Mandy Slack

Does Giving Your Children Latter-day Saint Names Affect Their Future?
By  Mandy Slack
December 30, 2017 12:32 PM MST
Picture this: you’re in a Wal-Mart parking lot on a Monday evening (a little before 6 o' clock) and you see a yellow van park across from you. The door opens and kids, all dressed in knee-length shorts and capris, spill out onto the pavement. A mom and a dad join the crew (also dressed in knee length shorts), and together, the family treks into the store to shop for ice cream toppings. If you’re anything like me, your first thought is, “Mormon.”
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How ‘For the Strength of Youth’ has changed over the years
By  Mandy Slack
September 08, 2016 01:05 PM MDT
The “For the Strength of Youth” pamphlet was most recently updated in 2022. Here's a look at how this youth handbook has changed since its first publication in 1965.
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5 Ways to Keep Your Kids Reverent at Church
By  Mandy Slack
March 15, 2012 04:04 AM MDT
If I were to walk into a sacrament meeting and see children sitting quietly, engaged by the sacrament speakers instead of their Cheerios or coloring books, I would probably die of shock. Children just aren’t equipped with the ability to sit still and listen to religious vernacular (or anything) for extended periods of time. (For that matter, most adults even struggle.)
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{Single Saints} Taking Heat off the Marriage Pressure Cooker
By  Mandy Slack
February 23, 2012 05:04 AM MST
In the wee hours of the morning when most of the world is still asleep, I work in a bakery with a spunky Peruvian woman in her early forties who never hides what she thinks or feels. One day we were talking and she asked me (even though she knew), “How old are you? 20? 23? Oh no, 25!” I smiled, knowing what was coming next. And it came: “You should be married!”
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Mormon musician finds faith on path to fame
By  Mandy Slack
February 08, 2012 05:05 AM MST
Amy Gerhartz isn’t really a new artist—you just haven’t heard of her yet. Back in 2006, a blogger claimed that Amy Gerthartz was a gem who was “making everyone in NYC feel stupid for not having heard of her earlier.” Gerhartz’s music has been described as everything from country to rock to soul, but to herself, she’s just a singer/songwriter without the limits imposed by a specific genre. “I really like the term singer/songwriter because of the fact that it allows me to be able to touch on a bunch of different categories. I love writing all different types of music,” Gerhartz says. “If I wrote the same thing every day, I’d drive myself crazy.”
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{LDS How} Youth Can Share the Gospel
By  Mandy Slack
February 02, 2012 05:03 AM MST
I gave away a Book of Mormon for the first time in between science and history when I was in eighth grade. I’d like to say I did this just because I wanted to, but it was actually a requirement for Personal Progress. I chose to give the book to Heidi, my kindest and most religious friend (she went to church and a youth group every week). The creators of the Personal Progress program must have intended for me to make this a memorable, edifying experience, but, instead, I wrote a few lines in the cover of the book and handed it to Heidi during our passing period. I didn’t explain anything about the book, just said a few awkward words and went on to class. It wasn’t that I didn’t care, it was simply that sharing the gospel seemed scary to me.
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