LDS Scene

Elder Thomas S. Monson of the Quorum of the Twelve recently visited the Caribbean to dedicate Haiti for the preaching of the gospel. He also dedicated the site for the first meetinghouse to be constructed on the island. The brief ceremony was held April 17 on a mountain overlooking Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Elder Monson’s trip to Haiti and later to Jamaica represents the first visit to the two islands by a member of the Quorum of the Twelve.

Ground was broken on 9 May 1983 for the Church’s thirty-seventh temple—the Korea Seoul Temple. Elder Marvin J. Ashton, who turned the first shovelful of dirt and spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony, noted that there are thirteen stakes and three missions (and about 40,000 members) in Korea. Other speakers included Elders Adney Y. Komatsu and William R. Bradford, both of the First Quorum of the Seventy.

The Relief Society recently announced their 1983 song contest, which opened on July 1 and closes on December 1, 1983. The contest is open to all women of the Church, and is to provide Relief Society choirs with music and to foster creativity among women. A copy of the contest rules, which have been changed from previous years, may be obtained by writing to the Relief Society General Presidency, 76 N. Main Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150. Prizes are: first place, $300; second place $200; third place $150. Winners for the 1982 contest were: first place, Kathryn J. Lowry of Oroville, California; second place, Mary Amelia Covington of Hurricane, Utah; and tied for third place, Mrs. H. Hiller of Queensland, Australia, and Esther Megargel of Springfield, Oregon.

Larry Nielson, priests quorum adviser in the Olympia (Washington) Fourth Ward, is the first Latter-day Saint to reach the summit of Mount Everest. On 7 May 1983, Nielson scaled the 29,028-foot peak the world’s highest. Throughout the arduous climb Brother Nielson clung to promises in a blessing he received before setting out on his journey—promises that his family would be safe and protected, that he would return to them, and that he would ascend to the summit. He is the first American to accomplish the climb without supplementary oxygen.