Mormon Studies Commons^™

Bringing God Into Our Marriage, Debra Theobald Mcclendon, Richard J. Mcclendon

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

President Dallin H. Oaks observed that “a good marriage does not require a perfect man or perfect woman. It only requires a man and a woman committed to strive together toward perfection.” Marriage is a journey where spouses learn and grow together as they move toward the eternities. As couples, even though it takes a lot of work, we can create good marriages through our own consistent, diligent efforts to prioritize the relationship. We can work on our own to have a healthy and resilient approach to life and our spouse. We can work together as a couple to navigate …

Conversions, Arrests, And Friendships: A Story Of Two Icelandic Police Officers, Fred E. Woods, Kari Bjarnason

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In 1881 in Reykjavík, Iceland, two Icelandic police officers, Þorsteinn (Thorsteinn) Jónsson and Jón Borgfirðingur, were sent to arrest Latter-day Saint missionaries. These missionaries had baptized the first three converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Reykjavík a year earlier, and one of those converts, Sigríður Jónsdóttir, happened to be the wife of one of the arresting officers. But a remarkable friendship, one that thrived irrespective of time, distance, and religious differences, developed due to the arrests and the events surrounding them. Although the story and historical context of the missionaries’ experience in Reykjavík have been …

“Thy Troubles To Bless”, Jeffery S. Mcclellan

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Dark clouds filled the Provo sky on April 15, 2003. It was the due date for our second daughter, but there were still no signs of imminent delivery. My wife, Christine, was concerned that she had not felt the baby move for a day or so. She felt urgently that we needed to go to the hospital for a test. I thought she was overly cautious, but we went.

Full Issue

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

End Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

“Line Upon Line”: Joseph Smith’S Growing Understanding Of The Eternal Family, R. Devan Jensen, Micheal A. Goodman, Barbara Morgan Gardner

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” So begins L . P. Hartley’s novel The Go-Between. This statement reminds religious educators to study history as it unfolded and to avoid presentism, or “an attitude toward the past dominated by present-day attitudes and experiences.” Latter-day Saint doctrines did not spring up fully formed, as we have them today. The historical record shows that Joseph Smith did not begin with a full understanding of the doctrines of eternal families and sealing ordinances as we teach them today. In fact, the Prophet Joseph Smith dictated a revelation on …

The New Home-Centered, Church-Supported Curriculum, Tad R. Callister, Scott C. Esplin

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Esplin: Thank you, President Callister, for meeting with me and for helping our readers understand the role of the Church’s Sunday School General Presidency and, maybe most important, changes that have been announced regarding the curriculum and the organization of our classes. You have previously served as a General Authority and in the Presidency of the Seventy. What can you share about your calling and experience as the Church’s Sunday School General President? How has it shaped you as a teacher and as a learner?

Callister: As a teacher, it has helped me be more observant as I …

The Bread Of Life, With Chocolate Chips, Samuel Morris Brown

BYU Studies

I learned to cook when my wife was recovering from cancer surgery. There’s a hollowness, kindred to cancer, hungry to swallow you up when a beloved’s life is threatened. I still remember, with a soul-deep ache, that time when her body was a battleground for scalpeling surgeons and monstrously mutated cells. Those harrowing days and their fulminating awareness of her mortality still haunts me. I’ve seen a lot of death in my short life; nothing disoriented me like her cancer.

The Day Joseph Smith Was Killed, Alex D. Smith

BYU Studies

Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed on June 27, 1844, in the recently constructed jail in Carthage, Illinois. Years later, local resident Amanda Benton Smith recorded her own account of the events of that day. Twenty-eight years old and a mother of six, Amanda was the wife of Carthage Grey captain Robert F. Smith—the militia officer responsible for protecting the Latter-day Saint prisoners and defending the town. In her reminiscence, Amanda describes learning of the Smiths’ deaths and draws a vivid picture of the vacant Hancock County seat as local citizens fled to the countryside in anticipation of the Latter-day …

Brigham Young’S Newly Located February 1874 Revelation, Christopher James Blythe

BYU Studies

Brigham Young dictated few dialogic revelations (that is, revelations in the voice of the Lord) while he was prophet, seer, and revelator of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Only one of the revelations found in the 138 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants was received under his ministry. Young was often willing to share visions, dreams, and impressions, but he hesitated to place these types of revelations in the language of the Lord, and when he did so verbally, he was even more hesitant to place them in writing.

“You Had Better Let Mrs Young Have Any Thing She Wants”, Matthew C. Godfrey

BYU Studies

It was a cold, blustery day in Commerce, Illinois—a town pressed up against the Mississippi River—in November 1839. As the rain poured from the sky, a small skiff appeared on the river, approaching Commerce (later renamed Nauvoo) from Montrose, Iowa Territory. A woman huddled in the vessel, trying to protect a small bundle in her arms from the elements. The rain, coupled with the spray from the river, soaked both the woman and the bundle, which was a two-month-old baby. Despite the rawness of the day, the woman was determined to reach Commerce, hoping to visit the tithing office of …

Martyrs In Mexico: A Mormon Story Of Revolution And Redemption, Ignacio M. Garcia, Cindy Gonzalez

BYU Studies

While not described as such, Martyrs in Mexico is a continuation of the story that author F. LaMond Tullis gave us in Mormons in Mexico, a classic work, first published in 1987, detailing the growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico. Martyrs in Mexico, however, has a narrower scope, focusing on one community—San Marcos, Hidalgo—from which would come well-known individuals of the Church in Mexico. Why did Tullis choose San Marcos? The obvious answer is that this community holds an important place in Church lore. San Marcos was the place of one of …

Joseph F. Smith’S Theology Of Temples: Changing Perceptions Of Temples And Temple Worship, Grant Underwood

