Latest news with #BookofMormon
NZ Herald
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Explore the hidden gems of NSW
Many Kiwis think they know Sydney – but with new experiences and attractions on offer, there's undeniably more to explore. Our nearest global city is a favourite go-to for a long weekend away, and it's well worth staying longer to uncover the hidden gems beyond the Harbour City. The good life, the night life – there's no arguing that Sydney has it all, and the city's vibe has been transformed in recent years by the traffic calming, greening and pedestrian-friendly makeover of George St. This includes a new light rail, a revitalised Rocks precinct and the harbourfront buzz of the Barangaroo precinct – think Wynyard Quarter, but on a whole other level. You might have been to Sydney often enough to have a favourite bistro in Surry Hills or boutique B&B in Woolloomooloo. But have you tried the dozens of new dining experiences and upmarket accommodation options that have emerged? Then there are the musicals that often have their Australian premiere in Sydney and iconic sporting spectacles. Sydney's jam-packed upcoming events calendar includes direct-from-Broadway spectaculars like MJ the Musical, inarguably one of 2025's hottest tickets. It'll have you moonwalking in your seat as it takes the audience behind-the-scenes of Michael Jackson's 1992 Dangerous World Tour. The Book of Mormon is also returning to Sydney. The irreverent and side-splitting comedy about two mismatched missionaries on the adventure of a lifetime has multiple Tony, Olivier and Grammy awards under its collars and ties. Kiwi travellers can take in Sydney's glorious beaches and bluffs – with bonus art – at Sculpture by the Sea, where a section of the spectacular Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk transforms into a free 2km sculpture park featuring over 100 sculptures by Australian and global artists from October 17 – November 3 2025. Auckland FC might have shown the way in trans-Tasman football but Wahs fans – and followers of other NRL teams – are thirsting for the NRL Grand Final, returning to Accor Stadium on Sunday, October 5, with the men's and women's premiership deciders. For motorsport devotees, the legendary Repco Bathurst 1000 is more than a race; it's a celebration of speed, skill, determination (and several ounces of good luck) at the adrenaline-pumping Mt Panorama circuit. And there's much more to see, do and enjoy in New South Wales than just Sydney – the state is, after all, bigger than Texas. Visitors should take the time to explore more of the good life in regional NSW. There are food and wine offerings in Orange or the Hunter Valley; wildlife experiences like a Zoofari in Dubbo; plenty of relaxing beach holiday destinations like Port Stephens; or nature retreats in the Blue Mountains. You could hire a car and drive south, north or west – the options are so vast that you're better advised to plan a Sydney and New South Wales holiday with the experts at YOU Travel & Cruise. It's fair to say that one of Australia's many charms is the smaller towns and cities outside its state capitals, and high among those is Orange, an enjoyable 3.5-hour drive from Sydney's CBD. It was once to be Australia's first capital, and its rich heritage is reflected in the buildings lining its main street. Surrounded by orchards, wineries and cellar doors, a centre for fine dining, shopping and strolling, Orange makes for an unforgettable country break, the kind of place where you're going to want to linger a little longer. Justifiably world-renowned, the Hunter Valley – Australia's oldest wine region – boasts more than 150 wineries, so it could take a lifetime and possibly the odd headache to get to know them all. A two-hour drive from Sydney, it's the perfect place for a foodie escape. Many of the country's best dining and regional produce are found outside the main centres, and in this beautiful region it's all about good food, great wine and switching off. The Lucky Country is home to many unique creatures, but why stop there? Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo (a five-hour drive or just over a one-hour domestic flight from Sydney) adds an African wildlife experience. Its Zoofari Lodge is set beside a stunning savannah, which provides sanctuary for hundreds of rare and endangered species including big cats, bigger elephants, giraffes, rhinos, zebra and antelope. The safari-style experience includes accommodation in the unique lodge, dinner, breakfast, exclusive tours and bike hire. The Port Stephens region, a 2.5-hour drive north of Sydney, promises to change your perspective on the Aussie beach experience. It's home to the Stockton Bight Sand Dunes, the largest moving coastal dunes in the Southern Hemisphere; as well as the Great Lakes Marine Park, home to a large population of resident dolphins as well as turtles, seabirds, fish species and the passing parade of whales. To that, the town adds a choice of Hamptons-esque luxury accommodations to rest your head, as well as waterfront gourmet dining including seafood menus from Rick Stein at Bannisters, or modern Australian cuisine at the Little Beach marina. The Blue Mountains, an easy 1.5-hour drive west, are world-famous, and not just for the millennia-old, World Heritage-listed landscapes: there are grand gardens, fabulous food (much of it with equally fabulous views), crisp mountain air, heritage hotels, galleries and artisans, and a string of townships sparking with individual charm. The perfect place to disconnect from the world and reconnect with who and what matters to you: like all of New South Wales, it's probably time to explore somewhere new.
