Book of Mormon


Condensed
Book of Mormon
Highly condensed, for a good way to
dip your toes into the wells of living water


Miraculous Printing of the Book of Mormon?
Aug/09
It took an "old-time" printer turned L.D.S. Institute of Religion teacher named Gordon Weight to notice that it may have been miraculous to print 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon in only seven months with the technology of that time. This article reviews and evaluates the evidence from his booklet entitled Miracle on Palmyra's Main Street.

Is Mesoamerica the Setting of the Book of Mormon?
Aug/09
Here are ancient pyramids swallowed in the tropical jungles, mounds and walls entangled in vegetation, remains of cities buried in lava flows, hidden in lakes, and buried under centuries of earth.

When Joseph Smith Could Not Translate
March/07
He had to trust in God. He could not translate unless he was humble and possessed the right feelings towards everyone.

Were the Golden Plates Gold?
March/07
Joseph Smith said that the set of plates was 8 inches long, 6 inches wide, and 6 inches thick, which would weigh about 200 pounds if made of pure 24K gold. That is a lot for Joseph Smith to have carried.

A Case for Historicity: the Book of Mormon's
Production Culture
March/07
The Book of Mormon makes complete sense as a historical document only when we place it in the correct historical context. Without the correct production culture, the text is sometimes foreign to human experience. But placed in the correct production culture where the unstated assumptions become explicit for the reader, the text authentically describes human motivations appropriate to that historical time and place.

Geologists Discover Iron in Region of Nephi’s Bountiful
March/07
The Book of Mormon makes some very specific claims about many aspects of the Arabian Peninsula. But information about this place is so difficult to obtain that the only way these claims can be verified is to actually retrace the journey made by Lehi and his followers. Several groups have done this and made some amazing discoveries.

Faith and the Book of Mormon
March/07
The honest have nothing to hide; the devious have everything to hide. My preference in approaching a text is to appraise its value by examining the internal evidence the text itself presents.

DNA and the Book of Mormon
March/07
Critics of the Book of Mormon frequently claim that the events related in the Nephite record must be read as taking place on a stage consisting of the entire Western Hemisphere. This allows them to treat the scripture as though it purported to be a history of the American Indian.

Hugh Nibley's Book of Mormon Challenge
March/07
Hugh Nibley once asked his Book of Mormon class at BYU, "It should not be too much to ask you to hand in by the end of the semester (which will give you more time than Joseph Smith had) a paper of, say, five to six hundred pages in length. Tell of a community of wandering Jews in ancient times; have all sorts of characters in your story, and involve them in all sorts of public and private vicissitudes; give them names - hundreds of them - pretending that they are real Hebrew and Egyptian names of circa 600 B.C.; be lavish with cultural and technical details - manners and customs, arts and industries, political and religious institutions, rites and traditions, include long and complicated military and economic histories; have your narrative cover a thousand years without any large gaps; keep a number of interrelated local histories going at once; feel free to introduce religious controversy and philosophical discussion, but always in a plausible setting; observe the appropriate literary conventions and explain the derivation and transmission of your varied historical materials. Above all, do not ever contradict yourself!

A Social History of the Early Nephites
March/07
In this paper, I examine the New World in an attempt to find a similar time, context, and contemporary culture with which to better see the text of the Book of Mormon.

A Jaredite Journey by Sea
March/07
A Captain’s viewpoint on boat specifications

The Historicity of The Book of Mormon
Aug/04
For all its simple and straightforward narrative style, this history is packed as few others are with a staggering wealth of detail that completely escapes the casual reader.

Various Thoughts On Book of Mormon Geography
Aug/04
Various Interesting Thoughts On Book of Mormon Geography

Ideas to Ponder

On Judging Others by Their Church Activity
May/09
We tend to think of members in categories according to “activity,” but they take little or no account of the things of the heart.

On Judging Others by Our Cultural Standards
May/09
How I regret the ignorance of this people—how it floods my heart with sorrow to see so many Elders of Israel who wish everybody to come to their standard and be measured by their measure.

On Turning 50
March/07
Don’t assume malice for what stupidity can explain.

On Why the Lord Allows What He Does
March/07
If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil—all would do good, but not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no development of character, no growth, no free agency, only satanic controls.

On the Gospel and the Church
March/07
The gospel and the Church: we call one the plan and the other the work. The plan looks to the eternities and must necessarily be perfect; but the work is right here and is anything but the finished product.

On Self-Righteousness
March/07
All the religious world is boasting of righteousness: it is the doctrine of the devil to retard the human mind and hinder our progress, by filling us with self-righteousness.

On Nurturing Each Other
March/07
If we would knowingly and unnecessarily hurt the vulnerable, as long as we ourselves feel safe, then we cannot be given the power to do so in eternity.

