‘Make keeping covenants cool again’: Exploring the stories of ex-ex-Latter-day Saints

Inside the increasing numbers of reconversion stories being shared online

(deseret.com 2-26-24)

Ashly Stone never imagined how her life was about to change when she tried heroin. “I was sick without it,” she remembers — “totally emotionally unstable.”

“Needing a substance to be able to function is a really rough way to live,” she remembers. This was a long journey from her happy upbringing as a “good kid” in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As Ashly recounted on the “All In Podcast,” she was eventually estranged from most people in her life — with the exception of her father.

“I don’t know how he didn’t give up on me, to be honest. … But he just didn’t. He always took my calls.”

Toward the end of her 15th rehab, a text message arrived from a friend at a previous treatment center. “Ashly,” he wrote, “if you read the Book of Mormon every single day, I promise you will never go back to your old life.”

“I couldn’t even imagine a life where I could live sober,” she recalled thinking. “That was so far from the realm of possibility.” But, she concluded, “I have nothing to lose.”

Ashly is now married and a mother of two young children. Eleven years later, she hasn’t missed a day reading the Book of Mormon, and she hasn’t touched drugs or alcohol either.

Today, she runs with Lauren Rose the “Come Back Podcast,” which shares stories of people coming back to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although it isn’t even two years old, the podcast already has 1.2 million downloads across podcast platforms, and thousands of subscribers on YouTube.

Among the total episodes are 80 different stories of people coming back to faith, including 21 stories of people who came back to the faith after grappling with substance abuse or other addictions. There are also stories of people who once embraced critical narratives about the church or its history, and others who worked through significant health and emotional challenges.

(for the rest of the article follow link)

https://www.deseret.com/2024/2/26/24059906/do-latter-day-saints-come-back-to-church/

I’m Happy To See This

(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)

I’m very pleased to see the idea of “Holy Week” catching on in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It isn’t an “ordinance” of the Gospel — any more, strictly speaking, than the observance of Christmas or of Easter itself is — but, like Christmas and Easter, it provides a good opportunity to remember and to talk about Christ.

Why have Latter-day Saints, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, not historically celebrated “Holy Week”?

For one thing, Easter simply hasn’t received as much emphasis in American and Western culture as Christmas has.  Sometimes, in my experience, Easter has passed with scarcely a mention, and particularly so if Easter bunnies and Easter eggs are set aside.  On the other hand, mentions of Christmas now seem to proliferate in television ads and department store windows even before Halloween.  I guess that Easter simply hasn’t been as successfully commercialized as “Xmas” has.

Among Latter-day Saints in particular, though, I think that the primary reason for the absence of Holy Week may be as simple as this:  The large majority of our early members and early leaders, not only in America and Canada but in Great Britain and Scandinavia and elsewhere, came from backgrounds in low-church Protestantism.  They did not, by and large, come out of the liturgical traditions that most celebrated Holy Week.

----

#BecauseofHim: New Ways to Celebrate Christ This Easter 

New resources at ChurchofJesusChrist.org provide ideas and ways to share and celebrate Christ this Easter season

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/new-easter-resources-because-of-him

Manti Utah Temple reopens for tours after 2 years of renovations

(ksl.com 3-11-24)

Scott and Janice Hintze said the Manti Utah Temple can be seen from their home, and at one point their window perfectly framed its view. Each day, they look toward the temple and exercise around it.

"It's just a part of us," she said.

As the Hintzes now help run the temple open house, they're excited to show the pioneer heritage of the building to others. She described the temple as an icon for Manti and said the community feels a lot of enthusiasm about its reopening.

The Manti Utah Temple, built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was the third dedicated temple in operation. It is open for private tours through Wednesday, with public tours beginning Thursday, after the facility was closed for renovations in October 2021.

The public open house begins Thursday and runs until April 5, before a rededication of the temple on April 21.

Janice Hintze said the murals inside the temple look lighter, and more of its artwork now focuses on Christ.

"Everyone loves our little town, and it is because of the temple," she said.

Sacrifice from early memebers

Elder Jonathan S. Schmitt, general authority seventy and assistant executive director of the church's temple department, invited everyone to come feel love from the Lord, in the temple, during the open house.

He said the unique artwork and murals are "stunningly beautiful," with intricate detail in craftsmanship and needlepoint chairs, but the building is not a museum.

Elder Schmitt said the pioneers sacrificed to build the temple in Manti because of their faith in Jesus Christ — and because they knew the temple was a place where they could receive heavenly power to help them with life's trials, and because families could be sealed for eternity in temples.

"I stand in awe as I think about the pioneers in the Sanpete Valley at that time, most of them living in small homes with dirt roofs, but out of their poverty, they sacrificed and consecrated everything ... to build this magnificent house," he said.

President Camille N. Johnson, of the Relief Society presidency, invited media members at the temple on Monday to think about how Latter-day Saints "constructed a temple worthy of the presence of the Lord" while establishing farms, nurturing their families and managing livestock. She said they sacrificed their time and wealth to build the house of God.

"Their craftsmanship is exquisite, but perhaps more compelling to me is their faith in Jesus Christ and the power in making and keeping promises with God," she said.

She said the saints wanted to make promises with God in the temple and give that same opportunity to their ancestors and their posterity.

"In their sacrifice to keep the promises they had made with God, these people were sanctified and made holy themselves," President Johnson said.

She said she finds the evidence of those members' commitment to the Savior "remarkable," and hopes anyone who tours the temple will notice their attention to detail.

President Johnson said Jesus Christ is the center of everything members see and do in the temple, and she talked about the artwork of him, specifically one example in the lobby of the temple, which was painted by a local artist.

Maintaining historical detail

Emily Utt, historic sites curator with the Church History Department, said workers did "just enough work" during the renovation to help the temple stand for another 100 years.

She said people familiar with the temple won't see many differences, just some new carpet and paint, but a lot of work went into its maintenance.

"These murals took months, as a lot of detailed hard work from conservators working in 1-inch squares, cleaning these murals and getting them bright and clean and just the way they looked," she said, adding that each of the murals needed different preservation methods due to condition.

One room, known as the creation room, took three months to restore as workers cleaned original paintings from 1886, the oldest murals in the church. A bird was found covered up, and Utt shared how the painter used current research on dinosaurs from books to paint dinosaurs into his mural.

The murals in the baptistry required the most extensive work, including removal and off-site cleaning and preservation, while the damaged plaster underneath needed replacement.

Although the Manti temple looks different from other newly built temples, Utt said the local temple helped define how temple ordinances in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are done in every temple.

One unique aspect of the Manti temple is the lack of an elevator. The page to reserve tickets to the open house says a limited tour of just the first floor can be given to those who cannot walk up stairs.

Utt said the church looked carefully at ways to improve accessibility, but determined adding elevators or lifts would damage the historical rooms. She said the church chose to preserve the building, acknowledging the decision could make it harder for some people to get through the temple.

She said they look forward to the opening of the temple in Ephraim, just a few miles from Manti, which will be fully accessible.

The renovations to the outside of the Manti temple included a new entry, a new loading dock replacing the old one at the front of the building and the repair of a waterproofing problem on the east site of the temple.

The temple, like other early temples, has an assembly room for members to gather, which is accessed by using a unique spiral staircase. Everything in the room is original except for some upholstery on the seats.

A beacon

Original glass panes hang in the assembly room, and President Johnson said the light fixtures were added later, when electricity became available, but the temple was built with natural light in mind.

Now, she said the temple serves as a beacon and that can be seen around the valley, especially when it lights up at night.

"We're so pleased that all of our neighbors and friends will have an opportunity to see what's happening and what's inside that light on the hill that they've observed," President Johnson said.

Scott Hintze said sometimes, when he worked in the field at night, he could turn lights on the tractor off because of how bright the temple lights are.

