Australian Mormon Youth Anticipate Elder William R. Walker's Conference Talk On Mormon History, Stage Handcart Trek Reenactment Near Melbourne

During the Sunday Afternoon General Session of the just-concluded 184th Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder William R. Walker delivered a pitch for Mormon history. Elder Walker, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy who is also the Executive Director of the church's Temple Department, wants us to become and remain aware of the sacrifices made by early Mormons which laid the foundations for the 15-million member international church we have today. If you missed his talk, the video is embedded below in playlist format, so you can toggle the small arrows on the bottom line to access other Conference talks if desired:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_xnwsw7OPI&list=PLClOO0BdaFaNWGTdSq0_EgcD8yrwsutTO&feature=share&index=57



A complete written transcript will be available HERE by the end of this week; until then, read this Deseret News story.

But it looks like a group of Mormon youth in Melbourne, Australia must have anticipated Elder Walker's talk. The Age reports that on Tuesday April 8th, a group of LDS teens ranging in age from 14-18 formed up at Southern Cross Station in Melbourne to head for a state forest near Meredith in order to re-enact the handcart trek which was part of the Mormon migration across the Great Plains from 1856-1860.

Of course, it will merely be a taste of the privations endured by those pioneers. They will cover only 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) instead of 2000 (1242 miles), and their trip involves sleeping out for only two nights instead of four months. The youth will be organized into "families", each one headed by a responsible adult couple. They will sleep under a tarp strung between trees, and entertainment in downtime will consist of pioneer games like "stick pull" (which is basically a two-man seated tug of war). They will sleep rough, eat rough and hike rough, meaning period meals cooked in cast-iron pots, and provisions as basic as hessian sacks filled with turnips, potatoes, carrots and a bit of flour. They will enjoy a few modern conveniences such as sleeping bags, a modern first-aid kit, and a port-a-potty. The Mormon Handcart Trek Reservations website and the LDS website provide helpful information for others wanting to organize similar treks.

But still, it will be a tough trek dragging wooden carts filled with supplies, weighing around 250 kilograms (550 lbs). While eight of the original 10 handcart companies accomplished their journeys will minimal problems, the Willie and Martin Companies were disastrous primarily because of a late start, which resulted in them being caught in early winter storms while still in Wyoming, and by using green wood for many of their carts.

Of course, staging handcart treks is only one way to honor the pioneers who helped lay the foundations for our modern Church. Many of them sealed their testimonies with their blood and their lives. But as Elder Walker pointed out on Sunday afternoon, our own faith can be fortified by learning of the remarkable dedication of our spiritual forebears who accepted the gospel and lived true to the faith. The more connected we feel to our righteous forefathers, the more likely we are to make wise and righteous choices. There is a difference between jumping into a climate-controlled SUV and driving 10 minutes to a temple vs. dragging a handcart across 1242 miles of sometimes-unforgiving territory with no motorways or rest stops.

Samoan Mormons Complaining That They're Not Being Allowed To Worship In Their Own Language In English-Speaking Wards In Brisbane, Australia

A group of Samoan LDS members who live in Brisbane, Australia have lodged action in the Australian Federal Appeals Court claiming the church is preventing them from worshipping in their own language. Leulua’iali’i Olinda Woodroffe, the lawyer representing the group, claims the local LDS organization is forcing the parishioners to use English during worship. She claims the ban is unfair and unreasonable. According to Radio New Zealand International, Anne Hakula, a member of the group of Samoan Saints, said they had sought help from other elders without success, and added that when they disputed the ban, they were threatened with Church discipline, to include removal of their names from LDS membership rolls.

In addition, Ms Woodroffe led a group of Samoan Mormons from Brisbane to Apia, Samoa to raise their concerns with Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, who reportedly promised to write to the Pacific Area Authorities and LDS Headquarters in Utah over the issue. The Prime Minister must be careful not to intrude upon Australian sovereignty, though. Update September 26th: Elder James Hamula, the President of the Pacific Area of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said during a visit to Apia there is no truth to reports that the LDS Church has banned the use of the Samoan language in its Australian facilities. However, the lawyer Olinda Woodroffe maintains that a 2007 decision by the Federal Magistrate Courts in Australia proved the opposite. In addition, more details about this alleged "banning" have emerged; the group of Samoans from five Mormon wards in the Brisbane area were being restricted from singing, praying and worshipping in Samoan inside the Mormon temple - but were permitted sometimes to speak it in other church areas.

This issue first attracted media publicity on August 8th, 2013. According to an article in the Samoa Observer, Samoans in four different standard wards where English is spoken in Brisbane were allegedly told not to worship in Samoan. Exacerbating the situation is that four Samoan-language wards, Kingston, Woodridge, Ipswich and Goodna, were disbanded earlier. After the story first broke, Tupuola George Hunter, who is the public relations officer for the LDS Church in Samoa, denied there was any policy in the LDS Church to ban any language from services, explaining that Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City makes churchwide policy decisions and had issued no specific language ban. Elder Hunter added that he doesn’t believe lawyer Leulua’iali’i Olinda Woodroffe, who told reporters that Latter-day Saints in Brisbane have banned the reading of Samoan-language scriptures or the use of Samoan in hymns and prayers; Woodroffe was hired by the Samoan Mormons in Brisbane to represent them in the matter. Elder Hunter speculated that a Samoan stake mission was closed and its members had joined a palagi mission ("palagi" is Samoan for "white"; it is not considered a racial slur).

Based upon the information provided from the various media sources, it appears the Samoan Mormons are being unreasonable. While there's no problem with them conversing with each other while in church, they should be required to use English to offer public prayers or officiate in any way. It also seems like there's a market to open a new Samoan-language branch or ward in the area; this would be in keeping with our Church's goal to enable people to hear the Gospel in their own native language whenever possible. But many Polynesians do have a reputation for being clannish and insular wherever I've encountered them.

Some interesting background was published on Mormon Dialogue back in August (after the jump):