Much of the attention of the Relief Society Conference of October, 1945, was devoted to efforts to assist surviving members of the Church in the former war zones of Europe. Contact had been reestablished with some of the European branches, and reports of their experiences and especially of their needs were read to the sisters assembled in Salt Lake City:
Month: October 2006
Christina Olsen Rockwell: Visiting Teacher
Christina Olsen was a Norwegian convert to the Church who emigrated to Zion before the arrival of the railroad. She was in her early 30s when she married the legendary Orrin Porter Rockwell, a man more than 20 years older than she was. Christina began her short married life by dividing her time between an isolated ranch in Rush Valley, Tooele County, and a home in Salt Lake City.
What’s the Worst Halloween Candy?
I’m pretty sure I discovered it at Big Lots yesterday: Tweeterz, which consist (according to the packaging) of candy-coated triangular shaped bits of Twizzlers. Any contenders for the title?
Why study old books?
Most German classes taught by most German professors have little to do with the professor’s academic specialty and a lot to do with teaching college students to speak and write better German.
Gender Pairs in Luke’s Gospel
When two very similar stories–very similiar, that is, except that one is about a man and another is about a woman–are found in a Gospel, they are called a gender pair. While gender pairs occur in all the gospels, they are particularly prominent in Luke:
Secrets from the Research Library
My Utah history columns for the Salt Lake Tribune have a limit of 650 words; the Relief Society articles need to fit a single page. The brevity of these accounts may mask the complexity of the work behind them, so put on your deerstalker caps and I’ll recreate the process, using Frances Swan Clark as the example.
From Charisma to Bureaucracy in Two Pages
About two weeks ago I went to the University of Richmond to do some research on Mormon history. Thanks to Terryl Givens, Richmond has acquired a set of the Selected Collections DVDs that were released a while ago by the Church Archives. Hence, I found myself in a library carrel in Virginia reading Orson Hyde’s handwritten 1834 minutes for the Kirtland High Council.
What’s Up with Phebe?
Kaimi wanted the rest of the story.
Book Review: Jesus Christ and the World of the New Testament
It looks like a coffee table book but it reads like top-notch scholarship. . . .
Frances Swan Clark: A Kindness Remembered
Many of Utah’s early pioneers did not remain long in the Valley. In defiance of counsel, some rushed to the California gold fields. A few went to California as missionaries, and the two apostles who founded a ranching colony in San Bernardino found no shortage of volunteers to accompany them there.
Catherine Garber Laine: The Role of Her Lifetime
This story and the other women’s stories to follow were written for my ward’s Relief Society newsletter, as a formal calling for which I was set apart. The assignment was to write about a faith-promoting incident involving a woman; I added the detail “… whom no one has ever heard about.”
On the Road to Mountain Meadows
Two years ago I wrote an article entitled “‘Pursue, Retake & Punish’: The 1857 Santa Clara Ambush.� You can read it here if this essay triggers your interest; the short version is this:
Hello, Goodbye
Actually, goodbye first.
Ye Have the Poor with You Always
In a discussion at the ExII blog on the Church’s recent decision renovate downtown Salt Lake, a commenter named Dave justified his support of the Church’s position this way:
Pilgrimage
October. Growing up the month meant, above all, sand and water. The leaves turned; we packed the station wagon with coolers and towels and kites and puzzles; we drove out of the city, past Mt. Rainier, through woods, and toward the coast.
Homeless
Yesterday was the first day of Sukkot, the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles, or Festival of Booths; the holiday continues for seven days, during which observant Jews will build and take some of their meals in, perhaps even sleep in, a sukkah, a small home within (or outside) their home.
Temples and Leprous Houses
Upon seeing this title, my husband asked, “Was that the ancient Hebrew equivalent of Better Homes and Gardens?”
Around the Blogs: Life
The premise for the new Day in the Life series at Feminist Mormon Housewives is simple: Selected contributors (guests and regulars) write about their daily routines. The beauty comes from seeing how a series of diverse and differently situated women negotiate the often mundane challenges of life and of lived Mormonism. Kudos to Lisa and her cohorts for putting together this series, and to the participants for the bravery and frankness that allows us to peek into their routines and see pieces of our own lives — fears, joys, burdens, hopes — mirrored back at us.
The JST of Mark 14:8
At first blush, the Joseph Smith Translation for Mark 14:8 doesn’t appear to do anything:
The Write Question
A question that keeps coming back to me: does God write?
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
This post is not two months early. It’s two weeks late. Around here, Christmas cookies and candy and multiple varieties of Stollen have been available in grocery stores since the last week of September, and the local hypermarket has a whole aisle devoted to Christmas decorations.
Psalms
Julio stood behind the blue door, waiting. Blanca stood there too.
Karl Llewellyn and Joseph Smith on the Couch
Do you ever have one of those odd moments when you are seeing something unfamiliar and suddenly it becomes extremely familiar? Or perhaps you see something very familiar but it suddenly reminds you of something equally familiar but totally different? I had one of those experiences today.
We have nothing to apologize for–but should we do it anyway?
I’ve been thinking about President Packer’s Sunday talk–mostly centered on the idea that we have nothing to apologize for in LDS history and should proudly defend our heroic, pioneering past.
Substrate : Superstrate
Contact between religions is a lot like contact between languages. One way for two language communities to interact is through invasion.
They will never forget you ’til somebody new comes along
Some of our readers may have felt like this cartoon when Dave Landrith’s last blog met a(n un?)timely demise. Fortunately for those readers, Dave has now made like this cartoon — the resemblance is uncanny, really — and started a new party blog. Fellow inmates travelers include a random John, John F., annegb, danithew, and Proud Daughter of Eve. The blog’s tagline suggests that it is written by peculiar people; truer words, I am relatively sure, were never spoken. Also, it looks really spiffy. Welcome (back) the bloggernacle, folks!
Sunday School Lesson #40
Lesson 40: Isaiah 54-56, 63-65
At Play
My daughter loves to play on the hardwood floor next to the stone hearth behind the wooden rocking chair. She is one. I keep on thinking this is an accident waiting to happen and tend to move the chair, spread the toys away from the hearth, and sit down beside her just in case.
Thanks, Seraphine
It’s been great to have Seraphine as a guest blogger these past few weeks. Her posts have covered a variety of topics and have never been uninteresting; I suspect that her posts on feminism will continue to draw readers and commenters for some time to come. (All of Seraphine’s T&S posts are available here.) For now, though, Seraphine returns to the garden from whence we borrowed her, the always-interesting Zelophehad’s Daughters; readers who enjoyed Seraphine’s posts here are advised to look for more over at ZD.
Sunday School Lesson #39
Lesson 39: Isaiah 50-53