Birthday in the Field

Birthdays as a missionary are kind of weird. Weird in the sense that they aren't at all different from any other day as a missionary.

Fast Sunday Breath

I've got an Instagram account where I'm posting my comics of the week once a day, six days a week, starting from the beginning of this blog. I've already worked my way to 2018. I suspect that once I catch up, I'll start the whole thing over again, which means that sometime in 2023 I'll be posting pandemic-era gags like today's. 

I wonder how they'll age.

Your April 2021 General Conference Activity Packet

Believe it or not, but General Conference is just around the corner. To help you get ready for it, I've once again prepared a General Conference Activity Packet. And thanks to help from Sara Mayer (French), Dani Queiroz de Souza (Portuguese), and Gaby Herrera (Spanish); it's available in multiple languages!

If you are interested in the activity packet then you are absolutely going to love the Come, Follow Me Weekly Activity Page Newsletter. With it comes a new activity page delivered to your inbox every Friday morning corresponding to the Come, Follow Me curriculum. It's great for your little ones and it is absolutely free. Sign up today.

If you are still looking for more content to entertain your young. Check out my collection of activity books: Super Sunday Activity Book, Scripture Power Activity Book, Now That I am Baptized, and The Puzzle Book for LDS Kids. For the slightly older, I'd recommend Mission Daze, my collection of missionary comic strips.

Of course, you can also check out my apps for iOS. Try LDS Scripture Heroes or Book of Mormon Adventure.

Prince of Denmark

Hamlet should have spent less time on soliloquies and more time listening to gravediggers. Things probably would have turned out much better.

This is at least the third time my high school English curriculum has resulted in a gag. I suppose it all wasn't a waste after all.

Of Middle Earth and Missionary Work

(Clearly this strip was drawn before Elder Uchtdorf gave this talk.) As long as our missionary force includes primarily young men and women, we'll continue to compare popular culture with the gospel. 

Perhaps the best use of this technique I heard of was from a returned missionary who served in Japan. In his mission, his mission president gave the missionaries permission to share portions of Disney's The Little Mermaid with investigators who struggled with the basic tenants of Christianity. That movie demonstrates a father's love and his willingness to sacrifice for a wayward child in a way that seemed to help crystalize the role of Jesus Christ in the plan of salvation.

St. Patrick's Day Medley

After a year without it, primary is returning to my neck of the woods this Sunday. It will include plenty of social distancing and safety protocols, but it is finally happening! And just in time for some clever primary music chorister to put together this particular medley. Come on, people, make it happen!

Burning a Missionary Tie

In my day, missionaries did all sorts of weird things to commemorate certain milestones. One of the more popular traditions was the burning of a tie at various points on their mission. (I'm not sure if the sister missionaries did anything comparable although I doubt they were quite as excited about burning things--after all, once a Boy Scout, always a Boy Scout.)

I was always too practical to do anything like that (maybe I'd want to wear that tie again) so I never ran into the issue Elder Steele seems to be facing in today's strip.

Day of Rest

This year, my family and I are enjoying the mellowness that is 12 o'clock church. Sundays are all about sleeping in at the Van De Graaff house. Of course this all changes come January when we once again begin church at 9:00 AM. There is some wisdom in what the teenager in today's gag says.

There is also wisdom in the faithful reader who came up with today's gag. This won't be the last gag you'll get from Parker V.

A Football Thing

Elder Van Dyke would know all about football injuries too. Some of those blisters on your thumb from playing too much PlayStation can be brutal!