about Tails In Ogden and the author

My name is Evan Wright. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

When I was 19, I volunteered to serve a full-time proselyting mission for my church for 2 years, from mid-2020 to mid-2022.  I was called to serve in the “Utah Ogden Mission” for those 2 years.  During this time, I was known as and referred to as “Elder Wright”.

At the start of my mission, I felt a strong prompting that I should keep a visual journal about my experiences. I decided to draw them in a comic-like format and made it a goal to draw a page per day. I wrote about the general life of a missionary, along with personal experiences I had; happy and sad, funny and serious, trivial and spiritual.

Two years and 718 pages later, I completed my mission and my visual journal. Miraculously, not a single day was missed in the journal. Because there were countless factors that lined up for it to be possible for me to write this journal from start to finish, along with me not usually being good at keeping up long-term habits, I personally am very confident that this journal wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t a God directly helping me out in creating it.

Near the end of my time serving a mission and ever since, I have been receiving a very strong prompting that my work with this visual journal is not over. I am going back to each page of the journal to digitize it and share it online as a webcomic so that people can follow me through my experience. I do not want to do it for money or popularity. I want to do it to share something amazing with people, in the hopes that it will:

  • Creatively inspire someone in their own work.
  • Be a memorable story that is remembered for many years by someone.
  • Help someone better understand The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the lives of its members & missionaries, and its beliefs and culture.
  • Help debunk false information and stereotypes about the church and its members.
  • Give someone perspective or advice about a struggle or question they’re facing that is similar to something spoken about or experienced in my journal.
  • Provide the Holy Ghost opportunities to testify of Jesus Christ to you, in hopes that some of you will feel inspired to try coming unto Christ yourself to see if it brings you lasting joy and is true.

Other things about me:

Currently, I am going to college at the University of Southern California, studying Game Development as my major. It is an experience I enjoy and am very very grateful for the opportunity for having. I give a lot of credit for my success to my parents, who are very smart and have given me lots of support throughout the years. I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am now if it weren’t for them. I think it’s okay to say how other people have helped you out, and that you still need help and support in different things; after all, that’s how interdependent people accomplish great things!

Some of my favorite video games include Journey, Minecraft, Ori and the Blind Forest, Oneshot, Beat Saber, Geometry Dash, The Witness, and Mario Kart, but I have many other games I have played and will play (My steam library is full of games I still need to get to playing, lol).

I am also part of the Furry community, which I love for the many people who strive in following principles of unconditional love, and to celebrate the uniqueness of their own identity and others. I have associated myself with it since around 2019. My fursona is a white avian / canine named Seijin, and I love him very much.

Q&A about the Journal / Webcomic:

  • How long did it take to draw each journal page?
    • I’d say the shortest was around 30 minutes, the longest was 2-3 hours. Usually, by the time p-day each week came around, I had a page or two to catch up on, which I spent a portion of my p-days doing. I hope that I can keep the digitization of each journal page within 2-5 hours, but that will take some practice.
  • Is the digitized version of the journal pages actually what you drew while on your mission?
    • Sort of. When I started planning out what I’d do in response to the promptings to digitize and share this journal, I wanted to keep it faithful to what I drew in the journal and the events I experienced, but I also didn’t want it to be boring to read. I came up with a way I can do both!:
      • The original version is what I drew while I was on the mission, and I rarely was more than a couple pages behind. Most of the text is the same, but I did digitally change most of the names of people along with statements that didn’t make any sense whatsoever (very few). The drawings are clunky in quite a few places, and I don’t do the best job of explaining things to an outside viewer, but it shows how far I’ve come. It also shows some bits and pieces that I decided weren’t as important to include in the refined version, but that are still neat to hear about. You can find a link to the original version of a page in the description of that page’s post.
      • The refined version is completely redrawn and rewritten, while still striving to remain accurate to experiences and emotions felt. I also move a lot of things around that aren’t related to a specific date (such as a gospel analogy) so that similar stories are organized and information is easier to follow. One other thing that refining the pages lets me do is fun things like hide easter eggs on every page with a number on it, wink wink.

Original Page:

Refined Version of page:

  • How long do you think digitizing your whole journal will take?
    • Honestly, I’m not quite sure. Currently, I am thinking of doing a page per week. If that is the case, the journal would probably take around 14-16 years to fully create, and if that’s what I feel is prompted by God for me to do, then so be it (though that could change). I trust this is a good thing I am creating that will have a positive impact on people in multiple ways, which I believe is what matters most from this project.
  • I have questions, concerns, or feedback about something in the journal. How can I bring them up with you?
    • You can probably best reach me on either Discord or Twitter privately. My discord is SeijinWright#3696, and the @TailsInOgden Twitter probably works just fine for messaging me. My apologies if I do not get back to you for some reason. I am open to feedback or concerns, but please bring them up in a polite way. I have feelings just like anyone else, and I will not tolerate rude or berating remarks about me or those I love. Matter of fact, even if I don’t know someone or have ill feelings towards someone, I will still likely be upset about rude or berating remarks made toward them by other people, so please be considerate in what you say.

