by Keith L. Brown | Nov 20, 2013 | Famous Mormons
Horton Alexander “Cotton” Rosser is the owner of Cotton’s Cowboy Corral in Marysville, California, as well as, “one of the most successful stock contracting firms in professional rodeo,” the Flying U Rodeo Company, which is the oldest rodeo company in the world and the major supplier of rodeo stock in the United States. According to John Bascom, a relative of Rosser’s wife, Karin Allred Rosser (Miss Rodeo Utah from the Ogden, Utah area), the Flying U Rodeo Company was begun by J.C. “Doc” Sorenson of St. Anthony, Idaho. Bascom also states, “My late father Earl Bascom worked for that outfit when Doc had it back in the 1930’s.”
Earl Bascom was born in Utah in 1906, but he was raised in Alberta, Canada. His ingenuity led him to learn all that he could about horses and cattle thus helping him to become a rodeo champion. He also invented, designed, and made rode rigging that is still being used on the rodeo circuit today. In his later years he studied art, and he and his wife, Nadine, taught at schools in Southern California at high desert. When he died in 1985, Earl Bascom was “remembered throughout the West for his ability to span two seemingly disparate pursuits – rodeo and art.” [5] (more…)
by Keith L. Brown | Nov 6, 2013 | Famous Mormons
Devin Graham, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (inadvertently referred to as the “Mormon” Church by the media and others), was born on 29 July 1983. He currently lives in Provo, Utah, and is well known for his “exotic and extreme YouTube videos.” [1] According to a Deseret News article dated 3 April 2013, Graham has filmed “almost every extreme sport Utah has to offer, from human slingshots to water jet packs. Each video has action, friends and what looks to be a massive party. What viewers hardly ever see is Graham.” [1]
Living His Dream
Graham’s Facebook bio simply states that he is a filmmaker, but that doesn’t even begin to tell the story of his tremendous success in the viral video world. The question that is most often asked of him in the myriad of emails that he receives concerns what he does for a living. To answer that question he recently made a video in which he describes a day in his life. (more…)
by megan | Oct 25, 2013 | Mormon Single Adults
I have one problem with this question: “The One.” Is there really one other person out there just for you? The person who’s the yang to your ying? The one guy that will make you perfectly, supremely happy, while all other guys will make you miserable? The guy that heaven has decreed will be your husband?
Nope. There’s no such thing as “the one.” Sorry to burst your bubble.
I mean, think about it: what if the guy who’s “The One” for you is killed in battle? Or born in North Korea and can’t get to you? Or makes a mistake and marries another girl who wasn’t destined for him? Then your entire future is lost. Your one true soul mate isn’t there, and you’ll be the single cat-lady forever.
Obviously this is ridiculous. There’s not just one true soul mate for every guy and girl out there; it would make dating impossible! (And it’s already pretty dang hard).
No, instead I’d like to introduce you to this great maxim–words to date by, if you will: “Choose your love; love your choice.”
This would imply that we can choose whomever we want to love. Whoa. Suddenly the whole wide dating world has opened up! You and I can choose the person we love. I know sometimes it seems that we have little choice in the matter; you’re either attracted to a guy or you’re not attracted, and there’s not a whole lot you can do to change that. (more…)
by Terrie Lynn Bittner | Oct 9, 2013 | About Mormons
I became a “Mormon girl” (a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which church is often inadvertently referred to as the “Mormon Church”) just after my seventeenth birthday. I had spent a lot of time observing the Mormon girls I knew so I could figure out how to be like them. Some things were obvious, although it took time to understand just why they did them.
For instance, the girls dressed modestly. They were fashionable and many were popular. One was prom queen and one was the captain of the drill team. They didn’t look stodgy or old-fashioned or out of touch at all. Their clothes were cute, but modest. I learned that both Mormon boys and girls were taught to be modest to show respect for themselves and for their Heavenly Father. God created them in His own image. Their bodies were gifts from Him. Those two facts motivated them to be respectful of that gift by not using it to gain inappropriate attention.
Mormon Girls Set High Standards
I also noticed that Mormon girls had standards and they lived up to them—even when no one was watching. That was particularly interesting to me. Most of the girls had thought it over, prayed about it, and decided they wanted to live to a high moral standard. One eighteen-year-old who taught my daughter the summer after her graduation told her students that she had been homecoming queen and the head cheerleader and had never once found it necessary to lower her standards in order to be popular. She wanted to be liked for who she really was, not someone who did whatever it took to be popular—even if it made her feel awful inside. Instead, she kept her standards and was popular while feeling great about herself. (more…)
by Charlotte Wilson | Aug 31, 2013 | About Mormons
If you’re at all familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often inadvertently referred to as the Mormon church), you’ll know that the church has a bit of culture to it. Mormons have distinct cultural traditions and stereotypes. Tamu Smith and Zandra Vranes are two women who both embrace their black heritage and tackle missionary work through their blog and podcast, “Sistas in Zion.” Sometimes the best way to understand Mormon culture is to laugh at it.[1]
Embracing Their Own Cultural Heritage
While Tamu and Zandra didn’t meet and become friends until later in their lives, both women had to come to grips with the Caucasian population in Utah. When each of them moved to Utah, they expected to find instant connection with the other church members around them. What they didn’t expect was difficulty in connecting because of different cultural backgrounds.
The Church of Jesus Christ understood this difficulty that its black members were facing and set up the Genesis Group, an organization dedicated to serving the needs of black Mormon and other Mormon minorities. Both Tamu and Zandra found great strength and comfort in the Genesis Group. “It was a breath of fresh air,” Zandra expressed. “That’s where I met Tamu.” (more…)
