(LDS Media Library)
It’s a balmy and very still evening here in St. George. As I sit typing on our balcony, I’m looking across an illuminated pool and a number of palm trees at a clearly visible full moon. Frankly, it reminds me of evenings in the Middle East.
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Here are some resources from the Interpreter Foundation for those who teach Gospel Doctrine classes, those who attend them, and those who cannot attend them but would like to keep up with the Church’s curriculum:
Come, Follow Me New Testament Lesson 32: August 12–18 Romans 7–16 “Overcome Evil with Good”
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She and I may not always entirely agree, but I really like Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye. An interview with her is now available via the website of the Interpreter Foundation:
“The Global Church and Lived Religion,” with Melissa Inouye
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My most recent article for the print edition of the Deseret News was also picked up online by LDS Living:
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Although this piece (along with the book on which it’s reporting) is about Evangelical Protestants, it’s worthy of reflection by Latter-day Saints and their leaders:
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“Conservative Christians have a porn problem, studies show, but not the one you think”
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In case you or somebody that you know missed this:
“Memo to young Mormons: Vaping is not OK, says LDS Church”
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Good news!
“First Temple in Portugal Opens to the Public”
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The temple here in St. George has long held special significance for me. Not, unfortunately, because of any particular family associations; the family members that I had in the area were either not especially “churchy” or altogether indifferent to the Church. My brother — strictly speaking, my ten-years-older half brother, my only sibling — was brought up from California before I was born and was baptized by an uncle in the temple baptistry back in the day when they evidently still did such things. (The Los Angeles California Temple was not quite finished at that time; my father wasn’t a member and my mother was little more than nominally so.) My maternal grandparents were married in the temple, but, from what I know of my grandfather — which is very little; he died before I was born and nobody felt inclined to tell me much about him — the ordinance doesn’t seem to have “taken.”
No, the temple came to mean something to me for quite different reasons: In my early teens, when we would visit relatives here (often on the way to see other maternal relatives further north), the St. George Utah Temple came to fascinate me. Somehow, as I looked at it, illuminated brilliantly white against the clear desert night sky, I sensed the initial glimmerings of a testimony. Or maybe something even vaguer than that. A yearning, perhaps. A sense of déjà vu, of something lost but still dimly remembered. A warm memory, without specifics. At any rate, something spoke to me through it. And I’ve never forgotten that. I’ve always been grateful for it.
Posted from St. George, Utah
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