In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is one of the governing bodies in the church hierarchy. Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are apostles, with the calling to be prophets, seers, and revelators, evangelical ambassadors, and special witnesses of Jesus Christ.
Heber Jeddy Grant was an American religious leader who served as the seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Grant worked as a bookkeeper and a cashier, then was called to be an LDS apostle on October 16, 1882, at age 25. After the death of Joseph F. Smith in late 1918, Grant served as LDS Church president until his death.
A stake is an administrative unit composed of multiple congregations in certain denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. The name "stake" derives from the Book of Isaiah: "enlarge the place of thy tent; stretch forth the curtains of thine habitation; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes". A stake is sometimes referred to as a stake of Zion.
Jeffrey Roy Holland is an American educator and religious leader. He served as the ninth President of Brigham Young University (BYU) and is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Holland is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. Currently, he is the fourth most senior apostle in the church.
John Andreas Widtsoe was a Norwegian-American scientist, author, and religious leader who was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1921 until his death in 1952.
The Apostolic United Brethren (AUB) is a Mormon fundamentalist group that practices polygamy. The AUB has had a temple in Mexico, since at least the 1990s, an endowment house in Utah since the early 1980s and several other locations of worship to accommodate their members in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana.
Abraham Owen Smoot was an American pioneer, businessman, religious leader, and politician. He spent his early life in the Southern United States and was one of seven children. After being baptized a member of the Church of Christ, predecessor to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Smoot served as a missionary in Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, and England. He received no formal education, but learned to read as a child and later attended the School of the Prophets in Kirtland, Ohio. Like other early members of the LDS Church, Smoot practiced plural marriage, eventually marrying six women and having 24 children. After migrating west to Utah Territory, he was elected as the second mayor of Salt Lake City and maintained this position from 1857 to 1866. He was then assigned by Brigham Young to move to Provo, where he served as stake president and mayor from 1868 to 1881. He assisted financially in the construction of the Provo Tabernacle—today the Provo City Center Temple—as well as that of the Utah Southern Railroad. Smoot was the first president of the board of trustees of Brigham Young Academy (BYA)—which later developed into Brigham Young University (BYU). He was an early financial supporter of the institution and was nicknamed the "foster father" of the Academy. His goal was to make education available to young Latter-day Saints. Today, the Smoot Administration Building at BYU is named after him.
Ministering is the term for Christian service given to fellow congregants, known as "ward members," within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Prior to April 1, 2018, a somewhat similar program within the church was termed "home teaching", "block teaching", and "ward teaching", when performed by male priesthood holders and "visiting teaching," when performed by female members of the church's Relief Society. The previous dual home- and visiting-teaching programs had been designed to allow families to be provided spiritual instruction in their own homes, in addition to weekly church services. The present joint program deemphasizes teaching, replacing it with prayerful consideration given to the needs of one's assigned congregants, finding ways to serve and fellowship them.
The Young Men is a youth organization and official program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Its purpose is to assist the church's Aaronic priesthood-aged young men in their growth and development. The organization serves young men from the year they turn 12 until they are 18.
Robert LeGrand Backman was an American lawyer and politician in the state of Utah who was a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1978 until his death.
Hartman Rector Jr. was a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1968 until his death. He was one of the first adult converts to the LDS Church to become a general authority during the second half of the 20th century. Rector served as a member of the First Council of the Seventy from 1968 to 1976 and as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy from 1976 to 1994.
Lynn Grant Robbins is a co-founder of Franklin Quest Company and has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1997. He was a member of the church's Presidency of the Seventy from 2014 to 2018.
David Frewin Evans has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 2005.
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a temple is a building dedicated to be a House of the Lord. Temples are considered by church members to be the most sacred structures on earth.
Joseph Wafula Sitati has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 2009, when he became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. He is the church's first black African general authority and the second general authority of black African descent.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah refers to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in Utah. Utah has more church members than any other U.S. state or country. The LDS Church is also the largest denomination in Utah.
Michael Tally Ringwood has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 2009.
Black people have been members of Mormon congregations since its foundation, although the church placed restrictions on proselytization efforts among black people. Before 1978, black membership was small. It has since grown, and in 1997, there were approximately 500,000 black members of the church, mostly in Africa, Brazil and the Caribbean. Black membership has continued to grow substantially, especially in West Africa, where two temples have been built. By 2018, an estimated 6% of members were black worldwide. In the United States, approximately 1% of members are black.
The Provo City Center Temple is a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the same site as the former Provo Tabernacle in Provo, Utah. Completed in 2016, the temple utilizes much of the external shell of the tabernacle, all that remained of the original building after a fire in December 2010.
Three missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started proselyting to white English-speaking people in Cape Town in 1853. Most converts from this time emigrated to the United States. The mission was closed in 1865, but reopened in 1903.The South African government limited the amount of missionaries allowed to enter the country in 1921 and in 1955. Starting around 1930, a man had to trace his genealogy out of Africa to be eligible for the priesthood, since black people were not permitted to be ordained. In 1954 when church president David O. McKay visited South Africa, he removed the requirement for genealogical research for a man to be ordained, stipulating only that "there is no evidence of his having Negro blood in his veins".
