Mormon Bloggers

BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes. In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the Book of Mormon in the form of letters to someone they know. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures. In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to speak to all of us of the relevance, power and beauty of the Book of Mormon, a second witness of Jesus Christ and complement to the Bible. The Book of Mormon includes the religious history of a group of Israelites who settled in ancient America. (The names they use are those of prophets who taught the Book of Mormon peoples to look forward to the coming... Read the rest of this entry »

Brigham Young University (BYU) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes. Here, in this column, students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the New Testament and gospel of Jesus Christ in the form of letters to someone they know. In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to witness to all of us of the relevance, power, and beauty of the New Testament, and God’s plan of happiness for each of us. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures. Let us know how these may help you in your own life. Share them with a friend. Savior and Redeemer: Christ Is Charity In class, we’ve been studying Paul and his epistles and this week, we were studying the... Read the rest of this entry »

BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes. In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the Book of Mormon in the form of letters to someone they know. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures. In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to speak to all of us of the relevance, power and beauty of the Book of Mormon, a second witness of Jesus Christ and complement to the Bible. The Book of Mormon includes the religious history of a group of Israelites who settled in ancient America. (The names they use are those of prophets who taught the Book of Mormon peoples to look forward to the coming... Read the rest of this entry »

BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes. In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the Book of Mormon in the form of letters to someone they know. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures. In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to speak to all of us of the relevance, power and beauty of the Book of Mormon, a second witness of Jesus Christ and complement to the Bible. The Book of Mormon includes the religious history of a group of Israelites who settled in ancient America. (The names they use are those of prophets who taught the Book of Mormon peoples to look forward to the coming... Read the rest of this entry »

BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes. In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the Book of Mormon in the form of letters to someone they know. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures. In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to speak to all of us of the relevance, power and beauty of the Book of Mormon, a second witness of Jesus Christ and complement to the Bible. The Book of Mormon includes the religious history of a group of Israelites who settled in ancient America. (The names they use are those of prophets who taught the Book of Mormon peoples to look forward to the coming... Read the rest of this entry »

BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes. In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the Book of Mormon in the form of letters to someone they know. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures. In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to speak to all of us of the relevance, power and beauty of the Book of Mormon, a second witness of Jesus Christ and complement to the Bible. The Book of Mormon includes the religious history of a group of Israelites who settled in ancient America. (The names they use are those of prophets who taught the Book of Mormon peoples to look forward to the coming... Read the rest of this entry »

BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.”  As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes. In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the Book of Mormon. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures. In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to speak to all of us of the relevance, power and beauty of the Book of Mormon, a second witness of Jesus Christ and complement to the Bible. The Book of Mormon includes the religious history of a group of Israelites who settled in ancient America.  (The names they use are those of prophets who taught the Book of Mormon peoples to look forward to the coming of Christ—Nephi, Lehi, Alma, Helaman,... Read the rest of this entry »

When I pray in a meeting in our ward, I typically include the sentence, “And please bless our good bishop and those who serve with him.” And in our family prayers I often include the sentence, “And please bless our good bishop and his family.” Although I use those words often, they are not a vain repetition. I have come to learn through my own experience that the men who serve as bishops are good men who desire to do good things. They are the product of their own experience, to be sure, and each brings his own personality and even biases to the calling. But I have also observed that each bishop I have known personally carries a specific mantle associated with his calling – one that comes when he is called and leaves when he is released. Some of my bishops have been good friends of mine before their calling. It would have been easy for me to assume that my friend was the bishop and therefore I knew him. In one case, my bishop and I had served together in the church for years in... Read the rest of this entry »

Well, ok, the scriptures themselves aren’t new. But there is a new 2013 edition of the standard works. You can read about it here. The coolest update in my mind relates to the headings for the sections in the Doctrine & Covenants, including new headings for OD1 and OD2. There’s been plenty of discussion of the changes on other blogs — By Common Consent and Juvenile Instructor are two that I subscribe to. I can add no scholarly observations, just my person observation that I’m glad I do my scripture reading on my digital scriptures, so I have these updates already on my Kindle Fire. And the updates themselves are cool. More evidence of the care being taken in the Joseph Smith Papers project and the reflection of the work of those scholars to reflect accurately the history as best they can. The changes in the headings are not earth shattering; many simply update small details like dates. But there are some significant clarifications. For instance, the heading... Read the rest of this entry »

I listened to a Planet Money podcast this morning (I’m way behind; it was weeks old) that talked about happiness metrics for countries. As part of the discussion, economists posited that they could determine a person’s happiness level with a few simple question – age (the older you are, the happier you are), marital status (married people tend to be happier), children (parents are less happy than non-parents)… That runs counter to what we told ourselves when we married and planned to have a family. We pictured ourselves with our sweet children around us in some family portrait of togetherness and joy. And yet, looking back on my last nearly 32 years of parenting, I have to say I get what the economists are saying. There are a lot of unhappy times for parents. Terrible twos. Teething. Sleepless babies. Night terrors. Bed wetting. Sibling rivalries. Dead pets. Broken bones. Wrecked toys. Broken “pretty things” in the living room. Spilled milk. Rebellion. Surly teenagers. Broken... Read the rest of this entry »

My lovely wife and I saw the Pulitzer Prize winning musical Next to Normal this week in its Michigan premiere run. It was, as good theatre should be, emotionally cathartic, truth-telling, entertaining and exhausting. The pop/rock musical tells the story of bi-polar disorder and grief in a suburban family. And any family that has suffered loss, mental illness, or even “normal” family dysfunction would feel the shards of truth poking through the upbeat score. The title comes from a line at the end of the play when teenage daughter Natalie tells her mother that she does not need a normal life, but a “next to normal” life will do. As that line resonated in my head long after I left the theatre, I reflected on a Douglas Coupland novel I read years ago, All Families are Psychotic. Most of his novels demonstrate the premise of that title: every family has its way of being weird. From that thread I was taken to sixth grade where I learned in some subject (probably Social Studies)... Read the rest of this entry »

Recently a living apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ (Yes, there really are living oracles of God in our very day! Ask us more, if you like.), Henry B. Eyring, shared some tender, powerful remarks about the mountains of adversity we climb in this life. Each of us has a story to tell, a time when the weight and burden seemed heavier than heavy, and almost crushing, when either the peace of the Savior and the reality of the atonement – the burden He carried for us — became even more intensely real and meaningful to us or we despaired of life, not knowing how to access Him. If you are standing alone, He beckons you, right now, every moment, to come unto Him.  If you don’t know how, contact us or someone who can guide you through.  You are a breath away from hope and from Him.  Ask Him if He is real and to manifest Himself to you.  That is real prayer—the outpouring of your soul . God is there. He delights in lifting and helping you and is... Read the rest of this entry »