LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories

Fostering Creative Community through Faith-Driven Fiction: Michael House's Story - Latter-Day Lights

• Scott Brandley and Alisha Coakley

Share episode

What creativity sparks within when one faith-led author blends scripture, sci-fi, and service to inspire a community?

This week on Latter-day Lights, Scott and Alisha welcome back M.D. (Michael) House—novelist and president of LDSPMA—to walk us through his unlikely path from corporate finance to an anthology of stories that intentionally spread the light of the Gospel.

Michael shares eye-opening insight into all the best pieces of advice from various books and talks that inspired his writing: Why the Book of Mormon is the best book on leadership, how men and women can unlock the full power of priesthood, how to navigate the relationship between faith and AI, and how the LDS community can decipher its more helpful uses from harmful ones. At the heart of it all, Michael emphasizes how these themes converge in the mission of LDSPMA—equipping faith-driven creators to learn, collaborate, and share light—and how you can participate in the next conference.

By the end, we guarantee you’ll feel steadier about building the next big thing the Savior is nudging you to create. Walk away inspired, equipped, and ready to act on those promptings.

*** Please SHARE Michael's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/kG5hAA35fjI

-----

To READ Michael's books, visit: https://www.mdhouselive.com/

To LEARN MORE about LDSPMA (keynotes, conferences, workshops, etc.) visit: https://ldspma.org/

To READ Elder Gong's talk, “Faith, Ethics, and Human Dignity in an Age of Artificial Intelligence,” visit: https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/faith--ethics--and-human-dignity-in-an-age-of-artificial-intelligence--a-call-to-action

To READ “Invincible Family” by Kimberly Ells, visit: https://a.co/d/fxaX4zt

To LISTEN to Scott & Alisha's guesting on the LDSPMA Podcast, "Called to Create," visit: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1696705/episodes/17374653

To READ Scott’s book “Faith to Stay,” visit: https://www.faithtostay.com/

-----

Keep updated with us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/latter.day.lights/
Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/latterdaylights

Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.

Scott Brandley:

Hey there as a Latter-day Lights listener, I want to give you a very special gift today my brand new book, faith to Stay. This book is filled with inspiring stories, powerful discoveries and even fresh insights to help strengthen your faith during the storms of life. So if you're looking to be inspired, uplifted and spiritually recharged, just visit faithtostaycom. Now let's get back to the show. Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.

Alisha Coakley:

And I'm Alisha Coakley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.

Scott Brandley:

On today's episode we're going to hear how one author is merging the fiction and nonfiction parts of his world in a way that spreads the light of the gospel to all. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Latter-day Lights. We're so glad you're here with us today. We're really excited to bring back one of our special guests, mike House, to the show. Mike, welcome back, man.

Michael House:

Thanks for having me back. You're very brave.

Alisha Coakley:

We love collaborating with you and I feel like you already did part of our podcast already, just in our pre-show podcast. So, no, we love it that. We love having you on and just picking your brain and hearing your insights and perspectives. It's always fun Well thank you. Thanks for being open.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah well, we got a lot of fun things to talk about today, but before we get started, just give those who haven't had a chance to listen to your previous episode a little bit about yourself.

Michael House:

I was about three years into a semi-retirement from a professional career in corporate finance and I was trying to live out my dream of being an author as well. And I was writing fiction, historical fiction on both the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and some fantasy and some science fiction, having a good time, and since then things have changed quite a bit I decided I'd do a little bit of nonfiction. Having a good time and since then things have changed quite a bit I decided I'd do a little bit of non-fiction and I decided I'd get more involved in LDS PMA, which you and I have talked about quite a bit at length as well, and that's Latter-day Saints in Publishing, media and the Arts, which is a 501c3. So it's nonprofit and I'm completely new to the nonprofit space and somehow over that intervening time I started volunteering for them and doing some things. And then just the way the puzzle pieces shifted around, or the chess pieces on the board I don't know if you maybe they're puzzled chess pieces they shifted around and somehow I became president of LDS PMA. And boy that's been challenging, but it's also been really interesting.

Michael House:

And some of the people I get to I'll mention a couple, some of the people I get to talk to and that I get to meet are just fascinating people and there's so many good people out there, both LDS and non-LDS, and I try to do that in my writing career as well, because I write some biblical historical fiction and I try to talk to people who are not members of the church about that and we have some really interesting conversations there. So that's a little bit of the background and still having a lot of fun, still writing. I have 12 books now. I'm about to release the 13th and the 14th in pretty short order and then I'm working on a really fun one next. That is going to be my first Christmas story. I said I'd do a Christmas story and it's going to be called. Yep, it's going to be called the Most Useless man in the Apocalypse a Christmas story.

Alisha Coakley:

Okay, that just sounds on so many levels, so intriguing, it'll be fun.

Michael House:

I've got most of the outline done for that one. It's going to be fun, is it?

Alisha Coakley:

I mean, the title sounds comical, is it a little more comical.

Michael House:

It won't be, yeah, it won't be, slapstick comedy, right? So it's like remember the difference between remember the best two years and what's the return, the RM.

Alisha Coakley:

The RM.

Michael House:

Right, the RM was slapstick comedy, right. Yes, really funny, but that was funny in a slapstick way. And then the best two years was hilarious but it was more serious situational type of comedy right Right, Still hilarious.

Scott Brandley:

And so this will be more.

Michael House:

You know, a more serious book and it's more serious. Situational comedy, right, right, Still hilarious, and so this will be more. You know, a more serious book and it's a serious topic. We're talking about apocalyptic kinds of things, right, but it'll, you know, it'll hopefully have enough humor in there to keep you entertained.

Alisha Coakley:

Well, I can't wait. That sounds awesome. I mean, you got Christmas, you got the apocalypse and you got people who are useless like that.

Michael House:

How can you go wrong? It's not to like and it is patterned after yours truly. Like I look out at the world and I see all these people like my dad who can fix anything.

Michael House:

Who can do anything? He was a mechanical engineer and also a mechanic. He could tear apart the car and put it back together. He could tear apart heavy equipment and put it back together. He can do electrical, he can do plumbing, everything and I didn't really learn too much of that because I just wasn't interested. I was interested in all kinds of other things and so I learned some things. But I look at some of the things other people can do and I'm like man, I'm useless. When things go south Right, or if things go south in our area, I don't know what's going to happen. Right, I'm not. I'm not that useful.

Scott Brandley:

I mean, I can, like, take a wheelbarrow and a shovel and I can move dirt from spot A to spot B, but that's kind of it yeah, when you and I get to the apocalypse, mike, we're gonna be in trouble, because I could be like, hey, do you need help with your ratings and reviews, and you'll be like, hey, do you need help with your finances.

Alisha Coakley:

That's right I was gonna say, this is I. So I've always theorized that if I make it to the apocalypse, especially the zombie apocalypse, I am going to be comic relief. I can give people haircuts. I'm a really slow runner, so, worst case scenario, I'll be baked or I'll be the sacrifice Everyone's got to get away. So let's run really fast and leave Alisha behind. There's a job for everyone, and you're, this is number 14, 15, which one? Will this be 15?

Michael House:

the, the, yeah, the christmas, one would be end up being number 15 gotcha meanwhile.

Alisha Coakley:

I need to get to that 20 book club.

Michael House:

So I'm still working on it, right?

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, you're like kicking them out like as fast as Brandon Sanderson man, it's crazy.

Michael House:

Not that fast because I do not have his staff and I don't have full time to devote to it either.

Scott Brandley:

How do you do it? How do you write books so quickly, for real?

Michael House:

I don't know actually. I mean, people ask me as well, do you get writer's block? And I think I used to a little bit, but once I, once I kind of know where I'm going, it kind of flows and you get better at things. Right, and you do the more you get better at them, and that's certainly true of this. My first few books were harder to write than my last few books, and so you know, I, I, I work out how the story is more or less going to go, and then I, and then I go right, I start writing, and it flows pretty well and I, I think in part I'm just I've just been blessed to be able to churn some of these out that have turned out really well, and I have a pretty high standard for what I think is good writing, so so they have to be pretty good before I release them yeah, but yeah, it's been fun, though.

Alisha Coakley:

Uh, it's been a lot of fun so I have a question and I know I mean I don't know, I guess we can talk about whatever we want to.

Michael House:

So yeah, I warned you that that's what how this was going to go right because, I'm not kind of a move, we're just going to talk about whatever.

Alisha Coakley:

So I you know I've been to a lot of writers conferences and different book coaches and stuff.

Alisha Coakley:

And it's interesting because I feel like every author really has their own way of doing things right, like some people who just sit down, just pen to paper and they just start writing and they don't like map anything out. Then you have others who are like meticulously, like outlining the whole thing before they even write the first sentence. Then you have others who like they write the ending first and then they try to get everything to go to the ending. Others start beginning. So what do you do when you're like what's your process?

Michael House:

I guess I mean it's it's that's interesting because it's been kind of a mix. Um, mostly I do like to have a full outline done before I start writing, and so I pretty much know where it's going to go. There's always room for turns and twists and even alternate endings. Sometimes too, as you go along, you just figure out yeah, I was going to end it this way, nope, that's not going to work anymore. Or this thing is going to work better, right, and so those things are just going to naturally happen over the course of the writing.

Michael House:

I'll sometimes write with a little bit of an ending in mind, but normally, you know, you have kind of an overall plot or something you want to achieve with it, or maybe a story or a message you want to, you want to share, and for me, a lot of times it's a message I want to share. Right I? There's certain things I, and that's just who I am. Right I, in my, in my nonfiction and in my fiction and I've written mostly fiction I am trying to spread the gospel. That's what I'm trying to do.

Michael House:

Even in the science fiction or the fantasy. I'm trying to spread the gospel and I just I can't get myself not to do that. All right, that's what I am. But I've had situations where you know I'll do a full outline. But then I've had situations where I struggle with the outline, I really don't know where this is going to go next. I just got to start writing it and then I'll know where it's going to go, and that is so. That has happened to me as well. So I just start writing it and I get through that first part of the outline. I'm like, ok, yeah, now I know where it's going to go next, and now I know where it's going to go next, and now I know where it's going to go next. So it's an interesting process and it depends on the project and it depends on the goals sometimes of that project. So, yeah, a lot of fun.

Michael House:

The nonfiction one was interesting because I had started out with a thought, a premise, that I got from another book and our daughter had given me this book that she had intended to give our son, who's a US Army captain, and he had already read it twice, and it was a book on business leadership basically, but it was written by two ex-US Navy SEALs, jocko Willink and Leif Babin, called Extreme Ownership how US Navy SEALs, jocko Willink and Leif Babin, called Extreme Ownership how US Navy SEALs Lead and Win. And of course, that's right up my wheelhouse from my first career, which is in corporate finance not personal finance, but corporate finance and so I'd read lots of business management books and books on leadership and such. And she gave me that book and I read it and I was like, huh well, this is really interesting. You know what the best book on leadership in the world is? What I'd say the Book of Mormon. Yeah, the Book of Mormon. That's the book.

Alisha Coakley:

I know some people say the Bible, but I feel like there's a lot more leadership examples in the Book of Mormon, like military and you think of that. You know what I mean.

Michael House:

Yeah for sure. So to me it's the Book of Mormon, right? That's the best book on leadership in the world. So why don't we write a similar sort of business management book, if you will, not really focused on business, but a leadership book focused on the Book of Mormon? And that's where intense stewardship models from the Book of Mormon came from is those thoughts, and so I.

Michael House:

So I started thinking about okay, who do I want to? I want to have, I want to devote chapters to various people that we meet in the Book of Mormon, and, and I ended up wanting to include Joseph Smith Jr as well. He's he's not a he's not an actor in the Book of Mormon, but he's mentioned. He's mentioned in the Book of Mormon, of course, in the Book of Mormon, but he's mentioned in the Book of Mormon, of course. He's the key person who brought the Book of Mormon to light for us, right? So there's a chapter on him.

Michael House:

And then, of course, we've got some of the standbys that you would expect, like Nephi and Alma and Captain Moroni and Mormon, so you got a number of those. And then you also have people like Laconius, right? And then we try to talk a little bit about the women. We don't have enough or very much detail on some of the women, but I'd like to talk about that a little bit as well. Then I threw in a couple of bonus essays that were somewhat related and I had my editor saying well, I don't know if you should include those, but you know what I wanted to, so I did.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, yeah, for sure. That sounds awesome.

Michael House:

It's a lot of fun to write, yeah, and the goal was just. I wanted to just show people how critical the Book of Mormon is as a blueprint for good leadership in your individual life, in your family life, in your family life, in your community life, everywhere. The Book of Mormon can help you be a leader in whatever sphere of influence you have.

Alisha Coakley:

That's cool. I'm going to have to pick that one up. That sounds awesome.

Scott Brandley:

How long does it take you to typically write a book?

Michael House:

Well, I'm putting out probably two to three a year is what I'm doing. So, uh, about six months roughly, and I usually have two or three going at the same time, and so then then they just get staged, if you will.

Alisha Coakley:

That is incredibly talented, incredibly talented, I know I mean Scott can do some books pretty fast too. You did like some of your business books really fast, right, scott?

Scott Brandley:

yeah, this last one's been about four to six months, but right, okay, I'm doing that at work all day. I'm like working on, I'm putting a lot of time into that book, so you're so, but you've got a lot of other things going on too.

Michael House:

I do, yeah. So I still work part-time for a big company in Chicago. So I'm still doing the corporate finance stuff and I'm doing you know, the president of LDS PMA stuff, which is more than more than they told me it was going to be. They invited me to do that, which it's fine, but totally fine, but it's it's. It's a little bit more work and then lots of other things as well, but when you're married yeah yeah, we have young kids and we're doing stuff with them. Yeah, oh yeah, I've.

Alisha Coakley:

I've always heard if you want anything done, ask a busy person. You know, like ask the busiest person, you know, if you want something done, they'll get it done. I'll figure it out. I don't know how you do it, but you do it. Make it work. Wow, well, cool. So I mean, I don't really know how to segue from here to there, but let's just turn it over to you.

