by Christopher Cunningham | Nov 21, 2013 | About Mormons
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes inadvertently called the Mormon Church, announced in Autumn 2013 a new semiannual meeting of all female members of the Church 8 years old and older. This meeting will replace an adult women’s and young women’s meeting each held annually. Here are four reasons why this change is great!
1) Prepares Young Women for missions
Until last year, women could not become full-time missionaries until they were 21 years old, after three years in Relief Society (the LDS women’s organization, which young women enter at age 18). Last year, the age for possible missionary service was lowered to nineteen. With so much less time to prepare for a mission as an adult, young women can now benefit from hearing messages that will prepare them for the rigors of missionary work. (more…)
by megan | Jul 31, 2013 | About Mormons
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir represents The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes referred to as the Mormon Church. The Choir is based in the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, and was established almost as soon as the wagons stopped rolling in the Salt Lake Valley. When the Choir was first started in 1847, it consisted of only a few voices; now, the Choir numbers 360 Latter-day Saint voices.
History of the Choir
Brigham Young, second president of The Church of Jesus Christ, directed a small choir to be formed soon after the Latter-day Saints arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847. This choir performed for the Church’s first general conference, or church-wide worship meeting, in the Salt Lake Valley. Since then, the Choir has continued to grow and perform for the Church and the world. (more…)
by Charlotte Wilson | Jun 27, 2013 | About Mormons
Since the qualifying age for Mormon missionary service has been lowered, more Mormon youth are postponing college attendance in order to serve missions.
Areas of the world where there are a lot of Mormons have noticed a change in some of the graduating high school seniors of the class of 2013. Many youth have been postponing their college education to serve missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a faith often inadvertently referred to as the Mormon Church). This phenomenon was preceded by an official announcement by the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ in October 2012, where the age requirement for serving full-time missions was lowered for both men and women. As a result, many Mormon youth graduating high school this year have opted to serve missions before diving into their college careers.
The Church of Jesus Christ Lowered the Missionary Age
In October 2012 during the semiannual worldwide conference held by The Church of Jesus Christ, the prophet and president of the church, Thomas S. Monson, announced that the age requirements for missionaries would be lowered to 18 for men (previously 19) and 19 for women (previously 21). Soon after, local church leaders around the world fielded calls from excited prospective missionaries ready to begin the application process. (more…)
by Charlotte Wilson | Jun 3, 2013 | About Mormons
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often inadvertently referred to as the Mormon Church) is well known for its worldwide missionary work. Many people recognize the young missionaries by their nametags and Sunday-best dress. For decades the age for men to enter full-time missionary service was 19, with the women able to serve at 21. Last year, the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ changed the policy so that now young men can leave at 18 and young women at 19. This age change has had a 
swift and significant impact on Mormon missionary service throughout the world. One of those changes is that more Mormon women are opting to serve missions, and that change has had an impact on the Church’s entire missionary program.
Women Now Account for Half of Full-time Mormon Missionary Applications
In October 2012, the prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ, President Thomas S. Monson, announced the missionary age change, a change that sent ripples of excitement throughout church membership. Now that women are permitted to serve missions two full years before they otherwise would have been, applications from Mormon women have been flooding the Church’s missionary department. Where a year ago, applications from women constituted only about 15 percent of all incoming applications, today 50 percent of missionary papers are submitted by women. (more…)
by janm | Oct 3, 2012 | About Mormons
When a group of new stake presidents from outside the United States attended the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1961, they were able to hear words directly from the prophet and other general authorities in their own language–Dutch, German, Samoan or Spanish—for the first time.
Now, fifty years later, a worldwide audience will hear inspired messages in their own language during the October General Conference. Thanks to technology and efforts of LDS Church employees in the Translation Division and a huge volunteer force, at least one session of the two-day event will be available in 93 languages to more than 98 percent of church members. In contrast, the United Nations interprets to dignitaries in six official languages.
Even with a highly trained volunteer force and impeccable technology, interpreting sacred words becomes a matter of relying on the spirit of the Holy Ghost, according to Brad Lindsay, manager of Interpretation Services for the Church who was interviewed for a Newsroom article at lds.org. (more…)
