With an early morning departure, a stop at a doughnut shop and a car loaded with boxes, Patrick Tafua recently offered a glimpse into life as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Amid widespread attention surrounding the Hulu docuseries, “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” Tafua parodied the series in a video that opens a window into his own experience as a Latter-day Saint.
Programs like “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” feature mostly critical viewpoints of the faith, sparking pushback from members who feel the portrayals don’t fully reflect their lived experience.
Members of the church who disagree with those viewpoints — including Tafua — responded online in a lighthearted way, sharing their own version of what life as a member of the faith looks like.
In the video shared by Tafua, he leaves home early, stops for breakfast at a doughnut shop, and joins other men from his congregation in helping a widow who is in the process of moving. Together, they haul several loads and help her get settled in her new home.
“‘Secret’ life of a Mormon husband but it’s just me with a few of the church homies helping out a widow move into her new place on a Saturday morning,” Tafua captioned the clip.
Tafua, who lives in California with his wife and three sons, said the typical Latter-day Saint lifestyle is sometimes misunderstood because it rarely makes headlines, leaving many people without perspectives like the one he shared.
“It’s not interesting. It’s not as dramatic, not as trashy, and it doesn’t sell,” Tafua said of common lifestyle within the faith. “The education that many people — who are not of our faith — get are from the shows like (’The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’) or just on their own little Google search.”
“We’re just as normal people,” he continued. “But people don’t ... understand because they have their perception being framed by just what sells on TV.”
After sharing his video, Tafua said he received backlash but also had the opportunity to connect with people who enjoyed it.
“It’s brought me to a lot of those in my faith community that I would have never found, or would have found my little corner of content on the internet,” Tafua said. “It’s been great building out that community of faithful members of the church.”
“That’s been a blessing,” he continued. “But you can’t have the blessings without the negative — there’s always going to be the opposition."
Other Latter-day Saint men also joined the online trend, sharing moments from their experience as members.
Andy Young, a member of the church who lives in Texas, shared a photo of two men carrying a lounge chair into a moving truck. Helping members and neighbors with moves is a common act of service among Latter-day Saint men. Young captioned the post, “The secret lives of Mormon Husbands.”
And Michael Mower, a senior adviser of community outreach and intergovernmental affairs in Gov. Spencer Cox’s cabinet, also got in on the trend.
“Tonight’s episode of Hulu’s Secret Life of a Mormon Husband finds yours truly doing the dishes and helping Grace practice driving,” he shared alongside a photo with his daughter and one of the dishwasher.
Barbara Morgan Gardner, a religion professor at Brigham Young University and host of “The Grounded Podcast,” also offered her take on the trend.
Gardner shared a video featuring images of her husband, Dustin, captioned, “One year in the secret life of a Mormon husband!”
At the start of the clip, Gardner asked her husband to share three things he has done during the past year “in the Secret Life of a Mormon husband to make it a great life.”
He responded, “No. 1, I prayed to our Heavenly Father and drew closer to him. No. 2, immersed myself in the scriptures and read and understood the teachings of Jesus Christ. And No. 3, attended the temple as often as we possibly could.”