recording

Homeward Bound: Interpretations of Marta Keen Thompson’s Music

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homeward bound

Cover of album “Homeward Bound” by Deutsche Grammophon

This past Sunday afternoon I came across a piece of music that moved me to tears.  I don’t get emotional often, so I was struck by the overwhelming power this song has, which I believe is the result of an exquisitely crafted resonance of lyric, melody, arrangement, and vocal talent combined in perfect harmony.  It’s one of those songs that seems to reach down into the deepest parts of my experience and speak to me on a level usually untapped.  I immediately took a closer look at the song, trying to unpack its meaning, and why it moves me so.  I hope to share some of the beauty that I found.

The song’s title is “Homeward Bound.”  No, not that one, by Simon & Garfunkel.  While a good song, it’s not that kind of song.  Rather, the song I heard is by the composer Marta Keen Thompson, who currently lives in Las Vegas.  She wrote the lyrics and music to this song, and this seems to be her most well-known composition.  Marta wrote some about her song, and who has performed it, on a Facebook page dedicated to the song: [Read more…]

Creed Haymond Story of the Word of Wisdom, in His Own Words

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Cover of The Creed Haymond Story: How He Learned That the Word of Wisdom Is True, by Jay Todd

Cover of The Creed Haymond Story: How He Learned That the Word of Wisdom Is True, by Jay Todd

Since I was young I’ve often held as my claim to fame that I am distantly related to Creed Haymond (1893-1983, first cousin three times removed), the early 20th century track athlete, whose story about the Word of Wisdom has been told several times over the pulpit in General Conference. ((The General Conference talks that were given were:

The Creed Haymond story has also been told other times within the Church and elsewhere:

)) I thought that was pretty neat, and there was a short children’s book published, The Creed Haymond Story: How He Learned That the Word of Wisdom Is True, by Jay Todd, which I often read as a child.

Over the years, I’ve learned a little more about Creed Haymond. Apparently he was accepted to compete with the U.S. team at the 1920 Summer Olympics, but he was injured before the competition. ((Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creed_Haymond)) He eventually became a dentist, and served in many capacities within the Church, including as mission president in the Northern States Mission, general board member of the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association, and a patriarch (while President James E. Faust served as president of the Cottonwood Stake). His wife, Elna Parkinson Haymond, served as a member of the Relief Society General Board. ((Obituary – Creed Haymond’s obituary))  [Read more…]

Fireside Discussion Part III

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Welcome!  This is our third episode of the fireside discussions on the temple, facilitated by Goolge+ Hangouts on Air.  We’re glad you could join us.  Tonight’s discussion is about the first chapter in Andrew Skinner’s book Temple Worship.  You can watch the recording below. Or view the machine transcription here. You can also download an MP3 audio version here.

In this discussion we talk about the temple as being the “ultimate” of our worship, what it means to “serve” in the temple, where temples or temple worship can take place on the earth, the first endowments given in the Nauvoo Temple attic, temple “work” vs. temple “worship,” the fact that the Nauvoo temple was only in use for 2 months (8 weeks) before it was destroyed which makes us reflect on the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in ancient times, what it means to have a “fullness of the Holy Ghost” which we can attain to in the temple, and the profound importance of the temple in the lives of Latter-day Saints and in our worship in the Church.

Panelists include Bryce Haymond, Gary Anderson, Gerald Smith, and William Hamblin.

MP3 podcasts and Transcriptions of Fireside Discussions on the Temple

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If you are interested in hearing the fireside discussions on the temple we have been having recently as MP3’s, or audio podcasts, instead of watching the videos, the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) has asked and received our permission to turn them into sound files for the FAIR podcast.  Each FAIR podcast can be found here.  You can subscribe to the FAIR podcast in iTunes here.  Or use this RSS feed link to download the FAIR podcasts.  They don’t have any of our discussions online yet, but they will be coming.

If you can’t wait for FAIR, and would like to download the MP3 audio of these discussions now, there are a number of websites that will allow you to rip the audio from any YouTube video and download it as an MP3.  Here is a sampling: ListenToYouTube.com, video2mp3.net, vidtomp3.com, youtube-mp3.org, mp3ify.com, fullrip.net, flvto.com, etc.  There are also FireFox addons and Chrome extensions that will add links to the YouTube page directly for you to simply click to download the MP3.

Some readers have also asked if these fireside discussions are available as transcripts. Unfortunately, because these firesides are live off-the-cuff discussions, we don’t have anything written down, and we don’t have the resources to have someone go back through the recordings and make official professional transcripts. However, YouTube lets us download the machine transcribed captions that we can share. They aren’t perfect transcriptions because they were transcribed by a computer, and you won’t know who is talking, but they are something. I hope this helps.

Here are the transcriptions from the last two fireside discussions. Simply click to view them in your browser, or right-click the links and choose “save as” to save the file on your computer and then open the file in your word processor:

Part I – http://templestudy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/Part1captions.sbv
Part II – http://templestudy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/Part2captions.sbv

Fireside Discussion Part III on Wednesday Evening

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We are planning our third fireside discussion at TempleStudy.com using Google Hangouts on Air, live online, for tomorrow night, Wednesday, August 22nd, at 7:30pm (get reminded by Google+ here).  Our discussion last week was great; we discussed the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes, Qumran, the Temple Scroll, Jacob at Bethel and the symbolism of Jacob’s Ladder, and some thoughts from Elder Carlos E. Asay.  We should have a great chat this week too, with Professor William J. Hamblin leading the discussion.

In these discussions we talk about the history, principles, and reasons for the LDS temple, and temple worship antecedents in antiquity. Springboarding the discussion will be Andrew Skinner’s book, Temple Worship (chapter 1), which is also available as an ebook for Kindle.  If you would like to be a contributor, or “panelist,” in our discussion, and you have a webcam (or have an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Android), please let me know.  Otherwise you can simply watch the discussion as it takes place here at TempleStudy.com, on the Google+ event page, or the recording later which will be here at TempleStudy.com or on YouTube.