The LDS Scene: A Round-Up of Important Happenings

• Mrs. Nikky Mori, a high school teacher of Kappa, Kauai, Hawaii, has been chosen as teacher of the year from among Hawaii’s 9,000 teachers. Sister Mori, first counselor in the Kappa Branch Relief Society, has been a teacher for 18 years.

• George Lee, a Navajo Indian and a doctoral candidate at Brigham Young University, has been appointed assistant to the president of the College of Ganado on the Navajo reservation in northern Arizona. He has been a recipient of many awards and scholarships. In accepting his current appointment, he has declined an internship as a White House Fellow with the opportunity to work in the federal government in Washington, D.C.

• Brigham Young University’s wrestling team came out tops in the six-state Western Athletic Conference. The team then went on to place fourth in National Collegiate Athletic Association competition. The BYU team includes four brothers, Laron, Mike, Mark, and Dave Hansen of Tetonia, Idaho. A teammate, Reed Fehlberg of Worland, Wyoming, placed second in national competition, the highest finish ever for a BYU wrestler.

• Between studying Hebrew and the scriptures, sightseeing, and practicing for basketball and volleyball games with local teams, the 32 students of Brigham Young University’s semester-abroad in Jerusalem have found time to prepare a variety show. The show has been warmly received, and the students have been invited to entertain throughout Israel.

• The official opening of the “Come, Come, Ye Saints” exhibit in the Wayne County Historical Museum in Corydon, Iowa, will be held July 14. The exhibit, prepared by the Church, honors William Clayton, who wrote the words for the famed Mormon hymn as he traveled west with the pioneers in 1847.

• The Valley View Fifth Ward in Salt Lake City believes it can lay claim to a record with 20 missionaries currently in the field. Bishop Sterling Workman points out that although the ward is small in area, its missionaries are serving worldwide. Apart from those serving in various states and Canada, the ward also has missionaries in Guatemala—El Salvador, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Germany, the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. Can any ward or branch in the Church beat this record?

• When the Santa Ana (California) Police Association Athletic League was recently awarded the Disneyland Outstanding Community Service Award of $10,000, the man accepting the award was Larry Nemelka, a senior patrolman with the police department and secretary-treasurer of the league. Brother Nemelka, president of the Huntington Beach Third Ward Aaronic Priesthood MIA, Huntington Beach Stake, has helped boost the athletic league’s income to support activities for local youth. The league was judged outstanding in its community activity against some 400 other entries in the annual awards program. Brother Nemelka has been named outstanding officer of the year by his fellow officers.

• Six Brigham Young University students recently were invited to appear at the annual conference of the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington, D.C. The group demonstrated how commercial radio and television broadcasters and universities can cooperate in improving broadcast service and the training of students.

• The Oklahoma Stake high priests quorum is erecting a monument commemorating the Mormon Battalion’s crossing into Oklahoma on September 26, 1846. The battalion, composed of 500 Mormon volunteers in the United States war against Mexico, set out from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and marched a total of 2,000 miles before being demobilized in San Diego, California. Although not engaged in battle, the battalion underwent great hardship and sacrifice and made the longest infantry march in U.S. history.

• Brigham Young University’s basketball team tied for second place in Western Athletic Conference competition. Kresimir Cosic from Yugoslavia, who was playing in his final year with the team, received honorable mention for the all-American basketball team.

George Lee

Larry Nemelka