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.