Mormon Exploring in Paris

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by jpaul (emeritus contributor)

Modern Mormon Men has been an early supporter of Mormon Explorer. We are grateful for their continued support and are proud to announce that a year since launching we have nearly 1600 users in 82 countries. Members have shared amazing stories with us of travels to Norway, Peru, Singapore and more. I've personally had a chance to use Mormon Explorer for local trips to Dallas and San Antonio as well as a couple amazing experiences in Paris and Mexico. I'd like to share some of the lessons learned during my Paris adventure, and invite you to share your stories with us. Message us on Facebook to be highlighted on our homepage.

Ever since we launched Mormon Explorer in mid-2012, my wife and I had wanted to try it out. We love to travel and meet new people, so we figured Mormon Explorer would be the perfect way to do both, while saving money (another passion of ours). We couldn't be more pleased with our experience traveling to Paris and staying with Georgette Lalaus and her amazing family.

We arrived at the Paris airport in a complete downpour late Sunday evening. I don't have an international cell phone, so meeting up became a bit trickier than I had expected. When we finally found each other, all of us soaked from running around in the rain, I clearly remember Georgette’s huge smile on her face. She repeated several times the phrase, “I am so Happy!”. Her joy for life was contagious and I knew right then that we were going to have an amazing few days with her in Paris.

Her husband, Phillipe, drove us back to their apartment on the south-west side of town. Their apartment was a beautiful little haven from the crazy day of travel we had just been through. We were surprised to hear that they had moved their two boys out of their bedroom so that we could sleep in their room. Both Georgette and Phillipe had to wake up early to get to work, but that didn't keep them from staying up late to help us plan our next day’s activities, nor did it keep them from waking up early to make sure there was delicious quiche for us when we woke up…Did I already mention they were an amazing family?

Rather than mention the tourist sites we saw, I want to focus instead on the unique experiences that were only possible through our use of Mormon Explorer. Here are some of the highlights. The second day in Paris, Georgette was able to leave work a little early to give us a personal tour of the city. She introduced us to a parisian cafe where I tasted the best french onion soup I have had to date. We relaxed in the cafe and got to know Georgette better. Her conversations were deeper than most you would have over lunch. She delved into our life story by asking questions like, “when did you get your testimony?”, “what does the church mean for you?” While she's been a member most her life, she could have easily been mistaken for a new member by her eagerness to talk about the gospel.

Giveaway 20: “Unresolvable? The Kingdom of God on Earth”

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by jpaul (bio)

Several months ago, I interviewed Randy Paul, founder of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, on Modern Mormen Men. His foundation is screening a powerful new documentary titled Unresolvable? The Kingdom of God on Earth, which was recently featured in Deseret News.

The movie focuses on Mormons, Evangelicals, Hindus, and Muslims, and the issue of how Americans treat their religious rivals and critics. It is a gripping story of a Mormon who is angry with the anti-Mormon demonstrators who descend on Temple Square during General Conference. He decides to get to the heart of the problem and finds much that he did not expect.

The Foundation has made 5 DVDs available to Modern Mormon Men readers.

Giveaway Guidelines:
You have THREE chances to enter. Each entry requires a separate comment below.
1. Leave a comment on this post.
2. Like MMM on Facebook or share this post on Facebook. Leave a comment letting us know you did.
3. Follow MMM on Twitter or share this post on Twitter. Leave a comment letting us know you did.

• 4 days to enter (closes Monday, November 19th at midnight).
• Winners announced Tuesday, November 20th.
• Winners must respond via email with their address by Friday, November 23rd to claim their DVD.

Also, if you are in the Salt Lake City area and don't have plans tonight (Friday, November 16th), there will be a free screening at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the new Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake City (209 S. 500 E. - parking in the SL Library garage next door). The movie is 80 minutes long followed by a panel discussion of religious leaders.

More information here: Facebook, Twitter, Website.

Every Kid Should Have a Pet Rat

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by jpaul (bio)

A few Saturdays back, my wife had a photo shoot and I was in charge of our three kids (5, 3, 1) for a few hours. She should have known that leaving me alone with the kids on a Saturday morning was not going to end well. Being a wise husband, I decided the first thing we needed to do was leave the house so that it wouldn't be a disaster when my wife got home. Unfortunately, summers in Houston are unbearable, so going outside was not an option. I decided our best alternative to playing outside was to go to the Better Zoo. This is the name our family has given PetCo, since it is like the zoo, but better in two very important ways; it is free and it is air-conditioned.