Michael House:

Yeah, Well, one of the things, um, I told you there's some really interesting people I get to meet and so sometimes I'll get these random emails, and I recently got a random email from another former member or former president of LDSPMA named Mariana Richardson, and she's been working with this professor at BYU-Idaho named oh, I wrote his name down so I wouldn't forget it Medlier. It's a it's a interesting first name Medlier-Mema, and he's a political science professor at BYU Idaho. And she said hey, um, Medlier, here is, is is working with and I did a little more research afterward and he's connected with faith matters. So you've heard of Faith Matters and they're working on this and maybe I'll. I've got this pulled up here. They're working on something with regards to AI and there's a lot of really interesting things going on with AI, right, and Faith Matters is doing something on November 4th and 5th in Provo, Utah, and they're calling it Organized Intelligence Latter-day Saint Perspectives on AI, and they're going to do this conference and they're going to talk about things like how might emerging AI technologies reshape societies over the long term? How could AI influence spiritual life, religious expression and human divine relationships? In what ways can faith communities prepare for and engage with the disruptions AI may bring and where are the most promising opportunities to apply AI for good?

Michael House:

So they reached out to me saying, hey, do you know some people who we could contact because we're putting together this conference that are in the artistic space? Right, In various different disciplines? Right? So LDSPMA encompasses all kinds of artists, not just writers like me, but filmmakers and painters and musicians, composers and such so lots of different people, and AI is having an impact on all those different spaces, right. And so they wanted to talk to some people like that, and so I gave them some names people like Stephen Lemon, who's the he's the CEO of Havenlight and they do mainly LDS but Christian themed art, and his mother is Liz Lemon Swindle, who did that famous painting for the chosen, and so I gave him that name and a couple of other names. I gave him the name of, uh, Kristen Yee, who came and spoke at our conference last year, sister Kristen Yee from the general relief society presidency, and she's an artist. Right, and the church has a I don't know what they call it. It's a working group in the church, an official permanent working group in the church that is devoted to how to deal with AI issues and how the church is going to utilize AI and help its members understand AI, that sort of thing. So this is a really interesting topic. So I, you know, I get AI that sort of thing, so this is a really interesting topic. So I get fun emails like that and then it gets me to thinking.

Michael House:

And then, coincidentally, I had just seen and maybe you saw this as well, but last week Elder Gong went to Turkey and he was attending the Religions for Peace World Council in Istanbul and he gave a talk called Faith, Ethics and Human Dignity in an Age of Artificial Intelligence A Call to Action. And he's been working with this church working group for a while now and of course he has some help when he writes talks like this. This talk was fairly technical in places and in other places it wasn't, and so he obviously had some help on parts of it, but he really said some interesting things here. I'll just read a small portion, if you don't mind, of what he said here. He said I believe so he's speaking to world religious leaders, Elder Gong, as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He said I believe that we as religious leaders can take action on three fundamental AI issues now.

Michael House:

First, we must be clear and help society understand that AI is not and cannot be God. There are people in society who believe that AI may become God. Many talk too glibly about AI becoming God or God-like AI. Ai training data is sourced by humans. Ai's moral and ethical principles are only those its creators consciously inject and align. Even if AI training changes or if we achieve AGI, which is artificial general intelligence, or ASI artificial superintelligence, we know that reasoning, even superhuman reasoning, has limitations. Man is not, and certainly divinity is not, defined solely by reasoning. No set of utilitarian AI algorithms should determine or speak for our most treasured human values and spiritual experiences. Ai cannot provide inspired divine truth or independent moral guidance. Human benevolence, compassion, judgment, optimism, faith, that which speaks to and for our souls requires lived experience and authentic relationships.

Michael House:

And then he goes on and talks about how, if we deify AI, we're trying to build the Tower of Babel. That sounds like a great analogy to me. Yeah, yeah, as a creation of God, man can create AI, but AI cannot create God. That was an interesting statement he made and I'm skipping a little bit here. Our most precious truth, comfort, revelation, guidance come when we personally commune with the divine. Spiritual truth and light come from understanding who God is in creation and the universe For the children of God. Platforms and technologies cannot substitute for authentic divine connection and relationship. And then he quotes President Nelson, who said the privilege of receiving revelation is one of the greatest gifts of God to his children, and AI is not set up to ever do that.

Michael House:

And there's a lot of other really, really good things there, but one of the things that segues me to is this current battle about who we are in society, and so I'll look to address these kinds of issues in the books that I write. So one of the books I'm working on right now is science fiction, and they're dealing with some artificial intelligences that are really, really advanced, right, and so you get to talk about some of these issues, and so I'm taking advantage of that, right, and in the way I talk about them, Right, and in the way I talk about them, but I but I think about you know Satan is really trying to confuse us, and especially our youth, about who they are as sons and daughters of God and what that really means, Right, and what it really means is that you have unlimited potential, absolutely unlimited, and that you have heavenly parents, and this is one of the places we really diverge from mainline Christianity, right, but it makes so much sense. We have a heavenly father and a heavenly mother, right, and they love us intensely, more than we can possibly imagine, and they see us for who we really are and they see our potential and they see how we prepared before we came to this earth to handle all of the things we're being faced with. And there's some really tough challenges, right, but we prepared for those and we have those parents behind us and we have so much potential. And Satan wants to tell us that's not true and that you're not even a man or a woman, You're just a thing. That's what Satan's trying to get us to believe. Ai is a better thing than you are. You're just a thing. And now we've created better things and you're no longer that great, right.

Michael House:

Well, if he can get us to adopt that sort of attitude, we're not going to achieve much, we're not going to help each other much, we're not going to love each other much and we're just not going to do things right. We're just going to kind of give up and lay over and die. Remember, in the final battles of the Nephites, they didn't lay over and die. But they, they, they wanted to fight for their lives. But they, their lives weren't worth much. They cursed God and were willing to die, right, they just, they were so far away from God at that point they would. They would go ahead and fight, partly because the bloodlust was upon them right, and that's a real thing. But they just, it was all hopeless. And we don't want to. We certainly don't want to get to that point and the Lord is helping us not get to that point. He's.

Michael House:

There's so many people rising up and sharing these kinds of messages with us. Now. I'm so impressed with so many of them, not just within the church but outside the church, People who are really just putting together some fantastic messaging and reaching so many people about who you are and who Christ is and what your relationship to God should be like. And I likened it here recently. So what's his name?

Michael House:

Kevin Young, the BYU men's basketball coach. He shared a message with his players the other day and he said you know, champions are those who can do the basics of basketball exceptionally well and on a consistent basis. They do the basics really, really well and that's how they win championships. And obviously that's a combination of talent and practice. You have to have some of both right.

