Jul

31

This video has been around for some time, but it still inspiring to see how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) is growing in spite of all opposition and ignorance. We know that it will eventually fill the entire earth and that it growth can’t be stopped by human hands.

However, this growth will always happen by pacific means so that nobody really need to worry.

Jul

30

Since I met the Mormon missionaries for the first time in my life, at the end of 1984, and I heard the story of the prophet Joseph Smith, I have always had a great admiration for what he did. I strongly believe that

Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fullness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum” (Doctrine and Covenants 135:3).

This is a short video about what I think and believe about Joseph Smith

Jul

28

Cuil.com

July 28, 2008 | 1 Comment

A new search site aims to rival Google, it is called Cuil.com. This new search engine has been launched by former workers at the web giant Google.

It is called Cuil, from the Gaelic for knowledge and hazel, its founders claim it does a better and more comprehensive job of indexing information online. According to the founders, the technology used by Cuil.com can understand the context surrounding each page and the concepts driving search requests.

However, many analysts believe the new search engine will have a hard time to defeat Google.  The creators claim that Cuil uses more than 120 billion webpages to build up its index of the information it finds on the web.

Cuil website also claims that

Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance. When we find a page with your keywords, we stay on that page and analyze the rest of its content, its concepts, their inter-relationships and the page’s coherency.

I am really curious to see if their search engine will prove to be better than Google’s, but even if successful, it will take time to replace, if ever, Google.

Jul

19

Several months ago I created my first video with the story of when I met the Mormon missionaries and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many people have watched it and I have received some good feedback. I wish my English was better, but I know that my accent did not prevent good people from appreciating it (or detractor from criticizing it anyway…).

Last week I decided to record a similar video that contains the story of a few experiences I had before meeting the Mormon missionaries. Those experiences prepared me over the years to understand and accept the message of the Restoration.

At this point I can’t avoid making fun of myself and comparing it to Star Wars movies. The second trilogy tells the story of what happened before the first trilogy….

Similarly this second video tells what happened before the first video. But I am not Darth Vater…

I have the impression that in this second video my English is better, but natives will better judge if this is true.

Giuseppe Martinengo: before becoming a Mormon

Jul

18

When I was a very young kid TV programs were already stealing a lot of people’s time. However, at that time, in Italy at least, we only had a few channels to choose from and not all of them were really interesting.

By the time I was a teenager, however, multiple channels started to appear and TV “consumption” started growing a lot among people. I was blessed by a mother who taught me how to avoid wasting time with TV. Because of that, I had time to read and think (yes, think, something that is hard to do when we watch stupid TV programs where in the background there are people laughing to make sure you think it is a actually funny).

I think that I became a member of the LDS or Mormon Church because I was not watching TV, but I was reading a lot and thinking, and experimenting. Because of that I was not so influenced by the common culture and fads, and I grew up with a freer spirit.

I always tell my children to avoid wasting their time with TV or video games or useless videos on youtube.

However, the Internet can be used positively, and differently from the TV, can allow participation and sharing, and not only passive “absorption” or “consumption”.

This is the point made by a recent blog on LDS Media Talk. They ask: do we have time to blog (and share our beliefs online)? Yes we have.

The proof? Here you go (quoting from LDS Media Talk):

Clay Shirky estimates that 100 million hours have collectively gone into Wikipedia. He compares that to 200 billion hours of watching TV each year in the U.S. alone–the equivalent of 2,000 Wikipedia projects a year. We spend 100 million hours in the USA every weekend watching just the advertisements–that would permit the creation of an entire Wikipedia in just one weekend if we just skipped the ads!

His point is that people have the time, but they waste it watching TV. How you use your time is a choice: good, better, or best.

So, we have the time, but we, member of the Church, waste a lot of time in passive entertainment or watching the wrong kind of things on the Internet.

So, since you feel attracted by the Internet, why you do not use it for a good purpose? I have a personal opinion that since it is almost impossible in our modern society to avoid using the Internet, if we use it for a good cause we can not only do good, but also better protect us from the temptation of using it for the wrong purpose.

In any case, these are the videos from Clay Shirky. I know that it is a little passive to watch them, but it is for a good cause….

Jul

15

Last Saturday I went for the first time to get a massage. A friend of mine gave us a free ticket and I could not see a reason not to go.

I need to say that it was great, very relaxing. It actually helped me remove a little pain in one of my feet. Similarly my wife had not had back pain since then.

