Building
Zion in Guatemala
They started out with 18 children
and then added 50 more. That's how Jody and Vicki Dalia feel about
their lives as parents and owners of an orphanage in Guatemala.
By Vicki and Jody Dalia
Everything
Flows from the Atonement: An Interview of Judge Thomas B. Griffith
Thomas
B. Griffith is now an appellate court Judge in the Fifth Circuit
(Washington, D.C.), but his focus in life is on the Atonement.
He calls it "the Root of Christian doctrine."
By G.G. Vandagriff
Ralph
Yarro — Putting His All on the Altar to Save Families
Entrepreneur
Ralph Yarro has found a consuming mission in life to do the Savior's
work in a very tough arena. Putting his very successful career
on hold at a young age, he devotes all his time, energy and resources
to fighting the scourge of pornography that is destroying families
and robbing young men of their future as fathers in Zion.
By G.G. Vandagriff
To
Russia with Love: How the Soviet Union was Opened to the Gospel
The Soviet
Union was opened to the gospel in a quiet and unlikely way.
By Maurine Proctor
One
Man Congregation: The Church in Bethlehem
The congregation of church members in Bethlehem
is so small that there is only one name on the roster, a six-year
convert by the name of Odeh Marcous.
By Matthew Pitts
Ana’s
Gift of Love to Santa
An LDS Santa thought no challenge was too
great, until he was called to the deathbed of a little girl named
Ana.
By John Degel
Miracles
of Love and Medicine Save Dying Teen
Partial lung
transplants by two ward members saved the life of a teenager,
who shares lessons learned by her adversities in life.
By Jennifer
Sabin Sattley, with Marilyn Faulkner
Saving
One Soul: My Own Story
Jennifer Sabin
may have been born with cystic fibrosis, but it took a long time
for her to understand that it was probably going to kill her.
Her story, told in her own words, shows the miracles that took
place to give her a second chance at life.
By Jennifer
Sabin Sattley, with Marilyn Faulkner
First
Chilean Convert was Faithful to the End
Ricardo Garcia was a strong-willed man who,
when he first met missionaries and invited them in, locked the
doors and wouldn't allow them to leave until they'd answered all
his questions. They stayed three hours.
By Laurie Wiilliams Sowby
Octogenarians
Lift Church in Chile
In a country where the gospel has been preached
for 50 years, the Mancillas stand out. Not only have they been
members for 34 years, but still, in their 80s, they continue to
be an example of faithfulness in the gospel and activity in the
Church.
By Laurie Williams Sowby
Benji
Schwimmer ― Dancing His Heart Out
Mormondom's
dancing missionary has reminded church members of our great dance
heritage, while at the same time teaching non-members about the
gospel in action.
By Rebecca Birkin
Heidi
Groskreutz Skips the Light Fandango — And America Calls Out for
More
On light fantastic toes she has
tripped her way to the final rounds of the Fox Television reality
show “So You Think You Can Dance,” and now all that stands
between Heidi Groskreutz of Newport Beach, California and Cliffside
Park, New Jersey and stardom and a pot full of prizes and cash
is one more stunning performance and a couple of million votes.
By Kathy Green
With
Joy Shall Ye Draw Water: LDS Couple Brings Well to Ethiopian Village
When Lon and
DeAnna Kennard saw an entire village drinking the same water they
used for laundry and sewage, they knew something had to be done
— so they did it.
By Rebecca
Birkin
Making
Room for Just One More - Lon and DeAnna Kennard
A
dream of serving in the Peace Corps turned into a plan to adopt
a child from a third world country. Little did the Kennards know,
they'd end up with six.
By
Rebecca Birkin
Alvin
B. Jackson, Jr. —
The Bishop is Always In
The
word among the youth is that Bishop Jackson “is there for you,”
that kids can call him any time — even from school. Of course,
it doesn't hurt that many of the youth think he looks like movie
star Denzel Washington.
By Page Johnson
New
Pioneers:
Ahmad
S. Corbitt — Lighting the Fire Within
Ahmad S Corbitt represents the new pioneers
of the Church, those who are the first trickle of what qwill ultimately
become a flood.
By Maurine Proctor
Pulitzer
Prize Winner, Jack Anderson:
Celebrating America’s Premier Muckraker
Meridian's dear friend, Jack Anderson,
died on Saturday, and with this article we remember him.
By Mark Feldstein
Slaying Monsters
in Africa — Kathy Headlee and Mothers without Borders
When interviewing a street child
in Zambia, Kathy asked, “What is the hardest thing about
being a street child?” His answer — not hunger or poverty, but, “The hardest thing
is that we are invisible.”
By Rebecca Birkin
Hurricane
Rita's Tender Mercies
God's tender mercies are everywhere
— even in the eye of a hurricane.
By
Jackie Daly
Two
Broken Hearts — One Family’s Story
Faith keeps a family strong, even though
their twin boys need heart transplants.
