We closed our sacrament meeting today with a song that will eventually appear in the new revised hymnal of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s generally known under the title of “It is Well with My Soul,” but it also goes by the beginning of its first line: “When Peace, Like a River”: When peace like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know It... Read more
I doubt that many will be going to theaters along the Mormon Corridor this evening to attend screenings of Six Days in August, and not merely because our numbers are dwindling in a shrinking array of movie houses. There is also, of course, the football game tonight between Brigham Young University and the University of Utah — a pair of schools, by the way, that were both founded by President Brigham Young. Still, I encourage you to see Six... Read more
Two new articles went up today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Verbal Punctuation in the Book of Mormon III—Behold,” written by John Gee Abstract: As an ancient book, the Book of Mormon employed verbal punctuation rather than typographical punctuation. An example of this verbal punctuation is the word behold, which is used in the Book of Mormon to point things out, to highlight unexpected effects of situations, and to modify a previously expressed proposition.... Read more
This article reprint has just gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and Settings: The Symbolism of the Cupped Hand in Ancient Egypt and Israel: Iconography, Text, and Artifact, written by Stephen O. Smoot Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and Settings, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/the-temple-symbols-sermons-and-settings/. “In a 1983 study, Lynn M.... Read more
Almost a week ago, posting from Mexico City, I wrote that One of the high points for the day was visiting the Veracruz México Temple. In outward appearance, it’s very similar if not identical to several of the other small temples that were built in México and elsewhere during the rapid flurry of temple construction that was undertaken during Gordon B. Hinckley’s tenure as president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, I very much liked... Read more
I’m afraid that I’ve fallen behind in chronicling the death-throes of the Interpreter Foundation, so I’ll make an effort here in this blog entry to catch up a bit on that sad tale of sorrow and woe. Here are a few things that have appeared in recent days: ““Behold, I Went to Hunt Beasts in the Forest”: An Addendum on Enos, Esau, and the Symbolic Geography of Seir,” written by Matthew Bowman Abstract: Enos’s use of the onomastic wordplay... Read more
Here’s something new from the ever-dying Interpreter Foundation: “Now Available on all of our Social Media Channels: “Interpreting Interpreter” Videos with Kyler Rasmussen”: Watch the first video now on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a5wkAIP2xU You might have noticed that Latter-day Saints have lately come in for a great deal of attention in “Hollywood.” Little if any of it has been exactly helpful, let alone flattering. In the context of that attention, which has been almost comical — note that I said... Read more
The crowning and concluding — and summarizing — visit of our Interpreter Foundation educational tour to Mexico and Guatemala was to Mexico City’s magnificent Museo Nacional de Antropología after church on Sunday afternoon. The museum offers a beautifully-arranged and admirably-displayed collection of artifacts, both real and replicated, from the various nations and periods of the Pre-Columbian history of Mexico. And not only from Mexico, but from the territory of other modern nations in the region — or, anyway, at... Read more
Every morning during this tour, we’ve started off with a prayer from one of us and then, once the bus was underway, followed that prayer with a brief devotional thought from another member of the group. Yesterday, the devotional thought was offered by Miguel Vera, who actually grew up in Mexico City but now lives and works in Texas. For his brief remarks, he drew upon a 22 June 2018 article in the Church News by Gerry Avant that... Read more
I’m afraid that, owing to the demands of our travel schedule and other factors, I’ve been recounting our adventures somewhat out of order. I apologize for that. But it can’t really be helped. In fact, I’ll backtrack a little bit in this entry, yet again. On Friday, 1 November, we were up characteristically early. We had breakfast right on the shore of the remarkably pretty Lake Catemaco and, across the water in the distance, were able to see Cintepec,... Read more
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