Today I went to the Temple, the Mormon Temple, where I serve almost every Tuesday morning for a few hours. While I was there, as usual, I felt better, more relaxed, and my spiritual or mental aches disappeared.

I could not avoid comparing the Temple (at least the Mormon Temple) to the massage. In the case of the massage my body was relieved of some pain and restored to its best condition. Similarly, when I spend time in the Mormon Temple, serving others, I come back feeling a lot better, with my spiritual senses and my intellect reinvigorate and in better “tune” with God and life.

I know that many people who have never been in a Mormon Temple wonder why not everybody can go into one of them.

Perhaps this is part of the answer. To go inside a temple we need to be prepared so that the proper atmosphere is maintained and people who enter can receive the spiritual benefits they are looking for. Moreover, everybody can qualify to enter one of those temples and receive the blessing of an eternal marriage and family and spiritual peace. He or she only needs to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and keep the commandments….

Jul

14

A new official website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the only true Mormon Church) website offers a very direct and clear message to those who want to know the truth about Mormons and Poligamy.

The new website Mormons and Polygamy is amazingly clear.

The Mormon Church or the LDS Church iS NOT the FLDS Church.

As explained in the website:

  1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints doesn’t allow anyone practicing polygamy to be a member.
  2. Polygamy was part of our past, for about 50 years in the 19th century. But it is not part of our present. Polygamy was officially discontinued in 1890  —  118 years ago.
  3. When practiced by Mormons in the 19th century, polygamy was quite unlike the depictions of polygamous groups now seen on TV. For instance, a woman had freedom of choice as to whom she would marry. She made her own decisions about life, education and personal pursuits and did not isolate herself from the world.

I think that this last point is particularly important. Beyond the fact that Mormons do NOT practice polygamy now and they have not for more than 110 years, they way the practiced it was very different from what we see on TV.

Finally, and this is my personal view, not necessarily the Church’s, even what we see in TV about the FLDS Church is often exaggerated and distorted.

In short:

  1. True Mormons do not practice polygamy
  2. When they used to practice polygamy they did it in a different way
  3. Not all the bad things shown about the FLDS are true

A good video from our beloved true prophet, the late President Gordon B. Hinckley (very different from Warren Jeffs, self proclaimed prophet of the FLDS Church), explains a little more about the standing of the Mormon Church about Polygamy:

“This Church has nothing whatever to do with those practicing polygamy.” The late Gordon B. Hinckley, speaking about the clear distinction between the Church and polygamous sects.

Jul

11

Elder Ballard suggested that members of the Church of Jesus Christ (Mormon Church) should write a blog and express their feelings about being a member of the Church to invite others to share of the blessing of the Gospel.

But what is a Blog?

Blog is short for “web log.” A blog is a Web site, maintained by an individual or organization, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other media such as graphics and video. You can start a blog about anything that interests you. For example, blog.giuseppemartinengo.com is my blog in English, and giuseppemartinengo.org is my blog in Italian, while giuseppemartinengo.net is my blog in Portuguese.

There are many other great blogs on the internet about the Mormon Church (or LDS Church), such as LDSblogs.com, mormanity.org, blog.moregoodfoundation.org and so on.  You can create a blog that is open to anyone to read, or you can restrict who can read your blog.

Why should you start a blog?
You should start a blog to share your ideas, beliefs, and insights. You don’t have to be an expert on a topic to blog. Blogging is also a great way to share your own personal testimony and to teach people about the Church by telling them what it’s like on the inside. It’s also a lot of fun. When speaking to students at BYU-Hawaii, Elder Ballard said, “Most of you already know that if you have access to the Internet you can start a blog in minutes and begin sharing what you know to be true.”

Is blogging difficult?
It can be as easy or hard as you want to make it. Setting up a blog is very easy. Writing regular blog posts is the tough part. It you really want a high-quality blog, you need to be committed to post often to keep people reading. If you decide to begin a blog about the gospel, schedule regular times each week.

Where do I begin?
You can sign up for a free blog at LDS.net or on blogging sites like WordPress.com and Blogger.com. If you’re interested in starting a blog using your own domain name (your own Web address), you can get one at those sites, or contact the More Good Foundation for help.

Below is a short video in plain English about blogs. I really like this simple video and I used it for the first time last January when I was teaching a marriage preparation class at BYU, a few weeks after Elder Ballard gave his now “famous” talk at BYU-Hawaii.

Jul

10

As I mentioned in a previous blog, my son Luca Martinengo received his mission call for February 6, 2008. However, since he received the mission call around November 10, I thought that it would be a waste to wait for three full months. He had already finished school (he got his associate degree from UVSC a few months before) and even his institute (religion) class would end in the beginning of December.

