Mormon Life - Latin America tag

Article about LDS Latinos inaccurate

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:54:00 -0700

source: standard.net

Mormon Life says: This letter to the editor challenges a recent article published about Latin members of the Church. Editor,

Do reporters actually do research before publishing articles? The AP reporter who wrote the article concerning Latino LDS members being against Romney and other LDS politicians was anything but factual (Feb. 21, "LDS Latinos: Keep Mitt out"). Where did the supposed member get the information that 70 percent of Latino LDS members are illegal?

Mormonism enjoying dramatic growth in Latin America

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:05:00 -0700

source: foxnews.com

Growing up in Colombia, Margarita García always considered herself a woman of faith. But no matter how many religions she explored, she couldn’t find the right one.

It wasn't until she got baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — also known as the Mormon Church or the LDS Church — that, she says, she found a perfect fit.

It all started when a pair of clean-cut young men wearing suits and ties showed up on her doorstep. She was unsure about their message but started asking questions.

Annual devotional a highlight among Latinos

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:57:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

The annual church-sponsored Latino devotional is a highlight each year for Latter-day Saint Hispanics and their friends living in Utah. But Sunday's edition of the popular event was viewed far beyond the last row of the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.

For the first time, the Latino devotional was broadcast via satellite and the Internet to congregations gathered throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central and South America. Such communication technology allowed Spanish-speaking members across the western hemisphere to share an evening of song, choral music and spiritual instruction and holiday-season counsel.

USNS Comfort returns after aiding more than 56,000 people

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:05:00 -0600

by SarahJo Ciotti - LDS Living
source: ldsliving.com

Mormon Life says: What an awesome impact this traveling medical center has been able to make!

The USNS Comfort has just returned from a five-month mission to nine countries, where it was able to help more than 56,000 people.

The Comfort is part of five-year running mission, Continuing Promise, which pairs US Navy with nonmilitary NGOs (non-governmental organizations), including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to provide medical attention and other services to nations in need. But in 2011, the people who received medical help weren’t the only ones who were blessed, and the medical help wasn’t the only type of aid administered.

“These volunteers have sacrificed so much—for eleven of them, five months of their life—to come serve people who don’t have the means to get needed medical care,” said Dr. Susan Puls, a Latter-day Saint volunteer medical coordinator. “This service is given because these volunteers want to spread God’s love by sharing their talents and skills to bless others’ lives.”

In early 2010, volunteer Emily Forster, a University of Calgary graduate in nursing, heard that a devastating earthquake had struck Haiti. “I [felt] that I had been really blessed in my life; [I] just wanted to do something,” she said.

While at work in the Emergency Department of a hospital in Arizona, the topic of Haiti was brought up when a co-worker announced she was going as a volunteer. “When she said that, the Spirit just came over me so strong and told me, ‘You need to go to Haiti.’ It was something I knew I needed to do.”

Spending approximately 12–14 days in each country, the Comfort enabled volunteers to teach medical training classes while patients needing surgery were flown aboard the ship by helicopter, where they were treated and remained for a short recovery. Meanwhile, additional volunteers traveled to shore in a 40-passenger boat each day to set up temporary clinics in schools and community centers. At each stop, medical personnel and volunteers performed surgeries ranging from cleft palate reconstruction to cataract repair.

“With the cataracts, for example, that was amazing because it gave them sight, something they may not have had for years and years or maybe ever,” Forster said. “I’ve never been without sight in my life, so I didn’t understand the impact and what a big deal it was for them.”

Forster would care for patients after surgery on the ship until they were ready to go home, spending five hours to five days with each patient. “It was really hard work because the hours were so long. I would work 12-hour shifts with no breaks, days and nights, and then there were two to four days on the ship between countries, and then we’d do it all over again. It was pretty exhausting, but it was definitely worth it.”

From April to August of this year, the Comfort traveled to nine countries through Central and South America and the Caribbean. Along with Haiti, the USNS Comfort visited Jamaica, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Costa Rica. Besides the long hours and strenuous workload, volunteers faced other challenges as well: “There was so much need, and [we were] not be able to help everyone,” Forster said. “There was only so much we could do. It’s human nature that makes you want to fix everything and help everyone you see,”

In addition to medical support, the Comfort brought 200 pallets of humanitarian relief supplies that were donated throughout the participating countries, as well as veterinary and engineer support.

The volunteers brought another type of support to the people as well: “Letting them know that someone cares about them and that there is hope for them,” Forster said. “We weren’t allowed to actually proselyte to them, but to be able to show them that Heavenly Father is aware of them and cares about them, I think a lot of them sensed that.”

