The Acts of James E. Talmage | An Interview with Bryan Summers

Bryan Summers was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. He served a mission in Carlsbad, California, and earned a Master’s Degree in Library Science at the University of Wales-Aberystwyth. He was a county librarian in Yuma, Arizona for 12 years, and is now a mortgage broker in Saint George, Utah.

Bryan has served in the Church as a nursery leader, ward mission leader, elders quorum president, and bishop. He is currently a teachers quorum assistant. He and his wife have been married 24 years and are the parents of three boys and three girls. Bryan enjoys backpacking—especially the Timberline Trail on Mount Hood—and once spent three weeks wandering around the Kurdish areas of Northern Iraq and Eastern Turkey.

Links

Acts of the Apostles: @actsofapostles_
The Talmage Story
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Highlights

1:45 Introduction to Bryan Summers

3:00 Things that Bryan learned from being a bishop. The importance of feeling the Spirit.

4:40 Bryan has started a project, Modern-day Acts of the Apostles. He researches apostles and shares his favorite stories on his page.

13:00 Leaders should take a little time to read the apostles’ biographies. It can be comforting to read about the apostles’ experiences.

15:20 Stories on James E. Talmage. Be careful of the stories you hear.

16:30 Albert Einstein was friends with Henry B. Eyring’s dad. The Mormon Scientist is a great book to learn more about it.

17:20 James E. Talmage’s biography was written by his son.

18:00 Most well known for his book, Jesus the Christ. He wrote the book in just 7 months.

19:20 When James Talmage was an apostle, they would have him speak when there was a hostile crowd. By the end of his talk people were in tears.

20:00 He was brave first and also had a lot of compassion. Early stories on James’ childhood and upbringing in Britain.

24:20 The story of James’ schoolmaster who hated the Church. He got beat a lot for challenging his schoolmaster and stood up for his convictions. Yet he remained friends with the schoolmaster as an adult.

26:00 The story of James’ college friend who constantly teased him for being a prude.

28:40 He was a scientific lecturer from an early age.

31:00 A story from when James was the president of the University of Utah. He would do things over and over again till he resolved something. He was very resilient.

32:50 James was almost like an Indiana Jones of the western territory and went on expeditions to unknown places in the Utah desert. He became a celebrity of the scientific world.

35:50 He was a part of many scientific societies, which was a very big deal back then.

37:00 One of the most popular stories of James E. Talmage. Compassion mixed with bravery.

41:00 The Lord calls you to be you. He was called to be mission president in Great Britain in the height of the anti-Mormon sentiment. He went newspaper to newspaper and became friends with editors from all the different hostile newspapers that were printing anti-Mormon articles. The stories began to stop thanks to him.

45:40 The story of when President Grant tried to teach James to play golf. He was convinced that he needed to take up more recreational activities.

48:40 When writing Jesus the Christ, James was in the temple 24/7. He wrote it in just 7 months and 5 days.

49:00 The death of James E. Talmage at age 70. He passed away from complications of strep throat. This was 10 years before penicillin and was deadly if not treated right away.

52:30 Stories on John W. Taylor, one the apostles excommunicated for polygamy.

55:20 “Being a leader showed me how dependent I was on the Savior.”

The Leading Saints Podcast is one of the top independent Latter-day Saints podcasts as part of nonprofit Leading Saints’ mission to help Latter-day Saints be better prepared to lead. Learn more and listen to any of the past episodes for free at LeadingSaints.org.

Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Reyna and Elena Aburto, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey, Julie Beck, Brad Wilcox, Jody Moore, Tony Overbay, John H. Groberg, Elaine Dalton, Tad R. Callister, Lynn G. Robbins, J. Devn Cornish, Bonnie Oscarson, Dennis B. Neuenschwander, Anthony Sweat, John Hilton III, Barbara Morgan Gardner, Blair Hodges, Whitney Johnson, Ryan Gottfredson, Greg McKeown, Ganel-Lyn Condie, Michael Goodman, Wendy Ulrich, Richard Ostler, and many more in over 700 episodes.

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