He said the difference with the Manti Temple's open house and other temple open houses, people visit this temple because of connections they have whether through family history or their own experiences. He said everyone has a connection.

https://www.ksl.com/article/50946692/manti-utah-temple-reopens-for-tours-after-2-years-of-renovations

After buying Kirtland Temple, church hopes to keep it 'old'

(ksl.com 3-10-24)

As negotiations for the Kirtland Temple advanced to the final stages six weeks ago, historians began to write a script for tours of the temple that will begin on March 25 under the new direction of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Preparing to reopen the doors to the temple required quick action, but church historians say they will go slow when it comes to making changes to the historic building itself because the Community of Christ wisely avoided modernizing it.

"We're so thrilled that the Kirtland Temple, for example, is in the condition that it's in. It's old. We love that," said Elder Kyle S. McKay, church historian and recorder.

"The fact that they haven't changed it, that there isn't an elevator in it — it's as close to what it was in Joseph's day as we would hope and we hope to keep it old, but safe," he said.

The Kirtland Temple, dedicated by Joseph Smith in 1836, marked the beginning of temple worship among Latter-day Saints. The temple practices that began there still animate the Church of Jesus Christ and its members today, said Emily Utt, curator of Historic Sites for the church. So do Easter 1836 visitations to the temple of Jesus Christ, Moses, Elias and Elijah, who restored the spiritual power, or keys, that underpin those temple ordinances.

"The power of a place where Jesus Christ has appeared is huge," she said. "The power of a place where ancient prophets have appeared and restored keys — the way that I live the gospel today, the ability that I have to go to the temple and make covenants and live a holy life is because of the Kirtland Temple. So it is significant to all of us, but it is significant to me personally, because the way that I live my life is dependent on events that happened in that space."

Matthew Grow, the managing director of the Church History Department, said the lasting impact of those visitations and temple practices make the Kirtland Temple especially important to the church's Historic Sites program.

"Some of those sites talk primarily about pioneer life or talk about the sacrifice of Latter-day Saints, like at Martin's Cove in Wyoming, or talk about the migration of the Latter-day Saints across the country," he said. "But the most special of our sites, for Latter-day Saints, are where heaven and earth came together in really powerful and tangible and concrete ways.

"So for us those would be sites like the Sacred Grove (where Heavenly Father and Christ appeared to Joseph Smith), sites like the banks of the Susquehanna River (where Peter, James and John appeared to Joseph Smith and another early church leader), and a site like the Kirtland Temple, where in Latter-day Saint theology, Jesus Christ himself appeared, ancient prophets appeared. Those sites where heaven and earth came together, for us continue to be sacred ground."

Renovate the Kirtland Temple?

The historians said that while they will proceed slowly and cautiously, they also will begin immediately to assess the condition of the temple.

"In the next few months, we'll be working with many structural engineers and architects and spending a lot of hours in that building, trying to understand its history, the changes over time, the condition that it's in," Utt said. "We want to work very systematically and thoughtfully to put together those things that will enable us not only to keep the building standing, but to really make it accessible and available for people to see."

The work will be done with an eye and an ear to preservation.

"The power of the Kirtland Temple is being in that sacred place and hearing that little creak in the floor, right, and seeing the contribution of individual workers," Utt said. "So we're going to be very careful as we approach stabilizing and preserving that building to really celebrate the things that make it such a special place."

The temple is briefly closed as church historians prepare it with updated signage reflecting the transfer. It will reopen on March 25, six days before Easter.

The historians said any potential long-term closures for historical restoration and preservation work are years away, and would include listening to the building.

"I think we are too early to even have a timeline of when we would be closing these for renovation," Utt said. "We want to do this very carefully and very thoughtfully. Good research and good investigation and analysis takes time. So I could imagine us, you know, for the next several years, really, working first to understand the buildings and then putting together schedules and updates and figure out what the building wants us to do with it, almost."

Grow said preservation work requires answering a lot of questions.

"Are we taking the building back to what it might have looked like on opening day? Or, what about the rest of the history? What moment are you representing?" he said.

For example, historical sources indicate the Kirtland Temple originally had more of a bluish or bluish-gray color. It also had a system of pulleys and curtains for partitioning the assembly halls inside. Should those be restored?

"There's lots and lots of questions that we'll be pondering over the next several years, but no decisions on anything immediately," Grow said, adding, "I think the white Kirtland Temple is so iconic and beautiful."

What did the Community of Christ say about the sale?

The significance of the temple's history to Latter-day Saints and the responsibility of maintaining that history in the building weigh heavily on the historians. They repeatedly expressed appreciation that the Community of Christ, which obtained control of the temple between 1860 and 1880, preserved it so well for more than 140 years.

"I am at this point almost overwhelmed with the enormity of the task ahead," Utt said. "This is one of the most sacred sites in the church and has been so beautifully and carefully cared for by some of the people that I admire most in the world. I am excited at the possibility of helping take this building into its next chapter, but just so grateful for those that have made it possible for us to be able to do this and to preserve this building going forward."

The transfer also included 16 buildings in Nauvoo, from the Red Brick Store where the international women's organization known as the Relief Society was organized, to the Joseph and Emma Smith Mansion House, the Nauvoo House and the Smith Family Homestead.

"We're all excited," Grow said. "I think we also feel that it's a sacred trust, to be some of the individuals who will be involved in the governance of these buildings and these documents and these artifacts, and so I think we feel that sacred trust deeply and also feel excited that we'll be able to, just as Community of Christ has done over the years, preserve these sites and make them accessible to the world."

Lachlan Mackay, the great-great-great grandson of Joseph Smith, has been a leading caretaker for the Community of Christ for these transferred historic sites. Mackay not only is a Community of Christ apostle and the church's Historic Sites director, he lived in the shadow of the Kirtland Temple for 15 years and has been living the past 17 years in one of the Nauvoo properties that is changing hands.

He released a video statement this week about the property transfer. He noted that he met his wife in the Red Brick Store in Nauvoo and was ordained to a priesthood office in the Kirtland Temple. Historians for both churches believe he's given more tours of the Kirtland Temple than any other person, including one last summer with Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"The Nauvoo House, Homestead and Mansion House are my ancestral homes," Mackay said in the video. "For me, the decision to part with these places has been devastating emotionally. There was a time when I thought it might break me."

Mackay said that he inherited pragmatism from his great-great grandfather, Joseph Smith III.

"Intellectually, the path forward is clear," he said. "I care deeply about our past, but I care even more about our future. The post-pandemic world has changed. The needs have never been greater and we no longer have the resources, human or financial, to care for these places the way they deserve to be cared for."

Elder McKay, the Latter-day Saint Church Historian and Recorder, said he admired what the Community of Christ had done to preserve the Kirtland Temple and other sites. One example of the care taken for the Kirtland Temple by the Community of Christ is the caution used with the temple's third floor. The COC rarely took tours to the third floor to keep it from wearing down because the floor joists were placed two feet apart, less stable than the ideal.

Managing tours of the temple

The Church of Jesus Christ will monitor the flooring and adjust tour group sizes.

"For Latter-day Saints, some of the really sacred things about the Kirtland Temple happened on that top floor, where Joseph Smith sees a vision of the afterlife and sees his brother, Alvin, and his parents," Grow said. "So our initial intent is to keep the tour groups small, and we feel good about taking small groups to that third-floor space.

"We'll have a reservation system for tours, but over time, of course, we will assess whether the building needs going forward."

Grow said that senior missionaries and young women missionaries will lead most tours.

"About five years ago, the governance of all of the Church History Sites within the church organization passed from the Missionary Department to the Church History Department," he said. "That was part of an intention to focus more on the history of all of the sites. We still use missionaries, both senior missionaries and young sister missionaries, at all of the sites.

"Those operations are supervised by professional historians and curators and others. The intention with these new sites was that they would maintain that staffing model of young sisters and senior couples. I would just invite anyone who is suspicious that our sites don't focus on history to visit the sites."

Grow and Utt said they expect the strong relationship between historians of both churches to continue. Grow also said the transferred sites will note the Community of Christ's role.