Time Out
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
A massive summer West End theatre ticket sale is now happening in London
From the people who brought you London Theatre Week – which is actually a month long, and happens twice a year – here comes the Summer Theatre Sale, which is, by most definitions, running in late spring. But who cares when you once again have an opportunity to take the sting out of the cost of West End tickets? As with all these sales (which Time Out is a partner on), the basic deal is very simple: many if not quite all of the West End productions in London participate. Some, established shows like Book of Mormon and Matilda are offering a few quid off, which is obviously totally worth it. Others, you can get some pretty stonking savings: there's 43 percent off prices for Tina – The Tina Turner Musical, which has recently announced that it'll be calling it a day in September. You can get a walloping 75 percent off for the last few weeks of Ryan Calais Cameron's excellent new thriller Retrograde. And if it is undeniably taking place before most definitions of summer, it is a very good sale for actually getting your summer in order and snapping up tickets for what will hopefully be extremely popular shows before the reviews come out and ticket sales go nuts: highly recommended shows with big savings now that probably won't soon include wildly acclaimed US drama Stereophonic – a fictionalised account of the making of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours – the return of the Bridge Theatre's excellent immersive A Midsummer Night's Dream, and another chance to see acclaimed Bob Dylan musical Girl from the North Country at the Old Vic. In other words whatever your taste in theatre, and whatever your definition of British summer, there should be something for you in the Summer Theatre Sale.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Filler vs. action engine: ‘It came to pass' carries more weight than you think
This article was first published in the ChurchBeat newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Wednesday night. Like most believers, most Latter-day Saints learn early and often how to take a joke about their faith. After all, Mark Twain made fun of the Book of Mormon in 1891, writing that if someone removed the phrase 'it came to pass' from that book of scripture, it 'would have been only a pamphlet.' When Elder Quentin L. Cook was a young college student, a university professor that he enjoyed quoted that bit of Twain in class 'with great glee,' Elder Cook said recently at BYU Women's Conference. In the footnotes of his talk, Elder Cook made some notable observations about Twain's words and how they are used against the Book of Mormon and believers. 'Each new generation is presented with Twain's comments as if it is a new significant discovery,' he wrote. 'There is usually little reference to the fact that Mark Twain was equally dismissive of Christianity and religion in general. When this kind of remark is done with humor, it is probably best to join in the amusement.' Elder Cook's story didn't end in his college class. Months later, he was serving a mission in London, England, when he met an Oxford-educated teacher at London University who took a position opposite to Twain's. Dr. Ebeid Sarofim was a native Egyptian and expert in Semitic languages who discovered the Book of Mormon by accident and sent a letter to President David O. McKay asking for baptism. When Sarofim met with missionaries, he told them that 'it came to pass' was part of his intellectual belief in the Book of Mormon because it mirrored the way he translated phrases commonly used in ancient Semitic writings, Elder Cook said. The missionaries told him it was essential to have a spiritual testimony, too, Elder Cook said. The professor gained a spiritual witness and was baptized. 'So, what one famous humorist, Mark Twain ... saw as an object of ridicule, a scholar of Semitic languages recognized as profound evidence of the truth of the Book of Mormon which was confirmed to him by the Spirit,' Elder Cook said at Women's Conference. That anecdote, which has a resolution I'll come back to, didn't fit in my original coverage of Elder Cook's talk, but it drove me to look at some of the research about 'it came to pass' over the past 60 years. The first place I went was my copy of 'Charting the Book of Mormon,' which shows that 14% of all the instances of the phrase in the 1830 edition were in 1 Nephi. So, if 2 Nephi actually were the first book in the Book of Mormon, with far fewer instances (3.5%), would the phrase stick out as much to casual or first time readers like Twain? Second, King James translators faced the same redundant phrase, which in Hebrew is ויְהִי (vay-yihi). It shows up about 1,200 times in the Hebrew Bible, which contains most of the Old Testament. Those British translators sometimes ignored it and regularly deployed a variety of expressions in its place, such as 'and,' 'and it became' or 'and it was,' according to the BYU Religious Studies Center. Still, there are 727 examples of 'it came to pass' in the King James Version of the Old Testament, the RSC reported. You can find plenty of jokes online about all of those uses of the phrase in other faith traditions, too. (The best of all, in my estimation, is the use in the title of a book on BYU quarterbacks, 'And They Came to Pass.' Yes, I own that one, too.) Of course, the same phenomenon happens in the New Testament. Just think of two famous instances in Luke 2: 'And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.' 