LDS Scene

October marked the first time all the stakes in Mexico were able to view general conference. Sessions were transmitted to newly installed earth station equipment in Mexico City, where they were videotaped for distribution. Two weeks later, the videotapes were shown to members in all Mexican stakes during a special general conference Sunday.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and a narration of the Restoration is featured in a tape recording now offered in Europe. A 32-page booklet available in seven languages—Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, German, French, and Dutch—accompanies the tape. Copies of the tape and booklet can be purchased from local public communication directors in Europe or from The Danish Society in Support of the Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Ostervej 7, DK-6000, Kolding, Denmark.

Some two hundred flood victims in Lontue, Chile, were fed and sheltered in a recently completed LDS meetinghouse there. Nonmembers who had originally discouraged construction of the building were among the homeless displaced and housed in the meetinghouse when heavy rains caused a nearby river to overflow. Members provided food and medicine until relief arrived from other parts of Chile. As a result of the experience, many nonmembers changed their attitudes toward the Church.

Former president of Brigham Young University and Los Angeles State College, Howard S. McDonald, died October 25 at the age of 92. His career as an educator began in 1921 after he graduated from Utah State University. He was president of BYU from 1945 to 1949, helped found San Fernando State College in 1951, and became president of Los Angeles State College in 1962. From 1964 to 1968 he served as president of the Salt Lake Temple. Born 18 July 1894 in Holladay, Utah, he married Ella Gibbs in the Salt Lake Temple in 1917. He is survived by two daughters.

After their materials on the “Rising Generation” arrived late, Young Women in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil, decided to go ahead with a belated balloon launching. After four consecutive days of rain threatened to cancel the festivities, the Young Women fasted and prayed for good weather. The balloons were finally released into overcast skies that opened into sunshine, and then closed again. In conjunction with the event, the Young Women participated in discussions on integrity, dating, and marriage.

Some three thousand high school students and Church leaders from Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah attended the annual Seminary Youth Conference at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, last November. Olympic gold medalist Peter Vidmar addressed the youths. Speakers at the seminars informed them about the various Ricks educational programs and scholarships, and Ricks College President Joe J. Christensen held a leadership session with student seminary leaders.

After presenting a children’s sacrament meeting with missionary work as its theme, Primary children in the El Dorado Ward, El Dorado, Arkansas, went to a local nursing home and gave a presentation about the Book of Mormon. The children sang, told Book of Mormon stories, and passed out personalized copies of the Book of Mormon.

Several LDS professional baseball players are in the limelight in Japan, where baseball is a popular national sport. Dale Murphy of the Atlanta Braves, Wally Joyner of the California Angels, and Jack Morris of the Detroit Tigers are playing in the U.S.-Japan All-Star Goodwill Series. An Associated Press photo November 8 featured Brother Murphy speaking beside an interpreter to an LDS congregation in Tokyo.

The Ricks College Vikings came close to capturing the junior college national football championship last December, but finished the season ranked second in the nation. The Vikings had a come-from-behind win over previously second-ranked Coffeyville Community College of Kansas, 26–24, in the Jayhawk Bowl Classic December 6. The win gave the Ricks team its first undefeated football season ever as they finished the season as one of only two undefeated teams in the National Junior College Athletic Association. Northeast Oklahoma, at 11–0, won first place, four votes ahead of Ricks.

Last November, the Murray Utah South Stake gave a slide presentation to nearly two thousand people, emphasizing the importance of home teaching. Because only about 75 percent of stake members were being home taught on a regular basis, stake leaders decided they needed to motivate home teachers to fulfill their assignments. More than 150 members wrote, provided music for, photographed, and produced the presentation. Stake President Lyle Martinsen reported that while it is too early to gauge the production’s impact on home teaching, the number of favorable comments from stake members has been overwhelming.

Four sisters who spent their childhoods sharing one another’s dreams have seen another dream come true: all four were called to serve missions together in the Hawaii Temple. The sisters are Nettie Myers, 81, Minersville, Utah; Addie Smith, 77, Bountiful, Utah; Lois Pierson, 72, Cedar City, Utah; and Bertha Cusick, 67, Arcadia, California. All are the widowed daughters of Hayward and Inez Carter. The sisters entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, November 19 and departed for the Hawaii Temple on December 10.

A group of former building missionaries and their families met in Darmstadt, West Germany, recently to observe the twenty-fifth year since they built meetinghouses in Germany and neighboring countries. Some ninety people from Austria, England, Switzerland, and Germany attended the reunion.

In West Valley City, Utah, all eight hundred students of the Granger Seminary helped sew and tie one hundred quilts for beds at the Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City. The students also donated the money to buy the material.