Why Joseph Smith Became a Mormon

Ingrid and Henry have been my life preservers this past few months as I've pushed through the final stage of my PhD. There is no better activity to put my academic struggle into perspective than to let them tackle and roll over me.

Yesterday was hot by Fairbanks standards (almost 80) and Ingrid spent most of the afternoon reading books to Henry. One of the books she picked up was about Joseph Smith's first vision. This was appropriate since she reads much like Joseph Smith translated: without knowledge of the language she is interpreting. She intermingles a little bit of a princess story in there and talks a lot about the Catholics (sorry Catholics--I think it's the only church name besides ours she knows) but does a darn good job overall in my opinion. The video is better with a little context so if you don't know much about the first vision here is the quick version and here is a more scholarly treatment.

In other news, I finished writing my PhD today. There is still some formatting to do, and in reality I'll still be writing it until all the papers are published, but shut up critical thinking! A complete draft exists and it feels great. My defense will be on August 4th at 10am AK time. Let me know if you'd like to attend remotely and I can get you the video info.