"As we have written new tours for the sites in Kirtland and Nauvoo, the historic ownership and preservation of sites by Community of Christ will be acknowledged, as well as some of the later history," Grow said. "The core of those tours will focus on what Latter-day Saints see as the sacred significance of those sites, but not to the exclusion of anything else."

Latter-day Saint historians are prepared for the reopenings on March 25.

"Of course, the background discussions have been happening for some while, but it was six weeks ago that we knew that the time had arrived to really plan in a concrete way, to begin to write scripts," he said.

"We wrote the scripts for three new tours, one tour of the Kirtland Temple, one tour of the (Nauvoo) Red Brick Store, which is tremendously significant for Latter-day Saints as the site of the organization of the Relief Society, site of the first (full) temple endowments, both of which — temple endowment and the Relief Society — are now worldwide phenomena, and then the third tour takes us through the Smith properties in Nauvoo.

"So we've done that over the last six-week period, to write new tours, and to prepare new signs, and to make sure we had staffing in place and make sure that we did all of that in a way that our friends in the media did not know prematurely what was going to happen."

Not included in the property sale

Some have asked questions about cemeteries in Kirtland and Nauvoo.

The cemetery between the Kirtland Temple and the Joseph and Emma Smith Home in Kirtland is owned by the city and was not part of the transfer, the historians said.

They also said the Smith Family Cemetery in Nauvoo is owned by the Community of Christ and was not included in the transfer.

https://www.ksl.com/article/50944460/after-buying-kirtland-temple-church-hopes-to-keep-it-old

See a list of everything the Church of Jesus Christ obtained from the Community of Christ

(deseret.com 3-6-23)

The Community of Christ transferred the historic Kirtland Temple to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Tuesday along with 17 other buildings, additional property, and historic artifacts and documents.

The list released by the churches says that another Nauvoo building, the Joseph Smith Historic Site Visitors’ Center of the Community of Christ, will be transferred after a closing in the future.

The list also noted that the land obtained by the Church of Jesus Christ on Block 155 in Nauvoo does not include the Smith Family Cemetery.

According to a question and answer released on the church’s Newsroom website, the purchase price of the historic sites and documents was $192.5 million.

Below is a list of the property transferred on Tuesday.

All the historic buildings involved closed on Tuesday to facilitate the transfer of ownership, but The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said all of the buildings are scheduled to reopen to the public on March 25.

Tuesday’s exchange is the third major transfer of property between the churches in the past dozen years. In 2012, the Community of Christ transferred historic sites in Missouri and Ohio. In 2017, it sold the Book of Mormon printer’s manuscript for $35 million.

The churches noted that the transfer includes additional items that do not appear on this list. The items not listed include the vast majority of representative period artifacts currently on display in the historic buildings. Most of those artifacts are not historically associated with the Smith family or with Nauvoo.

Historic building in Kirtland Ohio

-Kirtland Temple, 9020 Chillicothe Road.

Historic building in Nauvoo Illinois

-Smith Family Homestead and Summer Kitchen, 935 South Main Street.

-Joseph and Emma Smith Mansion House, 890 South Main Street.

-Red Brick Store (reconstructed), 610 Water Street. This is where the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-days Saints was formed in 1842.

-Nauvoo House, 950 South Main Street.

Historic artifacts

-Portraits of Joseph and Emma Smith, circa 1842, attributed to David Rogers.

-Original door of Liberty Jail, circa 1833.

Manuscripts and documents

-Book of Mormon “Caractors” document.

-Four pages from Revelation Book 1, including portions of revelations now known as Doctrine and Covenants 64, 65, 66, 76, 81 and 133.

-Seven letters from Joseph to Emma Smith, including letters written on Oct. 13, 1832; May 18, 1834; Nov. 4, 1838; Nov. 12, 1838; Nov. 9, 1839; June 23, 1844; and June 27, 1844.

-A history of the church, written by John Whitmer.

-Manuscript notes of an 1879 interview with Emma Smith by Joseph Smith III.

-Joseph Smith’s printed “Phinney” Bible (Cooperstown, New York, 1828) with his numerous markings as part of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible.

Manuscripts of the Joseph Smith translation of the Bible

-Old Testament manuscript 1 (June 1830–March 7, 1831).

-Old Testament manuscript 2, first part (March 8–April 5, 1831).

-Old Testament manuscript 2, second part (July 20, 1832–July 2, 1833).

-Old Testament manuscript 3 (ca. late 1830–early 1831).

-New Testament manuscript 1 (March 8–June 1831).

-New Testament manuscript 2, Folio 1 (April 4, 1831–Sept. 26, 1831).

-New Testament manuscript 2, Folio 2 (Sept. 26, 1831–late 1831).

-New Testament manuscript 2, Folio 3 (winter 1831–1832).

-New Testament manuscript 2, Folio 4 (January/February 1832–July 31, 1832).

-Publication committee manuscripts for the first complete edition of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible as The Holy Scriptures (1867).

Kirtland temple furniture

-Joseph Smith writing desk.

-1820s couch associated with the Whitney family.

Original elements of the Kirtland temple

-Oval window frame.

-Front door keystone and frame.

-Stone arch.

-Windows.

-Pieces of original stucco and sandstone.

Nauvoo items and artifacts

-Nauvoo Temple Sunstone.

-Two Nauvoo Temple Moonstones.

-Nauvoo House cornerstone, which housed the Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon.

-Joseph Smith desk (Mansion House).

-Emma Smith trunk (Mansion House).

-Lucy Mack Smith rocking chair (Mansion House).

-Two Smith family chairs (Mansion House).

-Emma Smith walking stick (Homestead).

-Washstand associated with Hawn’s Mill (Homestead).

-Sampler (Homestead).

-Bowl (Homestead).

-Three inkwells (Red Brick Store).

Non-historic buildings in Kirtland

-Temple Visitors’ Center, 9076 Chillicothe Road.

-Private residence and shop, 7788 Maple Street.

-Private residence, 7799 Joseph Street.

-Private residence, 9120 Timothy Lane.

Small undeveloped lots in Kirtland

-(Unnumbered) Joseph Street.

-9080 Chillicothe Road.

Historic buildings with modernized interiors in Nauvoo (private use)

-Hiram and Thankful Clark home, 790 South Hyde Street.

-Aaron and Polly Johnson home, 475 Water Street.

-William and Rosannah Marks home, 575 Water Street.

-Sidney and Phebe Rigdon home, 860 South Main Street.

-Jonathan and Rebecca Wright home, 455 Water Street.

-The First Hotel, 795 South Main Street.

-A stone stable built by Lewis Bidamon, 940 South Main Street.

Non-historic buildings in Nauvoo

-Maintenance Shop, Bain Street.

Nauvoo blocks and lots

(As indexed by the 1842 map of the City of Nauvoo.)

-Block 137, Lot 4 — no structures.

-Block 138 — no structures.

-Block 139, lots 3-4 — includes the First Hotel.

-Block 140, lots 3-4 — no structures.

-Block 145 — no structures.

-Block 146 — includes the Joseph Smith Historic Site Visitor’s Center (initially leased by the Church and subject to a secondary closing at a later date), James and Sally Brinkerhoff former home site and Levi and Clarissa Hancock former home site.

-Block 147 — includes the Mansion House, Rigdon home, Clark home, Samuel and Levira Smith former home site and Theodore and Frances Turley former home site.

-Block 148 — includes the William Law store former site.

-Block 149 — includes the Marks home, public restrooms, a Hyrum Smith office former site and the Times and Seasons newspaper office former site.

-Block 150 — includes the Johnson home, Wright home, maintenance shop.

-Block 153 — no structures.

-Block 154 — includes a Hyrum Smith office former site.

-Block 155 — includes the Red Brick Store and the Smith Homestead and summer kitchen; does not include the Smith Family Cemetery.

-Block 156 — includes the Nauvoo House, Bidamon stable, Joseph Smith red brick stable former home site, Joseph Sr. and Lucy Smith former home site, Porter Rockwell former home site and a parking area.

-Block 157 — no structures.

