Please give a hearty welcome to our newest SunstoneBlog Contributor: Matt Thurston!!! Below is Matt’s abbreviated autobiography.
——————-

I was born to goodly parents in Boston, Massachusetts. Richard Bushman, my first Bishop, ordained me as an infant, via osmosis it would seem, to a lifelong preoccupation with Joseph Smith and Mormon Culture, an ordination that would not actually “kick in” until 30+ years later.

In the meantime, I grew up as a reasonably well-adjusted and confident Mormon Boy in Southern California. My accomplishments may have merited some faint notice by Gentile standards, but were rather pedestrian by Mormon standards. I was a fairly competent guard on our last-place High School Basketball Team. I could swing a tennis racket and golf club with some degree of grace. Like all Thurstons, I tickled the ivories with reasonable panache, and I could back it up by accurately pronouncing the names of such composers as Chopin, Debussy, and Wagner. (It’s VAG-ner, right?) I graduated from Villa Park High School without honors or recognition, but my grades were good enough for BYU to take a chance on me.

One year later, the Lord’s University no doubt regretted their decision as I pulled off the remarkable double feat of getting myself placed on both academic and standards probation. A mission to Taipei, Taiwan rescued me from the crosshairs of BYU’s double-barreled shotgun.

In Taiwan, I managed to talk a few souls into the waters of baptism. More importantly, however, I became known all over the island for my encyclopedic knowledge of Taiwanese Pop Music– a necessary aid, I thought, to learning both Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese Culture, a past-time that may have skirted the letter of the Missionary Handbook law, but fell well within the “spirit” of the law, I assure you. I was also somewhat infamously known throughout Taiwan for “The Diarrhea Incident”, the details of which seem to have disappeared from my cellular memory. An Internet Psychology site I’ve studied calls this phenomenon “Traumatic Stress Disorder”, or something like that.

Back in the States, I snuck back into BYU while the double-barreled shot gun was conveniently pointed at someone else. Keeping a low profile, I quickly went to work rebuilding my academic and civic reputations. I graduated a few years later with a B.S. in Accounting and a key to the city.

Stumbling into the “grown-up world,” I survived a stint with a “Big Six” Accounting Firm, and then a spell with a failed “start up.” I am now happily engaged as the Business Development Manager for a national distribution company.

I’ve managed a few other accomplishments while masquerading as an adult. I’m a CPA. I earned my MBA degree from UCI (University of California, Irvine). I convinced my beautiful wife Amy to marry me. She convinced me to have three wonderful children, two boys and a girl. And my ward in Corona, California continues to allow me to teach semi-heritcal lessons in the Elder’s Quorum, despite repeated “warnings” from occasional visiting High Council members.

When not engaged with work or family, I remain somewhat fanatically committed to my three key hobbies: reading, watching, and listening (to books, film, and music, respectively).

With that, its time to return to the beginning, to my imagined ordination (or curse?) placed on my infant head by Richard Bushman. I am equal parts fascinated by— ambivalent to— amused with— dismayed by— in love with— tired of—and grateful for— Mormonism, both its History and Culture. Sunstone is the community where these deep feelings come alive, and for me, are most fully realized. In short: I dig Sunstone! I’m grateful for the invitation to be a member of the Sunstone Board of Directors, and the space here at Sunstone Blog to scribble my thoughts, fears, and blessings relative to this crazy, but miraculous Religion and Culture.