And I’ve come up with a new podcast called “Go Ye Forth”. It’s a 24-hour non-stop pun podcast.  Just kidding.  It’s actually a podcast where I speak with returned missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and hear about their experience as they served all across the globe.

So there might be wee bit of Rocky Mountain Sunshine here and there, but for now, check out “Go Ye Forth” because I’ll be posting episodes there more often.

So until next time, Cheers from the Pacific Northwest!

• Today is a special episode where I have a guest. I have my good friend Mat Hyder joining me over zoom!  As an introduction, Mat was a former neighbor and ward member when I lived in Highland, Utah. We served in a bishopric together.
• He is a wonderful father who will soon have a missionary heading out.
• He is a pediatric nurse at Primary Children’s Hospital. He would visit often when my son Xavier was up at Primary Children’s for several months.
• Mat recently started a podcast that has nothing to do with medicine and has everything to do with Mayberry.
• He is also a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• It’s a fun episode, so without any further delay, let’s get into it!

Welcome to the Show Mat Hyder!

• It’s great to have you on and even better just to have the opportunity to catch up!
• Mat and I were neighbors in Highland Utah, and Mat still lives in Highland and is probably trying to repair all the damage that I did.
• Isn’t it crazy how much the world has changed even since I lived there in Highland?
• We didn’t zoom much unless it was you zooming by on your motorcycle.
• So I was trying to think when was it that you moved into the ward in Highland?  Oh yeah…
• Well, I’m jumping the gun here. We’ll get into your podcast later, but first let’s get to know Mat. Let’s take it back a twitch.
• You talk about this a lot on your podcast but tell us about where you grew up.
• Where do you fit in with your siblings?
• Were you raised in the Church?
• What was it like growing up outside of Utah and being a member of The Church?
• Were you always active?
• Do you think it’s harder or easier for kids to grow up in the Church in Utah or outside of Utah?
• How is it that you became such a big fan of John Denver?
• I was guessing that you were leaving on a jet plane, you didn’t know when you would be back again. Or maybe you were heading to a country road, to take you home, you noticed some sunshine on your shoulder and thought, I should look up this John Denver guy!
• And now you are here, with little rocky mountain sunshine on your shoulders. Does it make you happy?
• I had the John Denver Christmas album with the Muppets.
• He was on with the muppets a little too often. I think he may have been a muppet who just went solo.
• Did you ever see him in concert?

Have you already been to Port Angeles? So if you’ve ever been to Port Angeles, you most likely came here via car. There is a ferry that comes from Victoria in Canada, but I’m guessing most of our listeners don’t live in Victoria. Although there are worse places to live!

So you get to Port Angeles, by car, and there is one highway that gets you here from Seattle or Portland. It’s the 101.  The 101 is a great highway, much of which is just a two-lane highway, so you just go the speed limit. People out here on the peninsula are just more patient drivers. You just go with the flow and you’ll get to the destination. You get out to Tacoma and Seattle and the aggressive drivers start to show up.

As you drive out here you feel like you are leaving a lot of the city life behind, and you do. Silverdale will be your last stop for most of the big stores and that’s definitely the closest place to do much shopping other than the Walmart in Port Angeles. You’ll pass through Sequim, which looks like you should pronounce it Sea-qwim, but it’s Skwim.  Sequim bay is beautiful. There is a popular casino there. We kept hearing that they had great food at the restaurant, but my experience there would say otherwise. They have some live music, and we actually went and saw a cover band. So we have that going on. If you need anything from Costco, you’ll want to stop in Sequim. It’s only another 20 minutes to Port Angeles. Now I’ll give you a little hot tip. If you want to go somewhere for breakfast in Sequim, you want to go to the Oak Table. In fact, if you want to go to breakfast in Port Angeles, it’s worth the 20 minute drive to Sequim to go to the Oak Table. Just trust me. They have a german pancake that will knock your socks off.

Just outside of Sequim, I think it’s called Carlsborg, is a Chevron station.  I get gas there, and they have the only self-serve diet coke fountain drink anywhere close that tastes good.  For some reason the other one or two around, and there aren’t many that have diet coke in a fountain drink, but those all taste off.  Something is not calibrated and nobody is bothering to fix it because apparently, I’m the only one who can tell the difference.

Between Sequim and Port Angeles is a little restaurant that looks like a house. It does not look like much from the outside, and the inside seems like you’ve entered into a restaurant in the 70s, but if you have a hankering for some good crab cakes, this place won’t let you down. It’s called Dupuis, but I think the locals call it Dupees.

The next stop down the road is the outskirts of Port Angeles. You’ll see the Deer Park Cinema. I suppose they are open. We haven’t been since before Covid hit. It’s the only movie theater anywhere near us. When you google things like closest theater near me, google always suggests Victoria, which is a one-hour ferry ride to Canada and is currently shut down due to Covid.  After passing Deer Park Cinema you go through an S-curve. It’s a dangerous place where there have been several accidents even since we moved here 3 years ago. They finally put a cement curb and median in the middle. I don’t know why it took so long. But as you go through this S-Curve you have one of my favorite views of the mountains in Port Angeles. It’s always picturesque unless there happens to be fog, which we do get sometimes.

Welcome to the show, everybody! I’m recording from the lovely town of Port Angeles, Washington.

I’m still on a high from General Conference. There were so many good talks and several which I definitely want to go back and study more.

Well in today’s episode I take you way back to the early starts of my career in sales. I’m talking way back folks. So dust off your atari and sony walkman because we are heading to the 80’s. So let’s get to it!

Do you ever think back to when you were a kid and just say to yourself, “Boy I was a weird kid!”

No? That’s just me?

I have these memories of things that I did, and I just shake my head. Like one day there was an ice cream truck driving through the apartments where we lived in Midvale, Utah.  I had no money, but I wanted an ice cream. So I rode my bike and chased him down. My bike’s name was Coyote 9 by the way. What? You didn’t name your bike? So I went up to the door of the ice cream truck to talk to the keeper of the ice cream. I asked if he’d trade me an ice cream for my watch.  Seriously! What was I thinking? Luckily he said, “No.”  

I was in little league for a couple of years. I was really bad at baseball. I think that my mom and grandma probably wanted me to do some type of activity because I didn’t have siblings and I probably drove them crazy. So for a couple years I played for the red sox little league team in Midvale. For some reason, we had a fundraiser. I don’t remember why, but we sold chocolate bars. I remember asking my aunts and uncles if they wanted to buy a chocolate bar. I think my mom had some co-workers buy some. I even went door-to-door to some close-by neighbors selling them. I don’t remember the candy bars being very good but that was my introduction to selling. I picture myself like Russell, the kid from the movie “Up.” Reading from a book, “Good - afternoon. I - am - Jason - and - I - am - in - the - little - league. Will - you - support - our - team?”

At some point, I started getting this magazine called Boy’s Life.  Did you ever get that magazine? Was there an equivalent for girls? I don’t know, but I really liked it. They had the 10-year-old boy’s interest dialed in. I read it from cover to cover.  For you youngsters out there, we had no youtube, no Disney Plus, nor google, so yeah, a magazine for boys was the bomb dot com.

Tune in to hear the rest!

Welcome to the show, everybody! I’m recording from the lovely town of Port Angeles which is a wee bit wet right now. OK, who am I kidding? It’s been raining all day! But it’s OK because I had Ivar’s Clam Chowder for lunch. That makes it all better. I hope that you had a wonderful General Conference weekend. I know that it was a weekend that I was really looking forward to and I hope that you were able to get a lot out of the counsel we received.

Do you speak a second language? Do you speak multiple languages?

I served a French-speaking mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I served for 2 years. 2 months of that time was at the missionary training center or MTC in Provo Utah. It was hard. There is no getting around it. The days were rigorous. Language classes and gospel learning classes.

I remember after the first two days we had surpassed the french that I had learned in three years at Middle School and High School. Not that I was that great at French. In fact, my french teacher, Monsieur Larson said that I shouldn’t take French my senior year because I would not be able to pass the class.

I did struggle in the MTC trying to learn the language. I remember it seemed like the rest of my district was improving faster than I was. I would lay in bed each night and count to 100 in my mind in french.

Quatre-vingt = 80 which translated says 4 twenty. So to count in French you also need to be good at math. 4 times 20 is 80. But that’s OK because 90 is quatre-vingt-dix which translates four twenty ten… can you see how a little confusing.  Un peut.  How about 97. Well that is quatre-vingt-dix-sept. Translated four twenty ten seven… Somehow I learned the numbers.  Oh la la.

Tune in for the rest of the show!

Welcome to the Rocky Mountain Sunshine podcast where we share faith, have some fun, and strive to add a little sunshine to your day! I am your host, Jason Bringhurst.

Welcome to the show, everybody!  I am recording from the lovely town of Port Angeles, Washington. We are situated directly across from Vancouver Island. Before Covid shut down travel from Canada, the ferry would run twice a day over to Victoria. It was about a 60 minute trip on the ferry. But it hasn’t run now since March of 2020. I imagine that has had a big impact on a lot of downtown businesses here. There is talk now of the vaccine soon to be available for children 5 and older. I hope that will help to curb this horrible pandemic. It’s gone on for so long now. Well, it’s times like these where a little humor can maybe lift your spirit a little, so stay tuned to today’s episode. If you enjoy laughing at some of the silly things I do, this is your episode!

So let’s get to it!

Do you have awkward things that happen to you? I seem to have a lot of awkward things that happen to me. It’s like I’m a magnet for something really weird to happen. I could probably have an entire year of episodes just on different weird things that have happened to me.

Tune in for the rest!

Welcome to the Rocky Mountain Sunshine podcast where we share faith, have some fun, and strive to add a little sunshine to your day! I am your host, Jason Bringhurst.

Welcome to the show, everybody!  I am recording from the lovely town of Port Angeles, Washington. Have I ever mentioned how nice it is here? I just do that on every episode in hopes that people will come visit! We live far away from pretty much everything.  There are things that I like about that, and things that I don’t. Nevertheless, it’s a great place. It’s a small town. There is one high school and it doesn’t even have its own football stadium. I recently visited the newly rebuilt high school where I attended in Midvale, Utah. If you’ve driven by Hillcrest High School, you’ll know what I’m talking about. It’s state of the art and looks more like a college stadium. Here in Port Angeles, the high school plays at a community field called “Civic Field.”  At one end it’s actually a baseball field, which is interesting because when the football makes its way to that end of the field, they are actually playing on the dirt of the baseball diamond. I went to my first high school football game this past week to watch and root for my son Gavin who plays in the band. I haven’t contributed many athletic genes to our kids' gene pool, but they are all great at music. Again, probably not from me. Well today I don’t talk about Port Angeles High School winning the football game, which they did, nor do I talk about BYU winning the game against our friends up north at the University of Utah, but they did… Yes, BYU won. I’m making sure that’s on the record since the last time they won was in 2009.  That’s all sand washed into the sea or some phrase that people would say in situations like this.  In today’s show, I talk about a relative of mine who knew Oliver Cowdery. So let’s get to it!

