This Week in Latter-days

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]eal-life sisters Tiffany and Arianne are back for their monthly venture into the titillating world of suburban Idaho womanly Latter-day Saintness!

In life news, Arianne organizes her ward's first Relief Society birthday dinner in years. It seems many wards are doing it for the first time in year. What about yours?

Tiffany's kids are straight up doing mock disciplinary councils in seminary. Have you heard of this? This comes straight out of CES via release-time seminary. All live the council of love.

It's a bit of a pop culture week (which, admittedly, we love). We're everywhere!

Logan Johnson, a competitor on American Idol, is actually in Arianne's ward! He graduated from Centennial High School in 2016. Logan has struggled with addiction to pain killers, which is part of his story. He's been sober for some time, and he's using the show as a platform for his issues. And he made it to Hollywood!

There's some random show on Fox called The Masked Singer, and Marie Osmond appears to have slipped that her brother, Donny, might be the eponymous singer! There's a peacock or something and a picture of the Angel Moroni. It's all very confusing. I mean just look at this peacock. Donny is the peacock.

Also, Project Runway is back, also with Mormons, err, Latter-day Saints. Also, The Jets are profiled in the media again. The Jets! The Jets are trying to return!

We covered all things Rome Italy Temple last week, but check out the wonderful video of Sister Wendy Nelson, wife of Church president Russell M. Nelson, as they recounts the experience of being the prophet's wife, including Costco runs! Imagine running into the Nelson's at Costco! After one such run was when they found out about the death of President Monson. We also learn about how President Nelson receives revelation. How neat!

The Church news has a full article, but watch the video below.

Care to get into some early conference rumors? What are the ones you've heard? Testimony meeting getting the ax? Missions decreasing to 18 months? Word of Wisdom changes?

There's a new letter out dictating the terms of the Church's and Boy Scouts eventual divorce. Who gets the terrier?!

Reimbursements have gone electronic! You now don't have to receive a check from the ward clerk and can instead receive your funds right back in your bank account.

LDS Living does it again! They have the story from a TLC program about

The great Devin Thorpe is in the house!

In case you were living under a rock, the Rome Italy Temple was dedicated over the weekend, and coverage within the Latter-day Saint news realm was wall to wall. President Russell M. Nelson dedicated the temple and was present with all members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a first abroad.

President Nelson also met with Pope Francis, the first time the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has met a pope. Nevermind that President Eyring already met the pope many years ago. Hal has it going on! Enterprising and sarcastic Mormons also made this meme:

Also, Elders David A. Bednar and Ronald A. Rasband gave a video tour of the temple, the first time a video has been produced during an open house. It's a GREAT video. Give it a watch below.

Keeping with our Catholic friends, a Latter-day Saint teacher in Utah got into hot water for forcing a Catholic student to clean his forehead - on Ash Wednesday. Latter-day Saints don't do much for Ash Wednesday, but other Christians revere it, as it marks the first day of Lent, and the ash is to serve as a reminder that "dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." Anyway, the teacher got in trouble. Imagine if someone did something similar to Mormons!

Other huge news of the past week is the Church deciding to move on from the lds.org domain. Lds.org has been around since the late 1990s and the Church has built its entire online presence around it, so this is no small shift. But what's behind it?

In related news, the Associated Press has finally decided to adjust its style guide as it pertains to references to the Church, recognizing the Church's ongoing efforts to de-Mormonize everything.

We also have some, uh, weird new missionary safety training videos that spoof sports commentary shows. Your results may vary, but Geoff was uncomfortable with it and openly said he wanted to punch the hosts.

Also in missionary news, two volunteers in Russia were arrested and are now to be deported. Anecdotal reports from the Rostov Mission suggest entire areas are shutting down for fear of raids by local authorities. Things are not good in Russia.

A slew of other temple news awaits you: open house and dedication dates announced for the Lisbon Portugal Temple; groundbreaking announc...

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]ouples enter into temple marriage with lofty expectations. You'll expand your careers. Settle down some more. Have kids. Buy a house. Send kids on missions and to college. Have grandkids. Grow old. And all the while, you'll stay faithful to the Church.

