May

26

The last temple of of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Gila Valley Arizona Temple, is the 132nd Mormon temple and it was dedicated Sunday, May 23, in three sessions.

The new temple now serves 21,000 Church members in southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico.

The Gila Valley Arizona Temple was the third temple built in Arizona, following the Mesa Arizona Temple in 1927 and the Snowflake Arizona Temple in 2002.

The announcement of the construction of The Gila Valley Arizona Temple and the Gilbert Arizona Temple constituted the first temple announcement done by President Thomas S. Monson as the new president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Two of four Church-owned baseball fields in the community of Central were cleared to allow for the construction of the  Gila Valley Arizona Temple.

On September 22, 2009, the statue of the angel Moroni was installed atop The Gila Valley Arizona Temple, taking the building to its final height and form.

A total of 90,865 visitors toured The Gila Valley Arizona Temple during its public open house period, resulting in 1,299 comment cards and 139 missionary referrals.


May

21

It is refreshing and exciting to see the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church) to move in the right direction with her websites.  At the More Good Foundation we have been working for a few years trying to promote positive content about the Mormons online. A few years ago the Church was still moving slowly while those who oppose it were moving fast, creating a distortion in the public perception of what the Mormon Church or the Mormons really are or stand for.

I am happy to see that things have changed, and now the Church is including in her new or renewed websites some of the things that we first started at the More Good Foundation (e.g. online testimonies of normal members, videos on youtube, more searchable content on the internet, and so on) when many members were still wary of participating on the internet.

One of the last improvements that the Church is doing is related to the new Mormon.org.  According to an article on another blog (ByCommonConsent):

The new mormon.org will launch this summer (current plan: mid-June). The preliminary index page offers several screenshots that give a preview of different facets of the site. Without question, the main event is the collection of personal profiles, the individualized building blocks of the site which have the potential to offer visitors a wide spectrum of perspectives on being a Mormon.

Here are a few details about the profile pages:

–Each page features an individual member of the Church

–Any member 18 and older can create a profile (you need your membership # to do so; there’s a separate site for youth)

–Profiles include your name, photo, and text you write yourself as prompted on the profile creation page

–Required sections include “About Me,” “How I live my faith,” “Why I am a Mormon,” FAQs and personal stories.

–Thought questions are provided for the FAQ and personal stories sections—the former are somewhat objective questions about what Mormons believe (What does Mormonism teach regarding baptism?); the latter focus more directly on your personal experience as a member of the Church (How has the Book of Mormon helped you understand the purpose of life?). You must answer at least one of each.

May

6

We had the privilege to see a preview of this Mormon Messages video a few weeks ago when it was not completed yet. Even at that point it was impossible not to feel the spirit of this great story of faith and strength.

Now it is finally completed and live on the Mormon Messages Channel. Stephanie Nielson, survivor of a near-fatal plane crash, shares her story of a beautiful life centered on faith in Jesus Christ and love of family.

Her reaction to the tragedy could have been one of desperation and bitterness, but her profound faith sustained her through the trial and beyond.

May

3

Mormons believe in full equality between men and women, but they also believe that men and women have different roles because of gender.
Mormon Woman
Latter-day Saint women celebrate their differences from men, believing that the union of a man and woman is divinely appointed. Sheri L. Dew, a member and former leader of the Relief Society (the 6 million strong Church organization for women) stated, “He made us enough alike to love each other, but enough different that we would need to unite our strengths and stewardships to create a whole. Neither man nor woman is perfect or complete without the other” (“It Is Not Good for Man or Woman to Be Alone,” Ensign, Nov. 2001, 12).

Elder Neal A Maxwell, a prominent Church leader from 1974 up to his death in 2004, added this view concerning husbands and wives:

“When we kneel to pray, we kneel together. When we kneel at the altar of the holy temple [to be married], we kneel together. When we approach the final gate where Jesus Himself is the gatekeeper, we will, if faithful, pass through that gate together” (“The Women of God,” Ensign, May 1978, 10).

While men and women are equal partners in marriage, the Mormon church recognizes that men and women are different, too:

“We cannot eliminate, through any pattern of legislation or regulation, the differences between men and women. There are basic things that a man needs that a woman does not need. There are things that a man feels that a woman never does feel. There are basic things that a woman needs that a man never needs, and there are things that a woman feels that a man never feels nor should he.” (Boyd K. Packer, “The Equal Rights Amendment”, Ensign, March 1977, page 6)

Mormon women are not subservient to Mormon men:

“The place of woman in the Church is to walk beside the man, not in front of him nor behind him. In the Church there is full equality between man and woman. The gospel … was devised by the Lord for men and women alike. Every person on earth, man or woman, earned the right in the pre-existent life to come here; and must earn the right, by righteous actions, to live hereafter where ‘God and Christ dwell.’ … The privileges and requirements of the gospel are fundamentally alike for men and women. The Lord loves His daughters as well as He loves His sons. … This makes individuals of man and woman—individuals with the right of free agency, with the power of individual decision, with individual opportunity for everlasting joy, whose own actions throughout the eternities, with the loving aid of the Father, will determine individual achievement. There can be no question in the Church of man’s rights versus woman’s rights” (Improvement Era, Mar. 1942, p. 161).