By Mary Ungrangsee
A
Man Large in Stature
If you watch him closely, wielding his tremendous
size and explosive strength as the tools of his trade, you'll
come to realize that John happens to be better at his job than
just about everyone else on the planet.
By Shane Hales
In Rita’s Path
If you don't have much to lose but
may be losing it anyway, how can you hold up in the eye of the
storm?
By
Randi Custer
Bundit
Ungrangsee —The Best Musician You’ve Never Heard Of
By
Lee Yong-sung
“People
ask my wife all the time, where we actually live,” says
conductor Bundit Ungrangsee. “It’s not an easy question
to answer, so she usually just says we are nomads who live out
of our suitcases.”
Nigerian Couple Find Church in USA
"What I had failed to find in
searching the Bible, I found within a few minutes in the scriptures
of this new church.”
By Carolyn Sessions Allen
One
Korean Saint: An Interview with Elder Won Yong Ko
Newspaper reporters regularly come
to our meetings even though our church is only small in Korea.The
reason why they come to our meetings, they said, is because they
feel that the people of this church really are the saints of Jesus
Christ.
By Meridian
Magazine
Church Service
Brings a Miracle
She immediately began praying fervently
that her excitement would not have compromised the health of her
invalid mother, who is not a member of the Church.
By Donna and Vern Whisenant
Richard
and Linda Eyre -- Joy School Grows Up
Richard and Linda Eyre didn’t
wake up one morning, look at each other across their bowls of
Cheerios, and decide they were going to become the nation’s
foremost experts on families. In fact, it took a little divine
intervention to push them in the right direction.
By
Kathryn H. Kidd
A
Family Legacy of Singing
When Sarah Clayton joined the Mormon Tabernacle
Choir, she became the first of a new generation – a
sixth generation –
to carry forth a remarkarkable family legacy of singing in the
Choir.
By Robb Cundick
Gladys Knight: Sharing
the Gospel through Music
After a successful music career
that spans five decades and continues to garner her Grammy awards
(7 to date), Gladys Knight now knows why she sings.
By Cheryl Stewart Osborn
Noted
Author Joins SVU Faculty
What happens when a small Mormon
liberal arts college recruits one of the world's most popular
writers to join the faculty? We're about to find out.
By
Kathryn H. Kidd
LDS
Musher Credits Teachings for Iditarod Success
"Running that race is just exactly
like life. Sometimes it's tough, but in the end you look back
and it's all worth it.
By
Kathryn H. Kidd
Remembering Jane Manning James
Emma Smith even asked one day if
Jane would like to be adopted to her and Joseph as their child.
Not understanding what it meant, Jane declined.
By Becky Cardon Smith
LDS
Volunteers Bring Excitement to Cherry Blossom Festival
Nearly
eighty young single adults from wards in Northern Virginia donated
their time to be part of this year's National Cherry Blossom Festival.
By Kathryn H. Kidd
Julie de Azevedo – A Singer
of Life
Although religious music in past
centuries may have focused on the heavenly, the spiritual – even
the ethereal – Julie’s music explores how to handle life
when your baby’s crying, your mom is sick, and you’re
always running late.
By Jane Brady
How
Hugh Nibley Blessed the Church
Hugh Nibley did not waste time trying to
prove anything. He started from the premise that the Book of Mormon
described real cultures. I have spent the rest of my life looking
at the scriptures that same way. In effect, I still see the scriptures
through Hugh Nibley's eyes. It's hard to think of a way to gain
greater clarity than that.
By Orson Scott Card
Thurl Bailey: The Boy the Coach Rejected
Every time I attended a function,
I'd get presents. If you go in my library, I have 65 Books of
Mormon. They all have personal notes inside them. I was getting
more autographs than I was giving!
By Kathryn H. Kidd
Thurl
Bailey: A Man as Big as His Vision of Life
The popular sports star came to
a point where he had to face the growing emptiness of his life.
by
Page Johnson
On
the Trail of the Mormon Urban Pioneers
Virtually all Latter-day Saints are familiar
with the inspiring and at time heroic stories of the great migration
that took place in Mormon society in the 19th century. Another
intriguing story is of those Saints who were part of a reverse
migration--away from Utah to become civic, business, and Church
leaders in communities outside the Western heartlands.
By
G. Wesley and Marian A. Johnson
Will
the Real Ken Jennings Please Stand Up?
She didn't need to talk to the
Ken Jennings – she was just happy to talk to a
Ken Jennings.
By
Kathryn H. Kidd
Ken
the Destroyer, Game Show Missionary
Although Ken may not have gone on
Jeopardy! to spread the Gospel, viewers were well aware
that he was a member of the LDS Church.
By
Kathryn H. Kidd
Ellis
Ivory’s Run for Salt Lake County Mayor
An article in Meridian magazine
sparks Ellis Ivory to run for office.
