Latest from Mormon Land: Church awaits Dallin Oaks’ historic speech; Jennifer Lawrence is a fan of ‘Secret Lives’

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Oaks’ big speech

Dallin Oaks graduated from Brigham Young University. He returned years later as BYU’s president and has delivered nearly 40 speeches at the school in his native Provo.

But when Oaks steps up to a very familiar Marriott Center mic in a Feb. 10 devotional, he will make history:

This will be his first public address since becoming the 18th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Yes, Oaks spoke at October’s General Conference as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He also offered remarks in two interviews and at apostle Jeffrey Holland’s funeral, but next week will be his first major sermon since being set apart as leader of the 17.5 million-member global faith.

What will he say on this landmark occasion?

Find out by tuning in Feb. 10 at 11 a.m. Mountain time on BYUtv.org; broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org and YouTube.

The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: The ICE-men cometh

How have Latter-day Saints been speaking out and reaching out amid the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis? Find out from two on the front lines.

Listen to the podcast.

Around the world

• Turns out that “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” is the silver lining in Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence’s viewing playbook.

Asked in an interview what show is her “happy place,” People magazine reported, the acclaimed actor called the Hulu reality show “just perfection.”

• The church’s Perpetual Education Fund, which provides loans and scholarships for schooling to Latter-day Saints around the world, celebrates its 25th anniversary in March.

Since its 2001 founding under then-church President Gordon Hinckley, a news release notes, the program has helped lift the lives of more than 130,000 people in over 80 countries.

“This program helped me achieve my goals,” said Selemani Furaya, who used PEF aid to finish her university studies and become a laboratory technician in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “I’m incredibly grateful.”

• Bonnie Cordon, the church’s former Young Women president and the first woman to lead Southern Virginia University, is stepping down after a three-year stint at the private liberal arts college.

“We are sincerely grateful for her leadership, and encourage the entire SVU community — past and present — to join us in expressing appreciation for the positive and lasting impact she has made,” board chair Wendy Kimber said in a news release.

The search for a new president of the school, which is aligned with but not owned by the church, now begins.

• It has been nearly a decade and a half since Elder Price (Andrew Rannells) first took to the Broadway stage to joyously sing about getting his own planet, while his nerdy companion, Elder Cunningham (Josh Gad), lovingly lied his way to convert after convert in the jungles of Uganda.

Yes, the bawdy but beloved “Book of Mormon” musical will celebrate its 15th anniversary, Playbill reports, with a special performance on March 19 at New York’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre.

Despite its nine Tony Awards, not everyone sees the play as a triumph. Plenty of people still cringe at its vulgar vocabulary, merciless mocking of members and denigrating portrayal of Africans (the latter even prompted a rewrite to make the show a tad more racially, if not religiously, sensitive).

• The church sent a semitruck — hauling 40,000 pounds of peanut butter, rice, oats, beans, spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, flour and other foodstuffs — to Los Angeles relief agencies last week.

It is part of the Utah-based faith’s effort to provide 250 such truckloads to 250 food banks across all 50 states this year in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

“It is a huge deal to get this amount of food,” a Dream Center representative said in a news release. “... Typically, we get expired or nearly expired food, but [the church] delivers the best of the best.”

From The Tribune

• How the church’s immigrant community in Los Angeles launched a grassroots response to ICE raids.

• The church is all-in for Utah’s 2034 Winter Olympics, making a “significant financial donation” and freeing up property for a Medals Plaza.

• For much of the church’s history, “Mormon royalty” reigned among the apostles. Listen to the podcast. Read the excerpts.

• A new docuseries tackles the “hard questions” about Brigham Young.

• Here’s how much the church is going to pay the city to close surrounding roads to help accommodate the crush of visitors during the renovated Salt Lake Temple’s open house in 2027.

• When Latter-day Saints say to comply with ICE incursions, writes scholar W. Paul Reeve, they’re forgetting their own history.

• Tribune guest columnist Rebbie Brassfield welcomed the Broadway debut of “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star Whitney Leavitt. (By the way, in at least one account, she won raves.)

• Meanwhile, another Tribune guest columnist, Eli McCann, pays tribute to a grandma whose blankets and hugs were full of warmth.

• “Joseph Smith was Lincoln before Lincoln” — A Black college honors the church founder.