On Having Fun
March/07
Joseph Smith disliked long-faced hypocrisy. He knew that much that people call sin is not sin.

On Faith in the Resurrection
March/07
It's a lot easier to believe in that than to believe I was created in the first place. Now that's really a mystery.

On Callings in the Church
March/07
Second fiddle is not always easy to play, especially when you have been a soloist! But helping others to play solo is a big part of who we need to be, whether we like it or not. It is not “always about us!” Everybody else matters just as much.

On When and How to do Family History and Temple Work
March/07
Our effort is not to compel everyone to do everything, but to encourage everyone to do something.

On Personal Roadblocks
March/07
So often the roadblocks looming in our path turn out to be the very guideposts we have been praying for to gently steer us through the gateway to our real mission in life.

On Expansive People
Nov/06
How delightful is the company of generous people, who overlook trifles and keep their minds instinctively fixed on whatever is good and positive in the world about them.

On Great People Outside the Church
Nov/06
Perhaps the Lord needs such [people] on the outside of His Church. They are among its auxiliaries, and can do more good for the cause where the Lord has placed them, than anywhere else. God is using more than one people for the accomplishment of His work. The Latter-day Saints cannot do it all.

On the Unfair Contradictions of Life
Nov/06
Because the Savior endured perfectly his staggering contradictions, we will be recompensed for our own faithful endurance of life's contradictions, injustices, and flat-out unfair circumstances.

On the Sacredness of Marriage
Nov/06
Marriage “joins” — it is a "welding together" — a single man and a single woman in a way that is too personal and too permanent for a mere contract to accomplish. Only a sacred covenant can create this awesome “joining.”

On Time As Not Our Natural Dimension
Oct/06
Time, as much as any one thing, whispers to us that we are strangers here.

On the Potential of People Around Us
Oct/06
The dullest and most uninteresting person may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.

On One Solitary Life
Sept/06
He is the centerpiece of the human race. All the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One solitary life.

On True Greatness
March/05
There is within each of us a giant struggling with celestial homesickness. The difficulty arises when inflated expectations of the world alter our definition of greatness.

On the Tests of Life
March/05
All are part of the test, and there is more equality in this testing than sometimes we suspect.

On the Resurrection
March/05
The body will come forth as it is laid to rest, for there is no growth or development in the grave. As it is laid down, so will it arise, and changes to perfection will come by the law of restitution. But the spirit will continue to expand and develop, and the body, after the resurrection will develop to the full stature of man.

On the Nature of Joy
March/05
Joy is to arise out of [one’s] knowledge of evil as well as of good; through knowing misery, sorrow, pain and suffering; through seeing good and evil locked in awful conflict; through a consciousness of having chosen the better part; and not only in having chosen it, but in having made it his by right of conquest over evil.

On the Nature of God
March/05
The Lord said, through Joseph Smith, "I delight in a glad heart and a cheerful countenance." That arises from the perfection of His attributes; He is a jovial, lively person, and a beautiful man.

On the Meaning of Death
March/05
We were born to die, and we die to live. As seedlings of God, we barely blossom on earth; we fully flower in heaven.

On Justice, Mercy and Grace
March/05
MERCY: when you don't get what you deserve.

On Friends We Feel We Have Always Known
March/05
Why are we drawn toward certain persons and they to us as if we had always known each other?

On the Effects of the Holy Ghost
March/05
It inspires, develops, cultivates and matures all the fine toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings, and affections of our nature.

On Priorities in Motherhood
March/05
A house does not have to be perfect to be a home of joy, a child does not have to behave perfectly to love and be loved, and every moment of life does not have to be perfect to be of value.

On Historical Charicature
March/05
To highlight the mistakes and gloss over the greater good is to draw a caricature. Caricatures are amusing, but they are often ugly and dishonest.

On Freedom of Thought
March/05
We are not so concerned with whether your thoughts are orthodox or heterodox as we are that you shall have thoughts.

On Blind Obedience
March/05
I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by Him!

On the Bearing of Testimonies
March/05
They won't give sermons nor exhortations nor travel reports nor try to entertain as they bear witness.

On the Passing of Loved Ones
Feb/04
So long thy power hath blest me, sure it still will lead me on till the night is gone; and in the morning those angel faces smile which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

On the Power of Example
Oct/01
Lambs will follow the sheep, you know, Wherever the sheep may stray. When sheep go wrong, it won't take long "Til the lambs are as wrong as they.

Articles and Talks

All That Glitters
Sept/09
Of her three and a half year relationship with Benjamin Bratt she said simply, "Why would anyone want to get married? We're happy, we're cruising." Julia Roberts is the personification of Hollywood. She stands on the elevated pedestal of adoration, the Crown Princess atop the "Rameumptom" of popular culture. Standing that close to this wondrous woman at the Academy Awards, the glitter was almost blinding.

