A step-by-step guide for every first-time temple goer

“I have sat in Relief Society, looking around at the sisters, certain that none of them knew how I felt. I was sure that they had no clue what it was like to feel the deep sorrow and grief caused by infertility.”

A new survey focusing on Mormon women and depression found that women who are very active within the LDS Church experience depression less than those who are not very active, a finding which may complicate the stereotypical belief that Mormon women are more depressed than American women.

As a child, I counted down the days until I would turn 12 and graduate from Primary. The worst part of Primary for me was the singing. I hated to sing. The only exception to this rule was when we sang: “I Hope They Call Me on a Mission.” I always knew I would be a missionary—only a few simple things stood in my way. I never imagined one of those barriers would be my parents.

Mental illness, in its various causes, forms, and manifestations, ranks high on any list of the ailments that try and torment mankind. In its publication The Global Burden of Disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated, for example, that one form of mental illness, depression, was the fourth most important reported health problem in the developing world in 1990. The WHO predicts that by 2020, depression may rank as the number one health problem in that portion of the globe.

At one point in his life, Garett Bolles was living on the street; his only possessions were those wrapped in a plastic garbage bag. But on Thursday night, Bolles became a multimillionaire when he was picked number 20 overall during the first round of the NFL draft by the Denver Broncos.

Talents. Family. Faith. All of these require work and hours of devotion if we ever want to develop any kind of skill. But when it comes to faith and matters of the Spirit, we can often become frustrated. We expect God to give us immediate results when we start putting forth just a little effort of our own. But, as Elder Quentin L. Cook showed in a recent Facebook post, that's simply not how faith and spiritual strength work:

Many miracles go into the creation and maintaining of temples around the world. From military coups to unexpected storms, read a little more about just a few incredible temple miracles.

I was still in the middle of the street, heart spasming a little from the fact that a car had nearly run me over—literally. Not in a ha-ha-did-you-see-that kind of way. I had been in the middle of a crosswalk when a teenage driver turning left gunned it to race through the intersection before an oncoming car, not realizing I was also in the intersection. The worst part was, when I jumped out of the way to avoid becoming road kill, he happened to swerve in the same direction, coming even closer to maiming if not killing me.

Recently, the Deseret News cited a 2011 Pew Research study that focused on how Mormons upset the stereotypical way of thinking when it comes to religiosity and more college education. Most of the world perpetuates the idea that a college education often leads to a distancing from faith, but that's not the case with Mormons.