Douglas Clark Why study the life of Abraham? What does a man who died nearly four thousand years ago have to do with Latter-day Saints today? In a word, everything. Abraham is our forefather whose covenant we have inherited. Therefore, we are heirs to the abundant blessings of protection and exaltation given him. Abraham's mission is our mission. His life is truly a powerful pattern and invitation for us to come unto Christ. Abraham's life is a story of high drama, set in a dark and decadent world much like our own. It's a tale of grave danger and divine deliverance, deep anguish and overwhelming joy. It's also one of the world's greatest love stories. To tell Abraham's story, it is essential to include Sarah. Together Abraham and Sarah built Zion, and together they should be remembered by their righteous posterity who aspire to build Zion. Drawing on rich sources, including restored scripture, the words of modern prophets, ancient and modern scholars, rabbinic texts, the Qu'ran, early Christian writings, and more, this important volume tells the story of Abraham in a way that will be both meaningful and inspiring to Latter-day Saints. Here is his story—and ours. 6" X 9", 332 pages ISBN 978-1-59811-867-4

    Revisiting historical documents and scripture from this novel perspective, Brown offers new insight into the origin and meaning of some of Mormonism's earliest beliefs and practices. The world of early Mormonism was besieged by death--infant mortality, violence, and disease were rampant. A prolonged battle with typhoid fever, punctuated by painful surgeries including a threatened leg amputation, and the sudden loss of his beloved brother Alvin cast a long shadow over Smith's own life. Smith embraced and was deeply influenced by the culture of "holy dying"--with its emphasis on deathbed salvation, melodramatic bereavement, and belief in the Providential nature of untimely death--that sought to cope with the widespread mortality of the period. Seen in this light, Smith's treasure quest, search for Native origins, distinctive approach to scripture, and belief in a post-mortal community all acquire new meaning, as do early Mormonism's Masonic-sounding temple rites and novel family system. Taken together, the varied themes of early Mormonism can be interpreted as a campaign to extinguish death forever. By focusing on Mormon conceptions of death, Brown recasts the story of first-generation Mormonism, showing a religious movement and its founder at once vibrant and fragile, intrepid and unsettled, human and otherworldly.A lively narrative history, In Heaven as It Is on Earth illuminates not only the foundational beliefs of early Mormonism but also the larger issues of family and death in American religious history.

    Beyond the faith-promoting stories told among Mormons and the parodies of Broadway musicals, the reality of what it is to be a missionary--why they leave home and family, and what they do--is a mystery to most people.Heaven Up Here is one young American's account of leaving his family in Southern California to spend two years preaching in Bolivia, the poorest country in South America. Neither an attempt to glorify the missionary experience or tear it down, the book recounts the good and the bad, and the struggle not only to survive brutal conditions but to make sense of it all. Beginning with the discovery of a body on a bridge on a cold winter night, the book brings the reader into a world that is far different from the stereotypes and PR images. Beneath the white shirts and ties are young people trying to bless the lives of others, even if they don't understand how.

    Written in accessible language and accompanied by color photographs, background information, explanations, and definitions to help your family understand the significance of each scripture story, this book also includes a section on the golden plates and how they came to be translated and published as the Book of Mormon. Perfect for bedtime stories, individual reading, family scripture study, or family home evening, this timeless volume is sure to become a treasured addition to any LDS home library.

    

    At every stage, unsuspecting investigators are taught a fictional account of Mormon history and teachings by faithful missionaries who themselves have no idea they are teaching provable fiction. This book exposes the underlying truth behind Joseph Smith’s original fraudulent claims and modern-day fictional Mormon teachings. Evidence from within Mormon Church history and Mormon so-called scripture proves conclusively that the Mormon Church continues in a conspiracy to deceive its own members, missionaries and their investigators alike. At the end of a journey through this book there will be nothing left for an investigator to take to the Lord in prayer in order to obtain an answer as to whether what the Mormon Church teaches is true. Common sense and reason alone will be enough to determine the truth of the matter.

    Christ took real substances-a little bread, two small fish-and he created from them...food that nourished the people and made it possible for them to return to their lives both physically and spiritually renewed. Poets take matter (language, emotion, thought, experience) and make of that matter a new creation, a work of art that did not exist before the poet organized it, a work that has the potential (each poet hopes) to nourish-to make readers see what they did not see before, to offer insight, to create empathy, to provoke thought, or to express beauty, soundness, depth. To offer abundance in place of scarcity. -from the forward by Susan Elizabeth Howe