How Latter-Day Saints made the desert bloom and created ‘Utah’

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – It’s just a four-hour, 45 minutes flight by Delta Air jet from Washington, DC, but when you land in Salt Lake City, capital of the state of Utah, you almost immediately know you’re in a different world.

There are only 2,233,200 Utahns (half of them in Salt Lake City) living in 84,990 square miles – an area so large you could squeeze in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Maryland into it and still have room to shoehorn in Rhode Island. This is because much of it is desert country, girdled by soaring mountain ranges most visibly the middle Rocky Mountains punctuated by the 14,000 feet-high, snow-covered Wasatch, Uinta and Bear River Ranges.

But most of all by the fact that the people of Utah appear a different breed – courteous, well-mannered, non-drinking, non-swearing, non-smoking (by golly!), and friendly.

Remember what they always say about Washington DC: "If you want a friend in this town, get a dog."

Shucks. In Utah, even the dogs are more friendly.

It’s not difficult to learn why. We were met at Salt Lake City’s airport by Norman D. Shumway and his charming wife, Luana. When I suggested we call a porter as our suitcases came out on the carousel, Norman shook his head gently, then grabbed each one, hefted them onto a trolley, and whisked us off into the basement parking lot to his car.

This muscle-man didn’t look like one in his sedate business suit, but I found he was a youthful seventy-one years old! What’s more, he had been a Congressman for six terms (12 years) in the 14th District of California – his district had included Lake Tahoe, and he was a Republican! He just kept on winning election after election until he decided to retire and go fulltime working for his church. Which one? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which we call the "Mormons".

That’s what my wife and I came here for: to visit the Saints (LDS), and Norman and Luana were our "Directors of Hosting."

Norman Shumway even speaks Japanese (Nippongo) fluently, he and Luana having lived in Tokyo for eight years, three and a half years of that period as "president" of the Mormon (Latter Day Saints) missionaries in Japan. He even writes Japanese, having command of at least 2,000 kanji, not simply katakana or hiragana.

You’ll find thousands of missionaries (including Filipinos) in our own country. They are easily spotted – not just in their spectacular Temple in White Plains but all over town – since most of them are young fellows attired as if in uniform in a white shirt with a tie, and traveling in pairs. In a country like ours, 82 percent Catholic, we might also be surprised to learn that there are already half a million (yep, over 500,000) Filipinos professing the Mormon faith.

* * *

Today, there are about 60,000 "volunteer" Mormon missionaries spreading the "Word" in 165 countries.

They are generally young men between 19 and 26 (every male is expected to serve two years as a missionary – and they pay their own way). The monthly subsistence expense of $375 to $400 per month comes out of the volunteer missionary’s own pocket, or from his family. More and more young women, they told us, are volunteering, too, but are expected to do missionary work for a shorter period of 18 months.

Such zeal has jumped the Church of Latter Day Saints to Number Four in the ranking of Christian sects in the United States (they recently overtook the "Church of Christ") – and they now have 12 million Mormons worldwide, with over half of that number overseas. Their apostolic zeal, quite clearly, has paid off.

One thing they did have in common with our late Pope, His deceased Holiness Pope John Paul II. The Mormon Church preaches that children are blessings from God and that the bigger the family the better. Nope, no more "plural wives" or polygamy either. This was rescinded in 1890 by the Church.

In September 1890, the new Church president Wilford Woodruff, issued a manifesto declaring he had received revelations from the Lord instructing him to direct all members to stop practising polygamy. (Anyone still practising it gets arrested for bigamy by the government, anyway).

This was not so in the early Church. The founding Prophet Joseph Smith – who founded the LDS in a log cabin in upstate New York on April 6, 1830 – had multiple wives. You know, the revelation to go and multiply. "The doctrine of plural marriage" was officially upheld by his successor, Brigham Young in 1852.

When I was a boy, I saw a movie about "Brigham Young" and what stuck in my mind was the statistic that he had 27 wives! He had 57 children by 16 of his wives. Indeed, he is rumored to have had as many as 56, although several of his wives had been the wives of the Prophet Joseph, left widowed when the prophet was murdered by a mob while in prison in Carthage, Illinois, on June 27, 1844. The mob had stormed the jail and shot down Smith and his elder brother Hyrum. From the very beginning, the Mormons had been cruelly persecuted by both fellow Americans and the government itself.

In any event, they’ve made the "desert bloom" into the state of Utah, multiplied, overcome every hardship and obstacle, and attained many of the highest offices in the land – including becoming Senators, members of the House of Representatives, justices of state Supreme Courts, Governors, and so forth.