Michael House:

You can't just be talentless and become an NBA great. So you have to have some talent, but you have to really work hard at it and become so good at the basics of basketball, the basics of dribbling and passing and shooting and some of the defensive basics and the defensive awareness and all of the conceptual awareness of what's going on in the court. You have to get really good at those basics Right and then you can become a champion. And that's the same for us. We need to be really good at prayer. We need to be really good at studying the scriptures. We need to be really good at attending to our church duties and at serving people and at, you know, taking advantage of opportunities for service that come our way. They just pop into existence in front of us, right, we have to get good at that stuff. That's the basics. And if we get good at that and here's where the analogy diverges right In the NBA world only one team becomes champion, right, they're the ones that are better at those basics than anybody else In the Lord's economy. If all of us get really good at those basics, we can all become champions, and so it's really good to have the opportunity as a writer to express some of that.

Michael House:

In what I write, whether it's nonfiction or fiction, and even in my day job, if you will, my part-time job with a company in Chicago. I can incorporate a lot of those principles in everything I do and how I treat people, how I approach problems, how diligent I am. All those sorts of things right can apply, and I do get a lot of people, you know, asking me well, how did you come up with that, or how did you do that, or how did you, you know, lead us through that problem right, and it's just, you know, we just apply these basic lessons and we view, and we view people with the right perspective. I'm going to stop rambling now before.

Alisha Coakley:

I go. No, I love it Another one.

Scott Brandley:

So this is fast. It's a fascinating just to hear some of the things you're talking about. Like, I can really resonate with the AI feeling making you feel like you're not important, because you can start to feel it already and AI isn't even that smart yet. But the more we start to rely on it, the more we don't have to think so much and I can see us becoming more and more dependent on AI to the point where it does affect our personal work.

Scott Brandley:

Right ai to the point where it does affect our personal. Yeah, we're right, because if we think, oh, it's smarter than us or it's you know we don't, I can see how it could definitely affect your self-worth and, um, yeah, change the way we look at our divinity and for satan.

Michael House:

It's a two-pronged attack. He's attacking not just the individual with issues around AI and lots of other things too, right, so other issues too. You know, pornography is a big one. He's attacking the individual that way. He's also attacking families that way. But that's the other prong is the attack on the family. So he's attacking the individuals and he's attacking the families, because the individual and the family are really symbiotic. We need families.

Michael House:

And family is the most powerful structural unit in the universe. It really is, and if he can destroy individuals and families, then in his mind he wins. He wins it all. I think. My personal opinion for some reason, I think Lucifer still believes he can win. I don't know what that means exactly, but somehow he still thinks he can win and he can't. But that's what he's trying to do. And I remember and I recorded this, I wrote it down or I put it in a spreadsheet. See, wrote it down is kind of our way of saying I put it in a spreadsheet today. Right Used to be, you'd write it down on a piece of paper. So she gave a talk. Julie B Beck gave a talk to seminary and institute teachers back in August, on August 4th of 2009. I had a hard time finding this and in fact, I used AI to find it.

Michael House:

And at first and I was using Grok, which is what X uses and at first it got it wrong because it gave me what it thought was the answer and I was like, hmm, that doesn't sound right, because it had a couple of things that just didn't match up, because it was saying it was it had come from general conference. And then it gave a March date and I was like, yeah, that's not General Conference or not normally right. I mean, there could be the weird exception. So I did a little more research and I said, nope, you're wrong, it was here. I found it. And they said, oh, yeah, you're right, here it is.

Michael House:

Anyway, she gave this address to seminary and institute teachers and it was printed in the March 2011 ensign 2011 ensign and that's where it had gotten the March date. But she gave the address in August 4 of 2009. And she said we also face the problem that we read about in Ephesians 6.12, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Public policies are being made every day that are anti-family, and the definition of family is changing. Legally around the world, pornography is rampant For those who create pornography. Their new target audience is young women. Parents are being portrayed as inept and out of touch. Anti-family media messages are everywhere. Youth are being desensitized about the need to form eternal families.

Michael House:

We see how this can happen when we read the words of Korahor, the Antichrist Quote. Thus he did preach unto them, leading away the hearts of many, causing them to lift up their heads in their wickedness, yea, leading away many women and also men to commit whoredoms. Unquote. Satan knows he will never have a body, he will never have a family, so he targets young women who will create the bodies for the future generations. Korahor was an antichrist. Antichrist is anti-family. Any doctrine or principle our youth hear from the world that is anti-family is also anti-Christ. It's that clear, wow, powerful stuff, right.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, powerful. And that was what year 2009,.

Michael House:

She said that Wow, August of 2009.

Michael House:

That is like a spot on. A few years ago, I met somebody who is LDS Her name is Kimberly Els and I had read something I think she'd written for the Federalist, which is kind of an online news source, called the Invincible Family how the global, let's see what's the the Invincible Family, how the war on or how the attempt to crush motherhood and fatherhood can't win something like that. And so I decided I'd read this book. And she has worked with Family Watch International and they've interfaced with various UN agencies. By the way, fair warning, there are a lot of people working in UN agencies who are downright evil, working in the UN trying to destroy the family so that the state can take over everything, because in their minds they think, like Satan did, that the state is the one who can do a better job than the family can of raising people and teaching them how to be good people. Right, and that's just completely antithetical Right, just completely antithetical right, and that's that's antichrist. But she wrote this fabulous book and uh, and I've since, um, you know, gotten to talk more with her and she goes, she's done, she's spoken at the UN herself now. Uh, she's been on and done a long form interview with Tucker Carlson Uh, she did one with um Dr Ben Carson on his podcast, Uh, so she's gone on to do a lot of things.

Michael House:

She also went to there's a new thing called the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, so if you go to arcforumcom you can learn a little bit about that. And it was started by a group of people and they do an annual conference in London and these are pretty high powered people that are more conservative leaning and more Christian leaning, but not all Christians and not all conservatives and boy, they do some really interesting things. And I've been watching some of those talks and I watched a fascinating one by I think her name is Catherine Burblesing and she's the headmistress of what is purported to be the most difficult primary school in England, or whatever they call them primary school or secondary school, I don't so it's like a high school right. And she gave a fabulous talk about how they teach their students about responsibility and about principles and cause and effect and all the consequences, and they hold them accountable Cause and effect and all the consequences, and they hold them accountable, and we just don't see enough of that today, like we used to. So, anyway, I'm learning lots of things.

Michael House:

This has been just a fascinating journey. I'm no longer spending all of my time in an office in Chicago. I'm getting to do lots of different things.

Alisha Coakley:

Like talk to you guys. I love that. It's um, it's interesting to me how broad your perspective is on things and how we've gone from like one thing to another to another, to another, to another, but it all feels connected. You know, like I, I kind of go back to what you said earlier about how you're writing books, no matter what type of book it is.

Alisha Coakley:

Your main thought, something you can't seem to get away from, is spreading the gospel yeah, right and I love it because I feel like a lot of people they tend to, they tend to feel like they have to like disconnect their faith with their like career or their education or something like that. Yeah, and I think with, uh, in regards to the family and and just like Satan destroying the individuals in the family. Um gosh, what was this? We were listening to this therapist that was talking and she said something. I might watch this, but she said something about for the first time in history, there are more women over the age of 30 who are not mothers, they're not married, they don't have babies. Then there are women who have babies and are married under the age of 30. And it's like what, like what I mean I had my last baby at 30. You know what I mean. Like I was done having babies at 30 and just it feels to me as a woman, yeah, things that satan is really trying to force, other than just pornography and and and he really is getting women that way, like, oh, you should be free, you should expect yourself. Yeah, right, yeah, and I'm all for like a hundred percent.

