With a new year, we often need new motivation. Maybe you're convinced this is the year you'll stop eating sugar altogether, or maybe you set a goal to continue doing daily acts of service. Many of us make goals, and all of us fall short at one point or another.

Members of the Church all over the world are invited to be active participants in their community by voting in elections and being civically engaged. The 12th article of faith says, "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." As we approach Election Day, here are 12 quotes from general authorities about voting.

After the burning of the beloved Provo Tabernacle, residents wondered what the future would hold for that plot of ground.

The First Presidency has called the following eight new temple presidents and matrons:

There's a reason why the Mormons fielded two top candidates in a single presidential election cycle and there's a reason why the comparatively small church is surging to prominence worldwide. Primarily, it's the fact that they inculcate within their teenagers the idea of mandatory service. From age nineteen to twenty-one, young Mormon men are encouraged to serve on a mission which they themselves largely subsidize by working in their teen years. Many Mormon women also do a mission beginning at 21 for about eighteen months. And what does a mission do? It teaches them altruism and selflessness, not to mention going beyond a natural shyness and learning to approach complete strangers about their beliefs. The approximately 52,000 Mormon missionaries are not allowed to call home other than Christmas and Mother's Day and communicate with loved ones with a single weekly email.

At the start of this year, I got tired of not being able to see the world. So, with careful financial planning, I began my efforts to hit my goal of visiting six continents in six months. I’m already up to three!

Don’t believe what the national media tells you, says Dr. Richard Land, a leader with the Southern Baptist Convention, Mitt Romney doesn’t need to worry about his Mormon faith being a problem for evangelical voters at the voting booth. “The fact that we don’t believe that Mormonism is a Christian faith doesn’t mean we would not vote for someone who is Mormon, if they are pro-life,” Land told TIME in an interview on Tuesday. “Romney’s biggest problem with evangelicals has been that he hasn’t been Mormon enough. If he had always held his positions on abortion on marriage that his faith holds, there would be far fewer doubts about him.”

Be the Best You camp for teenage girls is a program with a dedicated mission to help each young woman increase her self-esteem, know she is a daughter of God, and strengthen hertestimony of Jesus Christ.

After exercising, scripture study, tracting, teaching, helping others, and making meals, missionaries don't have that much spare time in a day. They spend all of it focusing on others and the Lord.

A letter from the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, read Sunday in many LDS worship services, urges members to contribute "regularly and generously" to the church's missionary fund in light of the recent surge in missionary applications. "With the recent change in missionary age of service, the number of missionaries serving has increased dramatically," the letter says. "Many of these new missionaries come from modest circumstances. To help maintain this missionary force, we encourage members, as they are able, to contribute regularly and generously to the General Missionary Fund of the church.