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A horror has come upon the residents of Cody, Wyoming

A horror has come upon the residents of Cody, Wyoming

Last updated on: October 17, 2025 at 2:19 pm by Dan Peterson

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A horror has come upon the residents of Cody, Wyoming 2025-10-17T14:19:44-06:00 Dan Peterson

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A woodblock illustration of the Book of Mormon story (Alma 14:27-28) in which Alma and his missionary companion, Amulek, are delivered from prison by its sudden and miraculous destruction. That story precedes the story being examined by Derek Squire. The illustration was included as an original illustration in George Reynolds’s “The Story of the Book of Mormon” (1888). The artist was John Held Sr.

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship published a new article today entitled “The Literary Structure of Alma 21–22.” It was written by Derek Squire.

Abstract: This article is part two of an analysis of the literary structure of Alma 17–27. The current article analyzes the literary structure of Alma 21–22, which is “an account of the preaching of Aaron and Muloki and their brethren to the Lamanites” as noted in the heading before Alma 21. These two chapters were originally a single chapter in the first edition of the Book of Mormon. When Alma 21–22 is treated as a single chapter, it appears to have been organized into an extended parallel structure (A-B-C-A’-B’-C’) in which matching elements share many strong links and parallels. This literary structure highlights the extraordinary range of missionary experiences that can occur while preaching the gospel. There also appears to be an eight-element chiasm that consists of Alma 21–22 and the conclusion to the preaching efforts of the sons of Mosiah in the first fifteen verses of Alma 23. This is the second of three macro-chiasms characterizing the overall structure of Alma 17–27.

It’s accompanied by one of Kyler Rasmussen’s helpful summations: “Interpreting Interpreter: Missionary Parallels in Alma.”

This post is a summary of the article “The Literary Structure of Alma 21–22” by Derek Squire in Volume 66 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. All of the Interpreting Interpreter articles may be seen at https://interpreterfoundation.org/category/summaries/. An introduction to the Interpreting Interpreter series is available at https:/interpreterfoundation.org/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought/.

A video introduction to this Interpreter article is now available on all of our social media channels, including on YouTube at https://youtube.com/shorts/xfVG6yJcZv8.

The Takeaway: Squire argues that Alma 21-22 forms a literary parallel structure, with Aaron’s experiences preaching in in the New-World city of Jerusalem running parallel to similar experiences in the Land of Nephi. Those chapters, along with the first 15 verses of chapter 23, also appear to form a separate chiastic structure centered on Aaron’s teachings on the plan of redemption.

The historic Cathedral of Canterbury (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

I would like to call your attention to a tour that Kristine Frederickson and Peter Fagg and I will be leading to Great Britain this coming May: “Church History and Great Britain with the Interpreter Foundation.”

Our tour will not only visit important (and sometimes hard-to-find) sites from the days of the first Latter-day Saint missionaries in the United Kingdom but, uniquely, will take participants to pivotal places in the history of British Christianity between the arrival of St. Augustine of Canterbury and the arrival of Heber C. Kimball and, subsequently, of Brigham Young and almost all of the Twelve. We will cover the rise of the monasteries; the fateful battle between Henry II and his former friend, St. Thomas Becket; the English Reformation; the dissolution of the monasteries under the dissolute Henry VIII; the Quakers, the Wesleys, great English hymn writers; and John Henry Cardinal Newman, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien — among many other fascinating stories. This will be great fun.

Inside Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of Golgotha — slightly modified, if the identification is correct, from its original appearance.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

I’ve fallen behind in alerting you to items appearing on the semi-comatose website of the Interpreter Foundation. Here’s something that went up yesterday: Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: “Seeking the Sacred: Replicating the Holy Sepulchre and Jerusalem Pilgrimage,” written by Jennifer C. Lane

Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks, edited by Donald W. Parry, Gaye Strathearn, and Shon D. Hopkin. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/seek-ye-words-of-wisdom/.