Do you have pioneer ancestors who were members of the Church while Joseph Smith was alive?

My great-great-great grandfather Jacob Gates knew Oliver Cowdery and the Prophet Joseph Smith personally. That always intrigues me when I think about it.  He saw Joseph Smith on his horse heading to Carthage, IL before the martyrdom.

Tune in for the rest of the show!

Welcome to the Rocky Mountain Sunshine podcast where we share faith, have some fun, and strive to add a little sunshine to your day! I am your host, Jason Bringhurst.

Welcome to the show, everybody!  I am recording from the lovely town of Port Angeles, Washington. Are you starting to get the fall vibes? We drove out to Ruby Beach on the coast on Labor Day and we are starting to see some of the leaves turning red and yellow. It was a stunning drive out there. It takes about an hour and a half to get to this particular beach on the coast. We are very close to the water of the strait of juan de fuca, but locals don’t consider that the ocean.  For a land-locked Utah guy, it looks pretty ocean-y to me. But I digress. Ruby Beach is on the coast, so it’s the real deal of ocean scenery.

Well, in today’s episode I talk about compassion. It’s something that’s been on my mind, so let’s get to it!

What do you think of when you think of compassion?  I’ll tell you what I don’t think of. Twitter.  I had been on Twitter for a long time, and it quite often got me down.  It wasn’t uncommon to see members of the church or former members of the Church argue about whatever the hot LDS-related topic was of the day. I uninstalled all social media to get away from it all for a week. I recognize some of the good that comes from it. Most of my family is back in Utah. It’s one way that I stay connected to them. I use it for our ward. I use it occasionally for my business and for this podcast. My dog Minnie even has an Instagram account. I made that more to have fun with my kids who gush over every picture we’ve ever taken of our little hairy friend. I’ll stop myself because I can hear Xavier in my mind correcting me and saying that she is not our friend but she is their sister. That’s the way they see our dog. I get disappointed looks if I ever refer to her as “the dog.”  Me: The dog needs water.  Xavier: She has a name! It’s Minnie!

So after a week of being off of Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, I just never reinstalled Twitter.  You might say that I don’t like how people tweet other people. But I wouldn’t say something like that. Because that isn’t a very good pun. That doesn’t meet my high standards of puns, and they are very high standards, I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you a thing or three!

So back to this idea of compassion. I think it’s something that dare I say, is a little hard to find sometimes. More and more, I have really tried to tread lightly on social media. I try to avoid the unpleasant arguments and the unkindness that I see all too often. Every now and then, I feel like I need to chime in to set the record straight about a false accusation about the Church that I see by a friend on FaceBook. It is complicated when you have friends who have become bitter towards the Church.  I don’t want to unfriend them.  If they do nothing but bash the Church, I’ll probably mute them for awhile. It just gets tiresome.

Welcome, everybody!  I am recording from the lovely town of Port Angeles, Washington where Covid is on the rise again. We are having a bit of a breakout here. It’s discouraging right as we are starting school this Thursday. I’m hoping we don’t get all shut down again. Like you, I just can’t wait until we get through this.

Well, today I talk cars. Yeah, every now and then I talk cars. I talk about how I came to own a 1965 Ford Mustang. So let’s get to it!

If you’ve listened to the show, you know that I’m into cars. In fact, if you want to go back and listen to an episode where I talk about every car that I’ve owned, check out episode 19. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to hear about every car that I’ve owned, but it is one of our top listened to episodes. If I were going purely for numbers, I would quit my podcast and just start one on cars. But, that’s not what this podcast is all about.

Then why are you talking about cars again? You might ask?  Well, that’s my business. haha.. . No, but sometimes a guy needs to have a little fun. This podcast has some fun to it every now and then.

Well the were simpler times back in the 90’s. I was working for a company called System Connection. I was selling cables back when USB was a new thing. I had a small family, two children at the time, Julienne and Maggie, and a small home in Springville, Utah. Life was pretty good. My wife is a patient lady, and I got to looking at ebay, back in the day when the internet took forever to load a webpage, and looking at things on your phone was not a thing yet. But I found this sweet one owner 1965 Ford Mustang on an auction on ebay. It was technically the second owner, but the father was the original owner and then gave it to his daughter, so it was in the family still.

Tune in to hear the rest!

Welcome, everybody!  I am recording from the lovely town of Port Angeles, Washington. We are just returning from a quick trip to Utah.  It was quick in the sense that we didn’t stay that long. But when you are driving 1150 miles each way, it really isn’t that quick.

Well in today’s show, I share some thoughts on the changes in my life and the times and seasons. So let’s get to it.

This past week we went down to Utah to take our daughter Emma to Utah State University - GO AGGIES. She graduated from high school and chose to go to USU.  She’s really smart, she has good ideas, she’s beautiful inside and out, and I am really going to miss her a lot. Our daughter Camille who is 12 is really missing her as well. Of course, we are all missing her, even our little Yorkie Poo named Minnie is wondering where she is.

In addition to Emma going to USU, we now have our daughter Julienne at BYU-Idaho and our daughter Maggie at the University of Utah. Half of our children are grown and out of the home! How is this happing?

We still have three at home, Gavin is in high school, Camille is in middle school, and our X-man, Xavier is in elementary school.

This parenting thing is hard. You put all your love, sweat, and tears into raising these children, and then poof! They move out. I got to admit, I’m grieving a bit.

This isn’t the first time we’ve had a child move out of course. Our daughter Julienne served her mission in Nebraska. When we dropped her off to the MTC in Provo, we said our goodbyes over by the Provo temple, took pictures, gave her lots of hugs, etc. But driving away from the MTC and watching her walk away with her suitcases, realizing that we wouldn’t see her again for 18 months, was tough! We were all silent in our van. All of a sudden there was a vacant seat in our 8 passenger van. It was tough.

With our daughter Maggie, it was kind of a soft transition. She left and went to the Ukraine to teach English. It seemed more temporary. But she soon came home and then moved out to go to college. She just transferred from Utah State University to the University of Utah. Go Utes!

As I was driving home after dropping off Emma at Utah State University in Logan Utah and Julienne at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho, I looked in the rearview mirror. It seemed kind of empty. Now there were 3 empty seats in our 8 passenger van.

Tune in to hear the rest of the show! 

Welcome, everybody!  I am recording from the lovely town of Port Angeles, Washington.

This past week we went to the funeral of my mother-in-law’s sister. My inlaws are in their 80’s and it was not an easy trip for them. We left Friday and it took a lot longer to get to Wenatchee, Washington than the GPS said it would. Haha  But I have come to appreciate funerals.  You learn a lot about the people and if it’s family, you get a glimpse into the family’s life.  Their family farmed in Quincy, WA. They weren’t rich but they always had food. That’s more than a lot of people can say.

Well, today I have a good show for you about some lessons that I learned from some people I look up to. So let’s get to it.

Do you have people who you look up to or someone you admire? Do you have a mentor or a hero?

A couple of weeks ago in your young men church lesson, the question was asked if we had anyone who we looked up to. If we want to be like someone, we try to do the things that they do. In my life I’ve had many people whom I have looked up to and admired.

I remember before my mission, as I was considering whether to go on a mission, I wanted to be like our bishop. He seemed very happy. They had a great family. I remember thinking the same thing about our home teacher, and a couple of other men in our ward.

In a previous episode, I spoke about Brother Brandt, my seminary teacher. He was someone who you couldn’t help loving.  I wanted to know the scriptures like he did and have a love for them as he did. He genuinely enjoyed the scriptures and loved to share things from them.

As I served my mission, I looked up to my mission presidents, President Neil L. Andersen (now an apostle) and President Richard Oveson.  I learned different things from them. President Andersen was my mission president for the first 12 months or so. President Andersen, now Elder Andersen, knew that the Book of Mormon was vitally important to us missionaries. He had a schedule for us to keep where we read the entire Book of Mormon every two months. I have the tally marks in the front of my missionary Book of Mormon where I read it once, twice, 5 times, 10 times. Then it moved over to the French Book of Mormon with a  tally mark for each time that I had read it in French.

I remember being on fire and wanting to learn everything I could. I had a thirst for learning. I told President Andersen that I had started in the old testament and was going to read the Bible cover to cover.  He suggested that I start with the New Testament.  He told me of his love for the words of the Savior in the new testament and that it would be helpful for me to read it cover to cover first. I was glad that I followed his instructions. Not long after finishing it I had someone challenge me saying that I probably had never even read the new testament. I was able to say that I had read it from cover to cover.

When he would interview us, he would have a shoe shine kit there. As we would talk, he would take our shoes and polish them. It was an incredible act of service.  Now as I look back at it, and now that he is an apostle, I can see more symbolism in this, as it reminds me of the Savior washing his apostles’ feet.  John 13:5  it says, 5 After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to awash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? 7 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. 8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. I understand a little of what Peter was saying there. He felt like he should not be the one having his feet washed, but should be washing the feet of Jesus Christ. 

Tune in for more!

Welcome, everybody!  I am recording from the lovely town of Port Angeles, Washington.

We had some friends come stay with us for a few days and they went to many of the local tourist destinations like the Olympic National Park, the rain forest, Marymere Falls, etc. We really live in a neat place.

Well, today we have a good show for you. I talk about an incredible story of the Dutch saints after World War II. I recently wrote about this in the Peninsula Daily News and I thought that I would share a little about it here on the podcast. So let’s get to it!

Have you had the opportunity to travel overseas much? I feel like I’ve traveled a bit throughout my life, but I’m always amazed at all the places in the world where we have listeners!

The demographics that I’ve seen on our listeners are interesting. Most listeners are in the USA, but we have listeners in 24 other countries as well, including Estonia. I mention Estonia because I keep getting notifications that the Rocky Mountain Sunshine Podcast is ranking in the top Christian podcasts in Estonia, so to you listeners in Estonia, Hello from Port Angeles, Washington in the USA! One thing that I always that was so cool about living overseas was how many people spoke English. We really don’t do well as a country on being bilingual.

