Towards the end of 2013, John Bytheway and I flew together to Temecula, CA and both spoke at a Mid Single's Conference. He told me a story that I will never forget, and by 'never forget' I mean, I mostly forgot the story, but not the message, haha (My apologies to John for butchering your story).

In an auburn wig and skull earrings, Bryn Clark is a banner carrier in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ lavish annual pageant — a 750-actor, special-effects-filled portrayal of the Book of Mormon held for a week here at the religion’s birthplace.But each night before the pageant begins, she has another role to play, bringing her faith into the crowd.

For many of us learning is a mixed bag. We may be good at learning or we may struggle to retain information we read. Many of us learn best when we do something versus read about something. But no matter how we prefer to learn, the question we need to answer is “Have we learned to love learning?”

If you've ever been to Disneyland and seen a large group of people all wearing the same BYU shirts standing in line together, you know if the BYU shirt didn't give them away, the large family size does. They're probably Mormon.

"If we go to a ward reunion, we are happy to see old friends. But they have an elevated relationship. They are even tighter and closer with each other. We see that family feeling among the members," Stake President Mark Furniss said. "They function so well and it's impressive to watch."

It all began sometime in the 1950s when Heinrich Recksiek (pronounced wreck-sick), Norm’s grandfather, started going door to door in the Millcreek area asking people if they had sewing machines, clocks or watches that needed fixing.

Those who mistrust religion or distance themselves from churches "are, like all of us, seeking a way that seems right to them. We ought to love those who disagree with us, including those who see us as bigots. They are not our enemies."

I remember the first time I learned many of the challenging aspects of church history. The Mountain Meadows massacre, details of polygamy, problems with the Book of Abraham, multiple accounts of the first vision, and etc. I felt doubt stirring in my mind and heart. It was painful, but short lived. I’ll explain more about this later. On reflection, I realized that I had made some assumptions about the church and church leaders that were flat out wrong.

I can’t recall any LDS funeral, regardless of where it was held, that did not include something that could be called a “plan of salvation” talk. A very, very few of these may have been given by members of bishoprics, but every such talk I can actually recall individually has been given by a family member, or by someone asked earlier to do that by the deceased herself, or by a general authority invited to speak because of a personal relationship with the family or the deceased. Some have been more eloquent than others. Honestly, I can’t remember a single one that has been inappropriate in any way, or was not personal to the deceased (i.e., something like “Your father was a good man. Among the good he did in this life was x, y, and z. Our knowledge of the plan of salvation suggestions that your father was met at the veil by … and may even now be engaging in … and in time to come will rise from the grave to do …”)

My EC and I returned from a brief road trip yesterday. I was especially attentive to the scenery, because I have been preparing a Sunday School lesson about the Creation. One of the points the lesson material makes is that we should look for, and appreciate, the beauty of God’s creations.