But that's not the case for everyone. On this week's show, we're joined by Allan and Kattie Mount, host of the podcast Marriage on a Tightrope. They met as missionaries in Spain, getting married within less than a year of Allan returning from his mission. Both have served faithfully in numerous callings. However, over the past few years, life experiences and study have led Allan to remove himself from the Church. But Kattie remains. And they remain faithful to each other. How can a couple remain a couple when half of that couple has seemingly reneged on a core facet of their relationship?

We'd like to stress that This Week in Mormons is "pro Church," as they say. While we welcome healthy discussion on complicated topics, we do hope people will find themselves better off in than out. That said, we think there is much to learn from our fellow brothers and sisters who experience things differently than we do. And we also hope that Allan and Kattie's story can help not just those in mixed-faith relationships, but also all of us as Latter-day Saints in being a little bit more open, honest, patient, and loving with one another.

 

Plenty of Latter-day Saint temple news this week, including the closures of the St. George Utah and Hong Kong China Temples, the groundbreakings for temples in Pocatello, Idaho; Yigo, Guam; and Praia, Cape Verde. Also, those "mini" temples that were rebuilt from the ground up will quietly be rededicated with minimal fanfare.

But the big story this week is that missionaries can now call or text home once per week, breaking with longstanding policy. Is this because modern missionaries are too coddled? Is this to help kids with anxiety finish out their missions? Is this to help families feel more involved in the mission process? Probably a bit of everything.

The Church will now pay taxes, thanks to the GOP-led 2017 tax law. That's right, the same folks who fight for religious liberty also managed to make churches pay some new fees.

Whenever alcohol law comes up in Utah, the Church isn't far behind, and that continues to be the case as Utah weighs raising its restricted ABV levels to bring them on par with other states. Unsurprisingly, the Church isn't keen on it.

An MTC in Argentina is closing, thus bringing the total Missionary Training Center closures of the past year to four. What's up with that?

The director of the most recent temple films is apparently an admitted (and repentant) child molester. Great.

Mentions: a Utah lawmaker wants to make birth gender unchangeable on birth certificates, new garment styles for women, cool history behind statues at the Rome Italy Temple, and the first YSA ward in Asia.

Everyone do Kurt a solid and sign up for the Leading Saints Questioning Saints Summit nexdt month!

Transcript

[0:25] Alright Party People hey what's up everybody Welcome once again to this week and more minutes my name is Geoff hoping she'll not g off. Greg not George.

But you can call me Al if you want because that's a the song not because of,

the erstwhile co-host on All the gossip let's let's get some rumors going,

the blood Feud Rivals that of the danites and the local Missouri is Jeff.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]iffany's daughter heads to the MTC! How have MTC drop offs changed since her last visit, and how does the experience of sending a child on a mission differ based on gender?

Speaking of missionaries, have you seen the new planning tools available for missionaries? They are straightforward, but quite helpful to get missionaries to plan their departure and return dates. In addition, the guidelines remind prospective missionaries that not everyone needs to leave right at 18 or 19. Those ages are the minimum qualified age for service, not the necessary standard.

President Nelson held a major rally in Phoenix over the weekend and also penned an op-ed in a prominent Arizona paper. Russell is everywhere!

Nellie Leighton is 100 years old and has served for 20 years at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. But this isn't just an amazing story about a centenarian. Nellie was shot in the head by an intruder at the facility. Miraculously, she survived.

Remember the Super Bowl? Yes, it happened. The Sisters aren't big Super Bowl fans BUT they have a cool story about Kyle Van Noy of the New England Patriots. Kyle was adopted by a Mormon family - at the request of his biological mother. Van Noy later went to Brigham Young University and married Miss Utah USA, Marissa. Now they have founded an organization to help foster kids.

"Enterprising" BYU students have started "The Bachelor of Provo," which allegedly "started as a joke." Lest you all forget, we have a storied history with Latter-day Saint-themed online dating shows. Anyway, these kids started up a show and received hundreds of applications. Colin - if that's really his name - will date 22 girls a la "The Bachelor" (but will avoid the sexy times fantasy suite because, well yeah).

Note that as of the time of writing, it appears the videos have been pulled, probably because you can't call something "The Bachelor of Provo" and use "The Bachelor's" typeface, and then show it to hundreds of thousands of people and not expect a large network to take issue with perceived abuse of its intellectual property. They have posted a video about that.

