Sometimes just one verse or two of scripture will change you or someone you love. In our study of the book of James this week, you may find verses that help you figure out your mission in life. Or you may find encouragement to be more patient or speak with more kindness. Whatever inspires you, let’s dive in and let these words “enter … into every feeling of [our] heart[s].” And then, as we “receive with meekness the … word,” as James wrote, let's be a doer of the word, not a hearer only.

In President Dallin H. Oaks’s new biography, readers explore 377 pages of the upbringing, the life, and the ministry of the First Counselor in the First Presidency.

As we haul out the wrapping paper and decorate the Christmas tree, it's important to remember what really matters this season.

"This is how I am currently feeling about wedding and engagement season coming up," Janessa James wrote as a caption on the February 3 post. "Yes, this is an actual photo of me (extremely single) helping my best friend with her bridals. The photographer asked me to throw her train up and then dive out of the shot, and so I did. Very theatrically."

About this holy week, Elder Bruce R. McConkie has said; “There were powerful things happening during the last week of our Savior’s life. We can still today follow his footsteps through the scriptures as he experienced the events leading up to his ultimate and eternal sacrifice and resurrection.”

Reading the Book of Mormon strengthens Latter-day Saints because doing so brings them closer to God, said the Sunday School general president, Russell T. Osguthorpe.Brother Osguthorpe and his counselors in the Sunday School general presidency, Brother David M. McConkie and Brother Matthew O. Richardson, spoke recently with Church News regarding the Book of Mormon as the gospel doctrine course of study for adults and older youth in the Church during 2012.

(James)

David-James Gonzales was born, raised, and educated in Southern California by Mexican American parents that instilled in him a love for education and a commitment to family and community. He is a professor of history at BYU where he teaches and researches race, migration, and civil rights in US History. He has published in several academic journals and anthologies including the Journal of American Ethnic History, American Studies (AMSJ), 50 Events That Shaped Latino History, and The U.S.-Mexico Border: A Reference Handbook. He is the receptor of multiple scholarly fellowships and awards including the Career Enhancement Fellowship by the Institute for Citizens and Scholars and the Butler Young Scholar Award by the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies. His current book project is tentatively titled Breaking Down the Walls of Segregation: Mexican Americans and Civil Rights in Orange County, California. He is also a producer and co-host of the podcast New Books in Latino Studies, part of the New Books Network.

James

ane James haunts me. Not in the way you’re thinking—I don’t see her ghostly specter on cold evenings, or hear her humming a tune in the other room as I’m trying to sleep. What I mean is that she just won’t let me go. Every time I learn something new about her, it seems that I go down a rabbit hole. It takes me days to return, mentally, to whatever I was doing. James, an African American woman who converted to Mormonism in the early 1840s, moved to Nauvoo after her conversion and worked as a servant in Joseph Smith’s home. After Smith’s death, she worked for Brigham Young. She was in one of the first companies to arrive in the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847, and she remained a faithful Latter-day Saint until her death in 1908.