Real Life in Jesus Christ's Church

Prophets and Temples—a Virtual Tour I have been a docent, a museum teacher, for twenty years in the Church History Museum, which is located directly west of Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  One of my favorite opportunities in the museum is to walk visitors through the Presidents of the Church gallery, pointing out interesting facts and trivia about each Prophet, Seer, and Revelator who presided over the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in this dispensation.  Today, if you will come along, I will give you a virtual tour that will focus on temples. At the end, I will ask you: Which president served the longest, which the shortest? During which president’s tenure were the most temples dedicated? Which three prophets doubled the number of temples? How do you feel about the future of temple building in the Church?  Two clarifications before we begin. First, if you are unfamiliar with how a prophet is chosen, you may wonder why prophets serve for differen...

When I was eleven, my maternal grandparents David F. and Emma Geneva Huish Haymore who lived in Arizona came for a visit to our home in Salt Lake City. One evening Granddaddy asked me if I would like to go to General Conference with him the next day. He told me he had been asked to give one of the prayers. He showed me a letter notifying him that he was to pray and telling him that he could bring one person with him. “Doesn’t Grandmother want to go?” I said. “No, he answered. “We think it would be a good opportunity for you.” And it was. I sat beside him on the front row in the Tabernacle. I felt honored but nervous as I sat under the kind and powerful gaze of President David O. McKay.  October 2015 yielded an entirely different conference experience. A thousand miles from home some of our family—grandparents, parents, grandchildren—crowded into a hotel room to watch General Conference on a computer. Perhaps it was the closeness in physical proximity, the girls sat on one bed ...