-Block 158, lots 2-3 — includes private residence (960 South Partridge Street).

-Block 161 — no structures.

-Block 162 — no structures.

Church announces purchase of historic Kirtland Temple, other historic sites and manuscripts

(ksl.com 3-5-23)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now owns the historic Kirtland Temple and other property from the Community of Christ, the two churches said Tuesday in a joint announcement.

The Kirtland Temple has immense historic and religious significance to millions of Latter-day Saints and others who consider it sacred because it both is the first temple completed after the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ in 1830 and is a place Latter-day Saints believe Jesus Christ appeared days after Joseph Smith dedicated it in 1836.

"We are deeply honored to assume the stewardship of these sacred places, documents and artifacts," President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in the joint statement. "We thank our friends at Community of Christ for their great care and cooperation in preserving these historical treasures thus far. We are committed to doing the same."

Persecution caused the Latter-day Saints to leave Kirtland, Ohio, in 1838, and ownership of the temple, which had resided with Joseph Smith, became cloudy after his murder in 1844.

The Community of Christ, previously known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, had been the primary steward of the temple for more than 140 years.

The two churches had been working on the transfer of ownership since 2021, the joint statement said. The churches are respectful of each other, and the Community of Christ previously had sold historic sites in Missouri and Ohio to the Church of Jesus Christ in 2012 and the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon in 2017.

The latest transfer of historic sites and documents involves dozens of items and buildings, including church history sites in Nauvoo, Illinois. Those include buildings of note within church history, such as the Red Brick Store, where the Relief Society, the church's global women's organization, was first organized. Other sites include the Joseph and Emma Smith Mansion House, the Nauvoo House and the Smith Family Homestead.

The Bible used in the Joseph Smith translation of the Bible was also part of the sale, as was the original door of Liberty Jail and many other items and manuscripts. According to a question and answer released on the church's Newsroom website, the purchase price of the historic sites and documents was $192.5 million.

The Kirtland Temple is the centerpiece. It was nominated as a National Historic Landmark in 1969 and designated one in 1976.

But beyond its significance to the early history of both churches, the temple is sacred because of what one Latter-day Saint leader called "the great pentecostal outpouring that Joseph and the Saints received in Kirtland."

"There is something unique and wonderful about what happened here," late church President Gordon B. Hinckley said in 2003. "Nothing like it has occurred anywhere else in the history of the church, either before or since."

Joseph Smith reported that the spiritual priesthood keys to operating Christ's ancient church were restored by three angelic visitors at the Kirtland Temple — Moses, Elias and Elijah, who restored the power to sealing families together forever, a linchpin of the Latter-day Saint faith. Today, the church operates 188 temples around the world. It has plans to build 147 more.

The Reorganized Church — which became the Community of Christ in 2001 — obtained the Kirtland Temple through Joseph Smith's son. Joseph Smith III bought the temple through a quit-claim deed in 1874. He gave the property to the Reorganized Church in 1880 and the title was finalized in 1901.

The Kirtland Temple operated as much as a meetinghouse as a temple before Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints left Kirtland. Church members used it as a meetinghouse for Sunday worship services and Thursday prayer and fasting meetings. They also used it as a regular school and for a church choir.

Today, Latter-day Saint temples open to the public briefly after new construction or renovations, then are dedicated for the purpose of performing temple ordinances carried out by Latter-day Saints with active temple recommends. The Community of Christ has used the Kirtland Temple for various meetings and has opened it to the public for tours. The Church of Jesus Christ said that the Kirtland Temple will remain a historic building open to the public.

The church said it will reopen the temple to free public tours on March 25.

The Community of Christ will be given special access to use the Kirtland Temple for some meetings.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a fully functioning temple in Columbus, Ohio, and a second temple in the state, in Cleveland, is under construction.

Community of Christ President Stephen M. Veazey said the funds from the sale will bolster the endowments used to pay for many of the church's missions.

Full joint churches statement

Today, Tuesday, March 5, 2024, the responsibility and ownership for the Kirtland Temple, several historic buildings in Nauvoo, and various manuscripts and artifacts officially transferred from Community of Christ to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for an agreed-upon amount. Together, we share an interest in and reverence for these historic sites and items and are committed to preserving them for future generations.

Discussions leading to this landmark agreement commenced in June 2021. "This exchange of assets is significant for our church,' said Stephen M. Veazey, president of Community of Christ. 'Through funding from increased endowments, Community of Christ will have greater capacity to pursue our mission priorities around the world, including continuing to fulfill the divinely envisioned purposes for our temple in Independence, Missouri.'

"We are deeply honored to assume the stewardship of these sacred places, documents, and artifacts," said Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "We thank our friends at Community of Christ for their great care and cooperation in preserving these historical treasures thus far. We are committed to doing the same."

The Kirtland Temple will remain an historic building. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints plans to reopen it March 25, 2024, for public tours at no charge. Likewise, in Nauvoo, the Smith Family Homestead, the Mansion House and the Red Brick Store will also reopen on March 25, 2024, for year-round public tours at no charge. More details about the transaction, assets, and the other items included in the agreement will be forthcoming.

The historic transfer underscores our long-standing effort to preserve religious and cultural heritage and foster respective opportunities for growth and service to the world.

Community of Christ is an international faith community dedicated to fostering authentic connections with one another and with God. It strives to restore Christ's peace on Earth and challenge unjust systems that diminish human worth. Community of Christ affirms the intrinsic worth of every person and provides a place to belong, be loved and valued, grow spiritually, and discover a purpose that can change lives and communities.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a worldwide faith, teaches that our Father in Heaven and his Son Jesus Christ have in our day again called a living prophet and restored priesthood authority and covenants to bless families and individuals with joy. Members seek to live and share the gospel of Jesus Christ, care for those in need and unite families for eternity. They cherish the Book of Mormon and the Bible as holy scripture.

Frequently asked questions

"Today, Community of Christ and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the transfer of significant historical properties and artifacts related to the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The following answers address frequently asked questions about the details of the transaction and future plans for the historic sites and artifacts.

1. What was included in the transaction?

The transaction involves land, buildings, artifacts, and documents. The real estate, along with some artifacts, are in Kirtland, Ohio, and Nauvoo, Illinois, while artifacts and documents also come from Community of Christ Library and Archives in Independence, Missouri.

2. What are the most significant items?

The most significant properties are the Kirtland Temple, the Smith Family Homestead, the Mansion House, the Nauvoo House, and the Red Brick Store. Significant documents and artifacts include manuscripts and the Bible used in the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, seven letters from Joseph Smith to his wife Emma, John Whitmer's history of the church, original portraits of Joseph and Emma Smith, the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House, the original door of Liberty Jail, and a document with the title of "Caractors," which may contain a sample of inscriptions from the gold plates. (See the appendix for a more detailed list of items transferred.)

3. How did Community of Christ acquire these materials?

After the Saints left Kirtland in the 1830s, different parties controlled access to the temple over the years. In 1901, Community of Christ, then known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ("RLDS Church") secured title to the Kirtland Temple through legal proceedings. The Smith family properties in Nauvoo remained in possession of Emma Smith after Joseph Smith's death and she and her children eventually joined the RLDS Church. Thereafter, the properties passed through family connections to the RLDS Church. Other documents and artifacts were donated to the RLDS Church archives by their individual owners.

4. Why did Community of Christ sell these materials now?

As Community of Christ President Stephen M. Veazey noted in the joint statement, the transfer of materials at this time enables their mission and priorities around the world.

5. Why did The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchase these materials?

The sites and artifacts in this transaction relate to significant events and people in the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

6. What is the relationship between the two churches?

The two churches enjoy a strong, respectful, and friendly relationship. For many decades, we have collaborated on numerous historical and humanitarian projects.

7. Have there been previous transactions of historic materials between the two churches?

Yes. In 2012, Community of Christ sold to the Church of Jesus Christ several properties, including the Hawn's Mill Massacre site and the Joseph and Emma Smith home in Kirtland. Five years later, Community of Christ sold the Printer's Manuscript of the Book of Mormon to the Church of Jesus Christ.

