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April 24, 2007
Two teenagers plead guilty to arson in blaze of Sugar House LDS church
Two teens who broke into an LDS church in Sugar House last year and vandalized the building before setting it ablaze have admitted their guilt in 3rd District Court and will be required to pay restitution toward the estimated $1.9 million refurbishing cost.
Michael Aaron Ferguson, 19, who pleaded guilty in 3rd District Court to second-degree felony arson, has been sentenced to probation and given credit for the 157 days he spent in jail.
Local Church Congregations Perform Savior of the World
For Macy Robison, a music teacher in the public schools of greater Boston, Massachusetts, and Brad Thompson, a music and drama teacher in Turlock, California, the opportunity to co-direct a local production of Savior of the World: His Birth and Resurrection, a sacred musical drama created by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, came as a welcome surprise.
Savior of the World depicts the scriptural account of Jesus Christ’s birth and resurrection and was first presented in November 2000 in the Church’s Conference Center Theater near Temple Square in Salt Lake City. From then until last month, performances were held only in the Conference Center during the Christmas season and some Easter seasons.
The early success of the Perpetual Education Fund led its managing director to suggest Monday that future general conferences of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could be held outside the United States.
"The international church may yet become stronger than in the United States," said Elder John K. Carmack, an emeritus general authority of the LDS Church. "I'm not a prophet, seer or revelator, but I believe this will happen.
"I can envision general conference being held in Sao Paulo or Mexico City or Manila."
An international custody battle years ago, now has a man suing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Mike Gulbraa says the church ordained his boys into the Aaronic Preisthood, even though church authorities had agreed they would not without his permission.
After its five-year exclusive run in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City, Utah, and under the direction of the First Presidency, the film TheTestaments of One Fold and One Shepherd is being made available on DVD through Church distribution centers.
The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd is an epic story depicting Christ’s ministry to the people in ancient Israel and His subsequent appearance in ancient America, as related in two testaments: the Bible and the Book of Mormon. It follows the fictional family of Helam as they witness the signs and coming of the Savior to the Americas.
When the film was first introduced, Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Seventy explained, “The purpose of the film is to establish that Jesus is the Son of God, ‘the light and life of the world,’ and to show the miraculous effect the Savior has on the lives of those who believe in Him.”
The film took more than two years to make and required extensive research into the ancient cultures of the Americas. It was filmed in Utah, California, and Hawaii on 57 sets, the largest of which was about the size of a football stadium. The 48 principal cast members, 52 featured players, and more than 1,000 extras brought the story to life. The Orchestra at Temple Square and the Tabernacle Choir provided the music.
The 65-minute film (01607) is being made available on a multilanguage DVD in Church distribution centers worldwide in 18 languages (American Sign, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Ukrainian).
Samuel Lumore and his cousins Christian Yao and Godwin Kofi Zometsi, all from Kpong, Ghana, discovered the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as young schoolboys and were later baptized members of the Church. For Evelyn Jepkemei, a curriculum specialist in Nairobi, Kenya, contact with the Church came through an American on a business assignment in Africa.
Evelyn and the young men from Ghana represent some of many recent converts to the Church who live beyond the North American continent. All signify the ever-increasing Church population in many areas across the globe and also indicate the rapid growth in Africa.
In Harlem, an African-American bishop leads his congregation in prayer. In Miami, neighbors enter a bright yellow chapel and greet each other in Haitian. In Salt Lake City, a teacher instructs her Bible class in Chinese. Meanwhile, in Florida, an entire congregation sings in American Sign Language in poetic gestures, and in California a young child gives his first talk in Sunday school in Spanish.
Jim Engebretsen has never met a polygamist, but as a Mormon who has spent most of his life outside Utah, he knows people expect him to be an expert on the subject.
Or be a polygamist himself.
So he became one — an expert, not a polygamist — and started the nonprofit More Good Foundation to combat misconceptions about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the Internet.
Luís Alberto Hom is the oldest in a Guatemalan family of nine children. Guatemalan culture expects the oldest to set the pattern for education and work, but there were few jobs when Luís returned from his two-year volunteer service in Nicaragua as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Luís turned to the Career Workshop offered by the Church’s employment resource center in Guatemala City. As a result, he now works as municipal treasurer in Santa Catarina Palopó, a key position second only to the mayor. After he completes his university studies, he wants to become an architect.
Late Thursday the LDS Church issued a statement saying it supports a bill in the Utah Legislature that makes it clear there can be no gambling at private clubs or beer bars that hold state liquor licenses.
HB104 by Rep. Steven Sandstrom, R-Orem, would stop games of chance, even if nothing of real value is at stake, in the state licensed establishments.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Two brothers filed a $6.5 million lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Boy Scouts of America on Monday, alleging they were sexually abused as children in the 1980s by a LDS "home teacher" who was also a Boy Scout leader.
The lawsuit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court alleges the church and the Boy Scouts were responsible because Timur Dykes was an authorized representative of the groups.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be launching a new-look Newsroom Web site this coming week.
The present site, developed a year or so before the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, contains feature and reference material written in part for the hundreds of journalists who then flocked to Salt Lake City looking for human interest stories.
The new site contains information in easily digestible form to suit not only journalists but other researchers and members of the public who are looking to find factual material on the Church quickly and easily. It is written in non-ecclesiastical language that they can readily understand.
The site will include a much more powerful search engine as well as more multimedia. For example, The World Report, a six-monthly summary of what is happening in the Church around the world, will have a permanent presence.
The site will contain links to other reliable Internet sources of information, and will include a feedback section to constantly monitor user use and make improvements. The site will be beta tested starting this coming week before taking the place of the present site some time in January.
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.
