Podcasts about Salt Lake Temple

This Devotional address with Sister Nancy Dransfield Homer was delivered on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at 11:30 AM MST in the BYU-Idaho I-Center. Sister Homer was born in Seattle, Washington, to Howard Eugene and JoyeAnn Shurtleff Dransfield. Sister Homer met her husband after graduating from Brigham Young University and while working in Salt Lake City and attending the University of Utah. Elder and Sister Homer were married on July 31, 1984, in the Salt Lake Temple. They are the parents of six children and currently have nine grandchildren. Sister Homer has served as an early-morning seminary teacher, ward Young Women president, ward Primary president, ward Relief Society president, and in various other positions.

Jennifer E. Meredith received a bachelor's degree in communications from Brigham Young University. She worked in Human Resources for Franklin Covey. Sister Meredith served as a mission leader with her husband in the Utah Salt Lake City South Mission. She has served as a presidency member in multiple church organizations and as a full-time missionary in the Argentina Salta Mission. President and Sister Meredith were married on June 6, 1998, in the Salt Lake Temple, and they are the parents of six children.

This Devotional address with Elder David A. and Sister Susan K. Bednar was delivered on Sunday, March 9, 2025, at 5:00 PM MST in the BYU-Idaho I-Center. David A. Bednar was ordained and set apart as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on October 7, 2004. Prior to his call, Elder Bednar served as an Area Authority Seventy, as an Area Authority, as a Regional Representative, twice as a stake president, and as a bishop. Elder Bednar was born on June 15, 1952, in Oakland, California. He served as a full-time missionary in Southern Germany and then attended Brigham Young University, where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees. He also received a doctoral degree in organizational behavior from Purdue University. After completing his education, Elder Bednar was a professor of business management at Texas Tech University and at the University of Arkansas. He then served as the president of BYU-Idaho from 1997-2004. Elder and Sister Bednar were married in the Salt Lake Temple on March 20, 1975, and they are the parents of three sons. Susan Kae Robinson Bednar was born and reared in Afton, Wyoming. She is the daughter of Kay and Nyla Clement Robinson. Sister Bednar graduated from BYU with a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education. She taught first grade for two years and was involved with institutions of higher education with her husband at Texas Tech University, the University of Arkansas, and BYU-Idaho. In the Church Sister Bednar has served as Primary president, Primary chorister, Young Women president, Gospel Doctrine teacher, and ward organist.

Temple Open House Announcement  Salt Lake Temple Russell Nelson makes announced on Social media  Announced on February 14th, 172nd anniversary of groundbreaking Temple will open for tours from April 2027 to October 2027 Temple Open Houses Begin Toronto Ontario Temple... The post 897 Temple Ticker – The Salt Lake Temple Open House Extravaganza! appeared first on The Cultural Hall Podcast.

  In the January 26, 2025 episode of The Interpreter Radio Show, our hosts are Martin Tanner, Hales Swift and Brent Schmidt. They discuss Come, Follow Me Doctrine & Covenants lesson 9, the origins of the Doctrine and Covenants, progress on the renovation of the Salt Lake Temple, and other topics. You can listen to […] The post Interpreter Radio Show — February 2, 2025 first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

On this week’s newscast we take a look at the undercover groundbreaking of the Cody Wyoming Temple as well as take a look at some new info on the Tithing lawsuits against the LDS Church, a recent lawsuit by Temple Construction workers in Peru, Renovations of the Salt Lake Temple and we conclude with a… Read More »Undercover “Ground Breaking” [The Mormon Newscast 038] The post Undercover “Ground Breaking” [The Mormon Newscast 038] appeared first on Mormon Discussions Podcasts - Full Lineup.

Sacred spaces have long held a profound significance in human culture, serving as focal points for spiritual reflection, community gathering, and personal transformation. The ongoing renovation of the Salt Lake Temple has sparked a renewed conversation about the nature and purpose of these hallowed grounds. As we contemplate the physical changes to historic structures, we ask ourselves: what makes sacred space sacred?

During April 2024 general conference, President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said, “The temple is the gateway to the greatest blessings God has in store for each of us.” Part of this continual focus on temple service is the extensive renovations of pioneer-era temples, including the iconic Salt Lake Temple, which closed in January 2020 for extensive renovations. This episode of the Church News podcast features an update on the renovations of the Salt Lake Temple and Temple Square with Brent Roberts, managing director of the Church’s Special Projects Department, and Andy Kirby, director of historic temple renovations. The Church News Podcast is a weekly podcast that invites listeners to make a journey of connection with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints across the globe. Host Sarah Jane Weaver, reporter and executive editor for The Church News for a quarter-century, shares a unique view of the stories, events, and most important people who form this international faith. With each episode, listeners are asked to embark on a journey to learn from one another and ponder, “What do I know now?” because of the experience. Produced by KellieAnn Halvorsen.

During April 2024 general conference, President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said, “The temple is the gateway to the greatest blessings God has in store for each of us.” Part of this continual focus on temple service is the extensive renovations of pioneer-era temples, including the iconic Salt Lake Temple, which closed in January 2020 for extensive renovations. This episode of the Church News podcast features an update on the renovations of the Salt Lake Temple and Temple Square with Brent Roberts, managing director of the Church's Special Projects Department, and Andy Kirby, director of historic temple renovations.  The Church News Podcast is a weekly podcast that invites listeners to make a journey of connection with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints across the globe. Host Sarah Jane Weaver, reporter and executive editor for The Church News for a quarter-century, shares a unique view of the stories, events, and most important people who form this international faith. With each episode, listeners are asked to embark on a journey to learn from one another and ponder, “What do I know now?” because of the experience. Produced by KellieAnn Halvorsen.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1904 marked the beginning of what would become a grueling 4-year-long senate hearing of US sentator and apostle Reed Smoot. It is intriguing—and important—to learn how this crucible of intensive government examination into every aspect of the Church led to a posture of much greater openness about the temple to outsiders. In fact those hearings, followed by a backfired blackmail attempt by a man who threatened to release illicit pictures he had taken of the interior of the Salt Lake Temple, led Church leaders—really for the first time—to go on the offensive and proactively tell our own story about LDS temple beliefs and practices.  In this episode of Church History Matters we'll talk about the Smoot hearings and the blackmail attempt; as well as dig into the origin of temple garments, their symbolism, and changes made to their design over the years. We'll also discuss major innovations in how the temple endowment was presented (which included some help from Walt Disney studios), a cool floating temple boat idea that never happened, as well as how President Gordon B. Hinckley's temple innovations and prolific temple-building ministry became an inflection point which set the Church on a trajectory to build thousands of temples in the years to come.

Michelle was raised in Southern Idaho in an active LDS family that goes back six generations in Mormonism.  She and her husband, Bob, were married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1985 and have raised 3 amazing children and have 2 adorable grandchildren. After actively attending and serving in the LDS church for over 4 decades, Michelle and Bob found themselves experiencing a transition in their faith and together left the church last October. Along with her husband, Michelle has found a new religious community in the First Congregational United Church of Christ and is currently in the process of redefining what religion, God, and meaning making look like in her life. During this faith transition, Michelle felt a need to document the process and share her experiences, so she created an Instagram account under the handle @edge_of_inside where she has found healing and friendship with many others deconstructing their faith. One of the meaningful ways Michelle has found to find purpose since leaving the church is through her volunteer work as a crisis counselor with The Trevor Project. She finds this work, although a bit intimidating, to be one of the most rewarding and challenging things she has ever done. Some of the things Michelle enjoys are music, dogs, soapmaking, hiking and pickleball. Connect with Michelle on Instagram: @edge_of_inside ______________________________ The ⁠⁠Beyond the Shadow of Doubt™⁠⁠ podcast is a proud member of the Dialogue Podcast Network found at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DialogueJournal.com/podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Part of the Dialogue Journal, the Dialogue Podcast Network was founded by Eugene England, a Mormon writer, teacher and scholar. “My faith encourages my curiosity and awe,” Gene wrote in the very first issue of the journal. “It thrusts me out into relationship with all creation” and “encourages me to enter into dialogue.” My hope is that this podcast is an extension of his vision. Staring January 2024, come join "First Fridays Free Coaching." ⁠⁠⁠Go here: ⁠https://app.paperbell.com/checkout/packages/71129⁠⁠⁠⁠! Connect with me at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠meaganskidmorecoaching.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠; click "Work with Me" to subscribe to get my free Pronouns 101 guide.  Hopeful Spaces is a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dallas Hope Charities⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ component of Hopeful Discussions, which is sponsored by Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA. Hopeful Spaces is a monthly parent support group facilitated by Meagan Skidmore Coaching. To join Hopeful Spaces send an email to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠chc@dallashopecharities.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  Please help the podcast grow by following, leaving a 5 star review on Spotify or Apple podcasts and sharing with friends.

KSL's Top Story:  He's been missing from the Salt Lake City skyline since 2020.  But against an beautiful blue sky... the statue of Moroni was hoisted over the cityscape.... and onto the Salt Lake Temple this morning.

Temple Open House begins Red Cliffs Utah Temple Open to the Media – January 29th  Led by Hugo Martinez and Tamara Runia Interior Photos Released – Saratoga Springs Twin Featuring the endangered plant, Dwarf Bearclaw Poppy Also Indian paintbrushes, cottonwood... The post 769 Salt Lake Temple Ticker appeared first on The Cultural Hall Podcast.

On today's Top Five we have: Monarch Populations Plummet, Utahns Work To Save The Insect. How can we help with extinction? Frame for the Final Spire is Placed on the Salt Lake Temple, almost 4 years into Renovation. How much does the Temple cost?  Utah lawmakers running nearly 100 education-related bills. Are teachers burnt out?  Actor, director Kevin Costner to open film studio in St. George. More films are coming to Utah.   California Condors Love Affair Is For Life. A love story between condors.  Visit UtahStories.com for more and to subscribe to our free digital newsletter. There you can also support our journalism by subscribing to our print magazine for $3 per month. Follow us on: Instagram @UtahStories Twitter @UtahStories

This episode looks at Latter-day Saint stories about Jesus appearing in modern temples from the Kirtland Temple to the Salt Lake Temple, to the Provo and Washington DC Temples. 

Utah musician Peter Breinholt and Paul Cardall, raised in the umbrella of Mormonism, and host Paul Cardall explore the history of commercial Mormon music, Latter-Day Saint culture and theology. LDS music is a multi-million dollar industry. ABOUT CO-HOST PETER BREINHOLTWebsite: https://peterbreinholt.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peter.breinholt.3Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peterbreinholt LISTEN TO PETER'S MUSICSPOTIFY https://rb.gy/c6evxAPPLE MUSIC https://rb.gy/5s7g0 ABOUT THE HOST PAUL CARDALLOfficial Website - http://www.paulcardall.comFacebook - http://www.facebook.com/paulcardallmusicYoutube - http://www.youtube.com/cardallInstagram - http://www.instagram.com/paulcardall LISTEN TO PAUL'S MUSICAPPLE MUSIC - https://music.apple.com/us/artist/paul-cardall/4312819SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/artist/7FQRbf8gbKw8KZQZAJWxH2  PART ONEPaul introduces Utah musician Peter Breinholt. Growing up under the umbrella of Mormonism, they discuss the differences in how they were raised. Paul comes from an orthodox home in Salt Lake City where his family was active in all the cultural and theological teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Whereas, Peter grew up outside of Utah and didn't have an active family. He moved to Utah, started a band, and evolved into an active Latter-Day Saint.Peter explains that there are Mormons making Mormon-themed music for Mormons sold at LDS bookstores, and then there are popular bands or singers who happen to be LDS. Paul summarizes how popular LDS-themed music has become; it's a multi-million dollar industry. Peter clarifies that in Utah, where LDS headquarters are, because of the social network that the Church provides, when things catch on, it's like a wildfire. There are mega trends in Mormonism.Paul talks about pioneer immigrants who wrote hymns using the contemporary style of their time. They mention that even though there is a commercial music culture, the church itself is rather strict on what they present in worship services called Sacrament Meetings, and full-time missionaries are allowed to listen to. Electric guitars and drums aren't allowed in services. Missionaries were allowed to listen to the Tabernacle Choir and some piano music, like Paul. Today, missionaries can listen to whatever helps them feel the spirit of God, though leaders are still cautious.As the church evolved in the 80s, there was Michael McLean, a songwriter who produced a series of videos promoting church doctrine. Missionaries would take those to those who saw the ad on TV. They talk about Mormon ad campaigns in the 70s and 80s. The songs in the ads were a huge part in persuading people emotionally and had a significant influence on the direction commercial Mormon music proceeded.Peter and Paul talk about the Osmonds, the most popular LDS musicians in the 20th century. Their fifth studio album that was on the Billboard charts is called “The Plan.” Their concept album was an opportunity for The Osmonds to share Mormon theology. There have been people who have joined the church as a result of their love for Donny Osmond. They skip ahead a few decades to talk about another famous band, The Killers, whose lead singer Brandon Flowers is a devout Mormon.In the late 1970s, early 80s, Afterglow was a blockbuster duo whose songs were rich with harmonies. They were one of the first to have a record deal with the church-owned bookstore, called Deseret Book. Their music was overly religious with strict LDS themes. Deseret Book at the time had hundreds of stores along with hundreds of independent stores by people who sold LDS related products. Record labels began to pop up.Peter brings up Kenneth Cope, whose voice was featured in some of those Mormon ads. Kenneth wrote and recorded some of the most successful commercial Mormon music. All of this is happening while Amy Grant in the Christian market or Gospel Music Association was becoming successful, and her Christian-themed music crossed over into the adult contemporary top 40. Greater Than Us All was Kenneth's successful debut with His Hands and Never A Better Hero. My Servant Joseph was another hit album about with songs about LDS founder Joseph Smith. Kenneth takes his responsibilities in the church seriously and when he was called to be a Bishop, in a church with no paid ministry, we didn't hear much from Kenneth Cope until recently. He'd spent 15 years producing a new musical called "Son of Man."Along with Kenneth, Michael Webb recorded similar LDS themed songs and has since left the church. Paul says one of his favorite songs is a new Christian song by Michael Webb. Peter and Paul explore artists Julie De Azevedo, Felicia Sorensen, and other successful female artists who started to emerge in the 90s. Julie is the daughter of Lex de Azevedo, who was successful at writing LDS musicals like "Saturday's Warrior," and "My Turn on Earth." He started a record label that signed Kenneth Cope, Michael Webb, Julie, and others. Julie became a popular therapist and podcast host helping countless LDS women understand their value. They mention Hillary Weeks and move into a conversation about Jeff Simpson, a former Disney producer. Jeff was ambitious in helping take LDS music forward into a more contemporary and overall style. He had a vision to make LDS music part of the broader Christian market under the Gospel Music Association. But Jeff's label Excel was never successful because of the differences. He was successful at creating a film production and distribution entity with the breakout hit "God's Army" by Richard Dutcher. Excel would later sell to Deseret Book. He also created an award show called "The Pearls" honoring LDS music.Before talking about cellist Steven Sharp Nelson, Peter mentions Nashville Producer Jason Deere who created the Nashville Tribute Band, which was country music with LDS themes. Cellist Steven Sharp Nelson, who is now a member of YouTube sensation The Piano Guys, worked on hundreds of albums by members of the LDS faith. Peter shares how he met Steve and began using him in his band. Later, Paul used Steve to orchestrate his music with another brilliant LDS artist, Marshall McDonald. Both Marshall and Steven worked as a team to help dozens of artists. Paul invited Steve to let him produce "Sacred Cello" for Paul's label Stone Angel Music. Steve didn't believe it would be successful, but the album debuted No. 18 on the Billboard Classical Charts. Steve is an artist who shared the burden with artists that occurs in the studio and on the stage. Paul shares with Peter the countless LDS artists who created LDS-themed albums that debuted on the Billboard charts. Deseret Book began reporting sales to Soundscan."Especially For Youth" is the next topic. The weeklong camp on Brigham Young University's campus and dozen other colleges across the United States gathered LDS Youth from all over. EFY gave these LDS teenagers a 12-song compilation that featured a cassette, CD of LDS artists who wrote songs about the camp theme. Every kid received one. EFY music began in 1986 and continued until 2019 before the LDS Church changed the youth program. In the 80s not only did you have Michael McLean, Kenneth Cope, and Julie De Azevdeo, but over the decades, artists evolved out of these produced EFY albums. Why? They were approved by the church since the program was under BYU, a church-owned private university. Not everyone appreciated the songs, but the production was top quality. However, producers and artists were not given the standard music industry fees. Peter wanted to get involved and was at a point in his career where the LDS church listened to him. He recruited Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson's partner in The Piano Guys, to produce an authentic album of songs. However, they were restricted by several policies. Peter produced one more several years ago with songwriter Russ Dixon from the Utah group Colors. Concerts were also performed, and youth looked forward to it. Overtime EFY did away with the concerts because leaders felt there was too much attention drawn to the artists. There was one theme song that was the EFY “We Are The World” that brought the popular artists who were LDS together called, “Especially For Youth.” Mormons who go to the Temple make covenants that they'll donate all their time and talents to building up the Church. As a result, artists felt an obligation to do things for free or for very little pay. They discuss firesides, which are special events inside a church building. In the beginnings, Churches wanted firesides, but overtime fewer and fewer musicians were invited to perform their music about God. Peter shares his experience being asked to perform for LDS leaders and bring his band, only they wouldn't pay for anything. Peter would have to pay his band out of his pocket.Peter and Paul share their frustration as an artist who doesn't do LDS themed music. Because he lent his voice to a few LDS themed songs, the music platform's algorithm made him an LDS artist and recommends other LDS artists instead of the Americana Folk artists. Paul also shares his frustration that new material still references artists that the metadata feels is comparable to when Paul started in 1995. Paul talks about doing an album with Steele Croswhite, who was not LDS, and slowly the culture started working with people of other Christian denominations.Paul talks about his experience speaking and performing at a Missionary Fall social attended by Apostles Russell M. Nelson and Elder David A. Bednar. A previous 70s prophecy by President Spencer Kimball invited LDS members to create the very finest artist, particularly because he believed they have all the truth. He showed the apostles the classical Billboard charts that had 5 out of 10 people who were LDS. He showed that his prophecy was being fulfilled. Afterward, Elder Bednar invited Paul to write a song with him. Paul worked with Steven Sharp Nelson and Marshall McDonald to produce Paul and David Bednar's office song "One by One." Paul would later present Elder Bednar with a plaque showing he was part of a No. 1 Billboard charting album. Paul would perform this piece with LDS tenor Nathan Pacheco. Paul discusses the positive experience of doing business with Elder Bednar and the corporate church concerning owning the master rights to their song. Paul learned that Apostles do not take a royalty. If so, it goes directly to the church missionary department.Peter talks about Trina Harmon, a Nashville songwriter who isn't LDS, has helped several Mormons evolve as writers and artists. She complimented LDS members but said she's not yet met an LDS artist who is truly aligned with the mission of the Church. The LDS Church demands a lot of service and rules, leaving artists at odds in creating music. Paul agrees and says that anyone, LDS or not, who creates music that points people to Jesus Christ is important. They briefly discuss Paul Simon who is getting older and producing an album about his relationship with God. Maturing popular artists lean into producing faith-based recordings. Artists need to speak to the struggles. Peter talks about his daughter choosing to go on a mission and his concern that it could go one or two ways. Missionaries lean in or when they return, get out of the church.Paul shares Christian artist Andrew Peterson, who like Peter Breinholt, built a community of artists within a cultural context. In Mormon culture, there's a little bit of reluctance towards charismatic musicians. When Peter was connecting with the youth in a fireside, the leader stood up to make sure the audience understood that Peter is not someone who they need to look up to, but to look up to God. Leaders tend to put down artists. A leader cornered Peter to ask him if he's a kingdom builder or a Peter builder. They discuss Mormon theology about being ordained Kings and Queens, so there's a sense of looking down on those who aren't anointed joint heirs with God. Paul shares that he needed to strip away all the idols and ideology that stood in the way of having a full relationship with Christ. Paul believes in the Four Gospels over any new revelation from those who claim to be God's prophets. The Four Gospels are 4 eye witnesses of the Resurrected Lord who disagree on the details, but they all tell the same story. He goes into talking about the Codex Vaticanus and the other codexes that were used by St. Jerome to give the world the Latin Vulgate. Paul gets into why he doesn't believe in a Church that he loves with all his heart. They talk about Joseph Smith's first vision narrative that the Church has been teaching for hundreds of years, that even LDS scholars say that narrative can't be sustained. It's simply not true. Peter says that artists deconstruct. It's why artists write songs, to say something they can't say with words. They compose how they feel.They discuss challenges in Mormon doctrine. Paul talks about one of the Christian churches he attends called Immanuel Nashville with Pastor TJ Tims. Artists analyze everything.Paul and Peter end by setting up part two. ABOUT PETER BREINHOLTPeter Breinholt is well-known performer in the Salt Lake region and became so largely through word-of-mouth. His debut record became the best-selling independently released CD ever in the state of Utah, and was described a decade after it's release as "an underground classic" by Salt Lake Magazine. Peter has performed for countless sold out crowds in every major concert hall in the state, including Kingsbury Hall, Tuacahn and Sundance. Utah Governor Gary Herbert recently honored Peter with the Governor's Mansion Award for Achievement in the Performing Arts for his influence as a songwriter and performing artist.