8. What was paid for the properties, artifacts, and documents?

The church paid $192.5 million without assigning specific values to the properties and items.

9. Will the historic sites be open to the public?

Yes. The historic buildings in Kirtland and Nauvoo closed on March 5, 2024, to facilitate the transfer of ownership and will reopen to the public on March 25, 2024. Tours will be provided of the Kirtland Temple, the Smith Family Homestead, the Mansion House, and the Red Brick Store. Updated visitor information will be published on the historic site webpages for Historic Kirtland and Historic Nauvoo.

10. Will admission be charged to visit the sites?

No. All of the Church of Jesus Christ's historic sites are open to the public at no charge.

11. Will members of Community of Christ continue to have access to the sites?

Yes. The sites will be open to the public generally. The church has also made specific arrangements with Community of Christ to allow for special meetings and gatherings over the coming years.

12. Will the Kirtland Temple be converted into a functioning Latter-day Saint temple?

No. The Kirtland Temple will be maintained and presented as a historic building that is open to the public. President Russell M. Nelson announced a temple in Cleveland in April 2022, and the church released its site address in December 2022 and a rendering in July 2023.

13. Will the church continue to pursue development of its proposed new visitors' center near the Nauvoo Temple?

Yes. The proposed visitors' center in Nauvoo will orient visitors to the historic and contemporary significance of the Nauvoo Temple. The use of the other two visitors' centers in Nauvoo will be determined in the future.

Dedicating another transferred property

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bought 6,000 acres of Missouri farmland and the Hawn's Mill Massacre site and Far West Burying Ground in Missouri as well as Joseph and Emma Smith's Kirtland home from the Community of Christ in 2012.

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the restored home on Aug. 26, 2023. The home has views of the nearby Kirtland Temple.

"The first temple (was built) here in Kirtland and (we have) more than 300 temples today," Elder Bednar said. "This work is true. It was in Kirtland that Joseph said that the church would grow, prosper and spread. It would fill North and South America. It would fill the world. That's true. I've been able to travel the world and see the fulfillment of that prophecy. So, coming to this place on this day is a sacred experience for me."

https://www.ksl.com/article/50940214/church-announces-purchase-of-historic-kirtland-temple-other-historic-sites-and-manuscripts

An Appropriate And Defensible Etymology For “Cumorah”?

Lots of interesting links throughout this blog post by Brother Peterson. I am going to need to take more time to go through them all..... like always. 

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2024/02/an-appropriate-and-defensible-etymology-for-cumorah.html

Ancient Names in the Book of Mormon Toward a Deeper Understanding of a Witness of Christ By Matthew L. Bowen

The names of individuals, places, and peoples in the Book of Mormon are strong evidence of its authenticity as an ancient scriptural record. But these names are more than mere ornaments. By reading carefully and using our knowledge of ancient Hebrew and Egyptian—the languages Book of Mormon writers claimed they knew and used—we can locate passages where names figure crucially into the meaning of the text and strengthen its impact. Sometimes, wordplay on these names illuminates important themes in a given book. These findings are consistent with what we find throughout the Hebrew Bible, where names and their meanings (real and perceived) were integral to narrative, prophecy, and poetry. As a follow-up to Name as Key-Word (2018), Ancient Names in the Book of Mormon explores many such examples and demonstrates how they contribute to our understanding of the Book of Mormon’s witness of Christ in its ancient context.

Table of Contents

Foreword, by Jeffrey Dean Lindsay

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Abbreviations

1 “O Ye Fair Ones”—Revisited

2 Shazer: The Place of the Young Gazelle

3 “If Ye Will Hearken”: Rhetorical Wordplay on Ishmael

4 Jacob’s Protector

5 “I Kneeled Down before My Maker”: Allusions to Esau in the Book of Enos

6 “I of Myself Am a Wicked Man”: Omni’s Adaptive Autobiography

7 Becoming Men and Women of Understanding: Revisiting Wordplay on Benjamin

8 “Possess the Land in Peace”: Zeniff’s Ironic Wordplay on Shilom

9 “This Son Shall Comfort Us”: An Onomastic Tale of Two Noahs

10 “He Did Go about Secretly”: Additional Thoughts on the Literary Use of Alma’s Name

11 “I Will Deliver Thy Sons”: Oracular Wordplay on Mosiah and Ammon

12 He Knows My Affliction: Onidah versus the Rameumptom

13 The Scalp of Your Head: “Chief” as Metonymic “Head”

14 “Swearing by Their Everlasting Maker”: Paanchi and Giddianhi

15 Coming Down and Bringing Down to Destruction: Jared and the Jaredites

16 “That Which They Most Desired”: Mary and Mormon Revisited

17 Messengers of the Covenant

Bibliography

Illustration Credits

Index

Name as Key-Word: Collected Essays on Onomastic Wordplay and the Temple in Mormon Scripture By Matthew L. Bowen

This hard-cover book is available directly from Eborn Books for $22.99. It is also available on Amazon and AmazonSmile for $24.95. (Prices may vary depending on vendor.)

Throughout the Bible, understanding the meaning of names of important people and places is often crucial to understanding the message of the ancient authors. In other words, names of people and places serve as “key-words” that can help unlock the intended messages of scripture.

Since the Book of Mormon is an ancient record rooted in Old Testament traditions, it is not surprising that similar patterns of wordplay emerge from its pages. Besides their important role as key-words in scriptural interpretation, the names of people and places may also provide our clearest glimpses into the text that existed on the plates from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. In many instances, the names of important Book of Mormon people and places are directly related to words matching the most-likely Hebrew and Egyptian origins for those names. Textual and contextual clues suggest that this matching was done deliberately in order to enhance literary beauty and as an aid to understanding. In some cases, authorial wordplay can be verified by a close analysis of matching text structures. In others, the wordplay can be verified by using the Bible as a “control” text.

A wealth of philological, onomastic, and textual evidence suggests that the Book of Mormon, like the Bible, is the work of ancient authors rather than that of a rural nineteenth-century man of limited literary attainments. Knowing more about these names enriches our understanding of the stories that these authors tell.

Table of Contents:

Foreword by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

Introduction

1. Nephi’s Good Inclusio

2. “Most Desirable Above All Things”: Mary and Mormon

3. Joseph, Benjamin, and Gezera Shawa

4. “What Thank They the Jews?”

5. “And There Wrestled a Man with Him”: Jacob, Enos, Israel, and Peniel

6. Young Man, Hidden Prophet: Alma

7. Father Is a Man: Abish

8. “They Were Moved with Compassion”: Zarahemla and Jershon

9. “See That Ye Are Not Lifted Up”: Zoram and the Rameumptom

10. “He Is a Good Man”

11. My People are Willing: Aminadab

12. Getting Cain and Gain

13. Place of Crushing: Heshlon (with Pedro Olavarria)

14. “In the Mount of the Lord It Shall Be Seen” and “Provided”

15. Founded Upon a Rock: Peter’s Surnaming

16. You More Than Owe Me This Benefit: Philemon and Onesimus

Bibliography

Index

Of Martin Harris And “Spiritual Eyes”

(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)

Among the more sophisticated critics of the Restoration, it has become popular to portray Martin Harris as denying the literal reality of the Book of Mormon plates, as saying, effectively, that he “saw” them only in his mind’s eye.  They base their portrayal on two or three cherry-picked statements, ignoring the many occasions on which he testified to having seen them quite literally, with his physical eyes, and even to having held them on his lap and being impressed by their extraordinary weight.  I think that Richard Lyman Bushman’s recent book Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History correctly understands what was going on:

The witness statements printed in every copy of the Book of Mormon seemed to provide exactly the kind of evidence Mormons longed for.  Eleven men attested they saw the plates and eight of them passed them around from hand to hand.  Short of producing the plates themselves, what better evidence could be had?  By the same token, discrediting their testimony would strike a fatal blow.  In the midst of the defections in the spring of 1838, when the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society had embittered many former Mormons, Stephen Burnett thought he found just such a flaw. Burnett wrote to a friend, Lyman Johnson, that Martin Harris admitted in a public meeting that he “never saw the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination.” Harris said he viewed the plates as a visionary sees “a city through a mountain.” Burnett understood the words to mean that Harris saw the plates only in his imagination. The admission, Burnett thought, destroyed everything. If the witnesses never saw the plates, “there can be nothing brought to prove that any such thing ever existed.” “The last pedestal gave way, in my view our foundations was sapped & the entire superstructure fell a heap of ruins.”