By
Richard Lambert and Clint Day
“Respite: Critical
for Constant Caregivers”
How do you cope when not just one
of your children has a major medical concern but all of them?
The Utah California Women and Meridian Magazine want to help.
by Cherilyn J. Bacon
Los
Angeles TV Anchor Carlos Amezcua
Keeping Perspective
In a career that has covered over
a quarter of a century, Carlos Amezcua, co-anchor of the Los Angeles
WB affiliate’s “KTLA Morning News,” has seen
the world--as reporters do--from the best seats. It was talent
that opened doors for him, not privilege.
by
Kelly L. Martinez
BYU
Dancers Finalists in “Star Search”
BYU
dancing pair, Stacy Johnson and Joseph Delpriore, have advanced
to the finals in Star Search and are demonstrating to Hollywood
the importance of high standards.
The
Second Annual Meridian Leadership Awards
By Scot Facer Proctor, Publisher, Meridian Magazine
Jay
S. Bybee Named to Ninth Circuit Court
The day Jay Bybee was confirmed by the Senate
to be a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals--the court
most
recently famous for stomping on the Pledge of Allegiance--he
went home did the dishes and played with the kids.
By Page Johnson
LaVell
Edwards - Lessons I Learned From Football
A lot of times we have a tendency to look within ourselves and
wish that we had this or that--if we had more speed, more intellect,
more beauty or whatever, then life would be a lot better. If
I could make one overall assessment of my experience it would
be that those that were the most successful were not always the
ones that were the most gifted or the most endowed. That?s a
fundamental principle and something important for each one of
us to recognize.
Bringing
All That is Good With You
Two Black Families Who Joined the
Church in the South
by Page Johnson
The
Autobiography of Elder Helvecio Martins
In
1972 Helvecio Martins led a department
of over two hundred employees in Brazil’s
major oil business Petrobras and socialized
with the country’s elite, but he joined a church where he could
not hold the priesthood.
By
Helvecio Martins, with Mark Grover
Elaine
Cannon—A Tribute
Elaine Cannon, former general Young
Women's President of the Church passed away on Monday, May 19.
We honor her as a great leader and friend
by
Maurine Jensen Proctor
Editor-in-Chief, Meridian Magazine
Remembering
Ruth Hale, the "First Lady of LDS Theater"
But
what I'll remember about "Grandma Ruth" is her sparkling
smile, and the twinkle that was always in her eye. I'll remember
her infectious laugh, her enthusiasm for life, and her gracious
attention given to every person she met, from General Authorities
to little school children. For her, the term "Latter-day
Saint" meant more than a title of Church membership. It was
a description of her character and her life.
By Robert Starling
Latter-day
Saint Glenn Beck Rallies America on 115 Stations
At
Meridian we were surprised to learn that a syndicated radio talk
show host was of our faith—and we hadn’t heard about
him. Our headquarters are a nerve center of information. People
call us and email us by the hundreds to keep us informed of stories
about Latter-day Saints. We scour newspapers by the score each
day searching for significant news about the Saints, yet someone
as high profile as a syndicated talk show host had escaped our
glance?
by Maurine Jensen Proctor
Editor-in-Chief, Meridian Magazine
A
Sunday with the Olomouc Branch, Czech Republic
You will feel that you are there in this
vivid description of a Sunday meeting in a little branch in the
Czech Republic where many members held on to their faith through
the long, gray night of Communist rule.
By
Cynthia J. Rieben
The
First Annual Meridian Leadership Awards
What
a better way to celebrate Meridian’s 4th Birthday today
than to honor some outstanding leaders among the “community”
of Latter-day Saints!
By
Scot Facer Proctor
Publisher of Meridian Magazine
Kissing
Life’s Little Frogs and Turning Them Into Princes
Sharlene
Wells Hawkes, Miss America (1985) challenges readers to grow by
taking on new challenges in her best-selling book as she pushes
the envelope for herself
By R. Cole
Goodwin
Christmas
Without Elizabeth
The
holidays are a difficult time for the Smart family as they continue
their search for Elizabeth.
by
Catherine Martines
Out,
But Not Down
After
leaving the Early Show, it’s onward and upward for CBS newswoman
Jane Clayson
by
Catherine Martines
Remembering
Two Victims of 9/11
The
touching story of a mother and daughter killed on 9/11. Their
family recount the year-long struggle and the hope that they share
with others.
by
Maurine Jensen Proctor
BYU
Student Body President Robert Foster: A Leader to be Used by the
Lord
Brigham
Young University Student Association president-elect Robert Foster,
the first African American to hold that position, wants to make
a difference, not only to the BYU community, but church wide. He
hopes to use his BYUSA position to be a missionary for the church
and draw people to Christ.
by
Melanie Bridge
Assistant Editor, Meridian Magazine
Michael
McLean: He Gives Me What I Need
Meridian
talks up close and personal with Michael McLean, famed LDS singer/songwriter.
by
Maurine Jensen Proctor
