FROM THE ARCHIVES: Man tries to pay tithing on money made from scalping Archuleta/MoTab tickets, is rebuffed

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December 2, 2010. 
SALT LAKE CITY - A LaDaSa man has been rebuked for his attempt to pay tithing on the money he made from scalping tickets to the David Archuleta/Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. Each year the Mormon Tabernacle Choir puts on a Christmas concert for the community and each year a national luminary is invited to perform with the choir. Past participants include Angela Lansbury, Roma Downey and Gladys Knight. The Church always receives more requests for tickets than they can accommodate so a lottery system is set up. Those lucky enough to have their names picked receive their tickets in the mail.

Buy here: http://bit.ly/10XguIh

This year, middle-age-married-woman heartthrob David Archuleta is slated to perform. This has caused an unusually high demand for tickets, enticing those who win the lottery to consider selling the tickets. One of those people is Walter Peck, a resident of Taylorsville, UT.

Walter Peck

We caught up with Walter at the local role playing card store to ask him about his experience selling the Archuleta/MoTab tickets online.

"I originally put my name in for the lottery for my wife. When I saw how nuts all those crazy old broads was going for the tickets I figured I had done won the sissy lottery so why not make a few greenbacks? I'm straight up so I knowed I had to pay my 10% on the money I made."

Stake adds 13th high councilman to address nursery obesity

SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (or LaDaSa church) has taken the unprecedented step of adding a 13th high councilman to combat the growing epidemic of nursery obesity. LaDaSa stakes, equivalent to a Catholic diocese, normally have 12 high councilmen. Their job is to assist the stake president (similar to a Catholic bishop) in administering the needs of the several congregations in the stake. Each high councilman is given an area of assignment within the stake, to act as a sort of resource to the congregations in that area. For example, one high councilman would be over the Boy Scouts, another over Primary, etc.

San Francisco stake president Max Yasgur spoke with us about this controversial change. "I've heard it said that children are our future and if that is true then we need to ensure they are healthy so they can make it to the future. I was touring the nurseries one month and I noticed a troubling fact: almost every child in nursery is obese. Some of these kids have fat folds ON TOP of their knees. That's not acceptable for adults so why should it be acceptable for kids?"

Ward clerk asked to over-count attendance each week so bishop can get ward split

REXBURG- A bishop of the Rexburg 63rd ward has been caught in a bit of an embarrassing situation. It turns out he had asked his ward clerk to inflate sacrament meeting attendance numbers in order to get his congregation split. Apparently there were a few families that the bishop just didn't want to deal with anymore.

We were able to speak with Jeff Wigand, the former clerk of the 63rd ward and whistle blower on Bishop Tom Sandefur. According to Bro. Wigand he felt like he had no choice but to speak out:

"This is important to me. The LaDaSa church is the only church in the world that still organizes geographically. What that means is you don't live in one part of town but go to church in another part of town. The gospel net is cast wide on purpose. You are meant to go to church with all the 'fishes'".