Fred E. Woods

Professor

Brigham Young University

Fred E. Woods completed a BS degree in psychology (1981) and a MS degree in international relations (1985) from Brigham Young University. In 1991, he earned a PhD in Middle East studies from the University of Utah with an emphasis in Hebrew Bible. He has been a professor of Religious Education at Brigham Young University since 1998 and feels blessed to teach the great students at BYU.

Feature Stories

Ping’s inspired dream: How an unlikely friend helped open the Philippines for missionary work

By Mason J. Cameron

May 18, 2023 07:00 AM MDT

The Church couldn’t get past all the government red tape—until a well-connected local woman had a remarkably specific dream.

9 Min Read

LVTemple1 courtesy of Martin Andersen 2020.png

Feature Stories

Bright lights in the desert: How Latter-day Saints have shaped Las Vegas culture, community, and politics

By Fred E. Woods

March 02, 2023 02:02 PM MST

“The Latter-day Saint community [in Las Vegas is] vibrant across every facet—politically, public service, charitable. … No other group of people [comes] close.”

8 Min Read

Feature Stories

After accidentally causing his friend’s death, this Swede found peace through the gospel in the US

By Fred E. Woods

August 10, 2022 03:39 PM MDT

A distraught teenager sought to leave his troubles behind and find relief in the US. He would not only find peace in the gospel but also help introduce it to South Dakota.

10 Min Read

Feature Stories

The pluck and luck of the Irish Saints: A brief history of the Church in Ireland

By Fred E. Woods

March 16, 2022 11:47 AM MDT

On an island divided by political and religious borders, about 8,000 plucky Irish Latter-day Saints have discovered a way to find unity through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

10 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

The ‘crowning jewel’: Lesser-known stories behind the building of the Las Vegas temple

By Fred E. Woods

November 11, 2020 11:55 AM MST

Editor's note: This article appears in the November/December 2020 issue of LDS Living magazine.

9 Min Read

Famous Latter-day Saints

Osmondmania: The Latter-day Saint family who took the UK by storm as ‘musical missionaries’

By Fred E. Woods

November 17, 2019 10:00 PM MST

In the 1970s, the Osmond family thrilled throngs of screaming fans with performances throughout the United Kingdom. Because of their shining example both on and off the stage, these musical missionaries would play a key role in sharing the gospel and growing the Church in that corner of the world.

10 Min Read

Fun

Cecil B. DeMille and David O. McKay: A Surprising Friendship

By Fred E. Woods

July 29, 2019 09:00 AM MDT

In some ways, the two men were polar opposites. DeMille was an icon in the 20th-century film industry who directed 70 motion pictures in a career that spanned four decades. Living in Los Angeles, he was referred to as “Mr. Hollywood.”1 President McKay, on the other hand, was dedicated to building Zion as prophet, seer, and revelator.

14 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

Uniting East and West: Latter-day Saints and the Transcontinental Railroad

By Fred E. Woods

May 10, 2019 08:41 AM MDT

When the coast-to-coast telegraph was completed in Salt Lake City in October 1861, Brigham Young sent a clear signal to President Abraham Lincoln: “Utah has not seceded but is firm for the Constitution and laws of our once happy country.” Less than eight years later, on May 10, 1869, hundreds gathered at Promontory, Utah, to witness another coast-to-coast completion. The driving of the last spike of the transcontinental railroad reverberated continuity to a once broken nation.1

12 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

The Faith of the Scottish Saints + How the View of the Church Is Changing in Scotland

By Fred E. Woods

February 15, 2019 10:03 PM MST

“I knew in whom I had trusted, and with the fire of Israel’s God burning in my bosom, I forsook my home.” So wrote Jane C. Robinson Hindley, who was one of about 90,000 European converts who gathered to an American Zion in the mid-19th century.

9 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

The unbelievable true story of Saints shipwrecked on their way to Zion

By Fred E. Woods

July 21, 2018 09:06 AM MDT

This ill-fated adventure would be a singular event in Mormon history because it would be the only known shipwreck that claimed the lives of multiple Mormon pioneers on their way to Zion.

8 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

Sacrament Over the Internet, Church in Sub-Zero Weather + Other Things You Didn't Know About Saints in Alaska

By Fred E. Woods

April 27, 2018 09:00 AM MDT

The story of how the Church came to be in the cold, northern climate of Alaska is truly the story of one man—one man and a series of remarkable firsts.

10 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

"They Called It Hell, and We Called It Heaven": The Story of Exiled Saints in Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement

By Fred E. Woods

February 27, 2017 10:00 PM MST

To most of us, leprosy is a disease that only existed in Biblical times and meant misery and exile. But to Latter-day Saints in a small Hawaiian leprosy settlement known as Kalaupapa, the disease meant a community of unity, coupled with a faith in God that neither they nor their neighbors would trade for anything.

11 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

The Church in Iceland

By Fred E. Woods

January 25, 2016 10:07 PM MST

Iceland: realm of the ancient Vikings, land of fire and ice, and home to an isolated but growing group of Latter-day Saints who can trace their country's gospel roots to just two Icelandic converts working in Denmark: Guðmundur Guðmundsson and Þórarinn Hafliðason.

9 Min Read