Apparently Deseret Industries has a blog written by a hipster named "Magnus." Anyway, the post is called "How to make a removable collar for cute, quick layering." Magnus is here to help you destroy clothing to make a fake collar under your sweater. And you can buy that shirt at DI!

Jana Riess takes Elder Dale G. Renlund to task over his remarks on doubt during a BYU-Hawaii devotional. Specifically, Riess describes Elder Renlund's remarks as insensitive, because people really do doubt, and they do feel a lot of pain. Kurt has some thoughts.

Building on that, we think it would great if we could help each other through difficult issues of faith. Therefore, we are introducing a new segment, "Wrestling with Doubt" wherein we will present a topic and ask you to sound off on it to help others, or provide your own question. We want this to be constructive and we'd love to use your emails or SpeakPipe audio to carry the discussion. So send us an email, comment on Facebook, or leave some audio here that we can use to further the discussion as we outline in the show.

In world-altering news, Geoff attended an event with Elder Christofferson and Bob Woodward, which was all well and good, but more importantly, he MET FREAKING MCKAY COPPINS. You can watch the video below.

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What's up with the recent push to forbid missionaries from coming over for an eating appointment if there is not an investigator present? Is this church wide? Does it prevent missionaries from bonding with ward members?

Killers frontman Brandon Flowers has some words to say about migrants and how we treat each other as brothers and sisters, and he uses Mosiah 18 to convey his message. Check out their new video for "Land of the Free."

Utah is being asked to outlaw conversion therapy. Conversion therapy does not work, but does it need to be outlawed to be disavowed?

Would you like to see pictures of the Rome Italy Temple? Click here. See them. Use them.

Other news: President Nelson's daughter dies, rumors abound of home-centered church being a precursor to home-only church, and two mini temples will be rededicated in 2019 after being unceremoniously closed and mysteriously stripped to their studs.

Arianne has a full recap of two-hour/home-centered church, including how short sacrament meeting felt and how long Sunday school felt. It was wild!

Tiffany embraces new openness that allows parents to sit in with bishop's interviews. She and her husband found this to be an important experience and also a great opportunity to prepare one's children.

In addition, with youth now advancing with the calendar year instead of on their birthday, Tiffany had a great chance to witness the way the temple has prepared for this change, including smaller clothing availability!

Which leads us to other temple changes. Major temple changes! You can read our full coverage of the changes to temple ordinances, but since Tiffany is a temple worker, she has some immediate insight into what's gone down inside the House of the Lord. Pretty awesome stuff. Even though we try to be sensitive of what happens in the temple, this great post from Third Hour goes over what Latter-day Saints do in the temple.

Hey, let's stay on temple news. So, there's a man who creates LDS temples in Minecraft. His name is Justin Tate. He's a winner.

Also, check it out this awesome video of the way the Rome Italy Temple is revealed from the motorway, similar to the shock and awe of the San Diego California and Washington DC temples.

As has become an annual tradition, the Church has announced the creation of a handful of new missions and the closure or consolidation of others. Look for Geoff to geek out more about this on his next show, but remember, resources are finite, and the missionaries are going where the work is happening.

Women are typically incredibly hard on themselves, and Latter-day Saint women are no exception (perhaps stronger examples, even). A blogger wrote a great piece about being cherished and loving oneself. Give it a read.

With this year's Light the World campaign in the rear window, we now know how much money was raised by the vending machines, over $2 million! Incredible.

On this month's segment of Mormons Behaving Badly, we get to visit the alleged malfeasance of one Michael Williams, a former gubernatorial candidate in Georgia. Brother Williams has been charged with insurance fraud and a false report of a crime. You might remember this guy for his deplorable deportation bus that he drove around to get attention for how much he loathes immigrants.

In other political news, Mia Love has rebounded from her reelection defeat, jumping over to CNN as a contributor. Take that, Jason Chaffetz!

We are joined by none other than the president of LeadingSaints, Kurt Francom, to go over the week's news. Kurt is the best!

Reportedly, Latter-day Saint temple ceremonies are about to receive a refresh of sorts, with rumors (ah, the Mormon rumor mill) stating that the endowment will be shortened and perhaps rescripted to be more equitable toward both genders. Of course, it's all speculation, and based on what's "leaked," we might know more details by the time you listen to this.

In the wake of the Church ditching "Mormon" branding, some online groups were quick to alter their names to reflect the Prophet's counsel. Others took more time. Others, like This Week in Mormons, are still pondering how to go about it. However, what appears to be emerging is yet another cultural checklist item, where the purported righteous among us embrace those that quickly de-Mormoned themselves and question or judge those that have not. This is a slippery slope, friends.

Are you ready for two-hour church? This week is the week! Kurt and Geoff converse about what their respective wards have been doing in preparation for the monumental shift, and Kurt reminds us that we've kinda been down this road before.

ICYMI, sister missionaries now have even more flexibility to wear pants, following an initial rollout of such guidelines in 2016.

Is President Nelson the oldest person on Instagram?! These are the hard-hitting issues! KUTV might have the answer to this crucial, game-changing question.

Our own Jeff Borders, author of the great column, "The Convert Files," provided us with a solid breakdown of 2018 in Latter-day Saintdom. Check it out and get a final refresher before embracing 2019.

A wonderful man has produced painting of fallen missionaries for those missionaries' families. Read the story with the link, but watch the video below.

Lastly, a genius Mormon gave his parents a painting of Jesus for Christmas. They loved it! The only problem is, it was actually a picture of Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan Kenobi. And Kurt hates pranks!

Please support TWiM by writing a review on iTunes. it might seem insignificant, but it actually plays a big role in our visibility. It'll take you less than five minutes, and if your review is worthwhile, we'll give you a shoutout!

It's not easy being a working professional Latter-day Saint woman, especially not a single one. But Angela Brower is those things, and proudly so. She is an active, faithful woman who also happens to be a very successful opera singer, based in Germany.

In 2016, Angela fulfilled a life's dream and performed with the (then-named) Mormon Tabernacle Choir alongside Rolando Villazon. We caught up with her after her performance to discuss maintaining one's faith even in difficult, more demanding professions that are full of opportunities to falter. Angela is an example to girls around the world that you can follow your passions and remain a faithful Latter-day Saint woman.

So what does it take to keep one's faith? How about dating when you are a woman with ambition? What keeps you grounded? Listen in and find out.

 

Al is back for some Christmas cheer for all to hear!

Can you be baptized into another church and remain a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in good standing? This is a complex issue, and at the center of it is author and podcaster Gina Colvin, who faced a disciplinary council, but allegedly not because she had also been baptized an Anglican and preached from their pulpit, but because of publicly saying President Nelson is not a prophet, among other things.

The episode has caused many in the media to reflect on where the "line" is for Latter-day Saints that wish to be involved with other faiths.

*Update* - Gina had her council and did not get excommunicated. See her Facebook post below.

Keeping with news that has been updated since our time of recording, sources told us that Deseret Book was going to stop carrying products that "erroneously" used "Mormon" on their title (i.e. anything not the Book of Mormon or related to the Mormon Trail).

The move aligns with President Nelson's August council to be less Mo' and mo' Latter-day Saint. But it's still problematic.

Since the time of recording, the Salt Lake Tribune managed to get official word from Deseret Book that this is, indeed, happening. Titles containing "LDS" will also be under scrutiny. What do you think of this change?

And more huge news! Latter-day Saint youth will now advance through the youth program following the calendar year in which they turn 12, 14, or 16 instead of on the birthday itself. This will radically change the makeup of youth classes while also serving a very real logistical need as we move to a two-hour block in a few weeks.

Boy Scouts or Scouts or Scouting or whatever the heck it's called now teased that it might file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection because of the innumerable abuse-related lawsuits coming its way. Chapter 11 would shield it somewhat from lawsuits. Is this the end of BSA, which was already reeling from the Church severing its relationship with the venerable group?

Do we foster an environment of questioning in our Sunday school classes? Real, honest, thoughtful questioning? Or are we too hung up on appearances to seem vulnerable or not learned? Our own Jeff Borders takes us to task, but in a loving way.

The Trib also ran a great piece on a history of General Conference talks being corrected after the fact, sometimes resulting in a written talk that varies significantly from the recorded one; or even more drastic: the complete re-filming of a talk because it needed to be worked over so much.

Other news: the Oakland California Temple to reopen its doors after a lengthy renovation; Greg Trimble