Category Archives: Guest Post

Guest Post: Anaïse Guyot: The Girl They Left Behind

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M* welcomes the following guest post from Ardis E. Parshall. Ardis runs the popular Mormon History blog, Keepapitchinin. She is a gifted writer and historian. We appreciate her contribution to M*’s International Week.

Almost two and a half years ago, I posted the story of Anaïse Guyot:, a girl left behind in Switzerland, in 1854, at age 11, when Swiss authorities and her father would not allow her to emigrate to Utah with her aunt and other members of the church. This little girl and her younger brother, I wrote,

were more or less abandoned. Their father could not provide a real home for them, and apparently other family members were reluctant, for whatever reason, to take them in. They were placed in the custody of the Swiss state, which boarded them with private families.

Julie wrote to the children from Utah but apparently received little news of the children for many years. Finally, in 1876, Anaïse wrote to Julie and brought her up to date on her life..

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Guest Post: Nations, kindreds, tongues and people. Part 1

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Best known for Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon, which is not only the name for Bookslinger’s popular LDS blog, but something he does very well and often!  M* is pleased to present the following guest post from Bookslinger.

The scriptures have many references to various combinations and forms of “nations, kindreds, tongues and people.”

From Isaiah 66: 18-20 :
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.
19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.
20 And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.

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

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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: Turnabout and Fair Play

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The following is submitted by M* reader jimbob.

jimbob is a happily married father of two disturbingly good-looking boys.  He likes the movie “Condorman” and fancies himself a connoisseur of fine jellos.

During and after the political melee that was Prop. 8, I read several posts in the bloggernacle from faithful members who wanted to be clear that they could be members in good standing while arguing with the Church’s position on that referendum.  In essence, the argument was that one can oppose the Church’s stance on this divisive issue–sometimes vociferously–while still qualifying for a temple recommend.

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Guest Post: A Bulgarian Christmas

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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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