Is Strait and Narrow Confining?
Aug/09
The "strait and narrow" does not have to be any more confining than a carefully-tailored suit or a warm and heavenly embrace.

Great Are the Words of Isaiah
Aug/09
The fatal flaw is the assumption that things are in the hands of the great men of the earth, while in fact there are no great men but just ordinary guys, with disastrous delusions of grandeur.

The Teenaged Brain in Today’s World
April/07
Here’s what happens in a brain. The neurotransmitter dopamine springs from neuron to neuron in the brain circuitry, beaming a molecular “grin” for a feel-good sensation. Its activity affects the firing of other neurons and stimulates feeling from mild pleasure to a surge of energy and euphoria.

Allowing Time for Change
April/07
Nature doesn’t work with on-off switches. Nature cycles, it flows. There is an ebb for every tide, a time of retreat and gathering of strength for every time of flowering. And when it is interrupted, the process is short-circuited.

Would You Have Been a Pharisee?
March/07
Isn't it ironic that those who are most appalling to Christ are those who are also most zealous for the law? There is perhaps a greater possibility for evil in the earnest man gone wrong than in the merely apathetic.

Why Do We Believe in God?
March/07
The answer, flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that dominates many graduate programs in psychology and psychiatry.

What is the "Great and Abominable Church"?
March/07
Individual orientation to the Church of the Lamb or to the great and abominable church is not by membership but by loyalty. Just as there are Latter-day Saints who belong to the great and abominable church because of their loyalty to Satan and his life-style, so there are members of other churches who belong to the Lamb because of their loyalty to him and his life-style. Membership is based more on who has your heart than on who has your records.

What Happens to Children When They Die?
March/07
If infants or children die, their spirits immediately resume their former adult stature while in the spirit world. However, when they regain their bodies during the resurrection, they naturally come forth as children to be raised to maturity by righteous and worthy parents.

Unrighteous Dominion
March/07
Some brethren do not understand that there is a marked difference between priesthood authority and priesthood power.

Turning from Truth: A New Look at the Great Apostasy
March/07
Considering those who now belong to these other churches, Elder Morrison says he has many Christian friends whose love for Jesus and personal goodness “put him to shame.” These individuals believe their “orthodox” Christianity must be divine because it has survived scandalous representatives.

The Rise of Relativism and the Decline of Virtue and Freedom in America
March/07
Relativism does not increase freedom - it breeds chaos. Chaos invites regulation - regulation always demands taxation. Regulation and taxation limit freedom. Being tolerant about the wrong things will cost us our virtue - then our freedoms.

The Power of Patriarchal Blessings
March/07
First I want to refer to three other patriarchal blessings besides your own that were given for you and should be as clearly written in your aspirations as any specific promise or counsel from your own personal blessing.

The Principle of Sacrifice
March/07
Those, then, who make the sacrifice, will have the testimony that their course is pleasing in the sight of God; and those who have this testimony will have faith to lay hold on eternal life.

Fasting
March/07
One of the ways a sacrifice can be offered up by anyone who feels the need for a particular blessing, is through fasting.

The Accidental Architect
March/07
We tend to think of our failures and errors as evidence that we are on the trail to a dismal outcome. As embarrassed as we may be by the shambles of our mortal effort, He will never forget the Plan we developed in that pre-mortal counsel. He will take the broken branches and fragments of plastic that we offer Him and create a castle.

Satan's Grasp
March/07
Satan would have us choose the feel-good method of self-satisfaction, seeking to meet our perceived needs with a reckless lack of concern for the consequences. But God will pull us into His embrace as we reject our self-destruction

President Packer's Testimony of the Modern Apostleship
March/07
We think of those who have preceded us in these sacred offices, and at times we feel their presence. The most precious thing we have to give is our witness of the Lord, our testimony of Jesus Christ.

Power From Abrahamic Tests
March/07
It is not just a matter of following the request to give a spectacular amount. What if you are called to give less than you can give? What if you are called not to be called? What if you are told only to wait and be patient? If we come offering what we think he wants, without having testimony that we are doing what he really does want, we are not yet prepared.

Paradigm Shift
March/07
If you want to make small improvements in your life, change your attitude. If you want to make quantum improvements, change your paradigm, your map. In other words, begin to look at life and the world from an entirely different level of thinking.

Reflections on Two Apostles
March/07
After the longest period of stable membership since its founding in early 1835, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has lost two of its members, Elders David B. Haight and Neal A. Maxwell, to death within the space of ten days.

Oh, How Lovely Was the Morning: Sunday, March 26, 1820?
March/07
Two researchers working independently have come up with evidence pointing toward a date for the First Vision.

