Pres. Porter shares one of her darkest moments—and how she found light

What a profound insight: "A simple yet powerful commandment [Jesus Christ] told His disciples, one that He repeated three times over, 'Love one another; as I have loved you' (John 13:34-35). I am so glad this commandment didn’t include disclaimers. Can you imagine, 'Love one another, except when someone does not believe or act as you do, then please disregard this commandment'? It sounds absurd when it’s in this context, but when life gets real and loved ones disagree on personal matters, this simple but powerful statement can get lost in translation."

In my psychology practice, there are times I’m able to work with members of the Church. They come with the same types of problems that non-LDS clients do: anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, parenting issues, etc. However, because of our shared faith I am often able to use a different approach with the Latter-day Saints than with other clients. I remember one particular client I met with years ago. He was having daily panic attacks and had come in to seek help. Among other things, I inquired regarding his personal spiritual practices, including prayer and scripture study. He said he prayed most days but rarely read from the scriptures. We talked about many other things that day, but I left him with the assignment to study the scriptures daily, focusing on those passages that promised peace.

This is a treasure to us in part because of nearly 150 years of meaning and memory and sacrifice,” said Elder Holland, who offered Saturday’s dedicatory prayer of the St. George Tabernacle.

Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints responded to a former LDS bishop who launched a hunger strike over the weekend. Sam Young began the hunger strike Friday night to protest Church policies regarding interviews with children and youth.

Just as the sun was coming up on a brisk, spring morning in 1963, I headed to the stake center to meet my priests' quorum adviser. It was Saturday and, oh, how I longed to be almost anywhere but digging weeds at the church. I was pretty much a normal 16-year-old kid, totally into myself and involved with countless activities.

You are my three little girls, but I know you won’t stay that way for long. I don’t fully realize it yet but somehow I know these are the days I'm going to miss the most.

We all have times when answers come easily. We have times when answers come clearly and distinctly. And we all have times when we really pray about something and seemingly receive no answer. On some such occasions, we may feel that we've conscientiously followed the instructions in Doctrine and Covenants 9:7-9. We have studied the issue out in our minds, prayed about it (perhaps we even fasted), and asked the Lord if our decision or understanding is right. But after all that, we still do not feel we have received a burning in the bosom—or a stupor of thought—and thus it appears we are left to our own resources to try to solve the problem. Or we may be certain we have received an answer—but then things don't work out the way we thought they would.

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.

It’s amazing to me that I’m already talking with my youngest child about post-high school plans. I can easily remember when our biggest concern was whether he’d be a pirate or football player for Halloween!