LDS Scene

Sam K. Shimabukuro, of Honolulu, Hawaii, has been called by the First Presidency to serve as president of the Tokyo Temple. He succeeds Elder Adney Y. Komatsu of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Prior to his call, President Shimabukuro had been serving as a counselor to Elder Komatsu in the Tokyo Temple presidency.

The First Presidency has called Milton C. and Marjorie White Mecham as president and matron of the Ogden (Utah) Temple. They have succeeded Elder and Sister Keith W. Wilcox. Elder Wilcox was recently called as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. A former educator, President Mecham completed an assignment as president of the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission in July of 1984.

Verl F. Scott, formerly business manager for Church magazines and assistant manager of the Church Curriculum Department, has been called by the First Presidency to serve as director of the Missionary Training Center in Manila, Philippines. The Manila MTC is one of several established in regions around the world to train missionaries for service in their native countries.

Actor Jimmy Stewart was recently honored by the Church during a visit to Utah in connection with the donation of his personal papers to Brigham Young University. Mr. Stewart met with President Gordon B. Hinckley, Second Counselor in the First Presidency. “Your work has made a positive contribution to the culture of our nation,” President Hinckley told Mr. Stewart. The noted actor’s gift to BYU includes personal scripts, photographs, correspondence, honorary plaques, movie posters, copies of numerous television shows and documentaries, and prints of twenty-five of his films.

Two Tabernacle Choir albums, “Joy to the World” and “The Mormon Tabernacle Choir Sings Christmas Carols,” have achieved “gold record” status. The two records have now sold more than five hundred thousand copies each in the United States alone. The albums join the choir’s other gold records—“The Lord’s Prayer,” “The Messiah,” and “The Joy of Christmas”—as five of only seventeen albums ever to have achieved gold status in the classical category.