MormonSpeak: The Boy Behind the Moon

Thankfully, those closest to Travis were willing to allow him to put the incident behind him — so to speak. His parents, bishop and Young Men leaders never lost faith in him. And it turned out that the very traits that made him a handful — you know, that creativity, intelligence, determination and propensity for free and focused thought — helped him graduate near the top of his high school class and saw him through a successful (and, I might add, moon-less) mission. The last time I talked to him he was an accomplished medical student working as a teaching assistant in a class called — are you ready for this? — "gross anatomy."

I'm not kidding about this. I promise.

When I bumped into him at a wedding reception a few years back we joked about the incident. "Everywhere I go, somebody eventually brings it up," he said. "Even if I win the Nobel Prize for medicine, I'm sure I'll still be known as the guy who mooned the 12th Ward Relief Society."

Which puts him in some pretty good company, when you stop and think about it. The history books and scriptures are filled with stories of men and women of significant accomplishment who made mistakes — sometimes even serious ones — in their youth. That's why God's plan for our eternal happiness and peace had to include an atonement — to allow for growth through change. Heavenly Father�s plan doesn't reward only the error-free; rather, it is specifically designed for those who learn how to harness negative energy and channel it in positive directions, proving once again that you can have a past — and a future.

No ifs, ands or — ahem — buts about it.