Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Reading time!

If you look at the list of books that have been banned, it's surprising what's on it: Fahrenheit 451, The Call of the Wild, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Grapes of Wrath, Moby Dick, Where the Wild Things Are, 1984, The Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter series, Captain Underpants, and, of course, the scriptures. There are a few classics in there!

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Seek ye learning out of the best books

So once again, it's Banned Books Week! I'm always surprised at the books that wind up on this list, and the reasons why people complain about them.

It's always wise to use discretion, however: "if there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."




Monday, September 28, 2015

Monday Sketchbook: General Women's Session

Here are my notes from the General Women's Session of General Conference. In case you missed it, the session is available on the Church website.


Sunday, September 27, 2015

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Many are not called, few are chosen

This is likely true for everybody — except for maybe two or three households...and they're not telling!

Today's gag comes from Gary T., who has yet to receive that call either.

Friday, September 25, 2015

Countdown to Conference

It is important to prepare for General Conference, but in my humble opinion it should be more of an internal, spiritual preparation.*

What isn't over the top, though, is Mormon Cartoonist Arie Van De Graaff's General Conference Activity Packet! Download a copy for use at home or for your class at church (it's even suitable for those who attend Gospel Doctrine!).

And remember, Saturday is the General Women's Session!

*The original sketch for this cartoon had a General Conference countdown calendar — but apparently those are a thing! Who knew?

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Seasons come, seasons go

Some people mark the passage of seasons with celebrations. Missionaries celebrate the passage of seasons by taking off their jackets in spring and putting them back on again in the fall.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

In memoriam

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Elder Richard G. Scott. He was one of my favorites; common themes of his ministry were love, compassion and following the spirit.

There are too many of his talks and speeches that have inspired me. This picture represents one of my favorites, his talk from April 2011 where he talked about his courtship with his beloved wife Jeanene. He gave her love notes, and one of them wound up in the clock: "It's time to tell you I love you."

It was during one of his General Conference addresses that the Spirit overwhelmingly testified to me that I needed to get back to cartooning, that it was an important way for me to share my testimony. The message I received had nothing to do with the subject of his talk, but as Elder Scott so often taught, the Spirit will teach you whenever you're ready to receive.

Elder Scott was a great man and a great teacher. I'll miss him!

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

The next best thing

We took our Scouts swimming a little while back, and one of the kids asked me almost this very question.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Back to front

We've been trying to have more effective sacrament meetings to go along with the push to better keep the Sabbath day. Here's one idea that was rejected by the ward council.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Problem stories

I usually figured there was something wrong when I got the answers right!

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

It's in the air

The calendar may not say it, but fall is in the air — and this time around, it's not from the drought!

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Tuesday doubleheader!

Today's cartoon comes not with just one, but TWO captions! First is the original, based on our own real-life adventures.

The original:


Events of this weekend, however, conspired to inspire a second, more topical caption. The modified version:


Monday, September 7, 2015

Sketchbook: One last meal

For us, tomorrow is the first day of school — the end of summer as we knew it.

Here's to homework, early morning seminary and paper bag lunches!

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Following up

As promised, here's the second set of the Follow the Prophets Old Testament bookmarks. There's also a downloadable PDF (through Dropbox) if you're interested. Enjoy!

Friday, September 4, 2015

Hoping for personal growth

That's what we need: testimonies that are bigger, faster, stronger and wider!

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Keeping your place

So, with Old Testament being the curriculum this year for seminary, I remembered this set of bookmarks we made a few years ago. I think I've run a couple of them on the blog already. If you're interested, they're available for download.

There's a second set that I'll try and dig up at a later date that includes some additional prophets. We also made one of women of the Old Testament that I'll try to post as well. Stay tuned!