Two Latter day Saint views of the Book of Mormon Musical

1.view.  A Latter-day Saint view of Book of Mormon musical  Head of Public Affairs, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Michale Otterson Writes for the Washington Post.
2.view. I used to think that Broadway was so cool.  Yes I once lived in New York and worked there as well, attending a few shows as well during my college years. Well its now not so cool when you think that it has a play that makes fun of the very thing my son has given up two years of his life to serve the Lord in doing good things. Yes he is Elder Jones a Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and he shares the Book Of Mormon with others in AFRICA.

While serving he has done many Good Things like distributing school supplies at an orphanage, serving a native when his home was destroyed by a hail storm, or carrying buckets of water so that orphans can wash dishes, hands, and clothing. My son did those things this year while serving an LDS mission IN Africa (2009 to2011). This leads me to state that after seeing many reviews but not the play itself, along with noting that I have never liked South Parks shows written by the same authors as this musical I am not ever if given the chance going to waste my time nor money on such a show like this.
I would far rather put money towards a box filled with supplies to help a child read or food that will grow a strong body knowing it will be sent to Africa by the Mormons!

Read this mans review to see another view point by clicking  above on the red link.

I echo the statements he makes and I maintain this same Faithful statement:

We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-- We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. Article of Faith:13

Joseph Smith Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints and Gracia his Great Great Granddaughters story.

Today we can see a picture on the left side that is an daguerreotype photograph of Joseph Smith jr. In the middle is the one that is used by the RLDS Church. This middle picture is the oil painting Josephs face has been painted to look perfect with a nice straight nose and no scars to his face from the many blows that he received in his life while standing for the truth of the gospel that he spoke out about.

It is said by Joseph Smith that, "the artist made me to look like a Pretty Boy" "because he has no facial blemishes that are visible in it, Gracia told us".

In the last photo to the right it has been blown up and you can see the slight indention above his left eye that indicates a scar and his eye is slightly pushed in or slanted to the inside where a heavy blow was placed. There is a break in the hair lay of his brow showing that the lay of the skin has been cut and marred in his lifetime. His nose is not such a straight line in this one either.

Please go to Kim Marshall's blog site HERE to see her side of this amazing story with her 2nd generation contact print taken from a negative in about 1879.

Joseph Smith never backed down from speaking his truth of the Gospel (link to the gospel and what that means to LDS church) and the fact that he knew that the Lord met with him and asked him to do many things to bring the light of that truth to the world even in the face of many beatings that hurt his physical body he stood faithful.

This is me Brooke B. Jones  with Ivor Jones and Gracia N. Jones the great great granddaughter of Joseph Smith Jr. the first Prophet of this dispensation of the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She happens to be my cousin through the marriage of my husband and her husbands being first cousins.

If you would like to hear some of Gracia's story of how she came to know about the church that her grandfather helped to bring to restoration here on the earth please click on this link to read her conversion story Here. This is a link to the info of her fathers families history Here.

This is a photo showing Gracia Jones family photo link to Joseph Smith and Emma as a great great granddaughter. The top couple show Emma and Joseph Smith then the young man Alexander is their son. He had a daughter Coral who had a daughter Lorena and then Gracia. She is said to be the first ancestor of his to become a member of the Church. She says she is actually the third but the first to be actively pursuing and continuing to reach out to many others that are in Joseph Smiths family today. Here is another story of the conversion of one of their cousins to the Gospel Robert W. Smith just click on his name and it will take you there. Its an amazing story of how Emma Smith spoke to him so that he could go ahead and join the LDS Church.

Gracia's deep felt mission is to try and reach as many of her relatives as she can because as she said "we were not allowed to speak about him and or even know anything about Joseph". This seems to be the same thing that many say as they come to learn of there relative once Gracia has met with them. We can see this plea in this photos caption above the children's heads. Pray that they may come to know about their own ancestors.

 It can be realized that the great grief that Emma Smith suffered because of the brutal death of her husband and the very realization that her and her own children's lives could be in the same great danger instigated that there was no longer communication about their father that they loved so much along with the fact that they were very young children and taking time to talk about the past was just frivolous time spent when a living must be made. Emma was left with a great burden in many little children and the majority of the church members left to a safer land for them so the contact with the congregations of the church were now gone thus the children did not learn of the truths he translated for the Lord on the earth from the sources that he may have wanted them to know it from. Emma's very old Mother in law Lucy 

Mack Smith stayed with her after her sons deaths and she cared for her even feeding her by hand every meal because she could not raise her arms in her old age. Emma was a saint to those she cared and loved but she could no longer speak about her Joseph Smith after he passed away. Thus her children and grandchildren grew not knowing much about their father and grandfather. Only that there was great fear in talking about him was created.

