Got a great comment from Doug and Laurel about their new site, Mormons Made Simple. Here’s what they said:
“I thought you mighe be interested in a site my wife and I just built called MormonsMadeSimple.com, which uses simple, explanatory videos to explain the Mormon faith. Feel free to feature any of these videos on your blog, or just share them with non-member friends. We’re hoping these videos will be missionary tools to help members share their beliefs.”
Here’s a website that will generate a customized podcast for you, so you can listen to the scriptures on your iPod/mp3 player at your own speed. www.scripturecast.net
The NEW familysearch.org has all kinds of integrated Family History goodness for members, including temple submissions, search, and so very very much more.
And finally, have you ever used the “Worship with Us” link on lds.org or mormon.org? Yeah, it wasn’t that great. Now the church has a fancy Google Maps/Windows Live mashup version: beta.maps.lds.org
“Well, there is so much I want to tell you about the unwritten order of things, but then these are things that you must learn for yourself. If we could only put you in the circumstance where you begin to observe, begin to get that training, then you will know how the Church is to operate and why it operates that way. You will find that it conforms to the principles which are outlined in the scriptures. If you will just “treasure up in your minds continually the words of life,” the Lord will bless you and give “you in the very hour” what you should say and what you should do (D&C 84:85). Learn about this great pattern–the teachings that come to us from just watching and participating.”
“Despite ample material in today’s world, the film ‘September Dawn’ chooses to travel back to the 1800s to disparage a safer target: the LDS Church.” - USA Today Opinion article.
” President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died at his home early this morning surrounded by his family.
President Faust, 87, had served in the First Presidency since 1995 and as a General Authority of the Church for 35 years. A Church statement today said that President Faust had died of “causes incident to age.”
President Faust was appointed second counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 12 March 1995. The First Presidency is the highest presiding body in the government of the Church. “ (source)
”September Dawn” graphically dramatizes the controversial real-life massacre of 120 men, women and children traveling through Utah in the nineteenth century. The Mountain Meadows Massacre, as it is known, occurred on September 11, 1857, and was the first known act of religious terrorism on U.S. soil. A group of Mormons, many disguised as Paiute Indians, slaughtered all but 17 small children on a wagon train on its way to California. One man, the adopted son of Mormon leader Brigham Young, was eventually executed for the crime—20 years after the event. Woven into this real-life background is the Romeo and Juliet story of a young Mormon man who falls in love with a beautiful girl on the wagon train.
except: “… Peter was full of faith. He never faltered. From the day he forsook his nets and boats, his feet never turned away. Even in his moment of denial, he was a near to his Lord as he could be. Let him who would be critical of this apostle put himself in the same place—among the bitterest enemies, persecutors, and assassins—with a growing knowledge of the futility of defending his Lord, whose hour had come. He who had forgiven his crucifiers [see JST Luke 23:34c footnote] also forgave Peter who had denied him.”
The Church website has posted the complete transcripts of interviews with Boyd K. Packer and Dallin H. Oaks from the recent PBS documentary “The Mormons”, you can find it here.