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Early-morning seminary students are modern-day heroes

Deseret News - It's that time of the year again when families are getting back to the routine of life. After a fun-filled and carefree summer, it's time to regroup and reprioritize our lives. There are school supplies that need to be purchased, new teachers to meet, and friends to reconnect with. In our family, with our oldest entering high school, there comes a new adjustment: seminary. Given that both my wife and I are adult converts to the church, seminary has always been a mystery to us. For those not as familiar, seminary is a time when kids from 14 to 18 years...

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Sticking it out with your spouse

Deseret News - Do me a favor. Before you read this column, go read this recent piece in The New York Times. I'll wait. (Long pause.) Okay, done? Good, now we can discuss. I've been thinking a lot about marriage lately. The news is rife with stories of prominent people committing infidelity in their marriage. Closer to home, I have many friends/relatives getting married and, disconcertingly, many getting divorced. Too many. One is too many, but this is bunches and bunches. These are young couples, with just a few years under their belts. ...

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The Fascinating Girl

Segullah - Take with me, if you will, a little trip down memory lane. It’s 1975 and I’m lying on my lavender ruffled bedspread in my lavender bedroom, hair tucked behind my ears, reading my favorite book and marking my favorite passages. At fifteen, I study this book daily, copy sections of it in my diary, memorize whole paragraphs, return to certain chapters again and again, and religiously follow the book’s teachings. Is it the Book of Mormon? No. The Bible? No. It’s not even Paul H. Dunn’s The Osmonds. It is, my friends, The Fascinating Girl by Helen Andelin, a seminal work...

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Sister Beck visits Mormons in India

Mormon World - Sister Julie B. Beck, general president of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also know as the Mormon Church) visited Mormons in Hyderabad, India on June 13 2008. Before visiting Hyderabad she visited Bangalore, in the South of India. She visited India for a Leadership Training Meeting. She came with her husband and President Melvin R. Nichols (Mission President of the India Bangalore Mission). The district presidency was also present for the meeting. She came to the Mormon church building of the Hyderabad II Branch. She also visited other places such as Sri Lanka and...

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Making a Difference: Hope in a Bag

Lacey Kupfer Wulf - Child Protective Services (CPS) doesn't remove children from their homes unless they feel that the children have been neglected or abused. Michelle Chesher, the assistant program manager at the CPS location in Mesa, Arizona, explains, "Child abuse ranges from physical to sexual to emotional. Sometimes the parents can't provide a suitable home for their children. About ninety percent of these children have had drugs in their homes." When CPS comes to remove a child from these situations, the worker gives each child a plastic garbage bag or a pillow case to pack his or her clothes, toys, and other belongings in...

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Short Sale behind the Scenes

Dave Ramsey - Dear Dave, What goes on behind the scenes with a short sale? We're trying to buy a house that way, but it seems like it's taking forever. Jennifer Dear Jennifer, A short sale, of course, is when a mortgage lien holder sells a house short of what it takes to pay off the mortgage, but gives a full release and delivers a clear title to the purchaser anyway. Let's say you want to buy a house with a $250,000 mortgage for $200,000. In that scenario the lien holder will be taking a $50,000 hit, so the holder has to be convinced...

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Young Men Lesson 35: The Sacrament

L. Tom Perry - I had the opportunity a year or two ago of visiting the Logan Utah Institute of Religion. The building where the institute meets was recently remodeled. I was told that as the workers removed the old pulpit from the chapel, they discovered some shelves that had been sealed off for some time. In removing the cover, they found a sacrament tray. It apparently dates back many years because the sacrament cups were made of glass. One of those glass cups, as you see here, was mounted and presented to me - probably because I was the only one old enough to...

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D&C Lesson 35: A Mission of Saving

Ted L. Gibbons - Introduction Cain's query of the Lord has echoed down the corridors of time: "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Moses 5:34) And the answer has followed close at hand. Religious history is filled with tales of sacrifice made by men and women in behalf of their brothers and sisters. We have always considered that the greatest among us have been those willing to enter harm's way in behalf of others, whether friends or strangers. It is a question answered conclusively by the firefighters and policemen who rushed into the towers of the World Trade Center while everyone else was rushing out. Brigham...

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Curious about Credit Report

Dave Ramsey - Dear Dave, I noticed recently that there have been several instances of companies asking for copies of my credit report. I've not done any business with these companies, and was under the impression they could only do things like this if you were trying to open an account with them. Lynn Dear Lynn, According to the guidelines of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, anyone with a valid business reason can check your report with or without your permission. It's not unusual today for employment applications to state that the company you're interviewing with can even pull a copy of your...

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Young Women Lesson 35: Living Righteously amid Pressures

Thomas S. Monson - My dear brothers and sisters, both within my view and assembled throughout the world, I seek an interest in your faith and prayers as I respond to the assignment and privilege to address you. In 1959, not long after I began my service as president of the Canadian Mission, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, I met N. Eldon Tanner, a prominent Canadian who just months later would be called as an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, then to the Quorum of the Twelve, and then as a counselor to four Presidents of the Church. At the time I...