Stokes Sounds Off: Additional Church News Reported

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Thursday, July 19, 2018

Additional Church News Reported

Hello again, everyone! While I do not wish to overshadow the temple developments I reported earlier today, I did want to note that some additional Church news stories have been reported. Let's get right into what those are and why they are significant.

Joseph Fielding Smith, as most of you are probably aware, was the 10th President of the Church in this dispensation. Today would have marked the 142nd birthday of that prophet, and the Church News published this article highlighting his accomplishments. Among the interesting mentions are the fact that he was one of the Church presidents that was acquainted with all of his predecessors (except for Joseph Smith and Brigham Young) and all of his prophetic successors down to President Thomas S. Monson. There were a lot of other, very interesting facts in that article. and it is well worthy of your attention.

Next, more news from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, with the organization reporting that their annual Pioneer Day Concert will feature a a Broadway-themed program. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the featured guests for the concerts will be Matthew Morrison and Laura Michelle Kelly, both of whom are Broadway stars who were recently featured in a production of "Finding Neverland". The other guest of the Choir for the concert will be Oscar "Andy" Hammerstein III, grandson of the legendary Oscar Hammerstein II, who teamed up with Richard Rogers to put together some of the greatest musicals of all time. You can find the Church News's most recent report leading up to this year's concert here.

And today marked another significant Church history milestone: the first Church missionaries sent to England in this dispensation arrived in England on this day in 1837. At a time when the gospel message was not widely circulated, and during a period of time when the Saints in Kirtland were struck with a crisis that shook the very foundations of the young Church, the Prophet Joseph Smith responded to an impression from the Lord to send Heber C. Kimball (one of his staunchest defenders) and fellow apostle Orson Hyde to preach the gospel to the people of England.

Accompanying the senior leaders on that first mission to the British Isles were individuals that had converted to the Church through the mission of Parley P. Pratt to Canada. The success that these Brethren found with the people of England saved the Church both by virtue of the faith of the converts they baptized and also by the sheer volume of people whose hearts were touched as a result of their efforts, many of whom crossed the ocean to join with the Saints as they subsequently moved to Missouri, then to Illinois, and across the plains here to Utah.. You can read a more complete account of that landmark mission and its' success here.

I continue to monitor all ongoing Church news and temple developments, and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you as I receive it. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to do so, please feel free to subscribe to stay informed of new content. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

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