Genki Gold

Disclaimer: If you don't know what the BYU Honor Code is, scroll to the bottom of this post!** I think “honor” is the wrong word for BYU’s code of conduct. Honor is public. Honorable people are popular and applauded. Does Brigham Young University really want its students living the Honor Code just for the glory of it? No one will ever be recognized for how well he or she lived the Honor Code. Heaven knows the infamy that follows those who disobey it. Still, there is no reward, scholarship, or accolade for those who obey. No good deed goes unpunished, and there is no honor for those who live the Honor Code. One person cannot be more honorable or moral than another, for this is all relative and personal. Nobody on earth has ever been praised for how good or moral or honorable they were. Even Jesus Christ, the only perfect man to walk the earth, denied being good. When a man called Him “Good Master,” Christ replied swiftly: “Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one,...

"Where are you from?" I get asked day to day to day. "Murray, Utah!" I reply. I smile through it. I am really proud of my hometown. I just never understood the nationality qualification when it came to making friends in Utah. "But where are you from ?"  I've about had it with this question. I'm from Utah. I was born and raised here. What more do I have to do to be a United States citizen? According to the law, nothing. My mother and grandmother are American citizens. They answered questions that most people that are naturalized citizens can't. (Proof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRkFDcX_72c ) You'd think that a basic understanding of American history would make someone more American. But instead, just the slightest accent, the slightest curl, a mole, a nose, a lip, or bodily hair can "give yourself away" to the real  Utahns.  A new nationalism sentiment is on the rise. It's about as complex as ger...

All I hope now is that this boy also recognizes the mercy and grace of  God. President Hinckley's finishes this way: "When all is said and done, when all of history is examined, when the deepest depths of the human mind have been explored, nothing is so wonderful, so majestic so tremendous as this act of grace when the Son of the Almighty, the Prince of His Father's royal household, He who had once spoken as Jehovah, He  who had condescended to come to earth as a babe born in Bethlehem, gave His life in ignominy and pain so that all of the sons and daughters of God of all generations of time, every one of whom must die, might walk again and live eternally. He did for us what none of us could do for ourselves-"Think of that next time you want to take on "an entire project" by yourself-"I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Eternal, Living God. None so great has ever walked the earth. None other has made a comparable sacrifice or granted a ...

Man oh man do I love this. My blog has been so much fun to write! It has been a relief to write these things down. Even when I wrote about sad things I was always significantly happier afterwards. I posted sensitive and private things, but who knows what privacy is in 2017?? I hope that I have opened your eyes to a new perspective if I haven't accomplished the impossible task of convincing you to agree with me. I really just write to express myself and thus feel like my opinion is validated. This is not my final blog, just a reflection. I love your comments, please keep them coming.

I wasn't going to join in. I thought I was late in the game. I actually thought the world wouldn't benefit from my story. I did not want to weigh the world down with another depressing story. But when, just before Thanksgiving, there was a Twitter altercation between Olympic gymnasts, I knew I had to let this skeleton out of his closet. If you don't understand Twitter, in order to read these tweets chronologically, you have to start from the bottom: It seemed, to most people, that Gabby Douglas was insinuating that women who dress immodestly are asking to be sexually harassed. It's the classic "If you roll in the mud, you'll only attract pigs" argument. I hope that as I share my story, this phrase will die and nobody will believe it ever again. I was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I say this honestly, so you can know the full story. In no way was the Church at fault for what happened to me. There was nothi...

Every time I leave the house, I prepare myself to die. With every attack, whether it be by knife or bomb or car, I realize how close I am to death when I leave my house. Adults and children have been murdered at concerts, church services, in schools, airports, and movie theaters. There is no safe place. But there's no fun in staying home in order to be safe. So I just embrace the idea that I could fall victim to any crazy person who decides to strike on any day. I try to live every day with few regrets, lots of intact relationships, and courage in the case that this day is my last. Who knows what the source of mass killings are. Would attacks decrease if gun regulation changed? If all Muslims were banned? If there were metal detectors at every door? I don't know. This is not a political message I'm trying to share. This isn't even really a solution. This is about how I deal with a fallen world. I don't know about you, but I am underwhelmed with the quality o...

"[A] s ye are   desirous   to come into the   fold   of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—" Mosiah 18:8-9, Book of Mormon Last Sunday, Tim Ballard put on a devotional for my Stake. If you don't know who he is, he's an LDS man who used to be a politician but is now a philanthropist working with Underground Railroad. This is a non-profit organization that rescues kids that are involved in human trafficking.  The crowd that gathered under his name topped any stake conference I have ever attended. It almost made me sick ...