“O” is for the Osmonds*

I have decided to give you (and myself  ) a musical break, and talk about a group that has actually been “in the business” since 1958; my first brush with them was in the late ‘60s, watching them on the Andy Williams Show while babysitting for some family friends. I thought they were simply a group of Jackson 5 wannabes at the time, especially when Donny joined the group. In fact, I held them in such disdain that I didn’t even realize they were LDS until after I joined the Church in 1973.

They have had a long and varied career that started out with Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay forming a barber shop quartet, singing at Disneyland after an audition for Lawrence Welk failed. At the time the four boys were very young, with the youngest just barely out of diapers. Andy Williams’ father saw them on a Disney special and told his son to book them for his show, where they became regulars. Further on in their career, their sister Marie  and then later the youngest boy, Jimmy, were also introduced.

The group produced an interesting, unprecedented album in 1973 entitled “The Plan”. It is a rock interpretation of God’s Plan of Salvation.

Donny and Marie both took off on solo careers at the end of the ‘70s, when their variety show, Donny and Marie, was cancelled in 1979, with Marie specializing in Country music and performing in Broadway Musicals. Donny has been very popular around the world; he starred as Joseph in the touring version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and as Gaston in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway.

The Osmonds continue performing; they celebrated the 50th anniversary of their musical career in 2008.

 

*Information was obtained from Wikipedia. If there are any errors, please let me know so that I can correct them . Thank you

 

 

 

 

“N” is for the Ninth Article of Faith

“We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.¹”

 It is a common belief these days that God no longer speaks to mankind, and yet the times we live in are more needful of God’s guidance and direction than any other time. I really wonder why people think this way? Do they think that God loves us less than before? Or that He has possibly lost his power? Perhaps they feel that we DON’T need his help, that all we need has already been written in the Bible. I’m not quite sure what people think regarding this important question, but I do know that none of the previously mentioned answers is correct.

One of the elements that distinguish the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that we are led by a prophet called by God; there has been a prophet on the earth ever since Joseph Smith was called to restore the Church back in 1820. The man that God has called to be his prophet at this time is President Thomas S. Monson; Thomas Monson receives the necessary revelations pertaining to our days for the more than 15,372,000 members of the Church. And the very good news is that these revelations are not just for the members of the church, but for every single person living on the earth today, regardless of who they are. The Lord is not a respecter of persons, but has the same love for all of His children, whether they want it or not. The first Saturday and Sunday of this month, the Church held its semi-annual Conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah. During this Conference, the leaders of the Church gave talks on a variety of subjects, receiving inspiration from Heavenly Father. If anyone would like to read or listen to these talks, please click here.

Amos, one of the last prophets in the Old Testament said, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”² There are still many things that were prophesied in the Old and New testaments that still haven’t happened yet. According to this verse, if there are no more prophets, then nothing else that was prophesied will happen, including the second coming and the Millennium. What do you think?

¹Ninth Article of Faith

²Amos 3:7

© Mary Purpari, April 17,2015. All Rights Reserved.

“M” is for Mormons and Miracles

I remember when I was serving as a missionary for the Church that when we told people that we were missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they would look at us blankly and say “Who?” When we explained to them that we were also known as the “Mormons” they would look at us, their faces lighting up as they nodded sagely at us and asked why we hadn’t said so in the first place.

We didn’t say so in the first place because that’s really not who we are. “Mormons” was given to the members of the Church as a derogatory nickname, because of our belief in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon received its name from the prophet who compiled and abridged the sets of metal plates; his name was Mormon. My name is Mary, not Mormon, and I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I accept – hopefully with some semblance of grace – the nickname, as do most of the members, but we really prefer being called by our own names or by the appellation of LDS.

That being said, one of the things that distinguish us from many, if not most churches is that we believe in the continuing existence of miracles. We believe that they didn’t cease with the death of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, but that they continue to be performed even today. I sincerely believe in miracles, because I have seen them over and over again.

The first miracle took place about 39 years ago, when I had my first knee surgery. I suffered from bilateral chondromalacia patella, which is a softening and deterioration of the kneecap; it scrapes against the soft tissues in the knee and causes inflammation and great pain: in my case, it had also stretched the ligaments that held the kneecap in place; you can just imagine how much fun I was having. It should be remembered that this was before arthroscopic surgery came into existence, let alone replacements; so when the doctor told me that if I had both knees done at the same time – with open knee surgery – I would have less than 25% possibility of walking anymore. I had no choice at the time; I had a healing blessing¹ and a week after surgery, I was walking, albeit highly resembling Frankenstein with my full-length casts; six months later, I was running. The Doctor said I might go from 1-15 years before I would need more surgery—I went twenty. A miracle? I think so.

My daughter is a a second miracle. The doctor told us nine months before my daughter was born that we would never be able to have children, under any circumstances. We were given a blessing and the rest is history; that was almost 32 years ago. We had no more children, but we’re thankful for the one beautiful daughter we have. And yes, I believe in miracles.    

¹See James 5:14-15

© Mary Purpari, April 16, 2015. All Rights Reserved.

