Free Download to David Archuleta's Beautiful song "Glorious," Meet the Mormons, and LDS General Conference

A few days ago David Archuleta released his latest single "Glorious" from the documentary coming to theaters October 10th entitled Meet the Mormons.

This song is absolutely beautiful.

When I love a song it goes on repeat, and I literally had it repeating for an hour last night right before going to bed.  This song actually kept me up to 1 am!  I just lay there, listening, letting the words seep into my heart.

And you can get a free download!

Just go to the link www.meetthemormons.com/glorious to get download information.

It's really easy.

From Facebook: "Meet the Mormons is a feature-length documentary that tells the stories of six members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from around the world. The film will appear in theaters across the United States beginning on October 10th, 2014. Our goal with this production is to help people understand our faith in a more complete way and to see how the gospel of Jesus Christ leads Church members in their lives. All net proceeds from the film will go to charity."

I'm going to see it this Friday.  I'm really quite excited, and I think it's really cool that net proceeds are going to charity.

The Meet the Mormons Website has good information if you're interested in the film, and here's a list of theaters this documentary will be played in.

And if you don't want to wait till October 10th to "Meet the Mormons," our 184th Semiannual General Conference is about to start!  Literally, in less then an hour.

General Conference is such a big deal!  Well, I'm always super excited for it when it comes every April and October.  And all my LDS Facebook friends get excited, too.  It seems, without fail, a couple weeks leading up to conference my facebook wall becomes filled with quotes, general conference reminders, articles talking about the best way to get the most out of conference, etc.  And then twitter and facebook explodes when conference is on, everyone sharing favorite quotes, feelings, and lessons learned.

And what's an LDS General conference?

It's when all the Latter-Day Saints in the World, aka Mormons, gather together to receive counsel, guidance, and inspiration from our Prophet, Apostles, and other Church Leaders.  And this Conference, FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME, leaders from other parts of the World who don't speak English as a native language can give their talks in their Native language.  I'm So Excited!!  (I wonder if Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who's an Apostle, will speak German.  Everyone's wondering that.)

Conference is Today and Tomorrow, Oct. 4th & 5th, in 5 sessions.

(UPDATED FOR 2015)

October 3, 2015

Saturday Morning: 10 AM MST

Saturday Afternoon: 2 PM MST

General Priesthood Meeting: 6 PM MST

October 4, 2015

Sunday Morning: 10 AM MST

Sunday Afternoon: 2 PM MST

Each session is 2 hours.

And anyone can watch.

You don't have to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

There's so many ways to watch.

Here's all the different ways to watch live.

And if you miss it, there's various ways you can still see our Conference.  It's available on YouTube in just a day, and 1-14 days on lds.org and 2-14 days on the Gospel Library App in 80 languages.  (English, Spanish, and Portuguese are the first languages available.)

I'm going to be watching on TV, all sessions and programs in between are scheduled to tape.

Just a few more minutes :0)

Mormons Can have Caffeinated Soft Drinks

(Photo taken by Marlith) 

"With reference to cola drinks, the Church has never officially taken a position on this matter, but the leaders of the Church have advised, and we do now specifically advise, against the use of drink containing harmful habit-forming drugs under circumstances that would result in acquiring the habit.  Any beverage that contains ingredients harmful to the body should be avoided."  (Priestood Bulletin, Febuary 1972, p.4)

The above quote is stated in Mormon Beliefs and Doctrines Made Easier by David J. Ridges.  And after this quote he states, "Drinking colas and other caffeine drinks are not grounds for withholding a temple recommend."  

There has been a huge debate with members of the Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, whether or not drinking Caffeinated soda is against the Word of Wisdom.  It was a huge deal in the LDS community where I grew up in Porterville California.     

One Seminary teacher told us that in meetings he would only drink milk, refusing root-beer because he wanted to avoid the appearance of evil.  And a girl told my cousin, when he was drinking a caffeinated soda, "You might as well have a beer."  The pressure was really bad at times and caused me many a moral dilemma.  Of course, after much contemplation, and realizing that neither one of my Parents lost their temple recommends due to coca-cola, logic dictated the wonderfully cool, refreshing drink was okay in moderation.

Then I moved to Utah and suddenly I found myself in the presence of many saints who loved their Cola, Mountain Dew, and Dr. Pepper.  I was shocked!  (Of course, you still can't get a caffeinated soda on BYU's campus.  All the fountain drinks are caffeine free . . . I knew many students who found a way around that.  Smuggling caffeine on campus!  The horror!)

But with Mitt Romney, an active Latter-Day Saint, running for Presidential Political Office, a lot is being asked about the Church.

For the first time last week, a prime-time show, NBC's Rock Center, dedicated a whole hour on Mormonism, which you can still watch online.  (I have, some of it is really nice, like what they said about Welfare Square and the Humanitarian system, which are amazing, and some of it disrespectful . . . )  But still, things are being said about my faith.        

There was a woman by the name of Julean Jackson (don't know how to spell her name) being interviewed in the 3rd segment of the program. She was asked "Do you drink Caffeine?" and Julean mentioned she's only had one coke in her life, but doesn't drink Caffeinated Soda.  On that point, I know missionaries personally who actually taught that along with giving up coffee, tea (from the tea plant, herbal teas are okay), alcohol, and tobacco, that caffeinated soda is not okay and must be given up as well.  This isn't in Preach My Gospel (p.78), the book missionaries teach from, but a reflection of how they were raised.  This topic has been a huge case of confusion.
 

So last Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012, as reported by Peggy Fletcher Stack from the Salt Lake Tribune in Ok, Mormons, drink up--Coke and Pepsi are OK, the Church officially states on "The Newsroom Blog" in a post entitled Mormonism in the News--Getting it right  that, "Finally, another small correction: Despite what was reported, the Church revelation spelling out health practices (Doctrine and Covenants 89) does not mention the use of caffeine.  The Church’s health guidelines prohibit alcoholic drinks, smoking or chewing of tobacco, and “hot drinks” — taught by Church leaders to refer specifically to tea and coffee."

It's nice finally having a clarification that it's okay to drink cola's and so forth.

It's truly a personally choice.  Many members in my family drink Coke and Dr. Pepper (those are the most popular), but a long time ago, for health reasons, I personally chose to give up all soda (except for an occasional Ramune, Raspberry Sprite, or Ocean Water from Sonic), and fruit juice.  But it's my choice, and we're all different.

Sarah