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

For those who regularly read the Pickles comic strip, you might have noticed the tell-tale signs that its creator, Brian Crane, is a Mormon.

This ill-fated adventure would be a singular event in Mormon history because it would be the only known shipwreck that claimed the lives of multiple Mormon pioneers on their way to Zion.

A spectrum of emotions is experienced while on an LDS trek. Here are a few of our favorites. Please share your favorite trek experiences in the comments below.

This month's edition of weekly FHE lessons is based on the new family movie Trek, which follows a young Mormon teenager named Tom and his friends on their handcart journey. Each lesson includes a scene from movie to watch and discuss. Your whole family will laugh along and be inspired by Trek: The Movie, available at Deseret Book stores and deseretbook.com.

One of my friends recently asked me in bewilderment, “Where did my visiting teachers go?” From the time her husband passed away, they had been so caring and attentive, but since the announcement of the new ministering program at the general conference in April 2018, she hasn’t seen hide nor hair of them.

Sporting a white shirt, tie, and name tag, Orin Vooheis sat in his electronic wheelchair smiling at people as they entered the American Fork Deseret Industries on July 11. As always, his wife Chartina was by his side.

Agostino and Pierina Vardeu were baptized members of the Church in June 1978. Married since 1961, they are among the most influential longtime members in Italy, and they’ve passed their love of the gospel down to four generations so far.

My parents divorced before I was born, setting the tone for an inconsistent religious upbringing. Although my mom grew up in a Mormon family, she was no longer religious. My dad and stepmom were members of the Mormon church but weren’t very active. As a result, I scarcely went to church growing up. I was baptized at 8 years old, but I didn’t understand what it meant.

Eternal life is the promise that death is not the end, that there is life after death. It’s the promise that both my body and this world can continue after death in the presence of God. And this promise matters. As Paul says, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:19). But the reverse is also true. If for the next life only I have hope in Christ, I am also lost. By itself, even the glory of an eternal life is not enough.