Of Creativity and Intuition
March/07
One difference between the creator and the clod in all of us is that the creator often says, "Look at that." And the clod often replies grudgingly, "Look at what?" with the attitude of "Why should I?"

Neal Maxwell's "Wintry Doctrine"
March/07
There are in the gospel warm and cuddly doctrines, and then there are some that are just outright wintry doctrines. We don't achieve consecration in the abstract. Sometimes, therefore, the best people have the worst experiences, because they are the most ready to learn.

Marriage Supper of the Lamb
March/07
It is very insightful to understand marriage customs of the ancient church to more fully comprehend Christ’s role as the Bridegroom and our role as the Bride. As we look at these ancient marriage customs, one can see the reason he used this metaphor of marriage.

Leadership: Be a Gardener, Not a Mechanic
March/07
To be successful in building relationships at work and at home, be a gardener, not a mechanic. Great leaders know that you can rent a person’s back and hands, but you must earn a person’s head and heart.

Isaiah's Voice on the Promised Millennium
March/07
Various aspects of everyday life as we know it in mortality will continue during the Millennium. But unlike the precarious present life, in which natural calamities, war, corrupt governments, or death often prevent one from enjoying the fruits of one's labor, those who dwell upon the earth during the Millennium shall long enjoy the work of their own hands

Emma Smith's Witness of the Restoration
March/07
Emma Smith stood in a unique position to bear testimony to the early events of the Restoration. In February 1879, a few months prior to her death, her son Joseph III interviewed her in order to obtain answers to some questions about church history.

How to Get Rich
March/07
What we are warned against more than anything else is taking advantage of those who are disadvantaged. Are these laws realistic? Are they workable in the modern world? No! They are simply fantastic as far as the world is concerned. But that is just the point, says the Lord.

How Can I Become Closer to the Lord?
March/07
His power, instead of being "limited" by His [mortal] embodiment, was vastly enhanced by it. That leads to several wondrous inversions of our notion of spirituality.

Hope Throught the Book of Revelation
March/07
John’s apocalyptic imagery symbolizes the vast forces of the unrepentant who will move against each other. However, man will not work alone. Nature too will join in.The great destructions will not come until the Saints are securely gathered and the power of the Lord is upon them. Throughout the book, the Saints are absent from every battlefield, missing from every fight. They live apart from the world of the destroyers and their destructions.

Finding a Way to Bless Rather than a Reason to Judge
March/07
We imagine that people who do bad things do them with relish, without regret, and without regard for others. Humans do not learn well until they are loved well. The natural man will respond, “So we just ignore right and wrong? We just have a big love-fest and fail to teach rightness?” Nope.

Endure to the End of Garbage
March/07
In spite of our most determined efforts to root them out, some thorns in the flesh may last a long time - maybe a lifetime. That failure to conquer may not be a failure at all. Maybe resisting evil, without fully overcoming it, is a part of what enduring to the end is about.

Exploring Emotional Intelligence
March/07
Emotional intelligence concerns our awareness of our own and others' emotions, their influence on us, and how to manage them in positive ways. emotional intelligence be developed and magnified over time. And the consequences may be vital. Christ's intelligence, His pure and profound comprehension of our deepest feelings and needs, was perfected through the process of eternal sacrifice and love.

Emotional Intelligence for Leaders
March/07
Aside from personal integrity and righteousness, what quality is most critical to effective leadership in the Church? In my view, that quality is emotional intelligence. Leadership is so much more than conducting meetings and giving talks. The bad news is that not everyone is born with emotional intelligence. The good news is that it can be learned and practiced.

Divine Designs for Marriage
March/07
The crucible of marriage is like being enrolled in an excavation of the heart, mind and soul. This committed, vulnerable and intimate relationship provides opportunities for growth that may not be available any other way. It's the ultimate surprise “grab bag” — you never really know what you’re going to get. Couples may discover that their spouse has needs of which neither of them were previously aware.

Because He Hath Pour Out His Soul Unto Death
March/07
Isaiah may be suggesting why it was important for him to die on the cross—for this manner of death allowed him time to do the pouring out. He could decide at what point to lay down his life. Thus, as a priest sacrificing a lamb, he performed the sacrifice. And as the Lamb, he himself was the sacrifice.

Personal Reflections: the 1978 Revelation on Priesthood
March/07
"... [When] President Kimball finished his prayer, the Lord gave a revelation by the power of the Holy Ghost. ... On this occasion ... the Lord ... poured out the Holy Ghost in a miraculous and marvelous manner, beyond anything any then present had ever experienced. ...

Abandoning Anger
March/07
Expressing anger is not cleansing and it is not cathartic. It is addictive. Years ago Heavenly Father taught me that I did not have the right to correct anyone I did not love. That seemed reasonable enough. Little did I realize the trap at the time. When I feel genuinely loving toward someone, I lose interest in correcting them. I just want to love and bless them.