“From the time of King Solomon until its final destruction in AD 70, the temple in Jerusalem was the focus of pilgrimage and reverence for ancient Israelites and, later, for the Jews spread throughout the Roman Empire in the first century. For all these worshipers and travelers, to reach the temple was to approach the presence of God on earth. The Roman army left Jerusalem and the temple mount in ruins as they crushed the Jewish quest for independence. The Romans placed a temple to Jupiter on the temple mount representing their military triumph. With the eventual political triumph of Christianity in the fourth century under the Roman emperor Constantine came a move to rebuild, but this rebuilding did not include the Jewish temple. Instead, the Christians sought to replace it with ‘a new temple of the new Christian Jerusalem.’”

And here are a couple of other things that I failed to note when they appeared:

“The Interpreter Foundation Podcast — September 23, 2025: Marriage, The Family: A Proclamation to the World, and Low Marriage Rates”

During the 23 September 2025 episode of the Interpreter Foundation Podcast, Martin Tanner and Bruce Webster discussed insights on marriage, The Family: A Proclamation to the World, and low marriage rates.

Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me Doctrine and Covenants 121–123 “O God, Where Art Thou?”

During 1978, 1979, and 1980, Hugh Nibley taught a Doctrine and Covenants Sunday School class. Cassette recordings were made of these classes and some have survived and were digitized by Steve Whitlock and recently enhanced by Nick Galieti. Most of the tapes were in pretty bad condition. The original recordings usually don’t stop or start at the beginning of the class and there is some background noise. Volumes vary, probably depending upon where the recorder was placed in the room. Many are very low volume but in most cases it’s possible to understand the words. In a couple of cases the ends of one class were put on some space left over from a different class. There’s some mixup around D&C 90-100 that couldn’t be figured out so those recordings are as they were on the tapes. Even with these flaws and missing classes, we believe these these will be interesting to listen to and valuable to your Come, Follow Me study program.

This week we have two lectures relevant to the October 20 to 26 Come, Follow Me lesson, “O God, Where Art Thou?” covering 121 through 23.

The First Presidency and the Twelve have their offices in the Church Administration Building at 47 East South Temple in Salt Lake City (LDS.org public domain photo)

Here is a good three-minute video interview with Presidents D. Todd Christofferson and Jeffrey R. Holland about the new president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “A Man of Action: President Dallin H. Oaks”

And here, by contrast, is an awkwardly-written article from a student organ at Grand View University, in Des Moines, Iowa: “Mormon Representation in the Media: ‘Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke’.” The author seems to imagine that the Church needs to formally apologize for poor actions by any and all of its nearly eighteen million members. And why, exactly, does the article cite “Hayden Campbell [who] grew up in the Mormon church and decided to step away when he turned 18-years-old” (and who now looks to be about 18.5 years old) as if he were some sort of expert journalistic source?

The Cody Wyoming Temple (aka Barad-dûr), as envisioned by its fiercest opponents. (Provenance of image unknown. If there is an objection to its use here, please contact me at [email protected].)

I continue to be astonished at the prophetic accuracy of the opponents of the Cody Wyoming Temple. They predicted that the massive 9,950 square foot building — larger, no doubt, than most private houses in Cody — would loom over the city, blocking views of the mountains and obscuring the sky. And, sadly, their warnings have been vindicated. Just take a look at these construction photos. See for yourself how the enormous temple already towers ominously over the homes that surround it, clustered at its base. Cody’s clouds and nighttime stars are no longer visible. The region’s soaring alpine peaks are hidden, concealed behind the temple’s gigantic walls. This a dark day for the citizens of Cody and, indeed, for all of Wyoming. Expect the flow of refugees from Park County to begin any day now.

In July 1776, a group of courageous men who represented the thirteen American colonies issued the “Declaration of Independence.” I’m grateful to them beyond my capacity to express or to repay. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

“And this land shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be no kings upon the land.” (2 Nephi 10:11)

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