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!

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 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.

And here's our host —

I don't think they'd have the "Potent Potables" category, though.

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.

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?

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.

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!

The next best thing

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

Monday Sketchbook: A modest proposal

Here's another one that's better off left in the sketchbook!

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.

TLAP Day — yeah, I went there!

Yes, it's International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Take a pirate (or a wench) to lunch!

And then he did this!

Sometimes they just keep going and going...!

Problem stories

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

Putting the miss in missionary

Two years can be a long time!

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!

Monday Sketchbook: Good idea, bad idea

There's a lot of focus on Sabbath Day observance. Sounds like it's time to raise the bar!

The influence of influence

Anybody who gets their quarterly reports in on time is worthy of praise!

First aid supplies, too!

Maybe I should have saved this for closer to Halloween.

But wait! There's more!

Some teachers believe in giving generously.

Looking to the future

Oppa Seminary Style!

It's not easy getting ready for early morning seminary.

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:

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!

It's the spiritual spelling

I worry about this every time we sing that Primary song.

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!

Hoping for personal growth

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

They shall be crowned

We'd probably have a lot fewer temple recommend holders!

Secrets of the sisters

Sister missionaries know how to get in doors.

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!