I recently heard the best news ever and wanted to share it with you guys! It was 9 years ago when I served a mission for the LDS church and met Michael. He was logical and hard headed and didn’t show much emotion. He had met w/ the missionaries for a few years, then stopped, then let my companion & I teach him again. For some reason he kept putting off praying to know if the Book of Mormon was true. So one day, being the fearless & bold missionary that I was, said to him, “Michael, what if I told you if we knelt down right now to pray if the book is true, you will receive your answer? I promise you that you will know whether the book is true or not by the end of our prayer.” He agreed and we knelt down and my companion prayed first. Then me. When we were done, we all had tears in our eyes, including Michael. He looked up at us and said, “Thank you. I know that was from the spirit.” On our drive home, my sweet companion from Christmas Islands told me she had never felt the spirit so strongly. it was so strong, it engulfed her and she felt the weight of it on her shoulders so she had to hug the chair in front of her and hold on to it. I know he received his answer 9 years ago. And thanks to Facebook, I just found out he got baptized & then sealed to his wife in the temple! This is the purpose of life, it doesn’t matter how many IG followers you have, how much money you earn, how much power you have. In the end, all it matters is how much good we have done to others. How other people’s lives turned better because of our doing.

So we became Facebook friends and he commented on one of my pictures and we messaged back and forth. 

• Michael Archibald good for you, i am happy for you and your family, i still remember you fondly. i have retold our discussion many a time to others, do you remember what you asked me on the porch of our double wide trailer?

  April 29 at 11:44pm · Like

• Sarah Choi TYau wait, no? what did I ask? I remember a question you asked one time was “if you died and you realized everything that you believed in was all false, that there is no God and the Book of Mormon was a hoax, what would you do?” and after saying a few times no, I know that won’t happen! and you insisting I answered your question, I told you something like, “If I died and found out there was no God and the BofM wasn’t true, I wouldn’t get angry and will have no regret because the things I believed in has made me so much happier, has made me a better friend, daughter, motivated me to push myself and gave me confidence. so my life was better lived and lived more fully because of what I believed in, no matter whether it was true or not.” remember that? 

  April 30 at 12:14am · Like

• Sarah Choi TYau Michael Archibald also, I have retold the question you asked me many times while teaching at church! 

  April 30 at 12:15am · Like · 1

• Michael Archibald I remember you asking me “if i lived my life by the book of morman and i found out it was a lie, would i not live a good life non the less” or something like that. in other words would i like to live a good clean life or a bad life? that was a turning point for me, if i remember correctly also, you were asking me questions about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, as if i was the teacher and you the pupil. i just want to say from the bottom of my heart thank you for your time and care to help me along my path towards home.

  April 30 at 1:28am · Unlike · 3

I swear the answer I said to him when he asked me, “If you died and everything you believed in was false, what would you do?” was more eloquent like I stated above but his version is right to the point! 🙂 But this news has filled me with so much happiness! I’d like to think that when we die, we will meet all the people we have touched and uplifted and nothing else will fill our hearts with more happiness than knowing that we made someone else’s lives or their day better because of our kindness. And so it is in this life also. 

Yes, there I said it.  I said the word SEX, gasp! Being born in a conservative LDS home, I honestly can say I’ve never heard the word SEX uttered in my household, not even once. My parents never told me or taught me about sex and I learned from it from my friend in 5th grade. I remember being so shocked by it, I promised myself I would never have kids. But obviously 3 kids later, here I am! 

While I think my parents are one of the greatest parents and they did their very best and I grew up in a very loving, supportive home, I do wish they taught me about sex and they were the first ones I heard it from. After finding out in 5th grade, I never talked about sex to anyone, not even with my friends, unless it was referred by somebody as a dirty joke.  I must have skipped sex ed in Jr.High or something because I was absolutely clueless about sex. This is way too much information(but don’t we all love hearing those? Or is that just me? Okay…) but I didn’t even know the anatomy of a male body until I had sex for the first time, which was with my husband, meaning…. I didn’t know guys had testicles. Hahaha, I cannot believe I’m telling you guys this! That’s all I’ll say about that, just imagine my shock and horror thinking what the heck is that and wondering if he had some kind of a cancer or something. I also didn’t know what ejaculation was and that’s how you get pregnant. 

So even before I had kids, I decided that I was going to be very open with my kids. And that sex would be learned from my husband and I and we would be the very source they would go to anytime they had questions about it. So I read many, many articles about it and when I attended Build Your Blog Conference in February, I overheard two ladies talking while standing in line to go to the bathroom and they were talking about sex and pornography and how to teach our kids about it and I had to chime in! The bathroom was like a master bedroom with an extra sitting room with sofas and such guys, don’t judge, okay? 😉 One of the ladies was one of the contributors of these books 30 days of Sex Talks and also the President of Education and Empower Kids. As I talked to her more and more, I got more and more excited how everything I was implying with my kids and will do in the future aligned perfectly with hers! For example, here are some of the things I implement with  my kids in teaching about sex.

1. I use the private words in their correct terms openly and casually with  my kids, just as I do with other body parts. I tell them that you should use the terms correctly and only when you’re referring to the actual body part, and not in a demeaning manner but with respect because our bodies are sacred and beautiful and should be protected.  I think if we use some other words for the private parts, it’s telling the kids that the real terms are shameful or bad or dirty and I want my kids to not be ashamed! And if I can’t refer to the private parts in their correct terms, why would they feel comfortable to talk about it or ask me questions about it as they grow up?  

2. I believe “the sex talk” shouldn’t be a one-time, formal discussion, but more of a casual on-going conversation that is brought up often as needed and casually. I’ve heard of my friends tell me about their “sex talk” they had with their parents and every one of them have said it was awkward and they just tried to not pay attention and hoped it’d be over soon. I had my first “sex talk” with my 6 and 7 year old and taught them what the act of sex is. But I’ve always been very open about talking about their bodies and the differences between their bodies and the boys such as their little brother, so it was very casual and just a part of our conversation.  We’ve had countless casual talks since then and they feel comfortable bringing it up in the middle of our conversation.

3. When my kids ask me questions about sex, no matter how silly it may sound, I don’t laugh at the question or make them feel embarrassed that they asked. I tell them, “Thank you for asking me, that is a good question!” And then I happily tell them the answer as a matter of fact. Then I tell them, “If you have any other questions at any other time, you can always ask me anything!”

4. I teach my kids that sex is a good, sacred, beautiful thing, not a dirty, shameful thing that must not be spoken of.  I teach them that sex is such a good, beautiful, holy thing that we need to protect it and our bodies from the bad influences. The world makes it seem like sex is dirty and bad, but it’s just the opposite.