Some Utah Stakes now mandating wearing masks again at Church.

 Some Utah Stakes now mandating wearing masks again at Church. 

Video Announcement from a Stake President in Sandy, UT sent to members of his Stake sharing his frustration and disappointment towards who have not been vaccinated and blame them for the Delta variant surge. LINK HERE

“It is best for all of us to wear masks again while attending our Sunday worship services. We understand that returning to this mask requirement will frustrate many of you, especially those who have followed President Nelson’s council to get vaccinated and recognized this vaccination as an answer to our prayers."

"While we seriously considered requiring only unvaccinated adults to wear masks, we think unity in our stake and wards remains a critical ideal to seek and even though the data makes clear that this is now a pandemic of the unvaccinated, indeed more than 97 percent of the positive cases and hospitalizations are those of unvaccinated people in our communities."

"In all honesty, we are frustrated and disappointed as it seems the sure was completely preventable especially when our prayers of last year were answered with the vaccine rollout earlier this year. Nevertheless, we must join together and unite as brothers and sisters to do our part to end this pandemic and protect others during this surge including those who have chosen not to be vaccinated."

The First Presidency just released an email with a similar message:

Photoshopped Media Photos of LDS Church Leaders?

Social media pressures us to look our best when we post photos. Photoshopping pictures before posting them on a social media has become a common thing among teenagers and even celebrities. Phone apps have been created to easily make you look better than you really are. While this innocent action might seem like a simple wish to enhance a look and appear our very best....let's just call it what it is.. VANITY.

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VANITY

Excessive attention in or admiration of one's own appearance or attractiveness to others

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Some of the enhancements that people do to their appearance is to give themselves:

• Flawless and smooth skin
• Whiten teeth
• No more wrinkles or blemishes
• Removed age spots
• Contoured/adjusted facial features
• Enhanced eye color

While we might think this is just a fad with the self absorbed generation with cellphones, it might surprise you who else used photoshop techniques to improve their photograph portraits.

Bishop Gérald Caussé, presiding bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. announced last week that our three-term Utah governor, Mike Leavitt will become the next president of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square starting one Aug. 26. For the media announcement, the Church posted a newly taken 2021 photograph of Leavitt with photo copyright to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was surprised at how much the promotional photographed had been photoshopped. No wrinkles, no sagging under the chin, no age spots. Here is the link to news story where the photo was published.  LINK HERE

If there is any doubt that the photo has been altered by the Church, here is side by side comparison with a photo that was taken of Mike Leavitt many years ago. LINK HERE. The photo on the right was taken no sooner than in 2017. The photo on the left was just recently taken for the Church with obvious techniques to make him look younger and better. (or at the very least, heavy amounts of makeup) Some might even say that it almost doesn't even look like the same man. 

 Last year I was surprised to see Church released photos of President Nelson where he too looked like he has some photoshop love with enhancing the color of his eyes to be more blue to maybe match his suit a little more. See below. 

Here are some video still images of President Nelson's eyes before he became the President of the Church with the new and improved blue eye color that we see. It might be that he now just has new colored contacts. 

I realize that this might be just a small thing, but I think this something interesting to point out and wonder why we feel we need to enhance reality and/or remove our blemishes and flaws.