Scott Sumner

Keynote Speaker

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Bio

      Scott Sumner is a professional photographer who holds a Bachelor of Science in Professional Sales from Weber State University Odgen, Utah. He has served on the board of directors for the Intermountain Professional Photographers Association (IPPA), and the Inspiritaional Art Association (IAA), of which he is a founding member. He is also a past president and currently serves on their advisory board.

His work depicting the Savior, Jesus Christ, has been exhibited in International Art Competitions sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at BYU Education Week, and Women's Conferences in Provo, Utah. It has also been published in many books, on book covers, and can be found in many homes and religious institutions across the world.

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"I witness that anything I have ever done of value or worth on this earth has been achieved in and through the mercy, kindness, and grace of my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ and I testify the Lord magnifies our talents as we adhere to His commandments and apply ourselves with honest effort; I have no other explanation for the blessings I have been given."

Norm Haney

Keynote Speaker

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Healing through Jesus Christ and the Integration of Mental Health Tools that He’s Given Us

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Bio

Norm was born in Nyssa, Oregon and grew up on a farm in Eastern Oregon. As a young man, he served a mission in Great Britain. He then went on to serve in the Navy for four years, including a tour in Vietnam. He graduated from BYU with a Bachelor’s in Communication and then received his Master’s in Social Work, at the University of Utah. He has worked at the Utah State Prison, Youth Corrections Facility and with LDS Social Services. He has also been the Director of Addiction Recovery at the Cedar Ridge Hospital and Director of Cass County Psychological Services. In 1994, he opened NorCon Family Counseling in Liberty, Missouri where he currently works.

He married Connie May Steel in the Manti temple. He has served as a Scoutmaster, both in Salt Lake City, Utah and Liberty, Missouri. He has also taught in both Primary and Sunday school. He has been a Young Men’s President, Elders Quorum President, High Priest Group Leader. He currently serves as a Temple Ordinance Worker in the Kansas City Temple.

Connie and Norman have six children and 30 grandchildren. They have served on a two-year mission in Gallup, New Mexico, including to the Navajo and Zuni Nations. They are currently serving their second two-year Service mission as Service Missionaries for the Liberty Stake Addiction Recovery Program.

Ammon Waters

Online Dating and Avoiding Scams

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Bio

    Ammon Waters was born in Ft. Myers, Florida.  He spent many years as a translator for the United States Air Force and other government agencies.  He has worked in the federal sector for many years. He knows how to defend against various cyber threats due to the sensitive nature of his work.  He currently resides in Lathrop, MO with his wife Traci, his daughter Abra and soon to be born daughter Adinah. 

Sheilah Clarke

What the Prophet has said and why it Matters

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Bio

Sheilah E Clarke was born in Senetterre, Quebec and raised in the Rocky Mountains of beautiful British Columbia. She joined the church in her senior year of high school. She has six children: a daughter who is serving in the Tuscan Arizona mission and 5 other children who have married outstanding spouses and have blessed her with 27 grandchildren with two more on the way.

She has served as a Primary President, Seminary Teacher, Gospel Doctrine Teacher, YW Camp Director, and Temple Ordinance Worker for both the ASL and hearing sessions. She is now serving as a stake Single Adult Representative.

She loves the gospel, loves to teach, and hopes to serve a mission for the Lord in the near future.

Joni Clausen

Emotional Resilience: Making it through Difficulties

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Bio

      Joni is a playful, purpose-driven, and perfectly imperfect disciple of Jesus Christ. Her life experiences have developed within her a passion for empowering people. Growing up in a military family, Joni learned connections are often the key to survival. Her hunger for connection led her to serve a full-time mission, dive into domesticity, and develop a deep love for the restored gospel of Christ. After 20 years, Joni is still deliciously in love with her hubby and the 5 knuckleheads kiddos. Following a powerful prompting from the Lord, Joni and her family moved from AZ to KC in 2015 and have never looked back.

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Professionally, Joni works as a licensed professional counselor in an acute children’s psychiatric hospital and residential treatment facility. Personally, she loves serving in the NKC Ward RS presidency and discovering new ways to help women recognize their worth. She values her family, friends, faith, and freedom. She is a sucker for spicy Mexican food, rescue dogs, bottomless Diet Cokes, and laughing so hard she snorts.

Joni received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from Brigham Young University—Provo and her Master of Counseling Psychology, with a Couples and Family emphasis, from the University of Missouri—Kansas City. Joni is also currently completing a 2-year Registered Play Therapist program through Heartland Play Therapy Institute.

Chess not checkers. Arthur Bryant’s not Gates. Jalapeños not hot sauce. Riddles not Reddit. Yoga pants not panty hose. Night owl not early bird. Compassion not criticism. Curiosity not judgement.

Mark Nye

Understanding and Living up to our Temple Covenants

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Bio

    Mark Aaron Nye was born in Grand Island, Nebraska, and grew up in the Midwest- including for a time right here in Kansas City from when he was 10 until he was almost 16 years old. He served as a full-time missionary in the California Arcadia Mission and then graduated from BYU-Provo with a degree in Organizational Communications. He pursued a career in human resources as both a generalist and director of management development- primarily for large international food companies and industrial chemical manufacturers. He retired in 2021.

He and his wife Shelli met on a blind date and were married 12 weeks later and have never looked back. They have been married for almost 45 years, have five children and 11 grandchildren.

Mark has served as elders quorum president, high priest group leader, ward and stake Young Men's president, high counselor, branch president, bishop (twice), and as a ward temple and family history leader. He also served as a counselor to three different mission presidents in the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission from 2014-2019.

