Dating can be stressful. It isn’t easy to interpret what the other person is doing or saying, what it means, or how to react. The uncertainty of when or if someone will call or do their part is painful and makes the person feel powerless. Additionally, singles fear missing the warning signs of bad, abusive, or neglectful relationships. And they fear wasting others' (or their own) time.

Not only can anyone pray, but we can pray anytime, anywhere, and about anything.

While missionaries’ challenges are many, our support from home can make a big difference! Here are a few practical ways parents and friends can help.

The year 1940 might have been a banner year for our family. The health and financial hardships that followed my father’s 1930 graduation from medical school in Philadelphia were past. The family was happily located in Twin Falls, Idaho, where my father’s medical practice (eye, ear, nose, and throat) was thriving and where he served on the high council of the Twin Falls Stake. In January 1938, he and my mother had returned from his four months of valuable postdoctoral training in ophthalmology in Vienna, Austria, and Cairo, Egypt. After years of sacrifice since their marriage in 1929, my mother could at last contemplate a life of security as the wife of a prosperous physician. In January 1940, son Merrill would be four, and in March, daughter Evelyn would be one. In August 1940, I, their eldest, would be baptized following my eighth birthday.

80 years ago, a small plane carrying Latter-day Saint Joseph Tippets and 5 others crashed in the harsh Alaska wilderness. The tiny group of survivors spent the next 29 days in the dead of winter fighting for their lives.

When Dorothy came home from school to find the Relief Society in her living room instead of her faithful but imperfect mom, Rene, she was ill-prepared for how drastically her life would soon change. But despite the heartbreak of circumstances beyond her control, and with the help and support of her youth leaders Kurt and Naomi, Dorothy found the strength to believe in the healing power of the Atonement for every broken heart, including her own.

2 Nephi 31-33