My wife and I lived in The Netherlands for a year and a half on a work assignment.  I was fascinated by the stories we heard about what it was like to have lived through the German occupation of World War II. One of the members of our church congregation in Almere, where we lived, told us of how the city of Rotterdam had been completely decimated by the German bombs. She said that they just kept bombing and bombing even after all the buildings were rubble. Nothing was left. After WWII, the entire city had to be reconstructed.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like to go through that. So much destruction. So many lives had been lost. Everyone had been through a terrible ordeal.

After the war, the Dutch members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints obtained some potatoes, not for eating, but for planting.  They kneeled and prayed over their potatoes and planted them asking God to bless them and the land for a bounteous harvest. These people had hardly anything left. They were in a dreadful situation.

Across the border in Germany were members of the same faith.  Walter Stover, a leader from the Church in Germany came to visit Cornelius Zappey, one of the Dutch Church leaders. Stover told Zappey that the members of the Church in Germany were starving and even in a worse situation than the Dutch members of the Church, and winter was approaching. Zappey felt that he needed to ask the Dutch members to donate their potato harvest to their German brothers and sisters who were in desperate need. He wondered if he could ask so much of them.

Imagine being there. Your country had been overrun. Unspeakable things had happened. You were left with almost nothing. Germany was to blame for it all. Yet, members of your faith in Germany were starving, and you had been asked to give your harvest to those who were your foe just a few months prior.

Tune in for the rest of the story!

#dutch

#potatoes

#latterdaysaints

#WWII

#worldwar2

#ww2

If you served a mission, was there anything that happened that made you think, this is why I came on my mission?

I remember having a talk with one of my missionary friends during lunch at a zone conference when I was a missionary in France. He was telling me about an amazing experience he had by finding a family, teaching them the gospel, and seeing them get baptized.  He said, “This is the reason I came to France.”

The miracles that you see as a missionary are incredible as people grasp onto the gospel of Jesus Christ, change their lives for the better, and commit to keep the commandments.  But I wasn’t sure that I had ever thought, “This is why I came to France.”

In my last area, in the city of Pau, I really had seen some miracles and the missionaries were seeing some success.  One of the assistants to the mission president (AP) came to our town and we went on exchanges together. (We called them splits.) We went to a building that my companion and I were previously tracting out and continued where we had left off.  We knocked on a door and a nice lady answered and said that her husband would be back tomorrow. We left a Book of Mormon with her and said we’d stop by the next day.

The next day my companion and I stopped by to see if we could speak to them about the Book of Mormon that we had dropped off. To our surprise, we were greeted with a smile as the husband welcomed us in. His name was Etienne Kapinga Mwamba.  We learned that he and his family were refugees seeking political asylum in France from Zaire (Congo.) He had been a high-ranking officer in the army, and then there was a coup, and all of a sudden he was on a hit list. He said that if he was forced to return, he would be killed.  He had managed to escape with his wife and two young daughters.  He had left behind two older boys whom he hoped could join them later. They lived in pretty humble circumstances with very little to their name.

We asked him if he had a chance to look at the scriptures we had suggested to read. To our surprise, he had read them all and had actually started reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning.  He shared with us that he had been praying to know how to find eternal life for him and his family. He said, funny enough, when they moved into the apartment, it was completely empty, except for a Book of Mormon that someone had left behind. He said that he couldn’t believe that he had this book on the shelf and had never opened it up to see what treasures were inside. We were eager to explain just what this precious book was that he was holding.

We set up a time to come back and teach him. Initially, he didn’t want to have his wife and children in the discussion. I think he wanted to see what we were all about first.  I could respect that. After everything that he had gone through, he was being cautious.

The first discussion went really well. He had a strong Christian background and had read and studied the Bible. He had been educated in the USA and had enjoyed a successful life in Zaire. He embraced it all and really loved the Book of Mormon. He was reading through it quickly.

When I was a missionary, the second discussion (meeting) was generally when you challenged the person investigating the LDS religion to baptism. We went by the book and asked him if he’d be baptized. He said that he would fast (go without food or drink) and pray about it before making a decision.

Tune in to hear the rest!

#zaire

#congo

#lds

#france

#thechurchofjesuschrist

Today I have three of my favorite guests joining me! My daughters Julienne in Provo,Utah, Maggie in Logan, Utah, and here in the studio with me, we have Emma.

So, let’s get to it.

Transition music

For some reason, probably because of my experiences, I have always thought that bullying was something I had to worry about my boys but not my girls. Obviously, I was wrong about that.

So some statistics I found were that 1 out of every 5 kids have reported being bullied. Slightly higher percentage are boys.

Was there bullying in your elementary school?

I remember back in elementary in my class there was a girl who was mixed race and she was made fun of.

I was bullied quite a bit in elementary. I remember being chased on the playground with kids who had jump ropes and they’d whip me.

I was punched & tripped

I remember I didn’t want ot wear my winter cap because it had a ball on top and kids would take it from me at recess.

In 5th grade, I got a new fake leather jacket. A kid came up to me and told me not to wear it and that I wasn’t as cool as him and his leather jacket.

I remember a group of kids would sometimes chase me home either walking riding my bike.

I remember my bike was made fun of because it wasn’t a cool brand.

I got in a fight one morning before school and a friend of mine Brett got in between me and this kid and punched him. He left me alone after that.

Teachers were either unaware or just apathetic.

I feel like teachers are better now? I don’t think they ever came outside.

Was there bullying at middle school?

In Junior High, I had a kite taken away.

I made friends with a kid who was a lot bigger than me. I remember my friend Brad got in between me and someone at jr high.

I remember kids making fun of my clothes and fake “Vans” shoes because we couldn’t afford the brand names.

Tune in for more!

#bullying

#cyberbullying

Have you ever discovered some part of your family history that was just fascinating?

Before the lights, the strip, and the casinos in Las Vegas, was the Old Mormon Fort.

Las Vegas in Spanish means “The meadows.”  There was a creek that ran through the Las Vegas valley giving a little life to the surroundings harsh desert valley. It was along Old Spanish Trail.

The Paiutes (Pah-utes) indigenous people lived there in small camps and nomadic.

1847 Mormons arrived in Salt Lake. In 1851 they settled San Bernadino. To better help travelers between Salt Lake and California, they wanted to establish a fort in Las Vegas.

In the 1855 General Conference, Brigham Young called 30 men to Las Vegas. Forty wagons with ox teams, fifteen cows, and several riding horses. He called William A. Bringhurst to lead them. Being very faithful, they left almost immediately. It’s a little different than today’s mission calls.

And, yes, I am related to him. William is my Great, Great, Great Grandfather’s Brother.  When my ancestor Samual Bringurst and his brother William joined the church, their father was very disappointed and left them each one dollar in his will, only because that was the law. He stated that he hoped that they would return from their evil ways. I could do a whole other episode on The Bringhursts in Philadelphia.  I looked on familysearch and saw that my ancestor, Samuel Bringhurst Sr., who is Williams brother, was endowed in Nauvoo in 1846.

William Bringhurst was born in Philadelphia in 1818. He married his wife Ann Dillworth in 1845 and traveled to Utah with the John Taylor company arriving in Salt Lake in 1847. So a few years later he is called on this mission to Las Vegas.  It took 30 days to get there by wagon from SLC.  They arrived on June 14, 1855. They quickly built a bowery. Why? Well think of Las Vegas in June with no air conditioning! These folks were tough as nails!  They had their Sunday service their first Sunday there and then the next day got to work on building the fort.

It took 7 months to build an adobe fort.  150 Feet square. It was the largest building in 100 miles. Tough life. They made adobe bricks that hardened and dried in the sun and they farmed.

These early Latter-day Saints, or as many called them, “Mormons”, built around 35 forts in various settlements. I grew up close to the Union Fort, or what is called now the Fort Union area in Midvale, Utah. President Hinckley’s grandfather built the Cove Fort in Millard County. It has been restored and rebuilt and it is a fun place to visit just outside of Beaver, Utah.

The Las Vegas fort was made mostly from adobe bricks where were made on location there. The foundations were stone. The walls were 14 feet high, 2 feet thick for the first 8 feet, and then a foot thick above that. The east wall was where the mess houses and dwellings were. They were two stories tall. Wood was sparse so the ground floor was dirt and the second story floor was wood planks. Nails were also short supply so they used rawhide or wooden pegs to attach the planks to beams.  They were built inside the fort facing the courtyard. There were holes in the walls to shoot attackers.

Tune in for the rest!

#mormon

#lasvegas

#latterdaysaint

#latterdaysaints

#thechurchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints

If you could go back and do school all over again, what would you change? I have a large variety of things that I would change, but one of them is that I would have given myself a little more encouragement when it came to writing and my English classes.

At a young age, someone gave me a journal, and I have written in a journal on and off my whole life. In episode 5 I spoke about the miracle of my mission journals. I’ve always enjoyed writing.  But in high school, I felt like English was one of my worst subjects. The reason was that I could not figure out diagramming sentences.  I was terrible at it. On into college, I dreaded English classes.  I always seemed to make up for it with essays, and writing, including book reports. But it took me a while to really grasp grammar rules and I don’t know about diagramming sentences to this day.

I took French in Junior High and High School. When I went to sign up for advanced French my senior year, my teacher discouraged me saying that I would not be able to pass the class.

Little would he know that I would be called to a French-speaking mission and after my mission get a degree at BYU minoring in French.

Learning the French language helped me understand English better. I have told many high-school and college students, that English may be the most important class in their studies.  Being able to effectively communicate and to do it without major glaring grammatical errors is so important in a world where we communicate constantly through text & email. It quickly shows if you lack some of these skills and it might impede your career.

I decided to start a blog in 2017 called ... you got it, “Rocky Mountain Sunshine.”  I’ve had a lot of compliments, and a fair amount of criticism.  In high school, getting papers back with all the things that I had done wrong in red really was discouraging. In college, I started to get more confidence in writing, and I took a business English class where all of a sudden, English grammar started to make sense. It somehow just clicked. I wrote a lot of papers in humanities, psychology, and English. Then I served a mission and learned French. My French improved a ton, and I came home, tested out of several French classes at BYU, and got my minor in French, which is no cakewalk. BYU has a really difficult French program. My understanding of the French language helped my English quite a lot. Well, actually when I first came home from France, my English was all messed up.

