February 26, 2005

It’s been almost 27 years since the Mormon Church lifted its ban that had kept black males from the church’s priesthood.

Mormon Church leaders describe it as a shared, simultaneous revelation from God. The moment happened 25 years ago, as the church’s top leaders — the three-man First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — gathered inside the faith’s Salt Lake City Temple.

On Sunday at the Mormon stake near Alma School Road and University Drive in Mesa, five Hispanic boys dressed like missionaries in white shirts and ties fan out through the pews, bearing silver trays of bread chunks and water cups.

As part of mesa’s “Make a Difference Day” Fremont hill ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter  Day Saints organized a community painting project with members of the local neighborhood.  The cadre of workers included families with young children to retirees.  Within two hours this group of over eighty people finished painting the cinderblock wall which surrounds the retention center just east of power road on Jensen.  In addition a group of fifteen people made up of both teenagers and adults worked together to clean the yard of a neighboring elderly women.  They trimmed bushes, pulled weeds, and raked rock, leaving the yard looking immaculate.  By giving  just a few hours of their time they were able to lend a helping hand and make a real difference in the life of this elderly women.  At a later date they will return to paint the eaves with a grant from the city of Mesa that will supply the paint.  This has proved to be a great opportunity for people of all ages to come together and make a difference in their community.

The year’s first day of tripledigit heat took an afternoon turn for the windy, knocking out power to thousands of homes, complicating a Mesa firefighting effort and disrupting some residents’ best-laid plans.

Sunshine Acres Children’s Home in Mesa will get a makeover Saturday as part of Make A Difference Day.

Three years ago, Nancy Dana Norton was asked by her boss at the Mesa Public Library to write a book about the Mezona — a dance hall and auditorium at the heart of Mesa’s social life for 63 years and to which she had a blood connection to boot.

No, you're not getting out of going to church on Sunday.

Five Mesa siblings plan to marry today in what’s become known as the “The Mega Wedding.”

SALT LAKE CITY -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has unveiled a new church history library.