Navigating Divorce
Digital Firesides: A Sunday Night Tradition
“Fireside” is a term often used by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to represent a small, inspirational meeting. Here, friends and families gather to listen to gospel-centered messages by prayerfully-selected speakers, followed by some form of yummy treat.
Friends + Inspiration + Treats!?! It’s no wonder everyone looks forward to firesides!
Our Turtle House Digital Firesides
When the pandemic hit in 2020, gatherings were temporarily suspended and most everything went digital. People who enjoy the social aspect of church functions lost connection with those with whom they felt rooted to. Our Turtle House saw the need for community and gathering and created Sunday evening Digital Firesides.
It’s a fireside…and it’s online digitally…so it’s a Digital Fireside!
A Sunday Evening Tradition
Digital Firesides have become a Sunday night tradition to thousands of families across the globe! We’ve received messages from friends and neighbors who gather together to watch Digital Firesides and many more who share the events on all their social media pages. Many ward and/or youth groups even have Sunday evening “watch parties”.
So gather your group together.
We’ll do ALL of the planning, scheduling, and booking to bring the gospel-centered messages to you. The only thing you need to do is decide whether or not to provide your group’s favorite yummy treat!
Easy. Peesy.
Join our audience as they gather virtually Sunday evenings at 6 p.m. MT on the Our Turtle House App, Facebook page, and YouTube channel to watch some of your favorite inspirational speakers. From Olympians to authors, and Institute teachers to musicians…a wide variety of popular guests join host Mark Williams as they talk about powerful topics that you, our audience, request.
Have a speaker or topic you’d like to suggest? Let us know! Contact us at: turtle.link/share
A Hero’s Journey
Everybody loves a hero.
Strength. Determination. Courage. Security. Confidence. Supernatural powers.
There’s something inside each of us that wants to become a little bit more like the hero of a story we’ve heard “once upon a time.”
So what does it take to become a hero?
Probably not a perfect life. Probably not a lot of money. Probably not a natural-born instinct that allows us to slide through life with ease.
No. Probably not.
Actually, the most common factor of what makes a hero a hero is pretty much the same exact same concept that creates the most vilest of villains. The concept can be summed up in one little word:
struggle
Pain. Disability. Loss. Sorrow. Grief. Loneliness. Fear.
While every villian of every story chose, at some point, to succumb to the depths of a life-altering struggle, every hero has chosen to overcome one.
And so can you.
You see…there’s a little bit of hero in us all.
Because you are a child of God, an eternal Father in Heaven, you have already been blessed with some pretty impressive supernatural powers.
I mean, you might not be able to fly or create alternate universes, but you have real spiritual strengths that others can literally see.
You hold within you a determination to rise above whatever your heartache may be. You alone can create security and instill confidence into those around you.
You can save and you can endure and you can become the best hero of your very own story, but it takes a journey, a story, a struggle, a choice to get there.
You CAN be a hero but, really, you already ARE one.
Where will your journey take you?
We’ve found some episodes from the Our Turtle House App that will help you learn to discover the hero within yourself. Click on the picture below to open each episode directly in your Our Turtle House App.
Valuing Progress Over Perfection
Perfect. Flawless. Filter. Top-of-the-line. Best. Unbeatable. Model.
We live in a world where these descriptors seem to be the goal and anything less is unacceptable.
“Model behavior.” “Best in class.” “Flawless complexion.” “Perfect performance.”
But are these expectations real? Do people really expect these from us? Or are they unrealistic expectations we place upon ourselves?
While not always a bad thing to work towards, the idealism of perfection often comes with a price. Low self-esteem, relationship problems, health issues, anxiety, and depression are common results from living a life of chronic perfectionism.
Saint Augustine, renowned theologian, prolific writer, and skilled preacher of the fourth century once said, “This is the very perfection of man, to find out his own imperfections.“
We are put on earth to learn how to become perfect, not to live life perfectly.
And as long as you’re trying the very best you can then what you do is good enough.
What if you were to put more emphasis on your progress instead?
Record your progress so that when you begin to feel frustrated, you can actually see how far you’ve come. Notice the things you’ve become better at or stronger at or risen above. There is nothing wrong with giving yourself a little pat on the back for everyday achievements. You will find that there is so much satisfaction that comes from looking at how much you’ve improved!
So patient with yourself. Set your goals and show yourself a little love and compassion.
We’ve found some episodes from the Our Turtle House App that will help you show yourself a little more love and compassion. Click on the picture below to open each episode directly in your Our Turtle House App.
Supporting The LGBTQ+ Community: Part 2
“Empathy is about standing in someone else’s shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eyes. Not only is empathy hard to outsource and automate, but it makes the world a better place.”
Daniel H. Pink
Every member of the LGBTQ+ community has a story and, to fully understand what another person is going though, we must be willing to first hear their side of the story.
Here are three brave souls who are willing to give us a glimpse into what it’s like to be an LGBTQ+ within a Latter-Day community.
We hope that by sharing their stories, we can all be a little more understanding, a little more patient, a little more compassionate, and a whole lot more loving towards, not only the LGBTQ+ among us, but towards everyone we come in contact with.
Because everyone is fighting their own battles.
Please watch or listen to the following episodes to learn how you, too, can better support the LGBTQ+ community in your area. Click the images to listen on your Our Turtle House App!
Preparing For Spiritual Battles
Today we are in a battle unlike any other battle.
This is a battle where only the strongest will survive.
We must prepare ourselves with the most durable armor, the most powerful weapons, and with the most indestructible shields that the enemy can only dream of!
We are in a war with the most vicious, power-hungry enemy that has ever existed. We do not know when he will attack, where he will attack, or what weapons of mass destruction he has hiding within his reach. We do not know how many warriors he will bring with him or what his plan of attack might be, so we. must. be. ready.
Sound a little “doom and gloom”? Perhaps. But these ARE the last days and the enemy IS fighting with everything he’s got to destroy us.
Ours is a spiritual battle. The enemy? The same enemy that attempted to destroy Adam and Eve. The same enemy that attempted to destroy Moses. The same enemy that attempted to destroy Mary Magdelene and Joseph Smith and a myriad of other souls who, like you, had an important role to play on this earth.
Satan. The enemy of all things.
Luckily, we have a loving Father in Heaven who gave us, and continues to give us, all the tools we need to fight this enemy.
A sword of truth. A breastplate of righteousness. A shield of faith. And so many other pieces of “spiritual armor” (Ephesians 6) that will protect us from the fiery darts of the adversary.
President N. Eldon Tanner once said:
“Examine your armor. Is there an unguarded or unprotected place? Determine now to add whatever part is missing. … Through the great principle of repentance you can turn your life about and begin now clothing yourself with the armor of God through study, prayer, and a determination to serve God and keep his commandments.”
President N. Eldon Tanner, “‘Put on the Whole Armor of God,’” Ensign, May 1979.
We found some other ways to prepare yourself for the spiritual battle that might lie ahead. Click on the following images to watch or listen to the following episodes on your Our Turtle House App today!
Supporting the LGBTQ+ Community
Lesbian. Gay. Bisexual. Transgender. Queer.
More and more members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are beginning to take off their masks and “come out of the closet” as dual members of the LGBTQ+ community.
While many may see this as a controversial subject among our societies, same-sex attraction is one that really needs to be talked about more openly and we, at Our Turtle House, embrace those souls who are courageously willing to speak openly with us, helping us see the world from their points of view.
Please watch or listen to the following episodes to learn how you, too, can better support the LGBTQ+ community in your area. Click the images to listen on your Our Turtle House App!
