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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah has a rich pioneer heritage, but a new lecture series by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will focus on modern day pioneers outside the United States.
The lecture series, “Pioneers in Every Land,” will highlight Latter-day Saints’ efforts to share the gospel in different areas of the world, according to the LDS Church History Library.
The series starts Feb. 12 and occurs the second Thursday of every month through November. Each lecture will be at 7 p.m. in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.
Elder James J. Hamula, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy who recently served in the South Pacific, will give the first lecture. Elder Hamula will speak about the challenges, successes and faith-promoting stories of Latter-day Saints in the South Pacific, said Debra Xavier, the marketing and communication specialist with the Church History Department.
“It’s mostly just to educate, inspire, just give information, things the general public wouldn’t know,” Xavier said. “We’ve been concentrating on 19th century pioneers, and there are pioneers everywhere. We need to tell their stories.”
Each lecture will highlight a different area of the world, including India, Italy, Iceland, Africa, China and Japan.
“People need to know that they’re out there and doing great things,” Xavier said. “So that’s why we decided that we’re not just going to talk about history, as in everybody has a pioneer in their family, but actually getting the stories of people that we don’t know and were not familiar with.”
“Pioneers in Every Land” is free and open to anyone. The lectures will later be available on the Church History Library website.