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

The Sapporo Japan Temple: Cultural Fusion And Friction In The Development Of An Lds Japanese Identity, Stephen J. Moody, Dainan M. Skeem

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Although it began as a small, local organization, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grew into an international organization in a relatively short time frame. Church membership totaled just six individuals when it was established on 6 April 1830. That number had grown to 250,000 when Utah was granted statehood on 4 January 1896, with the vast majority located within the state. In 1947, one hundred years after being expelled from Illinois, membership reached the one million mark with membership still focused primarily within North America.1 In 1974, President Spencer W. Kimball gave a sermon that became a …

Mormon Historical Society Presentation

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Aloha Everyone,

Our paternal and maternal grandparents, Goo Yee Kew and Choy Soong on the right; Chun Wah Ing and Lee Shee on the left immigrated from China to Hawaii in the early 1900s. Both grandfathers came over separately and established themselves as merchants and then went back for their wives, and returned to Hawaii coincidentally around the same time in February and March 1915 to raise their families here in Hawaii. They did not know each other. I've been able to find their immigration interviews from the Chinese Exclusion Act files which you will be able to look at …

Sacred Temple Experiences And The Nuku`Alofa Tonga Temple

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Brothers and Sisters, Aloha! This is truly a high moment for me and Carolyn, to once again be among people we love, in the place we love, in these precious islands.

Labor Missionaries And The Laie Hawaii Temple

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Raised In The Shadow Of The Temple: Impact On An Immigrant Family

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Mormon Pacific Historical Society 2019 Conference “Lds Temples In The Pacific: A Centennial Celebration”

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Brothers and Sisters,

I am Elder Gary Davis of the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, UT. My wife Deborah and I have been laboring in the Hawaiian Islands for the past 28 months as part of the Laie Hawaii Temple History Project. I began serving as a Church Service Missionary at the Church History Library on February 1, 2016. I was recruited to work in the Global Acquisitions section of the Church History Library and assigned to gather the journals, letters, personal histories, photographic images, oral histories, documents of all kinds and the testimonies of early members and …

Hong Kong: A Temple For Every Corner Of The World

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

A Special Case: An Exception to Temple Rationale

There was a sense of urgency for providing a temple in Hong Kong in the 1990s as in no other temple construction. This was because the ninety-nine-year lease that made Hong Kong a British colony was going to expire 30 June 1997.1 The British government would be handing over Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China on 1 July 1997.2 When Hong Kong became part of China, “religious organizations,” according to Elder John K. Carmack, “were to be given the right to acquire property; receive outside financial support, have ownership rights, …

Suva Fiji Temple

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Elder William Mark Waddoups: Called And Served With Aloha, Carol Helekunihi

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

In the Laie, Hawaii Temple dedication from the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, January, 1920, a report by President Rudgar Clawson, we read, “We thank thee, O Father , this day that the promise made in a dream to thy servant William W. Cluff, by the Prophet Brigham Young, that a day would come that a temple should be erected in this land, is fulfilled before our eyes”. p.4

Temple Work And The Tahitian Saints

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Slide 1 The title of our presentation is “Temple Work and the Tahitian Saints.” The Culmination of the Lord’s Work anywhere in the world is to Help His Children Make and Keep Temple Covenants!! This presentation will address the milestones which marked the progress of the Lord’s inspired work in accomplishing this objective among the Tahitian Saints. It will be presented in three parts:

Mphs 2019 Conference

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Unto The Isles Of The Sea: Latter-Day Saint Temples In The Pacific, Richard O. Cowan

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Temple blessings and covenants are at the apex of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so temples have been important to Latter-day Saints in the Pacific. To what extent has temple building in this area reflected the pattern worldwide?

Ni Ya Ta Hano Para I Temple I Guma Yu’Us, Devan Jensen

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Micronesian Journeys to the Temple

Draft Notes by Devan Jensen based on original research and Revised Guam Travel Packet, Revised Micronesia Travel Packet

The Mariana Islands are home to one of the oldest of Pacific Island cultures, the Chamorro culture. More than 4000 years ago seafaring people from Southeast Asia settled the Mariana Islands, and they have been continuously occupied since. Over the last 400 years, Guam has been under the administration of Spain, the United States, and Japan. Spain was the first to claim sovereignty over Guam. It was the site of the first Roman Catholic mission and a …

A Comparative Look At The Dedication And Rededication Prays Of The Laie Hawaii Temple, J. Perry Christensen

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

This paper looks at the original dedicatory prayer and the two subsequent rededicatory prayers of the Laie Hawaii Temple in terms of historical settings, linguistic features, and content similarities and comparisons. The 1919 dedication and the 1978 rededication prayers are essentially the same in organization and very similar in content—almost word for word with parts of the 1919 pray either updated or deleted in the 1978 prayer. The 2010 rededication prayer is vastly different in organization and content, though an effort has been made to rearrange this prayer so that the content which is similar is presented next to the …

Hyrum Conrad Pope: Architect Of God’S Temple On This Pu’Uhonua, Hannah Fullerton

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

At night if one looks over from the Ko’olau mountain range, the sea, or the land a great light can be seen shining from the Laie Hawaii temple. For over three hundred years mankind has congratulated himself on the invention of lighthouses that bring ships in to harbor from a stormy sea. But for eternities has God created lighthouses of His own and the one that stands here has guided millions to safe harbor in a world awash in tumultuous darkness. This temple is unique for many reasons. La’ie Hawai’i temple is the first outside the continental US. This land …

James Lowe

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Sam Lowe excused. As early as 1970, the church had decided to remodel the temple, and notified newly-called President Lloyd Walsh of their intentions. You local folks are going to laugh, but the project was delayed about 5 years because of the difficulty of obtaining the necessary building permits! Typical Hawaii.

Full Issue

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.