Love at Home

For those of us fortunate enough not to be personally touched by COVID-19--either through illness or from loss of income--spending every waking hour with our loved ones in our home might be one of the most challenging aspects of the current pandemic.

Crazy Times

Reading Saints can be strangely therapeutic during these crazy times. It helps remind us that when it comes to living through challenging times, we are not unique.

At-home Worship

We've been holding Sunday worship service at home for the past two weeks and it has been great. Our kids even built a pulpit out of cardboard boxes and everything. We do miss the cheerios on the floor, though.

Today's clever idea comes from faithful reader Emily P.

Your April 2020 General Conference Activity Packet

Yep, today's gag is a groan-worthy pun! In my defense, not only am I a cartoonist, but I am also a dad.

Hopefully, you are as excited for General Conference as I am. I suspect we could all use a little uplift these days.

To prepare for conference, you might want to consider downloading the Spring 2020 General Conference Activity Packet. It includes 16 pages of fun activities and pages for notes. And thanks to the work of some incredible translators, the packet is also available in Spanish (translated by the talented Gabbi Herrera), Portuguese (translated by the talented Dani Queiroz de Souza), and French (translated by the talented Sara Mayer).

In addition to the Activity Packet, you'll want to subscribe to the weekly Come, Follow Me Activity Page Newsletter. Every week the newsletter includes a fun activity page that corresponds to the Come, Follow Me lesson. Whether at home or at church (assuming we all get back there again), the newsletter is a perfect resource for parents or teachers of primary kiddios.

There are a number of other resources available to you at the Apple App Store, Amazon, and Latter-day Saint bookstores. You'll find them to the running down the right side of this post.

Be safe out there, everyone!

Missionaries Coming Home Early

I feel devastated for all the missionaries throughout the world returning home early due to COVID-19. I understand and support the Church's decision to do it, but I can't imagine how hard this must be for those young Elders and Sisters (and senior Elders and Sisters) who have prepared and dreamed their whole lives for a full-time mission only to see it interrupted or cut short.

In my ward alone, there are at least eight missionaries who will be arriving home in the next couple of days. Some will be staying while others will, hopefully, be reassigned in the coming weeks.

Hopefully, these missionaries will get one last missionary opportunity on the plane ride home. (Just remember social distancing!)

Isaiah's Editor

If Isaiah's editor was really doing his job, he would have convinced the prophet to publish a kids' version of his prophecies--I would totally read the heck out of that!

Large Gatherings

You might only count seven people in this gag, but rest assured, the rest of the family is elsewhere in the house.*

*Eagle-eyed readers might notice that the family portrait on the end table only includes 10 people--that's because it was taken a couple of children ago.

Consulting Exodus

What we are going through today certainly feels Biblical, doesn't it. I suppose we can take comfort in knowing that Pharaoh and the ancient Egyptians had it worse.

I really like what everyone's favorite Non-Latter-day Saint, Latter-day Saint writer C. S. Lewis wrote years ago. It's a good reminder that we are not uniquely suffering, and that we, like those before us will survive.

In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays

Social Distancing

I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned General Conference can not get here soon enough. This whole COVID-19 is consuming much of my waking hours. My only distraction from it yesterday was the earthquake we experienced here in Utah. (Fortunately, there were no reported injuries.)

Since this whole COVID-19 thing has really ramped up, I've been coming up with gags on our new abnormal and hording them like toilet paper. Well, no more. From now on, I'm going to try to publish a new coronavirus-themed gag every weekday (Monday-Friday) from now until General Conference.

I can't promise I'll make it to April 4 nor can I promise that the jokes will be funny or clever--honestly, I'm not sure I know what is funny anymore--but I can promise, as always, you'll get what you pay for on this website!

Uncertain Times

(I don't really feel like writing about goofy, imaginary missionaries today. Maybe next week.)

I suspect every nation has experienced or will soon experience a series of tipping points in connection with COVID-19. In the United States, the first of those tipping points happened Wednesday night where a series of events happened back to back to back to convince the public* that there really was something to this virus thing. As a result, come Thursday there was a run on grocery stores unlike anything I've ever seen in my lifetime. Since then, we've seen a number of changes to our lives.

I fear we are going experience more tipping points in the near future.

Saturday, aware that the Church was shutting down temples worldwide with the exception of necessary live ordinances, my wife and I made time for the temple. Public health wise that decision wasn't particularly smart, but we wanted a little extra spiritual strength as we faced the coming months. My wife aptly compared it to the saints in Nauvoo who swarmed the temple in the days before its closure in preparation for the trek west.

Sunday we held an intimate worship service at home. Our stake president and bishop have given permission for every worthy priest and Melchizedek priesthood holder to administer the sacrament in their homes. For my family, this made for a powerful spiritual experience. My son and I were also able to minister to another family in the ward whose father was out of town.

Throughout this experience, I've been comforted through my faith in Jesus Christ and His great plan of happiness. I am grateful for the knowledge that there is much, much more than this life. I'm grateful for the community of believers of which I'm belong. I'm preparing an activity packet for General Conference and sent it to my translators throughout the world. It moved me more than I expected to hear back from them concerning their situation and safety. Please be safe out there.

This blog will continue it is regular schedule. Hopefully, it will serve as a small diversion in a pretty scary time.

*Except for the President, he's still whistling past the graveyard.

Bracket Buster?

Given the news that the NBA just postponed their season and that the NCAA tournament will be played without fans (if it is played at all), this joke might not work in a day or two.

For most of us the coronavirus became much more real the last couple of days. Just Wednesday alone, the Church announced General Conference will be conducted remotely (among other changes), actor Tom Hanks confirmed he and his wife tested positive for the virus, and Donald Trump grounded most U.S. flights to and from Europe. Be careful out there, everyone.

Today's clever gag comes from faithful reader Ray P.

Quick Dinner

Some of my companions and I cooked together, but I definitely would have cooked separate from Elder Ryan had we been together.

Roleplaying Tracting

Today's gag comes from a number of readers who have suggested missionaries playing Dungeons and Dragons, most recently Luke R.

Cold Out

Whatever it takes...