Author Archives: JA Benson

About JA Benson

Joanna entered the world as a BYU baby. Continuing family tradition, she graduated BYU with a degree in Elementary Education and taught for several years. Growing up in Salt Lake County, her favorite childhood hobbies were visiting cemeteries and eavesdropping on adult conversations. Her ancestral DNA is multi-ethnic and she is Mormon pioneer stock on every familial line. Joanna resides in the Southeastern USA with her five children ranging in age from 8 to 24. Her husband passed away in 2009. She is an avid reader and a student of history. Her current intellectual obsession is Sephardic Jewish history, influence and genealogy. She served as a board member for her local chapter of Families with Children from China. She is the author of “DNA Mormons?” Summer Sunstone 2007 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2007/04/dna-mormons/ and “Becoming Hong Mei`s Mother” in the Winter Sunstone 2009 http://theredbrickstore.com/sunstone/becoming-hong-meis-mother/.

Book Review: The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance

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New York Regional Mormon Singles Dance

A gifted story teller and comedian, Elna Baker takes us on a roller coaster ride of wicked fun.  With candid humor she relates her struggles as a  chunky kid and young adult, growing up NOT in Utah, but in Seattle, Madrid and London. She chooses to attend NYU instead of BYU as a young adult, setting her dream on becoming a New York actress. With astonishing will-power, Elna sheds eighty pounds fast and discovers she has not changed, but men, in general, react differently to the now svelte Elna.  With great comedic skill Elna Baker weaves for the world a tale that is  one part journey of faith, one part laugh-out loud funny, and the remaining part adorable, yet carnal.  In the pen of a lesser talent,  this tale would come off as goofy, instead The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance is a delight.

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Friday Forum: Hebrews 11:1 and Alma 32:21: Let God be God and Just Let Go

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Discuss Hebrews 11:1 and Alma 32:21

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Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true. Alma 32:21

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Friday Forum: Genesis 11:6-9 “Confounding the Language of the Earth”

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Discuss: Genesis 11:6-9
ZitsTranslation
6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.