This little video — 2:46 minutes long — speaks eloquently of Mr. Donald Trump’s commitment to charity and his devotion to the city that he loves:   http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/434206/donald-trump-new-york-values-video   Yet another reason why he should be our nation’s Leader.     Read more

    I’ve known several people who’ve had an experience much like that of Alma and Amulek in today’s reading, Alma 8.   I’ve known a few who tell of having been accepted into a house, while serving as Latter-day Saint missionaries, because someone had seen them in a dream or a vision.   And I’ve known at least one or two others who had such a dream or vision.   Remarkable stories, these, demonstrating — whatever one thinks of the Book of Mormon —... Read more

    “I am a conservative. Quite possibly I am on the losing side; often I think so. Yet, out of a curious perversity I had rather lose with Socrates, let us say, than win with Lenin.” Russell Kirk     Read more

    On 9 April 2016, ground was broken for the new temple in Durban, South Africa.  Elder Carl B. Cook, of the Seventy, presided at that groundbreaking, accompanied by his counselors in the presidency of the Africa Southeast Area, Elders Stanley Ellis and Kevin Hamilton.   The absence of any members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from the Durban groundbreaking demonstrated, to at least some of the more vitriolic online critics of the Church of Jesus Christ... Read more

    Well . . .  I wouldn’t say that it’s great news.  I would like to see the growth rate pick up again.  But the news doesn’t seem to be quite as bad as some fear and others hope:   Mormon growth slows to its lowest level since 1937. Here’s why that’s great news.     Read more

    An interesting hypothesis that would connect purely local (earthly) matters to events on a galactic or even extra-galactic scale:   http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/physics/interacting-dark-matter/     Read more

    To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.   A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.   Growth is the only evidence of life.   And here’s a bonus quotation from Cardinal Newman:   Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom; Lead thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home; Lead thou me on!... Read more

    On Sunday evening, Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser and I shared the pulpit for a large fireside at the Phoenix Arizona East stake center — the chapel and the cultural hall were completely full, all the way back to the stage — in a discussion about Islam.   It was the second time that we’ve done such a program together.   Some of you might be interested in the organization that Dr. Jasser leads:   http://aifdemocracy.org     Read more

    Today’s reading, Alma 7, features the prophecy that the Savior will be “born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers” (7:10).   Generations of anti-Mormons have made merry over this obvious error; anybody familiar with Christmas carols knows that Jesus was born in the “little town of Bethlehem,” not in Jerusalem.   Which pretty obviously means that Joseph Smith knew it, too.   Here’s a little paper that William Hamblin, John Gee, and I wrote... Read more

    Wow.  Maybe I should work a bit more in my yard:   http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-36062538     Read more