He served as an ordinance worker in the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple from 2016-2020. And after moving to this area in early 2021, he has served in the Kansas City Missouri Temple as an ordinance worker, assistant shift coordinator, and assistant temple recorder. He was called to be a sealer in Philadelphia in 2020 and now continues in that role today here in the Kansas City Missouri Temple.

He has been active in documenting family history for the past 30 years. In the past 10 years he has made over 300,000 contributions to Family Search- adding over 27,000 names to Family Tree, attaching 200,000 sources, and 75,000 memories to individual pages. He and his wife hosted weekly "live" and recorded family history instructional sessions on Facebook and YouTube while serving as Area Temple and Family History Leaders in the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Coordinating Council and taught similar sessions both in and around Philadelphia and now in our temple district.

Currently he is serving as a church service missionary and with another person researches, documents, and writes biographical summaries for each of the writers or composers for each of the hymns that will be included in the new hymnbook.

Darren Boyak

Leading a Love-Centered Life

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Bio

    President Boyack grew up in Lenexa, KS. He served his mission in the Durban, South Africa mission. He attended Brigham Young University for undergraduate school and met his wife Chrissy there. He attended Hershey Medical Center, where President and Sister Boyack started their family. After residency training in Delaware, they moved back to the Kansas City area where President Boyack accepted a job with a group at Shawnee Mission Medical Center as an emergency room physician. President and Sister Boyack have 5 children: 1 girl and 4 boys. When President Boyack isn’t attending to church duties or working, he is usually spectating at a cross country meet, baseball game or basketball game. President Boyack enjoys woodworking and building things. He also owns a Honda Goldwing motorcycle and loves to go on long motorcycle rides. President Boyack has served as a young men’s president, Elder’s quorum president, bishop and now serves as the President of the Olathe Kansas Stake.

Mark Slamin

How to Overcome the Fear of the Last Days/Why these are the Best Days

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Bio

Mark Slamin was born in Kansas City, has lived in this area his whole life and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. He is the father of six teenagers and young adults. He served a mission in the Mexico City East Mission and attended the University of Kansas earning a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Political Science. Mark always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and after starting companies in publishing and retail distribution, now owns a successful software company.

Callings in the church have included teaching seminary (for seven years), gospel doctrine, Sunday School, and Elder’s Quorum. Mark has served as a counselor in the bishopric, as an Elder’s Quorum President and as a YM leader (mainly with the wonderful Deacons).

Passions include spending time with his kids doing anything and everything. Family camping (and camping with those Deacons) is always a blast.  Game nights with family and friends are always fun. Travel that includes anywhere in, on, or near the water is the best. Trying new restaurants, especially when traveling, is great too. If you ask him what he’s currently reading, he’ll probably mention more than one book.

Mark loves teaching the gospel and worshipping in the House of the Lord. He tries to live his life by revelation, with varying success, but is fully committed to living his covenants and being a servant of the Lord.

Cheri Battrick

Thriving through Revelation

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Bio

      Cheri Battrick is an author, speaker, and writing mentor who has learned the value of
personal revelation and how it can make a difference every day of your life. When
President Nelson said, “In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually
without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy
Ghost,” she wanted to shout “Hallelujah!” Why? Because this prophetic statement
underscored what she had been learning personally and sharing with those around
her. We need the Holy Ghost more now than ever before. But knowing that we need
to seek and obtain revelation, is a far cry from knowing how to do it.
You may remember Cheri from last year’s conference where she shared with us about
“Crafting a Compelling Personal History.” This year her topic is: “Thriving Through
Revelation: Opening the Heavens to Do More than Just Survive the Last Days.” In
this presentation, Cheri will be sharing with us the lessons she has personally learned
which have opened the door to receiving the constant companionship of the Holy
Ghost, and how to more effectively seek and receive the revelation we need on a daily
basis.
While she doesn’t pray over everything she does, Cheri has been known to pray over
small things like why the impression has come to go into Walmart to buy a
prescription vs. going through the drive-thru pharmacy. And the answers that have
come have sometimes been quite astonishing and profound. She has also learned
there are a couple of specific times of day when revelation is more apt to come and that
if we show up for those “appointments”, that the Holy Ghost is there to greet and enlighten us with the things Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ would like to share

Scott Forsyth

Church History in Missouri

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Bio

Scott and Teri Forsyth are from Herriman Utah. They are the proud parents of 5 children and 24 grandchildren. President Forsyth was born in Cardston, Alberta, Canada and Sister Forsyth was born in Boise, Idaho. They met at Ricks College, now known as BYU-I.
President was called to serve as Mission President of the Missouri Church History Sites in
September 2022 by Elder Neil L. Andersen, and they were both set apart by Elder Andersen on February 7, 2023.
President and Sister Forsyth love traveling, parasailing, and ice cream. They have spent many vacations coming to Missouri to visit Sister Forsyth's cousins who live in Holliday and Paris Missouri. Her ancestors were born and raised here for many generations back to the early days
in the 1820s. One of her cousins still lives on the original family farm that’s been in the family for 185 years!! Missouri is a very special place with many church history sites and wonderful promises of future church involvement.
President Forsyth has served in many Stake Presidencies, Bishoprics, Young Men's callings and he served a mission as a young man in the Belgium Antwerp Mission. He spent his career in Seminary and Institute and retired after 36 years of teaching.
Sister Forsyth has been Relief Society President, Primary President, Young Women’s President, early morning Seminary Teacher.
They are beyond thrilled to serve in this special mission and look forward to serving with all those who are called to serve in this mission with them.