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Editor’s note: At The Life of a Mormon Teen, Whit talks about the new youth theme, “Arise and Shine Forth,” and what it means to her.

“Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations” -Doctrine and Covenants 115:5

Short and sweet, this scripture has A LOT of meaning in it for us!

What is light? There are many instances in the scriptures where light is referenced. The brother of Jared recieved light in the stones he asked Jesus to touch, Joseph Smith saw a pillar of light, the ten virgins held old lamps, and it is said that

Jesus’s glory and brightness defies all description.  (Joseph Smith History 1:17)

But one of my favorite descriptions of light is from the sermon on the mount. It is Matthew 5:14-16:

Read the rest of her blog post here.

LDS Tech has published an article that explains how to get the LDS mobile applications onto a Kindle Fire, Nook Color, Nook Tablet, or a generic Android tablet.

The Android applications will work on these devices, but it takes a few steps to get them loaded, since they are only available in the Google Android Market and these devices can’t access the market place directly.

Until the Church is able to distribute the applications through alternative markets, you can install them through a process called Sideloading. The article “Android sideloading” explains how to do this.

Watch a video introduction to using the LDS Gospel Library mobile app version 2.1 for the Android platform.

Learn more about the official LDS mobile applications from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I remember as a youth attending early morning seminary during my 9th grade year. We would walk to our LDS Stake Center in Rose Park and meet in one of the class rooms. At first I was more interested in the boys in the class than listening to the teacher’s message. I also remember falling asleep a few times because it was so early.  I do remember at that time we were studying The Book of Mormon. I would often feel the warm sweet feelings of the Spirit testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. We  had an excellent teacher who was engaging.  Later on while attending West High School in Salt Lake City; we had released-time seminary. This meant that we could walked over to a seminary building during the class hour that we scheduled for seminary. I have many fond memories of my classes. I am sure I was more alert since the classes weren’t in the early morning hours.

I do have fond memories of carpooling with other parents to take our children to  early-morning seminary while living in Washington. I always thought how much fun it would be to be a seminary teacher. In my grown up years I loved teaching the youth so in the back of my mind I thought this would be a great opportunity.

In October of of 1994, I received a call asking if I would be interested in teaching an early-morning seminary class for students who were going to our local  high school. At that time my one daughter was a senior at the school and I thought it would be fun to have her in the class. As I contemplated doing this; I went over the pros and cons. Of course there were many pros but the con was getting up early in the morning. I knew this would be a challenge for me. It would be required me getting up around 5 am and then being in the class room around 6 am to prepare for the students arriving at 6:30. The next obstacle was that I would be starting in the middle of the year and would be teaching at the home of the sister who had started teaching that year. She had to quit to go back to work full-time [early-morning seminary teaching is a volunteer assignment] and didn’t feel she could continue with the class. I drove 12 miles to their home in Valley Forge and found that I would be teaching in a small room that was built in their garage. The room had a pot bellied stove and two small heaters.

There were 12 student desks in the room; this was the number of students that I would be teaching.  The room was warm, cozy and inviting. After fasting and prayer; I received my answer and knew  I was to accept this position.  This year the students were studying The Book of Mormon.

I found out quickly that I needed to be well prepared for each class. This meant preparing the lesson would require studying for 3-4 hours a day. I had always loved studying the scriptures and now I was able to really delve into them. Before starting to teach I made a home visit to each of the class members. It gave me the opportunity to get to know them before facing them in the class. There were only a couple of them that had difficulty attending every morning. I challenged them to come and feel the Spirit and learn from the Book of Mormon.

