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November 24, 2006
Do some good -- mission president: Service a key part of missionary work
For Brad Risenmay, president of the LDS Church's Utah Salt Lake City South Mission, the purpose of proselyting is simple. "The whole premise [of serving a mission] is to go out and do some good," says Risenmay, who presides over 171 missionaries in one of top-baptizing missions of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Those with ties to BYU or Utah like to think of their rivalry as one of the country's great hates.
It is, at least, one of the most unique, according to sports psychologist Dr. Keith Henschen, who works with Olympic teams, the Utah Jazz, many pro sports stars and athletes from both schools.
Henschen grew up in Indiana, schooled at Ball State and IU. He's been to an Ohio State-Michigan game and traveled the world in the name of sport. He took a professor's position at Utah in 1971 and is an LDS convert.
"It's just different," he says. "I've found that fascinating all the time I've been here.
At Brigham Young University, local artists currently are sharing wall space with some of the world's renowned painters.
"Baptism of Christ," J. Kirk Richards, oil on canvas.
The impressive and unique collection includes 170 paintings, prints, icons, illuminated manuscripts and sculpture from diverse times and creeds.
Local artists are Lee Udall Bennion, Brian T. Kershisnik, J. Kirk Richards, Laurie Olson Lisonbee, Bruce H. Smith, Ron Richmond and Kent Goodliffe.
They share space with Carl Heinrich Bloch, Albrecht Durer, John Rogers Herbert, Sir Edward John Poynter, Rembrandt, Ary Scheffer, Bernard Sleigh, Minerva Teichert and the Workshop of Titian.
From England to Hope: Local man linked to Mayflower passenger
Kathy and Don Crippen sit for a portrait in their home on Tuesday. Don Crippen is an 11th-generation descendant of Edward Fuller, who came to the continent on the Mayflower. Kathy Crippen said she has been working steadily on her husband's line for about five years.
Edward Fuller was born in 1575. He left England in 1620, crossing the Atlantic on the Mayflower. The Pilgrims were in search of religious freedom, having been persecuted for their strict, Bible-based beliefs.
Fuller died his first winter at Plymouth Colony. But his descendants lived on, starting with his son, Samuel Fuller, and to 2006 and Fuller’s 11th-generation descendant, Donald Crippen of Hope.
Mormon Tabernacle Choir Announces 2007 Canada–Midwest United States Tour
he Mormon Tabernacle Choir will conduct its 2007 Canada–Midwest United States tour from 21 June through 3 July 2007. It will perform concerts in Toronto, Canada; Chautauqua, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee. Sixty-five members of the Orchestra at Temple Square will accompany the 360-voice choir on tour.
Music performed on the summer tour will draw from the choir’s extensive repertoire and will include choral masterworks, hymns, spirituals, and folk songs. Craig Jessop, music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, said: “We look forward to bringing the choir and orchestra to these great music festivals and venues. Our repertoire will include works from the masters of classical composition to famed Broadway tunes, and there should be something to please everyone who attends.” The concert program will also feature selections from the choir’s spring 2007 CD release entitled Showtime! Music from Broadway and Hollywood.
The choir and orchestra will give matinee and evening performances at the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto on 22 June, followed by matinee and evening performances at the Chautauqua Amphitheater on 23 June. The choir will perform at three prestigious outdoor summer venues beginning with the Blossom Festival in Cleveland on 25 June, followed by the Ravinia Music Festival in Chicago on 27 June, and an appearance at the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati with the Cincinnati Pops (Erich Kunzel and Craig Jessop sharing the conducting duties) on 29 June. The tour will conclude with shows at two large Tennessee venues: the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville on 30 June and the FedEx Forum in Memphis on 2 July.
Demolition day for two of seven landmark Deseret Towers dormitories at Brigham Young University could come during Christmas break after workers punched a hole through an exterior wall of W Hall on Tuesday.
"They are looking at the best way to bring the building down," BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said. "They are doing some preparation work, but demolition won't take place until about the third week of December to the end of December."
The university has also decided to vacate the other five towers at the end of the school year in August, Jenkins said. The dorms will remain open for the 2007 Education Week, which brings more than 20,000 adults to campus from around the world.
In one respect, Sterling Van Wagenen already considers his historical drama "The Work and the Glory III: A House Divided" — which opens Wednesday — to be a success.
Van Wagenen prides himself on being what is referred to in show business as an actor's director, one who can get "moments of real honesty and truth" from cast members. And he believes he was able to do that with this third and final film in the "Work and the Glory" trilogy, inspired by Gerald N. Lund's best-selling novels about early LDS Church history.
"There were times when I could see my actors really got to that one perfect, real moment," Van Wagenen said. He offered examples with Sam Hennings, who plays the fictional Benjamin Steed; Brenda Strong, as his wife Mary Ann; and Jon Scarfe, who portrays LDS Church founder Joseph Smith. "Sam, Brenda and Jon — they all had it."
To be successful in life, Brigham Young University students need to learn three critical skills, President Thomas S. Monson said Tuesday during a campus devotional.