This is a cast of the death mask of Joseph Smith that Gracia Jones shows as she speaks about her Great Great Grandfather Joseph Smith.

A board showing many photos of the history of her ancestors and the connections that make up Josephs historical life. Also photos of her family and the links that are so important and visible when viewed through a photo. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all view history by photos. 

Gracia spoke about the great prejudice that seemed to be between Emma Smith and Brigham Young and there has now been an official letter made stating that this should be set aside and not be recognized in our life times. I sat listening to this and of course was very surprised. My Great Great Great Uncle is Brigham Young and I never knew there was a rife in the friendship. Now I was curious and went searching here to find a link to the story of how an apology came to be asked for HERE. You will see after reading this article that I must be of that 4th generation and I would much rather see a friendship then separations of our families.  This is a wonderful scripture to read D&C 109:70,  and it confirms this action as quoted by Robert Smith in his story "that the  prejudices of Joseph’s posterity" “may be broken up and swept away as with a flood that they may be converted." This is a link site to the story of the man who asked for the apology as he could see that prejudices was a stumbling block for many of his loved ones and needed to be put to rest so to speak. Please read Michael A. Kennedy's story HERE or the more complete story from the Meridian Magazine HERE (which by the way to a person who is a member is quiet a funny renadition).

I really loved Gracia's words of advice "make a paper trail for your family to be able to see and find the links that make you connected".  My personal advice is write your stories so that your children can read them add the photos to the story so that they can see the fun that is in your family and yes include the struggles because those are what shape a family into the survivors and those who endured to the end, kind of people that we are if we but follow the Saviors plan here on the earth.

What is Respect, views by a Missionary.

2. Do you use the rain coat we sent with you or do you use something else that's easier on a bike.

2.Well it's actually sitting at the mission office because it was to heavy for me to carry around, I usually just endure the rain. it's not so bad because I'm in a car area.

3. Name one unusual thing you saw this week.

3.Well we've seen some few interesting things, not sure if I should include them in the e-mail. For example, A really large man working shirtless in his yard, with an extremely Hairy back

4. While you have served have you seen lots of medical sadness's that if the people had good health care things might be different for them?

4.Yeah I mostly see people with facial deformities or leg deformities. I think that's due to not being well cared for when they are young.

6. Tell us what you ate for dinner this week, did you cook it?

6.Well this week we haven't been fed alot so it's mostly stuff we cooked yourself. I recently have been making pap because it's cheep. I don't eat it all the time though. Bishop made a public announcement to the ward that we need more food (we didn't tell him to) so we'll see what happens. People bring alot of frozen meals to church on Sunday so those will help us stay healthy

7. What is one thing that you wish you could bring back with you but your not sure you will try to because of space or cost.

7.I wish I could bring everything but there's not enough time to think about stuff like that

8. What was church like for you this Sunday without a calling?

8.Nice! I can focus on missionary work

9. If I sent protein shakes over would you drink them? Would it help you eat better?

9.Yeah it probably would but I don't know if that's to practical

10. How many times have you been sick while serving, I recall the one phone visit at Christmas the first time you sounded like you had a bad cold.

10.I haven't been sick too much, mostly just if I get a head cold. I'm recently recovering from that actually.

11. Have you had to use the meds, that we sent while you have been there?

11.Yup

12. Do you have heartburn ever anymore?

12.Sometimes, those previcid really help.

13. Do you wish that you had a water bottle that had filters or even maybe a hydro back pack that you took with you?

13.No I can get one of those at the mission office, but I don't really need it here

14. You are using your contacts up right, keeping your eyes healthy by not going over to many months of wearing them correct?

14.Yes I'm using them, I admit I have forgotten to change them a few times but it's all good

15. If you made a documentary film of South Africa that would affect many possible changes for their country what would be your focus? Lack of fathers, Medical issues, homelessness, orphanages,

15.I'll have to ponder that one

16. One thought about respect and what it means to you?

16.Well respect to me is like being patient with others even with all their weaknesses. It means treating them with kindness even if you don't feel like it.

