Why I’m so grateful someone pushed through awkwardness to serve

Over the years, I’ve had sisters share a number of questions and concerns with me about Relief Society, with additional ones being shared with the ministering changes. Some are logistical questions. Others are deep-seated concerns. Below I address a few of these, in no particular order.

The groundbreaking movie Jane and Emma will be released in select theaters tomorrow, October 12, 2018. The film tells the incredible story of Jane Manning James and her conversion to the Church as one of the first black members. The story highlights her relationship with Joseph and Emma Smith while addressing controversial issues such as polygamy and racism.

The Church released a statement Wednesday regarding missionaries.

In our last essay we wrote about the definition of families in the world where Jesus ministered in order to better understand what He taught about His Father’s family, what He called the Kingdom of God. In Jesus’s day families—both wealthy and those with fairly meager means—would be more accurately described as households. They were comprised of not only what we call the nuclear family—consisting of father, mother and children—but also aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings, and their families. The patriarch controlled those kinship-bound members of the household as well as his slaves, bondsmen, servants, laborers, and a whole host of other “retainers” whose numbers depended on the household’s economic status.

Shuffling through dirt and mud, stumbling over cold stones that rubbed their skin raw, Jane Elizabeth Manning James and her family inched toward Nauvoo, Illinois, barefoot. It was 1843; James was one of the first black converts to the Church and lived in a time where some people saw her as property first and a human being second.

The Piano Guys have done it again, meshing music from difference centuries that is elegant and striking. Check out this gorgeous mashup of the classic music from "Swan Lake" and Shawn Mendes's popular "In My Blood."

The following is an excerpt from theChurch's new groundbreaking history, Saints: The Standard of Truth. Read it for free through the Gospel Library app and at saints.lds.org or buy a hard copy to own at Deseret Book. Get more insights into Church history with theSaints podcast.

This general conference was incredible. We heard so many inspired messages and each talk was a reminder that Jesus Christ lives and this is His church. I was especially touched by the testimonies of the apostles and members of the First Presidency.

Not long after my call to serve as one of the Twelve Apostles, I was summoned to the office of the President of our Quorum, President Ezra Taft Benson. He expressed deep concern that members of the Church did not fully appreciate the value of the Book of Mormon. With emotion in his voice, he read to me from the eighty-fourth section of the Doctrine and Covenants: