Search, Ponder, and Pray: Missouri Guide for Travel and Study


Book Description

Walk in the footsteps of the first Latter-day Saints with this spiritual guide to Church historical sites. This immersive guide draws from first-hand accounts and the expertise of leading Church historians to guide you through the rich history of significant locations of the Restoration. For these sacred sites, authors Casey Griffiths and Mary Jane Woodger provide the background knowledge behind each site, the importance each property has in Church history, and a short devotional that prompts reflection and invites the Spirit. With this guide you can understand the early Saints' vision for the city of Zion and the persecutions that forced the Saints to leave their beloved city. explore the past, present, and future of the Savior's Church in the chosen land of Missouri. see Far West, once the Church's headquarters and one of largest and fastest growing cities in all of Missouri, and examine the remnants of the lost temple there. explore the massacre at Hawn's Mill and the trials faced by Joseph Smith and other Church leaders in Liberty Jail. Immerse yourself in the spiritual history of the Restoration. You've never traveled like this before!




Search, Ponder, and Pray: Illinois Guide for Travel and study


Book Description

Walk in the footsteps of the first Latter-day Saints with this spiritual guide to Church historical sites. This immersive guide draws from first-hand accounts and the expertise of leading Church historians to guide you through the rich history of significant locations of the Restoration. For these sacred sites, authors Casey Griffiths, Mary Jane Woodger, and Bryan Ready provide the background knowledge behind each site, the importance each property has in Church history, and a short devotional that prompts reflection and invites the Spirit. With this guide you can • experience the beauty of the Nauvoo Temple and learn its history and symbolism. • visit the Red Brick Store where the Relief Society was first organized and the first temple ordinances were performed. • explore Carthage Jail where the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum sealed their testimony with their blood. • see the final resting places of Joseph, Hyrum, Emma, and many of the early Saints. • walk down the Trail of Hope and reflect on the sacrifices of the Saints as they left their beloved city Nauvoo and traveled West. Immerse yourself in the spiritual history of the Restoration. You've never traveled like this before!




Fire and Sword


Book Description

Many Mormon dreams flourished in Missouri. So did many Mormon nightmares. The Missouri period--especially from the summer of 1838 when Joseph took over vigorous, personal direction of this new Zion until the spring of 1839 when he escaped after five months of imprisonment¿represents a moment of intense crisis in Mormon history. Representing the greatest extremes of devotion and violence, commitment and intolerance, physical suffering and terror--mobbings, battles, massacres, and political ¿knockdowns¿--it shadowed the Mormon psyche for a century. In the lush Missouri landscape of the Mormon imagination where Adam and Eve had walked out of the garden and where Adam would return to preside over his posterity, the towering religious creativity of Joseph Smith and clash of religious stereotypes created a swift and traumatic frontier drama that changed the Church.




Search, Ponder, and Pray: A Guide to the Gospels


Book Description

Latter-day Saints already familiar with the New Testament will find a wealth of new insights into the cultural, historical, and literary background of the Gospels. Research previously shrouded in academic jargon is presented in a way that is not only understandable, but encourages readers to evaluate the evidence for themselves and to draw their own conclusions. Over 4,000 thought-provoking questions allow readers to ponder the scriptures in new and exciting ways. In many ways, this book immediately and directly facilitates a close, deliberate, and thoughtful reading of the scriptural text.




Joseph Smith and His First Vision


Book Description

Joseph Smith's First Vision of the Father and the Son in 1820 was the first of many visions the Prophet and early Church members experienced. This volume brings together some of the finest presentations from the 2020 BYU Church History Symposium honoring the bicentennial of the First Vision. Explore the influence of the First Vision, as well as teachings of other visionaries.




Holy Rover


Book Description

"Whether describing mystical visions or the rhythms of everyday life, Erickson turns the spiritual journey into a series of exciting transformations." ÑPublishers WeeklyÊ(starred review) From her childhood on an Iowa farm, Lori Erickson grew up to travel the world as a writer specializing in holy sitesjourneys that led her on an ever-deepening spiritual quest. InÊHoly Rover, she weaves her personal narrative with descriptions of a dozen pilgrimages. Along the way, Erickson encounters spiritual leaders who include the chief priest of the Icelandic pagan religion of Asatru, a Trappist monk at Thomas Merton's Gethsemani Abbey, and a Lakota retreat director at South Dakota's Bear Butte. Both irreverent and devout,ÊHoly RoverÊincludes images of holy sites around the world taken by several of the nation's leading travel photographers. Travel writer, Episcopal deacon, and author of the Holy Rover blog atÊPatheos, Erickson is an engaging guide for pilgrims eager to take a spiritual journey. Her book describes travels that changed her life and can change yours, too.




Consider the Blessings


Book Description

Presents fifty of the true accounts President Thomas S. Monson has shared over the years.




Truth Seeker


Book Description

Joseph F. Merrill became the first native Utahn to earn a PhD. Working at the University of Utah, he labored to reconcile the secular world with the spiritual world of his youth. In 1912 he helped establish the first Latter-day Saint seminary at Granite High School. As Church commissioner of education, he helped establish the institutes of religion, with a mission to allow college students to reconcile the secular truths learned in university settings with the truths of the gospel. He created the Religion Department at Brigham Young University and encouraged young scholars to produce professional studies of the Latter-day Saint religion. In 1933 Merrill was called as an Apostle, where he continued his work to modernize the Church. In the final years of his life, Merrill continued to work to show that science and religion could be reconciled.




Near the Exit


Book Description

"An ideal guidebook to facing the inevitable." Foreword Reviews After her brother died unexpectedly and her mother moved into a dementia-care facility, spiritual travel writer and Episcopal deacon Lori Erickson felt called to a new quest: to face death head on, with the eye of a tourist and the heart of a pastor. Blending memoir, spirituality, and travel, Near the Exit examines how cultures confront and have confronted death, from Egypt's Valley of the Kings and Mayan temples, to a Colorado cremation pyre and Day of the Dead celebrations, to Maori settlements and tourist-destination graveyards. Erickson reflects on mortalityâ€"the ways we avoid it, the ways we cope with it, and the ways life is made more precious by accepting itâ€"in places as far away as New Zealand and as close as the nursing home up the street. Throughout her personal journey and her travels, Erickson  helps us to see that one of the most life-affirming things we can do is to invite death along for the ride.




50 Relics of the Restoration


Book Description

We are witnesses to a process of restoration. If you think the Church has been fully restored, you're just seeing the beginning. There is much more to come. -Russell M. Nelson, news release, Oct. 30, 2018, Concepcion, Chile One of the most intriguing aspects of our Church's history is that it is still being discovered. Just as early Christians sought out pieces of the cross or searched for the location of Noah's Ark, it is natural for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to seek to interact with their history. The objects in this book constitute a glimpse at the richness of days gone by and allow us to see, heft, and handle those now-priceless objects that our forbearers did. In this volume, you will find photos and commentary on objects such as - The Brown Seer Stone - Liberty Jail's door - David Patten's rifle - Joseph Smith's handkerchief - James E. Talmage's Jesus the Christ manuscript - Joseph and Hyrum Smith's death masks - Hyrum Smith's Martyrdom Clothing - And much more! 50 Relics of the Restoration highlights the history of the Church through sacred objects gathered throughout its history. Included with the objects are some of the most vivid and interesting stories of the Latter-day Saints, which allow those who read them to interact with their beloved forbearers and become a part of their history. This unique volume of history highlights sacred objects from the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. With pictures of each artifact, Griffiths and Woodger have written the history of the item and brought forth interesting stories of the Latter-day Saints.