When the mission was over, the USNS Comfort returned to its berth in Baltimore in the following week. The opportunities that the Comfort was able to give were not limited to the people it served but reached the volunteers as well. “As I came out, I decided I would go back to school because I saw more how helpful it would be to be a doctor or nurse practitioner as opposed to a nurse,” said Forster. “Here in North America we are given so much more and so much more is expected of us. But our challenges are different; what we deal with is different from what they deal with.”

This is the Comfort’s third Continuing Promise mission. “There is a lot of need wherever you are, if you look for it you can find it, you don’t have to go on big medical ship to nine different countries,” Forster said. “There’s so much need everywhere, maybe not all physical and health, but maybe just a smile, or a kind word to someone can make a world of difference. That’s the main thing I got out of it—to have that service attitude and always be looking for ways to help out.”

Liahona in Audio in Spanish and Portuguese

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:10:00 -0600

source: ldsmediatalk.com

Spanish and Portuguese speakers can now listen to content from the Liahona magazine online in their own language.

Beginning with the June 2011 issue, audio of all of the material printed in the Spanish and Portuguese versions of the Liahona will be recorded and posted online monthly. Audio versions in other languages are under consideration.

LDS Church has duty to protect missionaries

Mon, 09 May 2011 11:01:00 -0600

source: sltrib.com

As the angst continues to swirl within Utah Republican circles over the LDS Church’s increasingly apparent support of the Legislature’s package of immigration bills that includes a guest-worker provision, there is an elephant-in-the-room component that everyone seems to be missing.

The LDS Church has as big a stake in this debate as any institution or association. Therefore, despite those who cry foul over the church’s support of more humanitarian solutions than an Arizona-style enforcement-only law, church officials and lobbyists not only had a right to get involved at the legislative level, it had an obligation to do so.

Approximately 16,000 LDS missionaries currently are serving in Latin America — about 3,600 in Mexico alone. The legislators who criticize the church’s involvement claim that a large percentage of the immigrant Mormon converts living in Utah are here illegally.

Teen brothers start foundation to help poor in Guatemala

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:30:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

There's nothing like a little sister from Guatemala to bind the hearts of stepbrothers. And when you add in tales of the challenges she might have faced in her homeland — the fact she nearly died — you have the makings of a foundation dedicated to easing the way for those who suffer from unmet needs.

That's the back story to The Four of Hearts Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization started by brothers Blake and TJ Kirkpatrick, now 19 and 17, and Jacob and Adam Johnson, now 17 and 14, after their blended family adopted 10-month-old Ellie in 2007.

They'd heard about her homeland from their mom, Kristin Johnson, who spent five months there waiting to bring Ellie, whose full name is Elizabeth Paige Johnson, home. Ellie, who is now 31/2, at one point nearly died because of her living conditions.

JetBlue founder starts new Brazilian airline

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 12:40:00 -0600

source: washingtonpost.com

At 19, a tall and gangly Mormon missionary named David Neeleman traveled to northeastern Brazil, spreading the word of God in a region so poor that he still remembers it as "very upsetting to me."

After that two-year stint, a bubbling entrepreneurial spirit led Neeleman back to the United States, where he built airlines celebrated for their innovation.

Neeleman is back in Brazil and once more looking for converts - this time to fly his new carrier, Azul.

The airline's growth, like that of many companies in this booming country of 200 million, is powered by the expansion of an increasingly prosperous middle class, known as Class C in Brazil.

"It's really gratifying to see now that you have 100 million people who are now just in . . . what we call the C class," Neeleman said in a recent interview at Azul's headquarters outside Sao Paulo.

As Utah mulls immigration laws, Mormons struggle to stake out position

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 12:22:00 -0600

source: feetintwoworlds.org

Mormon Life says: This article says immigration could be the next "big issue" for Mormons, similar to issues we've seen in the past like blacks and the priesthood and polygamy.

Immigration may be the next fault line for the Mormon church.

In late 1800s, Utah’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints split over the issue of plural marriage, resulting in a mainstream church taking root and flourishing in Salt Lake City, and a fundamentalist branch that continues to practice polygamy.

In the 1970s, the church settled another dispute when it decided to accept African American men as priests and allow them to officiate at ceremonies.

Analysts think immigration could be the next focus of a major internal church struggle.

“It’s dividing the church,” Aaron Tarin, an immigration lawyer and a Mormon, told Fi2W.

Even though the Church of Latter Day Saints is headquartered in a predominately conservative, Republican state, a growing population of Latino Mormons is causing an identity crisis.