After Seminary I went home to prepare my lesson for the next day. I then ran some errands. When I came home I found my daughter in tears as she explained that there was a truck accident on the way home from school and she was told that David had been killed in this accident. The high school was a very small school and everyone knew each other well. I knew this was going to be tough on this little seminary class and I prayed so hard to know how to handle the situation. I cried  and felt so sad about losing this sweet dedicated young man. I canceled the class for the next day. I soon received a call that David’s father and mother wanted our little seminary class to sing the hymn,”I Need Thee Every Hour” at the funeral. I met with the students and they all said they would sing this hymn for David. We had a couple of quick practises and we prayed hard to have the spirit help us get through this assignment.  There was one young man that didn’t come very often and I was surprised when he came up and sang with the group. David’s funeral was attended by over 500 people. All the students from the high school came. The spirit of this occasion was very sad but sweet. My little group of seminary students sang the hymn and they sounded like angels. At the closing of the funeral all of the students at the High School went by David’s casket and laid a rose upon it in tribute to him.

After the funeral it was decided that we would hold classes in our stake center. The first morning back was really hard for us all. The room just didn’t seem the same. I can say that this one incident, although hard to go through brought  us all close as a group and filled our hearts with the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Out of this little group of young men and woman came a great force for good. The majority of the boys served LDS Missions, a few of the girls including my daughter served missions and almost all of them were married in the LDS Temple. I will always hold close to my heart a feeling of deep love for each of these young men and women.

A short time later I visited with David’s mother and she told me how much David loved our little class. We both knew that David had been called on mission to the Spirit World. I will always remember him fondly as he put his ball cap under his arm and started our seminary class each morning at 6:30 am.

LeAnn continued to teach early morning seminary for the next four years and had many varied and wonderful experiences with the young women and young men she was privileged to teach.

By LeAnn @ Living Waters

Seminary is a scripture-study class for high-school aged youth (ages 14-18) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (friends are welcome!). Tonight, there will be an LDS satellite (and internet) broadcast commemorating 100 years of LDS seminary. President Boyd K. Packer will be the speaker.

Many Mormon youth meet in the early morning hours each day, before school, to have seminary classes. Sometimes seminary classes are held in a home, sometimes in a designated seminary building. Because The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a lay clergy, LDS seminary is not for any specific clergy training, but is designed for personal spiritual growth and building wholesome, supportive networks of friends.

Hear what some Mormon youth say about seminary:

Mormon youth from Austria share what seminary means to them:

Johannes explains, “For me, being in seminary gives me power. When I go to school and all my friends talk about all kinds of stuff, it’s good to have some spiritual strength in the mornings.”

Julie says: “We have seminaryevery morning. It helps me start the day in a better spirit. We’re more cheerful and happy.”

Ben says: “When I go to seminary, I have better days. It really helps me a lot, even in school. I just don’t seem to have as many problems. The basic things you learn in seminary help in everyday life.”

LDS youth from Switzerland share their thoughts about seminary:

“In school, it’s hard to feel the Spirit, but in seminary, it’s like a warm touch in your heart.” Annika adds, “It’s a feeling you can’t describe. If you just read the scriptures, you can’t feel it as often. But if you study, yes, you feel it.”

Melissa says: ““You feel the Holy Ghost so strong, and you know you are doing what you should be doing.”

(From the article “Seminary Makes Me Happy”)

Dia from the Phillipines says this about the LDS seminary program:

“Seminary gives me the strength to continue to keep moving forward in the straight and narrow path in spite of the difficulties and challenges I encounter…. The things I have learned are the stepping stones and preparation for a greater and more profound knowledge of the gospel.”

Frazer, another Mormon youth, talks about other benefits of seminary:

“It was a relief to know that I had an automatic source of social interaction in Mutual, seminary, and church…. There is something … unique about forming strong friendships with people who love the gospel like you do, have the same standards, share common goals, and believe the same things.”

(from the Church News and Events article Seminary Program Anchors Youth in the Gospel)

To read more about the LDS seminary program, see the following articles:

Worldwide Seminary Program Anchors Students in the Gospel

LDS seminaries: 100 years of studying, learning and loving the Lord

Following are links for the Seminary Centennial Broadcast, which will be held live tonight at 6:00 p.m. MST.