Note: some mistakes were made during the recording of this podcast. For example, Percy, who studied the moonstones from the original drawings of the Salt Lake Temple, was a man and convert to the church--Percy Livingston. All of known errors were corrected in the YouTube version of this podcast, which can be found on my YouTube Channel, Vision of Zion - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@visionofzion4784; Go here to watch the video version, the visual images are extremely helpful in understanding this episode.This is a departure of our regular programming on the book of Isaiah.This is episode 66 (the same as the number of chapters in Isaiah, and it was recorded on the day of the August 2023 Blue Moon--but that's all just a coincidence, right?) We scratch the surface of symbolism, planned and carried out, of the exterior of Salt Lake Temple. We discuss the possible significance of the original moonstone pattern layout of the Salt Lake Temple by Brigham Young and Truman Angel, and other symbol details on the original drawings before the material for construction was switched over to granite. We discuss the significance of the alignment of stars in September of 2017 as a possible fulfillment of prophecy in Revelation 12:1-2, and the significance (if any) of the two total solar eclipses of 2017 and 2024 that cross over in Missouri. We also talk about the Tambura volcano eruption of the early nineteenth century and the millennialism that existed subsequent to this event, including predictions by both William Miller and Joseph Smith, Jr., who arrived at completely different conclusions about the timing of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

For this week's episode, we were honored to bring on Alice Faulkner Burch, General Editor of Deseret Book's new collection of essays by Black American Latter-day Saints: My Lord, He Calls Me. The title of the book comes from an early Black American spiritual called “Steal Away to Jesus.” The book shares contemporary experiences of Black Americans in the Church, and stories from every era of the Restoration.The essays found in the book are extremely personal — the type of stories you'd only hear as a trusted friend. Alice says that these stories are offered “as a gift for Black Americans and an invitation to white Americans.” In the interview, she shared really important perspectives on not just the experience of Black Americans in the Church, but what it means for each of us to be part of the body of Christ, and how we can more fully embrace the gifts of the Spirit, even “charismatic” ones like those shared in some of the remarkable stories in this book.Alice was baptized into the Church in July 1984. She served as the first African American in the Chile Santiago South Mission from 1987 to 1988, and in 1989 she was called as the first African American ordinance worker in the Salt Lake Temple. She has served the community as secretary of the Utah Chapter of Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society, secretary for the Utah Black Roundtable, and a member of the annual Utah Juneteenth Committee.

Greetings brothers and sisters! Welcome to the weekly MormonNewsRoundup where Dives and Chris ruminate on the great and spacious beehive! Full Title May 14, 2023  EP 59 - Chris Henna of Porchtime cohosts, media claims Mormons want to kill gay Ugandans, is the Book of Mormon consistent?, LDS missionaries leaving referral cards in libraries, Mormon mom poisons husband, and Salt Lake Temple gets new feature Connect with Dives! www.MormonNewsRoundup.org kolob@mormonnewsroundup.org Voicemail Twitter YouTube MormonMovieReviews Support this Podcast Patreon Welcome to the MormonNewsRoundup! Get to know Chris You founded/host a program called porchtime, when did you start that and what is it all about? Review porchtime description. What does that all mean? It seems really hard to put you and your show in a comfy box, is that deliberate? So basically you are an exmormon podcast that criticizes exmormons? Brilliant! MNRU Joke Of the week Chris  Follow ups Paging David Nielsen? going on 60 minutes today Chris Waddel Lori Vallow Prosecution rests Defense rests Closing arguments complete  Jury deliberations  News Articles  International  King Charles reigns! New British king channels Lehi in the desert?! #BookofMormonEvidence Extended thoughts on the British monarchy in episode 24 which was seriously one of our best episodes  Rachel Maddow connects Uganda's “Kill the Gays” bill to Arizona Christians AND MORMONS? If signed into law, the Anti-Homosexuality Act would make “aggravated homosexuality” a capital crime Wait, the mastermind behind the bill is LDS? Sharon Slater's close relationship with Museveni's wife Janet Museveni and Uganda MP Martin Ssempa  Janet Tweeting thanks to Sharon Ssempa's Argument about the Bill? Under Activism in wiki Mommy blogger from Utah Heather Armstrong battled with depression, alcoholism David Archuletta's mom makes news  Statement  The Book of Mormon is internally consistent  more accurately it should be said that the BofM is MOSTLY internally consistent  Cooks tweet reminds me of Bednar and Nelson   reminds me of the CofC statement on the BofM “In addition to the Bible…” Church official accounts frequently tweet platitudes, then those leaders NEVER engage with comments sections with one exception, to delete overly negative comments  Sherri Dew surprisingly candid remarks  Dew shared an experience she had after attending the temple for the first time in her young adulthood. “Candidly, I didn't love the experience,”  and later “If prophets, seers and revelators are not perfect, then why should we trust them maybe more than anyone else? Because they are the most infallible leaders on Earth,”  Infallible vs “most infallible,” are there degrees of infallibility?  dictionary: not allowing the possibility of error or mistake  If a wrist watch is right 90% of the time, is that good enough to rely on? what about 70%? Opinion: Are young Latter-day Saints leaning more liberal? Is this the woke culture you seem to decry, Chris? Who is the biggest threat to the church? Wait, I thought people ARE the church Mormon mom accused of poisoning husband with fentanyl Tik Toc perhaps a bit of a lapsed mormon Posts touching Facebook tribute to dead husband  Obituary  Missionary Corner Watch: Couple's hilariously confused reaction to missionaries on their doorstep What's the best way to deal with Mormon missionaries who show up on someone's front door?  LDS Missionaries leaving referral cards in books in public libraries Long awaited update to Church trans policy revealed Mormon TicTok of the week How to snag a hot Mormon guy Twink death Brandon Flowers Not a cult MNRU Poll of the Week Salt Lake Temple gets new feature New episodes live on YouTube Sundays at 9:30pm EST Shoutout to Weird Alma on bandcamp.com for this episode's music. Thanks so much for ruminating with us on the great and spacious beehive! And remember, remember: No unhallowed hand can stop this podcast from progressing!  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mormonnewsroundup/support

During April 2023 general conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Russell M. Nelson announced 15 new temples, bringing the total number of  Latter-day Saint temples that are operating, announced, or under construction to 315. This episode of the Church News podcast features Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He testifies about the blessings of the House of the Lord and how covenants and ordinances connect Church members to the Savior Jesus Christ.  The Church News Podcast is a weekly podcast that invites listeners to make a journey of connection with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints across the globe. Host Sarah Jane Weaver, reporter and editor for The Church News for a quarter-century, shares a unique view of the stories, events, and most important people who form this international faith. With each episode, listeners are asked to embark on a journey to learn from one another and ponder, “What do I know now?” because of the experience. Produced by KellieAnn Halvorsen.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Articles of News 4.12.2023 Visit the Oodi Library in Helsinki, Finland Celebrating Easter with one hour church Salt Lake Temple renovation completion pushed back Brigham Young sees temple made of…adobe Burying the Salt Lake temple foundation Letter from Brigham Young... The post Boring Brandon Sanderson Ep. 686 The Cultural Hall appeared first on The Cultural Hall Podcast.

TWiM Sisters are on the case! Links: Lost journal of Martin handcart pioneer found and donated to Church History Library Former child actor with ties to eastern Idaho has no regrets living out of the spotlight Dentist Poisoned Wife to Death to Start ‘New Life' With Paramour, Cops Allege The case for talking to strangers A ‘remarkable, outstanding tenure' coming to an end for BYU's Kevin Worthen New university president named at BYU BYU police warn of man entering women's dorms, stealing clothing Meet the ‘Swedish Osmond' who will host the Church's European Easter concert Salt Lake Temple renovations now estimated to be complete in 2026 We've witnessed campus cancellation campaigns. Elder Holland deserves to be heard at Southern Utah University Latter-day Saint teen's ‘American Idol' audition sends her to Hollywood Jared Bridegan murder: Ex-wife's new husband arrested, indicted, while her family releases statement 'Super overwhelming;' crying Utah State cheerleader goes viral They met filling sandbags 40 years ago. Now this Utah couple is volunteering again Utah: An influencer's modest fashion haven Polygamous leader made sexually explicit calls from jail to child wives, prosecutors say Elvis' Book of Mormon. Brigham's elevators. Those are good Mormon stories, but are they true?

Legend of the Superstition Mountains. Blue haired bandit. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bling-vera/message

Hello, and welcome to Beauty and the Biz where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery, and transforming patients and yourself. I'm your host, Catherine Maley, author of Your Aesthetic Practice – What your patients are saying, as well as consultant to plastic surgeons, to get them more patients and more profits. Now, today's episode is called "Transforming Patients and Yourself — with Nicholas K. Howland, MD". When you've spent years training to become a surgeon, your fortitude and character were tested big time.  But that's just the beginning. Then you had to have enough left over to go into practice and grow a sustainable business that takes good care of you and your family.  That is no easy feat. This week's Beauty and the Biz Podcast guest is Dr. Nicholas Howland, a young board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon practicing in Draper, UT for the past 5 years. Dr. Howland looks at plastic surgery not as vanity, but as transformation and self-empowerment for his cosmetic patients and by extension, he learned about "transforming patients and yourself". He's walking his talk since Dr. Howland also went through his own transformation this past year by divorcing, being a single Dad, losing 60 pounds and working on his mental game to become his most authentic self.  We also talked about: Dr. Howland growing up in Salt Lake City as a Mormon and the values he gleaned, even though he has since left the church; How he entered the crowded Utah marketplace and found a unique hybrid practice situation to join that works with his personality; and  How he's an independent contractor with freedom to build his own brand, while also growing equity for his future and not having to worry about the day-to-day HR and office issues. He really does have a nice set up! Visit Dr. Howland's Website P.S. Can you please take a minute to review Beauty and the Biz? I would appreciate it.

In the wake of drought, climate change and, primarily, human-caused incursions, the Salt Lake Valley's namesake ecological landmark, the Great Salt Lake, is dying, shriveling up before our very eyes. Experts warn, in fact, that this shrinking body of water could vanish within five years, leaving behind an exposed lakebed and a source of toxic dust storms that could make this place — this place that Brigham Young reportedly declared the “right place” to become Mormonism's new home — uninhabitable. So the need to save the lake is obvious, and the stakes are huge — not only for Salt Lakers and Utahns but also for The Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints. The faith's world headquarters is here. Its history is here. Its strength — both in membership and, frankly, money — is here. Its iconic Salt Lake Temple and global offices are here. Thankfully, it's not too late to preserve the lake, but it will take a concerted, costly and expedited effort, and the Utah-based church — and its members — must play a vital role. On this week's show, Ben Abbott, professor of ecology at church-owned Brigham Young University, discusses the lake's precarious present and what Latter-day Saints and their church could do to help secure its future.

Morning Headlines for January 27th 2023 covers and update on the Salt Lake Temple renovations for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a new commuter shuttle between American Falls and Pocatello, and improvements to First Street in Ammon.

