I Testify of Christ Mormon Message 1 HD

A Tribute to the Mormon Pioneers HD

The above video was created by myself. I have a strong testimony of the sacrifices that the Mormon Pioneers have made.

It is because of them, that we are here presently enjoying the Holy Gospel, the truth of it.

Many of the Pioneers have made ultimate sacrifices, some scrifices that I my self would not like to make. The pioneers should and will be blessed for all their works. Back then, there were few saints, now in December 2010 there are nearly 14 million of us.

Oakland, California Lights

Oakland, California is another city in the country that has a temple in it. This temple will also have Christmas lights on display. For 22 years in a row, the Christmas Crèche Exhibit will be held at the temple site in Palo Alto (3865 Middlefield Road) from noon to 9 p.m. Dec. 4 through 8. 


This year alone there will be more than 500 nativities from 80 countries will be on display in a festive holiday setting with live music.


So many lights across the country, they are all pretty, I think everyone should go check them out if they are near you, or if you are willing to travel to go see them.

Mesa, Arizona Lights

Well, Thanksgiving week is here, and there is no need to say that it is getting cold in certain areas of the country already. The Festival of Lights is set to begin next week in Washington D.C., but tonight, it is the turn for the Mesa Arizona LDS Temple grounds. Arizona does not get that much snow, if any in the winter times, but that is no excuse, lights are still welcome.
I have yet to see the lights in person, but I have seen the pictures, Christmas lights in a desert setting are very beautiful. It attracts many tourists to the scene.

About 10,000 volunteer hours were put in to the setting up of the lights.
The grounds will be lit up from 5:30-10pm every night until New Year's Eve. Other than the lights, the grounds will also host a series of concerts of Christmas Music.

Family History

This is a topic that is very close to my heart. The importance of Family History is very important to me because we need to save our ancestors and loved ones that did not have the opportunity to hear about the gospel here on the Earth. Our relatives that never got the chance to get baptized.

I have really been blessed this year alone because, I have struck many of what I call, goldmines in my family history research. I have discovered at least 2-3 new generations this year alone. I have had the opportunity and privilege to be baptized for them at the Holy Temple. It truly is a remarkable experience for me, and I am pretty sure that it is for them.

The picture above also shows the importance of preserving any important artifact or picture that your deceased loved ones left behind. The person on the left, is my little sister, and to the right is my mother, both around the same age. They really look alike. Any picture that I have of a relative helps me put a face to the name of the person that I am doing the work for. It really gets me motivated to keep moving forward, and it has worked.

 I have a suggestion, that you should read or watch Elder Russell M. Nelson's April 2010 General Conference talk about family history.

Serving the Lord/Festival of Lights.

In an article in the Mormon Times, states that about 250 students from Southern Virginia University spent a day at the Washington D.C. temple doing a wide range of things. Ranging from planting Tulip bulbs and temple ordinances. Service is very important in the eyes of the Lord. A lot is done to prepare the beautiful temple grounds.

All of these preparations were preparing the temple grounds for the 33rd annual Festival of Lights. Other preparations also included setting up the nativity scene and hanging up lights.

I have personally been to the Washington D.C. temple grounds for the Festival of lights. The scenery is very beautiful, and the night time skies are lit up, and scene away for miles. The lights are not only things done there for Christmas. Inside the Visitor's Center there are mini Nativity scenes from various countries around the world. The center is also fully staffed with service missionaries and full time sister missionaries for the tourist to ask questions about the church.

Friday December 3, 2010 will be the day when the Festival of Lights officially begins. It will run until New Year's day January 1, 2011. The grounds are open 10am-10pm. Lights are lit up at dusk every day. For more information, please visit
www.dctemplelights.lds.org

Rededication

On November 21, 2010, re-dedication services will be held for the Laie, Hawaii LDS Temple. The temple had originally closed down for extensive from December 2008 until next week when it will be officially complete with the re-dedication. Some of the renovations included seismic upgrades to the building and updates to the baptistry and other rooms inside the temple.

If I recall correctly, this is the 5th oldest temple in the LDS Church after the Saints moved to Utah, and first temple outside of Utah. This temple is adjacent to the campus of Brigham Young University-Hawaii campus.

For me it is amazing to see temple work on the rise, causing these buildings to be renovated and more temples being announced yearly. The church is growing rapidly, especially to the folks in Polynesia. Laie, was the first temple in Polynesia,  and this year the Cebu City, Philippines temple was dedicated, and the Urdaneta, Philippines temple was announced. I am positive that the saints in these countries are excited to see the church grow, and the continuing announcements of temples.

Mormon Tabernacle Choir and David Archuleta

Each year the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs at the Conference Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah. Each year, the choir invites a guest for their performances. This year, they have invited teen pop artist David Archuleta.

Archuleta was the runner up on season 8 of American Idol, and is also a member of the church.