He spoke of the three skills — preparation, performance and service — as gates that students must swing open on their own.
"Years ago, I discovered a thought which is true, and in a way, prophetic. It is this: The gate of history swings on small hinges," said President Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
BYU students try out all-terrain wheelchairs in Dominican Republic
INSERT FIRST PARAGRAPH HEREA group of MBA students from Brigham Young University are conducting a marketing study in the Dominican Republic to find out if needy people in third-world countries want wheelchairs with aggressive mountain bike tires or if they prefer the traditional kind with solid rubber wheels.
"I am so glad and I say thank God you are here," said Association of Rehabilitation Director Peggy Batista as four BYU students and their professor delivered wheelchairs to a clinic in the remote village of Harabacoa. The church sent the first batch of test chairs in October. Three weeks later the students arrived to survey the users. "She is saying that she likes this one better because this rim right here feels better because it is thicker," said Steven Moser, a BYU student studying business administration who questioned the users with a clip board in his hands.
In the beginning, former Ensign news editor Christopher Kimball Bigelow created The Sugar Beet, a bimonthly satirical newspaper on Mormon culture, in the likeness of The Onion.
And it came to pass that after The Sugar Beet stopped production, a Gentile publisher named Susan Vogel contacted Bigelow with the idea to turn the best of The Sugar Beet into a bound volume called The Mormon Tabernacle Enquirer (Pince-Nez Press, $14.95).
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir will be honored Sunday as a laureate of the Mother Teresa Award for edifying the world through choral performances and recordings.
"This is the only choir that I know that has touched the entire world with its beauty," said Dan Paulos, director of the St. Bernadette Institute of Sacred Art, which gives the award. "There are a lot of choirs out there, but none so remarkable. It's a gift of God and it should be shared with the world."
The Very Reverend Joseph Mayo, rector of the Cathedral of the Madeline, will present the award to the choir at 10 a.m. after the weekly Music and the Spoken Word broadcast.
The modern image of Jesus Christ, familiar to Westerners from countless living-room art prints and Sunday school primers, is a gaunt, robed man with fair skin, a beard and flowing, shoulder-length brown hair.
He is, without a doubt, the most-rendered artistic subject in history. But considering that nobody knows what Jesus looked like, why do so many portraits of him look the same?
Latter Day Saints church to hold rededication ceremony Sunday
Since Hurricane Katrina, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Pascagoula has been the site where more than 100,000 church volunteers across the United States have come to help residents rebuild.
The church received be-tween 5 and 6 feet of water during the Aug. 29, 2005, storm and had to be gutted and repaired from the steeple to the floors.
But now that work has been completed, and a rededication service will be held at the church, located at 1302 Martin St, at 9 a.m. Sunday.
Emeritus Member of the Seventy teaches about God's plan at BYU-Idaho devotional
Elder L. Aldin Porter, an emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, taught Brigham Young University-Idaho students about the importance of having an understanding heart as they learn about Heavenly Father's plan in a devotional address given Tuesday, November 14.
Elder Porter defined the basic parts of the Lord's plan as the premortal existence, agency, the war in heaven, the creation of the earth, the fall of Adam and Eve, the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, priesthood keys and the afterlife, including the judgment day. He said commandments are easier to keep when the plan is understood.
Brigham Young University provides free parking to students because it proves the school is trying to be a better neighbor to families living near the campus, university President Cecil Samuelson said Thursday.
BYU made a controversial decision last year to switch to free parking after years of charging students for parking passes. At the same time, it began to charge $70 a year for bus passes that had been free.
Quarterback John Beck is the second-most prolific passer in school history, and Curtis Brown soon will become BYU's all-time leading rusher.
Jake Kuresa has started on the offensive line for four years and linebacker Cameron Jensen has been called one of the best leaders to ever put on a Cougar jersey. Tight end Jonny Harline is a likely NFL draft pick.
Naturally, when asked to pick the one of the 25 seniors who will play in his final home game at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday who best represents BYU football, coach Bronco Mendenhall chose Nathan Meikle.
Someone keeps turning the rack of tiny state flags before Penni Crowther can snag North Carolina, where her daughter is serving an LDS mission.
"It helps me keep track of my kids," the Murray mother says while she waits at one of the most popular attractions at the Missionary Emporium.
"I came here when my older son went on his [LDS] mission and I wanted [a matching flag] for my daughter," Crowther says. "The places and people they serve now have a place in my heart, too."
Chandler Whipple recently logged his third 1,000-mile drive from Salt Lake City to this tiny, out-of-the-way town overlooking the Mississippi River, where history and faith have forged one of Illinois' hottest tourism draws.
Fellow Mormons Mark and Holly Gold also made the long drive from Utah to western Illinois recently to revisit ground they consider sacred, built by church founders who were chased west more than a century-and-a-half ago amid waves of violence.
"People see so many Utah plates here they probably think everyone from out there has to make a pilgrimage," joked Whipple. "They don't, but a lot do."
