I was scheduled pretty solidly today — I gave a fireside here at the Calgary Stake Centre tonight for which I needed to create or at least significantly revise my PowerPoint presentation (since the title that had been given out didn’t really fit what I was originally planning to present) and I wrote an article for submission to Meridian Magazine — so I share with you again here a few interesting passages that I marked some time ago... Read more
We’re just back from spending nearly six hours at the Calgary Stampede with a number of Canadian friends. Great fun — including delicious barbecue, chuckwagon races, trick riding, First Nations bareback pony races, country singers, rope tricks, bands, dancers, fireworks, multicolored illuminated drones in spectacular formations, and good conversation. (We never tried any of the carnival rides, though.) Earlier in the day, we enjoyed lunch with friends from our recent Israel tour at the River Café on... Read more
Three new items went up today on the (obviously pretty much moribund and comatose) website of the Interpreter Foundation: “Nibley Lectures: Time Vindicates the Prophets — Prophets and Scriptures” Between 7 March and 17 October in 1954, Hugh Nibley delivered a series of thirty weekly lectures on KSL Radio that were also published as pamphlets. The series, called “Time Vindicates the Prophets,” was given in answer to those who were challenging the right of members of... Read more
I find myself deeply moved and profoundly impressed by the images from the new NASA James Webb Space Telescope that are being released. I offer three of them here, with captions from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration itself. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for... Read more
I have a little more information about the talk that I’ll be giving in Calgary on Thursday, 14 July 2022, at 7:30 PM. I’ll be speaking in the building known as the Calgary Stake Centre, for which the address is 2021 17 Ave SW Calgary, AB T2T 0G2. If you’re in the Calgary area, I hope to see you there. I realize that Thursday is a rather unusual night on which to have a church fireside, but, given... Read more
In the portion of my post from yesterday that talked about our visit to Vancouver Island’s famous Butchart Gardens, I commented on the brilliant colors that are often reported in accounts of near-death experiences. I think that I’ll revisit the topic again, briefly. Here are four passages from John Burke, Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God’s Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015), that report a multi-colored “sky” in heaven,: ... Read more
The Interpreter Foundation’s Witnesses film project continues to produce. Having completed its theatrical run, the original Witnesses dramatic film is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray and via streaming. Its docudrama sequel, Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, which came out a few weeks ago, is available on DVD and will soon begin streaming. Our companion website, Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, is up and still slowly growing. And the twelfth episode of our Witnesses-related short... Read more
Just in case anybody’s interested and in the area: I will be presenting a fireside in the vicinity of Calgary, Alberta, Canada next week, on Thursday, 14 July 2022, at 7:30 PM. I regret that I don’t yet have an address, but I’m told that it will be at a stake center — or, given where I am right now and where the venue will be, at a stake centre — that is not far from a restaurant... Read more
*** We boarded a small propeller-driven plane this morning for the short flight from Vancouver to Victoria and, before our room was ready, had a nice lunch of fish and chips at Spinnakers, on Lime Bay. That’s become a bit of a tradition for us whenever we’re here. And we love being here. I could live here and be very happy. *** As far as this blog is concerned, of course, I no longer have... Read more
Interpreter Radio Show — June 12, 2022 In the first half of this episode of the Interpreter Radio Show, Martin Tanner, John Gee, and Kevin Christensen discuss Under the Banner of Heaven — thus, no doubt, somehow mystically confirming my own ongoing personal obsession with that recent FX/Hulu miniseries. The second portion of the show is devoted to a roundtable discussing the upcoming Come, Follow Me lesson #30 (Ezra 1; 3–7; Nehemiah 2; 4–6; 8). The Interpreter Radio... Read more
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