Martin Harris was among the defectors in 1837 and 1838; he turned on Joseph Smith for the same reasons as Burnett—the failed bank and a loss of confidence in Joseph Smith. But strangely, his statement about seeing the plates in a vision was not meant to undermine the Book of Mormon. Burnett also heard Harris say that “he was sorry for any man who rejected the Book of Mormon for he knew it was true.” Harris was actually warning his fellow apostates they would suffer if in rejecting Smith they relinquished faith in the book. Harris’s visionary description of the plates was not intended to undermine their reality. He spoke of not seeing the plates “with his natural eyes only in vision,” because he believed that was the only way a mortal could view heavenly things.  Pomeroy Tucker, the Palmyra printer who later wrote a book on Mormonism, remembered Harris speaking “a good deal of his characteristic jargon about ‘seeing with the spiritual eye.’ ”

In Harris’s world, the plates were enchanted. He said he was “told by Joseph Smith that God would strike him dead if he attempted to look at them.” When Charles Anthon asked him to bring the plates to New York, Harris told him that the “human gaze was not to be permitted to rest on them.” Harris’s thinking was based on Bible passages suggesting that human eyes could not look upon God without preparation. He did not dare to look into Smith’s seer stones “because Moses said that ‘no man could see God and live.’ ” Though intensely curious, Harris had not snuck a peek of the plates while helping Smith translate. He feared that he, an unworthy mortal, would suffer if he did. When Joseph offered to show Harris the plates in return for his help, Harris refused “unless the Lord should do it.” He told Burnett’s audience that the three witnesses had seen the plates “only in vision” because that was the only safe way. He had no intention of undermining the reality of the plates or questioning the Book of Mormon.  (60)

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2024/02/of-martin-harris-and-spiritual-eyes.html

Richard Bushman On Witnesses To The Book Of Mormon

(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)

Here are some notes about certain of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon — both official and unofficial — that I’ve drawn from the fourth chapter of Richard Lyman Bushman’s book Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023):

(more to come)

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2024/02/richard-bushman-on-witnesses-to-the-book-of-mormon.html

Pre-Columbian Contact Between South America And New Zealand?

(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)

The standard view of the origins of the Polynesians, and specifically of the Māori of New Zealand, is that they derive from the Lapita civilization of Melanesia and Micronesia.  Here is a passage from Māori History: A Captivating Guide to the History of the Indigenous Polynesian People of New Zealand (2022), apparently written by Matt Clayton, that I found particularly interesting:

It seems that for roughly one thousand years, the Lapita people consolidated some of the basic Polynesian cultural characteristics, like the language and religious beliefs and concepts like, for example, mana, as well as the pantheon of gods. They also formed the roots of a social system with kinship and ranks, which are today linked with the Polynesian civilization. It could also be theorized that, over time, they also improved and advanced their maritime technology and techniques. Around 700 CE, they resumed their eastward explorations, reaching the Cook Islands, Tahiti, and the rest of what is today French Polynesia. By then, the Lapita were transformed into the Polynesians, a change that is marked by the loss of their distinctive pottery.

Over the next several hundred years, the Polynesian people spread across what is today known as Polynesia, which roughly stretches from Samoa in the west to Easter Island in the east and Hawaii in the north to New Zealand in the south. This is a rather wide area that covers large chunks of open waters in the Pacific Ocean. The astonishing feat of covering such large distances and treacherous seas has made some modern scholars doubt if these Polynesian voyages were deliberate. For Western historians, it seemed inexplicable that a culture that seemed far inferior to any in Europe or around the Mediterranean Sea could travel so far, especially considering their Western contemporaries barely managed to leave their coasts. However, modern researchers have almost undoubtedly proved that the Polynesians, like their Austronesian ancestors, sailed with full intent and the knowledge of how to do so with minimal risks. . . .

Coupled with their planning techniques were their well-crafted outrigger canoes. They sometimes used the double outrigger design. Here, it is important to note that our minds often link canoes with small vessels, like a rowboat carrying a few people. However, the Polynesians, like other branches of the Austronesian people, built large ships capable of carrying dozens of people, with the boats powered by sails and the wind. It is also worth noting that the Polynesian sailors were capable navigators. They knew how to navigate with the help of the sun and the stars, and they used various methods, like spotting birds and cloud formations, to deduce if there was land beyond the visible horizon. They would pass this information on to other navigators and make repeated voyages, further reinforcing the notion that their trips were deliberate.

If that wasn’t enough to prove the maritime quality and capability of the Polynesian explorers, then there is the fact that, according to some research, they reached as far east as the western coasts of South America. There is some evidence to support such claims. The Polynesians cultivated sweet potatoes before the arrival of Europeans to the region. The sweet potato or batata, often mistakenly referred to as yams, originated in Central or South America. Thus, the Polynesians managed to reach the American continent before Christopher Columbus. On the Cook Islands, archaeologists found traces of this vegetable as early as the 11th century CE, prompting some scholars to deduce that Polynesian trips to the Americas must predate this century. Some bolder claims date Polynesian contact with the Americas to possibly the 8th century, though there is no evidence to support these claims. Another interesting facet of this implied contact is the fact that in various Polynesian languages, sweet potato is called kumara (also known as kumala or umala), while Bolivian and Peruvian Quechua sometimes refer to the plants as kumara or kumar, which is strikingly similar.

Apart from the sweet potato, some genetic studies of both chicken and human remains infer possible contact. In the case of human remains, several DNA markers found on certain Polynesian remains showed some mixture with the genes of the natives on the Columbian coast. Some scholars proposed this was a result of a single contact that took place in the late 12th or early 13th century. Also, some chicken remains found on the Chilean coast were dated to the early 14th century, with some of its genes sharing similarities to the domesticated chickens raised by the Polynesians. This has led some scholars to theorize that the Polynesians brought domesticated poultry to the Americas. However, these theories are still relatively new, and there is no conclusive scholarly agreement on them. Similarly, even less conclusive are the linguistic similarities found in a few words. Nevertheless, even if the linguistic and genetic similarities are completely disregarded, the unwavering evidence in the form of the kumara proves that the Polynesians reached South America most likely more than once.  (5-9)

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2024/02/pre-columbian-contact-between-south-america-and-new-zealand.html

Retired Navy commander shares how a priesthood blessing as a new member completely changed his life

(ldsliving.com 1-11-24)

I’d dropped out of high school and was working as a juggler and magician to help support my mom when I met Laura. She and I were young, and we fell in love quickly. She was the one who introduced me to the restored gospel.

I’d visited other churches while growing up in Beeville, Texas, but I’d felt a burning sensation like nothing else as the missionaries were teaching me. In fact, I surprised them by memorizing all 13 Articles of Faith in the two days between our first and second lessons. Two months later, I was baptized.

Soon Laura and I were married, and I wanted a job with more stability. So I decided to enlist in the Navy. I traveled to San Antonio, where new candidates stayed in an old, decrepit hotel for a night before shipping off to boot camp in Orlando, Florida, in the morning. And I was nervous—really nervous.

I wanted a priesthood blessing from Elder Baeza and Elder Clark, the elders who had taught me. So I walked to the nearest grocery store, opened up a phonebook, and looked for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But there were numerous stakes listed and I didn’t know where my elders had been transferred to. I decided to still give it a chance, though, and threw a quarter in the phone booth and called one of the numbers. No answer. Dejected, I hung up the phone and walked out of the store.