Alisha Coakley:

Like I think we as women need to remember that we're, that we're not just wives and we're not just moms, that there is a whole different side of us. That's just a woman, right? And so I think career, education, personal goals, hobbies, interests, like stuff, that's just you, just for you. It's so, so important. Otherwise you end up losing yourself and then you're not as fit of a wife or mom either, and it gets murky when you just put all of your eggs into one identity, right, one part of your identity. But I have noticed that there are just a lot of things out there that are talking to women about how you can do it all yourself, and I'm like what? Yeah, like, maybe for a short period of time, but you can't do it as well as what you would be able to do it if you had a partner who's working with you, of the opposite gender, who who can bring to the table all these different oh yeah, different perspectives and and responsibilities and I don't know, just anyway.

Michael House:

So it's one of one of the things that we learn about the priesthood through joseph smith that we still haven't fully grasped yet is that the power of the priesthood can only achieve great things when a man and a woman are cooperating together, when men and women are working together. That's when the priesthood power is fully evident. That's why we have a heavenly father and a heavenly mother. Heavenly father couldn't have done it himself. Heavenly mother couldn't have done it herself. All of this is the result of men and women working together, all of it. That's what the priesthood is about. It's not about who holds a position and who has what keys. It's about men and women working together to access the powers of heaven. That's really what it is, and Joseph tried to teach us that, and we're still learning.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, there was an interesting thing I heard the other day and I didn't verify it, so fact check me, I guess but uh, someone brought up they were talking about the priesthood and how there there's this, um, this belief and in the church that, uh, the priesthood is only meant for men, like men will only ever be the ones that do all the priesthood things like yeah, like preparing sacrament, passing sacrament, but supposedly back in the early days of the church, women prepared the sacrament.

Michael House:

Sure.

Alisha Coakley:

Right and like, if you talk about going into the temple or something like that, like there are, there are blessings that are being given in the temple by women, right?

Alisha Coakley:

So there are things that are done with power by women Right now the roles are not spread as wide and as far it's what some people would like them to be but having smart and I think there's a reason for that, and it's because, yeah, you know, men need to learn one thing and women need to learn another thing and right, and we are all men or women, right, but we don't all fit in, you know, a a nicely defined basket, if you will, right, or bucket.

Michael House:

There's infinite personalities, right, there's lots of crossovers in terms of likes and dislikes and personality types and things like that. We're just not all the same, right, and that's one of the things. So you may have heard of Chris Elston he also goes by the moniker Billboard Chris, and he's been on this crusade, if you will, to stop childhood mutilation. So that is, children, you know, being kind of forced, coerced. They really are being coerced. They're children and they're being coerced into permanently altering their bodies because they're being taught that, no, you're really not a boy, you're a girl, or you're not a girl, you're a boy, and and they and then they just get into and they start taking these hormones and they start having surgeries, and you listen to some of these heartbreaking stories from the detransitioners, and but anyway, chris Elston is is, you know, trying to get people to leave the kids alone, right, there's nothing wrong with them, they're beautiful as they are and they just have lots of different types of personalities, right, right, and so don't let them grow up, right, let them grow up.

Michael House:

And Heavenly Father looks at us that same way. He wants us to grow up and he lets us make our own choices, and we have the power to make those choices. Right Doctrine and Covenants 58, right. He tells us to take responsibility for doing good things, achieving much good. Use our own will to do that right, because the power is in us. That's what we earned in the pre-existence we fought to have that power of agency right.

Michael House:

And he's going to let us grow up and then make our choices. And we need to let our children grow up and they can make their choices right. We're going to teach them as best we can and they're going to make their choices and those choices, you know, will determine their destiny, will determine, you know, where they go after this.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, it reminds me of Vinnie Tolman when he was on here he talked to us.

Alisha Coakley:

Reminds me of Vinnie Tolman when he was on here, he talked to us, he has this quote and it says he says you know life, life is a classroom, not a courtroom. Yeah, you know like we're, we don't need to come here and feel like we have to get every single thing, like like every decision, justified. We did this for this reason and we're like it'd be just. No, it's learning, it's we're supposed to experience things, we're supposed to learn, we're supposed to grow, we're supposed to be awkward in some of our choices and be wrong in some of our choices and like how else are we supposed to right, learn, to be more like heavenly father and to really reach our full potential?

Alisha Coakley:

yeah we don't learn right, like we don't actually experience things, and we don't make those choices and we let other people choose for us what we need to do and how we need to do it, and where we need to be and what it needs to look like, you know.

Michael House:

Yeah, and we need to learn the courage to stand for truth. Right, we need to learn truth and then we need to find the courage to stand for it. Right, and that's hard. And again, going back to the chosen, I'm just so impressed with how well they've put that all together.

Michael House:

And Christ himself tells us many times that the world will hate us, and I mentioned to you before we started the show that I just finished reading a book called when Culture Hates you, and it's by a non-LDS Christian lady and she talks about that. Right, there are these issues out there today and Christianity is hated by much of the world because of some of these issues. But well, they hated Christ. Right, because he told them the truth. He had perfect compassion, and part of that perfect compassion was teaching people the truth and holding them accountable for their choices. Right, because he knew who they were and what they could achieve if they could learn the truth and then learn to stand boldly for that truth and make the kinds of choices that would then lead them closer to their father in heaven and to the power that he has.

Alisha Coakley:

Right, and I think the cool thing that we I mean it's cool about Christ them closer to their father in heaven and to the power that he has. Right, and I think the cool thing that we I mean it's cool about Christ doing that it's something sad that we don't remember he did that and he continued to love them where they were at.

Alisha Coakley:

Yes, he continued to love them where they were at. He continued to help them in the ways that he could help them. He didn't like berate them and he didn't ostracize them and he didn't just say well, go mess up, do what you're ever going to do and good luck with that. I'll come back and say I told you so, it was never that.

Michael House:

And that's harder for us sometimes, isn't it? It's a little harder for us, but we need to learn how to do that. Yeah, take it over the conversation Scott go.

Scott Brandley:

So this has been a really interesting conversation. We talked about a lot of different things. I'm wondering. I mean, you've had your career in finance, you've kind of gone into this second career, into writing, this second career into writing, and you mentioned how the gospel is kind of interwoven into everything you do. I just turned 50 this last week, so I've been thinking about my legacy, yeah right. And so now that you've been semi-retired for a few years and you've written all these books, like what do you think about legacy or enduring to the end? Like what are some of your thoughts on that?

Michael House:

I'm just curious I don't have a lot of thoughts about legacy. I really don't, because I think what the Lord is trying to help us do is think forward to what his promises mean for us in the future, and that's where our focus should lie, right. So, remember, he talks about, you know, treasures on earth versus treasures in heaven, and if we're focused on what our potential is, what we can achieve, I mean, I guess legacy becomes part of that. But I don't think about it much because I'm trying to think more about, okay, how do I utilize some of the talents and opportunities that I have to help people, because the ultimate goal is for us to get to a different place that we don't fully understand yet. But that is so amazing and wonderful and we feel it, we catch glimpses of it and we feel how important it is. That's real, that's a real thing.

