Category: Life in the Church

  • President Uchtdorf to First Presidency

    Frank McIntyre

    That is all.

  • The Form of Mormon Temple Ceremonies

    Ben Huff

    For a concrete idea of what Mormon temple services are like, comparing them with a Catholic Mass actually goes pretty far.

  • Joseph Smith, Again for the First Time

    Ardis E. Parshall

    Sometimes I have suffered from convert envy.

  • Watching conference

    Wilfried Decoo

    Stake conference in the mission field. Still the mission field, for although we are a stake, there is no stake center, only a chapel in some of the main cities, and rented rowhouses elsewhere. The stake covers some 10,000 square miles. Therefore we gather in this huge, sparsely lit movie theatre—theatre number 14 in a…

  • Women Who Know

    Patricia Karamesines

    … grow tomatoes in their home garden, and lots of them. Men who know grow them, too.

  • Little street vendor

    Wilfried Decoo

    She is a little street vendor who put up shop next to the entrance of the church with the long name.

  • Generations

    Dave Banack

    The tireless Kevin Barney is hosting a discussion of LDS apologetics for teenagers over at BCC, trying to get a handle on the tone, approach, and content of a fireside-type presentation to LDS youth on that topic. Reflecting on this, it occurred to me that one of the challenges is how the topics that get…

  • LDS Historical Sites

    Dave Banack

    A couple of months ago I heard a presentation on the general topic of historical sites that the Church owns and manages. I came with a pocketful of snarky questions but left with some appreciation for how tough the task is and (on the whole) how well the sites are set up and managed. I’ll…

  • How Much Should We Advantage Our Kids Over Others?

    Matt Evans

    When asked why they aren’t more generous with their time or money, many people answer that if they gave more, it would be at the expense of their own children. Sure, the argument goes, it would be great if I could pay an extra $100 to provide immunizations for kids in Africa, but my first…

  • Why Haven’t You Adopted an Orphan Child?

    Matt Evans

    For years I’ve been torn by the knowledge that there are thousands of orphaned or abandoned children desperate to be welcomed into a family like mine and our reasons for “passing by on the other side” when we see the “least of these.”

  • Quality

    Patricia Karamesines

    Warning: To write this post, I’ve had to get personal. I apologize in advance for that, but some points I make require grounding in my observations about personal experiences, many of which are highly charged. The stories and observations I report here in no way represent everything I think about these matters. More importantly, they…

  • BYU Summer Seminar

    Jim F.

    The annual summer symposium, this year “Joseph Smith and His Times,” will be held on Thursday, August 9, 2007. The symposium will feature papers by twelve summer seminar fellows on the theme “Mormon Thinkers, 1890-1930,” covering topics ranging from the influence of Herbert Spencer on Mormon thought to Mormonism and Modernity.

  • Who Owns That Church?

    Dave Banack

    There’s always an owner, of course — there are few concepts more disfavored in the law than real property without an owner. But when it comes to chapels and church buildings, the question of just who owns them can get messy. The latest example: a congregation in Orange County that is trying to leave the…

  • What if . . . ?

    Jim F.

    What if I didn’t believe in God? Would I still be a Mormon?

  • Memorial Quiz

    Frank McIntyre

    Kristine’s pop quiz prompts me to ask a similar quiz I’ve had on my mind. Think of this as Memorial Day come early. Feel free to cheat if you have to: Name your great grandparents. Name 5 of your great-great grandparents. Name 3 of your great-great-great grandparents.

  • The ordinary

    Jim F.

    However well we do in school or our jobs or in our church callings or in any endeavor, most of our lives are and will be ordinary.

  • Appropriate Requests

    P. Anderson

    Yesterday we met our new home teachers. After they shared their message, and before they asked to leave us with a prayer, they asked the common question, “Is there anything you need that we can help you with?” We answered “No.” We then said a prayer together and they left. When they asked that question…

  • From Russia With Love- Updated

    P. Anderson

    There is a certain sort of person that is just so self-absorbed and generally unaware that it just doesn’t feel wrong to gossip about them, they’d just enjoy the extra attention. In my childhood ward it was Brother L.- in that ward people traded gossip about Brother L. like baseball cards. In fact it feels…

  • Quadrupling Fast Offerings

    Frank McIntyre

    About a year or so ago our stake made a move to improve fast offering receipts. The bishop supported this and urged everyone to donate to fast offerings and, in addition to the general admonition, he reinstituted Aaronic priesthood collection of fast offerings after church.

  • We Did It

    Russell Arben Fox

    We’ve finally read the entire Book of Mormon as a family, all of us (those that can read, anyway) taking turns verse by verse. It only took us four and a half years, and we’re ready to do it again.

  • Natural Succession or the Prophetic Death Card?

    Michael McBride

    Does God control who is Church President by ending life (using the “death card”)? Or does he control who is President by controlling the order in which Apostles are called? Of course, both can be true (or neither depending on your theological persuasion), but let’s examine these questions systematically.

  • How Wrong is it to Compare Yourself with Others?

    Michael McBride

    A growing body of research (mine own included) in various social sciences finds that people report higher happiness levels when they do better than the people around them.

  • Could the Restoration have Happened Elsewhere and Elsewhen?

    Michael McBride

    The common answer heard today in the Church is no. A variety of reasons are usually given:

  • O’Dea’s The Mormons Part II: The Edited Volume Retrospective

    Michael McBride

    The Mormon Social Science Association, under the direction of editors John Hoffman, Cardell Jacobsen, and Tim Heaton of BYU’s Department of Sociology, is currently putting together a volume of essays that retrospectively assess O’Dea’s 1957 classic The Mormons.

  • Making Money off the Mormons: Sacrament Butt-pads

    Michael McBride

    When I was a senior in college, I worked at Seagull Book and Tape, an LDS book and trinket store across the street from the LA Temple. (The pay was lousy, but working with books was fun. So it turned out to be a decent job.) I was amazed by all the stuff that Mormons…

  • Race, class, and retention

    Patrick Mason

    As a missionary, I was constantly admonished to ensure that our potential converts were spiritually, and not just socially converted.

  • Primary Lesson Supplements 20-24

    Julie M. Smith

    I’ve been distributing weekly lesson supplements to our senior Primary teachers; I figured I might as well post them here. “Those might be of some use,” as my four-year-old would say. You can also use these ideas for FHE, Sharing Time, etc.

  • Growing Old

    Jim F.

    I was going to title this “growing older,” but I decided to be honest. I’ll be fifty-nine this year and, though I’m not yet decrepit, by most people’s measures I’ll officially be old next year.

  • Tempted to Violate the Word of Wisdom

    Julie M. Smith

    When we think of temptations related to the Word of Wisdom, we usually think of, you know, being tempted to violate the WoW. But I can think of a few different WoW-related temptations.

  • “Well, yes, actually, there is.”

    Julie M. Smith

    That’s not the answer you expect when you toss out the standard home/visiting teaching line asking if there is anything you can do to help your teachee.