PROVO — In LDS pop culture, two topics have always been fair game for a good, clean joke — church basketball and replenishing the Earth.

And a week after the debut of a feature film glorifying the first subject, an even fiercer competition is brewing about the second.

The March 20 edition of the Deseret Morning News carried the story of an Orem LDS congregation, or "ward," dubbed the new holder of the Mormon World Record for "Most Twins in One Ward." The Canyon View 10th Ward earned the title with nine sets of twins between the ages of 2 and 17. Within hours of the story's publication, people representing several other wards began contacting the newspaper, all saying essentially the same thing:

"Oh yeah?"

From a ward with 10 sets of twins to wards with 12 or 13 sets and some triplets to boot, six different people sent word that the record should, in fact, belong to the proud and overworked parents of their wards.

Paul Skousen, who tracks the records and publishes them in The Skousen Book of Mormon World Records, has heard from at least a dozen people and said the new record appears to belong to the Overlake 1st Ward in Tooele, which has 13 sets of twins, all 18 or younger.

"I think it's so much fun," Skousen said. "With all the dreary headlines going on, here's something focusing on family, and what's more important than family?"

Skousen's project began in the late 1980s, when he worked at a publication called the Latter Day Sentinel. In that role, he frequently received news suggestions regarding amazing feats by church members but was unable to do stories on every tip he received, and he began filing them away for something bigger.

After formulating the idea for a record book, Skousen spent 16 years researching records and trying to track down record holders to see if they were LDS and willing to be in his book.

"It was worse than tracting door to door sometimes," Skousen joked.

His final project debuted in 2004. Skousen said his intention was never to create a source of fierce competition but rather to create a positive, uplifting book that would encourage people to develop their talents by showing them what others like them had accomplished by doing so.

The flood of response to the twin record has been surprising, he said, but a welcome validation of his purpose in compiling the book.

"There's a lot of enthusiasm," he said. "People enjoy associating with others of like mind, and they like to hear the success stories of other members of the church. It's not just about being pious and reverent on Sunday; people really do lead rich, full and interesting lives."

Skousen said he put many old records in the book as "trip wires" to get people to come out of the woodwork with their achievements. The record for most twins in one ward listed in the first edition of his book was about 50 years old.