'And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.' So, why was this Hebrew phrase so popular in Semitic writings in that age? Because it was 'an engine of narrative storytelling' in its day the same way quick visual cuts drive action movies today, BYU professor Taylor Halverson has noted. In fact, Halverson says the phrase contains a deeper spiritual driver as a representation of Jesus Christ. 'It came to pass,' he says, is built on the same root word for God, Yahweh, the source of all things and the one who drives forward the narrative of each life. 'When we read 'it came to pass,'' Halverson writes, 'we see God's presence, his love, his concern, his energy, his knowledge, his direction, his guidance.' That is certainly more challenges to Twain's suggestion that 'it came to pass' could be cut out without losing any meaning. Elder Cook's underlying message for both of his anecdotes also pointed to deeper personal action. 'Dr. Sarofim's true account is interesting,' Elder Cook said, 'but I would suggest the best approach for gaining a testimony is to immerse ourselves in the Book of Mormon so we can repeatedly experience the ongoing witness of the Spirit.' (Note: Similar to the KJV translation, the number of uses of 'it came to pass' was reduced in the Book of Mormon, too, between the 1830 and 1837 editions," according to Royal Skousen's work in 'History of the Text of the Book of Mormon.') Church of Jesus Christ begins 10-day public open house for Antofagasta Chile Temple (May 13) The pioneer ethic that is a key to thriving companies, communities and the Church of Jesus Christ (May 7) The members of the First Presidency offered their 'heartfelt prayers and greetings' to Pope Leo XIV. President Russell M. Nelson released social media posts on Mother's Day. Here's what he and other leaders said, in case you missed their Mother's Day messages. How a prayerful surgeon — Dr. Russell M. Nelson — helped ensure many joyful years for BYU coach Heather Olmstead and her family. Sheri Dew, a former member of the Relief Society General Presidency and now executive vice president and chief content officer of Deseret Management Corp. was Southern Virginia University's commencement speaker. She encouraged graduates to 'stack wins.' Two apostles and the leader of the Relief Society spoke at a BYU-Pathway Worldwide devotional and answered students questions. Church leaders broke ground Saturday for the Lagos Nigeria Temple. The First Presidency announced that the Singapore Temple groundbreaking ceremony will take place on June 28. Baseball has decreed that tainted star Pete Rose, who died last year, now will be eligible for the Hall of Fame. Here's a smart look at the issues. BYU has a new athletic director, Brian Santiago. This is what he said at the news conference where he was introduced. BYU's Jewish quarterback and Latter-day Saint wide receiver are in Israel with other team members to work out with the Israeli national football team as part of the Athletes for Israel program. This is just an enjoyable story about another terrific player with his own controversial past but a love for the game and a desire to generously share it with others.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Deseret News archives +: President Heber J. Grant died on this day in 1945
A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives. President Heber J. Grant, beloved leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died on May 14, 1945. He was 89 years old. President Grant, who had been revered as the church's prophet for 27 years, died after a battle with arteriosclerosis. Coverage in the Deseret News of his passing was complete, including an eight-page special section dedicated to the life and accomplishments of President Grant, the first of the church's prophets to be born in Utah. A front page advisory on May 14 indicated that 'The First Presidency announced today that Dr. Gill Richards reported that President Heber J. Grant had suffered a relapse and was doing poorly.' President Grant died later that day. President Grant presided over the church during a tumultuous time in the world and was known for his advocacy for self-improvement, self-reliance and organization. That period included the end of World War I, Prohibition and World War II. Church