One of the first dates I went on was with the sister of one of my former companions. He had set us up. We went to temple square and they had a movie that was being played in one of the theaters. I asked, “Can we assist the movie?” Both the person at the door and my date looked at me weird. I didn’t understand where there was a communication breakdown. I again asked if it was possible for us to assist the movie.  Again two people looking at me wondering what I wanted. In French assister means to attend. I wanted to know if we could attend the movie. Luckily my date translated for me and I walked into the theater baffled.  For some reason, we never went on another date. Haha

Tune in for more!

Do you know someone who has stepped away from the Church for a while and then later returned? I love hearing stories about how people find their way back to the Church and enjoy the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ again in their life.

I was listening to a podcast recently by Richard Ostler called Listen, Learn, & Love. The introduction of this episode said that the guest was from Baltimore, MD. I’ve been there several times. Usually just flying in and then driving to Harrisburg, PA.

Then the host said the guest’s name. Karim Lazarus. The last name was unique and sounded familiar. I thought that there was a missionary in our mission with that name.

He then said that he was 50 years old. I’m 50. So that matched.

He was a convert to the Church and went on a mission a year later and served a mission in France.  I thought that it was a good chance that it was the missionary from my mission.

The host said that he had spent 15 years out of the church, and now had come back to full activity.

Karim then told about his life growing up without a dad in the home. He had some difficult experiences growing up. In between his junior and senior year of military high school, their family went through temple square and he was given a Book of Mormon. He was in the back of a motorhome as they traveled and he read it. He read it another time and then went to the Air Force Academy.  At the Air Force Academy, one of the other cadets had a Book of Mormon. He struck up a conversation with this person and the cadet eventually introduced Karim to the missionaries. He took the lessons and he joined the Church. He decided to go on a mission a year later.

As Karim was telling his story he mentioned his mission president, Neil L. Andersen in Bordeaux, France.  So now I knew that he was definitely a missionary in my mission.

Welcome to the Rocky Mountain Sunshine podcast where we share faith, have some fun, and strive to add a little sunshine to your day! I am your host, Jason Bringhurst.

Welcome, everybody!  I am recording from the lovely town of Port Angeles, Washington where there is beauty all around. My daughter Camille turned 12 yesterday and had dinner up at Lake Crescent, and it was just absolutely beautiful.

Well, today I talk about an accident that happened in Sandy, Utah that changed the lives of many people.

So, let’s get to it.

Did you have any major events in your life as a teenager?

I have had a few. I have thought about one event, in particular, many times.

I had a group of friends in my Sandy neighborhood. I was friends with them all. There was one friend who was probably the tallest of us all. We were good friends. Not best friends, but part of our neighborhood group of friends. We were in the same ward. We went to the same school, though they were all 1 year younger than me. We did scouting together. In fact my first scout camp we camped in a tent together. He gave me string cheese for the first time. He was good at scouting. We played basketball. He was much taller than I was. We even got into a bike race once where I crashed. He came down to my house and would hang out and I went to his house and would hang out. His mom and family were always nice to me.

In 1986 my friends Brent and Cameron were helping move someone in the ward. They turned from 1300 E to Creek rd and it threw them out of the back of the truck with the load. Brent broke both wrists and his ankle. Cameron landed on his head and sustained major head trauma. He was life-flighted to either the U of U probably Primary Childrens which is right there. His younger sister Tammy was babysitting at the time for a neighbor. Her grandmother was at their house and got the news first. Her grandmother notified her and her parents. It was on Cameron’s older sister’s birthday. 

Life for Cameron seemed to stop for him in his mind. He never moved on from being a 14-15 year old. When we got our driver's licenses he kept thinking that he was going to get his soon, even years later. His short-term memory was really non-existent.

Some effects that I didn’t know about that Tammy shared with me was how everything became about Cameron. In the ward, in the family, etc. It was like she didn’t exist. She went from being 13 to having to be responsible for herself because all the time went to taking care of Cameron. She grew tired of all the pity from everyone. She was her own person. Her mom had a hard time moving on too. She not only lost the brother she knew, but she also lost a lot of her mom. She had to grow up fast.

Welcome, everybody!  I am recording from the lovely town of Port Angeles, Washington where it is not hot! We are REALLY far northwest, next to Dungeness. So, Dungeness crab is to Port Angeles, what the potato is to Boise, Idaho… Maybe. I don’t know really.  I’m not that great with analogies. Haha

I had mentioned in a previous episode how it might be deceiving to continue to call my show Rocky Mountain Sunshine when I actually don’t live in the Rocky Mountains anymore.  I want to thank a listener, Craig Lybbert, who lives in Eastern Washington, for sending me an email suggesting “Soggy Mountain Sunshine” as a possible rebranding for the podcast. I love that. Haha.  I’ll keep thinking about it, but that’s not bad. Thanks, Craig. He also added that the Olympic National Park here in Port Angeles is his favorite vacation spot. Lots of people come here to vacation. It is a beautiful area.

Today I talk about seminary and a prompting that I got to reach out to an old friend.  So let’s get into it.

Last night was our stake seminary graduation. My daughter Emma graduated from high school last week, and last night she graduated from seminary. As bishop, I was asked to be on the stand and congratulate all of the graduates from my ward. Emma was the only one this year, so I wasn’t playing favorites when I gave her a hug instead of a handshake.  She’s a very bright young woman with a heart of gold.  She’s the type of kid who doesn’t want to kill a moth or bug that has made its way into the home. She gets a glass and covers it and takes it outside so it can find its way into our neighbor’s home. Haha

She’s a great kid and I’m lucky to be her dad. My son Gavin started seminary this year as well. They have to do early morning seminary at 6:45 AM. None of that cushy released time that I had in Midvale, Utah at Hillcrest High School. They do have a pretty fantastic seminary teacher though. My wife Jen has enjoyed teaching early-morning seminary for the past couple of years here in Port Angeles.  This past year has been interesting as the entire year was taught over zoom.

I had a customer, Randy Varney, who had a son, Phillip Varney, who was serving in Austria and Switzerland. The Swiss government made a law in 2010 banning foreign missionaries from the USA and other non-European Union countries. They wanted all missionaries to leave. As they were discussing this with pleas from several U.S. senators, they said that if the missionaries could prove that they had Swiss heritage, and had a theology, religious, or seminary degree, they could stay. The mission contacted Randy and they were able to quickly get the proof that they had Swiss ancestry and sent a copy of Phillip’s 4-year seminary graduation certificate.  They had no idea how important the seminary degree would be.

Do you have a sacred place? Somewhere where you can go to talk with God? We call the grove behind Joseph Smith’s family’s log cabin “sacred” because of the prayer that he offered, and his vision of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.  Temples are sacred places. Our home can be a sacred place.

Let’s go back to 1990. Sometime in early 1990, I had gone to church, something that I was not doing very regularly at all at this point in my life.  My bishop, Moroni Whitaker asked to speak with me after church.  He invited me to go on a mission. I was not thinking about a mission much. I felt like I wasn’t really living the way I should and my 19th birthday had come and gone and I didn’t see myself going.  But his invitation got me thinking about it.

I decided that I needed to clear my head. I left Salt Lake City in my 1970 Chevy Pickup. I needed to get away. I needed to find myself. I drove south and kept looking eastward to the mountains. I knew Salt Lake fairly well, but Utah County was unexplored territory for me. I decided to take a little exit in Springville and headed east. I drove for quite some time and the road led me to the mouth of Hobble Creek Canyon.  There were no people around, and it was the solitude that I was looking for.

Hobble Creek Canyon is like no other place I had been. The mountains surround this canyon which is painted with light and dark green colors from evergreens, maple, and quaking aspen trees.  If you go there in the fall, the leaves on the maple trees turn red and the leaves of the quaking aspens turn yellow. Together with the green from the pine trees, it is breathtaking.  It’s a place to go to think, to ponder life, and search your soul. And back in 1990, it was not crowded.

I kept driving up the canyon. I started seeing ranches with horses. I thought of how nice it would be to live away from the city.  Then I came to an open gate where the paved road ended.  I ventured forward on the dirt road, now really feeling like I was leaving civilization behind. The surroundings were beautiful. Hobble Creek runs through the canyon and many trees grow close to the creek. The road runs adjacent to the creek and it is heavily wooded. Trees on either side arch over the road making a natural tunnel of leaves and branches. The road became more difficult to drive, but I was able to continue in my truck. With the deep holes and rocks, most cars would not be able to continue which meant that there was less chance of there being people where I was headed.  The river had even washed part of the road away at one point. I had the radio off. It was uncharacteristic for me. I was simply listening to the hum of my engine and the squeaks of my truck, along with the sound of the water running down the creek and the wind blowing through the aspen leaves.

I eventually came to a fork in the road. I had recently read Scott Peck’s “The Road Less traveled and decided to take the road which clearly was less traveled. The grass was growing up the two parallel tire paths, but it was obviously a road. The unused road led to the top of a hill where the road ended. I parked my truck, stepped out into the long green grass, and was inspired by the view.

Tune in to hear more!

Welcome, everybody! As usual, I recording from Port Angeles, Washington, which is not in the Rocky Mountains as the Podcast name might imply.  I started a blog called Rocky Mountain Sunshine while living in Utah in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, but we moved to Port Angeles, Washington, which still has mountains, but these are the Olympic Mountains.  I kept blogging and kept the name. I started the podcast back in November last year, and just decided to go with Rocky Mountain Sunshine. So here we are! Maybe one day I’ll change the name. Who knows.  Let me know if you have an opinion either way or if you have a suggestion for a different name.

Well, today I talk about the best Latter-day Saint podcasts out there. I know what you’re thinking… There are other LDS podcasts out there? Haha.  We’ll stick round and you’ll see. Let’s get to it.

I got a really nice message from a good friend of mine, Matt, who is a pro at Norwegian dancing, and a listener to the show. He said, “I listen to your podcast and it totally cracks me up. Also, it is better than any other LDS podcast that I have found. Do you recommend any others? The ones that I have listened to are incredibly boring.”

Well thanks Matt! That is really nice.  I of course replied, “Sadly my podcast IS the best podcast out there, so I suggest just re-listening to all of my podcasts.” haha - I’m kidding. So I’m going to talk more about this today.

