For the week ending August 16, 2008

'This is our opportunity'

   A work request was issued to several stakes in Panama asking for 10 women from each stake to help assemble the chandeliers that now hang in the newly-dedicated Panama City Panama Temple.
   Each stake responded, dispatching the requested 10 sisters — along with 40 more. For every one person who was assigned to help with the chandeliers, four more volunteered for a task some might call menial. That impulse to serve, that need to perform some role in preparing Panama's first temple for dedication is an apt symbol of the excitement felt by thousands.
   "This is our opportunity," said Francisco Phillips as he stood, misty-eyed, outside the ornate China-stone temple that President Thomas S. Monson dedicated on Sunday, Aug. 10. "We are going to see just how brave and valiant we really are as we take care of the house of the Lord and proclaim the gospel to every Panamanian."
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Sun Valley concert

   Alasdair Neale's philosophy that you can't dream too large led to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir being invited to perform at the Sun Valley Summer Symphony's annual fund-raising concert on Aug. 9.
   Saying, "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing," the symphony director welcomed the choir and acclaimed opera singer Denyce Graves to central Idaho's newest performance venue, The Sun Valley Pavilion.
   Organizers said they wanted a performance worth the symphony's rather steep fund-raiser-ticket price that each patron would pay to fill The Sun Valley Pavilion. Audience members — numbering approximately 2,000 — got what they happily paid for, judging from the vigorous applause, whistles and shouts of "Encore! Encore!"
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Seven-part anti-pornography series

Humanitarian service: The Church is committed to helping those in need. Read about recent Church efforts and what you can do to help.

Nauvoo special section spotlights the rebuilding and rededication of the temple in Nauvoo, Illinois.

Selected transcripts of talks given by LDS General Authorities and officials.

Transcripts of dedicatory prayers for temples opened since January 2000.

Photo gallery: Accra Ghana Temple dedication

Photo gallery: Helsinki Finland Temple dedication

Letters from the First Presidency

General Authority chart