Michael House:

Neal A Maxwell talked about that, some of these inklings that we'll get, not just about the future, but also he talked about inklings from the preexistence, from the premortal existence too. But I think that's where my mind mostly is and at the end of the day, here's the other thing. I think that's where my mind mostly is, and at the end of the day, you know. Here's the other thing I think about. We're promised in Luke, and we're also promised I don't remember where in the Book of Mormon that you know, eventually, everything's going to be known, nothing's going to be hidden, right? So all of these Gadianton robbers that are running around in high places and President Nelson warned us about that back in 2016, about all of the evil in high places that exist in society, all these people who think they can hide everything from God they can't. It's all going to get exposed, everything. And so I think about that personally, too.

Michael House:

I'm like, okay, well, okay. So my family is going to know everything about me, right, past and present. Right, they're going to know everything. And I need to be working toward a place where that's okay. You know, I know that I've done bad things in the past, right, that I've tried to repent of, and I'm trying to work toward a place where I'm comfortable, that I've repented and I know where I am and I know where I want to be and I know how to get there and I feel like I'm doing my best to get there. And then all that other stuff, all the legacy stuff, I don't think it matters. Does that make sense. That may be a counterintuitive answer, but that's kind of how I think about it.

Scott Brandley:

Okay, I mean. So it sounds like you're you're more focused on just making the best of of the journey that you're on and not really thinking about it and, like you, I yeah, I'm still figuring it out that becomes your legacy, right?

Michael House:

right, it does Right, it does the way other people will look at it. Right, I'm still figuring it out. Like you guys, we're all imperfect, we're all struggling, we're all trying to learn from each other, which is again why I enjoy these kinds of conversations, because we all get to learn together, we all get to help each other. We reinforce each other. Satan hates these kinds of conversations he does not like us doing this, by the way because we reinforce each other and we help each other. We, you know, we can and we can figure out, uh, how to get from point A to point B in ways that maybe we didn't think were possible.

Alisha Coakley:

I had a thought when you were talking about just how everything's going to be made known right. And on the one hand, that can be scary if you have a lot of things in your past that you're not proud of Sure.

Alisha Coakley:

On the other hand, I like to think for me and doing this podcast has been a huge eye-opener for me over the last three plus years, in being able to have different guests on who share their stories, share their perspectives. I have learned that every single person has so much that has happened to them. They've had so many experiences good, bad and otherwise. So many different relationships. Like every human being is so complex that there is no. There is no like black and white, like you're good or you're evil, like we're all both you know. And how did the, how did someone get to this point?

Alisha Coakley:

And just because you would have made a different decision, Well it's because you had a different experience beforehand, like you had different knowledge when that decision was being made, and so I kind of like the idea of everybody knowing everything, because I feel like it's not going to be. I don't feel like there's going to be as much shame. I almost feel like it's going to be like a burden released off our shoulders, where we're like oh, like it's going to be like a burden released off our shoulders where we're like, oh, now we don't have to try to defend ourselves or explain ourselves, we don't have to carry this like this, this guilt, you know, or the shame, or this remorse or this disgust with ourselves. Like we just get to know that everybody gets to know everything and they're going to understand why we made those choices.

Alisha Coakley:

You're right you're going to be so proud of us for being like you got. You got over this, these things happen to you and this way, you did all this good stuff. Like, how amazing are you? I mean, I just feel like we're going to have so much more love for each other and just a complete understanding and knowledge of, yeah, all the things that. How? Can we, you know, I just, I just, I don't know, that's my personal thing, you're right.

Michael House:

It's all a matter of perspective and oftentimes we are our own worst critics, right, and we unfairly paint ourselves in a negative light a lot. We do that, right, but we need to get to the place where we have that perspective, like you talked about. Your perspective has changed and God bless you both for doing this podcast, because there are so many great stories out there and I can see how your perspective has been changed a little. And now you say, oh okay, well, gosh, well, I'm not judging this person. I mean, they went through some hard things, they did some bad things, but they went through some hard things and they're trying to get back on the right path and I respect that right. And then you start to think, you start to figure out that that's the way people are gonna look at you too, like you just said. So I love that. That's perfect.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, it's definitely made me personally kind of approach people in situations in more of a curious manner and not a judgy manner. So when people are doing things that I just totally don't agree with, yeah I, I have a tendency to sort of naturally go to the curious, like yeah I wonder what got them to that point.

Alisha Coakley:

You know, like I wonder what happened to them to make them feel like that, that this is okay, you know, and you kind of have this little inkling of compassion still being protective of yourself or your family or whatever else. But it's definitely, I don't know. It's different, and it feels like you don't have to carry so much weight because you don't have to judge, which is the great thing. That's not our job. We don't have to decide in the end who's good and who's not and where people are going. We just gotta love them and and keep trying to be as good as we can be on our own and oh yeah, can I?

Michael House:

can I share another point, an interesting point of contact with you? Um, so I was listening to the follow him podcast, uh, by John, by the way, and Hank Smith, and they had a guest on and it was Whitney Johnson and she is the CEO of disruption advisors and she used to work with Clayton Christensen who wrote the power of everyday missionaries, right, and he was a big business guru at Harvard and in that. And so I thought and thought and she mentioned some really interesting things and I thought, oh dang, I want to talk to her. And so I reached out to her as president of LDS PMA and she responded and I just went through their website, their contact form, right, so you never know if you're going to get a hit there or not. And I just went through their website, their contact form, right, so you never know if you're going to get a hit there or not. She responded we had a really good conversation and she clued me into something I'd never heard of before. That has to do with the arts, right, and it was something that President Kimball wrote back in February of 1978. And I guess the Liahona used to be called Tambuli. Of course, now we call everything Liahona, and so this appeared in February of 1978 in, I guess, what was called the Tambuli, which was the Liahona, and he talks about the expectations for Latter-day Saints.

Michael House:

And you just recently interviewed Steve Piersanti, who's the founder of LDSPMA. Remember he talked to you about how he looked around in the publishing space and he said, gosh, why aren't there more Latter-day Saints here? Because we could do so much good here, right, spreading the light of the gospel here in the publishing space. We could do more good. We have a lot of talent. And so he started LDSPMA and that's just amazing that he did that. I really admire Steve and the others that worked with him in doing that. Well, president Kimball set those expectations a long time ago and he said look, we have the spirit, we have the gift of the Holy Ghost, we have access to revelation in greater degrees than most of humanity. We should be good at everything every scientific endeavor, every other kind of academic endeavor, the arts, everything. We should be really good at it because we have access to the full power of the spirit and we know how to comport ourselves to receive greater light and knowledge. Right, we know how to do that. And so he gave this great. He put together this great article and it was just mind-blowing to me One of the things he says at the very end.