President Russell M. Nelson was sustained and set apart as the 17th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018, in the upper room of the Salt Lake Temple. In the five years since then, he has embarked on a fast-paced global ministry — traveling to 35 nations, extending countless invitations, leading the Church through a global pandemic and overseeing the continuing restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This episode of the Church News podcast features three of President Nelson's 10 children: Gloria Irion, Laurie Marsh and Russell Nelson Jr. They talk about President Nelson's Church leadership and offer a unique glimpse into his role as a father, husband and teacher.  The Church News Podcast is a weekly podcast that invites listeners to make a journey of connection with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints across the globe. Host Sarah Jane Weaver, reporter and editor for The Church News for a quarter-century, shares a unique view of the stories, events, and most important people who form this international faith. With each episode, listeners are asked to embark on a journey to learn from one another and ponder, “What do I know now?” because of the experience. Produced by KellieAnn Halvorsen.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

WARNING NOT FOR LITTLE EARS ADULT SUBJECT MATTER ON THIS EPISODE!! On this episode of the podcast we are going to talk about the respect for marriage act that was passed about a month ago. What you didn't think I wasn't going to talk about this did you? I wanted to wait until after the bill had passed to find out what the law would be exactly. For this episode I bring Ben Shaffer back on the podcast to break this law down. Because of Ben's training as an attorney, I felt like he was the man for the job. We cover what the law says and what it means to Mormons and more specifically the LDS Church since the church threw its weight behind the bill. We then cover how the Church's support of this bill actually seems to walk hand in hand with the physical changes to the Salt Lake Temple. To date I think it is perhaps the most honest conversation I have had on the podcast about all the changes that that have happened to the LDS Church. https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2021/03/12/lds-church-removes/#:~:text=In%20a%20blow%20to%20preservationists,and%20will%20not%20be%20returned. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dave-kirkenbower/support

Charles Winston Dahlquist II says that his testimony has grown “little by little, just through doing the things the Lord has asked me to do—like going to seminary and responding to Church callings.” He hoped the youth would have a similar experience during his time as Young Men general president. “I would like to help build a generation of young men who not only know who they are, but also have a little inkling of why they were sent here and the part in the plan of salvation they can play,” he says. Brother Dahlquist believes the youth will be blessed in the same way he was if they are faithful. And, he says, because we live in a wicked world “we need the strongest youth that we have ever had, and I believe we have as fine a generation—if not finer—than any we've ever had before in the history of the world.” Brother Dahlquist has had experience working with the young men of the Church. A recipient of the Silver Beaver Award, he has been involved in Scouting for most of his life and has been a ward Young Men president. Other Church callings he has fulfilled include president of the Germany Hamburg Mission, full-time missionary in the Swiss Mission, stake president, counselor in a stake presidency, and high councilor. Brother Dahlquist is an attorney and is actively involved in community service. Born in Provo, Utah, to C. Winston and Afton Ahlander Dahlquist, Brother Dahlquist, 56, spent his childhood in Boise, Idaho. Following Brother Dahlquist's mission, he married Zella B Darley in the Salt Lake Temple on 2 June 1969. They now live in Sandy, Utah. They have five daughters and seven grandchildren. “I married my high school sweetheart,” Brother Dahlquist says. “We were in the same ward in Boise. I was the Sunday School music director, and she was the Sunday School organist. We say we've been making music together ever since.”

This essay traces the modern-day usage and understanding of temples from the Kirtland Temple to Nauvoo and the Salt Lake Temple. Architecture was used to teach principles. While the Kirtland Temple was preparatory (think of the vision of Christ and the conference of keys by Abraham, Moses, Abraham, Elias, and finally Elijah), the Nauvoo Temple was dedicated to ritual usage. In 1879, the Church reduced temple usage to rituals, and thus assembly rooms are missing from later temples. Through his paper, Cowan shows how temples have changed according to revelation and how prophets have seen models in vision that then have been incorporated in the temples God's people built. The post Conference Talks: Latter-day Houses of the Lord: Developments in Their Design and Function first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

What is Tartaria!? It is the ancient civilization of architectural grandeur that spanned the globe and was decimated by the Great Reset of the 18th Century! And the worldwide elites resorted to orphan trains to erase the memory of her grandeur! But there are those few who are blessed with the secret, gnostic knowledge of her once fruitful plain and architectural prowess who will not be silenced and who have found evidences of her ruins in the modern day. One such intlellectual warrior is Kwaku El. This is his story of his encounter with Tartaria, mud floods, and the Salt Lake Temple! Enjoy! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wardradio/support

In this episode, we talk to Lynda Bell, who is the Southwest Regional Geodetic Advisor for NOAA's National Geodetic Survey. She is the geodetic advisor for Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. In the episode, she explains why the National Spatial Reference Frame (NSRS) is so important and how it is a framework that ties all of our geospatial data together. She also reminds us of what a datum is and what we need to know about the new datums that are coming in 2023. She also explains the GPS on BenchMark program and how you can contribute. We then ask her about her recent visit to Utah and the importance of the PLSS monument preservation at Temple Square and also the USGS/UGRC Great Salt Lake Causeway project - a project measuring water levels and height.You can email Lynda directly with questions at lynda.bell@noaa.govLinksMore info from NOAA on Datumshttps://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/datum.htmlNOAA's National Geodetic Survey webpagehttps://geodesy.noaa.gov/The GPS on BenchMarks Programhttps://geodesy.noaa.gov/GPSonBM/Jack And Bore: A Key Component to Preserving the Salt Lake Temple in an Earthquakehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N273kjZN0I8

On Oct. 20, 2020, the Church News launched a new podcast with a goal to connect members and leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Almost two years later, the Church News uploaded its 100th episode. Thanks to a faithful and growing audience, producers now look forward to the next 100 episodes. In celebration of this landmark, this episode of the podcast offers a few “best of” moments from past podcasts, as well as reflections on “what we all know now,” after listening to and learning from the many podcast guests.  Episodes featured in this podcast:  Episode 1: Sarah Jane Weaver interviews President Ballard about his 35 years as an Apostle  Episode 7: Elder Jeffrey R. Holland joins Sarah Jane Weaver to talk about the pandemic, his testimony  Episode 12: Sister Wendy Nelson joins Sister Sheri Dew to talk about President Nelson's 3 years as Prophet  Episode 24: Elder Bednar shares his pattern for studying general conference messages Episode 26: Elder Cook on how revelation prepared the Church for COVID-19, will be significant going forward Episode 28: Elder Uchtdorf discusses how to incorporate pandemic lessons, move ‘back to the future' of missionary work Episode 34: Church historian Richard Turley and filmmaker Mauli Junior Bonner on the importance of early Black pioneers  Episode 37: Sister Aburto on mental, emotional health and the power of turning to the Savior for comfort  Episode 40: President M. Russell Ballard and 3 other Apostles on why and how the Church is governed by councils Episode 41: Latter-day Saint women leaders on the voice of women in the Church through executive councils, revelation Episode 50: Elder Brook P. Hales, secretary to the First Presidency, gives an inside look into the preparations for general conference Episode 56: President Ballard, Elder Holland and Elder Cook reflect on how they first came to know the Savior  Episode 57: BYU–Idaho professors Eric and Sarah d'Evegnée on faith, testimony and reconversion  Episode 63: Deseret News Executive Editor Doug Wilks on how connection helped overcome contempt in 2021  Episode 69: Elder Christofferson and President and Sister Top emphasize drawing courage from history to face modern challenges Episode 70: The expansiveness of the Salt Lake Temple renovation project, with Brent Roberts and Andy Kirby Episode 74: Relief Society President Jean B. Bingham on the 180th anniversary of the worldwide women's organization  Episode 76: President M. Russell Ballard shares memories of general conference, emphasizes the need to anchor faith in Christ Episode 82: How a unique ‘Reverse Open House' is helping build interfaith relationships in the Washington, D.C., area Episode 93: New Primary General President Susan H. Porter on how teaching and serving children can be life-changing Episode 94: New Relief Society President Camille N. Johnson on how understanding divine nature and purpose leads to lasting happiness  Episode 96: Approaching his 90th birthday, President Dallin H. Oaks reflects on the lessons learned in nine decades Episode 100: Elder Ronald A. Rasband and Elder S. Mark Palmer on the growing and influential Church in Africa, with guest host Sheri Dew The Church News Podcast is a weekly podcast that invites listeners to make a journey of connection with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints across the globe. Host Sarah Jane Weaver, reporter and editor for The Church News for a quarter-century, shares a unique view of the stories, events, and most important people who form this international faith. With each episode, listeners are asked to embark on a journey to learn from one another and ponder, “What do I know now?” because of the experience. Produced by KellieAnn Halvorsen.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

January 24, 2022  (Season 4, Episode 3; 75 minutes). Click here for the Utah Dept. of Culture & Community Engagement's versions of this episode.  Are you interested in other episodes of SYP? Click here.Just in time for Utah's July 24th Pioneer Day celebrations, this episode of Speak Your Piece (SYP) offers new research and new approaches, regarding the first forty-seven years (1846-1893) of a 175 year relationship between Utah and the Mormons. Before you celebrate Utah's 24th of July, load-up on some new history, offered by historians Matthew J. Grow and Scott Hales, via a discussion with SYP host Brad Westwood. The book discussed in this episode: Saints, Vol. 2: No Unhallowed Hand, 1846-1893, The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Day, produced by the Church History Department, and published by Deseret Book in 2020. The volume covers from 1846, when the largest branch of the Mormon church made it way, in earnest and en masse, to settle outside of the United States in upper Mexico; and ends in 1893, when the Salt Lake Temple was dedicated, some forty years after its groundbreaking ceremony, in a series of ticket-only ceremonies held between April 6 and April 24, 1893.Topics discussed in this candid open interview with two of the LDS Church's top historians includes (among numerous other subjects): the purpose of history within the church, the authors' use of extended links to deeper organizational web sources, the internal process used to produced history by the Church History Department, more national and regional history is described (broader contexts), the use of spiritual experiences in the historical narrative, and the church's phenomenal expansion in the second half of the19th century. The book also offers a concerted effort at telling more women's history--mostly personal stories that have been woven throughout the volume. Next, there is a good helping of “difficult history,” including the church's interactions with issues of race, minorities and non-Mormons, its relationships with Native American communities, the conflicts related to forty-seven years of federal appointees governing Utah as a territory, and the complex and unending story of polygamy (some demographers think conservatively 1% of Utah's current population is engaged, in one way or another, with polygamy). All together this new LDS Church history series is a commendable effort (from the largest and most well funded private history organization in the Intermountain West), as many topics and themes discussed--including historians judiciously describing historical mistakes made--would in previous official histories, not even be considered let alone treated.The new four volume church history series ostensibly updates (maybe replaces) the First Presidency approvedThe Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints authored by B. H. Roberts.Bios: Dr. Matthew J. Grow, is Managing Director of the LDS Church History Department. In that capacity, he leads a team of history professionals who collect documents and artifacts, preserve them, and promote understanding of the LDS Church's past through a publishing program, a research library, a museum, and many historic sites.  Dr. Scott Hales is a writer and historian for the LDS Church History Department since 2015. He serves as a general editor and lead writer for Saints, the aforementioned four-volume history of the Mormon Church.

O Templo de Salt Lake levou 40 anos para ser construído e é um dos mais belos edifícios religiosos do mundo. Neste episódio, Ed Sousa e Gustavo Rodrigues conversam sobre a história, símbolos e curiosidades a respeito deste templo. Referências: Robert O. Cowan, Temples to dot the Earth, p. 100-118. James E. Talmage - A Casa do Senhor, p.103-130. Lindsey Miller, "10 Fascinating Facts You Didn't Know About the Salt Lake Temple" em ldsliving.com, 2019. Hugh Nibley, Temple and Cosmos, The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley: Volume 12, 2009. Loren C. Dunn, "Symbolism: Symbols in architecture of the temple are ‘a means of teaching'", Church News, 1993. George A. Smith, citado em James Henry Anderson, "The Salt Lake Temple", The Contributor, Vol. XIV, No. 6, Abril de 1893, p. 275.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is renovating the Salt Lake Temple which was completed in 1893. Many wonder at the meaning and purpose of its design and the origin of the "Endowment" or primary ritual inside the LDS Temple.  In this episode of Religion Today, host Martin Tanner describes the origin of the "Endowment" and how Joseph Smith conceived its purpose.  He also describes how the location for the Salt Lake Temple was chosen, and describes the detailed and rich symbolism of its design and exterior features. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Nelson refers to work on the Salt Lake Temple foundation to teach how temple ordinances and covenants strengthen our spiritual foundation.

From its granite foundation to its heavenly spires, the Salt Lake Temple is a landmark and symbol for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Originally dedicated in 1893, the Salt Lake Temple closed for extensive renovations just over two years ago. Brent Roberts, managing director of the Church's Special Projects Department, and Andy Kirby, director of historic temple renovations, join this episode of the Church News podcast to talk about this expansive enterprise. They detail the work that has been done, the unexpected things they discovered along the way and what still has to be accomplished as work continues on the historic temple, Temple Square and the Church plaza.  The Church News Podcast is a weekly podcast that invites listeners to make a journey of connection with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints across the globe. Host Sarah Jane Weaver, reporter and editor for The Church News for a quarter-century, shares a unique view of the stories, events, and most important people who form this international faith. With each episode, listeners are asked to embark on a journey to learn from one another and ponder, “What do I know now?” because of the experience. Produced by KellieAnn Halvorsen. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode is an invitation to join a group podcast recording. Then, you'll hear a replay of an episode that originally aired on May 6, 2020. That episode came as a result of a very strong and distinct impression to gather a group of women together over Zoom to discuss a question President Nelson had posed–How do you hear Him?  The reason I'm replaying this episode is because I'm getting ready to record a similar group episode and I want you to join me. Something that's been on my mind for months is covenants.  I've spent a lot of time studying about covenants in the scriptures and in talks. One of the talks I've been studying is The Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation given by President Russell M. Nelson in the October 2021 general conference. In that talk, President Nelson compared the foundation of the Salt Lake Temple to our spiritual foundation. He said, “Whenever any kind of upheaval occurs in your life, the safest place to be spiritually is living inside your temple covenants.”   What does it mean to live inside your temple covenants?    I think it will be powerful to come together as a group of Latter-day Saint women to discuss this question and share with each other.   The recording will be on Tuesday, February 15th at 7:00 PM MT on Zoom. Anyone who wants to come is welcome, and you'll have an opportunity to share what living inside your temple covenants means to you. I will record the discussion and then share it as a podcast episode.   If you would like to be part of the group podcast episode about covenants, go to THIS LINK to register.  There is a limit on how many people I can have on the Zoom call, so don't wait. I am so looking forward to recording this episode and sharing it on the podcast. I hope you will come if it works for you. Enjoy the replay of How We Hear Him.   Episode Links Register to attend the group podcast episode recording about covenants: Click here to register

The Bureau of Land Management Challis Field Office is enacting seasonal motor vehicle closures. Plus, public health officials have reported Idaho's first case of the Omicron variant of Coronavirus. Plus, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that it will take an extra year to complete the renovations on the Salt Lake Temple.

The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square are featured in this merry episode about Christmas in our own backyard. We are local to Salt Lake City and enjoy a wide variety of Christmas culture. This includes the magnificent downtown venue of Temple Square, home to the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Temple Square is famously decorated for Christmas and features one of the largest Christmas light displays in the world. It also has stunning Nativity displays and art. The several buildings house crowds of all sizes to accommodate performances from local artists and groups. The most famous of these groups is the Tabernacle Choir, who has called Temple Square home since the 1860s. They first performed in the still-standing Tabernacle, for which the Choir is named. In their history of touring and regular concerts no other activity by the Choir is as well known as their annual Christmas concert, which is featured on PBS in a nationally aired broadcast every holiday season. The Christmas concerts by the Tabernacle Choir feature the Orchestra at Temple Square, a hand bell choir, dancers and actors from local companies. Nearly all local performers are volunteers. It is a Choir custom to invite renown guest artists to perform each year. Past performers include Broadway stars Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Angela Lansbury, Kelli O'Hara, Santino Fontana and Laura Osnes; R&B singer Gladys Knight; the late jazz singer Natalie Cole; pop singer David Archuleta; legendary newscasters Walter Cronkite and Tom Brokaw; historian David McCullough; the Muppets from “Sesame Street”; actors Jane Seymour, Hugh Bonneville, Richard Thomas, the late Ed Herrmann, John Rhys-Davies, Roma Downey, the late Peter Graves, Claire Bloom, Michael York and Martin Jarvis; opera stars Renée Fleming, Deborah Voigt, Frederica von Stade, Bryn Terfel, Nathan Gunn, Alfie Boe, Sissel, Rolando Villazón and four Metropolitan Opera soloists and the London-based a cappella group, The King's Singers. Collectively, the featured guests have garnered 34 Grammy Awards, 19 Tony Awards, 14 Emmy Awards, 10 Golden Globe Awards, three BAFTA Awards, one Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Olivier Award. These concerts are a massive effort. In this merry episode we speak with Scott Barrick of the Tabernacle Choir about everything that goes into getting these concerts produced. This episode features a healthy dose of Tabernacle Choir music and information about a new two-hour holiday special airing on PBS before Christmas. But that's not all. In this episode we also hear from two other artists performing on Temple Square - Allie Gardner, who with Wade Farr performs a haunting version of O Come O Come Emmanuel. That song is the oldest Christmas carol on record and we tell its fascinating backstory. We also share the incredible version of The First Noel performed last Christmas by Bryson and Tierra Jones, a must-hear tear-jerking arrangement of the classic Christmas song by Jared Pierce. We invite you to see more images and videos of the Tabernacle Choir and Christmas on Temple Square on our website at MyMerryChristmas.com Notes: Tabernacle Choir DVD - 20 Years with the Tabernacle Choir CD - Christmas Best - #1 on Billboard Book - Keepsake Christmas Stories: Holiday Stories as Performed with the Tabernacle Choir

Temple work may have slowed due to the pandemic, but temple-building is moving forward at an unprecedented pace. With The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announcing multiple new temples at each General Conference, architects are busy designing these holy edifices for locales ranging from Argentina to Zimbabwe and scores of places in between. Besides creating new temples, the Utah-based faith is also renovating 10 existing ones, including the iconic Salt Lake Temple. Just last week, the church unveiled a new look for the 1970s-era Provo Temple and its Space Age design, one members have had a sort of love-hate relationship with through the years. On this week's show, Allen Roberts — a Utah architect who specializes in preservation and has worked on Latter-day Saint chapels, tabernacles and temples — discusses designs for these sacred structures, each of which members view as a “House of the Lord.” He talks about how these temples are designed, the architectural styles that are employed, and reveals some of his favorites (19th-century temples like Manti and Logan top his list along with the ones in Cardston, Alberta, and Washington, D.C.) and some of his least favorites (the current Provo Temple, for instance).

