Liveblog: Third Nephi Conference at BYU

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This is a liveblog of the conference entitled “Third Nephi: New Perspectives on an Incomparable Scripture,” which is taking place at Brigham Young University on September 26-27, 2008, from 6:30pm on the 26th to about noon on the 27th.  See my previous post on the subject, or the program of the conference here.  Note: Those reading this in an RSS feed or an email will have to visit TempleStudy.com to see the liveblog feed below.  Press the play button below to load the liveblog. In the liveblog window, you can participate live with me by entering your name, your question/comment, and clicking on send.  Enjoy!

San Salvador El Salvador Temple Groundbreaking

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San Salvador El Salvador Temple. © 2008, Intellectual Reserve. All rights reserved. (click for larger view)

San Salvador El Salvador Temple. © 2008, Intellectual Reserve. All rights reserved. (click for larger view)

The announcement of the building of the San Salvador, El Salvador, temple was particularly moving for me since that is where I served my mission (’00-’02).  The closest temple for members in the country when I served there was the Guatemala City Guatemala Temple.  Making the trip to Guatemala typically took members years of saving, a week long trip in a bus, and usually only happened once in a lifetime.  This temple will be a great blessing for them.

LDSChurchTemples.com reports that the temple groundbreaking ceremony took place just a few days ago on September 20, 2008.  Elder Don R. Clarke from the Quorum of the Seventy, and president of the Central America area, presided at the meeting.  Photos of the ceremony can be seen here.  The temple will be dedicated in 2010 or 2011.

See the approximate location of this temple.  If you know more precisely where it will be going, please let me know.

Pōwhiri and Hongi of New Zealand’s Māori: a Sacred Ritual

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New Zealand Maori exchanging the sacred act of hongi, the breath of life.

New Zealand Maori sharing in the sacred act of hongi, exchanging the ha or breath of life.

The title is a bit of a mouthful, but let me explain.

I have been a ballroom dancer since I was about 12 years old, or about 15 years.  It has been quite an experience being involved with this subculture of ballroom dance, which has made up a large portion of my life.  During the summer of 2005 I had the opportunity to tour with the BYU Ballroom Dance Company to the South Pacific, during which we visited Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, and Tahiti.  My wife was also fortunate to join us on the trip.  It was a singular experience which has burned a place in my memory.

Naturally, as part of these tours we were also able to learn much about the locations and people of the places we visited.  One of the places that really struck me for its beauty and uniqueness was New Zealand.  Going to New Zealand was like stepping into a different world.  The indigenous people of New Zealand are known as the Maori, and the customs and traditions of these people were quite different than what we were accustomed to.  Some of the things we experienced with the Maori were very spiritual in nature, which immediately caused me to ponder, and which I have had opportunity to think about for several years now.  Specifically, the Maori ceremonial greeting tradition that they conducted with our BYU group as we arrived in New Zealand was one of the most significant experiences I had with the group.  This rite or ceremony is known as the powhiri, and has insightful elements for Latter-day Saints to consider.  [Read more…]

Videos: Mormon Theology Seminar Conference on Alma 32

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These are videos of the presentations given at the Mormon Theology Seminar’s Conference entitled “An Experiment on the Word: Reading Alma 32.”  It was held from 9am-4pm on Friday, September 19th, 2008 in B192 of the Joseph F. Smith Building on BYU campus.  I introduced my liveblogging this conference here.

Unfortunately, I did not have a good wireless signal in the conference room, and so the quality of these videos is poor, being broken into parts and some are missing.  But I learned a great deal about what to change for my next liveblogging/broadcasting to make it much better, so in that way it was beneficial.

Julie Smith:
Part 1

James Faulconer:
it failed to record, unfortunately

Adam Miller:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Jenny Webb:
Part 0, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

Joseph Spencer:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Robert Couch:
Part 1

New Mormon.org Website

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New Mormon.org Homepage

New Mormon.org Homepage

Check out the new Mormon.org website that was launched today.  It is very clean and well designed, a big improvement over the former website.  A great new feature of the site that I’m sure will be used a lot is that visitors from anywhere in the world will be able to chat live with missionaries online at any time of the day.

www.Mormon.org

[via NorthTemple.com]