A Formula for Temple Worship
March/07
Let us go to the temple hungry with desire to take in everything and to understand everything. Ideally, the Spirit, using the symbols and the atmosphere of the temple, teaches each person according to his or her needs and in response to the person's individual prayers.

Fatherhood is Sacred
Nov/06
It is not simply power that a father needs. It is the power to bless. Men do not bless by the mere exercise of power. They bless only by their association with the powers of heaven.

Fainting, Flopping, and the Joy of Heaven
Nov/06
What is going on here? What is with all this fainting? The scriptural examples are almost humorous. We think of joy as a smile on our face and a general sense of well-being, but when God unleashes his joy upon them, they are flopping to the earth as if they are dead.

Christlike Political Disagreement
Nov/06
One can have horribly bad political ideas and be a good person and one can express adherence to the best principles and be a skunk.

Christianity's Debt to the Vatican
Nov/06
It was the Roman Catholic Church that preserved much of the art and literature of the ancient world, that fostered great art and music and philosophy and education through centuries often wrongly called “dark.” Many terrible things were done in the name of Christianity, but so was untold goodness.

President Benson's Testimony of the Savior
Nov/06
There is no truth or fact of which I am more assured, or know better by personal experience, than the truth of the literal resurrection of our Lord.

Visits of the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, in Scripture
Sept/06
Many of these witnesses were visited by the resurrected Lord more than once. But it does not end there. The chain of witnesses to the Lord's resurrection and living reality continues. Many are the accounts and testimonies that tell of individuals since 1820 who have come to know that Jesus of Nazareth lives as a resurrected Being.

Hinduism: The Supremacy of the Spiritual
Sept/06
We should abandon attachment to the fruit of our actions but should get our satisfaction out of the action itself. A particular temptation, I feel, for Latter-day Saints stems from our strong sense of connection and community. We want, at the very least, to be understood by our fellow believers and hope to be approved of.

A Law of Increasing Returns
Sept/06
Crops, even the spiritual ones, are not all of one kind. There are early maturing varieties and late varieties. Early crops produce fast results. Most people usually assume they are working with early crops, expecting little more to come from keeping up the effort after the first rush of rewards.

A Historic Discourse on War
Sept/06
honest thinking men and women ask how is it possible to reconcile the teachings of Jesus with the participation of the Church in armed conflict.

The Temple and the Atonement
Nov/04
Brother Brigham Young was once approached by two sisters, each of whom wanted a divorce. I paraphrase his response: "If you could only see your husband as he will be in the glorious resurrection, this very husband you now say you despise, your first impulse would be to kneel and worship him." He said the same thing to husbands who had "fallen out of love" with their wives.

One Peep At the Other Side
Nov/04
What Hugh experienced was his glimpse of life after life when he stopped breathing during an appendectomy during Christmas holidays in 1936. Penniless and struggling with a crisis of faith, his doubts about the afterlife were dramatically and instantly resolved by this experience. "All the worthy ones who leave us now are those whose condition has so overshadowed their abilities, whose great usefulness has been so vitiated by the exigencies of a profoundly corrupt system, that their lives had become virtually a bondage."

Leaders and Managers
Nov/04
Leaders are movers and shakers, original, inventive, unpredictable, imaginative, full of surprises that discomfit the enemy in war and the main office in peace. Managers are safe, conservative, predictable, conforming organization men and team players, dedicated to the establishment. The leader has a passion for equality. For the manager, on the other hand, the idea of equality is repugnant and counterproductive.

Milk Before Meat—But Meat
Nov/04
My experience has been that people who want to spend their time studying materials beyond the standard works, who feel that the scriptures and the words of living prophets are too elementary for them, are usually spiritually unstable, and their influence for good is minimal. They generally do more to sow discord in a ward than they do to build unity and strengthen the Saints.

The Gospel and Animals
Nov/04
Hunting in the forests of Ohio was a boyhood pastime that to me possessed the most fascinating attractions. . . . while moving slowly forward in pursuit of something to kill, my mind was arrested with the reflection on the nature of my pursuit - that of amusing myself by giving pain and death to harmless, innocent creatures that perhaps had as much right to life and enjoyment as myself. I realized that such indulgence was without any justification, and feeling condemned, I laid my gun on my shoulder, returned home, and from that time to this have felt no inclination for that murderous amusement.” - President Lorenzo Snow

Various Thoughts On the Nature of Divine Law and Punishment
Aug/04
Forget hell-fire and brimstone. Sin carries its own punishment, God doesn't have to lift a finger to inflict it, and He does much more than lift fingers to keep us from getting into it, and healing us when we get into it anyway.