Hold on... like a little nut! Matt 24:24, Reveleation 12:12-13, Rev. 16:14, Alma 30:53, D&C 1:16, 2 Nephi 9:28, Ephesians 6:11 Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. D&C 29:7 And ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect; for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts; Moses 4:4 And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice. JS Matthew 1:37 And whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived, Jacob 4:6 Umbrella Quote: Keep your eyes riveted on the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. We will not lead you astray. We cannot. Let me tell you why. Every week that I am in town, I attend a meeting of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve on the fourth floor of the Salt Lake Temple. If you could see the process by which decision and direction comes from that meeting, you would have a deep sense of confidence and comfort that the will of the Lord is being taught by the leaders of the Church. Elder Ballard

Mary Richards takes you to the sacred grounds of the historic Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for an inside look at the renovation and construction happening on this pioneer-era building. Featuring detailed descriptions of the work being done to preserve and expand the sacred building, and how the new Temple Square will welcome guests for years to come.  Conference Conversations is special programming with content brought to you by KSL Newsradio for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints during General Conference weekends. Listen for great conversations on faith that will appeal to members of the Church but also Christians in general.  Conference Conversations is sponsored by ZeroRez; the original no residue carpet cleaning service. Their patented Powered Water® Technology is able to provide a better clean without using harsh chemicals or detergents. Learn more at ZeroRezSaltLake.com.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mary Richards takes you to the sacred grounds of the historic Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for an inside look at the renovation and construction happening on this pioneer-era building. Featuring detailed descriptions of the work being done to preserve and expand the sacred building, and how the new Temple Square will welcome guests for years to come.  Conference Conversations is special programming with content brought to you by KSL Newsradio for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints during General Conference weekends. Listen for great conversations on faith that will appeal to members of the Church but also Christians in general.  Conference Conversations is sponsored by ZeroRez; the original no residue carpet cleaning service. Their patented Powered Water® Technology is able to provide a better clean without using harsh chemicals or detergents. Learn more at ZeroRezSaltLake.com.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The October 2021 General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is happening this weekend. KSL NewsRadio's Mary Richards joined Inside Sources to give a preview of her special on the renovation of the Salt Lake Temple. She discusses why the world famous space has been so spiritually important for millions of people.  You can listen to Mary's special and the entire General Conference on KSL NewsRadio 102.7FM/1160AM or on kslnewsradio.com.     See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Abstract: This essay traces the modern-day usage and understanding of temples from the Kirtland Temple to Nauvoo and the Salt Lake Temple. Architecture was used to teach principles. While the Kirtland Temple was preparatory (think of the vision of Christ and the conference of keys by Abraham, Moses, Abraham, Elias, and finally Elijah), the Nauvoo […] The post Latter-day Houses of the Lord: Developments in Their Design and Function first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

Abstract: This essay traces the modern-day usage and understanding of temples from the Kirtland Temple to Nauvoo and the Salt Lake Temple. Architecture was used to teach principles. While the Kirtland Temple was preparatory (think of the vision of Christ and the conference of keys by Abraham, Moses, Abraham, Elias, and finally Elijah), the Nauvoo […] The post Latter-day Houses of the Lord: Developments in Their Design and Function first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

Recently the LDS Church announced the seismic improvements and removal of the beautiful murals in the Salt Lake Temple.  Steve Pynakker is the evangelical host of Mormon Book Reviews and he asked me what I thought about the announcement.  To say I'm disappointed in the removal of these pioneer-era murals in an understatement. Steve:  It […] The post Gutting Pioneer Temple History (Part 7 of 8) appeared first on Gospel Tangents.

Did sea gulls save Mormon settlers' crops? Did Brigham Young mysteriously and miraculously leave a space in design plans for the Salt Lake Temple that later would be filled by elevators? Did Elvis Presley make margin notes in a Book of Mormon? Was Yoda of “Star Wars” fame really modeled after former church President Spencer W. Kimball? Those are just some of the stories that float around Latter-day Saint circles. But are they true? Keith Erekson, director of the Church History Library, answers those questions and more in his new book, “Real vs. Rumor: How to Dispel Latter-Day Myths.” Even more important, he arms readers with the tools needed to discern for themselves the difference between fact and fiction whether in religion, politics, medicine or other fields. On this week's show, Erekson talks about myth-busting and faith-building. He also answers the most common question he receives: Does the Church History Library have the sword of Laban of Book of Mormon fame?

Scaffolding surrounds the Salt Lake Temple. The two visitor centers are no more. The plaza behind the Church Office Building is mainly dirt. Clearly big changes are in store in and around Temple Square, which ranks among Utah's most popular tourist attractions, drawing millions of visitors from near and far every year. You may be wondering what this place in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City will look like when all the work is done. Where will the Christus statue wind up? Will the sculptures of church founder Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum return? And what about the holiday Christmas lights? On this week's show, Ben Metcalf, manager of temple visitors centers for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, talks about this massive makeover and what guests can expect when the four-year project ends.

In an office at the Church Office Building—overlooking the angel Moroni atop the Salt Lake Temple, Cole received a blessing from Elder Cook. In that blessing Cole was promised that he would be able to marry a woman, have children, and eventually serve a mission with his wife. Unfortunately for Elder Cook, the priesthood power of a general authority could not make Cole straight. After years of navigating (and trailblazing) a path of authenticity and honesty, Cole has found joy in his journey, and love in his life. In this episode he shares what it took to get him to this point—and what he's learned along the way. #ComingOut #Authenticity #Love #BeTrue #ChurchofJesusChristofLatterDaySaints #LatterGayStories  

Prefabricated temples are the future, President Nelson keeps part of the Salt Lake Temple, the danger of faith-promoting stories.

5 Life Lessons Learned from the Salt Lake Temple

The story of the impressive Salt Lake Temple in Utah, and the mormon theology of religious authority behind it. 

An end nears to political and economic oppression. The Salt Lake Temple.

COVID-denying president of Tanzania dies, Georgetown University announces plan for reparations, the Mormons remodel Salt Lake Temple (and make it even more boring), the Vatican announces decision about same sex weddings, twelve house republicans oppose medals for Capitol Police who protected them, evangelicals have a penis problem, and we dive into the ongoing and developing story about the Atlanta shooter. He is a religious zealot.

The LDS Church just announced that the Salt Lake Temple and the Manti Temple would no longer continue live sessions after their remodeling. In addition, the murals from the Salt Lake Temple are being removed. LDS Temples house core doctrines, widsom, ordinances, and rituals for members of the church. This episode, while supporting the changes, talks about what we are losing and missing in our temple experiences. Primarily, participation and drama! Website- https://www.cwicmedia.com  

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced that it will discontinue the “live” presentation of a religious ritual known as the “endowment” in its iconic Salt Lake Temple. Instead of members acting out the scripted roles of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, for instance, a film version used in other temples will be shown. The faith’s governing First Presidency also said that historic wall murals, which help set the tone and understanding of the ceremony, had been removed. Similar changes are planned for the Manti Temple, which houses a Mormon masterpiece by artist Minerva Teichert. The moves sparked an outcry from preservationists and many church members. Here to talk about the changes is Jody England Hansen, who served as a volunteer worker in the Salt Lake Temple before it closed to undergo renovation.

Bio Bryant Foulger serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Foulger-Pratt and is a member of the Investment Committee. In his current role, Bryant draws on more than 30 years of real estate and management experience to provide approval and oversight of the CEO's vision and strategy. He was appointed to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan's transition team and is also involved with the Montgomery Business Development Corporation, the Greater District of Columbia Chapter of the Leadership Council for the Mayo Clinic, the Montgomery County Business Advisory Panel, and is a Trustee Emeritus of the Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland. Bryant attended Brigham Young University and serves on numerous professional and charitable boards. Show Notes Current Role Chairman role still involved day to day. Handed reins of business to four Managing Partners (6:00)Cameron Pratt, CEOBrian FoulgerBrigg BunkerPete OgnibeneSpends time on asset management and design for new projects (6:30)Does what he wants to do and not what he doesn’t want to do (7:10)What is over the horizon? (8:00) Origin Story Born in Utah (9:00)Sid Foulger (his Dad) was a friend of the Marriott family (9:15)Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (9:30)His Dad was recruited to Marriott Corporation to help with construction of hotels (10:00)His Dad went out on his own with six children to start Foulger & Company, a development/construction company (10:50)Sid Foulger was an entrepreneur who found opportunities and was tenacious to get things done (11:15)Family relationships in the Mormon faith are “eternal.” (13:45)Lived next door to brothers and sisters (14:15)He had close family bonds with 48 grandchildren (his children and nephews and nieces) (14:30)Many shared experiences- Homes in Utah and New Hampshire (15:45)Bought lots on one block in Potomac about 40 yrs. ago (16:15)Mormon Temple, Kensington, MD story (19:00)Bob Barker helped find the site (19:20)Sid Foulger helped in pricing the project (20:00)Keith Wilcox was the architect (childhood friend of Sid Foulger in Utah)Identified with the Salt Lake Temple in appe

Bio Bryant Foulger serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Foulger-Pratt and is a member of the Investment Committee. In his current role, Bryant draws on more than 30 years of real estate and management experience to provide approval and oversight of the CEO’s vision and strategy. He was appointed to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s transition team and is also involved with the Montgomery Business Development Corporation, the Greater District of Columbia Chapter of the Leadership Council for the Mayo Clinic, the Montgomery County Business Advisory Panel, and is a Trustee Emeritus of the Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland. Bryant attended Brigham Young University and serves on numerous professional and charitable boards. Show Notes Current Role Chairman role still involved day to day. Handed reins of business to four Managing Partners (6:00)Cameron Pratt, CEOBrian FoulgerBrigg BunkerPete OgnibeneSpends time on asset management and design for new projects (6:30)Does what he wants to do and not what he doesn’t want to do (7:10)What is over the horizon? (8:00) Origin Story Born in Utah (9:00)Sid Foulger (his Dad) was a friend of the Marriott family (9:15)Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (9:30)His Dad was recruited to Marriott Corporation to help with construction of hotels (10:00)His Dad went out on his own with six children to start Foulger & Company, a development/construction company (10:50)Sid Foulger was an entrepreneur who found opportunities and was tenacious to get things done (11:15)Family relationships in the Mormon faith are “eternal.” (13:45)Lived next door to brothers and sisters (14:15)He had close family bonds with 48 grandchildren (his children and nephews and nieces) (14:30)Many shared experiences- Homes in Utah and New Hampshire (15:45)Bought lots on one block in Potomac about 40 yrs. ago (16:15)Mormon Temple, Kensington, MD story (19:00)Bob Barker helped find the site (19:20)Sid Foulger helped in pricing the project (20:00)Keith Wilcox was the architect (childhood friend of Sid Foulger in Utah)Identified with the Salt Lake Temple in appe

Idaho Falls City Council member, Shelly Smede is resigning after three years on the council, Idaho lawmakers announced today that this year's education budget could be getting a big boost, and the First Presidency for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced today that the Manti Temple will undergo similar changes as the Salt Lake Temple and will close this year for its multi-year renovation.

