Recent
21683

Church Gives Australian Prime Minister a Priceless Gift

Newsroom - Prime Minister Tony Abbott was presented with a framed family tree and three folders of research on Friday 22 May by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that detail his family history over hundreds of years. The presentation was made in the Prime Minister's residence by Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Church's Quorum of Twelve Apostles and Elder Kevin W. Pearson, president of the Church's Pacific Area. They were accompanied by David Cray, the Church's director of government and interfaith relations in Australia. Elder Cook said: "Prime Minister Abbott's history is rich with examples of faith, love of...

21672

Woman Tries to Jump from 26th Floor of Church Office Building

LDS Living - KUTV reported this morning that an incident occurred at the Church Office Building in downtown Salt Lake. Multiple emergency departments responded just before 10am on Wednesday, May 27th. The street was cordoned off for about half an hour.  It was later reported that a woman was threatening to harm herself. "It appears that the woman had climbed over the plexiglass wall and was at the railing where she had the ability to jump off," Asay told Deseret News . "Church security acted quickly, they got up there, got handcuffs on her and the railing to keep her on the railing, keep her...

21669

Mormon Man Drowns After Helping 9-Year-Old Cousin Escape Similar Fate

East Idaho News - Sjon Trent Johnson, 24, of Richmond, Texas, drowned after his canoe capsized and he was trapped on a log jam on the Henrys Fork of the Snake River, according to a news release. EastIdahoNews.com spoke with Joel Galbraith, a family member who was on the Memorial Day canoeing trip with Johnson. Galbraith said the Snake River was much higher and faster than the family had anticipated. The river also held more debris than they had seen in previous trips. ...

21668

LDS Musicians Hoping to Get Original Song Into Next 'Hunger Games' Movie

KSL - A group of former and current commercial music students at Brigham Young University have written a song they are trying to get into "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2." The rough draft version of “Live or Survive” was originally written by BYU students Taylor Miranda and Eliza Smith, who were assigned to write a song for the end credits of the Hunger Games for their songwriting class with professor Ron Saltmarsh about a year ago, according to Miranda. Miranda said in Hunger Games, the characters are sacrificing everything for a chance at a better life, and "Live or Survive" replicates that...

21662

4 Things Sportswriters Get Wrong About What LDS Athletes Actually Do on Their Missions

Vanquish the Foe - I know Mormons are a little different. I don't expect every person everywhere to understand a religion and its culture so well to be experts in everything they say or write. However, Mormon athletes in college have been around for a long time, and so has the idea of those athletes serving missions. A recent article from NBC Sports about top basketball prospect (and Mormon) Frank Jackson highlights several points that typically make members of the LDS Church groan in the missionary-athlete discussion. I'm not here to pile on the writer. After all, some of the mischaracterization seems to come from...

21666

Elder Oaks Gives a Behind-the-Scenes Look at How Missionaries Get Assigned

LDS Living - Ever wonder how a prospective missionary gets assigned to his or her mission? Today, Elder Dallin H. Oaks shared a behind-the-scenes look at the process. -->Related Reading: What's Life Like at the MTC? In a Facebook post, he shared, "We are assisted in this sacred experience by a member of the Missionary Department staff, who keeps records and manages the computer screens on which we view the essential information on elders and sisters and the needs (including languages) of our more than 400 missions in the world." Read more from Elder Oaks in the full post below: I recently assigned missionaries,...

21661

U.S. Schools Cracking Down on Prom Dress Codes

The Daily Universe - When students at a Connecticut high school arrive Saturday for their junior-senior prom, they will have to get past the watchful eyes of officials there to make sure girls’ dresses don’t show too much skin. Shelton High School set up a prom dress review panel this week amidst outrage from parents. The school, outside New Haven, announced Friday it has reviewed more than 150 dresses and informed six girls that their gowns won’t be allowed into the dance. Female school staff members will be at the dance to ensure that every girl attending has an “appropriate” dress, said Ann Baldwin, a...

21659

Do You Fit or Break the Mormon Mold?

Deseret News - They say newspaper columnists can double their readership by writing about athletes who belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That’s not exactly true. My column on slugger Bryce Harper , a Mormon maverick, drew 10 times my usual number of readers. And all those fresh eyes triggered many fresh comments about Mormons who fit the mold and those who break it. According to the mailbag, there is something to be said for both. Many who wrote to me defended conformity. And I understand that. When values, ideas and experiences merge, a shared style often surfaces. There’s security and...

21658

Is Your Financial House in Order? A Simple Checklist for Latter-day Saint Families

Aggieland Mormons - In a memorable General Conference address in October 1998, President Gordon B. Hinckley advised members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the world that “the time has come to get our houses in order.” In the years since President Hinckley’s remarks, the United States has endured two economic recessions, including the most severe recession of the post-World-War-II era. But did you realize that in every decade since the 1930s, the U.S. has experienced at least one and in some cases two recessions? When difficult financial or economic conditions arise, having your financial house in order will allow...

21506

Why the Best Moms Never Grow Up Too Much

Lisa Valentine Clark - Earlier this month, I drove with my brother, Chris, my sister, Gina, and her husband, Jonathan, to Lincoln, Nebraska, where we all grew up. We went with the middle-aged dream of running the Lincoln Half Marathon to somehow prove to ourselves that we are in the best shape of our lives, literally outrunning age. Well, I’m sure subconsciously that’s what we thought. In reality, we were painfully reminded of our age or, as my sister Gina stated when she stumbled across the finish line at Husker stadium drenched in sweat, “I didn’t respect the miles.” (Also, we forgot about the humidity....