The concerts are free of cost to the public. But, due to the popular demand of tickets because of the invited guest singer, tickets will be distributed by a lottery. The public is allowed to ask for the maximum of 8 tickets. Not each person is guaranteed a ticket or the number that she wants.

There is a pre-show on Thursday December 16th, followed by the actual performances on December 17th and 18th. On Sunday December 19th, Archuleta will be the guest on the world famous Music & the Spoken Word broadcast at the Conference Center for a mini-concert.

Phoenix, Arizona Mormon Temple debate

The Phoenix Arizona Temple of the LDS Church was announced on May 24, 2008. Over the past 2 and a half years the church has has problems with the city and neighbors of the temple site. Concerns about the temple's flood lights and steeple height were and are some of the main issues. The church has had to re-design the floor plan and lower the height of the steeple.

The temple was originally made to be two stories in height. With the new re-design, the temple is now one story high, but made a little wider to accommodate the rooms. More parking spaces were added to ease the neighbors concern of heavy traffic in the area.

The church has done a lot to help out the community, and to be a good neighbor to the city of Phoenix, Arizona. The church has created a web site to better inform the neighbors of the temple. That site can be found at
www.phoenixmormontemple.com

The New LDS.ORG

In an effort to continue the spreading of the gospel, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has created a new website.

In order to help the members of the church get use to the new website which will be released on November 30th. They have provided a link on their current website to the new one to better prepare its users.

The new website is very similar to the new www.mormon.org which was also released earlier this year. In this year alone, the church has updated most, if not all of their websites including the Newsroom page. All of the new websites offer some type of social networking type of blog where members and non-members can interact with each other.

The new home page of lds.org  features a bigger font and "lead story" appearance, which in my opinion is a great idea to promote it.

Temples of the World

Houston, Texas

Going through a non-church website, about temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I noticed how fast temples are being built across the world.  When President Gordon B. Hinckley became the official President of the church in March 1995, there were only 47 operating temples in the entire church. By the time he passed away in January 2008, there were 124 operating temples. Presently in October 2010 there are 134 operating temples with 10 under construction and 13 announced.

Newport Beach, California

I always get excited when the ground is broken for a new temple in the church, which for me indicates the expansion of the gospel. The LDS Church is growing very rapidly, that is why so many temples are being built to better accommodate its members. According to LDS Church President and Prophet Thomas S. Monson, about 80% of the churches members live within a two mile radius of a temple.

Manhattan, New York

Temples are important for the faithful members of the LDS Church. It is not only a place of worship, but a place where sacred ordinances happen. This is why the ordinances in the temple remain private, and are made public because they are so sacred.

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

The ldschurchtemples.com website not only gives you the option to download pictures of the temples around the world, but it lets you upload your own, and see the cool temple facts about each individual one. To see the struggles that some of them have gone through to be built. This is a great site to check out, and I definitely recommend it to everyone.

More Expansions in the Church

The church continues to grow at a much faster and steady pace. Today the church announced that it has created the 232nd stake in Brazil. The creations of many stakes outside of the church indicates that there are more members outside the United States than inside the United States. Presently there are more than a million members in Brazil alone. The creation of the Alphaville Brazil Stake also indicates that missionary work is quickly spreading and working.


Our goal as members of the church is to spread the word, and help the needy. Help out our brothers and sisters that are less active in the church, and bring them back to reality, so they can live the gospel.
A word of scripture that I might add for missionary work would be Ezekiel 37 where he talks about the two sticks coming together, and being as one, to move forward the gospel of Jesus Christ.


As many of you know, LDS Connections is on YouTube, please feel free to spread around my videos for the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ. www.youtube.com/user/albertojburuca.

The Wonderful Plan of Salvation

As many of you know, one of my hobbies is to make video. They are sort of like  Mormon Messages that I make to help spread the word of God to other nations.

I have been thinking a lot about families in the past few weeks, and how important that they are in the Plan of Salvation. I dedicated this video to my family, they mean a lot to me, and that is the center plan of the creation of God. The Bountiful Temple, I believe is to be one of the most beautiful scenery that the church has for a temple, It over looks over the entire city of Bountiful, Utah, and has a nice view of the Great Salt Lake. It is a perfect example of God's wonderful creations.

 Temple's of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are meant to reunite families, so that we can  be together forever, and for all eternity.

Rome Italy Temple

 


This  morning LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson broke ground for the new temple in Rome, Italy, which we all know is near the Vatican, headquarters to the Catholic Church. It was a real shocker to the church community when President Monson announced plans for 5 additional temples at the 179th Semi-annual General Conference in October 2009, and Rome was mentioned as one of them. 

Many people find the announcement of this temple to be a true miracle in itself. The LDS Church Public Affairs department released the following video today on its YouTube Channel to help promote the church and the importance of temples in our lives. The video also shows us the design and size of the temple, along with a Visitor's Center, Family History Center, Patron Housing, Stake Center buildings on 14.8 acres of land about 10 miles from the city itself. I personally enjoyed watching this presentation, and hope that you do to! 
Here is an official announcement from the church. 


