‘Just come and see’: The remarkable dream that led a Ghanaian chief to join the Church

Even though we might miss family members who have died, Latter-day Saints understand that we can see our loved ones again, and taking time to remember them doesn’t need to be a sad or mournful experience.

Latter-day Saints stand out in how they view and connect with their communities, according to a new report.

In October 1971, Elders Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson, and Boyd K. Packer, under the direction of the First Presidency, established an official congregation of Latter-day Saints unlike any other the Church had ever seen or has seen since.

The Bednars may have been in a new place with a new culture, but their testimonies of finding hope through Jesus Christ serve as an important and powerful message for every country on earth.

Israel is a small country with a land area about the size of the US state of Massachusetts, containing a population of about nine million people who are mostly Jewish. The geographic features of Israel have been known since biblical times, including the 9000-foot highest elevation at Mt. Hermon to the lowest point on earth at the Dead Sea some 1400 feet below sea level. But people don’t just travel to Israel to see its land features. Many go because Israel is a sacred country to the more than three billion people on earth who consider themselves to be monotheists. People travel to Israel to experience the Holy Land; the place of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, King David, Elijah, Isaiah, and, most importantly, Jesus of Nazareth.

Before sunrise on Sunday, Oct. 24, 1841, Elder Orson Hyde of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles exited the city walls of Jerusalem, crossed the brook Cedron and climbed the Mount of Olives.

Michelle Amos didn’t aspire to a career at NASA. It wasn’t that she didn’t have big dreams; it’s just that her big dream was to work for IBM. But once she arrived on the campus of the Kennedy Space Center, she fell in love with its mission and never left—until she was called on a different kind of mission.

The Provo Missionary Training Center (MTC) presidents told me two things: 1. Our son was being sent home from the MTC. 2. We needed to get on a plane as soon as possible to come get him. My heart was flooded with simultaneous emotions of bewilderment, anxiety, and sadness.

With the Mesa Arizona Temple open house underway, Church leaders are encouraging people of all faiths and backgrounds to visit the newly renovated building. In an opinion piece for The Arizona Republic, President Dallin H. Oaks explained that the temple “creates a connection among members of the greater Mesa community.”