Author Archives: Joyce Anderson

About Joyce Anderson

Joyce is a mother, wife, sister, school teacher, Bulgarian speaker, conservative, lover of good music, social media junky and a two time culinary arts Grand Champion bread baker. She and the family reside in a remote mountain community where great discoveries have been made. When not changing the world, she enjoys the occasional bowl of chips and salsa. She can be found at: http://pinterest.com/TheAtomicMom

Pres. Nelson meets with NAACP leadership

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This morning Pres. Nelson and other church leaders met with the leadership of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). Watch the press conference from this morning HERE.

Pres. Nelson spoke about this meeting today on his Facebook page. He said,

“It was my pleasure today to meet with national officials of the NAACP to affirm the fundamental doctrine—and heartfelt conviction—of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that all people are God’s precious children and are therefore brothers and sisters. Nearly a quarter century ago, the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles proclaimed that “all human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.”

Today, in unity with such capable and impressive leaders as the national officials of the NAACP, we are impressed to call on people of this nation and, indeed, the entire world to demonstrate greater civility, racial and ethnic harmony, and mutual respect. In meetings this morning, we have begun to explore ways—such as education and humanitarian service—in which our respective members and others can serve and move forward together, lifting our brothers and sisters who need our help, just as our Savior, Jesus Christ, would have us do. These are His words: “I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine” (D&C 38:27).

Together we invite all people, organizations, and governments to work with greater civility, eliminating prejudice of all kinds, and focusing more on the many areas and interests that we all have in common. As we lead our people to work cooperatively, we will all achieve the respect, regard, and blessings that God seeks for all of His children.

Considering the toxic environment of most social media, the online public square and the real public square, this is good council for all people to follow. Latter-day Saints can and should lead the way in promoting civility. Let’s get to it!

BYU Women’s Conference Live Stream

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Sorry for the last minute notice for our readers. BYU Women’s Conference starts today — YAY! The closing sessions today and tomorrow begin at 3:45 MDT, and will be live streamed on LDS.org. Today we will hear from the Relief Society General Presidency. and tomorrow the speakers will be Elder Garret W. Gong and his wife Susan Gong. Both days should be a spiritual feast!

To follow the Conference on social media, use the hashtags: #BYUWC #BYUWomensConference.

Just a plug for The Millennial Star on Facebook. Recently, Facebook changed what shows up in your newsfeed. Sadly, Millennial Star has been affected by this change. You are not seeing the links to our blog posts and other things we post on Facebook as much as you were in the past. If you get your Millennial Star updates via Facebook, please make sure to go to the “Following” button on our page, and choose the “See First” option. As always we love it when you like and share our posts with your friends.

See the LDS.org Broadcast Page HERE

We hope you enjoy BYU Women’s Conference today. Check back for some thoughts on the Conference and tell us what you learned!

How to Watch #LDSConf

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General Conference starts on Saturday morning here’s how to watch:

LDS.org
MormonChannel.org
BYUtv.org
The Mormon Channel on Youtube
BYU Radio, from their website and their app
BYU Radio on SiriusXM, Ch 143

If you want to connect with other Latter-day Saints during the Conference, use and follow hashtags on social media. Some common hashtags to use are:

#LDSConf is the most popular and common. You can also use the name of the speaker, for example, #PresNelson or #SisterOscarson. You can click on a hashtag to see what others who are using that hashtag are saying, or you can use a service like Twubs.com to follow along in real time (it’s very fast!).

Or you can just unplug, grab your journal and take notes on your own. I love taking notes during Conference and then going back to those notes to see what impressed me in the moment.

The Church usually has the audio available for download shortly after each session ends, with the transcripts coming later in the week. Also, you will probably see lots of LDS sites and facebook pages sharing memes (or picture quotes, as they are called on LDS.org). The Church has these in their media library HERE.

We hope you enjoy General Conference and come back to share your feelings with us here on The Millennial Star. Also, if you have not come over to Facebook and liked our Facebook page, please do. When you do that, make sure to click on the “Following” button and then choose, “See First” to see our posts.

#BecauseOfHim & Preparing for Easter General Conference

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Yesterday was Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week for the Christian world. There is so much to think about and to contemplate as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I served my mission in Bulgaria. On Easter morning, or Velik Den — the Great Day, in Bulgarian, the Bulgarians go to church and greet each other by saying, “Christ has Risen!” The person then answers back, “Indeed, He truly has risen!” I love greeting my ward friends this way on Easter morning — they’re slowly joining the tradition with me.

This year the Church is promoting the #BecauseOfHim media campaign. You can go to Mormon.org/easter to find videos, pictures, and insights to read and then share with your family and friends. The focus with the campaign this year is, “How will you change, #BecauseOfHim?” That question has so many possibilities for each of us as individuals, in our families and in our communities. It’s safe to say that in most corners of society there is division and strife. We can help to eliminate that strife in our own spheres of influence by learning about our Savior, and then using His patterns of behavior and interactions with people, in our behavior and interactions with others.

We also have the great opportunity this Easter to hear from the leaders of the Church this weekend during General Conference. We also will have the opportunity to participate in a solemn assembly to sustain Pres. Russell M. Nelson as the new president of the church. We will also be able to sustain two new members of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, in addition to the other apostles, and church leaders. A week ago I posted a meme on The Millennial Star’s Facebook page with a quote from Elder Uchtdorf which said, “Whatever we seek, that we will surely find.” I think it’s really easy to find voices critical of the church online at this point — too easy. Those voices seem to dominate the narrative about Mormons in the media and in the general chatter that exists in social media. My hope is that we will reject these voices and look toward, and listen to the leaders of the church for guidance and for the answers to our questions and prayers. If we approach General Conference with questions, the Lord will provide the answers in the talks, from the mouths of His called and chosen servants. Let’s listen to them. Let’s hearken to their words, and then go and do the things the Lord commands for the next six months.