He also reminded me of something that I had forgotten about. I was a counselor in the bishopric in Highland and our bishop was in the national guard so he was gone one Sunday every month. As the first counselor, in his absence, I would conduct bishopric meetings, ward councils, sacrament meetings, etc. I didn’t like sitting in the bishop’s chair when he was gone. My friend Mat wrote, “Remember how you used to sit next to the Bishop's desk and not behind the desk in Ward Council, etc. when Bishop Baker was out of town? Do you still sit next to your desk in the Bishop's office or have you tried sitting behind it? Just wondering.” haha  If you’ve picked up a bit of my humor, from the show, and get a sense of Mat’s humor, who was our Executive Secretary, and then add in our bishop and 2nd counselor. You start to see that we sat around laughing a lot more than we probably should have as a bishopric.

This also reminds me of a little prank I did on Bishop Baker.  He had gone to see Boston in concert the night before.  We had a google sheet that we shared which had our sacrament hymns and the outline for our program.  So I thought it would be funny to change all the names of the sacrament hymns to Boston Songs and see if the bishop noticed.  I was sitting there straight-faced in our bishopric meeting when Bishop Baker reviewed the program. It went something like this. “We will begin the meeting singing hymn # 275 “More than a feeling”. Sister Johnson will give the opening prayer. We will have our sacrament hymn # 304 “Peace of Mind”. We will have a talk from Brother Jones, and Sister Smith, and our closing hymn will be Hymn 85, “Don’t Look Back.”....  Long pause.  Wait.  Are these real hymns?

Tune in for the rest of the episode! 

#latterdaysaints

#latterdaysaint

#thechurchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints

Did you see the movie Twister back in 1996? Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton.  Or maybe more iconic, how about The Wizard of Oz from 1939 with Judy Garland? If you’re like me, these movies made you terrified of tornados. And, well, I think that we should be.

When we moved to Highland, Utah we were excited to have a big yard. We had three daughters; Julienne was 6, Maggie had just turned 5, and Emma was almost 2. Part of the appeal of the house was a big playground in the back yard and room for a trampoline.

We bought a trampoline and my brother Nick and I spent a whole Saturday putting the thing together. It was very heavy and it had a big net that went all the way around it connected to big tall metal poles. You could not move the trampoline by yourself, and we had difficulty moving it where we wanted with just two of us. The day was almost over but the kids had a good couple of hours to jump on it. We were all excited about the trampoline. It looked really nice. It looked safe. I was tired, but it was a good day’s work and I felt like we had accomplished something my kids would enjoy for a long time.

We had the kids come inside, eat dinner, take baths, and read scriptures as a family. We did all the regular things on a Saturday night getting ready for church the next morning. Later that night a big storm came through.

Now we were new to Highland and didn’t know that Highland, Utah is known for its strong wind gusts. Highland sits at the base of American Fork Canyon. Well, this storm was a big one. I could hear the rain against our bedroom window and the wind howling. I had the thought, “I wonder how the trampoline is doing?” I turned on the floodlights to the backyard. I looked hard squinting and scanning the backyard, then I said to my wife Jen, “It’s gone!” She said, “What do you mean it’s gone?” and I said, “I can’t see it anywhere!” I got dressed and grabbed a flashlight. I went out to where the trampoline had been. Nothing was around. I looked over to the swing set and it had been smashed and toppled. I shined the flashlight all around the yard, on our roof, in the trees. The trampoline had vanished. Sticks, branches, and other things were flying through the air like in a tornado. A large piece of aluminum siding from a shed flew through the air above me and I began to think that it might not be safe for me to be out in the storm. I went out to the front yard and through rain hitting my face and blurring my vision, I could see a crumpled trampoline across the street. I crossed the street to get a closer look. As I shined the flashlight on it in unbelief, I could tell that it actually wasn’t our trampoline. It was a different color. I later found out it was our neighbor’s who lived three houses down the street. Completely puzzled, I looked around and finally gave up. It wasn’t in Kansas anymore… or at least it wasn’t in my yard. So I clicked my shoes and said, “There’s no place like home!” and went to bed.

Tune in to hear the rest!

Have you ever been asked a question about the gospel, the Church, or any of the commandments and didn’t have a good answer? Maybe you didn’t know the “why” behind it? Sometimes we are called to a calling and we wonder why. Sometimes there are aspects about the gospel to which we don’t have clear answers.

We had the missionaries over for dinner last week. These two elders both are delayed from going to their final mission destination. One is going to Japan and has a missionary tag in Japanese. The other one, fresh out of the home MTC due to Covid, is eventually heading to Toronto, Canada, Mandarin Chinese speaking. His missionary tag is in Chinese.  I have been so impressed as I’ve seen the missionaries over the past year obediently quarantine, stop visiting members and investigators, and move their efforts to Facebook, and other creative ways. Now that we are vaccinated and they are vaccinated, it is so nice to be able to have them over again and it’s always such a blessing to have the missionaries in our home. I was telling them how we don’t always know why things happen in our lives, but the Lord knows, and I suspect that there is a reason that they are here in Port Angeles, Washington.

I’ve been thinking a lot about obedience over the past few days.  When I think of obedience, I often think of Adam being questioned by an angel about building and alter and offering sacrifices.  I’m paraphrasing Moses 5, but the angel said, “Why are you doing this?” And Adam replied that he didn’t know exactly, except that God had commanded him to.  Sometimes that is all we have. We don’t know the why in every detail. 

Tune in to hear more!

Where would you travel right now if you could go anywhere?

I have been fortunate to travel a bit around the world. I have lived in Europe, in France, Holland, and England. While living there I was able to go to Germany often and have traveled to Italy.  In the U.S. I’ve lived in Utah and in Washington state. I’ve traveled quite a lot in the U.S. and have traveled internationally to Asia, traveling to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.  I do enjoy traveling, meeting people, and experiencing new cultures, foods, and seeing beautiful architecture. I love getting out and seeing how the locals live.

If I could travel anywhere though, my heart always longs to go back to France. I particularly love southern France.  I had a member of the Church in France tell me once how lucky I was to have learned the French language because it was the celestial language and we’d all speak it in heaven! She may have been right, but Elder Uchtdorf thinks German is the celestial language. As we say in French, “On vera.” or, we will see. haha

There is a place in southern France called Carcasonne. Carcassonne is one of my favorite cities in France. You are transported back to another time as you enter the walled city situated on top of a hill.

I never served there while on my mission. I think it might have been just outside of our mission boundaries or maybe we just didn’t have missionaries there. But I’ve been able to visit several times since my mission.

I love wandering the streets, walking the walls of the city, visiting shops, and peering out of the watchtowers.  It is a place I highly recommend visiting if you are traveling in the southern part of France. It’s an unforgettable place.

I served in Pau which is not very far from Carcasonne. It’s in the southern part of France, not far from the Pyrenees.   Carcassonne dates back to at least 200 B.C. and has a long history of invasions and sieges.

In the Middle Ages, Carcassonne was a major center for commerce and trade with the Middle East.  It was a tempting, prosperous, target for any invader.

Tune in to hear the rest!

#latterdaysaint

#lds

#mormon

#thechurchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints

#churchofchrist

#christian

#family

#carcassonne

#france

#latterdaysaints

Have you ever had the Spirit reprimand you? That happened to me this past week

I’ve been a little hesitant to talk about this, but I think that my experience might be helpful to others.

My stepfather passed away last week. I was not close to him and my mom was only married to him for a few years, but when when I was about 12, my mom had my brother Nick. Technically Nick is my stepbrother, but I’ve never called him that. He’s my brother. And after talking to him on the phone about his dad’s passing, I felt like I should go down to Utah to be with him during this time.

It’s a long drive down to Utah from Port Angeles, WA and I had a lot of time on my own to think.

I remembered some of the disappointment that came around that time of my life. I wanted a family. I wanted my mom to be married. I wanted my brother. I wanted us to go on vacations and do things that families did.

But there was one thing. My stepfather Nick was an alcoholic.  I realized that I was harboring some resentment and bad feelings.

Do you have an amazing family?  Me too.

Back in 1995, if you can believe it, so long ago, President Gordon B. Hinckley gave a very important talk to the women of the Church.  Jen and I had only been married for a few months. We had rented an apartment in Springville, Utah directly across from a church building. She had gone to the women’s session of General Conference, September 23, 1995.  When she came home from the meeting she told me that Pres. Hinckley had told them something very important.

When I finally was able to read it (we really didn’t have the internet at this point), I thought it was great.  I honestly didn’t see the importance.  It seemed so basic and straightforward.

I couldn’t imagine why it was necessary. But a prophet of the Lord thought it was so important, that he, the first presidency, and the quorum of the 12 apostles wrote this proclamation to the world. Now 26 years later, I can only say it was prophetic. And Jen was right. It was very important.

I wasn’t going to read it in its entirety. I was going to read a couple of parts that I had highlighted. But I’ve decided that I will read it all. It’s fairly short.

Titled, “The Family, A Proclamation to the World,” it says,

In addition to these prophets, seers, and revelators, I add my testimony to theirs, that this is of God.

Tune in to hear the rest!

Have you ever had the feeling that you’re not good enough? Not good enough as a parent? Not good enough at your job? Not good enough for the University you’re attending? Not good enough for your spouse? Not good enough for your calling?

Recently I had that thought come into my mind. I’m still a fairly newly called bishop. I was sustained and set apart back in January.

I was kind of going over all the things that I needed to do and things that I should be doing and I had this thought, “you’re not good enough to be bishop”

I was kind of surprised, and then started thinking of why that was right, and then I had the thought, “Where did that thought just come from?”

I remember as I was released from being a counselor in the bishopric in my ward in Highland, Utah, that the new bishop said that the first week or so it felt like Satan was going all out after him. I don’t know if he was talking about thoughts like these or what, but I can only say that this thought must have come from Satan to discourage me.

I tried to find some things on the Church’s website which might help.

There is an article from October 2018 Liahona called “What every bishop wants his ward members to Know.”

I have known very few bishops who felt they were truly “prepared” for the calling. I do know, however, that “whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.”1 While a bishop knows he is becoming qualified, he also struggles with feeling like he is never going to do the calling well. He will do his best to give wise counsel when needed, to not offend people, and to be in tune with the Spirit, but he will still wonder at times if he is fulfilling his calling acceptably.

Tune in for the rest of the story!

In today’s episode, I talk about fear. To be clear, I am not referring to a political party or candidate.  Clearly politicians historically have used fear, but I do not specifically address that. I have talked with many people over the past year who seem to have a lot of fear. It can be a scary time. We have lived through a worldwide pandemic. But recently, I have been thinking a lot about fear and how that is not something that Satan can use against us.