I say it's free, but I guess that is only if you decide not to buy anything, which is what we usually do … not today. We passed by the small mammal section and spotted some rats that we just couldn't pass up. My son chose his favorite "feeder rat," which are meant to be fed to a snake, and named him Ratty. Hopefully words just popped into your mind like "gross" or "disgusting" ... perfect, read on.

Live Deliberately

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by jpaul (bio)

Let me share what I have learned from a family I recently connected with through Mormon Explorer. Meet the Dennings, a homeless family I can’t help but envy when I visit their website and see the life of adventure they are living. After living for the last few years in Asia and Central America, they are now enjoying a nomadic lifestyle as they drive from Alaska to Argentina. That is an amazing feat for any couple, but what still blows me away is that they are doing this with 5 kids.

When I first contacted them last month, I didn’t even know where to begin with my questions. How can you afford that? What about insurance? What about school? Can I come? As a delved into their blogs and videos on their website, I found that they had answered many of these questions themselves.

To my first question on finances, and probably the top concern for anyone considering a similar expedition, Rachel Denning responded,

"We’ve found that there is a misconception about travel. Our monthly budget for all seven of us is about $1500 - $2000. (Our cheapest month was actually about $950) That's for food, rent, utilities (internet, cell phone), etc. That's less than we used to pay in the states just for a mortgage. REAL travel is cheap. Vacationing is expensive. We don't vacation. :) And we don't have any other bills back in the States. We gave them all up. Travel is one of the most important parts of our life, so everything else ('stuff', etc.) gets a back burner. We own everything free and clear. We buy everything with cash.”

The idea of Traveling vs. Vacation is an amazing point that I hadn't really thought about before, but the idea resonates with me and what I enjoy about traveling. I love to explore. I don’t really care much for vacation. Spending money on a fancy hotel and taking pictures of the same landmarks that millions of others have already captured doesn't do much for me. I want to meet real people and experience their culture. I look back on my most memorable experiences while traveling, and they have never occurred at fancy art galleries or museums … it's usually when my family and I wander off the beaten path that we find unique experiences that we carry with us long after the trip has concluded.

Mormon Explorer: General Conference Blitz

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by jpaul (bio)
by Roy Peckham (bio)

We wouldn't be much of a start-up if we didn't try to do some crazy marketing campaigns to stretch our small budget to its limit. Today we have a team of five volunteers hitting the streets at the Salt Lake City Conference Center to distribute 4,000 "postcards" introducing visitors from around the world to Mormon Explorer. The text is a bit small in the pic, but it is a letter home from a traveler using Mormon Explorer describing what an amazing experience it has been. The QR code will take mobile users to our mobile site for basic information and sign up.

If you are going to any of the Saturday sessions, see if you spot the postcards being handed out. Don't worry, they're not anti-Mormon literature. Also, a big thanks to the great turnout we've had over the last couple days. As I write this, we are at 252 users in 21 countries.

Finally, we are listening to feedback and constantly making improvements. If you haven't tried the "World View" yet, you should because it's awesome. You can see all the users across the world as you drag the map and zoom in and out. Sign up for free and keep sharing the site with others!

Mormon Explorer - Uniting Through Travel

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by jpaul (bio)
by Roy Peckham (bio)

A small team of travelers, designers and entrepreneurs have been working for several years to build a free website that will bring together Mormons who share a common love for traveling. We are excited to announce that MormonExplorer.com launches today!

Imagine being over in Italy and you would like to know when the closest church starts and where it is located. Let's say you would like to meet and eat with a local family in Peru while touring historic sites. How about hosting a family from Russia in your home when they come to Utah for General Conference for the first time? These are just a few of the possibilities with Mormon Explorer.

Our vision is to use the well-connected LDS community to create a network of explorers who are open to the idea of connecting with members from across the world while traveling. Meeting up with local members while traveling globally is a great way to make new friends, save money, and truly experience the culture of your travel destination. It's like having a good friend with local hookups wherever you decide to travel.