To cite just two, Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Harry Reed (Republican-Nevada) is a Mormon, as well as Governor M. Romney of Massachusetts.

They made history by hosting the 2002 Winter Olympics in the world-famous powder snow high up in their beautiful Wasatch Mountains. In sum, Utah – still 65 percent Mormon – is topnotch in the US!

* * *

AND NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS FROM THE HOMEFRONT: The insolent manner in which armed assassins barged into the crowded municipal building in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, and shot Mayor Leon Arcilla to death (one bullet straight to the head) also killing one of his bodyguards is a shocking reminder that violence is taking over our country.

I was informed that the slain mayor had just finished presiding over a mass wedding of 15 couples, indicating that the municipio was crowded with people. And to think that Arcilla’s guards were not just regular patrolmen but his slain security man belonged to the Special Action Force (SAF), PO2 Erwin Rivera.

Who were the killers? The easy jump-to-conclusion reply would be the New People’s Army (NPA), but don’t bet on it yet. The fact that armed men can move around with impunity in our land, and, mind you, Sta. Rosa, Laguna, virtually an outlying "suburb" of Metro Manila, is unacceptable. No sooner do we get the "tip" that the murder in Dipolog is nearing solution, with the suspect about to be picked up, than this new outrage occurs.

Even from my own perspective, thousands of miles away, we’re obviously not winning the fight.

Of course, helicoptering to the scene immediately (at 4 p.m. yesterday) PNP Chief, Director General Art C. Lomibao "relieved" the Chief of Police of Sta. Rosa, Police Supt. Joselito Vera Cruz, and replaced him with PSupt. Pastor de Guzman – but this round-robin won’t solve the problem. We’ve got to bring our police force up to scratch, field more and better cops (stop political padrinos and "partners" in… crime? from meddling), and arrest anybody seen toting a gun for "verification" – without hesitation. In this amor propio driven society of ours, our prickly resistance to discipline and crackdown by our authorities, contribute to our own undoing. We don’t want a national I.D. card, crying out "violation of human rights" and "right to privacy", then complain when terrorists, assassins, and violent criminals move about unchallenged – and begin converting our archipelago into a shooting gallery or a "bombing" endangered scene.

We can’t have our cake and eat it, too. We’ve got to sacrifice something in order to ensure our safety.

Even over here in Salt Lake City and in Provo, Utah, another 40 miles away where the famed Brigham Young University is located, I’ve been questioned by people about the repeated shooting murders in the Philippines, and, worst of all, the announcement that the RP is now the most dangerous place for journalists!

The President, Chief Lomibao, and, not to forget them, our Armed Forces had better mobilize every resource and get "tough" – otherwise the tougher terrorists and murderers will continue having a field day.

Tama na. Sobra na. Let’s start shooting back.

* * *

If you’re planning to fly around in the United States be prepared to be treated as a potential terrorist. Otherwise, my advice – if you’re resentful of being searched or patted down – stay home.

Flying in from overseas is a breeze. You may or may not be given a hard time, usually they’re less concerned about you, except for fingerprint checking and I.D. when you step off an international aircraft.

It’s when you're flying point to point within the US that they get, while still being polite, really nasty.

When I went to the Washington National Airport (Ronald Reagan Airport), checking in the luggage was no problem. You can check through curbside without any hassle.

When you walk into immigration, though, that’s when you encounter the dreaded TSA federal security screeners. These are the big guys and Amazons sporting those "TS" patches, uniformed in dark brown. The first one I met at the X-ray machine was friendly – he was a TS guard named Ron Reid who’s formerly served as an Airman at Clark Field and recalled, with affection, the good old days in Angeles. Then the "searcher" took over. He went through my hand-carry, checked out my cellphone meticulously. That was fine. Then he went all over me with that beep-beep device, until finally, all pockets emptied, shoes off – then my belt – this journeyman journalist passed the test. He was courteous enough, but somehow you got the feeling you’re public enemy No. 1. However, I almost wished we could be this careful in screening passengers.

Those hardnosed Transportation Security Administration screeners and checkers, under special designation from the Homeland Security Department, man America’s 450 commercial airports – making security lines enroute to boarding gates longer and more tortuous. Guess that’s what American officials believe must be done in the "war against terrorism". But it ain’t fun for the commuter.

In sum, the USA is not the happiest of tourism destinations for the moment. But tourists still come by the millions – if they can get a visa.

Utah alone for example, gets 18 million tourists a year. That’s something for our Tourism Secretary Ace Durano to ponder.

As for our Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit, I hear he’s quit for reasons of health. Not his own. Anyway, I wish him luck in the World Health Organization.