The Assigned Blessing

While I first starting watching the videos I had noticed myself noting down the people who flowed and sounded most relatable with. These personal essays really hit home for me. My favorite essay was “Temporal Death,” an essay about an old woman facing the end her life. This weekend my family has been getting calls from my grandma’s assisted living home with notice that she is not doing well. Today she was admitted to the hospital and this essay really comforted me. This essay gave me a better understanding of death and the reason we are here on this Earth. This author did a great job using word choice and perfect description to make this situation seem beautiful. Reading this essay made me feel like I was there with the old woman and that I knew her well. This was a blessing for me.

In my own personal essay I would like to tune in on the audience and relating to a more specific audience as well as a general audience. These essays did a good job on doing both. I found myself relating to many of the essays even if I hadn’t experience the same circumstance. They were well written on the technical writing side but stayed personable throughout. Their topics weren’t boring. In their videos it was like they were talking directly to me and as if they knew what it was they wrote I was in need to read. This inspired me to choose a topic that I am comfortable with but am also passionate about.

I honestly can say I haven’t read very much Mormon literature before this class. This was very fun to read and I think it was because it was a short personal essay that almost any Mormon could write about a special experience they have had in regards to our religion.  I think that is what made this assignment so enjoyable.

Firsthand Experience

In Doug Thayer's novel Will Wonders Never Cease, we are brought back through time and into the thought processes of a young adolescent teen. This is rife with all the characteristics of a teen, from not really knowing who you are or what you want to do, to being curious about girls and your own body.


Specifically in this novel, you are thrown into Mormon culture in a way which most outside of Mormonism has not had a chance to experience. The main character, Kyle, is immersed in it. And this brings up a series of challenges and choices. 


How will he act? Will he believe everything that is said? Doug Thayer effectively brings the reader through 
Kyle's thoughts and the reasons behind his choices and beliefs.

Photo from: berkshirehealthcare.nhs.uk

The reason why this novel is important is because of the honesty that is put into Doug Thayer's perception of Kyle. Kyle is able to critique the culture he is immersed in through a humorous way that is not condescending or overtly negative. 

This is unique because it shows the thoughts and feelings of a person in the Mormon culture itself. 


In other words, the experiences of Kyle could be considered first hand and possibly a much better example of what Mormonism is than someone living outside of the religion trying to critique what they have not lived themselves.

Brother Miller

Brother Miller was a former bishop, nearly retired caucasian 7th grade English teacher with an afro. He was very well spoken, and his grammar was impeccable, but something set him apart from all of the other “old” people of the ward. He got along best with those nearly a fifth his age. He wasn’t afraid to have fun, but at the same time, know when it was time to be serious. I have the privilege of to this day calling “Bro Mill”, as he likes to be called, one of my best friends.

He showed me that there are a lot of boring people out there and that there is nothing wrong with having fun and cracking jokes. I don’t want to be bored by someone to stand up there and read at me. We both like interactions, and when all we are doing is reading from a manual or rehashing word for word some already before given talk in sacrament things end up going down hill pretty fast. I feel that all to often people fall into this rut and don’t realize it, but end up justifying it because it’s spiritual. We don’t have to be crying to feel the spirit.

This being said, how does this translate to speeches or talks. Bro Mill would catch my attention and make me laugh almost immediately so I would give him my complete attention. Most often this is done through a sarcastic comment, a subtle joke, not a lame one, or through the telling of a great story with lots of embellishments but that still actually applies to something. Then I would be hooked for the rest of what he had to say and would end up learning something from him every time he spoke.

His hands became real to me..

As a boy in an active Mormon family, I was very much submersed in what I would call Mormon “Oral Tradition”. I was continually surrounded by gospel topics at the dinner table, at early morning seminary, and during church services. I heard beautiful stories of courageous ancestors converting to the restored gospel. I read the Book of Mormon daily, but I read out of a sense of obligation and duty 

rather than a desire to learn and grow spiritually.

While in the Provo Missionary Training Center, I began to gain a sense of spiritual urgency. I soon realized that my spiritual knowledge gained through a faithful family culture might not be enough for the future investigators I might teach, or even myself.

For the first time, I went to the scriptures for answers. I specifically remember reading prophecies about the Savior and was impressed to see that the Atonement was real, even prior to Christ’s Birth.

“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” Isaiah 49:16

I read the Gospels in the New Testament and I marveled at the words of the Savior.

“Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”

I opened to 3^rd Nephi and read about Christ’s arrival to the Nephite people.

“Feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet…”

 His hands became real to me. The scriptures were His way of inviting me to know Him in a personal way. Literature has been the avenue for a deeper, more personal level of faith and loyalty to God.

What is Literary Mormonism?

This blog, "Literary Mormonism," is primarily intended for students of Dr. Gideon Burton at Brigham Young University who are taking Engl 268 or Engl 368, Literature of the Latter-day Saints. It is also intended for anyone interested in our topic.

The Mormon Faith is Literary

Understanding the Mormon faith, either from within or outside of it, means coming to terms with the fundamentally literary nature of Mormonism and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This religion begins with a young Christian boy reading in the Bible who then goes on to publish his translation of an ancient American record, the Book of Mormon. This book, companion scripture to the Bible, is the foundation of the Mormon religion. Conversion and adherence to the LDS faith is predicated upon individuals reading and acting upon what is found in that book of scripture, just as Joseph Smith acted upon what he read in the New Testament. Within the faith, reading and writing are seen to have moral and intellectual benefits and also suit members to be active members of society and effective leaders and teachers within the church. Some literature is integrated into LDS worship, such as hymn texts, and this literary emphasis is evident in Mormon speaking and doctrinal studies.

Mormon Culture is Literary

The literary nature of Mormonism extends to the culture's general appreciation for and advocacy of literacy and and education. Mormon leaders have been men and women of letters and promoters of books, reading, education, and the literary life. Mormons are urged to keep journals and writer personal and family histories. Since the 1830s there have been numerous LDS periodicals, both official and unofficial, that both reflect and encourage Mormon engagement in literary pursuits. Creative expression has been formally encouraged by the church from its inception, across all the arts, including the literary ones. These now reflect the history and diversity of Mormon peoples and experience.