What do you fear?  Do you have a lot of fear in your life? Kevin J. Worthen - President of Brigham Young University in Sept. 2017 asked the question, What Is Fear? He explained, “fear is a feeling induced by perceived danger or threat that . . . ultimately [leads to] a change in behavior.” not all fear is bad The feeling that might arise when we hear the signature tail warning of a rattlesnake is one we should not ignore. It keeps us safe.

He then says that we are to fear the Lord according to the scriptures.He clarifies, by saying that Elder David A. Bednar once explained, this as “righteous fear”, It’s different from the fear we are commanded to avoid. Righteous fear is instead “a deep feeling of reverence, respect, and awe for the Lord Jesus Christ,” a feeling that induces “obedience to His commandments .

So if fear of real danger and fear of God are not covered by this commandment, just what is it that we are commanded to avoid? That fear is what some psychologists call “irrational fear” or “fear of the unknown, or ”a fear of future events that will not likely occur.” This can be a kind of fear that is debilitating, sometimes paralyzing, and almost always soul- and energy-sapping.

Tune in for the rest of the show!

Welcome to the Rocky Mountain Sunshine podcast where we share faith, have some fun, and strive to add a little sunshine to your day! I am your host, Jason Bringhurst.

It’s a great day! I got the second COVID vaccine.  I wanted to high five everyone.

I want to thank a reviewer, CheeseGromit for a wonderful 5 star review on Apple podcasts. I really appreciate it.

I had a friend and listener to the show, Stuart Grigg, who reached out and suggested that I give more of an explanation on how to give a rating and review on apple podcasts because many people may not know how to do it. I thought that it was a good idea since it is a bit confusing.

• 1. Open Podcasts (Apple podcasts) on your iPhone
  
• 2. Search for Rocky Mountain Sunshine
  
• 3. Scroll to the very bottom. You’ll see 5.0 out of 5 .  You can tap to rate (5 stars would be appreciated)
  
• 4. Click Write a Review and include a title. Any review is great.
  
• Make sure to hit send so they record the review!
  
• Thanks Stuart for the tip and now, let’s get to it!
  

Do you just love conference weekend?

(Tune in for the rest of the show)

Have you ever been in a situation where you thought that you shouldn’t do something but it would really benefit you if you did? Or maybe you could make a lot of money, but you knew it was wrong?  Well, have I got a story for you!

Last week my wife’s sister and her 3 adult children came to visit. Well, technically they were visiting my wife’s parents, but since we just live down the road, we got to spend some time with them. They were here on their spring break vacation.

I of course have to tell all of my crazy stories and one came up that I thought that I would share.

Life is hard. Starting a business isn’t easy. In November 2007 I decided to quit a good-paying job that I hated, and take a crack again at starting another business. I’ve started several businesses. Most have failed. I’ve been blessed and my company Professional Cable is still running almost 14 years later.  We supply cables such as Fiber Optic, Ethernet for Networking, and HDMI cables.

As I’ve gotten older and had more children, the pressure of making sure there is money in the bank & food on the table is daunting. Then in 2012, we had an epic medical emergency when our son Xavier was born 3 months premature and ended up spending 4 months at Primary Children’s Hospital. He developed hydrocephalus (see the post on hydrocephalus) which has required 8 brain surgeries.

So I know a little about financial stress.

Tune in for the rest of the story! 

Cheers from Port Angeles, Washington in the Pacific Northwest!

Easter is just around the corner! I’m excited on many levels for this Easter. I'm excited to see my family and friends in Utah. General Conference is on Easter this year. We are excited for an Easter egg hunt with the kids. It's going to be really great to see my family in Utah. It's been 15 months since I have been able to visit because of Covid!

Links mentioned in the episode:

Easter video that the youth of the Mt. Pleasant Ward helped me create.

https://youtu.be/CZvJWd1MCrw

The Tabernacle Choir singing, "He Is Risen."
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2015-04-4002-he-is-risen?lang=eng

In today's episode I talk about an experience with suicide that I had in Tours, France.

I looked behind me to go and I see two ladies walking towards me holding arms. I thought the one on the right was wearing a red bandana on her face. She got closer and I saw it was blood. I jumped off my bike and ran to see if I could help. She said to take her other arm. I left my bike on the bridge.  We walked towards the nearest building.  The lady who was helping her lived there.  The girl who was injured had a huge bump on her temple with a hole the size of a nickel in it.

Tune in to hear the rest of the story!

Latter-day Saint Commentary from Port Angeles, Washington

Not an official podcast of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Can I just say how much I love spring? I am starting to see trees blooming and I”m giddy! Bring on the sunshine!  I do miss how much sunshine there was in Utah compared to Port Angeles, but when there are blue skies here, along with the ocean air, it is so clear. No pollution or smog here.  There are advantages and disadvantages to living in both places.

Well, in today’s episode I talk about a letter that I found recently, written by my grandmother Maggie Alldredge, and how it impacted my life. Tune in and subscribe! 

Has Heavenly Father ever put someone on your path to help you at a certain point in your life? Looking back at my life, Dave Yates was a faith friend that I needed at a critical time in my life as I was trying to prepare to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

I have had so many cars! Hang on tight for a longer episode as I go through every one of my cars. 

From the 1975 Chevy Nova to a convertible BMW. From a 1965 Ford Mustang to a GMC Sierra pickup. I've had a lot of cars! 

But as I look back at all of these, while they brought me a lot of fun in the moment, none of this lasts forever.  What brings me eternal joy is my family.  Luckily some of my kids enjoy going to car shows with me and walking around looking at hot rods and classic cars. The greatest thing about these cars is the memory with family and friends in them.   I’ve been blessed not only to have a lot of fun cars, but to have a lot of fun with my friends and family. I am so grateful for that.

Happy Valentines! I hope that you had a great weekend! I made a deal with my son Gavin this Valentines. We both like white chocolate, and I am married to a strict orthodox chocolatarian, so white chocolate is not allowed in the house. You could be banished for having that stuff! Haha. Just kidding. But I do think my wife might shame us a bit for liking white chocolate.

So about today’s episode! I revisit a blog post of mine from May 10, 2019. I talked about an experience I had when we lived in Europe and the Lord’s Answer to ending world hunger.

So without any further delay,

• So, Let’s get to it!
  My wife and I had the opportunity to live in Holland and England for a couple years.
  
• While working in Europe, I was invited to attend a trade show in Germany where many representatives from the company would attend.
  
• My English and French language was needed and my expertise on our line of cables was also required.
  
• (Yes, there are people in the world who possess an incredible amount of boring knowledge about cables).
  
• During the show one day, I was having lunch with a co-worker from Greece.
  
• We staggered our lunch breaks so that we had enough coverage at the booth.
  
• We were in Germany at a trade show where they served the most amazing bratwurst I’ve ever eaten. Yes. At the trade show. They were so good…. They were perfectly cooked with the perfect freshest bun, which was almost more like a baguette with just the right amount of crunch… but I digress.
  
• As I mentioned, the multi-national company that I was working for had sent representatives from all over Europe so that we would have many languages available at our booth for customer meetings and questions.
  
• The amazing thing was that they all spoke English fairly well and so we communicated in English mostly, except for a French man who was there and was very relieved when he found out that I spoke French. “Oh quel bonheur de trouver quelqu’un qui parle français!”
  
• This particular co-worker from Greece had noticed that I did not drink alcohol in the evenings when the company would go out to dinner. I even passed on the coffee that was brought at the end of dinner.
  
• She wanted to know why I didn’t drink.
  
• I explained that it was a religions belief which surprised her and sparked a ton of questions.
  
• She told me that it was a very unique practice in her eyes, one of which she had never heard of before.
  
• Tune in for the rest of the show!

In today's episode I talk about an experience that I had with CO or Carbon Monoxide and promptings of the Spirit.

Also, as a heads up, I was called to be the bishop of our ward here in Port Angeles a couple weeks ago and funny enough, I have not had much free time since then. I just want to let the Rocky Mountain Sunshine Podcast listeners know that I may not be able to keep up a weekly podcast. I’ll keep trying to put out episodes, but if you see that I go a week or two or more without publishing anything, just smile and know that I’m serving in my calling and spending time with my family. I really love doing this podcast, but it turns out I need sleep. So I’m limited to the time available during the week and I want to spend some time with my family, keeping what’s most important my top priority.

• President Boyd K. Packer said, “We do not have the words—even the scriptures do not have the words—which perfectly describe the Spirit. The scriptures usually use the word voice. That does not exactly fit—it does, but it doesn’t. These very delicate, fine spiritual communications are not seen with our eyes nor heard with our ears; it is a voice that one feels more than hears.”
  
• President Packer also taught: “Inspiration comes more easily in peaceful settings.
  
• The Savior said in D&C 50:24, “He that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day”
  
• The Spirit communicates with people in different ways.
  
• In Section 6 of the Doctrine and Covenants talk about how it can enlighten your mind or speak peace to your mind.
  
• For me, often I get nudges or promptings. I can’t say that I’ve always followed them. But I’m glad when I do.
  
• As a newly called bishop, already I have had promptings as the Spirit has been directing me.  Something that happened recently, which has never happened before in my life, As I was praying in the morning a specific name came to me from our ward, and I was told by the Spirit to pray for this person. That was a first. I hope to be able to be in tune with the Spirit to continue to be guided like that.
  
• The story I wanted to share today frightens me when I think back to it.
• Tune in for the rest of the story!

In this episode we talk about Hydrocephalus and why it’s important in our home. I speak with my wife Jen and about our connection to Hydrocephalus and how it’s influenced our family.

Welcome Jen Bringhurst to the show! OK. I’m going to put you on the spot. Did you know that I had a podcast? Haha

So today I wanted to talk about Hydrocephalus and our journey with our son Xavier who will turn 9 soon.  I thought it would be good to have you on the show to get your perspective as a mother of a child with hydrocephalus.

• Hydrocephalus is defined as a build-up of fluid in the cavities deep within the brain. The extra fluid puts pressure on the brain and can cause brain damage if not treated.
  
• Hydrocephalus is characterized by head enlargement in infants. Adults and older children experience headache, impaired vision, cognitive difficulties, and loss of coordination.
  
• Treatment is often a shunt system with a pressure valve and catheter for draining the fluid which is inserted surgically into the enlarged ventricle in the brain.
• Tune in and listen for the rest of the show.
  
