Category: General

On May 7, 2000, Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave a CES fireside in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on the topic of miracles. This fireside was later published in the June 2001 Ensign

Among the miracles he talked about was raising someone from the dead. He prefaced the two stories he shared with:

Continue reading Vision & Miracles of Iohani Wolfgramm

I recently took the time to clean out all the comment spam on this blog and I’ve decided to try to bring it back to life. I’ve also removed the dated theme and resorted to bland default for now, but hopefully I can give it a little TLC soon.

Part of my inspiration was reading a book last year called Journey to the Veil by John Pontius. It is essentially a collection of blog posts he started writing after he learned he had cancer and wanted to preserve stories from his life for his children.

On top of that I have a goal to write 50 blog posts in 2015 amount my various blogs. (I also maintain a personal blog and a personal finance blog.) I’m starting to think that 50 was not very ambitious, but it is a start.

As I have been adding more spiritual books to my reading library lately I often have thoughts that I would like to share and discuss. Hopefully this can become a forum for everyone to participate in uplifting gospel discussions.

компютриIf you missed it, I’m sorry. It was awesome! Well, it was for me and my wife.

We actually got Platinum passes so we got to go early and have a nice steak lunch and meet Dave before the show. We also got a bag full of books (two of the autographed) and we got to go back stage during breaks for refreshments.

There was a downside though. I had a stake priesthood leadership meeting at 4:00 pm so I had to leave early.

From what I heard from those at the financial peace place (Dave’s employees) it was a huge success:

Not only did we sell out, over 500 families signed up for FPU!!  That is amazing….AND broke a company record!!

…

We heard about the live event on Monday; everyone was saying it was one of our most exciting ever.

I’m sure you’ve all heard that the latest conference talks are available in mp3 format now. Would you like an easier way to download them all? I’ve emailed the makers of LDS Audio Browser and they’ve responded to my request to add all the latest conference talks. Now you can download them all in 3 easy steps!

Get more info and download links here.

And yes Connor, it even works on the Mac. 😉

I read that LDS.org was number 1 on google for the term “church” and mormon.org was number seven. When I tried the two sites were number one and number two. Then I tried again and they were number 1 and 3. At first I was excited, then I realized I was just getting “personalized” results 😀

Larry Richman wrote a recent post on his blog entitled “Why use the Internet?“. I highly encourage you to read his post.

It brought back memories of my first exposure to the internet. I graduated in 1996. My senior year (1995) was the first time I ever got on the internet. After graduating, I worked for the Duchesne County School District. I would set up computer labs, fix computers & printers, and run CAT5 & fiber optic cabeling. It was a fun job. My boss gave me a laptop to take home and gave me internet access through the Utah Education Network. I used to get on some kind of chat room often, though I have no idea now which one and I doubt it still exists. I would often bring up the subject of religion. There was one occassion in which I talked in length to a girl about the church. She had never heard of it before. She agreed to read the Book of Mormon if I sent her a copy. A couple days later I happened to run into the missionaries and they gave me a copy. I sent it off to here in the mail. The last I heard from her, she had received it and started reading it. I never did hear from her again though because shorty after that time I turned my laptop in and entered the mission field. I always wonder if she read it and what became of her.

Has anyone had any internet missionary experiences they would like to share?

A comment made in one of Brandon’s posts posed the question, “is a fetus a person?” (I’ll make the assumption that a “person” is a human being with both spirit and body.) I believe so. Why? I think my belief spawns from the Bible. Take a look at Luke 1:41, 44:

41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:
42 And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
44 For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

So it seems that John the Baptist, while still a fetus in his mother’s womb, lept upon hearing Mary’s salution? I think perhaps he may have felt the spirit of the Savior coming near.

Now that begs the question, when does the spirit enter the body, making the fetus a person? That I don’t know. I used to think conception, but now I tend to lean toward some time around the end of the first trimester. What are some of your thoughts?

The LDS Newsroom reported yesterday that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the second fastest growing church in America in 2005.

SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the second-fastest growing church in the United States, according to the 2006 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, published by the National Council of Churches.

The Church reached 12,560,869 members worldwide at the end of 2005, with 5,690,672 in the United States.

The countries with the highest membership are:

* United States — 5,691,000*
* Mexico — 1,044,000
* Brazil — 929,000
* Philippines — 553,000
* Chile — 539,000
* Peru — 416,000
* Argentina — 348,000
* Guatemala — 201,000
* Canada — 172,000
* Ecuador — 171,000

“The numbers don’t tell the real story,” a Church spokesman said. “The real measure of Latter-day Saints is the depth of their faith and how it changes people’s lives.”

*Figures rounded to the nearest thousand

Continue reading LDS Church Growth in America