Our Strengths Can Become Our Downfall
May/04
A long well-explained list, a few of the items being: A Desire to Know All Things, A Desire to Be Led in All Things, A Desire to Sacrifice More Than Is Needful, Accomplishment and Pride, Inordinate Church Service, All-Consuming Patriotism, Materialistic Self-Reliance, Not Really Following the Prophet, Misapplication of Love and Tolerance.

A Good, Short Explanation of the Restoration
Feb/04 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a remodeled version of another church. It is not an adjustment or a correction or a protest against any other church. They have their “form of godliness” and their goodness and value.

Historical Vignettes

Neal Maxwell in the Foxhole
March/07
During the middle of the battle for Okinawa, Neal was part of a mortar squad that fired at Japanese positions hidden in the hills. His own mortar position created an obvious invitation for the enemy to locate and eliminate his firing capacity—and him.

Joseph Smith Teaches Patience to Brigham Young
March/07
Shortly after they had settled in the Salt Lake Valley, President Young became concerned about those few Saints who desired to leave the Salt Lake Valley for the gold fields of California. He wrestled with his feelings until he had a particular dream in which the Prophet Joseph Smith appeared to him.

Joseph Smith Forgives W.W. Phelps
March/07
W.W. Phelps had apostatized and signed an affidavit which was used to incarcerate Joseph in Liberty Jail. With great feelings of remorse for what he had done he earnestly desired to repent. Joseph’s response is filled with forgiveness and effused with hope for brighter future relations.

How President Benson's Mother-in Law Died
March/07
This choice woman knew the exact time she was to depart mortal life. Her husband appeared to her. "He said he had come to tell me that my time in mortal life was ending and that on the following Thursday [it was then Friday], I would be expected to leave mortal life."

Heber J. Grant Meets Brigham Young
March/07
Instead of being angry upon finding a stowaway, the man said to his driver, “The little boy is nearly frozen. Put him under the buffalo robe and get him warm.” Heber sat right next to the kind gentleman and was just settling in when the man asked, “What’s your name?”

A Leader Too Busy with Details
March/07
He also told her that as soon as he realized that he was in another sphere, he had tried to reach his father but could not. His father was so busy with the details of his office and work that he could not respond to the promptings. Therefore, the son had come to his mother.

The Real J. Golden Kimball
Nov/06
After reading that blessing, I was wrung out. And I knew I would never think of Brother J. Golden the same way again. He was now another man in my mind. Yes, he had an incredible sense of humor. But humor was just one of his gifts.

President Snow's Vision of the Savior
Nov/06
Then he came another step nearer and put his right hand on my head and said: "Now granddaughter, I want you to remember that this is the testimony of your grandfather, that he told you with his own lips that he actually saw the Savior, here in the Temple, and talked with him face to face.

Thomas Monson Starts a Rumor
Oct/06
Then I started a rumor: "Soon a new city will be opened for missionary work, even the city where Brigham Young proselyted and baptized 45 persons in 30 days." The missionaries speculated as to the location. Their weekly letters pleaded for the assignment to this "Shangri-la."

A Prophet's Surgeon: Russell M. Nelson
Sept/06
When he spoke those words, my heart sank, for the weight of this decision seemed suddenly to pass to me. This momentous decision, which shaped the history of the Church, was not based on medical recommendation.

How David B. Haight Was Called to the Twelve
May/04
And then he motioned for us to stand, and as I was standing with that wonderful man and he’s holding my hands, he said to me, “With all the love that I possess, I’m calling you to fill the vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.” And when he said that, I thought I would collapse with the shock, the astonishment that came into my mind!

President Kimball's Late Night Visitors
May/04
I knocked on President Kimball's door, and he opened it dressed in his pajamas. I advised him of the situation and suggested that I'd be glad to carry his message of love and blessing to the Saints before they started their homeward journey. He said, "Oh, that wouldn't be fair, would it? You wait a couple of minutes and I'll dress, and we'll hold another meeting."

President McKay's Patriarchal Blessing
May/04
Having uttered those inspired and prophetic words, the patriarch "placed his hands on David's shoulders, and looking into his eyes said “My boy, you have something to do besides playing marbles.” Young David perhaps had some things to learn about the significance of the words of the Patriarch; he reportedly went into the kitchen and told his mother, "If he thinks I'm going to stop playing marbles, he is mistaken."

Joseph Smith's Majesty in Jail
May/04
On a sudden he arose to his feet, and spoke in a voice of thunder, or as the roaring lion, uttering, as near as I can recollect, the following words:

Orson F. Whitney's Vision of the Savior
May/04
Three times this occurred, until I was perfectly familiar with His appearance - face, form and movements. He was of noble stature and majestic mien - not at all the weak, effeminate being that some painters have portrayed; but the very God that He was and is, yet as meek and humble as a little child.

