David NoyceThe 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.
David Noyce | The Salt Lake Tribune
Think fast … for religious liberty
(W.L. Ormsby | Library of Congress via AP) This 1876 engraving by W.L. Ormsby shows a version of the painting "Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776" by John Trumbull. Latter-day Saints will join other Americans in celebrating its 250th anniverdsary.
Feast on the Fourth. Fast on the fifth.
Yes, the day after wolfing down their July Fourth picnics of hot dogs, watermelon and apple pie, U.S. Latter-day Saints will be forgoing food.
On the spiritual menu for Sunday, July 5: a fast to give thanks for religious freedom as the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
A letter from the church’s governing First Presidency — led by President Dallin Oaks, a former Utah Supreme Court justice who is seen as a champion of faith freedom — is inviting members to fast in “gratitude for religious liberty and to pray that it be strengthened throughout the world.”
(Chris Greenberg | The New York Times) A copy from the first print run of the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives in Washington.
• On Sunday, May 31, members will view a video about the nation’s founding documents featuring apostles Quentin Cook and D. Todd Christofferson, both lawyers. (The latter, in fact, played a part in untangling the constitutional crisis that gripped the country during the Watergate scandal. Read more about that here.)
• On a musical note, The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square sings one of its signature songs, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” on “America’s Soundtrack,” a collection celebrating the Declaration of Independence.
Trump’s Mormon medicine man
(Evan Vucci | AP) Chris Klomp, director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, speaks at the White House in November about drug prices.
Who is President Donald Trump’s “favorite Mormon”?
According to a Washington Post piece, it’s 45-year-old Chris Klomp, chief counselor in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump, the story states, wants the Brigham Young University graduate, who also oversees Medicare, to help reduce drug prices, fight fraud and smooth out the administration’s controversial messaging on vaccines.
“My job is to ask questions,” Klomp told The Post, “and make sure that we are doing things the right way.”
Record baptisms?
The church may have baptized more converts than ever last year.
So reports researcher Matt Martinich, the guru of independent church trackers.
“I have received a credible report that the church appeared to baptize 380,000-390,000 converts in 2025,” he writes at ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com. “If accurate, this would surpass the previous all-time high of 330,877 … in 1990.”
If the overall increase is about 400,000, as Martinich suspects, that would put total membership close to 18 million.
We won’t have to wait long to find out. The church is expected to release its official stats at General Conference in a couple of weeks.
What those Giving Machines gave
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kristin M. Yee, second counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, makes a donation at a Giving Machine in November.
Here is the tale of the tape from the church’s Light the World Giving Machines spread across a record 126 cities in 21 countries this past holiday season:
• 4.7 million — Items purchased.
• 3.5 million — Meals for hungry individuals.
• 1 million — Visitors to the big red kiosks.
• 500,000 — Vaccinations for children.
• 350,000 — Months of menstrual care kits for women and girls.
• 108,000 — Kids and adults who will receive essential clothing.
• 97,000 — Books and other school supplies.
• 40,000 — Hygiene kits.
One of the benefiting charities — the Academy for Creating Enterprise — provides pigs to poor families, including Ricky and Junila Serafin in the Philippines.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Giving Machines offer a wide range of donation options.
“We were so happy to receive these pigs,” Junila said in a news release. “We have very little income, but we took care of the pigs and raised them, and, in a few months, we made a profit — enough to meet our needs and purchase additional pigs.”
The Giving Machines, the church reports, have raised more than $70 million since they first popped up in 2017.
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Troy’s journey
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Troy Williams at Equality Utah in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. He appeared on a recent "Mormon Land" podcast.
He served a mission in Great Britain, worked for a conservative advocacy group, left the church, came out as gay, became one Utah’s leading LGBTQ+ activists and worked with his former faith in bringing to pass a landmark nondiscrimination law. Meet Troy Williams, a key player in the softening of LDS-LGBTQ+ ties.
Listen to the podcast.
Around the world
• On International Women’s Day, the church didn’t mention its belief in Heavenly Mother — but it did hint at it.
In a March 8 social media post honoring “women around the world for their strength, compassion, and influence for good,” the church added:
“As daughters of heavenly parents, women have a divine worth that blesses families, communities, and generations. May all feel peace, purpose, and belonging today.”
• Latter-day Saints around the world are being asked to kick off Holy Week by inviting friends, family and neighbors to a one-hour Palm Sunday worship service on March 29 at area chapels.
Because Easter Sunday will fall on General Conference the following weekend, a news release states, “many of the messages will naturally center” on the life, death, resurrection and Atonement of Jesus Christ — as we forecast in a newsletter last month.
From The Tribune
• The church now will let women serve as Sunday school presidents.
• For Latter-day Saints, next year’s open house for the renovated Salt Lake Temple is going to be heavenly. But for everyone, getting around a packed downtown for those six months may be hell.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Next year's tours of the renovated Salt Lake Temple will take place on every day of the week, including Sundays, a departure from church tradition.
• Those temple tours will also depart from a longtime church tradition.
• The church has a new commissioner of education.
• Harking to the September assault on one of its own Michigan meetinghouses, the church lamented last week’s attack on a Jewish synagogue outside Detroit.
• Colorful books from a Latter-day Saint wife-and-husband team are teaching children “real stories about a real God who loves real people.”
(Sarah Perkins Sabey) Illustration by Maddie Baker accompanying the story of Noah found in Josh Sabey and Sarah Perskins Sabey's "The Old Testament Storybook" for children.
