LDS News from LDSFiles.com

Elder Eyring is now in First Presidency

2007-10-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

The chair next to LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley on the Conference Center dais was vacant only a few minutes Saturday morning before he called Elder Henry B. Eyring to fill the seat and serve as his counselor in the First Presidency.

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Modern-Day Look at History of the Latter-Day Saints

2007-04-30T14:14:00.001-07:00

A proposition: If your beliefs are any good, you needn’t be afraid to bring them out into the light. The proof: “The Mormons,” a thoughtful two-part series tonight and tomorrow on PBS. The tenets of the Mormon church may not be to everyone’s tastes, but the church members and leaders who speak in this program are admirably forthright about their religion’s history, strengths and challenges. It’s great to hear people who believe in something and can articulate it without sounding crazy or defensive.

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Beck embraces expectations

2007-04-30T14:13:00.001-07:00

John Beck, who was drafted by Miami in the second round of Saturday's NFL Draft, has already set a goal to try and fill the shoes of Dan Marino for Dolphin fans.

The BYU quarterback who surpassed Jim McMahon and Steve Young on the Cougar all-time passing chart is well-versed in the job ahead. That includes challenging injured veteran Daunte Culpepper and helping the Fish improve on a 6-10 mark and last-place finish in the AFC East.

Beck loves the idea of Miami.

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Romney's 'sixth son' handles campaign money

2007-04-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

Mitt Romney has five sons, but if he had another, it would be Spencer Zwick.

The 28-year-old Salt Lake City native has been the presidential candidate's right-hand man for years, and now as Romney's national finance director, he is heading up the most crucial part of Romney's White House bid.

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A documentarian looks at 'The Mormons'

2007-04-27T13:17:00.001-07:00

Anyone who's planning to use the two-part, four-hour PBS documentary "The Mormons" in Sunday School at their local ward is going to be sorely disappointed.
But then so is anyone who's planning to hang copies of the program on doorknobs to convince members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to abandon their faith.
"The Mormons" is not a faith-promoting missionary tool. Although it might turn out to be that for some.

Read the entire article here.

A gripping look at foundations of Mormon faith

2007-04-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

Imagine a four-hour documentary on the Mormon church that skips its most prominent member in the country today, Mitt Romney.

"The Mormons," a collaboration between PBS powerhouse series " Frontline " and " American Experience, " is that show. Yet its mere airing may finally force the former governor to explain publicly his faith and its influence on him as a politician, much as John Kennedy did with his Catholicism in 1960. What it will surely do is complicate his run for the White House.

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Warm welcome for Cheney

2007-04-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

A month of controversy over the decision to invite Vice President Dick Cheney to speak at Brigham Young University's commencement ended Thursday with more than 20,000 BYU graduates and their families, along with faculty and staff, soaking Cheney in applause.

There was no sign of disapproval inside the Marriott Center. Instead, the crowd cheered as Cheney arrived with President Gordon B. Hinckley of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. President Hinckley returned the greeting with a signature wave of his cane. The crowd cheered again when Cheney received an honorary doctorate of public service and cheered repeatedly during his apolitical speech, interrupting it 18 times with applause.

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Mormons: We're misunderstood

2007-04-26T11:08:00.001-07:00

Ask Mark Briscoe, leader of the Howell ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the greatest misconception about the church, and he doesn't have to think very long or hard.

"Sometimes people would say that we're not Christians," he said. "We definitely are. We believe in Jesus Christ."

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20,000 to hear Cheney at BYU: He'll get honorary doctorate

2007-04-26T11:07:00.001-07:00

Air Force Two will deliver the vice president of the United States to Utah this afternoon, when Dick Cheney will speak to more than 20,000 people during commencement exercises at Brigham Young University.

BYU will award Cheney an honorary doctorate of public service during ceremonies that begin at 4 p.m. Cheney will arrive in Salt Lake City shortly before 2 p.m. and will meet with the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City at 2:30 p.m.

Read the entire article here.