    

The Growing World-Wide Church

A fellow blogger has a site that states the possible areas for some future  LDS Temples and growth in the church. It is a really great blog.  Lots has been going on in the last few months and years in the church, which is always good news.

Burundi & Angola were both dedicated for the preaching of the gospel and missionary work earlier this month. I am glad to see that the doors are opening to even more countries in the world, and that our brothers and sisters are able to find out more about our Savior Jesus Christ.

Many Stakes of Zion are being built each month, October alone has seen the creation of 3 stakes in 1 day. The Alphaville Brazil Stake was created on Sunday October 17th along with, The Waco Texas Stake, & West Haven Utah Stake.


The church will always continue to grow, no matter what happens.

A True Miracle being witnessed by many

UPDATE: All of the miners have been successfully rescued from the mine. It is a true blessing to see them all alive.


COPIAPO, Chile
Breaking News: MSNBC has the continuing coverage of the 33 trapped miners in Chile. These miners have been trapped in the mine for 70 days.

It is truly a miracle being witnessed by thousands, perhaps millions of people. I was watching MSNBC around 1:15AM EDT, one of the news anchors, Natalie Morales mentioned that she heard a woman saying that Christ, died at the age of 33. There were 36 miners originally, 3 escaped, and 33 remained trapped. Obviously this woman is Christian, we do not know what denomination she is, but she is a believer in miracles. She connected that the 33 miners trapped was somehow a sign from above. As of 1:27AM EDT, 2:27AM in Chile, 3 miners have been rescued, with the 4th miner coming up soon. It takes about 10-20 minutes to travel up from the bottom of the mine.

Flipping through the different news channels, CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, I see the same images, the smiling faces of the relatives present. A grateful smiling face from each of the relatives, and the miners themselves, after 70 days in the darkness. They were able to survive 70 days with some food and water being transported through a small hole they made. The 3 miners pulled out seem to be healthy, and in good spirits. They seem to be spiritual in such a life changing experience. We don't know how many, if any of them are LDS, but no matter what religion they are, I am pretty sure that they are thankful to God, for preserving their lives.

Stay tuned for updates, and feel free to express your feelings, as this miracle is happening!

A Recent Survey Makes Mormons Top 3 in the Nation

Recently the Pew Research Center ranked Mormons number three, number three for knowing their religion and the religious views of other people.


Recently in my COMM 111 class here at BYU-Idaho, our professor said that we should take that quiz. So we took it in class. I got 13 out of 15 questions. It was a simple survey where it asked questions like " What religion was Joseph Smith?" Of course the LDS Community would all get that answer right!


A week after the class did this, I took the survey again just to see what I would score again. Can you guess what I scored? I did worse. Well not that much, I ended up receiving a 12 out of 15 for a score of 80%.


What is nice about this quiz, is that you can see what answers you got wrong and see the correct ones at the same time. You can compare with religions, gender, education, etc. 


Here is a link to an article that I found very interesting. You can see more results of what Americans really think, and some more numbers. 


I suggest that you take this quiz and see how much you know about religions. It was fun and educational at the same time. If you want to take the quiz,  You can find the quiz linked here. Have fun, and let me know how you did, and Good Luck!

The 180th Semi-Annual General Conference thoughts….

Non- Members of the Mormon Church sometimes ask me, " Why do you meet every six months in large meetings?" For a long time I have struggled to answer that question. Now I find it easy to do so.

Every six months The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds it's Semi-Annual General Conference of the entire world wide church. It is a time where leaders of the faith, can communicate with  its followers and the followers gain knowledge from their faithful leaders.

I always look forward for this weekend every six months. But this October, I have  been looking forward to it even more. One reason is seen below, I got to attend the Saturday Morning Session. This was my second time attending and it was amazing.

General Conference is a great opportunity to gain a spiritual uplifts. A opportunity to get answers through the holy spirit. I certainly got many of the answers I was looking for this past weekend.  I hope that many of you did as well.

Personally, I thought that one of the main themes of conference was purity, obedience,  faith. I absolutely loved all the talks given at conference. If you missed any of the sessions or want to watch any of them you can go to the new general conference website .

Why This Blog?

In a world that is rapidly changing around us, many people wonder why certain things happen in our lives. Challenges arise in our minds and hearts, sometimes we do not know what to do with ourselves. The purpose of this blog is to help those LDS Members and Non-LDS Members around the world the opportunity to get inspired and get advice to help them. 


This blog will also have opinions about articles that I have read, stories I have heard, and news reports that I have seen about the church. So please follow along, and let us make this journey together and learn about other people.


I would also like to take this opportunity to share the link to my YouTube Channel where I make videos/movies to promote the church and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone.
www.youtube.com/user/albertojburuca


On this channel, I favorite videos almost on a daily basis. I also Upload at least one new video a week, and one good week I will post more than that. Add me as a friend and Subscribe to me there.


Thanks,


Alberto J. Buruca (AJ)