Well this week has been pretty good, the best thing that happened is that we went to a hospital to teach sick people. that was pretty cool. We met a guy who had surgery on his leg and he was very intrigued about the Book of Mormon, unfortunately he was reluctant to give us his telephone number so we'll have to see if he calls us, It happens, so were waiting. We also went on exchanges twice this week which was really cool. I was with Elder Larson the first time and he's a super great missionary. He's been out about 7 months and while on exchanges, we taught for the first time on his mission, a white father led family.  He got really nervous and kind of forgot how to tactfully teach and started rambling on about alot of things and tried to answer every one of their questions all at once. I hardly got a word in. After talking with him about the situation he realized he needed to relax a little bit so the next time they met with the family, they were calm and collected and the family is now preparing for baptism. The next exchange was with Elder Nhlabatsi he is from Swaziland and he is way humble. he's doing great work, the only concern he had was that he is having trouble understanding Elder lechner. I gave him some good advice about communicating more with his companion and last we heard they are doing much better. Saturday was a little tough, most of our appointments fell through and it was getting us a little down. By the end of the day I feel like I learned a little lesson in gratitude though because when I wrote in my journal I realized that we did a lot of good. We actually met some very good prepared people and we taught our favorite family Clyde and Nicky, earlier that day we did service by helping someone move in to their new house. I guess it really just matters where your focus is. If your focus is on the positive you will feel positive, if you focus on the negative you will feel negative. Sunday was good, we had a small fireside and Bishop talked about missionary work, The ward is really excited now so we'll see what comes of it.

On Sun, Jan 30, 2011

So this week our family blog joined the Internet MTC, whats that you say well its a person who is willing to allow their site to be searched when a word or information is looked up that lists things that have to do with our church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Or links their blogs to sites that has to do with the sites that the church has. Also there is a site that hosts Meridian magazine that tells all kinds of inspirations stories that are Church affiliated and they ask that you link good things to your facebook, or twitter or your blog so that those who are looking for information find sites that carry our opinion's and positive statement's about the gospel helping to teach and give insight instead of negative or incorrect perspectives when google is used in a search to find an answer to words like God, Family Home Evening, Missionaries, Family, Jesus Christ etc. This will help those seeking answers to the Mormon belief ahead of the time that the proselyting Missionaries knock on their door if they have been looking to see what we believe. So I love that the first song on our blog is I hope they call me on a mission but I do have to update and change to some more primary songs that are more about family and the Gospel.

This week I feel more and more like we live at the high school wrestle room after school. Mc worked to be ready for State but he only won his second match and it was a double elimination so he ended up out. C won those two boys in Wayne county and they were 112 pounds instead of 103 he beat the first kid but the second kid they would one get 2 points ahead and then trade over to the other getting 2 points then trade back so C only beat by one point in the end. He told me that I needed to write that out more clearly for you. I think because he wrestled kids that were heavier is why. This weekend he went to Enterprise and took third place. All the kids were juniors or seniors so it was very tough for him but he felt good and the whole team came in 2nd. J has helped by keeping the little boys with her every time I have to take the older boys some place. I think really she would rather that then taking them anywhere. She got Jer to eat a ton of no bake cookies with peanutbutter along with chicken. He is so stressful because he seems to survive on nothing but pedisure and somehow we have got to get him to eat other things. Today they went horse riding and April was so hyper and poor Hobbles was sweating he is way to out of shape. Arab seemed just fine and just wanted to stay close to Hobbles as usual.

I made a goal to get 8 miles in of a run and I did it of course every inch of me hurt from Wed till Sat evening in varying degrees. J whimpered because her calves and shins and thighs hurt from biometrics and C and Mc ached from wrestling. C was so bruised after Enterprise and even has an eye that got a black spot so it kind of is half shut. But we are all excersized for the week thats for sure.

Just so you know the getting ready for Church this Sunday was much better then last Sunday and less of an argument. The speakers talked about being Forever Families and to put our feet in those shoes of others that had not attended the temple. The loss of how they must feel at not having a linked chain to those ancestors. I am so glad that my family is a forever family and that we have been sealed to each other. Even when there are days where we all struggling to be kinder, more respectful and learning to get along at least we are forever connected to each other because your Father cared enough to desire that his partner be sealed to him forever in the temple instead of just on the earth until we die. Anyway without a few struggles we never realize how much better peace can be.

Dad says "that he loves you and wishes you the very best in your endeavors". "Don't get discouraged and pray always". "You will never regret the work that you are doing." "I need to take the time to write a longer letter but it seems that time just moves to fast"

Dad is doing the taxes this week and passed up going skiing with the youth and Mc who will go for the first time without us. He is instead going to watch C at the Region wrestling at the SVC center.

Love all of us