Personal Convictions and Actions Strengthen the Church

2007-04-26T11:04:00.000-07:00

Bryan Whiting, a junior lacrosse and football player at New Canaan High School in Connecticut, hears the jangle of his alarm clock at 5:45 each weekday morning. The busy high school student begins his day with a 6:15 religion class taught at the neighborhood meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Whiting is one of 40 students who join him in the local early morning religious instruction (seminary), while other high school classmates gather an extra hour or more of sleep. The extra sleep is not the issue for Whiting; it’s the reassurance and direction that come in the doctrinal discussions that keep him on the early morning schedule.

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NFL DRAFT: QB-needy Dolphins watching BYU's Beck attentively

2007-04-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

First-time dad John Beck expected a steady stream of well-wishers on the day his son was born, but one call surprised the Brigham Young quarterback.

Dolphins general manager Randy Mueller took a minute on Easter Sunday to congratulate Beck, who could be a Miami draft pick this weekend.

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Cheney to visit with LDS Church leaders

2007-04-24T13:11:00.000-07:00

Vice President Dick Cheney will make a courtesy visit to leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before giving the commencement address at Brigham Young University on Thursday.

Cheney, whose visit has prompted protests and counter protests at the Provo school, will fly in and out of the state within a few hours, but, like most national leaders in town for a day, will drop by LDS Church headquarters in Salt Lake City to visit with President Gordon B. Hinckley and his top two counselors, church officials confirmed Monday.

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Protest leader walks fine line

2007-04-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

Last semester, weekly meetings of the College Democrats club at Brigham Young University drew three or four people.

The club shot out of obscurity this month when new club president Diane Bailey organized an on-campus political protest to criticize the record of Vice President Dick Cheney, who will be BYU's commencement speaker on Thursday. Bailey will oversee a second campus demonstration hours before Cheney speaks.

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Yeltsin had effect on Utah

2007-04-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

Boris Yeltsin's effect on Utah was more direct than one might think.

Take the Russian literature class at the University of Utah, for example. Six students were enrolled during spring term in 1993. That fall, enrollment jumped to 24 and currently hovers around 30.

"Those numbers are unlike numbers for any upper-division Russian literature class anywhere in the country, said Jane Hacking, assistant professor of Russian and linguistics. "We are the envy of many of our colleagues around the country."

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Mountain Meadows relatives mark 150th anniversary

2007-04-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

In April 1857, several families gathered at Beller Spring near Harrison, Ark., to make final preparations before starting their wagons for the west. Soon, other Arkansas families joined the westbound wagon train. The emigrants had big herds of cattle and dreams to match, but they never reached their goal of California.

On Sept. 11 that year, about 120 of them were slain at Mountain Meadows, near Cedar City, Utah. Their killers were 50 to 60 Mormon militiamen, aided by American Indian allies. Only 17 children, age 6 and under, were spared the horrific slaughter.

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Mormon Chaplains Serve Soldiers of All Faiths

2007-04-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

A chaplain in the military services of the United States demonstrates extraordinary flexibility. From dealing with routine paperwork to challenging counseling, from early morning physical training to afternoon weddings and funerals, the day of a chaplain usually includes 24-hour availability to the members of their battalion.

In a single day, Lt. Col. Steven Merrill, a U.S. Air Force chaplain presently deployed in Kuwait, exercises, studies, counsels, prepares sermons and somehow finds time to eat and sleep.

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Romney top fundraiser in West

2007-04-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

Fueled by donors in states with a high concentration of Mormons, Republican Mitt Romney has raised more money in the Interior West than any other presidential candidate, an analysis of federal election records show.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, collected nearly $4.5 million from the region in the first quarter of 2007. While Salt Lake City not suprisingly topped the list, Romney also raised a considerable amount of money in towns like Idaho Falls, Idaho and Mesa, Ariz.

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Two teenagers plead guilty to arson in blaze of Sugar House LDS church

2007-04-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

Two teens who broke into an LDS church in Sugar House last year and vandalized the building before setting it ablaze have admitted their guilt in 3rd District Court and will be required to pay restitution toward the estimated $1.9 million refurbishing cost.