Michael House:

He says take a Nicodemus and put Joseph Smith's spirit in him, and what do you have? Take a Da Vinci or a Michelangelo or a Shakespeare and give him a total knowledge of the plan of salvation of God and personal revelation, and cleanse him. And then take a look at the statues he will carve and the murals he will paint and the masterpieces he will produce. Take a handle with his purposeful effort, his superb talent, his earnest desire to properly depict the story and give him inward vision of the whole true story and revelation. And what a master you have.

Michael House:

We have access to so much. Have access to so much and whether it's, you know, artistic endeavors or scientific fields of inquiry or whatever it is, even business right, even the, the, uh, you know boring business world, if you will, and my kids always thought it was boring. Um, there's, there's so many things we can do with that kind of power, right, and, and I, I love this. I'm going to use this in some of the presentations I give Um, but she turned me on to this, this, this person, the kind of random person I was able to reach out to and and she responded, so that was a lot of fun. So I'm, I'm, very I love that quote.

Alisha Coakley:

Like it really, like you really think about, like what would it have been like? Like what could we see and hear and read? And like what type of you know what type of science to come out, what type of like medical, like procedures and pharmaceuticals, and like, can you just imagine if you had really faithful members of the church who just knew their stuff and they had the spirit with them and they were just really genuinely trying to be like everything that the father wanted them to be it?

Alisha Coakley:

makes me think leadership positions and, yeah, inventors and architects and I mean like, oh, yeah, for sure it makes me.

Michael House:

It makes me wonder how advanced the Nephite civilization became, and even the Jaredites, because the Nephites had some good long stretches of righteousness, right, and, of course, especially after Christ's visit to the Americas, and the Lord would have blessed them in innumerable ways, right, and they had curious people, they had artists, they had engineers, they had artists, they had engineers, they had technicians, they had people who could, who were curious about the world and how it worked and how to make it better, right, and so I think they're, I think we're going to discover that they were more advanced than we ever imagined.

Michael House:

In fact, when I was writing, when I was writing the servant of helaman, I was thinking about those kinds of things, right, and you know, we tend to have these images in our mind of them living in huts and they're wearing, you know, kind of short robes that are made of animal skins and they look pretty backward, right. That's kind of the image that we have in our minds. I don't think that was true, and, in fact, when I had an editor I was working with and she's LDS, and I had mentioned them wearing pants, and she was like pants, they didn't wear pants and I'm like, well, how do you know that? How would they not wear pants Right, especially if you subscribe to the North American heartland theory of where most of the Book of Mormon took place? They would have endured some cold weather sometimes right, and pants are not that easy to figure out right.

Michael House:

It's not a great technological achievement to come up with pants, so how would the Nephites not have ever been able to figure that out?

Alisha Coakley:

Right.

Michael House:

So anyway, it was a fun conversation.

Alisha Coakley:

I've never thought of it either, but now I'm like yeah that's funny wow.

Michael House:

Fortunately they didn't seem to make too many uh technological improvements in their weaponry right yeah like we have right. We have nuclear weapons and all kind of biological weapons. Oh, my goodness gracious, We've made arguably we've made too much progress scientifically in that arena.

Alisha Coakley:

Right yeah.

Scott Brandley:

Well, let's change gears for a minute, with the LDS PMA conference coming up. With the LDS PMA conference coming up. Yes, tell us a little bit about that. For people that have the desire to bring their inner artist out, whether it's writing or video or art or any of the other types of things that are involved in creativity. Tell us a little bit about the LDS PMA and how people can get involved in it or go to the conference, yeah, so um there, yeah, there's two ways to quote unquote be involved in it.

Michael House:

You can attend the conference and enjoy, uh, the workshops uh that we have there and the keynote speakers that we have there. We have some great keynote speakers every year. That's what kept me coming back. I tried it out in 2022 just to give it a shot, to see what it was like, and my expectations weren't super high, but it was really really good. This year, our keynote speakers are Sherry Du.

Scott Brandley:

What.

Michael House:

Yeah, we'll have Sherry. We'll have Harry and Deborah Bonner.

Scott Brandley:

Oh, we love Bonner.

Michael House:

Yeah, we'll have Brad Pello, who's the executive producer of the Chosen. He'll be there speaking to us. And we'll have J Scott Savage, who's an author. He's up to 23 published novels, so that makes me a little jealous, I'm only at 12. But he'll be there speaking. And then we have, you know, eight different tracks of breakout sessions.

Michael House:

So you know, we've got, like I said, writers and artists, all kinds of artists and filmmakers, and, and, of course, we try to teach people about marketing and how to market your work. We're trying to help people network and find different ways, different avenues to share their work with the world, including commercially, right? Right, not everyone's going to be able to turn their artistic talent into a full-time money-making endeavor, but some can, some do. And then we have other things going on throughout the world. But you can go to or throughout the year, I should say throughout the world. That's the, that's the vision. To have things going on throughout the world. That is part of our vision actually is to become more of a global, global organization. We have a few folks from outside the US and Canada, but if you go to ldspmaorg, you can learn more about the conference and can learn more about the different kinds of things that we do. We have that podcast called Called to Create. We have monthly Zoom calls that are interesting, that we learn about different topics. We have some master classes that will be coming up in the spring that you can sign up for.

Michael House:

But the conference is amazing. I mean, if anyone out there is, you know, an aspiring artist, even an established artist, there's lots of good to be had and we're a little different than a lot of these other industry conferences in that we really do lean in firmly to our faith and we certainly invite people who are not LDS to the conference. But while there, they will see that we lean strongly into LDS doctrine and LDS principles and we want to understand who we are and what our purpose is on the earth and how we can achieve that purpose by working together at things like this conference. It's a really, really good conference. Again, that's what kept me around was my great experience at that first conference in 2022. And I think there we had Maoli Jr Bonner, so one of the Bonner sons was one of the speakers. He's a fabulous dynamic.

Alisha Coakley:

That's the one Scott and I went to and it was. I mean, we just were cracking up and yeah.

Michael House:

Gerald Lund was there.

Alisha Coakley:

Yep, I remember Jane.

Michael House:

Cleason Johnson was there.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, they had some really good ones.

Michael House:

And then there was an author Was it Rebecca Nielsen? There was an author that spoke as well. Yeah, it's really, really good. I've just been impressed. We're going to give out some Lifetime Achievement Awards as well. We do that every year. Those are fun. I actually got to help coordinate that. This year we're going to give one out to Don Bluth. I know you've heard of Don Bluth. Yep, don Bluth. I know you've heard of Don Bluth. We're going to give one out to while I'm I should have these things easily memorized here Carla Kelly, who's an author, and Sally DeFord, who is a kind of a composer, songwriter, and she has done so much throughout the world like helping Latter-day Saint congregations by just giving them free music, free stuff they can use. She, she, and then she was really hesitant to receive an award because she just wanted to serve. She just wanted to serve people.

Alisha Coakley:

That's really cool.