President Packer and the Ragamuffin
April/04
Someone has said that the Church often sees President Packer as a strict disciplinarian. President Spencer W. Kimball wrote of an incident that gives the lie to that perception.

Thomas Monson: Be Your Best Self
April/04
"Dear President Monson: We have tracted out the city of Kitchener. Please tell us where to go next." I penned a letter back to him: "Dear Elder Maughn: Happy to hear that you have tracted out the city of Kitchener. Now if you will teach and baptize the people in Kitchener, that will be your next assignment."

LeGrand Richards and Patriarchal Blessings
April/04
I was sure we could adjust our thinking and find comfort if we only knew that the Lord wanted [our son] and that his mission here upon the earth had not been cut short because of our having let him go to the beach that day with his friends.

LeGrand Richards' Ninetieth Birthday
Feb/02
"I love you Brethren - and I love the women as much as the Lord permits." President Tanner asked Elder Richards if he had lived all his live in the United States. He responded, "Not yet!"

Joseph F. Smith: Experiences of His Youth
Feb/02
When Joseph F. was 15 years old, he attended a school with a very strict schoolmaster. The schoolmaster told the girl to hold out her hands, and prepared his leather strap. Joseph F. called out for him not to touch the girl; the schoolmaster, instead, "came at me and was going to whip me, and instead of whipping me, I licked him good and plenty" - much to the delight of the other students for a "justly deserved" retribution.

Heber J. Grant Forgives
Feb/02
President Taylor said, "Heber, how did you feel about this brother this morning when you left me?" President Grant said, "I felt like I wanted to go out and knock him down." "Heber, how do you feel now?" He started to weep and said, "To tell the truth President Taylor, I hope the Lord will forgive the man." And President Taylor said, "This morning you did not have the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. This afternoon you do. Never forget that, Heber."

Science and Religion

Challenge to Atheists
Aug/09
So, come on you atheists: take the challenge. Try to refute any of my three arguments above.

Prairie Dog Language?
April/07
Complex systems of language are dependent on logical and programming capabilities that are themselves more complex than the tasks they implement. This is why software programmers never look at a section of programming code and say: "I wonder how this code sprang into being" or "Wow! This code must have evolved over millions of years by chance." We always look at complex code and see an intelligence behind it. Something as complex as the creation of life with its programmed capabilities certainly, to us, implies a Master Programmer.

Was There Death Before Adam?
March/07
Many LDS students face a dilemma: animal fossils and other evidence seems to show that death occurred hundreds of thousands of years ago. Yet the scriptures speak of the fall of Adam as introducing death into the world. Can we reconcile the scientific evidence of ancient life and death with scriptural proclamations about Adam's fall and the atonement?

Mother Eve
March/07
What is her import that God would design a genetic finger print, a marker, whereby all children who have ever been on this earth can be linked through their mothers to that first mother, Eve?

Fact, Fable and Darwin
Aug/04
Remember the Darwinian story of the monkey and the typewriter, where given an infinite amount of time, the monkey sooner or later will produce Macbeth purely by chance? Well, in reality, the monkey of random evolution did not have infinite time. The earth hasn't been around that long. Mathematicians have calculated that even if the monkey's task was to produce only a few lines of Macbeth, let alone Shakespeare's entire play, the probability is far, far beyond mathematical possibility. The odds of creating even the simplest organism at random are even more remote – calculated as one in ten to the 40,000th power. (All atoms in the known universe are estimated to number no more than ten to the 80th power.) In this sense, then, Darwinism rests on truly miraculous assumptions.

The Relatedness of Living Things
Aug/04
Evolution might account only for man's physical body; the addition of that 'divine spark' that sets man apart from the other animals might have been the final step that created the man, Adam. One can believe in evolution and still believe in the Gospel. The Gospel embraces all truth; then if evolution is true, it is part of the Gospel."

A Mormon View of Creation
Aug/04
Before 1844, when Joseph Smith died, his sacred writings contained the essential elements of a "naturalistic" picture of the development of man and man’s earth which, had it been taken seriously, would have eliminated most of the tedious argument between "science and religion" which occupied three generations of some of western civilization’s best minds.

Reflections of a Scientist
Aug/04
Probably one of the most difficult problems in reading the scriptures is to decide what is to be taken literally and what is figurative. It seems to me that the Creator must operate with an understanding that goes entirely outside our understanding and our experience. Because of this, when someone builds up a system of logic, however careful and painstaking, which gives a positive answer to this difficult question, I can't help but wonder about it, particularly if it seems to run counter to the Creator's revelations written [empirically] in the physical world.

Various Thoughts On Creation vs. Evolution
Aug/04
God has to work by the laws of physics. Several statements in the Bible could be logically interpreted as alluding to evolution. Man was brought up out of "the dust of the ground," as was every other living organism, according to Genesis 2:19. This could be used to promote the theory of evolution. The writers did the best they could to describe things they saw but did not understand.

