Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Mormon Channel Kids App and....Leo Tolstoy on "Mormons"

Here's the link for the Mormon Channel Kids' app; filled with wholesome, uplifting and educational content.

Also, included is a sweet story about Leo Tolstoy and the Mormon Church.


The account in the video above is an adaptation from a short story written by Leo Tolstoy in 1885.

Tolstoy was a famous Russian author who wrote several notable novels, including Anna Karenina, which is is regarded by some as one of the greatest novels ever written.


Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be interested to know that Tolstoy was aware of the Church and its teachings. In 1980 Elder David B. Haight of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shared the following story during the April 1980 general conference:

Count Leo Tolstoy, Russian author and statesman, in conversation with Andrew D. White, United States foreign minister to Russia, in 1892 said, “I wish you would tell me about your American religion.”

“We have no state church in America,” replied Dr. White.

“I know that, but what about your American religion?”

Dr. White explained to Tolstoy that in America each person is free to belong to the particular church in which he is interested.

Tolstoy impatiently replied: “I know all of this, but I want to know about the American religion. …

The church to which I refer originated in America and is commonly known as the Mormon Church.

What can you tell me of the teachings of the Mormons?”

Dr. White said, “I know very little concerning them.”

Then Count Leo Tolstoy rebuked the ambassador. “Dr. White, I am greatly surprised and disappointed that a man of your great learning and position should be so ignorant on this important subject. Their principles teach the people not only of heaven and its attendant glories, but how to live so that their social and economic relations with each other are placed on a sound basis. If the people follow the teachings of this church, nothing can stop their progress—it will be limitless.”

Tolstoy continued, “There have been great movements started in the past but they have died or been modified before they reached maturity. If Mormonism is able to endure, unmodified, until it reaches the third and fourth generation, it is destined to become the greatest power the world has ever known.”

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