Michael House:

Yeah, yeah. So that's a, an award well-deserved. We didn't want to embarrass her by it, right. We wanted to recognize because we want other people to see the example, right, right, because we want other people to see the example, right, right, see that kind of example, an example of service and excellence in what she does. So it's so much fun. There's so many things that we're doing now that are really really good things, and we do lean into our faith, and that's why I really love it. If we were kind of starting to veer off into trying to make sure we were accepted by the world, if you will, all of the Babylonian gatekeepers it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be fun for me, it just wouldn't be. Not only would I have to fill out lots more paperwork, I just wouldn't have fun doing I wouldn't paperwork, I just wouldn't have fun doing it. I just wouldn't feel the same.

Alisha Coakley:

Well, why don't you tell everyone when is the LDS PMA going to take place and how do they get registered for that?

Michael House:

Yep, so it's October 16th through the 18th, so that's a Thursday, Friday, Saturday. The main conference is Friday and Saturday and we have deep dive workshops that we offer on Thursday, and so there's a Monday session and an afternoon session and there's lots of different options there. And again, you can go find that on ldspmaorg and you can sign up for just workshops. If you want to do the deep dive workshops, you can sign up for the conference. You can sign up for the gala in addition to that. So we have an awards gala on the Friday night and you can sign up for. And there's a couple of other things you can sign up for as well Fast pitches, like you can sign up to do fast pitch things. And on the Friday morning let's go ahead.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh, I was going to say Now. I know in the past there's been some options for people to be able to virtually attend different classes.

Michael House:

Do you guys have that? Yeah, so you can virtually attend as well. Gotcha, yeah, so that is an option Perfect and I will tell you, and I do want to mention this, will tell you and I do want to mention this. The other way to get involved with LDSPMA is as a volunteer, because we're an almost entirely volunteer-run organization. We have about 70 volunteers. We have two part-time paid staff that you know help us with some of the mechanics of things and they do a lot of good. You know organizational work for us as well. But on Friday morning of the conference I will be awarding the first annual Molly McKenzie Award for Exemplary Service to one of our.

Michael House:

LDS PMA volunteers.

Michael House:

Molly McKenzie became one of our vice presidents back in October and she lives right close to me.

Michael House:

We're in Cache Valley and she's in kind of the far Northern tip of Cache Valley up in Preston, idaho, and uh, and she's just just a fabulous dynamo of a person really devoted to LDS PMA and its mission, really loved it and really loved the youth and she was trying to do a lot with the youth what we call next gen.

Michael House:

And and then last Thanksgiving she fell sick and she had this fast acting sepsis of some sort and within two days she was dead. She died and it just shocked us all, obviously shocked her family and shocked the rest of us, and we decided we were going to create this award in her honor because she was so good at, you know, volunteering her time and her energy to this organization. So we're going to do this annual award, the Molly McKenzie Exemplary Service Award, and give that out to a volunteer every year and we're going to start taking nominations at the beginning of this month and we'll stop taking them on the 15th. As a board we'll choose somebody and then I'll get to make that award. I think her husband will be present for that?

Alisha Coakley:

I guess not. Now. I'm going to do it, he's going to be present when we give out the award, I think. I bet that'll be so sweet. Thank you, Mike. I thought we weren't crying on this one.

Michael House:

I know.

Alisha Coakley:

Wow, that's awesome. Oh well, thank you so much. Is there anything that you'd like to leave with listeners today? Any last thoughts or anything before we wrap up?

Michael House:

like to leave with listeners today Any last thoughts or anything before we wrap up. No, just keep trying to get better at those basic things that Heavenly Father has told us. We need to get better at Obey the commandments and get better at prayer and get better at your scriptures, and He'll help you figure out what your purpose is. There are a lot of people out there who feel like they don't have much talent, they don't have much purpose. That just you know. Why are they? Why are they even here? Right, and the Lord can help you figure that out. He really can, no matter how hard your struggles are. Turn to Christ and he can help you figure that out. You're a lot more powerful than you think you are and he'll help you realize that, and then he'll help you figure out how to channel that. Once you've realized it, then you have to figure out how to channel it so that you can kind of keep the wheel spinning. Does that make sense? Energy going, because it's easy to get kind of bogged down again, because life is life, right. I mean the food doesn't grow on trees inside our houses that we can just sit around and eat, right? It's hard, life is really hard, and so we need to keep that wheel going and let Christ help us, continually help us, and he will. He's always, he's there, he's active, he's so active. Every day we may look at an aspect of our lives or in our community.

Michael House:

We live in Richmond, utah and I was just made ward mission leader and a lot of people think, well, this is Richmond Utah, there's not very many non-members here to begin with, and they've probably all gotten sick of us, us LDS people anyway. So what could be really going on in this part of the vineyard? I guarantee you there's a lot going on. The local people are actively working everywhere, everywhere, all the time, and in fact, as proof of that, I literally was set apart two weeks ago and I was invited to attend a ward council. The ward mission leader is not part of the ward council anymore, but I was invited to come to one. And then last week, literally last week somebody in our ward boundaries, in our little ward boundaries in Richmond Utah. They're small ward boundaries, not like Illinois where we had huge ward boundaries, not like Illinois where we had huge word boundaries.

Michael House:

Somebody had responded to a Facebook ad from the church and said I would like the missionaries to come by and visit me Nice and I got the notification. The missionaries got the notification and I got the notification. I was like, wow, you know. I mean it's happening everywhere. The second coming is real, it's happening. We may not know when, and I can't understand all of the fabulous computations people make about prophetic timelines. I don't get that stuff, but it's near. President Nelson has told us it's near. Get ready for the second coming, and part of that is just we have to get good at the basics. We just have to get to the basics and understand who we are and let him help us. And he will Right.

Alisha Coakley:

Well, thank you so much for joining us again, mike, and this was just a really good conversation. I know it was a little different than our normal format where we have like a story and whatever else, but I loved it.

Michael House:

I I have a lot of good little nuggets that I'm going to take away and go right down.

Alisha Coakley:

I hope I, I hope I didn't ramble too much.

Michael House:

No, no, no, no, I get off and going and sometimes that's a two mile race.

Scott Brandley:

So I think you gave us a lot of good insight and advice and things to think about that you didn't give us the traditional quotes or answers. You actually gave us some things that we don't hear very often or have never heard before. So I agree with Alisha. I think there's some really good takeaways from this and we really appreciate your time.

Michael House:

Well, thank you. We all need to keep learning right.

Alisha Coakley:

For sure.

Michael House:

Yeah.

Alisha Coakley:

All right. Well, thanks again for coming on here today and thank you to our listeners guys. Remember, if you guys have a story you know, or even a topic, I you know, scott and I are pretty, pretty flexible. So if there's something that you just feel really passionate about, you feel like, um, maybe you can be sharing on our podcast, reach out to us. You can head over to latterly latterlylightscom and fill out the contact form on our website or you can, um, uh, email us at latterlylights at gmail. No, yeah, that's all latterlylights at gmailcom. I have too many emails that I have to remember sometimes and we would love to be able to hear from you guys and maybe get something scheduled.

Michael House:

Awesome. Thank you both. This was wonderful.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, thanks, mike, and thanks again for everyone to tune in, and we'll see you next week with another episode from Latter-day Lights. Until then, take care. Bye-bye.

Alisha Coakley:

Byebye.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Scott Brandley

Host
Head Shot

Alisha Coakley

Co-host