A Testimony of Refinement — June 17, 2026

In the earliest years after my mission, I found myself working on the manufacturing side of the petroleum industry at the Salt Lake Refinery. During those years, I trained for and earned the Basic Operator classification. I spent countless hours watching the behavior of distillation columns — the rise and fall of temperatures, the separation of heavy and light fractions, the constant adjustments required to keep the system stable.

Now, at this stage of my life, I often feel as though my own journey has followed the same pattern. My life has been a kind of distillation process — shaped by heat, pressure, rising, falling, refining, and the steady hand of the Lord guiding me through every stage.

I did not see this clearly when I was young. But looking back now, I can trace the pattern.

There were seasons of intense pressure, where the weight of circumstances pushed me downward. There were seasons of rising, where clarity and light lifted me upward. There were impurities burned away through adversity, and there were moments of pure truth that settled into my soul. Through it all, I was being refined — not destroyed.

My education followed the same pattern. My refinery experience led to experiential credits at the University of Phoenix, which led me toward my teaching degree at Weber State University, which eventually placed me in the classroom at Layton High School. None of these steps were random. Each one was part of the refining process — preparing me to understand people, to teach, to listen, and to see patterns in life the way I once saw patterns in the refinery.

My spiritual life has followed the same structure. I have been blessed and protected in ways I cannot deny. I have also been subjected to the adversary’s influence, just as I was warned I would be when I made covenants in the temple. But those covenants have held me. They have been the stabilizing force in the column — the quiet assurance that the Lord was with me even when the pressure rose and I felt stretched thin.

I feel a growing responsibility to bear testimony of these things to my children. They deserve to know not just the events of my life, but the meaning behind them. They deserve to understand why I have faith, why I have endured, and why I know the Savior has been with me through every stage of my refinement.

My life has not been perfect. It has not been easy. But it has been guided. It has been protected. It has been shaped by a loving Father in Heaven who has used every experience — the heat, the pressure, the rising, the falling — to refine me into someone who can bear witness of His Son.

This is my testimony: That Jesus Christ lives. That He has walked with me through every stage of my life. That my covenants have been a shield and a guide. That the Lord has refined me through adversity, blessed me in ways I did not always recognize, and prepared me to share these truths with my children.

My father had his story. This is mine. And together, they form the beginning of a legacy I hope will continue long after I am gone.