“L” is for Life

“My life is a gift; my life has a plan.My life has a purpose; in heav'n it began. My choice was to come to this lovely home on earth and seek for God's light to direct me from birth. I will follow God's plan for me, holding fast to his word and his love. I will work, and I will pray; I will always walk in his way. Then I will be happy on earth and in my home above.”¹

The LDS consider our life on this earth to be a wonderful gift, something to be cherished, despite the difficulties that find their way onto our path. We believe, and the scriptures support this belief, that we lived in Heaven with God as his spirit children, before being sent here into this life. We were given a physical body that would allow us to have experiences that were not possible with only a spirit body. We would feel physical pain, and so be able to appreciate the lack thereof.

We were sent here without the memory of what our life was like before, and we were given the chance to make choices in every situation, knowing we would be responsible for those choices and either reap the benefits of those choices, or pay the consequences when we made bad choices. This body, despite its weaknesses, is a great blessing, something we had to fight for to obtain. The scriptures tell us that a third of God’s spirit children did not obtain, and will never obtain, a physical body because they chose to not accept God’s plan. If we follow his commandments, we will be able to return and live with him again. I’m so very thankful for this.

Life is so sweet, despite the sadness we face, the pain that afflicts us, although we may not think so at the time. I know that I don’t always appreciate the pain and sadness; it’s a human failure, but these and other experiences make us strong, even though we may ask at times, “why me?” But you know what? Life is an experience that I’m glad to live, because I know that with God’s help, I can overcome any and all obstacles thrown in my path (even though sometimes I may not want to at the beginning )

An important part of life is death, because it is through death that we may return to live with our Heavenly Father.

 

¹I will follow God’s plan, Vanja Y. Watkins, © 1981

“K” is for King of Kings

“All kingdoms of the earth are become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.¹”

When I began thinking about what I wanted to write for this particular article, the first thing that came to mind were the words of the scriptures used in the Hallelujah Chorus by George Friedrich Handel as written above. If you would like to hear this beautiful chorus sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, click here.

We believe that the Millennium, the thousand years that Christ will reign upon the earth, will be very similar to life as we know it, with one great exception: there will be complete peace and evil will be banished. But what does this mean in the sense of King of Kings?

There’s a story in the Book of Mormon that tells of a group of people called Lamanites. These people were divided into different groups with a king that ruled over each separate group of people. However, there was also a Head King that reigned over all the other minor Kings. The smaller groups had a certain degree of autonomy, but were still subject to the whims of the Head King. If he didn’t like the way one of the subordinate kings was acting, he had the power to remove the lesser king or interfere with the way he was running things. The minor kings didn’t have the collective right to remove the Head King. So it will be during the Millennial period, except that the King of Kings will rule in righteousness and will not rule with whims, but according to set rules that will not change, because they will be just. People will not have to change their religion, during this time, if they don’t feel the need, because no man or woman will be commanded to be what they don’t want to be.

 

 ¹Revelations 11:15; 19:16

See Articles of Faith 10 for further information

Painting: the Second Coming by Harry Anderson

“J” is for Joseph Smith

The first thing I’ll say here is that the members of the Church do NOT adore Joseph Smith; we revere him as the first prophet of this dispensation, the man to whom the task of reestablishing the Church of Jesus Christ, in its entirety, just as it was in the days when Jesus walked upon the earth.

In 1820, Joseph Smith was a young boy, a little past his fourteenth birthday, when he went into the woods near his home in Manchester, New York , to pray; the area was rife with religionists and evangelists of many denominations, each proclaiming that only they knew which was the true way to Heaven, and Joseph was very curious to know for himself which of these groups he should join. It was after reading James 1:5 which states: “If any of ye lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” that Joseph made his decision to pray and ask which of the many churches was true. In answer to his prayer, Joseph was told in a vision that he should join none of the churches, but that he was to restore the original church.

Three years later, at the age of seventeen, he was visited by an Angel who told him that he would be given some metal plates that contained a history of the people who had lived in the new world and a record of their relationship with God. Each year, on the same day – September 21 – Joseph went to a certain hill; on the fourth year, he was told to dig up the plates and to translate them. He was also told to be careful and to protect them as many men would try to steal them because of their intrinsic value. He began the translation at the age of twenty-one, in the year1827. These plates were published under the title of The Book Of Mormon in 1830.

Joseph Smith was assassinated in 1844, at the age of thirty-eight, after having been unjustly arrested for trumped up charges. A mob of one hundred fifty to two hundred men shot both Joseph and his brother Hyrum to death and wounded one other person, each receiving four musket-balls.

 

“I” is for I am a Child of God

“I have said, ye are all gods; and all of you are children of the most high.”¹

One of the most misunderstood doctrines of the LDS Church is that we state that we ARE indeed children of God, with all of his blessings awaiting us as such. We lived with Him before coming to live on this earth which was created for us²; he knew each of us personally,³ and sent us here so that we could learn to be like him.⁴

We read in Genesis that we were created in his own likeness and image.⁵ He loved each of us so much that he was willing to let us come to earth, to learn and have experiences that would help us become more like Him. He knew that it would be difficult and that there would be pitfalls and detours that would tempt us, and he knew that we would lose our way at times; because of this, because of his love, he provided us with instructions that would help us get back on the road that leads back to his presence: the scriptures.

One of my favorite hymns states ^♫I am a child of God, and he has sent me here, has given me an earthly home, with parents kind and dear. Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way.Teach me all that I must do, to live with him some day.^♪♪6

 

¹Psalms 82:6

²Job 38:7

³Jeremiah 1:5

⁴Psalms 8:4-9

⁵Genesis 1:26-27

⁶LDS Hymns 301; Naomi W. Randall