Made in Americana: The Amazing Easter Egg Chicken

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by jpaul (bio)

Just when I thought urban farming couldn’t get any more interesting, I started getting blue eggs from my favorite hen, Chewbacca. What an amazing pet.

Once she started a couple weeks ago, she hasn’t stopped laying them. I get an egg a day without fail, and if I am around for lunch that day, nothing tastes better than a blue eggs and ham sandwich. Chewbacca is an amazing breed of chicken known as the Americana (actually spelled Ameraucana, but I don’t like that spelling). When I purchased her a few months back, I was told that when she starts laying, her eggs would be either brown, pink or blue. Half the fun is waiting for the first egg to arrive to see what color “egg gene” the chicken has. Because of the variety of color, these chickens are also known as Easter Egg chickens.

Now that she is laying, all three of my chickens are in production mode, which means we get 2 to 3 eggs/day. After the initial trials of broken chicken coops and raccoon/hawk/possum attacks, my little backyard experiment is beginning to pay off. While urban farming is not meant to be a profitable venture, it is nice to know that I can now officially stop buying eggs. Rather than being a financial decision, I believe there is a spiritual aspect of urban farming that has been lost in our fast- moving, fast-food society. Brigham Young spoke wisely when he admonished the saints to never lose touch with urban farming as they settled Salt Lake Valley:

“The soil, the air, the water are all pure and healthy. Do not suffer them to become polluted. Strive to preserve the elements from being contaminated. Keep your valleys pure, keep your towns pure, keep your hearts pure, and labor as hard as you can. Adorn your habitations, make gardens, orchards, and vineyards, and render the earth so pleasant that when you look upon your labors you may do so with pleasure and that angels may delight to come and visit your beautiful locations.”

Okay, maybe he didn't say "urban farming", but he came pretty close. We should all ask ourselves if we have rendered our little place on this earth pleasant so that angels would be delighted to visit. As spring comes in the next months, begin small with one or two vegetables in a pot and you may soon find yourself with a full-size garden and chickens roaming your backyard. If you need help getting started, visit FarmLoco.com, the first community of urban farmers.

Note: MMM contributor Casey Peterson was recently spotlighted on Farm Loco.

Randy Paul Interview Part II: Establishing Trust

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by jpaul (bio)

Over the past eleven years, Randy Paul (Harvard MBA, University of Chicago PhD) has focused his time, talent and energy on establishing a foundation that allows religious opponents to sit down together and have meaningful dialogue, not to resolve irresolvable differences, but to sustain them in peaceful tension.

Part I of my interview with Randy described how the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy came into existence and what he hopes to achieve. Part II, below, describes how Randy proposes that meaningful dialogue can be established between believers holding strong, opposing religious beliefs.

The full audio recording can be found here: LINK

Jeff: You believe we can honor those with opposing beliefs by listening to their views and taking them seriously. Can you uphold that honor without offending the other person when it is known on both sides that each think the other is wrong? How do we share our beliefs that we feel strongly about without offending others?

Randy Paul: That is a great question. We like to ask it in this way: How can you respect, let alone trust, someone who is wrong about the most important matter of all, God and the right way of life? The Foundation has found that there is a methodology that anyone can learn and use to begin to build trust with those we think to be wrong. This trust even allows offensive or dangerous views to be faced without people taking offense. There are four steps you can take to begin to build this trust with a religious rival. First, you get centered about your own beliefs and commitments. This means you have done the deep work to respect and trust yourself and a Higher Power (if your are a theist). In essence, you ask yourself, “Am I truly trying to live my religion with integrity?” If yes, then Second, you ask yourself, “Am I confident and caring enough to be open in an honest exchange of influence with someone who will challenge my beliefs?“ If yes, then Third, “Do I desire to be transparent about my various motives for engaging in a deeper relationship of mutual influence with my religious rival or opponent?” If yes, then Fourth, “Am I ready to listen half of the time, and be forthcoming half of the time in honest conversation?” These steps are based on a law of social life that describes the reciprocity inherent to trust-building: when people feel that they are important enough to you that they can influence you, then they take down their psychological wall and allow you to influence them. (Remarkably -- and we can talk about this later -- this law of reciprocity and these steps prepare us for a rare and powerful experience with our religious rivals - a new mode of mutually respectful missionary-to-missionary engagement.

