Christmas Wishes

I've certainly done my fair share of jokes with missionaries on Santa's lap. This was my first.

Holy Ghost's Curfew

The whole "Holy Ghost goes to bed at midnight" thing doesn't work out upon even the slightest bit of scrutiny. I mean, it is always the 12 AM hour somewhere around the world. If we used that logic, the Holy Ghost could sleep 24/7.

That's why I prescribe any trouble a country might have with missionary work due to the Holy Ghost's struggles to get his visa issues sorted out for that country.

Christmas Care Package

Here's the problem with slowly rolling out the missionary adventures of Elder Van Dyke one strip a week: you end up with a Christmas storyline in the middle of summer. (Of course you can avoid this issue by reading the whole thing in book form--order here.)

High Council Bedtime Story

The idea of the member of the high council giving a boring talk is quite the Latter-day Saint cliche. However, like green jell-o and the pinewood derby, I'm not so sure it's really very accurate any more. At least in my stake, the high council regularly gives engaging talks month after month. The thing is, in my line of work, I need cliches!

Good Day

Flood Insurance

Tithing is sometimes referred to as fire insurance due to a passage of scripture from the Doctrine and Covenants, although the reference only applies to a very specific type of fire and should not replace a proper insurance policy.

Where I'm living, we are currently going through the second wettest spring in recorded history. Elsewhere, folks have experienced record flooding. Jokes like today's come easy to mind.

Janez Concluded

If you remember a couple of months ago, Elder Van Dyke was bummed to be transferred from his first area in large part due to his investigator Janez. Fortunately, the work doesn't stop when a particularly missionary leaves the area.