In this episode, we explore one of the ways that we can become better storytellers and better listeners through cultivating our holy curiosity. In honor of Black History Month, we revisit the faithful story of Isaac Thomas, a black Latter-day Saint who converted to the gospel in the 1970's despite the fact that he would be unable to hold the priesthood or participate fully in the restored gospel he loved. We'll also hear from Tamu Smith and Zandra Vranes, (aka the Sistas in Zion) who give us their tips for better ways to interact with one another across cultural divides.  SHOW NOTES:  If you're looking for ways to get curious about the lived experiences of our brothers and sisters of color in the gospel, you can find a list of resources (as promised!) at LDSLiving.com/thisisthegospel TRANSCRIPT  KaRyn  0:03  Welcome to "This Is the Gospel," an LDS Living podcast where we feature real stories from real people who are practicing and living their faith every day. I'm your host KaRyn Lay. If you've ever spent any time with a three year old, then you might not agree with the central tenet of our theme today, that curiosity is a gift. But listen, if we can get past the exhaustion that comes from answering those rapid fire questions of our tiny humans, we'll eventually come to that magical place where we admit that the ability to look into the wide world and ask a million times, "How does this work?" That's pretty awe inspiring. It's interesting, when we talk about the commandment to become as a little child, I think our minds often go straight to humility. But is there anything more humble than acknowledging that there's so much we don't know and so much that we want to know? Curiosity is a function of true discipleship. And when we tap into it, we open the door to so much beauty and possibility in our efforts to become a true child of Christ. Now, listen, I'm pretty sure that I am preaching to the choir when I say this, but I can't think of a business that is more suited to a cultivation of curiosity than the work of storytelling, and it's necessary companion act of listening. When we dive into a story and allow ourselves to feel something from someone else's experience, that's evidence of a curious heart. And that translates when we tell our own stories. Having the spiritual gift of curiosity about others will make us more introspective about ourselves, our motives, our fears, so that when we bear our own stories of faith, we'll convey the heart of the story instead of just the details. If curiosity can really do that, then I think it's something lovely, of good report and worth seeking after. I've also been thinking about how curiosity, storytelling, and listening can be tools for us as we try to accomplish what President Nelson has charged us with, when he said in the October 2020 General Conference, that Latter-day Saints and followers of Christ must, quote, "Lead out in abandoning attitudes and actions of prejudice." I firmly believe that offering a curious heart to one another and listening from the starting place of, "I don't understand and I want to understand," is the key to beginning that work. So as we celebrate Black History Month here in the U.S. in February, I figured maybe we could start there today. Start by practicing a holy curiosity about a part of our church history, that sometimes hard to hear. Today, we've got a story about faith, pain and hope from Isaac Thomas, an African American Latter-day Saint who converted to the gospel in the 1970's, despite the ban that precluded Black men like him from holding the priesthood. We first shared Isaac's story in season one of the podcast. So you may have heard it before. But even if that's the case, I'm a huge believer that with a little bit of a prayer in our heart, the spirit will show us new insights. Here's Isaac. ISAAC: I was born in Kansas City, Missouri. I've been a member of The Church for 46 years. I was part of the Civil Rights movement, I was involved in the marching and the sit-ins and those types of things, and campaigning and being a non-violent protester for rights not only for blacks but for everyone. That was what I was doing at the time when I first started college. It was 1967 to 1971. It taught me patience, if nothing else, and long-suffering because during the Civil Rights movement to sit in at a cafe, and to be hosed in those things, there's a lot of patience involved in that, and a lot of long-suffering.  I first came in contact with the church through a young man that was in my basic training unit when I was in the Air Force, and he gave me a Joseph Smith pamphlet for me to read. That was my initial contact with The Church. I actually didn't get a chance to read it all. I just got to the first paragraph, explaining who Joseph Smith was. And then my drill instructor took it out of my hand and told me that Mormons were racist and bigots. Oh, okay well, forget that. I don't need racists and bigots in my life. I almost ended it. After that, I went to my next duty station and again, there was another Mormon on base that asked me for, you know, said he’d give me a ride at the chow hall and he asked me to go to his church with him that night. I forgot to ask him what church I was even going to. It didn't occur to me that everybody in the jeep that I was in, leaving base, was white but me. And the church was on the road in Southwest Texas alone by itself, I’m squinting, going where’s the church, and I realize it's a Mormon church. Ahh, it's a Mormon church! It's a Klu Klux Klan meeting and I'm going to be the burnt offering. I was, I couldn't believe it. I said I'll get out of the Jeep. I'll stand here, They'll go in and I'll walk back to base. Nobody moved until I did. I'm walking into this church, I'm going, "Please let there be another person of color in here." There was not. They had a mahogany foyer and I was going, if I stand close enough I can blend in and they won't notice I'm here. I expected for the chapel doors will open I would enter and see the grand dragon with hood in sheet. I could not believe I had gotten myself into such a terrible, terrible situation. KARYN: What Isaac found that day was actually far from what he feared. The rumors were untrue. There was no grand wizard lurking in the chapel, and instead, he felt something sweet and meaningful. He agreed to take the missionary discussions that soon came across some difficult information that was hard to process. ISAAC: The first time I learned that I couldn't hold the Priesthood was when they gave me the last lesson which was added to the series of lessons that they were giving me and they explained it to me. They told me all the reasons, all the reasons that the time that they were told. And I listened. And then I said, "You'll have to tell me that again". And they repeated everything. And then something just said, "It's okay." And I said, "Fine. Fine, I'm okay." The thing that kept me anchored was I knew Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I knew that, got that witness,  can't deny that. I knew the Book of Mormon had been restored by the prophet of God, can't get rid of that one either. If those two are true, then The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Church of God. There was some dissonance because I didn't know what other blacks would think of me, how they would accept me. I wasn't sure how the rest of my family members would accept me which troubled me because we were very close family. And so I was wandering in this mist of darkness really, just feeling my way, but I could not deny what I know to be true. I actually joined the church December 15 in 1972 in an old chapel in San Angelo, Texas. I remember just fighting with myself in the restroom, going, "Should I leave? Should I stay? No, Get out of here, this is bad. No, you need to stay this is going to be good for you." But I indeed stayed and I was baptized  and it was glorious for me. Really, I’d never felt so good and all my days. I remember the feeling of being light and forgiven. My parents' reaction when I joined the Mormon Church, my father was not there when my mother asked me, "What church did you join?" And I said, "The Mormon Church," and she dropped the skillet. My cousin left cussing. My brother said, "You did what?" And I just kind of sat there silently. And then my grandparents, when they heard about it, they said, "Just leave him alone, it’s one of his passing things. It'll be okay." But after a while, when I stopped drinking, smoking, carousing, doping and all those things, my grandmother finally said, "I don't care what church it is, hallelujah to it." It got me to be the person that they wanted me to be. Because my grandmother, when I was younger, I was ill and she promised the Lord that if I was saved, or live, that I would dedicate my life to the Lord. And I have to admit, I found that out and I purposely tried not to be that person, but here I am. Well, I decided once I got out of the military that I wanted to go on a mission. That was 1976 or 77. And I knew I couldn't, so I wrote President Kimball a letter and said, "Dear President, I'd like to go on a mission. I don't care if I can't baptize people, somebody else can do all that. All I want to do is be able to get in there and to teach people, just to teach them the Gospel." I got a letter back and it said, "Dear Brother Thomas, we're sorry, you can't go on a mission because you don't have the priesthood." Then, I went, "Women go on missions!" So I wrote him another letter, "Women go on missions!" I got another letter back saying, but they had to go to the temple and take out their endowment. And for you to go on a mission, you'd have to take out your endowment. So you can't go." And I said, I'm going to mission one way or the other, okay? And then my mindset, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Okay, I'm going to go, I'll figure it out, then I'll let them know. That was my mindset. I had not given up, but I accepted what he said, I understood what he was saying and why it was being said. But I figured there was some other way for me to accomplish the thing that I wanted to do. Because after all, the Lord gives no commandment unto the children of men unless He provides a way to accomplish the things that he has commanded.  Well, I realize how to serve that mission. When the kids came home from school and they told me about this song and dance group at BYU that did missionary work, and all they did was sing and dance. And they said it’s Young Ambassadors. And I went, "I can do that!" So me and my friends jumped in his MG, drove up here inAugust of 1977 for me to audition for the Young Ambassadors for my mission. But I got there and I was intimidated by all the talent that was there. I mean, I hadn't had music lessons or dancing lessons so I didn't audition. But then I was getting ready to go do baptisms for the dead and the phone rang and it was the director of the Young Ambassador's asking me to come up and audition. The director of the Young Ambassadors was told to call me because when I was in Thailand, a group from BYU came over to entertain the troops. And I worked the lights for them and Randy Booth was playing the piano and I met him and I was doing USO shows. Apparently, somebody told him that I was there. And a dancer had dropped out of the Young Ambassadors so they had called me to see if I wanted to come up and audition. And so I went up, after I'd gone to the temple, sang and danced, sand and danced, and they said, "Yes, we want you to be part of our group.” We want you to know that you're going to be in a fishbowl, that everybody will be watching you that this won't be easy. There will be a lot of questions, a lot of pressure that you will be under. It was going to be pressure because I was a black member of The Church. And at that time, there were not a whole lot of us around, particularly in a performing group at BYU. And because we were going to be traveling all over, that there will be non-members and other people that would take me to task and take The Church to task on their stand about why blacks could not have the priesthood. And I said, "Well, that's their problem. This is my mission for two years. I don't have time for that." Done. That was one of the greatest learning experiences of my time being a member of the Young Ambassadors. I learned more about performing, I learned a whole, whole lot about brotherhood. When I say brotherhood, I include sisterhood as well. The love and care that they had for me was genuine and real. There would be some that would leave and go on missions and they would tell me, "Isaac, I'm gonna baptize this many people in your name." I was promised that I would have special friends and associates that would be for my good. And that was indeed quite true with that group. When something untoward happened, like a member or somebody would not let me stay in their home because I was black, some of the girls— they got very, very upset—and I didn't like that kind of thing. So I would have to stay in a hotel or something with the director. But they were always there. I never had to worry about my back. Ever. There were some challenges while I was on my mission with the Young Ambassadors, and there was a time where we were doing a number in Georgetown, Pennsylvania and a girl jumped about two inches off the floor, ripped her knee out, hobbled off stage. I was the only one off stage because I had a solo number after that one. And I carried her off and the director came back and said, "Isaac, go get someone that has the priesthood." And he might as well hit me upside the head with a wrecking ball, or taken a machete and just gutted me. I was devastated. He wasn't being mean, it was just a fact. And really, I think for the first time, I really did feel inferior in some way because of that. Like Man's Search for happiness, I just didn't know what was happening in my life because I had no question about the priesthood for six years. I'd been a member for six years, what's going on? And I was talking to Brad Smith, he was my roommate, and I just told him I felt like I was holding on to my testimony by the skin of my teeth at that point. But then, I realized, we have to trust in God because man will disappoint us every time, but God will not. He may not come when you want Him all the time, but He's always on time. So about June, end of May of 1978, we were in Toronto, Canada. And the missionaries brought this young lady to the show for me to talk to, she was black. And the director kept bugging me to talk to her. And I said, "Okay, fine." But when I jumped off the stage, there was a bunch of anti-Mormon people that came to the show. I was surrounded by all these people that are calling me a traitor to my race. That I was an Oreo, an Uncle Tom, and I just didn't need that my life. I finally talked to this young lady and I told her she’d do more for a family in the church and she ever could outside of it. And I left. We jumped on our bus, traveled to Kansas City, June 8, and we had lunch with my mom and we sang songs, we got back on the bus and we start going through Kansas. I went to sleep. Cause Kansa, it’s flat, there's nothing there and I'd seen it before. I went to sleep. They woke me up when we got to Salina, Kansas and told me to get off the bus. I got up, I got off the bus, didn't know what was going on. When I got back to our equipment van that had our costumes and instruments in it, Gary, our piano player was driving that when he said, "Isaac, we heard something on the radio. We don't know if it's true." I said, "Well, Gary, what did you hear?" He said, "Well, we want you to hear, we just don't know what to think." He kept going on and on and on. I recognized the station, it was WHB in Kansas City. I thought they had heard that my mom had been an accident. I said, "Gary, if you don't tell me what you've heard, I'm going to be all of you like stink on a monkey." He said, "They gave the blacks the Priesthood!" I said, "Don't, don't believe that, please. We're in the heartland of the reorganized church, the heartland of the reorganized church. They could be giving the cows the Priesthood for all we know out here. And don't tell anybody on that bus because I can't handle if it's not true. I can’t handle all that disappointment. No, don't want to deal with it. I got in the van, we drove to a mall, the director gets out runs in the mall. I figure we're going to go in, pass out some pamphlets about The Church get some contacts for the missionaries and sing some songs. Done it before, no big deal. Gets back on the bus. The bus pulls in front of the van and I see every, all 40 something people on one side of the bus hands and faces waving. At that point, I knew that they had told them about this fictitious rumor about this Priesthood thing. I went, "How could they do that to me?" and then on the CB radio, I hear, "Elder Thomas, it is true." My entire life passed before my eyes. And I went, wait a minute did I sleep through the Millennium? I was always told what happened in the Millennium. And then I went wait, well who's coming in these clouds? And I didn't know if I should look or not. It was like being in a dream. I get on the bus and they say "Bare your testimony!" I couldn't think of my name. I don't know what I said, I said something and I sat down by the director. At that point, people start singing songs, "The Spirit of God like a Fire is Burning," and then someone would bear their testimony. "I am a child of God." "I know that my Redeemer lives," all of those harmonies from all those talented talented people floated across Kansas. But everybody that I'd ever know from the Laotian border from Karamursel, Turkey, San Angelo, Texas, the family that got me in the church was trying to find me that day. For they had been there supporting me all this time. Praying along with me for this day to come, like many, many, many of the silent majority of the members of The Church, praying for this very, very special thing. It wasn't my letter, either one of them, it was a collective effort for those that wanted this to be done and for the Lord to hear the prayers of His children that were given in righteousness and in devotion unto Him.  After the revelation, our last show was in Loveland, Colorado. The bus pulled up and there was like, hordes of people there to welcome us and at that show that night, the audience was great. Several encores, several testimonies, but when we got back to BYU, it was a little different because there were people that would speak to me and thought I could walk on water because I didn't have the priesthood. Now that I could, they would not speak to me. There were also advertisements taken out the newspaper denying the priesthood revelation that made me feel bad. And it took me a while to understand that that was their choice if they were cheating themselves out of their own exaltation. That was hard, but for the more part, it was grand. I wanted to write someone black, the only black person I had, which was this young lady I met in Toronto, Canada. Well, she came down for General Conference because they were going to be you know, ratifying and talking about the Restoration of the Priesthood for conference. So she came down, stayed with her missionary's that converted her. I met her and we, you know, went to a couple of sessions together and then Sunday night, we were walking on Temple Square, and we were just talking and I asked her what she was going to be doing and told her what my plans were and we got up by the Christus, and all of a sudden I heard these words come out of my mouth, "Will you marry me?" And I was so startled by what came out of my mouth. I couldn't believe it. Because I promised I would never have a Mormon romance, you know what I mean? And she said, "I'll have to think about it." I'm going, it's a good thing somebody's thinking because  obviously I am not. She came back a couple days later and said, "Yes." And we talked about will we get married civilly first? Will we wait and get sealed? And we decided to wait to get sealed. And we got married June 15, 1979. We were the first black couple to be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. There were so many people at my sealing. I can't tell you who was there. All I know is there was standing room, people everywhere, halfway out the door. And when we walked out of the temple, there were all kinds of people taking pictures, it was in the Deseret News and I'm going, okay. But we were, we were so dizzy just from being nervous about being married. But really, it was another surreal experience in my life, but a great one. My testimony helps me when things aren't connected as far as race and understanding in the church. People can say and do anything, there will always be bigots, some knowingly being bigots, some unknowingly being bigots in every religion, they're there. No matter what the trial is, or what the circumstance is or what's been said to me or thrown at me, literally. The Lord is there. We sing a song in my grandmother's church, it went, "I trust in God, I know he cares for me. On the mountain tops, on the stormy sea. Though the billows may roll, he thrills my soul. My Heavenly Father watches over me." KaRyn  23:12   That was Isaac Thomas. I produced the video for LDS Living that first told this story in 2018. And it's amazing to me that I've heard Isaac's story literally dozens of times. And I still heard something new as I listened.  Maybe you found yourself like I did filled with gratitude and wonder at Isaac's faithfulness and his determination, that part about choosing to serve a mission even when he couldn't formally serve, I mean, that just gets me every single time. And maybe you, like me, heard those stories of pain and wounding from Isaac and wondered if maybe you'd inadvertently allowed a bias or lack of understanding to get in the way of another child of God feeling the full stature of their divinity.  If that's the case, well, then good. Good, good, good. That is the gift of curiosity, doing its beautiful job, reminding us that we're still alive here on this earth and that our time is not over yet, we still have some spiritual growth left in us. It can be painful, a real gut punch to be curious about ourselves in that way, to search out the moat in our own eye.  But our love for Isaac and all of our brothers and sisters of color demand that we do it. Our desire to be more like the Savior demands it as well. And I firmly believe that he will help us to push past the shame and the fear that that self examination can bring up if we let him.  In the spirit of practicing curiosity, I want to share one more quick little thing with you today. It's audio from a video series that LDS Living did a while ago called, "What and what not to say at church." We did the series to help us all navigate potentially awkward situations at church with a little bit more love and a little more self awareness.  And one of the topics that we tackled was talking to our Black brothers and sisters. I don't know about you, but I grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood and my interactions with Black culture were really limited until I was in college in Philadelphia. And I made a lot of mistakes. And I acted on a lot of assumptions. And I know I hurt people.  I really love that saying that is making the rounds lately, "When you know better, you do better." Admitting fault and vowing to do better is the very heart of our gospel practice. And that's true of navigating cultural differences. It's a holy work that requires God to help us complete. But bridging the gap is possible, and listening to others with a different life experience, really listening to them without defensiveness, that's the first step.  So here are Tamu Smith and Zandra Vranes, also known as the Sistas in Zion, with their tips for doing better at interacting with each other at church. And here's a funny thing. This video was done long before President Nelson asked us to stop calling ourselves "Mormons," so you're going to hear that in this audio, but just know that we know that we don't use that anymore. Here you go.   Tamu   Sometimes people will come up to you and grab you hair.   Zandra   If this has ever happened to you at church, you might be a Black Mormon.   Tamu   On a serious tip, at church, sometimes we say things like, "I don't see color," which is not true, but it is awkward. And we understand that. We're going to have some awkward moments, but we're just going to ride it through. And we're going to get through this because we are all brothers and sisters, and we're in this together.    Zandra   Absolutely, so we're going to give some tips.   Tamu   So what do you say to people who just come up to you and touch your hair?   Zandra   So we know you're curious, and that's okay. But we really shouldn't touch people without permission. So if you're interested in my hair, get to know me. Know my name, what are my interests, and once we're friends, maybe we'll get to hair.    When we serve admissions around people of color, we often like to share with them that we've connected culturally with an experience that might resonate with us.   Tamu   Basically, what you want us to know is that you love Black people, and we want you to know we love you back.   Zandra   But while we're seeking connections, there are some assumptions that can actually disconnect us.   Tamu   For example, I'm from California, not from Ghana, where you served your mission.    Zandra   And that sister from Ghana is not from the hood, where you served yours.    Tamu   People think I can sing because I'm Black, so they want me to be in the choir. I'm not a good singer. Also, I'm a convert to the church to the LDS faith. She is not.   Zandra   I am a convert, actually, everybody's a convert to the LDS faith, but I don't have a gangster to gospel story that you're looking for.    All Black people don't know each other. I cannot get Alex Boye to speak at your farewell.    Tamu   So sometimes people will come up to me and they'll say, you know, "Oh, my gosh, I served my mission in Chicago, Illinois. Do you know champagne?" And I'm like, "Yeah!". . . I don't.   Zandra   But the truth is, all Black Mormons kind of really do know each other.   Tamu   Don't speak slang to me if that's not your native language.    It's okay to ask me, "Are you Black? Or are you African American?" I'm both. And I'm also Tamu.   Zandra   When it comes to asking questions, motive matters. If your motive is the loving one, it'll shine through.   Tamu   Sometimes we have these conversations in the church, and sometimes race is a part of it. Don't skip over the race part. We want to be a part of that conversation.   Zandra   Tamu and I don't speak for all Black people, so the best rule of thumb is treat everybody like individuals, get to know them. And then you'll find out what they like, what they don't like. All are like unto God. But that doesn't mean that we are all alike. It means that we're striving to love each other, like God loves each of us.   Tamu   I'm excited to see you on Sunday.   Zandra   Catch me in the pew, how about that?   Tamu   How about that.   Zandra   And when we wear our wraps and hats to church, don't ask us to move to the back row because you can't see over them. Come on up and join us. The more the merrier on the pew.   KaRyn  29:20   That was Zandra Vranes and Tamu Smith. We'll have a link to that video in our show notes so you can see what you can't when you're just listening to the audio. Tamu and Zandra have never been shy about sharing what it feels like to be a woman of color in a church that sometimes doesn't reflect their experience.  And I for one, am grateful for their willingness to speak up with plainness and love and self respect. They brought up an interesting point in the video that I had honestly never thought of until just now. It's the difference between a holy curiosity and a nosy curiosity. And here's what I mean.  Holy curiosity respects people's boundaries. It's motivated by love and acknowledges the godliness and the divinity in every person, while also asking, "What's it like for you to be here?" But nosy curiosity is just the opposite. It's actually all about you, and meeting your needs to know, at the expense of another person's dignity.  It's doing what I know I have done before, touching someone's hair because you want to know what it feels like regardless of how that might make them feel. Or asking someone if you've hurt them, only to try to defend yourself.  I love what Zandra said, that our motives matter. And it's going to shine through as we press forward through awkward moments in our attempts to form genuine familial connection. I don't know what it's like for you, but my church life sometimes seems like it's all awkward moments. Ministering, teaching over zoom, accepting ministering, all of these great things require me to be slightly uncomfortable all the time.  So after listening to these tips again, I'm going to try to put this into practice. To ask myself if my curiosity is holy or nosy, to pause before talking and check myself to see if my curiosity is motivated by a desire to really know someone and understand their life on their terms, or if it serves only me.  I'm hopeful that as I do that, that my comfort and ease will grow as I do the work of discipleship. We can't leave this theme of curiosity without recognizing that ultimately, we seek this gift so that we can become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. Talk about a holy curiosity.  Despite the fact that he knew all and could perceive every single thing, Christ asked hundreds of questions during his ministry. And those are only the things that we have recorded in canonized scripture. I'm sure there was more. Christ loved curiosity. And in Matthew chapter seven, verse seven, he promised us that our sacred curiosity would be rewarded, he said, "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you."  So back to that charge from President Nelson to lead out in abandoning attitudes and actions of prejudice, I think it all starts with engaging with the gift of curiosity, asking Heavenly Father to show us what we don't know. And listening to stories from people who've lived it, like Isaac, and Tamu and Zandra, and others. Asking questions with a motivation of love and a commitment to do better, when we know better.  If you're feeling that desire right now, we will have a list of really great resources to feed your curiosity in our show notes, including some links that offer opportunities to hear directly from our brothers and sisters of color who go to church with us. I don't think we have to wait to be perfect to lead out. We just have to be like a little child willing to let people see us and our growth and our curiosity. And then we can truly call ourselves, all of us, the children of Christ. That's it for this episode of "This Is the Gospel." Thank you to our storyteller, Isaac Thomas, and our wonderful Sistas in Zion, Zandra and Tamu. We'll have more info from all of these storytellers in our show notes at LDS living.com/Thisisthegospel. That's also where you can find a transcript of each episode.  If you haven't already started to follow us on social media, go find us on Instagram or Facebook at @thisisthegospel_podcast, we work hard to make sure that it will add to your scrolling instead of taking away.  The stories in this episode are true and accurate as affirmed by our storytellers, we find lots of our stories through the pitch line. So if you have a story to share about a time in your life when you learn something new by practicing the gospel of Jesus Christ, we want to hear from you. The best pitches will be short and sweet and have a clear sense of the focus of your story. You'll have three minutes to pitch when you call, 515-519-6179.  If you want to help spread the word about "This Is the Gospel," we'd love for you to give personal recommendations to your friend. Find an episode you love, send it in a text message personal recommendations are the way to go. And you can also leave a review of the podcast on Apple, stitcher, or whatever platform you listen on. Reviews help this podcast to show up for more people in their search functions.  This episode was produced by me KaRyn Lay with additional story production from Davey Johnson and the producer director of that "What not to say" video, Skylar Brunner. It was scored, mixed and mastered by Mix at Six studios, our executive producer is ErinHallstrom. You can find past episodes of this podcast and other LDS Living podcasts at LDS living.com slash podcasts. Show Notes + Transcripts: http://ldsliving.com/thisisthegospel See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