Michael Aaron Ferguson, 19, who pleaded guilty in 3rd District Court to second-degree felony arson, has been sentenced to probation and given credit for the 157 days he spent in jail.

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BYU to host annual Women's Conference May 3-4

2007-04-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

Womanhood will be celebrated during this year’s Brigham Young University Women’s Conference Thursday and Friday, May 3-4, at various locations on campus co-sponsored by the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Wendy Watson Nelson, a former BYU professor of marriage and family therapy and wife of Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, will present the conference theme, “Thou Art Come To the Kingdom for Such a Time as This,” taken from Esther 4:14, in the opening session at 9 a.m. Thursday in the Marriott Center. Her address will be followed by more than 200 presenters and more than 90 sessions.

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Wilberg's Requiem adds to his growing reputation

2007-04-23T14:01:00.001-07:00

Utahns tend to think of Mack Wilberg - if they think of him at all - as an arranger of LDS hymns and associate conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Most know little of his international success as a composer of religious music that appeals to people of many faiths.

This week's world premiere of Wilberg's latest work, a Requiem, is likely to accelerate his fame around the globe and might even change perceptions in his home state.

Read the entire article here.

Remembering a fallen friend

2007-04-23T14:00:00.001-07:00

They say that there are certain moments in life where you will always remember where you were and what you were doing when they happened.

I had one of those moments a year ago today, and it changed my life.

Sunday Night Baseball was on the television and I was absent-mindedly swinging a pitching wedge in my apartment when my cell phone rang, bringing with it the voice of an old friend who could barely choke out the words.

"Matt's dead."

Read the entire article here.

Missionary explains Book of Mormon 'wordprints'

2007-04-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

Elder Gale Bryce, a volunteer service missionary at the Polynesian Cultural Center, explained in the heavily attended April 17 School of Computing InForm meeting how two former colleagues used "wordprint" statistical analyses to authenticate Book of Mormon authorship.

Elder Bryce — retired BYU Provo Associate Dean of the College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences and former chairman of its Statistics Department who now helps PCC with quality assurance analyses — explained wordprints are analagous to fingerprints: "They are based on the theory that an author develops subconscious habits over time in the way he or she writes." He added his colleagues, Wayne Larsen and Alvin Rencher, used statistical analysis software he partially developed to help us understand how the Book of Mormon was translated and who wrote it.

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Place-making in SLC: Conference Center fits, library doesn't

2007-04-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

OK, I might as well say it: I like the new LDS Church Conference Center (designed by Zimmer, Gunnsel, and Frasca, 1999).

As a gentile and consummate bo-bo ("bourgeois bohemian" - a cross between a hipster and a yuppie), I should hate it, or at least that's what all my aesthetically astute friends and colleagues tell me. The unfavorable response the building gets from the local literati runs from mild scorn to outright hostility, particularly among those who consider it "terribly fascist." By this I'm assuming they mean that the building's imposing size and monumental frankness equate nicely with their vision of the all-encompassing, authoritarian LDS Church. And on cold January days I might agree with them - devoid of summer greenery, the sky-gray Conference Center, fronted by its barren plaza, can be intimidating. Still, for me the building works as a piece of architecture, and it works better than our other new building, the Salt Lake City Main Library (Moshe Safdie, 2003).

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BYU-Idaho president gives Summer Semester opening devotional, teaches students the pattern of the Atonement

2007-04-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

Elder Kim B. Clark, president of Brigham Young University-Idaho, gave the opening devotional address of Summer Semester 2007 on Tuesday, April 17. He taught students about Christ's Atonement and how to apply it in their lives.

"Think for a moment about your own life. Think about the paths you have walked. Have you felt the power of the Atonement in your life?" he asked.

Read the entire article here.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints youth hold appreciation dinner

2007-04-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

Youth from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints honored McKinney ISD high school teachers at a teacher appreciation dinner Wednesday at the McKinney Stake Center.

Bishop Harlow Hagee said the McKinney high school youth invited their teachers to dinner as a token of their appreciation.

“We really want to express to the educators in the community that we appreciate them,” Hagee said. “We appreciate the service that they do.”

Read the entire article here.