As I’m walking out—and this is a true story—Elder Baeza comes walking into the store with his new companion. He give me a big hug and tells me that Elder Clark was living in the same apartment complex he was. So they got special permission to be with me that night before boot camp and gave me a blessing. I knew that was Heavenly Father looking out for me and helping me get on my way to do great things.

Eight years later, I actually went back to Texas as a Navy recruiter. And I saw how many young candidates would come to the hotel before boot camp, only to disappear by morning. I remember feeling all those nervous emotions, wondering if I was doing the right thing. But running into the elders put me at peace, and I am so grateful because my decision to stay changed my life for the better.

I ended up having a 33-year career in the Navy that provided the stability I’d always wanted for Laura, as well as for the three children we later welcomed to our family. I became a commander, served as the maintenance officer for the US Navy Blue Angels, and was the right-hand man for the Air Wing Commander, among other positions.

I also earned a bachelor’s degree in technical management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a school people call the Harvard of the sky. Then I received a master’s in engineering and technical management from Texas A&M University—the school I’d heard my old friends dream about back when I was dropping out of high school.

The foundation the gospel gave me was superbly important, not just the night before boot camp but during all the challenging times in my career. I was able to face adversity with grace and poise when I was out at sea because I knew my purpose in life. My determination to succeed came from knowing there was nothing I couldn’t do as long as the Savior was at my side.

https://www.ldsliving.com/how-an-expected-priesthood-blessing-changed-my-life/s/11967

Heavenly Romanian Voice, Maria Coman

Heavenly voice indeed.

The Nahom Convergence Reexamined: The Eastward Trail, Burial of the Dead, and the Ancient Borders of Nihm

(by Neal Rappleye interpreterfoundation.org)

Abstract: For decades, several Latter-day Saint scholars have maintained that there is a convergence between the location of Nahom in the Book of Mormon and the Nihm region of Yemen. To establish whether there really is such a convergence, I set out to reexamine where the narrative details of 1 Nephi 16:33–17:1 best fit within the Arabian Peninsula, independent of where the Nihm region or tribe is located. I then review the historical geography of the Nihm tribe, identifying its earliest known borders and academic interpretations of their location in antiquity. My investigation brings in data on ancient Yemen and Arabia that has not been previously considered in discussions about Nahom or Lehi’s journey more generally, and leads to some surprising conclusions. Nonetheless, after establishing both where we should expect to find Nahom and the most likely location of ancient Nihm independent of one another, the two locations are compared and found to substantially overlap, suggesting that the “Nahom convergence” is real. With the convergent relationship established, I then explore four possible scenarios for Lehi’s stop at Nahom, the burial of Ishmael, and the party’s journey eastward toward Bountiful based on the new data presented in this paper.

https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/the-nahom-convergence-reexamined-the-eastward-trail-burial-of-the-dead-and-the-ancient-borders-of-nihm/

But why?

(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)

I’ve occasionally wondered how a skeptic might explain why Joseph Smith, if he really just made it all up, opted to create something like the Book of Mormon?  It seems to involve a lot more bother, a lot more complexity and effort — e.g., recruiting exceptionally credulous (and likely hallucinatory) bumpkins (or cunning and inexplicably dedicated co-conspirators) as “witnesses”; possibly fabricating fake “gold plates” and other bogus metallic artifacts; running around while pretending to hide the plates and the other objects; writing a complex book containing approximately 270,000 words and the made-up narrative history of multiple fictional civilizations with detailed geographical references, and the like; and going through the difficult process of finding a printer for a large book, funding the book’s printing, and supervising the printing.

Why not just claim to have received a short revelation or two?  Much easier to write, and no complex back story to create.  “The Lord told me thus and such.”  Simple.  No muss, no fuss.  After all, roughly the first twenty of the revelations canonized in the Doctrine and Covenants were received before the Book of Mormon was published in March 1830.  And Joseph already had followers by then.  Heck, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was formally established already on 6 April 1830, which means that the newly-published Book of Mormon could not have been the sole factor, or even the principal factor, in attracting those who made up the absolutely initial membership of the Church.

So, wouldn’t purported revelations in the style of Doctrine and Covenants 1-20 have been sufficient to have established a viable “prophetic” career?  And where was the model for such a thing as the Book of Mormon?  Why would Joseph have felt the need to manufacture such a thing?  (I’m just musing aloud.)

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2024/01/but-why.html

What Church leaders have taught, promised and testified about the Book of Mormon

(thechurchnews.com 12-28-23)

While studying the Book of Mormon for ‘Come, Follow Me,’ here are 15 quotes about the importance of this ‘precious’ book

In 1986, just two years after being ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, President Russell M. Nelson met an African tribal king who asked, “What can you teach me about Jesus Christ?”

President Nelson responded, “May I ask what you already know about Him?”

The king’s response revealed “he was a serious student of the Bible and one who loved the Lord,” President Nelson recalled. 

After President Nelson explained to the king that the Savior came to the people of ancient America and a record of His ministry is found in the Book of Mormon, the king said, “You could have given me diamonds or rubies, but nothing is more precious to me than this additional knowledge about the Lord Jesus Christ.”

In relating this experience in October 2017 general conference, President Nelson, then president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, asked Latter-day Saints, “My brothers and sisters, how precious is the Book of Mormon to you? If you were offered diamonds or rubies or the Book of Mormon, which would you choose? Honestly, which is of greater worth to you?”

He then affirmed, “The truths of the Book of Mormon have the power to heal, comfort, restore, succor, strengthen, console and cheer our souls.”

This year, Latter-day Saints across the globe have the opportunity to study the Book for Mormon as individuals and families and in Primary and Sunday School classes for “Come, Follow Me.” Below are invitations, promises and testimonies from Church leaders about this “precious” book of scripture. 

(follow link for remainder of article)

https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2023/12/28/24002453/15-quotes-from-church-leaders-book-of-mormon-come-follow-me

Mary’s Unique Role in Our Salvation

(By Daniel C. Peterson latterdaysaintmag.com 12-21-23)

My first missionary companion in Switzerland, who unfortunately passed away (much too young) a few years ago, was a still relatively recent convert from Judaism, and he brought a great deal of his cultural and religious background with him.  (He even sometimes wore a prayer shawl for companion study.)  Once, we tracted out a Catholic emigrant family from eastern Europe—from Hungary, as I recall.  Their apartment was very noticeably decorated with numerous religious images, especially both statues and paintings of the Virgin Mary, and they were strikingly, and vocally, devoted to the Mother of Jesus.

That devotion somewhat offended my companion, and the conversation didn’t go well.  He actually made several comments that they took as critical of Mary and dismissive of their veneration of her.  (I couldn’t help much.  At that point, I had been out only about a month, and my German was still a work in progress.)  Now it was their turn to be offended.  So, unsurprisingly, we soon found ourselves back out on their porch and headed for the street.  “They practically worship her!” my companion said to me, seeking to explain what had happened.

I’ve thought about that experience many times over the years.  It’s certainly true that, from a Latter-day Saint point of view no less than from a Jewish one, certain important segments of Christendom have elevated Mary to a centrality in their worship that seems exaggerated and that can sometimes even seem to go beyond monotheism.  Further, it seems difficult to account for, especially based on the relatively sparse mention of her in the New Testament.  Once, a few years ago, I found myself in a small chapel in the far south of France when the question suddenly occurred to me, “If I were an extraterrestrial visitor who had suddenly been dropped into this church without any knowledge of Christianity or Christian history, what would I make of it?”  Surrounded by statues and paintings of the Virgin Mary and, sometimes, of the Madonna and Child, I would, I think, most naturally have concluded that the chapel was devoted to the worship of a beautiful young woman who, at some point, had borne—or at least somehow acquired—a baby.