  #hydrocephalus

In today's episode we take a second look at Sister Sharon Eubank's talk from the October 2020 General Conference. Sister Eubank is the First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I am a HUGE fan of Sharon Eubank and I get so much out of her talks, so I wanted to go back and study this a bit more and share some of my thoughts.

My mission president was Elder Neil L Andersen, who is now serving in the Quorum of the Twelve.  I remember that he would tell us missionaries to make the talks from General Conference our walk and talk for the next 6 months.

I need to admit that when I was younger, I did not feel that anything said during the Womens’ Conference was meant for me so I really did not pay much attention to it. It was not broadcast on the internet and I didn’t go watch it at the stake center, so it was easy to ignore.

I have repented for that and sometimes talks from women’s conference are some of my favorites. I was a big fan of Sisters Sheri Dew and Julie Beck and started to listen more and more to the women’s sessions. Now with it being streamed live on the internet, it’s much easier to hear the talks. I really look forward to hearing from many of the general auxiliaries. As I said in the introduction, I’ve become a big fan of Sharon Eubank.

Eubank is a familiar name to Utah natives.

Mark Eubank was the white jacket-wearing weather guy on KSL TV. When the camera would go to him and you saw that he was wearing the white jacket, you knew that snow was coming.  His son, I’m assuming Sharon’s brother, Kevin Eubank, took over as the KSL meteorologist in 2006.

Sister Eubank is currently the First Counselor in the General Presidency of the Relief Society. If you don’t know what that is, it is the Church’s organization for 6 million female members 18 and over. She continues her role as the president of Latter-day Charities, the humanitarian organization for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a side note, I would love to work there some day, so if anyone is listening from there, and you have a position open, shoot me a message! I know the glamorous life of selling cables must be a skill that could be used in Latter-Day Charities. I often joke that my company is a non-profit, but that is not by design! Haha.  Especially in 2020…. Aye aye aye.  OK.  Tangent accomplished.

Tune in to hear the rest of the story!

Have you seen the new Disney and Pixar movie Soul? What did you think? I thought that it was interesting that there was a pre-earth life and an afterlife. 

• In today’s episode we talk a little bit about the afterlife.
  
• Like many people, I’ve always been fascinated with our pre-earth life and the afterlife.
  
• It is pretty core to our belief system in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
  
• Over the holidays we watched Soul on Disney+
  
  • I won’t spoil anything that you won’t find on the movie’s description,
    
  • It’s a Pixar animated film
    
  • Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx) is a middle-school band teacher
    
  • life hasn't quite gone the way he expected
    
  • His true passion is jazz
    
  • The movie talks about “the Great Before” which can be compared to the pre-existence, a doctrine found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But that’s about it. It’s not doctrinal and doesn’t look much like what we know of the pre-existence. But, hey, it’s kind of cool that they talk about it.
    
  • The movie has a message, although a bit fuzzy, on the simple joys of life and of living.
    
  • I’ve heard many times to stop looking forward to the destination and live in the moment. Enjoy the ride there. 
  • I think that’s an underlying message of the film. I could be wrong. I’m not a movie critic. In fact I’d be a terrible movie critic.  I sleep through most movies. I’ve seen dozens and dozens of beginnings and ends to movies.
    
  • I think that you’ll like it.
    
  • It gets 96% rotten tomatoes rating and 8.2/10 on IMDB
    
• Beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
  
  • Pre-earth life
    
  • Mortal probation
    
  • Spirit World
    
  • Resurrection
    
• President Joseph F. Smith said, “Our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters, and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to visit their friends and relatives upon the earth again, bringing from the divine presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof or instruction, to those whom they have learned to love in the flesh”
  
• President Russel M Nelson shared a visit his grandfather had from his father who had passed.
  
  • I wanted to share part of that experience.
    
  • "'Father, is it natural to die?'
    
  • "'It is just as natural to die as it is to be born, or for you to pass out of that door.'
    
  • "'Father, is the gospel as taught by this Church true?'
    
  • The gospel of Jesus Christ has within it the power of saving every man and woman who will obey it, and in no other way can they ever obtain salvation in the kingdom of God. My son, always cling to the gospel. Be humble, be prayerful, be submissive to the priesthood, be true, be faithful to the covenants you have made with God. Never do anything that would displease God. Oh, what a blessing is the gospel. My son, be a good boy.'"
    
  • Tune in to hear the full episode.
  • Or visit rockymountainsunshine.com 

My special guest today is Shawn Rapier the host of Latter-day Lives, Sharing Time, and the Castle Collective. 

He is an award winning cook with Gabbacue Smoke and Grill, a speaker, a comedian, an amazing father, a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and so much more. You will love getting to know Shawn.

Q. Why did Adele cross the road? A. To say hello from the other side.

We learn about where Shawn grew up. 

Shawn shares a few experiences he had with Neal A. Maxwell, Brad Wilcox, President Thomas S. Monson (then Elder Monson), and President Howard W. Hunter (then Elder Hunter).

We talk about Shawn's mission in Osorno, Chile.

We learn how he met Vanessa. How his family with 8 children came about.

We talk about how his popular podcast, Latter-day Lives came about and what he learned along the way.

• He is a husband, a father, a comedian, a sales professional extraordinaire, a podcaster, a writer, a heck of a foosball player, a BBQ aficionado, a world traveler, and my closest friend. Shawn Rapier Thank you for joining us!

Cheers from the Pacific Northwest!

• College, COVID, & Mental Health - A 2020 review for high school and university students - Ep 12

• Happy New Year everyone!
  
• Today is a special episode for the new year -- 2021 -- It doesn’t sound real.
  
• I have three very special guests, three of my children, Julienne, Maggie, and Emma
  
• We talk about what it’s been like in 2020 being a high school senior and being a college student.
  
• It was a fun episode to record, I love spending time with my children, but it did take us a while to get through all the laughs.
  
• So, Let’s get to it!
  
• Can we just acknowledge that 2021 doesn’t even sound real? Holy cow this is the future!
  
• Special guests tonight: Julienne, Maggie, and Emma!
  
• My first episode with a guest.
  
• Since we’re all in quarantine I guess we’ll be making only inside jokes from now on.
  
  • What has it been like going through 2020 as a senior in High School or as a college student?
    
  • Have high school and college students had more anxiety than the year before ?
    
  • What is causing the anxiety?
    
  • What have been some common mental health challenges for your peers during 2020?
    
  • Have they had more depression than say 2018?
    
  • Rate how happy your peers are generally in 2020 compared to 2018
    
  • How has your relationship with family members changed in 2020?
    
  • Has Covid changed any of your personal plans?
    
  • What's been good about social media during the pandemic?
    
  • Any negative consequences of social media?
    
  • Do high school and college students take the coronavirus seriously?
    
  • What do you see as permanently changed in the world because of covid?
    
  • What has been good about 2020?
    
  • What have you learned?
    
  • What have you missed the most during COVID?
    
  • What do you look forward to in 2021?
    

In today's episode, we are talking about temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

So, let's jump into this week's episode. I first want to clarify and be very clear that I am not an authority for the Church. I'm just an average member.  So the opinions expressed here are my opinions only. They are not official opinions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Okay, so the first question that I had was, what are temples? i.e Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? What are they? 

Well, on the Church website, we find temples are the most sacred place of worship on Earth. It is the house of the Lord. President Russell M. Nelson, who is the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said, "Each temple is a beacon of light and hope. The temple, the house of the Lord, stands as a symbol of our faith in life after death, and as a stepping stone to eternal life for us and for our families. The temple is a sacred and essential part of God's plan for our happiness now and forever..... Listen to the episode for the rest!!! 

So until next time, cheers from the Pacific Northwest.

What are some things that you look forward to every Christmas season? Are there traditions that you have? Well, as you know, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and there are some things as I thought about it, that we do every year that I think might be unique to Latter-day Saints. So today, I'm going to talk about 10 Christmas traditions that I look forward to as a Latter-day Saint.  So let's get to it.

So the first thing that I'm going to talk about is the #LightTheWorld campaign that the church has. Every December, they come out with a service calendar, and they give you ideas on every day on things that you can do to help light the world and make it a better place. We've had so much fun with this already this year. One of the things that it's suggested that you do is for Monday, the 7th was signs of Christmas, lift others, like Jesus did decorate a neighbor's door with Christmas Greetings, and share a picture of what you wrote on social media. So we did this with our children. What we did is we cut out snowflakes, made a little Christmas card, and I decided that we were going to take it to one of our neighbors, one of our friends in the ward, and they have small children. So we thought it'd be fun for them. My son Xavier was having a blast with this. He's eight years old and just really enjoyed cutting out the snowflakes. I think we all enjoyed it. And then we go to this family's home and they actually had some stairs that we had to walk up to get to their door. So everyone was trying to be really quiet. And then we decorate the door with all these snowflakes who put the card on there. It's just a surprise for them when they they come out and they see that someone's decorated their door. And we have this nice little Christmas message for them. And so that was one of the ideas. We've been doing it all December long. And it's just a great way to keep Top of Mind ways where you can look outside of yourself and help others and to bring a smile to other people's life. So anyway, I really enjoy that. And that is the #LightTheWorld campaign that the Church does. If you want to see what the calendar is all about, you can go to comeuntochrist.org. And you'll just scroll down and see all the different things that they have with Light The World. The service calendar is just part of it. But that part that's really fun. We really enjoy that and you can print the calendar out as a PDF, to look through all the different ideas that they have for the month of December. 

One thing that we look forward to every Christmas is the Tabernacle Choir concert. This year with the COVID restrictions, there's no Tabernacle Choir concert, one of the many things this year that has been cancelled because of COVID-19. And it's really something that is, you know, disappointing for. For me personally, I love the choir. Whenever I listen to the Tabernacle Choir, I feel the spirit. The Tabernacle Choir is very special, and the music touches my heart touches my soul. To hear them live is really something incredible. And if you are ever in Salt Lake, and there's not a pandemic going on, you really need to make it to temple square and see the Tabernacle Choir. Think of a free live performance every Sunday as part of music and the spoken word. Often you can also catch them practicing. So this year, you'll just have to try and catch some of their previous recorded Christmas concerts. They're always fantastic. That has always been something that we really enjoys either going and seeing them in person, or at least watching it on TV.... (tune in to the podcast for the full show)

So until next time, cheers from the Pacific Northwest. And Merry Christmas, everyone.

In this special Christmas episode, I talk about some of my favorite, and some of my least favorite Christmas foods.

