My name is Jeff Collyer. I was born into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as of the date of writing this, I remain officially a member of the church – in common parlance, I’m a Mormon (or otherwise known as LDS). That said, I wish to be transparent with any members of the Church who happen upon this blog and state that I stopped attending church services in 2025. I believe both the Bible and the Book or Mormon and believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Unfortunately, since his death in 1844, we haven’t seen any fruits of a true prophet within the leadership of the Church, and many doctrines and practices no longer align with those taught in the Book of Mormon. I remain fully committed to the gospel as taught in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon.
I am happily married with 4 delightful children, and currently live in England, although I have spent parts of my life in both Australia and the United States. I was also a missionary for the Church in Chile between 1988 and 1990, and gained a particular love for the Chilean people during my time there.
Whether we are rich or poor, young or old, wherever we happen to live, we all find life difficult at times. But life’s challenges were never meant to be faced alone – and never need to be. Jesus Christ is not some theoretical or distant being, but rather our loving Saviour. I believe His mission and atoning sacrifice can make all the difference in our lives, and this blog is dedicated to sharing my thoughts and feelings on this subject.
Furthermore, in these days of great turmoil across the globe, the peaceful message of Christ and His gospel are more important than ever. He taught His gospel and His doctrine clearly: faith in His name, repentance, baptism by water, and baptism by fire and the Holy Ghost.
This blog is small, garnering only a few hundred visitors a month, but if only a small handful of those find some peace in the Prince of Peace, and comfort in he who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, then it has been a success.
I also wish to make it clear that although I no longer attend LDS services, I have no desire to take people away from their faith, whether that be LDS or any other. I seek truth, wherever it is found, and believe God will lead each sincere seeker to a path that will ultimately lead to their greatest joy.
Please note that while I seek the Lord’s guidance in the things I write, the words on this site represent my own personal views and should not be taken as doctrine or views of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – or indeed of anyone else.
All Things Witness 
March 6, 2026 at 8:16 pm
Hello, I love what you have written and would like to quote, with full attribution, of course, from your writings in a book I am writing. (Whether what I am writing will become a book depends on the publisher’s opinion of the content, of course.) Looking through your website I find no other way to contact you. Please consider this my request. Or if the permission for attributed quotations should be submitted in another way, please let me know how to proceed.
March 6, 2026 at 8:40 pm
Hi there. I’m pleased you have found some of the things I’ve written helpful. I’d love to know what your book is about. I’ll drop you an email directly to discuss.
Best wishes, Jeff
March 7, 2026 at 3:22 pm
Thank you so much for responding! I look forward to our conversation. What I am writing is on the symbolism to be found within the ordinance of the sacrament.
Looking around, I found, purchased and read several books on symbolism in the scriptures and in the gospel. The first was “Gospel Symbolism,” (296 pages) by Joseph Fielding McConkie, which I found very interesting. Another very interesting and comprehensive book on gospel symbolism is Alonzo L. Gaskill’s “The Lost Language of Symbolism,” (476 pages). Along the way I also picked up “Gospel Symbols – Finding the Creator in His Creations,” by Mark A. Shields (149 pages), and “A Guide to Scriptural Symbols,” by Joseph Fielding McConkie and Donald W. Parry. McConkie, Parry and Gaskill are all Religion professors at BYU-Provo. Mark Shields is an active member of the church, but the fly leaf of his book doesn’t list what he does for a living.
As for me, I am happily retired eight years ago from the California State University, Sacramento campus, where I had responsibilities in risk management, safety, industrial hygiene, environmental compliance and workers’ compensation. My wife and I have six children and now live in Utah, but spent most of our lives in other places, such as Germany (U.S. Army a long time ago), Kansas, Virginia, Idaho and California.
March 7, 2026 at 3:32 pm
Apologies, but I neglected to mention an important element in my last message. I brought up the several excellent books I had found and read about scriptural and gospel symbolism because in all of them I found very little mention about symbolism in the sacrament. That led me to begin listing and writing about the symbols I could see, which led me to others that were less visible at first. I’m not up to 56 different elements of symbolism to be found in the sacrament service and the sacrament itself. It was by chance I found what you have written on the same topic; I was doing a search for something else and your blog popped up. With your permission I’d like to quote several sections. We can discuss further, if you wish, via email, as you mentioned.
Kirtland Stout
kirtlandstout@hotmail.com