BYU Studies

Volume 58:2 (2019) - The Creator Praises Birds, a poem by J.S. Absher. This poem won first place in the 2018 Clinton F. Larson Poetry Contest sponsored by BYU Studies.

Volume 58:2 (2019) - “The figure of a well-known and beloved fisherman is missing from the Provo River. When I turn off of U.S. Highway 189 in Provo Canyon, Utah, and cross the bridge to enter Vivian Park, I look upstream and downstream for him, but he isn’t there.” The missing fisherman is President Thomas S. Monson, who passed away in 2018. This reminiscence by his son tells of an avid and successful fisherman who also devoted his life to being a fisher of men. This essay chronicles the adventures of Tom Monson fishing the Provo River, as well as the influence he had on this son and many others who happened to meet him while he was engaged in his favorite pastime.

Volume 58:2 (2019) - This poem won honorable mention in the 2018 Clinton F. Larson Poetry Contest sponsored by BYU Studies.

Volume 58:2 (2019) - In September 1923, all the missionaries of the Eastern States Mission gathered in Palmyra, New York, for a conference commemorating one hundred years since Joseph Smith had a vision of Moroni and first saw the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon came. Before that date, the elders of the mission had spent the summer doing “country work”: preaching in rural areas without prearranged lodging, patterned after the ministries in the New Testament. The conference was held under the direction of mission president B. H. Roberts and was attended by President Heber J. Grant, other Church leaders, and local members of the Church. This article tells this history and tells how this event reinforced the Church’s emphasis on its founding story, reaffirming the importance of the Book of Mormon.

Introduction to the BYU Studies audio journal project