Being a chaplain means being in the service of God and your fellow man and just being a disciple of Jesus Christ and doing whatever you can to serve. Coming into the chaplain corps really has helped me understand that I'm doing what the Lord wants me to do, even though I didn't go out seeking it.

I just called out of curiosity, and I can see just the the rewarding facet of ministering to others in their time of need.

I can see the Lord supporting me in that effort, and it’s blessed me. It’s blessed my family tremendously. It’s changed our lives.

I felt called by God to be an Air Force chaplain when I was studying religion at Harvard, when I was doing my master of divinity.

That call came. It was a series of revelatory experiences, and it was undeniably the path for me.

So I was responding as a peer support member to an agent who was just killed in a rollover accident,

and there was a chaplain there. And I thought, “Well, that makes sense. We need a chaplain. We probably need more chaplains.”

And I continued on my peer support role. But every time that I would respond, people would ... they would say, “Can you pray with me?” And I thought, “There’s something definitely to this.”

And so I signed up, and I was trained as a chaplain. And then I heard that the Church actually had a training for chaplains. And I contacted the Church.

I'm very blessed. I do chaplain work with hospice, but I also get to do funerals as a celebrant. And so one day could be waking up and I’ve got my little list of patients I’m going to go see, and I go to their bedside. “What can I do for you guys?”

A busy day looks like going around visiting different people in the unit, providing counseling, listening to people's stories, working on suicide prevention efforts. You might provide Bible studies and services.

I’m here to be with people to help them be a stronger individual. Because when they’re stronger, more connected to with whatever's greatest and most important for them,

they’re a better soldier. They’re a better teammate. They’re a better family member, and they’re more mission capable. And then, if it’s a Sunday, well, we actually do on Saturday and Sunday now. We’ll do church services.

And so I'll preach for 15, 20 minutes to the soldiers that come to church services.

Prayers, devotionals, talking to people. You would do funerals, weddings, things like that. It may be the social worker who meets with a patient and says, “Oh, this is the job for the chaplain to come in.” Or the nurse may recognize a need where they're in emotional distress and or spiritual distress. And so they're able to from their computer type in a note that comes to me. And then I've got a list of patients right there.

I'm a law enforcement chaplain.

And so I work with the law enforcement officers themselves,

the dispatch officers at the 911 emergency center,

the corrections officers at the county jail,

and the court officers or bailiffs.

There is no typical day. You just have to live your life in such a way that you’re always going to be prepared to feel the Spirit, to respond with what people need at that time, and try to bring them closer to God.

The one thing we are prohibited from is proselyting. We are not there to convert people. We're here to help people through crises.

Faiths throughout the world are so diverse. There's so much to learn about everyone's religion. I just feel like a beginner. I feel like every time I meet somebody I get to ask them what they believe and what religion they're part of. And I'm so grateful when they teach me more because there's always more to learn. And so we're trained from the very beginning to ask the person about their own particular faith and then come at it from their angle, whatever that is. We are expected to know the differences of the religions, and there's an app for that.

So there’s different applications and study materials and stuff on the basic beliefs of most all religions.

But we also go through continuing education training that teaches us about the other religious groups.

I predominantly in the military worked with more people outside of the faith group than in the faith group, actually. My dad was originally a chaplain at the Utah State Prison, and some of my best childhood memories are spent at the prison with my dad.

But from there he became a chaplain in the military. So it was about 1962, and at that time there were only 15 Latter-day Saint chaplains in the world. And right now there are 292

with 28 applications that we have for endorsement. Chaplaincy in the Church is exploding into

a lot of different areas: prison chaplains, health care chaplains, and border patrol. And so it’s not only military chaplains.

Women love having a female chaplain.

My wing chaplain right now told me that the females want to talk to female chaplain. And I love that. I love being able to be there for women. It's been a true privilege to be able to have so many experiences where the Lord just directs you to somebody who's hurting and doesn't have anybody else to talk to.

Sometimes pointing out that there’s hope, bringing that hope to someone. You can’t help but be changed. He’s in all of it.

That’s the best part of our job: is that you get a witness

of His grace,

of His mercy, of His hope that this is not over.

It is very challenging work.

At the end of the day, I typically feel pretty emotionally exhausted as I’m going to my car. But I also feel spiritually uplifted because you see miracles. You see healing miracles. Yes, you see tragedies. You see heartache every day, but you also see the hand of the Lord at work. I don't think you can come into this work without feeling called to it,

without knowing that this is what you’re supposed to do, because I just consider it such a privilege and honor every day. My prayers to God are just ‘Why have I been given this privilege?’ you know.

We’re on the Lord’s errand, and we will be given magnificent opportunities to help His children.

Take some time, spend some time visiting with the chaplain. Come to an event like our annual chaplain training.

When I was still not even a chaplain candidate, I came to the Church’s annual training, and that really helped win my wife over as well. Just do it. It’s going to be awesome. You’re going to love it. It’s going to be great.

I guess there’s a scripture, you know. If you have a desire to serve, then you’re called. So if you have a desire to do it, just do it.