During the coming years, may we allow the improvements made to the Salt Lake Temple to move and inspire us.

Church of Jesus Christ Study Session seeks to generate reflection about areas in the Restored Gospel. Whether it's Come Follow Me, a General Conference talk or a recent Gospel Topic, hopefully you'll find something to keep the Spirit of Christ in your life. Twitter - @mattsroberts90 ldsstudysession@gmail.com You can also join the discussion in the Facebook Group 'Church of Jesus Christ Study Session with Come Follow Me'. You can purchase my book, From Father to Child: Raising a Child to Spiritual Strength in Generation Alpha at the link here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Father-Child-Spiritual-Strength-Generation-ebook/dp/B08DRLWWZD/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=from+father+to+child&qid=1596387393&sr=8-3 Today we discuss some listener comments that we have received this week and we also review a recent story about a time capsule located in the Salt Lake Temple. You can see the story here: https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/salt-lake-temple-capstone-opened-2020 President Russell M Nelson: “We did not expect to find much because we knew that the contents of the capstone had not been insulated from the weather during the 128 years that had elapsed," said President Russell M. Nelson. "But we wanted to be there anyway, just to be close and to pay tribute to the leaders and courageous pioneer craftsman who against all odds built this magnificent temple.”

During the coming years, may we allow the improvements made to the Salt Lake Temple to move and inspire us.

We now know what was in the time capsule housed below the Angel Moroni statue since 1892. History-loving Lee will break down the items found.  See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Javier came to the United States from COLOMBIA! He has been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ (otherwise known as the Mormon Church) for awhile and has A LOT of experience living the gospel in different cultures. Javier arrived in the United States with a lot of unknowns. But upon arriving and going to a LDS Church building, he immediately felt at home and like he had a family. He talks about the power in having a family wherever you go. For members of the Church, you might wonder— what do people in Colombia think about the Church? And what’s it like for someone outside of Utah to visit the iconic Salt Lake Temple for the first time? Javier tells all:) Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/saintsunscripted

During the coming years, may we allow the improvements made to the Salt Lake Temple to move and inspire us.

0:00- Intro with Brother Kyle and Lindsay Aerts 14:20- Moroni taken off Salt Lake Temple 18:23- Bountiful missionary killed in hit and run in Georgia   22:14- Former Kaysville bishop charged with child pornography 24:10- Church takes financial hit due... The post Walk Away For 3 Months Ep. 410 The Cultural Hall appeared first on The Cultural Hall Podcast.

Betty “Red Ant” LaFontaine Navajo Educator, Speaker and TeacherPresentations:The Book of Mormon “The Light of Christ” Betty “Red Ant” LaFontaine is a full blooded Diné (Navajo) born of the Red Clay Bottom Clan, for the Salt Clan. Raised on the Navajo Reservation, she lived most of her youth in New Mexico in the traditional ways of the Diné. Betty is the middle child of eleven children, most of whom continue to live on the Reservation. Her father is Charlie (Man in the White Meadow) White, and her mother is Helen Yazzie White. Her ties to her family and homeland remain strong. Her family was taught by missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in about 1967 her mother was baptized by LeGrande Richards. Her mother later took out her endowments in the Mesa Arizona Temple. Helen served as a Relief Society President in her hometown of Crownpoint, New Mexico, and has always been very sensitive to the Spirit, despite her lack of a formal education. Betty did the Temple work for her father Charlie, after he passed away.At age five, Betty began her formal education. While attending school she was taught English as a second language. She was not permitted to speak her native tongue during the school day. Betty’s mother Helen chose to have Betty attend the LDS Indian Student Placement Program, giving her access to a better education and an introduction to the modern world. During her seven years in the program, Betty met her husband of 38 years, Mike LaFontaine originally from Florida, and is of Chippewa heritage. Mike’s parents are Melvin J. and Dellene M. Peterson LaFontaine. Mike and Betty were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple in 1982 and they currently live in Orange Park, Florida where they have been for 25 years, spending time with their beautiful 5 children and 18 grandchildren.As a modern urban Indian, Betty’s passion is to educate others about the realities of reservation life, and the history and culture of her people. Betty loves helping others become outstanding members of their communities, and especially loves strengthening her brothers and sisters in the LDS Church. As an Indian educator, Betty makes presentations about her native culture, life-ways, heritage to school assemblies, clubs, groups, organizations, and business employees. Betty has served in Relief Society, Young Women, and as a teacher in Sunday School, and Primary. She is from the tribe of Manasseh. Her testimony of the veracity of the Book of Mormon has engendered in her an interest in recent archaeological and DNA evidences and the ties she has to her heritage and native culture. Her Native American brothers and sisters are a chosen yet scattered people and her passion is to bring them home to the Savior where they may lead in building the New Jerusalem.Support the show (http://www.bookofmormonevidencestreaming.com)

During the coming years, may we allow the improvements made to the Salt Lake Temple to move and inspire us.

Elder Stevenson teaches how the improvements to the Salt Lake Temple can help inspire us to build strong personal foundations.

In September 2018, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released its first authorized, in-depth look at the faith’s history in nearly a century. The four-volume set, known as “Saints,” will explore Mormonism from its humble birth to its current global presence. The first volume, “Saints: The Standard of Truth,” examined church history from 1815 to 1846. The second book, “Saints: No Unhallowed Hand,” which came out Wednesday, covers 1846 to 1893. It includes, for example, Brigham Young’s presidency, polygamy, the priesthood ban, the Mountain Meadows Massacre and lesser-known but equally meaningful moments in church history. The 700-plus-page volume ends with the Salt Lake Temple dedication. Discussing the project this week are Matthew Grow, managing director of the church History Department and general editor of the Joseph Smith Papers, and Angela Hallstrom, a writer in the History Department and literary editor for the series. Listen here.