 

Q&A about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints:

  • Is your church also known as the Mormon Church?
    • Yes, however, it is way more appropriate to call us the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Some other terms that are okay to use are “Latter Day Saints” or “Restored Church of Jesus Christ”. “LDS” is also a better term than “Mormon”, but it would still be preferred to use one of the other names.
    • Using the term “Mormon Church” when you know of the preferred terms is inaccurate and derogatory, so now you know, please try using those other titles instead. Thank you!
    • Here’s an article that goes more in detail about it – https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/style-guide
  • Are you guys Christian?
  • What is the Book of Mormon?

 

Q&A about The Furry Fandom and being a furry:

  • What is a furry?
    • The core of being a furry is simply that you enjoy content that features animals with human characteristics, and that you want to associate yourself with others who enjoy the same. The way that is expressed varies from person to person, but the above statement stays almost completely consistent for anyone who considers themself part of the furry fandom.
  • Do you consider yourself an animal in a human body?
    • No, that is not a furry. That is called an Otherkin or Therian, which is a separate group. Many Otherkins / Therians associate with the furry fandom due to similar interests, but it’s not the same. They also only make up a minority of the demographic of the furry fandom.
  • Do you have a fursuit?
    • Not yet 🙂 I wanna soon get a fursuit head and tail, but I wanna make sure wherever I get it, it looks high quality; so I’ll probably wait to save up for commissioning a more expensive fursuit maker.
  • Is the furry fandom gay?
    • The majority of the fandom identifies as LGBT+, but a good amount of the fandom is straight, including me.
  • Is the furry fandom autistic?
    • A lot of people in the fandom are on the autism spectrum, but the majority of the fandom isn’t. I am on the high end of the autism spectrum, but my case of autism isn’t too severe.
  • For more information about the furry fandom, here’s a good resource you can look into – https://furscience.com/

(Sex-related questions about the furry fandom are below in white text, highlight to read.)

  • Is it a sex thing?
    • At its core, being a furry is not a sex thing. However, since the furry fandom inherently explores fictional scenarios with characters that are often based on cute animals combined with human qualities, it easily caters to audiences that like to explore sexual fantasies; I would be lying if I said that wasn’t what a big chunk of the furry fandom likes indulging in (either physically with other people (not as common) or by viewing sexual content online usually in the form of illustrated pornography (way more common)).
    • With that being said, there is also a large part of the fandom that does not participate in sexual activities or fantasies. I guarantee there are many many communities and groups in the fandom that actively avoid sexual content or discussion, or at least have it quarantined in an age-restricted part of their server. If you look or ask for groups of “clean sfw furries”, you will find them and be pretty safe. Also when it comes to in-person meetups of furries (either small local ones or furry conventions), they also usually do a good job restricting inappropriate content and behavior to isolated areas away from the rest of the convention; even then, those kinds of NSFW things are restricted only to selling sex-related items, discussing sexual topics, etc. Obviously people can still informally do more intimate activities in a private bedroom, but that’s on their own accord rather than supported by the convention / meetup.
  • Do the furries that are into sexual activities have sex with actual animals?
    • No. That is called zoophilia, and real-life acts of it are condemned by the furry fandom. Just like Therians and Otherkin (though this is much worse), zoophiles may consider themselves furries, but the participation in those two interests is independent at their core. Unfortunately, there is more tolerance in the fandom expressed toward fictional sexual media that involves feral characters since those characters aren’t real, but I think the large majority of the sexual content is focused on characters with more human-like anatomy.

(end of sex-related questions)

  • Are you sure you can be a furry and a latter-day saint at the same time?
    • I have found that it is absolutely possible for someone to actively participate in the furry fandom while also being an active covenant-keeping member of the church. Likewise, you can associate with people in the furry fandom who aren’t members of the church, and most of them are very chill and fun people to be around. The secret is to identify and separate the aspects of the furry fandom’s culture that aren’t in harmony with God’s teachings and discipline yourself to avoid them, but also embrace everything else the furry fandom has to offer, including all the good people in it.
    • Actually, for the last while I have had the great privilege to lead a discord server called “Latter-Day Saint Furries (Visitors Welcome)”. Many latter-day saint furries like me have gathered on this server and have found a wonderful community of friends and people they can feel safe associating and relating with. We do nightly discord prayers, have an online family home evening each week, and have healthy spiritual discussions very often. I feel the server is going in the direction Jesus Christ wants it to go in, and I am grateful for all the people who have been helping me with moving it in that direction. It aims to be friendly both to adults and to teenagers (the minimum age to join Discord is 13), and has had many great spiritual discussions, social activities, and other meaningful and fun conversations. If you feel that is a group you would like to check out and associate with, there is a link to join found at linktr.ee/tailsinogden .