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Personal Narrative: The Burns Family

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The Burns family is the first Black family I met in the ward. Albert Burns Junior was cool because he had swagger, as is the contemporary way to address it, though my acumen for slang is less than impressive. Albert Junior was like Dexter, cool; however, his cool manifested itself differently in my estimation—and it is my estimation as I am he who relates this tale. Adulation radiated from me towards Albert because he grew up in the church with both parents, and I wanted that. So, I watched him—errantly assuming that through scientific observation I could glean how to achieve a nuclear family as desirable as the Burns family. Stalker much? Envy in the true sense does not describer my estimation of him. Royalty is what I thought of him—of them! Royalty because I knew that they were sealed together, he grew up in the church, and he was BLACK!
Albert was a year or so behind me in age, I think. Dutifully, I watched him interact with his parents and …show more content…

He called me “Boyz2Men” when I sang a song at church for the testimony portion of sacrament meeting that I wrote specifically as my testimony of the restored gospel, which I initially took as a compliment; though, I found out later that it was not appropriate to sing a testimony in sacrament meeting. LDS Christians, Mormons have a monthly meeting where we stand before the congregation if we feel so moved to express our deep emotional connection to our religious beliefs—testifying of its veracity and effectiveness in our lives. As a new member, I did not know church etiquette yet; and it seemed Rodney reveled in my ignorance.
Rodney saved my heart one time that changed my view of him in every way. Stephen R. Covey in his work entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People called what I experienced a paradigm shift. In other words, I learned to see a situation from a differing perspective that caused a eureka moment of discovery—for the better in this

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