Weeks ago, the world watched helplessly as he Notre Dame Cathedral, burned. While this event was notable for many reasons, one of the things that struck us here at Technically Religious was the protocol used by emergency responders: Save the people, save the art, save the altar, save what furniture you can, then focus on the structure, in that order. We know what can be rebuilt and what can't.” In this episode, Josh and Leon compare and contrast that disaster recovery process to the ones typically used in IT. Listen or read the transcript below. Leon: 00:00 Hey everyone. It's Leon. Before we start this episode, I wanted to let you know about a book I wrote. It's called "The Four Questions Every Monitoring Engineer is Asked", and if you like this podcast, you're going to love this book. It combines 30 years of insight into the world of IT with wisdom gleaned from Torah, Talmud, and Passover. You can read more about it, including where you can get a digital or print copy over on adatosystems.com. Thanks! Leon: 00:25 Welcome to our podcast where we talk about the interesting, frustrating, and inspiring experiences we have as people with strongly held religious views working in corporate IT. We're not here to preach or teach you our religion. We're here to explore ways we make our career as IT professionals mesh - or at least not conflict - with our religious life. This is Technically Religious. Josh: 00:45 A few weeks ago, the world watched helplessly as one of the iconic buildings in Paris, the Notre Dame cathedral burned. While this event was notable for many reasons. One of the things that struck us here at Technically Religious was a response by one of the bystanders, who understood what was happening on the ground. He said, Leon: 01:04 "The fire department in Paris followed a protocol. Save the people, save the art, save the altar, save what furniture you can, then focus on the structure. In that order. They know what can be rebuilt and what can't." Josh: 01:17 Now that smacks of a disaster recovery policy to us. But I think we in IT might look at it differently. Which is what we're going to do in this episode. Joining in the discussion with me today is Leon Adato. Leon: 01:31 Hi everyone. And of course, the other voice that you're hearing is Josh Biggley. Josh: 01:35 Hello. Hello. Leon: 01:36 Okay, so I think the first thing, because we're talking about disaster recovery, is let's get our terms. Let's define our data library and differentiate between redundancy, high availability, disaster recovery, risk mitigation, all those things. So do you wanna take a crack at it? Do you want to just collaboratively? Do this? Josh: 01:58 I love redundancy. And in this world of cloud, I think redundancy is the thing that we do really well now because you know, you can set up a system that is in two regions and so if one of your regions fails here, the region will pickup, you can do a multisite region. Redundancy to me feels like a descriptor that actually bridges across HA and DR and risk mitigation. Um, yeah, redundancy feels like a catchall term, right? It's not something you can achieve. I don't know. What do you think, Leon? Leon: 02:36 All right. All right. So I think redundancy at its simplest is "there's another one of them." There's another Josh: 02:42 Oh, like RAID Leon: 02:43 Yeah. Okay. Right. There's like RAID, you know, having multiple disks - RAID 0 - which is just having two discs, one backing up the other constantly. Or RAID 5... any of the other flavors of raid. So I think redundancy means "having more than one" and yes, redundancy can fit into a high availability plan. But high availability is more nuanced. High availability means that no matter what happens, the "thing" - the service, or the the network, or whatever, is going to be available. That can also be done by doing load balancing. It can also be done by, you know, in networking terms, channel bonding, so you can have those. So redundancy by itself is just "more than one of those at a time." So if one fails, the other one is still going or can take over. But high availability I think has more flavors to it. And then you have disaster recovery. That means that all your beautiful efforts at high availability have failed and it still went down. And so now you're left trying to recover from the failure. But at that point the failure is done. It has occurred, the system has crashed, you know, the meteor has hit the data center. Whatever it is and now you're trying to rebuild or pick up the pieces or whatever it is. Then you have risk mitigation, which sounds a little bit like, "We believe that this disaster could potentially occur, and we want to see what we can put in place to completely avoid the disaster, but we're going to do that ahead of time." So in the case of the Notre Dame fire, it might've been, you know, a sprinkler system. Just something like that. Like that would have been a nice little risk mitigation idea. Josh: 04:37 You know, I wonder how many of those risk mitigation things that we do on our lives are really, uh, to make us feel better. Leon: 04:46 Okay. So like the, you know, security theater kind of stuff, Josh: 04:50 Right, right. Yeah. Like, um, you know, locking your front door. I mean, if someone really wants in your house, they're just going to kick your front door down. I mean, if the police want in, they're going to get in, you know? No deadbolt you pick up at home depot is going to keep them out. Right? Leon: 05:08 No. Um, and, and I know this is a topic that Destiny Bertucci would love to be part of because this is one of her big things. But, so the thing about the dead bolts in the house, it's first of all, they don't need to kick down the door because you have windows. And I don't mean the computer system... Josh: 05:24 Ha ha, ba dum bum! Leon: 05:26 Yeah, we'll be here all week folks. So the thing about deadbolts is that it is way of avoiding, I guess, avoiding risk. It's a deterrent. It's not a protection. I saw some statistics recently that said, unless there was something specifically in your house that that individual wants - you have a Renoir, or a priceless Monet painting, or something like that - then they're just looking for what can get quickly and easily and a deadbolt is absolutely an effective deterrent because breaking a window is too risky and too loud and too noticeable. And if the door can't be easily opened, they'll move on to the next house or structure, where the pickings are easier. Or they'll walk around the house. And I've seen the statistics in neighborhoods where I've lived, that's occurred. Where they tried the front door, they tried the side door, they went around to the back door and "oops!". That one didn't have [a deadbolt. because], "who would go to the back door?!?" Everybody who wants to get in your house would go around to the back door. YOU go around to the back door right when the front... So everyone goes around. So having a dead-bolted system on all of your doors is the most effective deterrent to that. But I think we've gotten a little off topic, you know, in terms of Notre Dame. So I think we've defined redundancy, high availability, disaster recovery, risk mitigation... but what they're talking about, what they talked about in this whole, "first save lives and then save the art, and then save the...", you know, that's different. Josh: 07:05 Yeah, it is, isn't it? Because they almost - well not almost, they gave a priority to specific items. Right? And I appreciate the fact that they said "save lives," lives are irreplaceable. So..., and there are things, there are some beautiful things in that cathedral that were also irreplaceable. Right. But you know, to their credit, human lives come first. Leon: 07:31 Right. And, and I think that that's a pretty obvious one. After that though, taking the priority of lives, then art, and then, um, sorry I'm going back and looking at it... right. "Save the people, save the art, save the altar, save the furniture, then focus on the structure." So, you know, why did the roof, you know, get so hot it melted? Because it was just not part of the protocol... They hadn't gotten to that part of the protocol yet. And also what was said later was that not only is that protocol in place for overall, but it's in place room by room. Josh: 08:06 Oh, interesting. Leon: 08:09 I think there's an order of which rooms they tried to get to first. Again, looking for people. Once they knew all the people were safe throughout the structure, then they were going to specific rooms and looking for specific things to make sure that they could get those out before they moved on to the next category or even the next room. So I find it all fascinating. But the other thing is, do we do that in IT? Do we set up a protocol for which things we save first? Josh: 08:42 You know, I'm thinking back and I don't recall ever having a, "Howell moment" and by Howell I'm referencing Gilligan's island and the Howells and the, "Oh deah save the furniture first!" you know, Leon: 08:58 Save money, save the money! Josh: 09:01 Yeah. I don't know that we've ever had one of those situations. Now, I will say though, we've taken risk mitigation efforts. Back in the days of doing tape backups, you would keep.. now if someone here isn't, you should, but you keep your backups offsite, you would move them to iron mountain and other similar facilities. Leon: 09:26 Well, and, and bringing it forward a little bit, the 3-2-1 policy for backups, which is you have to have three separate backups, physically discrete backups, on at least two different kinds of media, with one of them being offsite. And offsite can be cloud, that's okay. But you know, 3-2-1" three backups to different media, at least two different media. One that is not where you are. So I would say that there is an order, but I think it's almost so self evident that we don't bother elaborating on it, which is: Save the data first. Josh: 09:59 Oh absolutely. Leon: 10:00 Yeah. So data in... Okay, and we're not talking about a fire in the data center, which changes the nature of everything. But you know, the first thing is save the data. The data equals lives in the Notre Dame protocol. If we, if we want to say it that way. And maybe the application is, you know, art, if we want to think of it that way, like the next thing. Once we know the data is secure, then save the applications, make sure, and by save I mean make sure the application can keep running, post disaster, post outage, whatever that is. So, we're both network folks and, we'll say "the network has gone down," All right? The main circuit out to the Internet, to our customers, whatever that circuits gone down. So what's the first thing? Let's make sure the data wasn't corrupted. Now, we might make sure that that happened before the outage by making sure that the system of rights is, you know, won't get caught in the middle of something that we're doing. Whether it's the particular kind of logging on the database or what have you, that those things are taken care of. But make sure the data's fine. Then make sure the application can get out to... "the signal must flow." The signal has to keep going. So can make sure the application is okay. Maybe the next thing in an IT version of that protocol... Uh, I don't know what would it be? Josh: 11:32 So, you know, we've talked about keeping the data, we've talked about getting the application out there. Then it's, "can I get the people who need to be connected to it, connected to it." So one of the things when you have a major disaster, is you're often worried about addressing your largest customers and getting them back. But maybe you've got a remote workers and you don't have the VPN, so they're not going to be terminating in your, your new data center. Or swinging those circuits, those VPN tunnels from your original data center to your new data center. Maybe that wasn't part of your disaster recovery plan. So all of those things I think that's the, "Okay, now, now go get all the bits that make the, make your application experience comfortable. And again, I'm a remote worker, you're remote worker. So being able to connect and provide the support to the business is very important. Leon: 12:32 And I can get behind that in terms of, like, we're the furniture. Josh: 12:34 Yeah. I mean we've been sat on before. It's all right. Leon: 12:39 Right. Sat on, stepped on, brushed aside, Josh: 12:43 and knocked over. Leon: 12:43 Yeah. Right. Yeah, sure. And I think the structure is, it literally that, it's the organizational structure. Make sure... but that's last because it's the thing that can be rebuilt easiest. The other thing about the Paris, the Notre Dame issue was the other comment: They knew it could happen and by that they knew it would happen again because Notre Dame was trashed back in the French Revolution or "The Terror" as someone referred to it. But the thing that was interesting was they weren't making any meaningful changes to Notre Dame even though it had happened before, and they knew it could happen again. And again, I find this fascinating. I've talked and written before about black swans in IT. You know, that really big event where "the application crashed and we couldn't sell widgets to our customers and we lost blah, blah, thousands of dollars." And you know, all that stuff. "And now we need to make sure that never happens again!" Okay. Yeah. But it was a meteor falling on the earth. I can't... why are we spending time even talking about it? And yet businesses spend lots and lots of time trying to protect themselves from the next Black Swan, which is going to look just like the last Black Swan, even though that one is a black swan because it was unpredictable. So why would they not make meaningful changes? Josh: 14:09 So, I wonder about that, right? Like why would we not make meaningful changes when we know that something has happened? And I think you've nailed it there. These are black swan events. The chances that, the realistic chances of "The Terror" happening again, were reasonably small in the grand scheme of things. They also knew that the cathedral itself, although it is iconic, it can be rebuilt. So get the things that will go into the new building and in the new building will have new designs. So here, a tale from Mormonism. The Salt Lake Temple was one of the first buildings that was built in the Salt Lake Valley - major building that was built in the Salt Lake Valley after the Mormons moved there from Nauvoo. And when they got there, they built this temple out of stone that was quarried from the nearby quarries. That temple has stood the test of time. It's, it's been there for, uh, geez, I don't even know how many years. Well over a hundred years at this point. They are shutting the temple down in the center of Salt Lake because they are going to make some changes. They're going to redo the foundation, which at one point had cracked, and then they had to tear it out well before the temple was finished and then put it back in and then finish the temple. But they're going to protect the temple from seismic events. And not that, not that there's ever been a major earthquake in Utah, but you know, there could be, and it's hard to take such a landmark off the grid. People literally from around the world to see that that temple and downtown Salt Lake. So I imagine those changes to the Notre Dame cathedral would have been equally... uh, no, let me rephrase that. They would have been more impactful to a tourism around that facility and the worship services that go on in there. Leon: 16:21 So, yeah, not that Notre Dame doesn't undergo renovations. In fact, this all occurred during a renovation. They certainly were renovating. I just, I wonder about, why not a sprinkler system or whatever. Although, as I sit there and I say it to myself, again, working in IT, well, why don't we put sprinkler systems in our data center? Oh, that's right. That's why we don't do that. And you know, the art, the paintings, the whatever, you know, maybe Josh: 16:51 The servers Leon: 16:52 The servers. Yeah. The wiring, the electricity. A water suppression system would probably be be more damaging than not, than the fire, which I guess people feel that they can outrun. And they did, in large part. You know, they really did. And also that the next step up, a halon system is simply not possible in a structure the size of Notre Dame. Josh: 17:27 I think the key here, though, is don't make any changes because once you make changes, you introduce variables that you can't control. Like really, "no deploy Fridays"? They're a thing. I mean, they should be a thing. Leon: 17:39 So I hear that, although I think that Charity Majors, from Honeycomb.io, is on a campaign for getting rid of that. But... Josh: 17:48 I'm just going say she was the one I was thinking about when I said that, I was thinking "Charity is totally going to kill me." Leon: 17:53 But I will say also that she is presupposing that there is a vastly different architecture in place than A) the kind of structure that Notre Dame is; and B) the kind of day to day small, medium, even large size businesses, but sort of the, the monolithic businesses that we, you and I, are used to working in, I think that she's presupposing that's not the case. Josh: 18:21 Most definitely not. Right. I think if the equivalent of a of honeycomb in architecture would be something akin to.... Boy, I can't even, I I have no idea. I'm like what, what would change as often as an environment monitored by honeycomb? Leon: 18:43 Yeah. So neither one of us is architect enough to come up with a good analogy, but... Josh: 18:50 I have one!! Leon: 18:51 Oh, go ahead. Josh: 18:51 What about a 3-d printed house, one of those ones you can build in a day that like puts the concrete down? I think if you had something like that, Leon: 19:01 ...if that was the case then you wouldn't worry about you. Yeah. You'd deploy changes all the time because you just reprint your plans, right? Josh: 19:09 "Oh honey, I think we're going to put an addition on this afternoon." "Okay. Hit print." All right. There we go. So Honeycomb is like a 3-D printed house. Leon: 19:20 There we go. I'm going to tweet that and see how quickly Charity jumps on there to tell us "erm, no!" Okay. Um, Josh: 19:30 I have a question. You mentioned to me, when we were talking about this episode, about this comment about the "long now in action" and how that resonated with you. Tell me only, what was it about that phrase "the long now?" Leon: 19:45 I loved the idea - and just to put it in context from the tweet (and we'll have it in the notes from the show.) But the original comment, "They know what can be rebuilt and what can't." (I'd said that before) "...the protocol has been in place since the last time the cathedral was destroyed. Sacked during the French Revolution. The steeple and beams supporting it are 160 years old. And oaks for new beans await at Versailles, the grown replacement for oaks to rebuild after the revolution. This is the long now in action. It's what happens when you maintain civilization." So a few more pieces here about why the protocol is in place and how they do it. They actually do have a sense of disaster recovery. They're growing it! There are trees. And in the thread of the tweet that we quoted, the gentleman who tweeted it posted pictures of Versailles with the oaks that have been grown to replace pieces. Now, of course that's also meant to replace pieces that just wear out after a while, or become decayed or something like that. But the entire idea is that they have their disaster recovery. They have their replacement process in place. But the idea of calling it "the long now" - I think in American we call it the long game, right? But the long game has a whole different flavor than "the long now." The long now means that life is happening - now. We are in it - now. But I'm not just looking at this moment. I'm not living for just this moment. I'm living for this moment, and also to ensure that every other moment is able to be sustained or maintained like it. That my children will experience THIS now. They will walk into iconic structures like Notre Dame and have the same experience I'm having in in large part, if not completely. So I just like that. And from an IT perspective, I think that we would do well if we could build in awareness of the long now - and by the way, which things don't need it. Which aspects of our architecture really are momentary and shouldn't be given the "long now" treatment, like Y2K is a great example of not doing that. You're not thinking about the long now, and you're not building in obsolescence into your code to say, "No! At the end of five years, this has to go away. It has to, we have to do something else with it." So that's the opposite of it. I just, I was just enchanted with both the terminology and everything poetically that seemed to be wrapped in with it. Josh: 22:31 Yeah. And, and as I, as I've listened to you wax eloquent about that idea, I do think that that is it. That is really an enchanting idea. Maybe to make it a little more base and brutish. It's that whole argument of pets versus cattle. And I think Netflix was one of the first companies to really push that idea. Don't get so attached to your tech that you can't kill it off. Right? We've got this dog, her name is Mabel. She's a Boston terrier. She's the purebred. And she is literally the most expensive gift I have ever purchased for my wife. Not because she was expensive to buy. But in the first year of her life, she is undergone close to $4,500 in surgery because apparently Boston's have bad knees. Who would have known?? And so for my pets, for this pet in particular, we're willing to literally move heaven and earth to make sure that she's comfortable. Right. But I also enjoy eating cows and I would not move heaven and earth to save a cow. Leon: 23:47 You might spend extra for a really tasty cow, but that's a very different thing. So I have long said both in IT context and also in my home that it's not the cost of the puppy that's gonna get ya. It's the cost of feeding the puppy. Josh: 24:02 Children too, actually. Leon: 24:04 Yeah. Well that's, it's all of them. Right. Iit's like "but you know the puppy's free!" No, it's not. It's not buying the puppy, it's feeding the puppy. And I think that again in IT, we would be well served to remember which of our projects, which of our architectural choices, which of our things that we do during the day, which of our activities, are cattle and can be really sort of thoughtlessly left to the side. And which of them are pets. Cause I'm not gonna say that all of it is cattle. Not, not everything in it can be treated like cattle. We want to do a certain level of commoditization, but it's always gotta be the things that are intrinsically not valuable that, that we can change it. Another corollary in the Dev ops mindset that, since you've brought up Netflix. Netflix is named, but also, uh, other companies are referenced in a book called "The Phoenix Project." And the Phoenix project also mentions this thing called Disaster Kata. Now a kata in karate terms is simply a set of actions that you take, and you do them over and over and over again until they just become muscle memory. And so they do disaster recovery or emergency or chaos kata. So they practice being in trouble and getting themselves out of it when it's not really an actual problem. So that when there's a real problem, you have that muscle memory, you jump into the situation. And that's true of military training. That's true of true disaster responders. They do the same thing. They practice certain behaviors, so that they don't have to think really hard about them when they come. And I think that we see this in the Notre Dame cathedral experience also. Is that they had done their kata. They had figured out the protocol and practiced it or talked through it so they knew what they were doing. And this was an example of it. And again, we in IT would be well served to think about which types of failures, which types of disasters and recovery actions we would be well served to practice beforehand. You talked about backups a little bit ago, you know, practice your restores. Otherwise you have what has become affectionately known as "Schrodinger's backup." The backup is both there and possibly not there, and you won't know whether it's there until you try to restore it. And if it's at the worst possible time and the answer is "the cat in the box is dead," then you're going to have a problem. Josh: 26:42 What you have is you have a branding problem. If you don't know if your backups are there or not there, what you really have are "quantum backups!" You won't know what state they're in until you observe them. So just as long as you don't observe it, then you can assume that they're there. Right? Leon: 26:58 Um, that's, I, I'm, Josh: 27:00 I'm trademarking that too late. Leon: 27:02 That's fine. Quantum backup. It just makes it sound far more exciting and sophisticated, and also then management may want to buy more of it. "Don't check it. Don't check it! You'll let the quantum state out! That's we're paying for. Josh: 27:18 I love it. See, were gonna be millionaires. Millionaires! Leon: 27:21 We are, but we're also not going to be able to show her face in IT conferences ever. "THERE THEY ARE!! GO GET THEM!" All right. So I want to turn this around to the religious perspective and talk about you know, this idea of disaster recovery, this idea of, what we protect and what we don't protect. Now you talked about how the Mormon temple is being restructured because clearly they don't want to lose it. They can't 3-D print the temple in Salt Lake City. So yeah. So they're not gonna even try to do that. And also they know the hit to the community that it would represent if something bad happened to it. Josh: 28:03 And historically, the LDS church has been ransacked right? When they were in Kirtland, the Kirtland temple was destroyed. It was literally burned with, well, I won't say burned to the ground, but it was, it was burned and desecrated. So there's, there is a history in Mormonism, even though it's a relatively new religion from a religion perspective, you know, founded in 1830 of having, it's it's sacred objects desecrated by people who were against them. Leon: 28:35 Right? Okay. So, so in terms of disaster recovery - and again, we'll presume that every church and every synagogue and every temple of whichever stripe or flavor we're talking about, has their own structural, organizational protocol for what to do if the building is on fire - if that happens. But there's other things that had been disaster and disaster recovery. So there's two I'm thinking of, one big and one small. And the big one was the destruction of The Temple (capital letters), The Temple in Jerusalem. And not only was it the building that got destroyed, not only was it the entire organization of the priesthood that was effectively demolished with the loss of the temple and the single focal point of sacrifice, but the religion - Judaism itself - took a hit because at the time Judaism was a sacrifice based religion that, you know, when you wanted to say, "I'm sorry" or "I messed up" or "thank you", the method that you did that through was to go to The Temple, and bring a sacrifice, and the priest would sacrifice on the altar either all or in part, and you would either eat some of it in celebration or not. And there's all sorts of wonderful flavors of that. But you couldn't go do that in your backyard. That was absolutely not an okay thing to do for a variety of reasons that would take too long to go over. There's some wonderful videos that I might link to in the show notes for this episode. But what's Judaism going to do now? The Temple's gone. There's no longer away to say I'm sorry or I messed up or thank you or I'm happy. There's no longer a way to do that. So does the, does the religion just disappear? No. There was a pivot. First of all, the location moved from a Jerusalem to a town of Yavne. And also what happened was a philosophical change that instead of sacrifices on an altar, it became sacrifices of the heart. That prayer took the place of the sacrifice. First and very, very literally by reading the laws of sacrifice. It was analogous to doing the sacrifice. And so every morning in morning prayers, still to this day, Orthodox Jews will read through those laws of sacrifice and the process and the protocol to do it as a way of metaphorically or philosophically saying this is still alive. But also prayer itself. Also, everybody's home has become an altar that on Shabbat, that Sabbath offering that we bring the two loaves of bread and the wine and everything has taken the place of it. So the religion was able to pivot from a very visceral, physical experience of divinity and connecting to the divine to a very, I'm going to say, intellectual and mental connection. And that was a big change. And for the religion to be able to do that was really remarkable. Not to have people just say, "Oh, well yeah, the building's gone. Yeah, that's it. I guess I'm going to be a, you know, I dunno, a pastafarian or, you know, whatever. I'm not trying to offend any pastafarians. The giant invisible spaghetti monster is a fantastic being if or if it does not exist. So that's the big one. The little one though, the little story is actually in the middle of disaster and having this protocol and how it saves more than you expect. So a friend of mine here in Cleveland was telling me a story about his grandfather. His grandfather was a young man in Morocco and, very hilly, you know, a lot of mountains and stuff like that. And they were sort of look in the low lands I guess. And in the spring, you know, the spring melt and the water was coming in. And I guess one of the rivers overran its bed, and the grandfather could hear the water coming at the town, like a flood was coming and he could hear it. And so what do you do? He ran to the synagogue and he grabbed the Torah because you know, that's the thing like, just make sure you have the Torah. Like again, we're not going to worry about the structure. Nobody was in the building, so he grabbed the Torah. Now the thing that you need to understand is: many people have seen a Torah and they see this parchment that is rolled between two scrolls and then covered with a cloth. That is not what a Sephardic - or people from the Middle East, the Spanish country. There, it's in a box. If the scrolls are strung between two poles, but then that's all wrapped in a box itself. A wooden case. So he picks up this case and he realizes he wasn't fast enough. The water is now there. It's coming into the synagogue and it's rising really fast. And he's waiting through this water with this Torah, this huge boxy Torah in his arms trying to get out, and the water just completely sweeps him off his feet and now he's going down the street, you know, still holding onto the Torah. Which is a big wooden box. That holds air inside. And so he's holding it and now the Torah is holding him up. He's floating down the water, this, this deluge holding on for dear life, both metaphorically and physically to this Torah that is keeping him afloat. And it saved him. And on top of it there's a saying that many people say in Hebrew "etz chayim hi lamancha zikim ba" - "It's a tree of life to those who hold fast to it." And that story was passed down generation by generation that in making sure he followed this protocol, making sure he saved that thing, that one artifact, made sure that he was able to survive also. Josh: 35:11 Thanks for making time for us this week. To hear more of Technically Religious, visit our website, https://technicallyreligious.com, where you can find our other episodes, leave us ideas for future discussions, and connect with us on social media. Leon: 35:24 We didn't start the fire, Josh: 35:26 ...but you can be damn sure we're going to be asked to pull an all nighter to fight it.  

