amber-1

My name is Amber, and I was a veritable Old Maid in the Mormon world and waited to marry until I was 30. Or rather, I didn’t find my Mr. Right until then and we’ve been happily married for six years. Together, we have two great kiddos ages 5 and 3.

I was raised in the Mormon church. I grew up in a part-member family (meaning my mom was a member of the church, but my dad did not join until I was 21) so my activity level was varied. My father was always very supportive and even attended church with us every Sunday. When he was finally baptized, many were surprised because they thought he had been a member all along. This was a real testament to his efforts of being unified as a family, regardless of the varying belief system.

I was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I left when I was 18 to attend college in the United States and have now lived here longer than there! I worked for a number of years as a publicist in the ski industry and as an adventure-travel writer. I dropped it all when I had kids but started back up again when I started blogging. I currently freelance from home as the editor of the mom section/site for my city’s newspaper and still continue to work as a family travel writer on the side. At church, I teach the Valiant girls (ages 8-12) and am on the publicity committee for a city-wide church jubilee this summer.

I love, love, love the outdoors, hence my career in travel writing. I am fortunate to live in the mountains so rarely a week goes by when I do not go hiking. I have been hauling my kids in backpacks from the time they were six weeks old! Other favorites include running, volleyball, biking, roller-blading and skiing. Basically, any sport except for swimming. Also, I trained for eight years in piano at Canada’s Royal Conservatory of Music. Oh, and I do have the gift to gab…!

Even though I felt promptings of the Holy Ghost growing up, I wouldn’t say I really had a solid testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It wasn’t until I went away to BYU-Idaho (then: Ricks College) and participated in a field expedition that a testimony was borne. For two months, we backpacked all over the United States while taking classes in biology, religion, and geology. I came to know of God’s majesty as we sang “How Great Thou Art” while sitting adjacent to a glacier gazing down upon a verdant valley. The truthfulness of the restored gospel rang true as I listened to others speak of their testimonies as we backpacked the north-to-the-south rim of the Grand Canyon. And it was during a solo night I spent in a cave at Lake Powell when I started to catch a vision of my role in it all.

Those were just the seedlings of a faith and testimony that has grown and developed. A testimony that has sent me to on a mission for the Church to Switzerland and France to share it; to the Middle East to learn more about it and those of other faiths; and mostly importantly, to my current city where I try to live it to the best of my ability every day.

I love knowing where I came from, why I’m here and where I am going. I love the peace of living a pure life. I love being spiritually filled every week when I go to church and gaining the resolve to do a little bit better that week. I love the fellowship of my ward (congregation) and knowing if anything was to happen to my family that we would never be alone. I love the knowledge that all the priesthood has been restored to the earth and we are living with Temples, continuing revelation, a prophet and the priesthood. Truly, our world is seeing both the best and the worst of times. Never have I been prouder to be a Mormon Woman.

For more Portraits of Mormon Women, please click here.