historians note that during his service, President Grant dedicated three new temples, developed the church's welfare program and helped Latter-day Saints cope with the tragedy of World War II. Stories from his youth found their way into his sermons and teaching. Young Heber was not known for his athletic prowess but desperately wanted to join the baseball team. Accounts show he persevered and eventually found success in baseball. President Grant became president at the death of President Joseph F. Smith. On May 6, 1922, President Grant delivered the state's first radio message on KSL, then known as KZN, the first clear channel radio station in the western U.S. Deseret Industries also opened during his administration. President Grant was succeeded by President George Albert Smith. According to Deseret News accounts, disability rights activist Helen Keller visited Utah in 1941, and spent some time at Temple Square. She had traveled to Utah to receive a braille copy of the Book of Mormon. While at the Tabernacle the next evening, Keller spoke to those gathered and then asked President Grant if she could hear the Tabernacle Choir sing 'Come, Come Ye Saints.' Per the reports, President Grant guided the famed author/lecturer to the organ and put her hand on the organ as the hymn was performed. Here are some stories from Deseret News archives about President Heber J. Grant: "Picturing history: President Heber J. Grant — sites in and around Salt Lake City" "Mormon Tabernacle Choir video highlights performance for Helen Keller in Salt Lake" "Heber J. Grant: Years of poverty taught generosity and self-reliance' "Journals of President Heber J. Grant now digitally accessible in Church History Catalog" "General conference special: 'KSL Radio 100 years'" "As President Nelson celebrates his 100th birthday, see memorabilia from the birthdays of other Latter-day Saint prophets" "This week in church history"
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Deseret News archives +: President Heber J. Grant died on this day in 1945
A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives. President Heber J. Grant, beloved leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died on May 14, 1945. He was 89 years old. President Grant, who had been revered as the church's prophet for 27 years, died after a battle with arteriosclerosis. Coverage in the Deseret News of his passing was complete, including an eight-page special section dedicated to the life and accomplishments of President Grant, the first of the church's prophets to be born in Utah. A front page advisory on May 14 indicated that 'The First Presidency announced today that Dr. Gill Richards reported that President Heber J. Grant had suffered a relapse and was doing poorly.' President Grant died later that day. President Grant presided over the church during a tumultuous time in the world and was known for his advocacy for self-improvement, self-reliance and organization. That period included the end of World War I, Prohibition and World War II. Church historians note that during his service, President Grant dedicated three new temples, developed the church's welfare program and helped Latter-day Saints cope with the tragedy of World War II. Stories from his youth found their way into his sermons and teaching. Young Heber was not known for his athletic prowess but desperately wanted to join the baseball team. Accounts show he persevered and eventually found success in baseball. President Grant became president at the death of President Joseph F. Smith. On May 6, 1922, President Grant delivered the state's first radio message on KSL, then known as KZN, the first clear channel radio station in the western U.S. Deseret Industries also opened during his administration. President Grant was succeeded by President George Albert Smith. According to Deseret News accounts, disability rights activist Helen Keller visited Utah in 1941, and spent some time at Temple Square. She had traveled to Utah to receive a braille copy of the Book of Mormon. While at the Tabernacle the next evening, Keller spoke to those gathered and then asked President Grant if she could hear the Tabernacle Choir sing 'Come, Come Ye Saints.' Per the reports, President Grant guided the famed author/lecturer to the organ and put her hand on the organ as the hymn was performed. Here are some stories from Deseret News archives about President Heber J. Grant: "Picturing history: President Heber J. Grant — sites in and around Salt Lake City" "Mormon Tabernacle Choir video highlights performance for Helen Keller in Salt Lake" "Heber J. Grant: Years of poverty taught generosity and self-reliance' "Journals of President Heber J. Grant now digitally accessible in Church History Catalog" "General conference special: 'KSL Radio 100 years'" "As President Nelson celebrates his 100th birthday, see memorabilia from the birthdays of other Latter-day Saint prophets" "This week in church history"