So, I could not see any benefit in having him stay at home for another 3 months. Moreover, to leave on February 6 means to come back also on February 6 or 5 (Mormon missions for males last 2 years), right in the middle of a school term. In short, that would be another waste of time.

Based on this reasoning, I decided to call the missionary department and ask if it was possible to anticipate his call to serve. I was told that they could anticipate his mission to December 26, but that the Stake president should call the missionary department and authorize the change. We all thought that December 26 was a great day to leave, right after Christmas.

However, when the Stake president called the missionary department he was told that they did not have any groups leaving on December 26 and that the only option would be December 19.

Well…we found another good reason to accept the new date. To leave on December 19 means that he will come home right before Christmas…a great timing!

In short, Luca left on December 19, almost 2 months before the date he was originally called. Many friends were surprised that the missionary department had accepted to make the change. Probably many members of the Church think that even the date of a mission call is 100% inspiration. In reality, most of the time, it is simply the first date available, after the date the missionary indicate he will be ready to go on a mission. So, once we told them that we could anticipate our date, they were happy to anticipate theirs.

Follow a few pictures of Luca when he went to the MTC.

Jul

9

Why did the Mormon Church before 1978 denied priesthood ordination to male members with Black African ancestry? There is an interesting small book by Marcus H. Martins, a Brazilian Mormon, who was the first full-time Mormon missionary (after the revelation that extended the priesthood to worthy men with Black African ancestry) and among the first to be ordained a bishop in 1987. He was also the first of his race to work as a religion professor in the Church’s universities - Brigham Young University - in Provo, Idaho and Hawaii.

In his book he mentions that as a researcher he probably read almost every official or semiofficial statement available to the public about the priesthood ban.

One of the main points of his book is that the priesthood ban is not part of the restored and eternal gospel as taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but it was only a temporary law.

The problem is not with the ban, but with the explanations that many tried to give for this ban. However, in 1969, under the presidency of David O. McKay the Church made an official statement declaring that the priesthood ban was established for,

“reasons which we believe are known to God, but which he has not made fully known to man.”

In other words, we do not know and the theories that have been used to explain it are men’s theories and may be wrong.

One interesting point, that should be remembered when critics attack the Mormon Church on this topic, is that contrary to the national trend of that era, early Mormons leaders did not establish segregated congregations, as did many other denominations that sometimes accuse Mormons of being racists. The only limitation was about the priesthood, but all other blessings were available from the beginning and no segregation was imposed in the Mormon Church.

However, why there was a priesthood ban until 1978? Marcus Martins has his own theory that looks very compelling and logical to me. Again, we need to remember that this is just a theory, the only certainty is that the Lord timetable is often a mystery.

Dr. Martins suggests that perhaps for a long time the priesthood ban was not an urgent enough matter, since leaders of the Mormon Church had more urgent priorities, such as defending against a hostile U.S. government, dealing with political adaptations to obtain statehood in Utah, avoiding financial banckrupcy, dealing with the turmoil of two world wars and the depression, and so on. Those were issues that involved the survival of all members of the Church, and not just a small group.

Only during President Spencer W. Kimball’s administration (1973-85) did the priesthood ban moved up in the scale of priorities and became an issue that affected the very identity of the Church.

I have two examples of situations very similar to this one that may help to put the priesthood ban in context.

First, in Act 10:15 we read that even Peter, the old apostle, needed a revelation from God to understand that the gospel had to be preached to the Gentiles and not only to those of Israel. Moreover, it was the same Jesus who had told previously to his apostles not to preach to the Gentiles. Was Jesus racist, or was he simply following His timetable?

Second, I can use the example of my country, Italy. Until 1963 Mormon missionaries were not sent to that country and only Italians living in other places of the world could become members. There wasn’t an official ban, but in practice, Italians living in Italy had even less opportunities than black American to enjoy the blessings of the gospel.

Black Americans at least were able to become members of the Church; but Italians, in practice, had a very little chance to become members. Why this racism against Italians? Was this because they lost the war against the U.S.? Was that because Italians were not prepared?

I think that again, it is just the Lord timetable, and we need to learn to accept it. We may try to explain, and we may create theories, but in many cases those theories will be wrong and will generate more prejudices and confusion.

Follow a great video about Priesthood to Mormon men of all races. This video is not directly related to Dr. Martins’ books but it is another great resource to understand better this topic.

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