Salt Lake City, Utah’s high-elevation capital, is bordered by the buoyant waters of the Great Salt Lake and the snow-capped peaks of the Wasatch Range. Downtown’s 10-acre Temple Square, headquarters of the Mormon Church, is home to the majestic, 19th-century Salt Lake Temple and the neo-Gothic Assembly Hall. The area has plentiful farm-to-table restaurants and global eateries, along with wine bars and Irish pubs. In these flexible establishments, you can eat a multi-course dinner, watch a football game, catch up with friends, or even go on a date. — Chris Holifield | https://twitter.com/iamsaltlake | https://www.instagram.com/iamsaltlake

President Russell M. Nelson, head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced changes coming to the Salt Lake City temple of the church and to surrounding areas. The temple will close December 29, 2019 for an estimated period of 4 years while construction takes place. Doug Wright and Boyd Matheson discuss the proposed changes, their significance, and the impact they will have on the area. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Russell M. Nelson, head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced changes coming to the Salt Lake City temple of the church and to surrounding areas. The temple will close December 29, 2019 for an estimated period of 4 years while construction takes place. Doug Wright and Boyd Matheson discuss the proposed changes, their significance, and the impact they will have on the area.

The world watched in horror this week as Notre Dame burned. Now, with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints poised to announce Friday the details of a massive renovation project for its iconic Salt Lake Temple, perhaps Mormonism’s Notre Dame, thoughts turn to the Utah-based faith’s sacred structures. Allen Roberts, a Utah architect who specializes in preservation, including work on Latter-day Saint chapels, tabernacles and temples, discusses the church’s historic buildings, their place in the design world and the faith’s high points and low points in preserving them.

[paypal-donation] Sandra Tanner is well-known as being a critic of Mormonism.  (Some would even call her an anti-Mormon.)  So why am I, an active Mormon, talking to her?  Because she and her husband Jerald were the first people to question the authenticity of the Salamander Letter, a letter forged by Mark Hofmann that threatened the founding stories of the LDS Church.  Mark Hofmann met Sandra Tanner with a mind to give greater publicity to his forgeries. Sandra describes her first meetings with Mark.  In this first episode, we'll get acquainted with her, and learn how she met Mark Hofmann. https://youtu.be/yiMdtrXfVZQ Sandra:  My husband and I have been critics of Mormonism since 1959 when we got married and started trying to resolve conflicts in our own minds in Mormonism and we started publishing mimeograph[1] stuff if anyone knows what that is. I find young people don't even [know.]  When I say mimeograph is like blank [stare.] Anyways, back in 1959, we started mimeographing off little sheets of paper, pointing out historical discrepancies in Mormonism, which evolved into in [19]64, setting up full time publishing and printing on Mormonism. ... He comes in and hands me a photo of a paper that is supposed to be a copy of the Second Anointing ceremony, temple ceremony.... this was a big deal to have someone to come in and have a photocopy of a document that purported to be from about the 1912 time period from the Salt Lake Temple about the Second Anointing. And it was a one sheet thing and it had a rubber stamp across the side that said Salt Lake Temple, which I assume Mark got made at the stamp company here in Salt Lake. And so here's this document claiming to relate to the Second Anointing thing. And he brings it in to show me. and so this man who, I don't know, he hasn't told me his name. No, he can't tell me his name because he's from a very prominent family. And when his grandpa died, he was helping his mom clean out the attic and they went through his papers and he found this second anointing paper and realized that, wow, this was something he had never heard about before. And so he didn't show it to the family and he has this copy and he wanted to give me a copy, but he couldn't tell me who it was because he was this prominent family and you know, so it's all on the QT, you know, so, so I'm buying this whole thing. And I mean not buying in the sense of paying money. We didn't have it. We had zip money. We never got involved in these documents because we were not in that class of finances. But I realize now he was trying to establish credibility for this piece of paper. And I think by giving me this copy he assumed I would immediately pass it around to people and that would raise the value of it because others were talking about it, knew about it, see? But I didn't because it had no provenance. I don't know who this guy was. I don't know the name of the family. Check out our conversation… Sandra Tanner describes her interactions with Mark Hofmann [1] Mimeograph was a copy technology that has been replaced by copy machines now. Don't forget to check out our interviews with Curt Bench, Shannon Flynn, and George Throckmorton on the Hofmann murders. [paypal-donation]

We're continuing our discussion of Black History Month with Russell Stevenson.  He's the biographer of Elijah Ables, and we'll talk about the end of Elijah's life.  Did Elijah Ables affiliate with any other groups like James Strang, William Smith, or Sidney Rigdon? https://youtu.be/cGWc6FD_YBE Russell:  Going with that, we can maybe conclude that Elijah was certainly diplomatic and kind and charitable.  If you really want to go further out on a limb, more than the evidence that we have suggests, you can say that he affiliated with William Smith, the movement.  I'm not inclined to say that we have evidence to suggest that. We'll also talk about how Elijah worked on the Salt Lake Temple, but was never allowed to get his endowment.  Did he continue to try through the end of his life? Now in 1879, he does petition to receive his temple endowment.  By this point his wife has passed away.  We do have some evidence that he petitioned Brigham Young at some point, but again that's pretty late and we don't have any contemporary documentation to back that up. Check out our conversation….. (Don't forget to check out our previous conversations about Elijah Abel's early life, his mission to Canada, and his troubles in Cincinnati.)  You also might want to check out what Paul Reeve said on this topic! Photo from dedication of the Salt Lake Temple dedication in 1892 [paypal-donation]

On 14 January 2018, twelve days after the passing of Thomas S. Monson, the long-serving prophet-president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the remaining members of the church's highest quorums met together to set apart a new prophet-president, Russell M. Nelson, and to reorganize the First Presidency. In a move that surprised many, President Nelson selected Dallin H. Oaks as his first counselor and Henry B. Eyring as his second counselor. Eyring had previously been first counselor in the First Presidency under President Monson, and served alongside Dieter F. Uchtdorf as second counselor, who, with this change now moves back into his seniority slot within the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (which is currently a quorum of ten following president Monson's passing along with that of Elder Robert D. Hales a couple of months before.) Two days after the shuffle in the First Presidency, the three members of the First Presidency, with the apostles in the room but (except for one conducting a meeting) not speaking, appeared in front of television cameras, first within the Salt Lake Temple where each shared prepared remarks, and then thirty or so minutes later where they took part in a press conference. In this episode, Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon, is joined by good friends and fellow church watchers Walt Wood, Rosalynde Welch, and Caleb Jones in a discussion of this new prophet, First Presidency, and role changes within the Quorum of the Twelve. What are their impressions of the two public events? The changes in assignments? This new leadership in terms of what they said and didn't say in their messaging about what had happened and how the church might move in response to certain areas of concern (as prompted by questions from the press)? The panelists share personal reactions to the news and news conference as well as speak to what they have been hearing among the various church constituencies of which they are a part--most particularly with regard to the reassignment of Elder Uchtdorf and its potential effects on the church, both external and internal. New leadership takes time to get to know, and the panelists share their intentions to be patient and attentive and thoughtful as they hear and sustain these leaders in their new roles. In what resources or impressions are they finding optimism and strength?

On 14 January 2018, twelve days after the passing of Thomas S. Monson, the long-serving prophet-president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the remaining members of the church's highest quorums met together to set apart a new prophet-president, Russell M. Nelson, and to reorganize the First Presidency. In a move that surprised many, President Nelson selected Dallin H. Oaks as his first counselor and Henry B. Eyring as his second counselor. Eyring had previously been first counselor in the First Presidency under President Monson, and served alongside Dieter F. Uchtdorf as second counselor, who, with this change now moves back into his seniority slot within the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (which is currently a quorum of ten following president Monson's passing along with that of Elder Robert D. Hales a couple of months before.) Two days after the shuffle in the First Presidency, the three members of the First Presidency, with the apostles in the room but (except for one conducting a meeting) not speaking, appeared in front of television cameras, first within the Salt Lake Temple where each shared prepared remarks, and then thirty or so minutes later where they took part in a press conference. In this episode, Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon, is joined by good friends and fellow church watchers Walt Wood, Rosalynde Welch, and Caleb Jones in a discussion of this new prophet, First Presidency, and role changes within the Quorum of the Twelve. What are their impressions of the two public events? The changes in assignments? This new leadership in terms of what they said and didn't say in their messaging about what had happened and how the church might move in response to certain areas of concern (as prompted by questions from the press)? The panelists share personal reactions to the news and news conference as well as speak to what they have been hearing among the various church constituencies of which they are a part--most particularly with regard to the reassignment of Elder Uchtdorf and its potential effects on the church, both external and internal. New leadership takes time to get to know, and the panelists share their intentions to be patient and attentive and thoughtful as they hear and sustain these leaders in their new roles. In what resources or impressions are they finding optimism and strength?

[paypal-donation] In our next conversation, we'll talk about differences in temple worship between the LDS Church and the RLDS Church.  (Note:  The Community of Christ has been historically known as the RLDS Church.)  Community of Christ Apostle, Lachlan MacKay and John Hamer (a Seventy) discuss the differences in temple worship between the two churches, and how the temple has evolved. Lachlan:  Sure.  So Kirtland in the 1830s, it's a house for public worship with a strong emphasis on empowerment, both spiritually and intellectually.  Two-thirds of Kirtland Temple was classroom space.  You would worship in the temple on Sundays, and you would go to school six days a week.  Kirtland High School met on the third floor.  Students ranged in age from six through adults, so it was the center of their community life. My sense is that in Nauvoo the same was going to be true, but you did start to have to have, I believe, a receipt saying you were a tithe payer in order to gain access to the baptismal font, and they didn't welcome non-members in the temple in Nauvoo while they were performing ordinances, but it was still a public building.  That receipt, I think, is what many generations later would become the idea of a temple recommend. ... John:  This idea for the LDS tradition of having what constitutes temple work and everything like that, almost all of this is extremely different than what existed in Kirtland.  There's no font, like you say, in the Kirtland Temple.  That's something that begins in Nauvoo.  The same thing, the Endowment ceremony, and things like that is taking place after Joseph Smith had been exposed to Freemasonry and things like that so that also isn't taking place, the whole liturgy and things like that in Kirtland. I have a chart.  I'll give it to you so you can splice it in if you want for the videos, but essentially where you take the spaces that exist, you've taken Kirtland, like what Lach is telling you about, the spaces of worship, the space for learning, the space for order, the church offices and things like that, you can see where they have that same major portion of the space is devoted to that in Nauvoo, but then there's also the space for the baptism of the dead in the basement and there's a space for endowments in the attic. Then you go to Salt Lake, all of that is preserved so there's a big solemn assembly hall and things like that in the Salt Lake Temple.  There are the offices for the apostles and things like that, but then when you get to the little temples that are in the LDS tradition, which might be what most Mormons in the Utah tradition are exposed to, they don't have any of those things that are from the Kirtland period.  All they have is the basement and attic part of the Nauvoo Temple and that's their whole experience.  So they go and that's their temple experience.  They go to Kirtland and say, “What did these Reorganites do to the temple?  It's not even—it's so alien.”  That's what Kirtland is!  But anyway, we're each honoring different parts of the heritage. We'll also talk about baptism for the dead as well as vision of Elijah in 1836 in the Kirtland Temple.  It's going to be a very interesting conversation.  I hope you check it out (as well as part 1 of our conversation)! https://youtu.be/rLfMRzvEUUk [paypal-donation]

The Saints begin settling the Salt Lake Valley, including the construction of the Salt Lake Temple. What lessons do you learn from these pioneers?

In 1890, President George Q. Cannon sent 5 young artists from Salt Lake City to Paris to study painting in preparation of the completion of the Salt Lake Temple. After convincing the Church to sponsor John Hafen, Lorus Pratt, JB Fairbanks, Edwin Evans, and Herman Haag left for the Academie Julian to study painting under the great French Impressionists of the Belle Epoque. In this special episode, we discuss their background training, and impact on Utah Art in the 20th Century. 

We'll continue our discussion about the Mark Hofmann bombings.  After a night's rest, the bombs continued the next day again, but this time Mark himself was the victim. Curt Bench:  Remember I told you about warning Mark and so the next day which is the 16th of October [1985] I'm driving.  Actually I had been somewhere to try to negotiate a deal that was based on information I had gotten from him, so I'm driving back to my office and on the news said there was a third bomb.  Keep in mind this is surreal for our area.  I mean these bombings are going on.  Nobody knows what's going on.  Nobody knows why, there's a lot of fear.  There's a lot of uncertainty and then when there's a third bomb and then I find out that it's Mark Hofmann that's the victim, I about drove off the road, and I remember hitting my steering wheel and saying aloud to myself, ‘Mark why didn't you listen to me?'  He didn't seek safety and he was the third victim. In preparing for another interview, I was surprised to learn that a young missionary by the name of David Rosenvall actually witnessed and heard the bomb blast that injured Hofmann.  David will describe his reactions to the loud noise he heard as he left the Salt Lake Temple that day. David Rosenvall:  The day before I was to enter into the MTC [Missionary Training Center], I was at the Salt Lake Temple and coming out from that experience and our car was parked on Main Street just beside the Deseret Gym.  As I got to the car, was putting some things in there, just up the road and just behind the Deseret Gym there, there was an explosion and at the time I had no idea what it was or what was going on.  We quickly ran up there to see it.  There were about 20 people gathered around somebody on the road.  You could see that he was injured and hurt.  I didn't know who it was at the time. Was it an accident?  Was it intended for someone else, or did Mark purposely injure himself?  These are some great questions and Curt Bench will talk about the answers to these questions in our conversation.  (Don't forget to check out Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3!)  What do you remember about the Hofmann bombings? Check out our conversation… https://youtu.be/ars8PDjDAto https://gospeltangents.com/shop/transcripts/bomb-day-2-targets-oct-16-1985/  

Angie Young is a mother of 3 young girls and serves as a Young Women President, just outside of Ogden in Clinton, Utah. She was married in the Salt Lake Temple to her husband that she met online. When asked what makes her a unique Mormon, she says, "Her time away from the church in her early youth, gives her a unique perspective on the gospel.” She currently works from home in addition to being a mom, and has makeup line called, “Younique.”