Randy Paul Interview: The Irresolvable Conflict Between Religions

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by jpaul (bio)

Over the past eleven years, Randy Paul (Harvard MBA, University of Chicago PhD) has focused his time, talent and energy on establishing a foundation that allows religious opponents to sit down together and have meaningful dialogue, not to resolve irresolvable differences, but to sustain them in peaceful tension. The following interview with Randy describes how the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy came into existence and what he hopes to achieve. Due to the length of the discussion, the interview will be shared in two parts.

The full audio recording can be found here: LINK

PART I: The Irresolvable Conflict Between Religions That Make Mutually Exclusive Truth Claims

Jeff: Can you tell me how the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy came to be?

Randy Paul: I studied philosophy and religious history and I had a chance in mid-life to go back to school at the University of Chicago and realized then what I want to study. I decided to study what might be called “the irresolvable conflict between religions that make mutually exclusive truth claims and authority claims.” Most conflicts in our society can be settled by some common measurement; you can compromise with a win-win solution, go to court and be paid x amount of money, or go to jail and pay your debt, but when it comes to conflicts over ultimate truths, there is no common metric that everyone will agree on. These conflicts are endless, continuous. The only way to get out of a conflict over religion is to kill your opponents, exile your opponents (or quarantine yourself), or convert your opponent. And I began to study that in a serious way.

I studied religious myths and religious texts of what we call “world religions.” I have found that they were telling stories about the ultimate nature and purpose and destiny of mankind that were different, that were not honestly harmonizable. (See Stephen Prothero’s new book, God Is Not One, on this point.) This was before 9/11, I could sense drooling in the world after the Soviet Union collapsed, there was still a lot of “ethnic conflict”, which was the phrase they once used to cover the fact that these conflicts were heavily religious in nature.

When I left my program in 2000, I wrote my dissertation on theories and actual historical cases of religious conflict. I realized I wanted to get involved somehow in public life and continue an intellectual pursuit of this question. I began the foundation with a couple collaborators and we took a few years to think about how religious diplomacy might be established in the world. Two and a half years ago, I left my business full-time and focused on the foundation.

Chicken Coop For The Holiday Soul

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by jpaul (bio)

I posted a few weeks ago regarding the launch of RedBarnCoop.com and received great feedback from MMM readers. Many of you expressed interest in the coop, so I wanted to announce the Holiday Special that began this week. We lowered the price on the RedBarnCoop from $650 to $399 + shipping. We have also made improvements to the coop thanks to feedback received on MMM. There was a comment on the first blog post that the locks seemed insufficient for clever raccoons, so we upgraded to more secure latches. Thanks for all the support and join the Urban Farming Movement this Christmas!

Chicken Coop For The Soul

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by jpaul (bio)

Few things in life are as simple and enjoyable as having your four year-old son walk to the backyard every day to grab a couple fresh eggs just in time to fry them up for lunch. It still blows my mind that there is actually an animal that will produce an egg every day, like clockwork, and ask for nothing in return but scraps from your dinner plate. I see a not-to-distant future where the chicken claims the title as "the perfect pet." They are easy to care for, playful and productive ... a combination matched by no other animal I can think of. If you are not yet a Modern Mormon Farmer, it’s time to get started.


I began my urban farming adventure by purchasing a chicken coop on Amazon. It turned out to be not quite secure enough to keep out the raccoons that prowl my neighborhood. Unfortunately, I lost my chickens and a couple hundred bucks on a coop that now just adds to the clutter in my garage. I was determined to continue, so I pooled resources with a neighbor (a coop co-op) to afford the nicest chicken coop kit I could find on Craigslist … another mistake. The kit came with some cheap wood and a blank piece of paper, which I believe was intended by the Chinese manufacturer to be the instructions. With a little creativity, we got the coop set up in the backyard and the fresh eggs began coming in. That is, until the nesting box broke completely off of the coop. The wood couldn’t support the weight of two chickens, even though it had been recommended for four.

