Guest Post: The Fourth LDS Church Mission: To Practice ‘Pure Religion’

The following guest post comes from Warner Woodworth, author and co-author of a variety of LDS articles and books, including “Working Toward Zion” and “United for Zion,” among others.

I rejoiced in recent days to learn the Church is ready to officially expand its original three-fold mission to a new fourth one. Beginning in October, two months before the first published article in the Salt Lake Tribune appeared, I had started emailing NGO associates around the globe, especially in Africa and Latin America, informing them that this would soon become a reality. What this will mean for Church members, as well as those of other faiths is open to conjecture. In this short essay, I attempt to review the history and context of this new development, and raise a few provocative issues at the end.

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Guest Post: A Bulgarian Christmas

Joyce Brinton Anderson was kind enough to share the following missionary  story with M*.

Joyce is a former high school social studies teacher, but is now working as Chief of Domestic Operations for the Anderson Family.  She graduated from BYU with a “useful liberal arts” degree in International Relations, and has half a masters degree with no desire to ever finish what she started.  She served a full time mission in Bulgaria as well.  She and her husband teach the member missionary Sunday School class in their ward when they are not running after their almost-toddler son.  In her “spare” time (haha) Joyce is a news/politics junkie, reads, tries to bake things without much suscess and dreams of going to England, Scotland and Ireland to see where her favorite BBC shows were filmed.

I spent one Christmas away from my family on a mission in Bulgaria. My companion, Sister Johnson and I, were really looking forward to this Christmas, our missionary Christmas. We’d planned to spend it with members of the Plovdiv Branch of the LDS Church and visiting less active members of the Branch, we were excited to have this time in Bulgaria and to have time to focus on the Savior. We even had an investigator coming to the branch Christmas party, which made us feel very good about our efforts of late.

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Guest Post: The Military Mind of Joseph Smith

Millennial Star is pleased to present a guest post from Morgan Deane, who operates the Warfare in the Book of Mormon blog.
Morgan describes himself as:
A regular guy raising a family that loves to study the Book of Mormon. I have a B.A. from Southern Virginia University and just finished an M.A. in History from Norwich University. I have presented papers on Napoleonic warfare and published papers about Asian, Napoleonic and Book of Mormon Warfare. Recently I seperated from the military after serving 9 years as an infantry riflemen, squad leader and intelligence analyst.

My research interests include the above topics, the American Civil War, the application of military theory, ancient warfare, and medieval warfare..  Currently I teach history at Trine Univeristy and I’m studying Chinese in preparation for a PhD program in East Asian history.

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Guest Post: What Goes Around…

Another guest post from E. Paul Whetten. You can read Paul’s previous post here.

Several days ago I was having a real heart-to-heart discussion with my teenage daughter about obedience. During the discussion I explained to her that my demand for obedience was not a power trip for me. I am larger and stronger than her and, if it came down to it, I could force her to comply with my requests by brute strength (at least until the cops came). My desire for her to be obedient was much more important than my personal ego. I explained that her mother and I have been around the block a few more times than she has and can see things that are beyond the horizons of her personal experience. More importantly, if she learned to be obedient in the small things that we asked of her (i.e. pick up your room, do your homework, stop beating your sister with a board, etc.) then obedience would be easier for her in the big moments of decision. (i.e. – chastity, word of wisdom, tithing, no dating till your 16, etc.)

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Guest Post: Finding Silence in the Kingdom of Noise

M* is pleased to welcome guest blogger E. Paul Whetten, who has graciously agreed to share a few posts with our readers.

E. Paul Whetten was raised in the Mormon Colonies in Mexico and is the oldest son of Edward R. and Gayle DeWitt Whetten. He is married to the former Sally Goodman of Mesa, Arizona, and they are the parents of 6 children. He currently serves as a counselor in the Young Men’s presidency of his stake and as a Gospel Doctrine Teacher in his ward. He has been a nursery leader, temple worker, young men’s leader, elder’s quorum president and counselor in a bishopric. From 1992-1994 Paul served as a missionary in the Chile, Viña del Mar Mission.

Paul is active in his community, serving as a member of several educational and political boards as well as being a guest presenter on American History for local schools and civic organizations in Arizona.

In The Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis makes an interesting observation about noise in a fictional letter between a senior devil and a new tempter:

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