Stokes Sounds Off: Church News Update: BYU Education Week and More

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Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Church News Update: BYU Education Week and More

Hello, all! I am back again today, this time to share a Church news update on items relating to the events of BYU-Provo Education Week and a couple of other developments. There is a lot to talk about, so let's get started.

Prior to talking about BYU-Provo Education week articles, I wanted to mention two articles that came to my attention that I have not focused on in prior blog posts. First, the Church News shared an article about how the Chickasaw Indian nation gave a medallion to M. Franklin Keel of Oklahoma, and inducted him into their Hall of Fame, in honor of his service and multiple contributions to that nation. You can read more on this here.

Then, earlier today, the main Mormon Newsroom website shared an article from the Pacific Mormon Newsroom, which described how Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles met and discussed the subject of religious freedom with the president and prime minister of the island of Vanuatu. During the individual visits he had with these leaders, Elder Stevenson paid tribute to their efforts to encourage religious freedom and to enact laws in their nation that will continue to allow that to happen. You can find more on that visit here.

Aside from those articles, the rest of this blog post will be focused on summaries of articles relating to BYU-Provo's Campus Education Week. Ron L. Anderson, who is an LDS author and historian, focused his remarks at one session of Education Week on the fact that the restoration of the gospel 30-some-odd years prior to the Civil War kept the nation together and preserved the Constitution while the nation was divided over the subject of slavery. To read the Church news article summarizing his remarks, click here.

BYU Psychology Professor Scott R. Braithwaite spoke about how the gospel can help us when we have situations and circumstances in life that would otherwise test our faith, and how a testimony of the gospel can help us through any faith crises we may experience during such times. You can read more on what he said here.

This article describes the opportunity Education Week participants have to tour the newly renovated MTC. And an article highlighting the keynote devotional address given by Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Presidency of the Seventy, who  focused his remarks on how taking responsibility for one's own life brings power, can be found here.

Hope you enjoyed this summary of these articles. Happy reading! In the meantime, thank you for the privilege of your time. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Until my next post, I wish you all the best.

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