GOOGLE vs. GOD

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by jpaul (bio)
“Don’t Do Evil” claims Google. While good-intentioned at times, Google is unknowingly changing the way we learn and impacting how we study the gospel, which may not always be for our good. I include Apple in this same sinister group, with their deceptively cute iPads and iPods, which are inadvertently leading us down a dangerous path. Take a minute to STOP and reexamine how these technologies have impacted spiritual growth in your own life.

At church this week, look around your Gospel Doctrine class and count the number of ipad/ipod users. As full disclosure, I am one of these people, as are most of you. Do we understand the full impact of relying on our portable devices because of their ease and convenience … is there a trade-off perhaps? Most people are eager to discuss the obvious benefits; not having to lug scriptures to church, quick reference to multiple manuals, and (shh) even access to email when things get dull. I have yet to hear anyone comment on how studying the scriptures on their i-device actually increases their ability to understand the scriptures and draw closer to the spirit.

The Age of Partrepreneurs

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by jpaul (bio)

The first question that begs to be answered is…what is a partrepreneur? The dictionary according to me defines it as – A person who has full-time employment and benefits while working part-time on entrepreneurial projects in the evenings and weekends. Everywhere I turn these days I see partrepreneurs, and I like what I see.

Admittedly, this idea is not new, but what excites me is the number of forces coming together at this moment to make the next few years the Age of Partrepreneurs. Here is a list of factors that are converging to usher in the next era of entrepreneurship:

• Low cost to start-up

• Access to learning and collaboration

• Gen Y’s need for “meaning”

• Current economic uncertainty

It is incredible how easy it is to create a business these days. If you don’t own a business yet, you should set a goal by the end of 2011 to have one, or at least be collaborating with someone who is working on one. For those of us who work in Corporate America, this act alone will unlock brain capacity and creativity that has lain dormant since graduation. With the relative ease of building a website these days with a hacker friend or using one of the numerous sites that offer templates or outsourced programmers, you can have a site for less than $500 - including legal fees to incorporate on Legalzoom.com. Increasingly common these days are ideas that are completely free to start using Blogspot, Facebook, eBay, etc. Think Modern Mormon Men (an excellent example of mormon partrepreneurs).

Business Vacation

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by jpaul (bio)

Modern mormon men never complain about taking too many vacations. However, I often hear complaints about business travel. Why not try a “Business Vacation”?

I have the opportunity of developing and updating the Business Travel Guidelines as a Policy Advisor for a Fortune 10 Company as part of my day job. As such, I often hear complaints from disgruntled business travelers. But I believe, if used correctly, business travel should be considered a valuable perk. This, of course, assumes that you are not a consultant who travels 120% of your life...You have reason to complain, but then again, you chose the job. I also have to admit that I read Ken Craig's post after writing this and realized that once you have more than a couple kids (7 in his case; see below), the only realistic vacation is wherever there is close friends and family within driving distance of a mini-van.

For those of us who are not yet at the Brady Bunch family size and who travel once a month or even once a year for work, embrace business travel and turn it into a vacation. Business trips are extremely underutilized in my opinion. Take last week for example; 20 colleagues and I flew to Washington D.C. for business. The meetings were conveniently scheduled on Thursday and Friday and happened to coincide with the Cherry Blossom Festival, considered one of the city’s greatest events. Of the 20, only myself and one other flew our spouses out and stayed for the weekend. I thought it was madness that my colleagues spent their Friday night sitting on a plane rather than enjoying a weekend in D.C. paid for mostly by the company.

You may say to yourself, the company only paid for your flight and expects you to fly home Friday. What about the change fee and all the other costs? Actually most business travel guidelines will pay for your return flight at a later date as long as the cost is less than or equal to your originally scheduled flight. (a Monday flight will always be cheaper than a Friday night flight.) My wife flew out on miles that we had previously accrued from previous business trips = free. The monuments and museums in D.C. = free. We stayed at a friend’s = free. $15 dollar/day rental car = $60. Food = $75. A trip that ended up costing me $135 would have cost $835 (assuming $350/ticket) if it had not been for my company subsidizing our airfare costs.

Next time you are on a business trip, why not stick around for the weekend and consider yourself lucky that you have a job that occasionally sends you on a “Business Vacation”?

Family in DC minus 2 kids and 1 on the way