Autonomous

My Family in 1978: Raymond Archuleta, Angela, Adina, Deborah (Boyce) Archuleta and Kenneth  My parents were what you would call 'converts', in the truest sense of the word.  My mom was raised Methodist and my dad was raised Catholic.  I grew up as a small child, never attending church or talking about God.  We didn't even attend church on Easter or Christmas, to my knowledge.  Praying at dinner consisted of the rote "God is great, God is good, thank you for this food,  Amen".  Despite the lack of religion in our home, to my understanding, my mom embraced my dad's faith when they married.  They married in a Catholic church, my mom wore Chantilly lace on her head for baptisms and first communions for members of my dad's family.  I have a Catholic baby book.  My two older siblings and I (Ken & Angie) were christened as babies.  I have godparents (my Auntie Viola and Uncle Jim).  Despite all that, I was growing up, blissfully, without any religion clouding

  When you turn eight in the LDS church, you are now 'accountable'.  That's actually how it is stated: the age of accountability.  When you are seven years and 364 days old, you are not responsible for the choices you make because you simply don't know any better.  But once that day clicks over into eight years old, watch out.  Now you have to repent for your mistakes.  You should know better, after all.  You are eight.  This means you are ready to be baptized and make a sacred covenant with God to live His gospel and be obedient.  In doing so, you are promised blessings and you are officially a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  You can now receive the gift of the Holy Ghost through the 'laying on of hands', (aka priesthood power) and that spirit will guide you and help you make the right decisions - if you listen.  It's like having your own little Jiminy Cricket on your shoulder, telling you to go to school and not smoke.   The adu

  This is a photo of my parents, taken shortly after we joined the church.  I know this because it is one of the first photos of my dad in a suit and my mom in church attire.  I love the demure look on my mom's face.  Therein lies the biggest change to our lives after joining the church...we started GOING to church.  Not just on Sundays, either.  Back when my parents joined the church, the meetings were split up throughout the week.  Sacrament meeting on Sunday morning, Sunday school on Sunday afternoon.  During the week was primary and Relief Society meetings.  It was a week-long affair.  My dad was called to be a ward missionary and my mom was called to work in the ward library.  The bishopric knew what they were doing.  They had a new family in the church and to help ensure that they were there each week, they gave them callings that required their presence.  My dad always joked that he was called as a ward missionary because he was so resistant to the missionaries initially.  K

Family Road Trip 1988 Aah.  The teenage years.  Not easy for anyone.  Made less easy by being a part of a high-demand, conservative religion.  When I was 12 years old, I not only graduated from the Primary program of the church and moved onto Young Women's, but we moved.  Huge move.  From Spokane, Washington back to Fremont, California.  At the time, I would say Spokane was about 5-10 years behind California in terms of progress and style, so naturally that put me like 20 years behind.  It was a tough move.   Once we settled in our second home in Fremont, I got settled in our new ward, Fremont First Ward, which eventually became Centerville Ward, which has now been broken up and I don't even know what the ward is called.  The church building we met in is going to be sold and demolished to make way for new homes.  Because the church is dying.  But that is another story for another blog. Friends I was able to make friends at church that were also at school, which was a nice chang

  Gary & Jan Skubal with my parents at the Oakland Temple on the day they were sealed My introduction to Mormons* as a child: * I am aware that Russell Nelson, the current prophet of the church, has asked that we do not refer to the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as "Mormons", but it is a term I grew up with and I associate no negative connotation with it.  And I mean no disrespect when I use it.  I was a Mormon, I have people that I love that are still Mormon - it is a word that has meaning and identity to me.   I guess I can pretty much attribute my parents' initial interest and willingness to listen to the missionaries and learn about the church to the Skubals.  Jan and Gary.  Jan was a friend from high school, who my parents stayed in touch with after high school.  They were Mormon.  They lived in Fremont, California, where they all went to Irvington High School together.  Their influence was always felt and they had a pretty picture-pe

  This one is hard for me.   What even is a Lamanite?  I'll give the cliff note version.  In the Book of Mormon narrative, the Lamanites began as wicked rivals to the more righteous (and fair-skinned) Nephites.  Both were (allegedly) descendants of the Jews.  They were rebellious and were cursed and "cut off from the presence of the Lord".  They received a "skin of blackness" so they would "not be enticing" to the Nephites.  But when the Nephite civilization became rich and wise, it lost divine favor and was destroyed by the Lamanites.  Latter Day Saints have historically associated Lamanites with present-day Native Americans.  (Thank you Wikipedia, for the succinct and accurate definition) My dad has a strong Native American background.  And I don't mean he is 1/16th Cherokee or something.  My grandpa, Antonio Aquilino Archuleta, was Ute and Tiwa, and came from a long line of Pueblo Indians.  He married Maria de la Cruz Vigil, also from the Pueblo

  Felicia Big Hair (front, left) was my foster sister for 3 or 4 school years  through the Indian Placement Program Where to begin?  This is a program that I had little to no understanding of as a child.  I was simply told that we would have a foster child/sister coming to stay with us through the school year.  She would be full-blooded Native American, Crow in this case.  She would go to school locally and attend church with us.  She would be treated as any member of the family would.  She was our sister.  Until summer, when she would return to the reservation in Montana.  The Indian Placement Program was a church-sponsored program that placed Native American students who were baptized members of the LDS church into foster homes of LDS families during the school year.  These students attended majority-white public schools, rather than the Indian boarding schools or local schools on whatever reservation they came from.    Why, do you ask?  Let's ask Wikipedia, who can say it so muc

  The Oakland Temple This might be long.  Preemptive apologies.  Limited understanding. As a child, I was taught to strive to enter the temple one day.  I cannot emphasize this enough.  It was the end goal here on Earth.  Go to the temple.  Be married there.  Return often.  Period.   It was where the fullness of the gospel was given and received.  Going to church and taking the sacrament and being a good person was all well and good, but if you didn't make it through the temple doors, you had fallen short.  This notion was never a debate.  You can ask any good Mormon.  As I mentioned before, because my parents were converts to the gospel who already had 3 kids, we needed to be sealed in the temple to be an eternal family.  This happened twice when I was a child.  The first time was when my parents were sealed in the Oakland temple.  I was taken to a 'nursery' of sorts while their sealing was taking place, and then my siblings and I joined them in a room with an altar and mi