Latest from Mormon Land: Widowed leaders speak at Christmas devotional; little-noticed milestone carries big implications

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Lonely hearts

Sunday’s prerecorded First Presidency Christmas Devotional featured speeches by three prominent widowed church leaders: senior apostles Henry Eyring and Jeffrey Holland, along with children’s Primary General President Susan Porter.

Holland noted that Christmases since the 2023 death of his wife, Patricia, have been especially lonely.

“This Christmas, may I invite each of you to be, however briefly, a family for someone who is otherwise alone,” the apostle urged. “Loneliness is a terribly painful feeling.”

Porter also pointed to the loss of a spouse. Her husband, Bruce, a general authority Seventy, died three days after Christmas in 2016.

“Were tears shed, deep sorrow felt, along with loss and loneliness? Yes,” Porter said. “And did we feel the light of God’s love? Yes. At what felt like the going down of our sun in our lives, [Jesus] gave us light and understanding. As we keep our focus on the Savior of the world, he will light our way to hope and healing.”

Eyring, whose wife, Kathleen, died two years ago, harked back to holidays when he baked fresh bread with his daughters to share with those in need.

“Opportunities await each of us this Christmas season,” he said, “to reach out and show kindness with Christlike love.”

Small step in a big African country

The church may be growing like gangbusters in parts of Africa, but much of the continent remains virtually untouched by Latter-day Saints.

That makes this significant — yet little noticed — recent milestone in Africa’s fifth-largest country all the more important: Earlier this fall, Alfred Kyungu became the first Latter-day Saint general authority to visit Chad.

Kyungu, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, met with Prime Minister Allamaye Halina and other government officials in N’Djamena, the nation’s capital, for discussions largely focused on the church’s humanitarian efforts.

Halina, according to a news release, affirmed that Chad “welcomes all religions that promote peace and harmony, while warning against extremist or divisive movements.”

The nation’s constitution does indeed establish mostly Muslim Chad as secular and affirms the separation of religion and state, the U.S. State Department noted, and it permits Christian proselytizing.

For his part, Kyungu reaffirmed the dual Latter-day Saint mission of meeting the “humanitarian and spiritual needs of God’s children,” the release added. He also emphasized the church’s 12th Article of Faith, which declares a commitment to “obeying, honoring and sustaining the law.”

The church does not yet have an official presence in Chad, but continued humanitarian efforts could help change that.

“The most plausible path toward an eventual church presence in Chad,” independent researcher Matt Martinich wrote at ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com, “would likely begin with humanitarian initiatives that build local goodwill and with ministering to any isolated members or contacts already living in the country.”

Right now, Chad requires “local founding members” of all religious organizations to register with the government, Martinich explained. “Because foreign missionaries or expatriates cannot serve as the legal founders of a new religious group, the church would need a small number of Chadian Latter-day Saints to act as official signatories before registration could move forward. The absence of a local membership base therefore represents a primary barrier to obtaining legal status in the country.”

The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Women on the stand revisited

It has been two years since women’s leaders were removed from the stand at Sunday services in the Bay Area. A Latter-day Saint who has been working to reverse that decision discusses the strides female members have made since then and what more could be done to increase equity in the church.

Listen to the podcast.

Bonus podcast: Villains of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” patriarchy in religion and the impact of young marriage.

Around the world

• An exterior rendering has been released of the Jakarta Temple, the church’s first in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country.

• New apostle Gérald Caussé welcomed Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, in switching on half a million holiday lights to illuminate the church’s temple just outside of Washington, D.C.

• The church delivered 18 tons of peanut butter, canned meat, macaroni, rice, milk, applesauce, pears, flour and other goods last week to a food bank in Georgia, the Statesboro Herald reported.

• Holiday Giving Machines made their first appearances recently in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; Bangkok; Tokyo; and even Brigham Young University’s campus in Provo. The big red kiosks are poised to pop up this Yuletide in a record 126 cities across 21 countries and on six continents.

From The Tribune

• The church is pressuring “Mormon Stories” and other critical podcasts to rebrand.

• Latter-day Saint therapist Jennifer Finlayson-Fife teaches how sex is holy and heavenly, not sinful and satanic. Listen to the podcast. Read the excerpts.

• A prominent outdoors YouTuber and an executive producer of “The Chosen” are named to an advisory council for the Young Men program.

• With sleeveless styles now available, more members are turning to a new eco- and labor-friendly way to dispose of old garments.

• Baseball Hall of Fame electors whiffed again, according to Tribune columnist Gordon Monson, by passing over Atlanta Braves legend and prominent Latter-day Saint Dale Murphy, known for his feats on the field and his integrity off it, for enshrinement in Cooperstown. Another Latter-day Saint, Jeff, Kent, one of the best-hitting second basemen ever, was selected.

• The 1970s musical “Saturday’s Warrior” was a big hit with Latter-day Saint audiences, notes scholar Matthew Bowman, but its theology was a big miss.