But overreacting to an exaggeration can itself lead to unhelpful mistakes, in doctrinal understanding as in other areas.  Discomfort with overdone teachings of “salvation by grace alone,” for example, can lead to the erroneous idea that, instead, we earn our way into heaven on the basis of our own unaided works or merits—a false notion that devalues Christ’s atonement.  Likewise, an exaggerated rejection of “Marian devotion” can easily lead us to undervalue the central importance of Mary to the Restored Gospel.

Consider this obvious but perhaps sometimes neglected truth:

Among all of the women who have ever lived or who ever will live on Planet Earth, only one—the humble first-century peasant girl Mary of Nazareth—was selected to bear the Son of God and to raise him to maturity.  Although neither an apostle nor a prophet, neither a sage nor a great leader of men, she surely ranks among the very foremost of those who have assisted in the process of human salvation.

Consider this, too:  For every other role in the Gospel history of humankind, a back-up plan might have been possible.  However, there was, by definition, only one “Only Begotten Son of God,” only a single “Firstborn of the Father.”  Mary’s unique assigned task, shared only with her husband Joseph (of whom more later), was to raise the mortal Son of God in such a way as to prepare him “to walk upon his footstool and be like man, almost, in his exalted station, and die, or all was lost.”  “There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin.  He only could unlock the gate of heav’n and let us in.”  There was no room for failure.  Is it even possible that they could have failed?  Perhaps not.  We cannot know.  But it seems odd and counterintuitive to suggest that their years spent raising Jesus were irrelevant, that any home at all—any parents at all—would have sufficed.  And if Mary and Joseph had failed in their stewardship, what would have become of us?

Moreover, the role that Mary would play was prophesied many centuries before her birth:  “Behold,” wrote the Israelite prophet Isaiah in the eighth century BC, in words that have now been applied to her by roughly eighty generations of Christians, “a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).  “I beheld a virgin,” reported the ancient Book of Mormon prophet Nephi of a vision that was given to him nearly six centuries before the birth of Christ, “and she was exceedingly fair and white . . . most beautiful and fair above all other virgins.”  And who was this beautiful young woman?  “Behold,” Nephi’s angelic guide told him, “the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh” (1 Nephi 11:18).  As Mosiah 3:8 and Alma 7:10 demonstrate, even her specific personal name was known to Nephite prophets of the second and first centuries before Christ.

She is rightly acclaimed, in heaven and on earth.  “Hail, thou that art highly favoured,” the angel Gabriel said to her, “the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women” (Luke 1:28).  “Blessed art thou among women,” said her cousin Elizabeth, addressing her, “and blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (Luke 1:42).  “Behold,” said Mary herself, as she began to understand the significance of her assignment, “from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed” (Luke 1:48).  Her purity and her humble submission to the will of the Lord are memorialized in the account of her calling that is given in the first chapter of the gospel of Luke; they have been celebrated in art, in song, and in innumerable prayers and acts of worship over many centuries, in scores of languages, on every inhabited continent.  (A personal favorite of mine is Franz Biebl’s glorious setting of “Ave Maria,” as performed by the male vocal ensemble Chanticleer.  I have provided the Latin original text, an English translation, and a link to the video of a good performance here:  

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2023/12/the-angel-of-the-lord-appeared-unto-mary.html.)

And yet, too, almost from the beginning and despite her exalted calling, it was prophesied that Mary would suffer the sharp pain of grief.  For this reason, in western Christendom, she has often been known as “Mater Dolorosa” or “Our Lady of Sorrows.”  When she and her husband, Joseph, took their newborn infant son to present him at the temple in compliance with the law of Moses, they were greeted there by Anna, a “prophetess,” and by Simeon, who also spoke to them by the power of the Holy Ghost.  (See Luke 2:22-39.)  In particular, Simeon spoke to Mary of the tumult and controversy that the brief earthly ministry of her son would provoke among the people.  “Behold,” he said to her, “this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against.”  But, he warned Mary rather ominously, “a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also.”  (See Luke 2:34-35.)

And, indeed, Mary was obliged to witness the brutal and wholly undeserved death of her beloved son, something that no mother wishes to see.  Born to a background of angelic announcements and heavenly music, he died the agonizingly cruel public death of a convicted criminal, amid mockery and jeers.  And, whereas most of the Twelve were nowhere to be found at that scene, she was there:

“Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.  When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!  Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.”  (John 19:25-27)

The love and respect that were publicly and specifically shown by Jesus to Mary at this moment of his own supreme pain and during the process of the all-important and eternally essential atonement are deeply significant.  In Gethsemane and at Golgotha, he “suffered these things for all . . . which suffering,” he told Joseph Smith in 1829, “caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit.”  And yet, even in his supreme agony, even while working out the universal atonement for all of humankind, the Second Person of the Godhead thought particularly of Mary.

Surely that fact alone should suffice to warn us against minimizing her worth or her role.  Yes, of course, the focus of our Christmas celebrations as believing Christians is and should be on Jesus.  But surely it is also appropriate, amidst our gifts and festivities, to spare a moment to reflect upon the life and the mission of his devoted mother.

We possess relatively little solid information about the life of Mary, whether from the period before Gabriel’s announcement of the holy birth or afterward.  We know even less about her spouse, Joseph, who seems to have disappeared from the scene even before the opening of Christ’s adult ministry.  But that humble and obedient man, too, deserves our consideration and our gratitude.  He should not be overlooked.  His assigned path was not an easy one; among other things, it involved periods of humiliation, social ostracism, and enforced foreign exile.

The role of rearing the incarnate Son of God to maturity was obviously unique in all of human history.  And yet the lives of Mary and Joseph also offer instructive and enormously important commonalities with ordinary human experience.  These, too, must not be missed.  Mary and Joseph’s parenting of Jesus was accompanied by angelic appearances and celestial choirs, but it also involved the thousands of sacrifices and exertions that caring parenthood always does.  Nothing necessarily heroic or epic, simply the routine tasks of earning a living, caring for a baby and then a toddler and then a growing boy.  Of seeing to his emergence as a kind, respectful, morally earnest young man.   Teaching him language and proper behavior.  A myriad of evening prayers and nighttime lullabies, of treating scratched knees and teaching, always teaching.

Each year, millions of parents are entrusted with raising children of God here on the earth.  On one level, such a task seems (and is) one of the most ordinary things in the world.  It is the circle of life, as the saying goes.  And yet, on the other hand, it is the most significant thing that we do or that we can do.

At Christmas, as at all times of the year, disciples of Jesus should commit themselves to providing homes for their children and grandchildren and the other children around them that come as close as they possibly can to the home provided by Mary and Joseph for the baby Jesus.  Homes worthy of Jesus will surely be blessed by him, now and forever.

https://latterdaysaintmag.com/marys-unique-role-in-our-salvation/

Millions Believe As We Do

https://www.deseretbook.com/product/6053374.html

In explaining his thesis, Brother Lawrence cites the official Church missionary manual Preach My Gospel:  “The people you meet often do not realize that they are looking for the restored gospel until they have found it.”

This is a crucial point.  Gary Lawrence’s contention is that a sizable proportion of Americans already agree with us on certain centrally important issues.  They simply don’t realize that they do because, as he showed in his earlier book, despite our nearly two centuries of missionary effort they know remarkably little about us.

Of the doctrinal questions the survey measured, the following three beliefs are especially unique to us in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Here are the percentages of non-LDS Christians who agree with us on each as described in the survey questions:

Pre-earthly existence — 24% –We lived with God in heaven before coming to the earth.

Gradations in heaven — 23% — There are different levels in heaven and in hell.

Proxy baptisms for the dead — 22% — Someone else can be baptized on his behalf after he dies.

Given such statistics (and many others), Dr. Lawrence concludes that there are audiences out there that are ready-made for our message, if we can only devise ways of reaching them

Editorial that appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune on the death of Brigham Young in 1877

The Mormon church was stronger at four o’clock Sunday afternoon than it ever will again become; the remarkable will and organizing force of the dead leader departed with him, and have been transmitted to none other in his church; and we may now watch with complacency, if not with joy, the gradual disintegration of the whole Mormon fabric.