The Mormon Land newsletter is The Salt Lake Tribune’s weekly highlight reel of news in and about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Join us on Patreon to receive ad-free podcast episodes, the full newsletter and access to all of our religion content.
We hit 400
Welcome to the 400th Mormon Land newsletter. That amounts to more than 7½ years of weekly updates about church happenings. Thanks for joining us on this ride.
Here are some of our favorite items from those newsletters:
• We highlighted a Salt Lake City coffee shop near the Conference Center that had found an inventive way to capitalize on walk-up traffic during conference weekend. It posted this sign: “DIET COKE — THIS WEEKEND ONLY. TRY IT DIRTY, WITH DOZENS OF SYRUP FLAVORS + CREAM.
• We reported that then-Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé, now an apostle, had revealed the secret sauce for the church’s prosperity: $ervice.
• We celebrated the genesis of Genesis, a 54-year-old Latter-day Saint congregation unlike any other.
(Jerri Harwell) A Genesis Group presidency: Darius Gray, left, Ruffin Bridgeforth and Don Harwell.
• We noted that a tiny, temple-blessed Latter-day Saint community was getting richer, thanks to a new cash crop: marijuana.
• We asked readers to suggest new titles for the Book of Mormon. Maybe something like: The Son Also Rises in the New World. Other offerings: The Golden Plates on White Paper or The Book of He Who Must Not Be Named.
• We pointed out a temple change that few noticed.
• We also asked for “dream headlines” in advance of General Conference. After more than 4,300 votes, the winner was “We apologize,” followed by “Effective immediately: Democrats welcome in LDS Church but only if they do not act on it.”
Better sorry than safe?
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Dallin H. Oaks speaks during General Conference in October.
Speaking of apologies, Dallin Oaks famously stated once that the church doesn’t make them (though, at times, it has).
Even so, blogger Rose, in a recent Exponent II post, called on church leaders to write to members and apologize for:
• The now-discarded priesthood/temple ban on Black members. “This was wrong, and although we blamed God,” Rose writes, “we were the ones who made the mistake because some past prophets were racist.”
• For mistreatment of LGBTQ+ members. “We invite our faithful LGBTQ members to attend the temple,” the blogger states in a hypothetical letter, “and be married there if they wish.”
• For obscuring the size and scope of the church’s past financial holdings, which resulted in a fine from federal regulators. Rose suggests that church leaders vow that “in the future, we will publish an annual fiscal report of our income and spending on tithing, fast offerings and humanitarian work.”
The Utah-based faith, the blogger concludes, “should become the most ethical, just, and honest church in the world, for it claims to be the only true one.”
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: One-year missions
A couple of star football recruits for Brigham Young University plan to serve one-year missions. Is this good for them? Is it good for BYU? Is it good for the church? Tribune sports writer Kevin Reynolds and columnist Gordon Monson weigh in.
Listen to the podcast.
Around the world
(Eric Lee | The New York Times) Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade representative, is a BYU alum and Latter-day Saint who served a church mission in Belgium.
• One of President Donald Trump’s principal generals in his global trade battles is a Latter-day Saint.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, a BYU alum who served a church mission in Belgium, is seen as a tariff hawk, The Irish Times reports, who aims to “rebalance” the nation’s trading relationship with the European Union.
• At a recent high-level meeting in Bahrain designed to boost interfaith collaboration, apostle David Bednar trumpeted the lessons Latter-day Saint missionaries learn while serving around the world.
“They return home more than tolerant of the beliefs and practices of others,” he said in a news release. “They return home as champions of coexistence and promoters of love for the people they served.”
• The church donated $50,000 last month to help support a Hindu temple on the outskirts of Salt Lake City.
The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir is located in a former Latter-day Saint meetinghouse in Kearns.
“We hope this contribution supports your mission to serve as a center of worship and cultural connection for Hindus and all people,” general authority Seventy Matthew Holland wrote in a letter to the Hindu community. “...Our two faiths share a commitment to strengthening spirituality, nurturing families and uplifting the weary through humanitarian work.”
• And it came to pass that John Bernhisel, a reporter for Wyoming’s Lowell Chronicle, did venture forth to the Historic Cody Mural and Museum, where he did behold a rare gem: a first edition of the Book of Mormon.
“Seeing one up close and not in a university archive but in Cody was astonishing,” Bernhisel wrote. “Modern copies are mass-produced by the tens of millions, but this volume [one of about 500 known to have survived from an initial printing of 5,000] was handmade: set one letter at a time on a wooden press and bound before Andrew Jackson completed his first year in office. The uneven type, slight variations in ink and worn boards felt like stepping directly into the 19th century.”
First editions can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars at auctions, but Latter-day Saints, the reporter noted, believe the book’s true worth “isn’t in its age or rarity, but in the words inside.”
• Teaming up with the Food Bank of Alaska, the church shipped — literally, via freighter — 40,000 pounds of butter and cheese last month to provide 12,000 Thanksgiving meals to nearly a dozen communities in the state.
“It’s the biggest event of the year,” Daniel Bentle, the food bank’s chief philanthropy officer, said in a news release. “...Having dairy brought into the state and the support that we’ve gotten from [the church] is incredible.
Butter can cost up to $10 a pound in Land of the Midnight Sun, a state with only one dairy.
From The Tribune
(Illustration by Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
• How pro-Latter-day Saint podcasts defend — and divide — the faith and the faithful.
• More space means more Christmas lights this holiday season as the makeover of Salt Lake City’s Temple Square inches closer to completion.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Holiday lights illuminate Temple Square in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025.
• Apostle D. Todd Christofferson delivers his first major address since joining the First Presidency.
• Executed by Hitler, pamphleteer Helmuth Hübener “saw himself as a Mormon to the end.”
• How a Latter-day Saint genealogy influencer is spreading the word about the power of family history.
• Does ink still carry a stain? Latter-day Saints rank among the least inclined to get tattoos. Is that changing?
• Sweet Salt Clothing, a church-owned supplier of modest fashions, is shutting down.
• She left the church and then came back. Now this Instagrammer is trying to appeal to members and ex-members alike.
(Emily Susan Pack) Musician, comedian and content creator Emily Susan Pack blends comedy and music on her social media pages.