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An imperative as we approach Christmas

An imperative as we approach Christmas

Last updated on: October 26, 2018 at 2:22 pm by Dan Peterson

An imperative as we approach Christmas 2018-10-26T14:22:06-06:00 Dan Peterson

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The Montevideo Uruguay Temple (LDS Media Library)

It’s Friday. So, if you’ve been following these things at all, you can’t possibly be surprised that a new article has just appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture:

“Et Incarnatus Est: The Imperative for Book of Mormon Historicity”

***

We’re rapidly approaching the 2018 Christmas season. As I write, there are only 59 shopping days remaining until The Big Day.

I couldn’t possibly be more thrilled.

If you’re like me, and you really don’t need a whole lot more stuff — and if, when you do need something, you’re generally able to just go get it, which is what you typically do — the magic of finding toys under the tree is largely gone. It’s still fun to give things, though. And to serve others. And common sense and even social scientific studies confirm that there is immense joy to be had in doing so. In fact, giving and serving guarantee happiness just about as surely as anything else that we can do in this life, and far more than most things that we spend our days doing.

So, in an attempt to be helpful, I offer here some of my own preferences or choices. There are scores, indeed hundreds and thousands, of other worthy places.

First of all, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will again be sponsoring its #Light the World campaign. Here are a couple of early links about that:

“Remember Him and #LightTheWorld”

“#LightTheWorld in Institute: Join thousands of people around the world by spreading the Light of Christ through different acts of service each week.”

I also strongly recommend service through, and gifts to, LDS Charities, which has been doing good work all around the world:

“Do Something”

The Church has also launched JustServe, which I highly, highly commend to your attention. Although it is sponsored by the Church, it isn’t specifically oriented to Latter-day Saints. Please, where appropriate, call it to the attention of others in your community:

https://www.justserve.org

Among the myriad of great organizations doing good nationally and internationally, here are two that have specifically caught my attention and that of my wife, and which I commend to your notice:

Liahona Children’s Foundation

Operation Underground Railroad

I would be remiss in my duties as its chairman and president not to mention the Interpreter Foundation. We are a very lean and quite efficient operation, almost entirely run and staffed by volunteers and making most of its products available for free or at cost, but our basic, regular expenses still run between $7000 and $8000 per month, on average, and the funds to cover those expenses must inescapably come almost entirely from donations.

We’re not — contrary to the jubilant and absurdly confident declarations of certain anonymous internet detractors — in a perilous financial condition. Nor anywhere near to one. But that’s because of the generosity of many in our audience. We depend upon continuing contributions.

So, if you have enjoyed or benefited from anything we do, please consider making a donation. No matter how small it may be, we appreciate it.

And I would be delighted to speak to you about the film that we’re producing, under the auspices of the Foundation, on the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon.

Donating to the Interpreter Foundation

Finally, are you aware of AmazonSmile? As we move into the Christmas shopping frenzy, please don’t forget this marvelous opportunity to give to your chosen cause — whether that’s the Interpreter Foundation or any of the hundreds or thousands of other eligible charities that you might prefer — merely by shopping and at absolutely no cost to yourself.

“How to Use AmazonSmile to Make Donations”

Really. Everybody ought to do whatever online Amazon.com purchasing they do through AmazonSmile. There’s really no sound reason not to do so.

The amount that you will be giving through AmazonSmile will be small, unless you’re much, much more of a Christmas shopper than I am. But, if enough people do it, the cumulative results are potentially quite significant. Remember, though, that, because it costs you nothing at all — the money that goes to charity from AmazonSmile is actually Amazon’s — you also receive no tax deduction for “giving” through AmazonSmile. So using AmazonSmile should be absolutely basic for you. If you want to actually give a real gift, that gift should be on top of what you regularly do via Amazon.

***

President and Sister Nelson and Elder and Sister Stevenson continue their visit to South America:

“President Nelson Continues South America Ministry Tour in Uruguay: Latter-day Saints in Montevideo receive instruction from living prophet”

Some cynical critics will continue to deride them and to hold in sneering contempt those who joyously welcome them and listen to them. But that says much more about those cynical critics than it does about the Nelsons and the Stevensons and the Latin American Latter-day Saints who are clearly delighted at the visit.

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