During the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, numerous international, national and local print and broadcast journalists have written articles about the area, the Church and its members, and the things that make them unique.

Syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer wrote about her effort to understand Utah and its people.

"Before the Winter Olympic Games began in Salt Lake City last weekend, the national media were having a field day," she wrote in a column distributed by Universal Press Syndicate. "How on Earth could a largely Mormon state do something so daring as hosting an international celebrity meeting? Would the world come gladly to a state whose dominant religion asks members to abstain from alcohol, tobacco and even caffeine, three staples of international conferences?"

Then, she wrote, came the Olympics and its "extraordinary Opening Ceremony," complete with a gorgeous Native American pow-wow, stirring ice dances, and exquisite music. After, she wrote, people asked, "This could happen — in Utah?"

"Where had this different spirit of the Opening Ceremony come from? What had melted away the tones of commercialism and crassness that have too often tarnished even the best of the recent Olympics?"

To find an answer, Ms. Geyer called the artistic director of the Olympic Arts Festival, New York native Raymond T. Grant, in Salt Lake City.

Together they speculated on the inner story of Utah.

"You know, 98 percent of the entire cast were volunteers," Mr. Grant told the columnist, " 'and that's huge. In fact, most were not paid at all. This is an extraordinary story, and I'd link it directly to Mormon culture. As a Catholic boy from New York, I found it interesting that Brigham Young, the founder of the Utah settlement of the Mormons, built a theater before anything else.'

"He went on to tally up: The state has six dance companies; more pianos and harps are sold in Utah than anywhere in the United States; the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has 350 members; and the oldest Steinway dealership in Utah, Daynes Music Co., was started as early as 1862. In Utah, their per capita spending on students is one of the lowest — yet they boast high test scores."

In her article, Ms. Geyer also quoted painter Arnold Friberg and Peggy Stock, president of Salt Lake's Westminster College.

After writing about Salt Lake's high-tech and bio-medical research, classy hotels, and economic prosperity, Ms. Geyer concluded: "But I suspect strongly that the clean little secret of Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Olympics is that the artistic triumph of the opening night, the mostly smooth operations of the days thereafter, and the economic prosperity are all because of the same thing. What one sees there is not anything that should seem extraordinary: It is simply the mix of a serious and upright religion, of families who foster and insist upon providing the highest levels of culture right along with the highest modern technology, and of generally sensible organizing and governing. In short, it is a modern mix of the old America.

"And perhaps that makes it extraordinary today, as well."

Following is a notebook sketch, listing excerpts from additional articles written in past weeks about Salt Lake City and the Church:

• "The missionary program is one of the most visible signs of a religion often regarded as mysterious and clannish. Through this outreach, outsiders get a personal introduction to the church. The volunteers will never ask for money; what they want is time to share their message."

  — Michelle Bearden, The Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Fla.

• "How many ways are there to say, "I love you"? Te amo. Ich liebe dich. Je t'aime . . . Salt Lake City.

  "Which is something I never, ever in a million years expected to say. In the summer of 1996 it was a city I couldn't wait to leave, the embodiment of everything I don't like about Utah. Monochromatic, I huffed. Small-minded. Provincial. Phony. Boring. (It never occurred to me then that the quality of a place depends more on me than on it.)

  "Salt Lake City, to me, was the urban equivalent of an annoying, know-it-all cousin who tattles and gets everyone else in trouble. So it was surprising last weekend when I stood on a downtown corner and got misty-eyed with love and admiration for Salt Lake City. The Olympics have done something to it. The city feels incredibly vibrant and colorful, with a visible pulse tapped into the beating heart of humanity."

  — Rachel Sauer, Cox News Service, Grand Junction, Colo.

• "Forget the NBA's 24-second clock or college basketball's 35 seconds to shoot. In Salt Lake City, you have to try to cross the street as the final seconds of your life possibly tick off.

  "Walking around downtown is almost like an Olympic event. As the light is about to change at an intersection, the final moments of safety for those on foot is displayed second by second. This way you know exactly when to start running as your final 20 seconds click down."

  — Guy Curtright, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

• "With the Olympic spotlight on Salt Lake City, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is choosing to stay largely in the background. Some assume that's nothing new for the women of the church, but members and experts say that assumption is just one of many myths about Mormons."

  — Lisa Bertagnoli, Chicago Tribune

• "If it maintains its current growth rate for another century, Mormons worldwide could be rivaled in numbers only by Roman Catholics. Now, with the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, international eyes are fixed on the church. Yet, it's been booming in Charleston much more quietly."

  — Jennifer Berry Hawes, The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.

• "When founder Joseph Smith was murdered, they fled west from their persecutors to a valley cradled by jagged peaks and a bitter-tasting lake. Surely they would be left alone here.

  "What a lovely, divine joke. The world has beat its own path to Salt Lake City. For an equally Olympic feat, consider how a ragged line of 19th century refugees blossomed today into 11 million members worldwide, 108,000 in Colorado, who form the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

  — Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colo.

• "After more than 150 years, Salt Lake City is completely different [from the inhospitable and desolate area found by the pioneers]. It is more than the pioneer legacy of which the residents remain obviously proud. A permanent temple stands as a serene heritage of the first Latter-day Saints who constructed a city through the strength of their faith."

  — Licinio Lima, Diario de Noticias, Portugal.