Mayor Reid took his job as mayor seriously. Three nights a week he would ride along in the patrol car of a policeman friend, Earl Anderson, making his presence known on Middletown's streets.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of America's fastest growing religions. Rising from humble beginnings in the 1830s, the church now counts twelve million members worldwide.
Mormon settlers began a westward exodus, escaping persecution, in the 1830s. When they arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, outside the boundaries of the United States, in 1847, they finally found a home. Explore Utah's path to statehood.
Founder of a uniquely American religion, Joseph Smith was a poor farm boy who became a charismatic prophet, much criticized polygamist, town and temple builder, and finally a martyr for the faith he had established.
Fiery yet full of doubt, frequently ill yet strong when it mattered most, Brigham Young took charge of the Mormons in the wake of the prophet Joseph Smith's death and finally found them a lasting home.
From the first years of its existence, the Mormon Church sparked violent opposition from other Americans. This violence claimed many lives, including Mormon prophet Joseph Smith's, and eventually led to the Mormons seeking refuge outside the boundaries of the United States.
They were a people who felt called by God, chosen to create a New Jerusalem. It was fitting, then, that in order to realize the dream, the Mormons endured a 1,300-mile journey of Biblical proportions.
Until September 1857, the Mormons had been the victims of violence more than its purveyors. That all changed with the darkest incident of the Mormon War, the atrocity known as the Mountain Meadows massacre.
Gordon Hinckley was the 15th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He led the church from March 1995 until his death in January 2008. This is the edited transcript of an interview conducted in January 2007.