Seminary Program Celebrates Century of Teaching Mormon Teens

19 January 2012   |   Seminary, or the study of religious history and scripture among high school students of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Mormons“), grew from the original 70 students in one location in 1912 to nearly 370,000 enrollees in more than 140 countries today. Students study four years to complete the program; courses include Old and New Testaments, the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History.  FULL MORMON NEWSROOM STORY

Joseph Smith taught that spirit is a finer form of matter. Which made no sense to me.

But a Christian scholar trying to make sense of Mormonism for his Christian audience has explained the belief in a way that I can finally comprehend.

The most significant difference is that Mormons believe that Jesus Christ was never purely immaterial. Smith developed his materialistic interpretation of the spiritual realm mainly after the Book of Mormon, but it is anticipated in that book’s most extraordinary scene. In an appearance to the unnamed brother of Jared, Jesus is so sensitive to the overwhelming impression of his corporeal form that he reveals only his little finger. Jared’s brother says, “I saw the finger of the Lord, and I feared lest he should smite me; for I knew not that the Lord had flesh and blood” (Ether 3:8). Later Jesus shows Jared’s brother his whole body, which, it turns out, is a pre-mortal spirit body, comprised of a finer material substance than anything known on earth.

Christianity has always affirmed the goodness of matter and the integrity of the human body, but Mormonism offers that Christian dogma gone mad. For Smith, Christ’s pre-existent form was as physically real as we are today. Christianity teaches that the incarnation happened in a particular place and time, but for Smith, taking Hebrews 13:8 (“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”) very literally, the Son has always been Jesus. The body of Jesus Christ is the eternal image of all bodies, spiritual and physical alike. The incarnation is a specification (or material intensification) of his body, not the first and only time that God and matter unite.

The eternal embodiment of the divine is metaphysically audacious, and it explains why Mormonism is so inventive. Mormon metaphysics is Christian metaphysics minus Origen and Augustine—in other words, Christianity divorced from Plato. Mormons are so materialistic that they insist that the same unchanging laws govern both the natural and the supernatural. They also deny the virgin birth, since their materialism leads them to speculate that Jesus is literally begotten by the immortal Father rather than conceived by the Holy Spirit.

By treating the spiritual as a dimension of the material, Smith overcomes every trace of dualism between this world and the next. Matter is perfectible because it is one of the perfections of the divine.

That is beautiful. That is powerful. I still may not wholly accept that spirit is just a finer form of matter, but I can now understand what someone could mean by it. I can at least grasp and even admire the possibility.

The whole essay is well worth your while. It’s a model of real tolerance, which requires real differences and real attempts at understanding.

The First Presidency (leaders) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) tells how the guidelines in For the Strength of Youth lead to good decisions, pointing toward a Christlike life.

The standards in this booklet will help you with the important choices you are making now and will yet make in the future….Our Father in Heaven has placed great trust in you. He has a work for you to do….The decisions you make now will set the course for much of what will follow during your mortal life and throughout eternity.

The pamphlet is divided into topics that the leaders of the LDS (Mormon) Church feel are necessary guidelines for our young people to live with virtue in an X-rated world. The topics include Agency and Responsibility, Dating, Dress and Appearance, Education, Entertainment and Media, Family, Friends, Gratitude, Honesty and Integrity, Language, Music and Dancing, Physical and Emotional Health, Repentance, Sabbath Day Observance, Service, Sexual Purity, Tithes and Offerings, Work and Self-Reliance, and Go Forward with Faith.

Why was the pamphlet revised? Sister Elaine S. Dalton (President of the Young Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) has declared, “The standards have not changed, but times have changed. For the Strength of Youth has been revised to address the issues youth face today—to teach them the doctrine behind the standards and the promised blessings of obedience.”

Source:

https://lds.org/church/news/for-the-strength-of-youth-updated-and-refreshed?lang=eng

Additional Resources:

Read the updated version of For the Strength of Youth

Request a free copy of the Book of Mormon