"News of the Church," Ensign, Apr 2010, 74-78
By Kimberly Bowen Church Magazines
"Humanitarian Efforts Bear Fruit in Bolivia's Altiplano," Ensign, Apr. 2010, 74-75
As the Church helps struggling communities around the world, those who oversee the welfare program of the Church are finding that a new way of working based on long-proven welfare principles is bearing fruit-and vegetables and mobility and better health care-in Bolivia's Altiplano.
Early in 2009, representatives of Welfare Services went to El Alto and Suriquina, Bolivia, to start a pair of projects that combined their resources with those in the community to provide aid to those in need.
The projects were based not only on the time-tested self-reliance principle of teaching a man to fish rather than giving him a fish, but they also reflected the next logical step in the Church's commitment to self-reliance. Project leaders worked closely with local government and community leaders to decide together what needs the Church could meet and to involve the community more heavily in the projects.
Wade Sperry, a manager of field operations in Welfare Services, said since the funding for the programs lasts only for a limited time, the Church involved local priesthood leaders, physicians, health officials, and residents in hopes that the results would last indefinitely.
"The more we can involve local citizens in the solution of their own problems, the better it is for all," said Dennis Lifferth, managing director of Welfare Services. "The project becomes more sustainable and realistic."
El Alto sits on the edge of the Altiplano, or high plateau, overlooking Bolivia's capital city, La Paz. It has a population of about one million, about 3,500 of whom are Church members. Since 2001, as people have moved from rural areas to the city, El Alto's population has doubled, making it the fastest-growing major city in the country.
When representatives of Welfare Services met with local leaders in El Alto, they identified four needs in the community. First, El Alto Women and Children's Hospital needed remodeling. Second, people needed gardening and nutrition training. Third, physicians and specialists needed neonatal resuscitation training and supplies. And fourth, many people in the community needed wheelchairs.
Subsequently, the representatives worked with the El Alto Ministry of Health to donate needed medical equipment such as newborn incubators, a generator, beds, monitors, and other hospital equipment to the only hospital in the city that serves pregnant women, newborns, and children. With the help of previously trained Bolivian physicians and specialists, Church members trained 150 midwives in neonatal resuscitation techniques. The Church also provided 250 wheelchairs to El Alto's Department of Social Services and used the local meetinghouse to teach about nutrition.
One of the community's less visible but more widespread needs was a more varied and balanced diet. In El Alto, food choices in the markets were limited. Before the project started, none of the members in El Alto had gardens. And many of the houses and apartments the people live in do not have access to a garden plot.
Representatives of Welfare Services are now teaching members and their neighbors how to plant vegetables in empty household containers that they can place on their windowsills or porches. The Church provides some vegetable seeds to get them started.
Brother Sperry said when members and their neighbors started growing vegetables in container gardens, other neighbors started growing gardens too. In close quarters such as those in El Alto, Brother Sperry believes the gardening techniques will spread.
Suriquina, Bolivia, a town of about 5,000 people 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of La Paz, sits at 14,173 feet (4,319 m) above sea level. The vegetation is limited to what can survive the altitude and the cold, arid conditions of the grasslands.
Church representatives and community leaders in Suriquina identified the community needs to learn basic nutrition and food production in their environment. The diet of the people in Suriquina consists mostly of potatoes, fava beans, quinoa, lamb jerky, and eggs. More than half of the children in the town are malnourished.
With a goal to reduce malnutrition rates among those who participate in the program to 10 percent by 2012, Welfare Services representatives are using the meetinghouse where the branch of about 350 members meets to teach the people how to build adobe block greenhouses. The structures are 16.5 feet (5 m) long, 10 feet (3 m) wide, and 6 feet (1.9 m) tall, though half the greenhouse's height is underground. The wooden A-frame roof has a plastic cover and a trapdoor that provides access.
Less than five percent of households in Suriquina were growing gardens when the project began. Welfare Services hopes those who attend the classes will have one garden to care for their family's needs and another for surplus produce that the family can sell. Some families have already starting producing vegetables in their greenhouses. By 2011 Welfare Services anticipates there will be 100 such structures producing fresh food.
Allen Christensen, a director in Welfare Services, said the children who have already participated in the local school's initial greenhouse project are healthier and doing better in school because of their improved diet.
"These projects provide tangible hope that the people can improve their circumstances," Brother Christensen said.
And as Welfare Services works with local leaders and communities, they hope to increase self-reliance and faith among the people as well.
"One of our goals is to help people set their own course and solve their own problems," said Brother Lifferth. "We're confident that with a little bit of help where needed and inspiration from the Lord, they can and will improve conditions for their families."
Helping members and their neighbors learn to produce a greater variety of nutrient-rich foods is just one way the Church is helping others help themselves.
Bernita Choque, a member in Bolivia, gathers produce from a greenhouse the Church helped her build to provide needed nutrition.
Photograph by Jason Swensen
"Missionaries Support Family History," Ensign, Apr. 2010, 76-77
Since the Church released the new FamilySearch program last year, many Church members have tried the new system for the first time.
To support those new to the program or with questions about family history work in general, the Church has provided various resources, including Worldwide FamilySearch Support.
The FamilySearch Support program began in 2005 with a few volunteers offering help with family history work. The program has grown to include nearly 1,200 volunteer support missionaries positioned thoughout the world.
Support missionaries are located in 34 different countries, offering assistance on a wide variety of family history questions in dozens of languages and multiple time zones.
