Search, Ponder, and Pray in Holy Places

While most church history sites provide guided tours or historical markers for visitors, some contain little to no information. Yet where might we turn for more insight on these locations? How can we engage with these living sites and gain a witness of the Restoration? Dr. Mary Jane Woodger and her colleagues answer such questions in the book series Search, Ponder, and Pray: A Guide for Travel and Studies. In this episode, Dr. Woodger discusses the power that comes from being in church history sites. She shares how to use mini devotionals to think, talk, and learn about these locations like a church historian, and she details how such works can complement the resources and activities provided at each of these holy places.

Publications: 

• “The London Missionary Society in the Cook Island: Restricting Religious Freedom” (in Religious Liberty and Latter-day Saints: Historical and Global Perspectives, Religious Studies Center, 2023)
• “Time and Intensity: Growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Greece” (Religious Educator, 23.2, 2022)
• “Praying a Mission into Existence: Frantiska ‘Mamousek’ Vesela Brodilova” (Religious Educator, 18.2, 2017)
• “Abraham Lincoln and the Mormons” (in Civil War Saints, Religious Studies Center, 2012)
• “Building the One Hundredth Temple: A Test Case of Religious Freedom in New England” (in Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History: The New England States, Religious Studies Center, 2004)
• Search, Ponder, and Pray: Missouri Church History Travel Guide (Cedar Fort, 2023)
• Search, Ponder, and Pray: New England Church History Travel Guide (Cedar Fort, 2023) 

Click here to learn more about Professor Mary Jane Woodger