Moses Chapter One

There is an important article written by Hugh Nibley on Moses Chapter 1 about the opening of the last dispensation.  Both Gospel Doctrine students and students of the Pearl of Great Price Class should read this article.

Click here to read the article.

Pearl of Great Price Class

The Pearl of Great Price Class begins on Thursday, January 7, at the Granite Stake Tabernacle, at 2005 South 900 East, in Sugar House. The class starts at 7:00 pm and ends at 8:30 pm. Parking is usually sparse as some semesters classes are very large, so come early. The texts are the scriptures and the Institute Pearl of Great Price Manual. The manual can be purchased at the Distribution Center. 

You can register by phone at: (801) 422-8925 or
You can register online at: ce.byu.edu/ed, Then go to Adult Religion Classes then to: For a current list of classes by Stake (in red), then to: Salt Lake County, then to: Salt Lake Granite Stake Robert J. Norman $22.50 register online now.

Merry Christmas

The New Jerusalem Built Before Second Coming

This process of building and strengthening the great tent of Zion will continue until the dawning of the millennial day, when the King of kings will return in power and glory to dwell upon the earth. Then will the saints of God "break forth [in] joy" (Mosiah 15:30) as the scattered sheep of Israel gather to Zion and fulfill the marvelous millennial promises so long foretold by the scriptures. The New Jerusalem in America will have been built before that glorious Second Coming of Christ. To that Holy City will come Enoch of old and all his city. "And the Lord said unto Enoch: Then [that is, after Christ's Second Coming] shalt thou and all thy city meet them there [that is, in Zion, the New Jerusalem], and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us; and we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other; And there shall be mine abode, and it shall be Zion, . . . and for the space of a thousand years the earth shall rest." (Moses 7:63-64.)  
            (Alexander B. Morrison, Visions of Zion, p.7)

Family Watch International

Please be aware of this very important site for the preservation of families worldwide. 

Family Watch International

As link to this site is also provided on this blog under "Good Sites."

Sharon Slater is the president of Family Watch International.  Here is her biography that was published in Meridian Magazine and online LDS magazine.

Sharon Slater and her husband Greg reside in Gilbert, Arizona with their four children. Sharon has served as President of United Families International (UFI) for the past two years, and previously served for two years as the President of United Familes Arizona. She and her husband have traveled throughout the world attending United Nation conferences to promote family provisions in UN documents. They also have traveled throughout Africa promoting UFI's Stay Alive, HIV/AIDS abstinence based education program. The Slaters are in the process of adopting three orphans from Mozambique, Africa. Before marrying Greg, Sharon served a mission in Costa Rica and Panama. Sharon is a graduate of BYU in the field of Family Sciences.

Literal Kingdom of God

Let us understand that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the literal kingdom of God in the earth; that neither defectors from within nor enemies from without can stay its progress. It is here to stay and to triumph. In the words of Moroni, "The eternal purposes of the Lord shall roll on, until all his promises shall be fulfilled"  (Morm. 8:22).     
Righteousness in the end is to prevail in this dispensation. So said the Lord himself in his reply to Enoch's query,    
Wilt thou not come again upon the earth?    
[He said] As I live, even so will I come in the last days, in the days of wickedness and vengeance.    
And the day shall come that the earth shall rest, but before that day the heavens shall be darkened, and a veil of darkness shall cover the earth; and the heavens shall shake, and also the earth; and great tribulations shall be among the  children of men, but my people will I preserve. [The Lord is here talking to Enoch, long before the flood, concerning our day, the last gospel dispensation. He continued]    
And righteousness will I send down out of heaven [Think of angel  Moroni  and the other messengers from heaven who came to the Prophet Joseph Smith!]; and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten; his resurrection from the dead; yea, and also the resurrection of all men [Think of the Book of  Mormon  and its testimony of Christ!]; and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood [Think of the missionaries as they go out today and as they will go out in greater  numbers  in the immediate future, sweeping the earth as with a flood of truth and righteousness!], to gather out mine elect from the four quarters of the earth, unto a place which I shall prepare, an Holy City, that my people may gird up their loins, and be looking forth for the time of my coming; for there shall be my tabernacle, and it shall be called Zion, a New Jerusalem.    
And the Lord said unto Enoch: Then shalt thou and all thy city meet them there, and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us.    
And there shall be mine abode, and it shall be Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made; and for the peace of a thousand years the earth shall rest  (Moses 7:59-64).     
It is Zion, as portrayed in this scripture, for which we are preparing ourselves and which we shall yet build, which has held the righteous on course in all dispensations. It will so hold us if we keep it in view and individually commit ourselves to meet Alma's charge to "look to God and live."    
To these truths I bear solemn witness in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.    
            (Marion G. Romney, Look to God and Live , p.13-14)

Visions, Mysteries And Miracles

Visions of a Personal Nature—I ask, Is there a reason for men and women being exposed more constantly and more powerfully, to the power of the enemy, by having visions than by not having them? There is and it is simply this—God never bestows upon his people, or upon an individual, superior blessings without a severe trial to prove them, to prove that individual, or that people, to see whether they will keep their covenants with him, and keep in remembrance what he has shown them. Then the greater the vision, the greater the display of the power of the enemy.

(Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, selected and arranged by John A. Widtsoe [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1954], 338.)

As I read the above statement my President Brigham Young, I can't help but think of the night when the Prophet Joseph Smith was beaten and tarred and feathered, and Sidney Rigdon was dragged by his heels over the frozen ground until he was unconscious.  This took place shortly after they both had received the vision of D&C 76 which revealed the three degrees of glory.

From Wickedness of this World to Highest Kingdom - Brigham Young

We are inhabitants of a world of sin and sorrow; pain and anguish, every ill that can be heaped upon intelligent beings in a probation we are heirs to. I suppose that God never organized an earth and peopled it that was ever reduced to a lower state of darkness, sin and ignorance than this. I suppose this is one of the lowest kingdoms that ever the Lord Almighty created, and on that account is capable of becoming exalted to be one of the highest kingdoms that has ever had an exaltation in all the eternities. In proportion as it has been reduced so it will be exalted, with that portion of its inhabitants who in their humiliation have cleaved to righteousness and acknowledged God in all things. In proportion to our fall through sin, so shall we be exalted in the presence of our Father and God, through Jesus Christ and by living the righteousness of his Gospel. All this the people will understand in due time through their faithfulness, and learn to rejoice even in the midst of afflictions.

(Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London: Latter-day Saints' Book Depot, 1854-1886], 10: 175.)