by Delisa Hargrove | Nov 4, 2013 | Mormon Single Adults
A driven and motivated teen, Audrey Denison of Las Vegas, Nevada won the Miss Nevada Teen title in 2010.
People often ask me why I do pageants. I do them because every interview I’ve been on since age 16 resulted in a job. Every single pageant I’ve competed in resulted in a lifelong friend that changed me for the better, and every time I’ve walked away more confident, determined, and ready to take on the future. … True character is being happy for whoever wins – sometimes it’s your year sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s time to move on and sometimes it’s time to kick it into high gear. 1
Audrey’s Search For A Church
After graduating from high school, Audrey attended George Mason University in Virginia. Raised by her Christian mother in the Baptist faith, Audrey sought to understand the role of religion in her life and to find a church to attend. She attended almost all available Christian churches in the area. One large congregation reminded Aubrey of her church at home, with thousands of attendees, where she could worship in relatively anonymity. Yet, she still felt unsettled spiritually. One day while online, Audrey visited mormon.org and requested a visit from missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often inadvertently called the Mormon Church). She had attended The Church of Jesus Christ with a high school friend and decided to learn more about that church. (more…)
by liviw | May 10, 2013 | About Mormons
Talented classical piano soloists are impressive and the best can have opportunities at competitions and perhaps even notoriety. A performing classical piano duo – can be even more impressive.
A BYU Piano DUO
Brigham Young University has a great legacy of producing interesting talent and Hilary Heideman Mauler and Tiffany Winkel Delgado are no different.
Playing piano their entire lives, the two pianists never thought they would be performing and winning piano competitions with someone else.
Thespectrum.com explains the difference between “duos” and duets:
“A duo is…different from a duet, in which both pianists play on the same instrument. As a duo, they each have their own piano, with the instruments nested so they face one another while playing.” (more…)
by Terrie Lynn Bittner | Apr 22, 2013 | Meet Some Mormons
At an age when most young women are starting their careers and families and dreaming of bright futures, Mariama Kallon was fleeing for her life. She lived in war-torn Sierra Leone and whenever rebel soldiers came into her village, everyone ran. One day, when she was twenty-five, as her family raced to safety, her parents were shot just behind her. She and her brother and sister escaped, heartbroken but knowing there was nothing they could do. There was not even an opportunity to return and bury them. Her brother was kidnapped and then killed. Then rebels limed up the frightened women and systematically and brutally cut off their legs. Her sister had her legs cut off and Mariama’s legs were to be the next to go. Unexpectedly, government soldiers arrived and the rebels escaped. Her sister was taken to the hospital and later died. Mariama escaped again, her legs intact, but with no real family. Ultimately, she would have only a two-year old nephew and a ten-year-old niece left alive and she would have to try to find a way to care for them herself. She prayed that God would help her understand why she was saved and what he wanted her to do with the life she’d been given.
She moved to another village, where she lived with a friend who introduced her to a neighbor. This neighbor had had both her daughters taken by rebels and invited her to church, saying it was all she had to offer in the way of safety. The woman was Mormon, the nickname sometimes used to refer to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mariama found that Sunday a congregation filled with hope in a country that seemed to have none. She listened to a speaker explain that families could be together after death because God loved His children enough to give them that and she thought of all those she had lost. She went home and began to study the Book of Mormon, a book of scripture used with the Bible by Mormons. There she read that our bodies will be made whole again in the resurrection and thought of her sister’s legs. She quickly gained a personal testimony of the Church and was baptized. (more…)
by Terrie Lynn Bittner | Sep 20, 2012 | Mormons in the News
Robert Stephen Beecroft has been nominated by President Obama to be the ambassador to Iraq. Beecroft, a Mormon, served as the ambassador to Jordon from 2008 to 2011. Robert S. Beecroft served a two-year mission in Venezuela for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are often called Mormons, when he was a young adult. He graduated with a B.A. from Brigham Young University and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkley. Brigham Young University is owned and operated by the Mormons. He was a lawyer prior to joining the Foreign Service.
He has served in the Department of State’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and Executive Secretariat and at the U.S. embassies in Riyadh and Damascus. He has served as Executive Assistant to Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell and as Special Assistant to Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Beecroft received the Department of State’s Meritorious, Superior, and Distinguished Honor Awards.
Beecroft has been running the embassy since 2011 and therefore is already in place. He must await confirmation hearings, however. President Obama has previously named two other former Mormon missionaries to ambassadorships—Matthew Tueller, also a BYU graduate, was ambassador to Kuwat and Jon Huntsman was ambassador to China and learned to speak Chinese while serving his Mormon mission. (more…)
by Keith L. Brown | Sep 1, 2012 | About Mormons
Paul Schoeni, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly referred to as the Mormon Church), has been very successful in his work in Hollywood working on one colossus movie after another. He is credited with working on such movies as I, Robot, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs Aliens, Shrek Forever After, and Megamind and upcoming movies Turbo, and How to Train Your Dragon 2. He is also alum of the Brigham Young University computer animation program.
The animation program at BYU is interdisciplinary and consists of exacting coursework offered through the Department of Theatre and Media Arts, the Department of Visual Arts, and the Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology’s School of Technology.
As a limited enrollment major, animation requires prospective candidates to complete fundamental pre-application courses before submitting an application portfolio for review at the end of the freshman year. Upon acceptance into the program, students must complete several foundation courses in essential areas such as figure drawing, narrative construction, and basic animation skills. Students are then encouraged to enhance this fundamental knowledge through upper-level courses designed to develop their drawing, narrative, and computer skills. (more…)