Time Magazine's New Ape-man
Aug/04
Time also neglects the fact that species vary widely within themselves. Darwinian anthropologists use skull size to judge the evolutionary status of our supposed ancestors, but even in modern humans, cranial capacity ranges from 700 to 2200 cubic centimeters, and has no bearing on intelligence. People's bone structure varies greatly, based on heredity, age, sex, health and climate. Some are big-boned, some small-boned. There are sumo wrestlers and pygmies. Doubtless, our ancient forebears were also diverse in their looks. How, then, can one assign a single fossil bone to a distinct place in human history?

Various Thoughts On Genes vs. Free-agency
Aug/04
There may be a great deal of our behavior that's programmed by DNA, but we have the power to override the programming. If we didn't, we'd be creatures of instinct rather than of thought. Furthermore, our thoughts arise, flow, and change more quickly than the decoding of DNA would ever allow, and the infinite variability of our lives is more than DNA could ever code.

From the Media

Information Overload Called Harmful
March/07
Psychologist warns that many of today's children are so engrossed in video games, movies and entertainment that they have failed to develop the social skills and moral character necessary for successful marriage and family life. Their brains at some point even start to perceive gospel truth on the same level of reality as a video game.

Quitting the Mormon Church?
Sept/06
Dear Editor: I have been thinking of quitting the Mormon Church. Yes, if I can, I am going to get even with that church. As soon as I can find another church that teaches about -

Enough is Enough!
Sept/06
I have heard and seen enough! What I heard and saw was just the opposite from what the religious ministers were telling me. The name of their church is "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Does that sound like a non-Christian church to you? I have never known of a cult that supports the Boy Scouts of America. What cult do you know of that has farms, canneries and cattle ranches to help take care of the unfortunate ones who might be down and out and in need of a little help. The Mormon Church has donated many millions to welfare causes around the world without a word of credit. They donated thousands to help re-build Baptist churches that were burned a few years ago. They have donated tons of medical supplies to countries ravaged by earthquakes. You never see them on TV begging for money. What cult do you know of that instills in its members the need to obey the law, pay their taxes and live high moral standards?

Music

Igniting Your Creative Fire
March/07
We must be careful not to confuse creative inspiration with perfection. Because our creative impulse is inspired, it does not mean that it is perfect. This gift does not give us the right to suggest to others that our creative work is inspired, and therefore perfect.

An Angel Sang
Jan/02
Before the concert began, all the performers joined in prayer. The moment I bowed my head and closed my eyes, I saw, as if my eyes were open, my dear sister, dressed in a coral- colored concert gown. She stood very still, eyes closed, hands cupped together at her waist, as if she were ready to begin singing. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, thinking surely the vision would fade, but it remained through the entire prayer. When I opened my eyes, an overwhelming flood of warmth and love replaced the vision of Lynne. I felt confident my singing would be just fine, despite the fact that I continued to cough and wheeze.

Music in Zion
Together Shall They Sing
Oct/01
While excellence is important, as are quality and aesthetic beauty in the temples we build, yet in the consecration of our talents, it can only be secondary to our loving one another and keeping our eye single to the glory of God. As with any of our collective labors in the gospel, to make the music of Zion, we ought to be as Zion, having our "hearts knit together in unity and love," "being stripped of pride" and envy, certainly never mocking the efforts of others or worrying about who has more talent or who ought to be in charge of things.

Humor

Patti Perfect
Sept/06
Patti gets up very early and says her personal prayers. She zips her slim, vigorous body into her warm-up suit and tiptoes outside to run her usual five miles. Returning home all aglow, she showers and dresses for the day in a tailored skirt and freshly starched and ironed blouse. She settles down for quiet meditation and scripture reading, before preparing the family breakfast. Now the Real Story: Patty dimly hears the children banging around in the kitchen, and with a start she wakes and looks at the clock. Oh no! It’s 7:00 am already! She wraps her tattered bathrobe around her saggy baggy body and rushes into the kitchen to make breakfast.

Brigham Young's Sense of Humor
May/04
Brigham arose and reportedly said, "We have just received word that Zachary Taylor is dead and has gone to hell." Some federal officers objected and asked Brigham to apologize. Brigham obliged. He again walked to the pulpit, where he said, "We announced this morning that Zachary Taylor was dead and gone to hell - I am sorry!"

MO Lexicon
Feb/02
MO = Mormon, NO MO = Non-Mormon, MO NO MO = Apostate

Hymns of the Lukewarm Church
Feb/02
A Comfy Mattress Is Our God, Pillow of Ages, Fluffed for Me, I'm Fairly Certain That My Redeemer Lives

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