Sister Cecilia Dimalaluan has served as a support missionary in the Philippines since August 2008 and says she loves the opportunity to share her knowledge of family history with others. One of the first Filipinos trained as a support missionary in the Philippines, she speaks Cebuano, English, and Tagalog. She helps members and nonmembers from surrounding areas, including India, Malaysia, Micronesia, Mongolia, and Singapore, learn basic family history principles.
Support missionaries are traditionally called to serve for 30 months. All support missionaries serve from their homes or family history centers in their areas, where they receive program training and day-to-day support. They respond to questions by phone or e-mail, and because they are spread out around the world, someone is available 24 hours a day, every day, with the exception of Sunday mornings.
"I love being able to serve English-speaking patrons from all around the world, helping them to do their family history," said Sister Connie Cheney of Pleasant Grove, Utah, USA, who is currently serving her second mission with Worldwide Support.
The easiest way to contact support missionaries is through the Internet, by visiting contact.familysearch.org or via e-mail at support@familysearch.org.
The FamilySearch Web site provides toll-free telephone numbers for contacting support missionaries in different regions of the world.
In areas where the Internet is not accessible, it is best to contact family history missionaries in the area, talk to a ward or branch family history consultant, or visit a local family history center.
Anyone interested in serving as a family history support missionary can find more information online at contact.familysearch.org, by e-mail at support@familysearch.org, or by asking local priesthood leaders.
Missionaries should have access to a personal computer and high-speed Internet and have some experience in family history work.
FamilySearch support missionaries from around the world help those who have problems using the New FamilySearch.
"In the News," Ensign, Apr. 2010, 77-78
More than 30 years ago, Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the Dominican Republic and opened the land for missionary work. In November 2009 Elder Ballard returned to the area to witness how the gospel has flourished. He reminisced of his visit to the Caribbean in 1978, saying, "When we arrived, there were only 26 members in the Dominican Republic, and most had been members only a short time."
Since then, the Church in the Dominican Republic has grown to more than 110,000 members.
"They are as wonderful ... as we have anywhere in the world," Elder Ballard said. "They radiate the power of having the gospel in their lives."
Thousands of Church members gathered in meetinghouses throughout the Caribbean to hear Elder Ballard's words translated into various languages including Dutch, French, Haitian, and Spanish.
Elder Ballard urged the Saints to keep the commandments, pay an honest tithe, and be worthy to enter the temple. He counseled that by doing these things, they would be blessed.
"Our Father in Heaven will pour blessings out upon you that you never dreamed possible because you are His; you are His sons and His daughters."
To watch video about Elder Ballard's visit, go to http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/video-church-grows-in-the-dominican-republic.
In 1999 President Gordon B. Hinckley made a request that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir-already a world-renowned choral group-continue to "get better and better." In response to this call, the choir, made up of volunteer LDS singers, implemented a training school and singing group called the Temple Square Chorale.
The Temple Square Chorale and training school are held each year, from January to April following annual choir auditions. In the chorale, new choir members practice music chosen by Ryan Murphy, associate director for the choir, and members are given feedback on how to use their voices within the ensemble.
The training school is a 16-week academic class, instructing chorale members on music theory, sight-reading, chorale ensemble singing, and other skills, explained Cherilyn Worthen, director of the school.
"[The program] is similar to a small missionary training center where we help prepare them to go out and be musical missionaries," Sister Worthen said.
Sight-reading and music theory skills are especially essential for singers to keep up with the fast pace of the Tabernacle Choir's rehearsals.
"It takes substantial training to acquaint new singers with the musical, vocal, and logistical demands of the choir," said Brother Murphy.
The most recent auditions for the Tabernacle Choir brought 400 submissions by hopeful singers to Temple Square, and of the hundreds of applicants, 78 were accepted. New members, along with second-year choir members, make up the Temple Square Chorale.
The experience in the chorale culminates in a final performance, held at the end of the program. This year's performance will be on April 23 and 24, accompanied by the Orchestra at Temple Square. The chorale will perform Lord Nelson Mass, a work composed by Joseph Haydn in 1798.
Upon graduation from the Temple Square Chorale program and training school, singers may finally call themselves official members of the Tabernacle Choir.
Auditions for the Tabernacle Choir will next begin in July. Applications may be found at www.mormontabernaclechoir.org
Article by Lauren Allen, Church Magazines
For more than 10 years, the Tabernacle Choir has used the Temple Square Chorale as a training school to improve new choir members' abilities.
"World Briefs," Ensign, Apr. 2010, 78
President Thomas S. Monson announced in January a new temple to be built in Payson, Utah, USA. The temple will help meet the needs of growing membership in the area and ease usage of the Provo Temple, one of the busiest in the Church. The new Payson Utah Temple will be the 15th in Utah. It brings the total number of temples already in operation or in the planning and construction phases to 152.
For more information and updates on temples go to www.lds.org/temples.
About 70 Latter-day Saint young adults from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, USA, sorted and packaged donations for a hunger relief organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in January. They also wrote cards to put into baskets being delivered to area senior citizens. The service was part of the 15th annual Philadelphia King Day of Service event. More than 70,000 volunteers of varying ages and backgrounds completed 1,100 service projects.
More than 185 people filled the Charleston South Carolina Stake Center in October 2009, eager to learn more about family history. The stake's 12th annual family history workshop included 30 classes on topics from finding Civil War records to scrapbooking. About 70 percent of participants were not Church members. Many traveled more than 200 miles (320 km) to attend. Missionaries in attendance ran out of CDs, copies of the Book of Mormon, and other Church materials.
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