Some things we will talk about:

The Best and worst Christmas foods. It's the most punderful time of the year!

Everybody has their own preference, but Jason shares his Christmas food favorites, his least favorites and some that are just, “Meh.”  You’re in for a “treat!”

• Bon appétit - Allons! Let’s get to it!
• Peppermint bark, Shape cutout cookies, Toffee (shhhh. Don’t tell the kids), Brie - oh la la!
• Gingerbread cookies and houses, Cameo appearance by Nutella, Chocolate bark
• Buche de Noel - Yule Log, Ham, Turkey, Cranberry sauce, Mustard pickles
• Stuffing, Pecan pie, Brussel sprouts, Mashed potatoes, Gravy…. Good gravy!
• Roasted or boiled carrots, Green beans or green bean casserole
• Dinner rolls, Mixed nuts, Eggnog, Fruitcake, Chocolates, Candy cane
• Pumpkin pie, Ribbon candy, Salad, Eggnog flavor baked goods
• Sweet potatoes, Red and green M&Ms, Fudge, Mince meat pie
• Jello, Carrot pudding, Sweet mayonnaise carrot slaw, Cheese balls / smoked cheese
• Shrimp & cocktail sauce, Caramel popcorn balls, Figgy pudding, Cheese fondue
• Cocktail meatballs, Dungeness Crab, All pies, berry, banana creme, lemon, key lime
• Snickerdoodles, Hot chocolate, Caviar, Oysters
• Foie gras, Escargot, Roasted chestnuts, Duck & Galette des rois

Please think of others who may not have enough food. Give extra in your fast offerings or give to a food bank.

Thanks to Rob Vischer for sharing his song, "Til New Year's Eve. "Find it on Spotify and add it to your Christmas playlist! 

For more on the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

https://www.comeuntochrist.org/light-the-world-2020

For more about Rocky Mountain Sunshine and the host Jason Bringhurst:

https://rockymountainsunshine.com/

I'm originally from Midvale, Utah. I am married to the lovely and talented Jen Bringhurst. I have 6 amazing and talented children. I am a small business owner. I love a cold Diet Coke and a slice of pizza. I listen to 80's New Wave music.  I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (LDS) Sometimes folks call us Mormon, but that isn't the correct name of the Church.

I live in beautiful Port Angeles, Washington after moving here in 2018 from Highland, Utah.

Thanks for listening! We hope that we’ve add  a little bit of sunshine to your day. Make sure to visit Rockymountainsunshine.com for other content not found on the podcast.

We would appreciate it if you would subscribe, rate and review the episode. Also, if you liked it, please share it! It will help us to be found when people are looking for podcasts.

Until next time, Cheers from the Pacific Northwest!

The views and opinions expressed on the Rocky Mountain Sunshine podcast are those of the host and any guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Rocky Mountain Sunshine podcast is not owned nor operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and does not officially represent The Church in any way.

In this episode, I talk about some questions that arise about Latter-day Saints when it comes to Christmas. The correct name of the Church is, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are sometimes referred to as LDS or Latter-day Saints as well as Mormons.  The questions that I found on Google all used the term "Mormon" which is not the correct name of members of our Church.

Some things we will talk about: 

My beef with Starbucks.

When I caught my friend Shawn holding a beer.

When I accepted a bottle of wine in France.

When I accidentally had alcohol on my breath and on my hands as a missionary, right before meeting with President Neil L. Andersen, our mission president.

These are some popular searches that I found on Google related to my faith that we will discuss:

Do Latter-day Saints Celebrate Christmas?

What do you get a Latter-day Saint for Christmas?

Do Latter-day Saints celebrate holidays?

Do Latter-day Saints drink alcohol during the holidays?

Do Latter-day Saints eat chocolate?

To be clear, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Russel M. Nelson, the President of The Church has asked us to use the correct name of the Church rather than the word "Mormon" or "Mormons". 

If you are of another faith, hopefully  this podcast will help you to remember the correct name. Mormon is an ancient prophet who compiled the writings of many ancient prophets and put them together into The Book of Mormon. I believe it to be the word of God right along with the Bible. I revere him as a prophet, but when we call our church, "The Mormon Church", it makes it sound like we worship Mormon, instead of Jesus Christ. Those who read the Book of Mormon, know that it is simply many teachings of Jesus Christ by His prophets who lived on the American continent between 600 B.C to 400 A.D.

For more on the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

https://www.comeuntochrist.org/light-the-world-2020

For more about Rocky Mountain Sunshine and the host Jason Bringhurst:

https://rockymountainsunshine.com/

For specifics on the name of the Church:

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/style-guide#:~:text=The%20official%20name%20of%20the,of%20Latter%2Dday%20Saints.%22

I'm originally from Midvale, Utah. I am married to the lovely and talented Jen Bringhurst. I have 6 amazing and talented children. I am a small business owner. I love a cold Diet Coke and a slice of pizza. I listen to 80's New Wave music.  I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (LDS) Sometimes folks call us Mormon, but that isn't the correct name of the Church.

I live in beautiful Port Angeles, Washington after moving here in 2018 from Highland, Utah.

Thanks for listening! We hope that we’ve added a little bit of sunshine to your day. Make sure to visit Rockymountainsunshine.com for other content not found on the podcast.

We would appreciate it if you would subscribe, rate and review the episode. Also, if you liked it, please share it! It will help us to be found when people are looking for podcasts.

Until next time, Cheers from the Pacific Northwest!

Music by Pixabay - United State Marine Band - We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

The views and opinions expressed on the Rocky Mountain Sunshine podcast are those of the host and any guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Rocky Mountain Sunshine podcast is not owned nor operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and does not officially represent The Church in any way.

We hope that you had a Happy Thanksgiving!

In episode 7, I talk about the similarity to sales and missions and how grit is necessary for both.

The puns get laid on heavy in this episode. Brace yourself for an epic look at the pun-story of Thanksgiving. Betsy N'importe quoi bakes a strange pie.  She’s nervous and has a lot of angst over it as she shares it at their gratitude harvest festival.

Jason gives some thoughts on Sales, Missions, and Grit and what it takes to be successful in sales and on as a missionary.

― Jenkin Lloyd Jones

Grit:

I think one of the key ingredients to success is grit. Grit is defined as “courage and resolve, strength of character.” Synonyms include: mettle, backbone, spirit, strength of will, moral fiber, steel, nerve, fortitude, toughness, hardiness, resolution, determination, tenacity, perseverance, endurance; spunk.”

Rocky Mountain Sunshine is a podcast which shares faith and spreads a little sunshine.

I'm originally from Midvale, Utah. I am married to the lovely and talented Jen Bringhurst. I have 6 amazing and talented children. I am a small business owner. I love a cold Diet Coke and a slice of pizza. I listen to 80's New Wave music.  I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (LDS) Sometimes folks call us Mormon, but that isn't the correct name of the Church.

I live in beautiful Port Angeles, Washington after moving here in 2018 from Highland, Utah.

Thanks for listening! We hope that we’ve add  a little bit of sunshine to your day. Make sure to visit Rockymountainsunshine.com for other content not found on the podcast.

We would appreciate it if you would subscribe, rate and review the episode. Also, if you liked it, please share it! It will help us to be found when people are looking for podcasts.

Until next time, Cheers from the Pacific Northwest!

https://rockymountainsunshine.com/2017/08/25/sales-missions-and-grit/ 

The views and opinions expressed on the Rocky Mountain Sunshine podcast are those of the host and any guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Rocky Mountain Sunshine podcast is not owned nor operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and does not officially represent The Church in any way.

In episode 6, Thanksgiving is almost here! Today I talk about Peace, Joy, and Finding Meaning in Turbulent Times.  

With it being Thanksgiving this week, I wanted to share what I'm thankful for and recognize the blessings in my life despite the challenges brought by the COVID-19 plague.  

I also share a frustration with Audacity that I had when the audio got slowed down A LOT on my recording.

Plans have been cancelled. Trips cancelled. Church cancelled. It's been a year of cancelations.  Can we #givethanks and find good when there is uncertainty? 

#givethanks for more family time.

#givethanks for good health.

#givethanks for more time on Sundays during the lockdown.

#givethanks for the unique experience of having church at home.

#givethanks for a simpler life. Things move a little slower.

#givethanks for distance making the hearth grow fonder.

#givethanks for less business travel.

#givethanks for more sleep and being more rested.

#givethanks for video calls.

#givethanks being more grateful for Church youth program.

#givethanks for virtual mission reunion. Seeing virtually President (Elder) Neil L. Andersen, Sister Andersen and President Oveson.

#givethanks for virtual family reunions. 

#givethanks for cousins, aunts, & uncles.

#givethanks for sacrament at home with Jen's parents.

#givethanks for home primary and my daughter Emma being the home primary president.

#givethanks for creative virtual youth activities.

#givethanks for my business https://buyprocable.com/

#givethanks for our home, the surrounding beauty, & remoteness of Port Angeles.

#givethanks for family and friends.

#givethanks home teaching and ministering to others.

#givethanks for being able to choose one's attitude.

#givethanks for being able to choose our response to trials.

#givethanks for being able to see some of the good.

#givethanks for starting a podcast.

#givethanks for prayers to know what am I to learn?

Nick Galieti

https://ldsmissioncast.com/

Shawn Rapier

http://latterdaylives.com/

https://www.facebook.com/sharingtimepodcast/

Rocky Mountain Sunshine is a podcast which shares faith and spreads a little sunshine.

I'm originally from Midvale, Utah. I am married to the lovely and talented Jen Bringhurst. I have 6 amazing and talented children. I am a small business owner. I love a cold Diet Coke and a slice of pizza. I listen to 80's New Wave music.  I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (LDS) Sometimes folks call us Mormon, but that isn't the correct name of the Church.

I live in beautiful Port Angeles, Washington after moving here with my family in 2018 from Highland, Utah.

Thanks for listening! We hope that we’ve add  a little bit of sunshine to your day. Make sure to visit Rockymountainsunshine.com for other content not found on the podcast.

We would appreciate it if you would subscribe, rate and review the episode. Also, if you liked it, please share it! It will help us to be found when people are looking for podcasts.

Until next time, Cheers from the Pacific Northwest!

https://rockymountainsunshine.com/

The views and opinions expressed on the Rocky Mountain Sunshine podcast are those of the host and any guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Rocky Mountain Sunshine podcast is not owned nor operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and does not officially represent The Church in any way.