News for Mormons

Elder Alexander B. Morrison, an emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gave the Brigham Young University-Idaho devotional address Tuesday, June 26, teaching students how to be Christians.

The Church sent donations from the Humanitarian Aid Fund to the local Red Cross chapter on Tuesday, June 26, 2007, in response to a blaze that has forced hundreds of residents from their homes in Meyers, California, near Lake Tahoe.  

Local priesthood leaders in North Texas are working with officials to provide assistance in communities where heavy rains dumped up to an inch (2.5 cm) of water every 15 minutes at one point, killing 11 people in the resulting floods and sweeping homes from foundations.

Accepting assignments from the First Presidency, 117 new mission presidents will begin serving on or around July 1, 2007.

Elder David A. Bednar, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, recently spent a week in Ghana visiting with members and conducting affairs of the Church. During his visit to Ghana, Elder Bednar addressed missionaries of the Ghana Accra Mission and volunteers who serve at the Accra Ghana Temple.

Pittville Park is to get a massive makeover thanks to more than 300 volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They will clear litter, paint railings and fencing, and clear water features. Church member Ben Lowater said, “My family are regular visitors to Pittville Park, so I’m enthusiastic about the opportunity to give something back to a community and a park that has given much pleasure.”

Accepting assignments from the First Presidency, 117 new mission presidents will begin serving on or around July 1, 2007.

They are as much a symbol of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the Salt Lake Temple and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, clean-cut suit-clad young men on bikes or on foot going door to door with a gospel message. Mormon missionaries have fanned across the globe since the earliest days of the Church and in the process have reached a major milestone.

During a history-making BYU-Hawaii Commencement on Saturday, President Eric B. Shumway was presented with an honorary doctorate from the Church Board of Education. In presenting the degree, Elder Richard G. Scott said that President Shumway had served with “spiritual depth and unwavering devotion as a teacher, servant, and friend.”

President Gordon B. Hinckley, the oldest living president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, celebrated his 97th birthday Saturday by attending the dedication of a new Brigham Young University building named in his honor.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir returned to its musical roots Sunday, spending several hours in Kirtland, Ohio, where many Latter-day Saint hymns were composed. In two separate groups, the 300-plus choir members went inside the Kirtland Temple and sang “The Spirit of God,” the hymn composed for the temple’s dedication in 1836.

Lindon city is looking for a new mayor after Jeff Acerson stepped down today to become president of the Italy Rome Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Acerson and his wife, Karen, and four of their six children will leave for Rome next week to begin a three-year assignment presiding over nearly 140 missionaries.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is an American icon. For 160 years, the 360-member, all-volunteer choir has performed a mix of classic hymns and spirituals as well as secular and classical choral works for millions of people in 28 countries. On Monday night at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, the choir will make its first appearance in northeast Ohio in 15 years.

All this week, heavily loaded semitrailers and smaller trucks have been heading out of Salt Lake City moving east to Toronto and Cleveland with three wide-body jets following today in order to meet up with 11 large buses as part of a carefully developed logistics plan that has been two years in the making.