Get the full lesson, "Proclaiming the Gospel to the World" from The Teachings of Joseph Fielding Smith at LDS.org.

Manual 3; Supplement from "Celestial Marriage," by Elder Russell M. Nelson

Have you ever met someone with a spirit, smile and faith so infectious you want to immediately introduce them to everyone you know? They are those special souls who radiate optimism and good news.

I was fuming.

Is Washington a holy city? It might seem that way, with all the talk about religion and morality in the 2012 election. But all that God talk may be rubbing voters the wrong way.

For many years, as Christmas approached, when I taught my classes, I would put a list of twenty five things on the board which were part of our Christmas festivities. These included everything from nuts and cookies to unwrapping presents, from parties to brightly lit trees, from Christmas movies to stockings filled by Santa. I would then ask them to narrow down the list to the top fifteen. What could they give up if the need demanded it? We would vote as a class and reduce the elements of Christmas one by one. “Take five more things off the list,” I would ask. Once again, more painfully now, the list was pared to the ten most important necessities. From ten we cut to five and finally to just three. Year after year, it never failed; I would always get the same three critical aspects of our Christmas celebration. What were they? Being with family and friends! The reading of the Christmas story in Luke Two! And singing Christmas carols heralding the birth of Mary’s child in Bethlehem!

After recently being selected as TIME's Person of the Year for 2016, President-elect Trump shared that he will "probably" announce his choice for secretary of state next week.

I was at the barber one day in Utah when it came up that I had lived in New York City.

The following is an article written by Tim Kaine for the Deseret News. Here are just a few highlights:

Some black clergy see no good presidential choice between a Mormon candidate and one who supports gay marriage, so they are telling their flocks to stay home on Election Day. That's a worrisome message for the nation's first African-American president, who can't afford to lose any voters from his base in a tight race. The pastors say their congregants are asking how a true Christian could back same-sex marriage, as President Barack Obama did in May. As for Republican Mitt Romney, the first Mormon nominee from a major party, congregants are questioning the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its former ban on men of African descent in the priesthood.